Showing papers in "Psychological Science in 2001"
TL;DR: A meta-analytic review of the video-game research literature reveals that violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children and young adults and that playing violent videogames also decreases prosocial behavior.
Abstract: Research on exposure to television and movie violence suggests that playing violent video games will increase aggressive behavior. A meta-analytic review of the video-game research literature reveals that violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children and young adults. Experimental and nonexperimental studies with males and females in laboratory and field settings support this conclusion. Analyses also reveal that exposure to violent video games increases physiological arousal and aggression-related thoughts and feelings. Playing violent video games also decreases prosocial behavior.
1,978 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that cellular-phone use disrupts performance by diverting attention to an engaging cognitive context other than the one immediately associated with driving.
Abstract: Dual-task studies assessed the effects of cellular-phone conversations on performance of a simulated driving task. Perfor- mance was not disrupted by listening to radio broadcasts or listening to a book on tape. Nor was it disrupted by a continuous shadowing task using a handheld phone, ruling out, in this case, dual-task inter- pretations associated with holding the phone, listening, or speaking. However, significant interference was observed in a word-generation variant of the shadowing task, and this deficit increased with the diffi- culty of driving. Moreover, unconstrained conversations using either a handheld or a hands-free cell phone resulted in a twofold increase in the failure to detect simulated traffic signals and slower reactions to those signals that were detected. We suggest that cellular-phone use disrupts performance by diverting attention to an engaging cognitive context other than the one immediately associated with driving. crease in the likelihood of getting into an accident, and that this increased risk was comparable to that found for driving with a blood alcohol level above the legal limit. In addition, these authors found no reliable safety advantages for those individuals who used a hands-free cellular device. The authors concluded that the interference associated with cell-phone use was due to attentional factors rather than to pe- ripheral factors such as holding the phone. The field studies of Redelmeier and Tibshirani (1997) establish a correlation between cell-phone use and motor-vehicle accidents, but they do not necessarily imply that use of cell phones causes an increase in accident rates. There may be self-selection factors creating an asso- ciation between cell-phone use and accidents. For example, people who drive and use their cell phone may be more likely to engage in risky behavior, and this increase in risk taking may underlie the corre- lation. Similarly, being in a highly emotional state may increase one's likelihood of driving erratically and may also increase one's likelihood of talking on the cell phone. In order to assess the possible causal rela- tionship between cell-phone use and automobile accidents, carefully controlled experiments, such as the ones described in this report, are needed.
1,122 citations
TL;DR: An assessment of the interitem consistency, stability, and convergent validity of some implicit attitude measures found that stability indices improved and implicit measures were substantially correlated with each other, forming a single latent factor.
Abstract: In recent years, several techniques have been developed to measure implicit social cognition. Despite their increased use, little attention has been devoted to their reliability and validity. This article undertakes a direct assessment of the interitem consistency, stability, and convergent validity of some implicit attitude measures. Attitudes toward blacks and whites were measured on four separate occasions, each 2 weeks apart, using three relatively implicit measures (response-window evaluative priming, the Implicit Association Test, and the response-window Implicit Association Test) and one explicit measure (Modern Racism Scale). After correcting for interitem inconsistency with latent variable analyses, we found that (a) stability indices improved and (b) implicit measures were substantially correlated with each other, forming a single latent factor. The psychometric properties of response-latency implicit measures have greater integrity than recently suggested.
862 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that the ability to detect and label emotion cues facilitates positive social interactions and that a deficit in this ability contributes to behavioral and learning problems.
Abstract: Following leads from differential emotions theory and empirical research, we evaluated an index of emotion knowledge as a long-term predictor of positive and negative social behavior and academic competence in a sample of children from economically disadvantaged families (N = 72). The index of emotion knowledge represents the child's ability to recognize and label emotion expressions. We administered control and predictor measures when the children were 5 years old and obtained criterion data at age 9. After controlling for verbal ability and temperament, our index of emotion knowledge predicted aggregate indices of positive and negative social behavior and academic competence. Path analysis showed that emotion knowledge mediated the effect of verbal ability on academic competence. We argue that the ability to detect and label emotion cues facilitates positive social interactions and that a deficit in this ability contributes to behavioral and learning problems. Our findings have implications for primary ...
804 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that the assumption of probability-outcome independence, adopted by both expected-utility and prospect theory, may hold across outcomes of different monetary values, but not different affective values.
Abstract: Prospect theory's S-shaped weighting function is often said to reflect the psychophysics of chance. We propose an affective rather than psychophysical deconstruction of the weighting function resting on two assumptions. First, preferences depend on the affective reactions associated with potential outcomes of a risky choice. Second, even with monetary values controlled, some outcomes are relatively affect-rich and others relatively affect-poor. Although the psychophysical and affective approaches are complementary, the affective approach has one novel implication: Weighting functions will be more S-shaped for lotteries involving affect-rich than affect-poor outcomes. That is, people will be more sensitive to departures from impossibility and certainty but less sensitive to intermediate probability variations for affect-rich outcomes. We corroborated this prediction by observing probability-outcome interactions: An affect-poor prize was preferred over an affect-rich prize under certainty, but the direction...
780 citations
TL;DR: Three experiments showed that observers know a set's mean quite accurately but know little about the individual items, except their range, which suggests that the visual system represents the overall statistical, and not individual, properties of sets.
Abstract: Sets of similar objects are common occurrences—a crowd of people, a bunch of bananas, a copse of trees, a shelf of books, a line of cars. Each item in the set may be distinct, highly visible, and discriminable. But when we look away from the set, what information do we have? The current article starts to address this question by introducing the idea of a set representation. This idea was tested using two new paradigms: mean discrimination and member identification. Three experiments using sets of different-sized spots showed that observers know a set's mean quite accurately but know little about the individual items, except their range. Taken together, these results suggest that the visual system represents the overall statistical, and not individual, properties of sets.
767 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that, by reducing cognitive load, gesturing may also play a role in shaping that state, and gesturing appeared to save the speakers' cognitive resources on the explanation task, permitting the speakers to allocate more resources to the memory task.
Abstract: Why is it that people cannot keep their hands still when they talk? One reason may be that gesturing actually lightens cognitive load while a person is thinking of what to say. We asked adults and children to remember a list of letters or words while explaining how they solved a math problem. Both groups remembered significantly more items when they gestured during their math explanations than when they did not gesture. Gesturing appeared to save the speakers' cognitive resources on the explanation task, permitting the speakers to allocate more resources to the memory task. It is widely accepted that gesturing reflects a speaker's cognitive state, but our observations suggest that, by reducing cognitive load, gesturing may also play a role in shaping that state.
702 citations
TL;DR: Unsupervised learning of higher-order statistics provides support for Barlow's theory of visual recognition, which posits that detecting “suspicious coincidences” of elements during recognition is a necessary prerequisite for efficient learning of new visual features.
Abstract: Three experiments investigated the ability of human observers to extract the joint and conditional probabilities of shape co-occurrences during passive viewing of complex visual scenes. Results indicated that statistical learning of shape conjunctions was both rapid and automatic, as subjects were not instructed to attend to any particularfeatures of the displays. Moreover, in addition to single-shape frequency, subjects acquired in parallel several different higher-order aspects of the statistical structure of the displays, including absolute shape-position relations in an array, shape-pair arrangements independent of position, and conditional probabilities of shape co-occurrences. Unsupervised learning of these higher-order statistics provides support for Barlow's theory of visual recognition, which posits that detecting "suspicious coincidences" of elements during recognition is a necessary prerequisite for efficient learning of new visual features.
694 citations
TL;DR: Evidence is presented that insufficient adjustment produces anchoring effects when the anchors are self-generated, and it is suggested it is time to reintroduce anchoring and adjustment as an explanation for some judgments under uncertainty.
Abstract: People's estimates of uncertain quantities are commonly influenced by irrelevant values. These anchoring effects were originally explained as insufficient adjustment away from an initial anchor value. The existing literature provides little support for the postulated process of adjustment, however, and a consensus that none takes place seems to be emerging. We argue that this conclusion is premature, and we present evidence that insufficient adjustment produces anchoring effects when the anchors are self-generated. In Study 1, participants' verbal reports made reference to adjustment only from self-generated anchors. In Studies 2 and 3, participants induced to accept values by nodding their heads gave answers that were closer to an anchor (i.e., they adjusted less) than participants induced to deny values by shaking their heads—again, only when the anchor was self-generated. These results suggest it is time to reintroduce anchoring and adjustment as an explanation for some judgments under uncertainty.
623 citations
TL;DR: African Americans under stereotype threat exhibited larger increases in mean arterial blood pressure during an academic test, and performed more poorly on difficult test items, and the significance of these findings for understanding the incidence of hypertension among African Americans is discussed.
Abstract: We examined the effect of stereotype threat on blood pressure reactivity. Compared with European Americans, and African Americans under little or no stereotype threat, African Americans under stereotype threat exhibited larger increases in mean arterial blood pressure during an academic test, and performed more poorly on difficult test items. We discuss the significance of these findings for understanding the incidence of hypertension among African Americans.
620 citations
TL;DR: Findings provide compelling evidence that the Mozart effect is an artifact of arousal and mood.
Abstract: The "Mozart effect" refers to claims that people perform better on tests of spatial abilities after listening to music composed by Mozart. We examined whether the Mozart effect is a consequence of between-condition differences in arousal and mood. Participants com- pleted a test of spatial abilities after listening to music or sitting in si- lence. The music was a Mozart sonata (a pleasant and energetic piece) for some participants and an Albinoni adagio (a slow, sad piece) for others. We also measured enjoyment, arousal, and mood. Performance on the spatial task was better following the music than the silence condition, but only for participants who heard Mozart. The two music selections also induced differential responding on the en- joyment, arousal, and mood measures. Moreover, when such differ- ences were held constant by statistical means, the Mozart effect disappeared. These findings provide compelling evidence that the Mozart effect is an artifact of arousal and mood.
TL;DR: This work tested the hypothesis, derived from perceptual symbol theories, that people mentally represent the orientation of an object implied by a verbal description, and found that pictures matching the orientations implied by the sentence were responded to faster than pictures that did not match the orientation.
Abstract: Perceptual symbol systems assume an analogue relationship between a symbol and its referent, whereas amodal symbol systems assume an arbitrary relationship between a symbol and its referent. According to perceptual symbol theories, the complete representation of an object, called a simulation, should reflect physical characteristics of the object. Amodal theories, in contrast, do not make this prediction. We tested the hypothesis, derived from perceptual symbol theories, that people mentally represent the orientation of an object implied by a verbal description. Orientation (vertical-horizontal) was manipulated by having participants read a sentence that implicitly suggested a particular orientation for an object. Then recognition latencies to pictures of the object in each of the two orientations were measured. Pictures matching the orientation of the object implied by the sentence were responded to faster than pictures that did not match the orientation. This finding is interpreted as offering support for theories positing perceptual symbol systems.
TL;DR: This study examined the immediate emotional and physiological effects that occurred when participants rehearsed hurtful memories and nursed grudges compared with when they cultivated empathic perspective taking and imagined granting forgiveness (i.e., were forgiving) toward real-life offenders.
Abstract: Interpersonal offenses frequently mar relationships. Theorists have argued that the responses victims adopt toward their offenders have ramifications not only for their cognition, but also for their emotion, physiology, and health. This study examined the immediate emotional and physiological effects that occurred when participants (35 females, 36 males) rehearsed hurtful memories and nursed grudges (i.e., were unforgiving) compared with when they cultivated empathic perspective taking and imagined granting forgiveness (i.e., were forgiving) toward real-life offenders. Unforgiving thoughts prompted more aversive emotion, and significantly higher corrugator (brow) electromyogram (EMG), skin conductance, heart rate, and blood pressure changes from baseline. The EMG, skin conductance, and heart rate effects persisted after imagery into the recovery periods. Forgiving thoughts prompted greater perceived control and comparatively lower physiological stress responses. The results dovetail with the psychophysiology literature and suggest possible mechanisms through which chronic unforgiving responses may erode health whereas forgiving responses may enhance it.
TL;DR: The results suggest that the development of stereotype susceptibility is a critical domain for understanding the connection between stereotypes and individual behavior.
Abstract: A growing body of research indicates that the activation of negative stereotypes can impede cognitive performance in adults, whereas positive stereotypes can facilitate cognitive performance. In two studies, we examined the effects of positive and negative stereotypes on the cognitive performance of children in three age groups: lower elementary school, upper elementary school, and middle school. Very young children in the lower elementary grades (kindergarten-grade 2) and older children in the middle school grades (grades 6-8) showed shifts in performance associated with the activation of positive and negative stereotypes; these shifts were consistent with patterns previously reported for adults. The subtle activation of negative stereotypes significantly impeded performance, whereas the subtle activation of positive stereotypes significantly facilitated performance. Markedly different effects were found for children in the upper elementary grades (grades 3-5). These results suggest that the development of stereotype susceptibility is a critical domain for understanding the connection between stereotypes and individual behavior
TL;DR: It is shown that attitudes can develop through implicit covariation detection in a new classical conditioning paradigm and attitudes toward the novel objects were influenced by the paired USs.
Abstract: We sought to demonstrate that attitudes can develop through implicit covariation detection in a new classical conditioning paradigm. In two experiments purportedly about surveillance and vigilance, participants viewed several hundred randomly presented words and images interspersed with critical pairings of valenced unconditioned stimuli (USs) with novel conditioned stimuli (CSs). Attitudes toward the novel objects were influenced by the paired USs: In a surprise evaluation task, the CS paired with positive items was evaluated more positively than the CS paired with negative items. This attitudinal conditioning effect was found using both an explicit measure (Experiments 1 and 2) and an implicit measure (Experiment 2). In a covariation estimation task involving the stimuli presented in the conditioning procedure, participants displayed no explicit memory for the pairings.
TL;DR: This research investigated the neurophysiological processes associated with expert bird and dog recognition using event-related potentials and found that objects from well-learned categories are neurologically differentiated from objects from lesser-known categories at a relatively early stage of visual processing.
Abstract: Although most adults are considered to be experts in the identification of faces, fewer people specialize in the recognition of other objects, such as birds and dogs. In this research, the neuro- physiological processes associated with expert bird and dog recog- nition were investigated using event-related potentials. An enhanced early negative component (N170, 164 ms) was found when bird and dog experts categorized objects in their domain of expertise relative to when they categorized objects outside their domain of expertise. This finding indicates that objects from well-learned categories are neu- rologically differentiated from objects from lesser-known categories at a relatively early stage of visual processing. The term jizz is used by veteran birdwatchers to describe their flash of instant recognition of a bird based on its color, shape, and move- ment. Similarly, dog-show judges and breeders can discern in a single glance the specific breed and attributes of a canine from its facial structure, gait, and posture. Although the subtle perceptual cues that differentiate species of birds and breeds of dogs frequently go unno- ticed by the novice, detection of these cues seems obvious and auto- matic to the expert. What is the neural basis of this perceptual expertise? Although relatively few people specialize in the recognition of particular objects (e.g., birds, cars, dogs), it has been suggested that virtually all people are experts in the recognition of faces (Carey, 1992; Tanaka & Gauthier, 1997). Electrophysiological studies employing event-related potentials (ERPs) have been informative for understanding the tem- poral aspects of face processing. Results from these experiments in- dicate that the magnitude of an early ERP component, referred to as the N170, is significantly larger when participants view face stimuli than when they view other natural and human-made objects (Bentin & Deouell, 2000; Eimer, 2000). Moreover, patients with prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces, either fail to demonstrate an enhanced N170 to faces (Eimer & McCarthy, 1999) or demonstrate a nonselec- tive enhanced N170 to both face and nonface stimuli (Bentin, Deouell, & Soroker, 1999). Thus, the presence of the N170 component during viewing of faces in normal participants and its absence or the presence of a nonselective N170 during viewing of faces in prosopagnosic patients indicate that the N170 is a good neurophysiological index of face perception processes. More generally, this evidence suggests that the visual system can differentially respond to specific and important kinds of visual information at a relatively early stage of processing (Bentin & Deouell, 2000). However, whether the enhanced N170 component is exclusive to faces or whether it can be extended to other important objects in the environment (i.e., objects of expertise) is an open question. In the current study, we investigated the neural basis of object expertise by monitoring brain wave activity of bird and dog experts while they categorized pictures of common birds and dogs. The ex- periment was designed so that participants served as their own ex- perimental controls in that they were expected to perform as experts when categorizing objects in their domain of expertise (e.g., bird experts categorizing birds) and novices when categorizing objects outside their domain of expertise (e.g., bird experts categorizing dogs). We expected that if the increased N170 reflects a general form of expert processing that is not unique to faces, experts would exhibit an enhanced N170 when categorizing objects in their domain of ex- pertise relative to when they categorized objects outside their domain of expertise.
TL;DR: The three experiments reported here support the hypothesis that after relatively modest amounts of practice, at least some participants achieve virtually perfect time sharing in the dual-task performance of basic choice reaction tasks.
Abstract: A fundamental issue for psychological science concerns the extent to which people can simultaneously perform two perceptual-motor tasks. Some theorists have hypothesized that such dual-task performance is severely and persistently constrained by a central cognitive "bottle-neck," whereas others have hypothesized that skilled procedural decision making and response selection for two or more tasks can proceed at the same time under adaptive executive control. The three experiments reported here support this latter hypothesis. Their results show that after relatively modest amounts of practice, at least some participants achieve virtually perfect time sharing in the dual-task performance of basic choice reaction tasks. The results also show that observed interference between tasks can be modulated by instructions about differential task priorities and personal preferences for daring (concurrent) or cautious (successive) scheduling of tasks. Given this outcome, future research should investigate exactly when and how such sophisticated skills in dual-task performance are acquired.
TL;DR: Investigation of predictions of the life-span theory of selection, optimization, and compensation found age differences in dual-task costs were greater in memory performance than in walking, suggesting that older adults prioritized walking over memory.
Abstract: This study investigated predictions of the life-span theory of selection, optimization, and compensation, focusing on different patterns of task priority during dual-task performance in younger and older adults. Cognitive (memorizing) and sensorimotor (walking a narrow track) performance were measured singly, concurrently, and when task difficulty was manipulated. Use of external aids was measured to provide another index of task priority. Before dual-task testing, participants received extensive training with each component task and external aid. Age differences in dual-task costs were greater in memory performance than in walking, suggesting that older adults prioritized walking over memory. Further, when given a choice of compensatory external aids to use, older adults optimized walking, whereas younger adults optimized memory performance. The results have broad implications for systemic theories of cognitive and sensorimotor aging, and the costs and benefits of assistive devices and environmental supp...
TL;DR: The findings suggest that parents engaged in informal science activities with their children may be unintentionally contributing to a gender gap in children's scientific literacy well before children encounter formal science instruction in grade school.
Abstract: Young children's everyday scientific thinking often occurs in the context of parent-child interactions. In a study of naturally oc- curring family conversation, parents were three times more likely to explain science to boys than to girls while using interactive science exhibits in a museum. This difference in explanation occurred despite the fact that parents were equally likely to talk to their male and fe- male children about how to use the exhibits and about the evidence generated by the exhibits. The findings suggest that parents engaged in informal science activities with their children may be unintentionally contributing to a gender gap in children's scientific literacy well be- fore children encounter formal science instruction in grade school.
TL;DR: Support is found for the primary hypothesis that the adoption of avoidance (relative to approach) personal goals varies as a function of individualism-collectivism and for the secondary hypothesis that avoidance personal goals are a negative predictor of subjective well-being in individualistic, but not collectivistic, countries.
Abstract: The results from this research supported our primary hypothesis that the adoption of avoidance (relative to approach) personal goals varies as a function of individualism-collectivism (across representations of this distinction). Interdependent self-construals were positively related and independent self-construals were negatively related to adoption of avoidance goals (Study 1), Asian Americans adopted more avoidance goals than non-Asian Americans (Study 2), andpersonsfrom South Korea and Russia adopted more avoidance goals than those in the United States (Studies 3 and 4, respectively). Studies 3 and 4 investigated andfound supportfor our secondary hypothesis that avoidance personal goals are a negative predictor of subjective well-being in individualistic (the United States), but not collectivistic (South Korea and Russia), countries. The findings are discussed in terms of other approach-avoidance constructs and motivational processes.
TL;DR: Overall, the present findings indicate that there is a strong connection between the overlearned representations of the meaning of communicative symbols and the reflexive orienting of visual attention.
Abstract: The present study reports four pairs of experiments that examined the role of nonpredictive (i.e., task-irrelevant) symbolic stimuli on attentional orienting. The experiments involved a simple de- tection task, an inhibition of return (IOR) task, and choice decision tasks both with and without attentional bias. Each pair of experiments included one experiment in which nonpredictive arrows were presented at the central fixation location and another experiment in which non- predictive direction words (e.g., "up," "down," "left," "right") were pre- sented. The nonpredictive symbolic stimuli affected responses in all experiments, with the words producing greater effects in the detection task and the arrows producing greater effects in the IOR and choice de- cision tasks. Overall, the present findings indicate that there is a strong connection between the overlearned representations of the meaning of communicative symbols and the reflexive orienting of visual attention. Human communication is goal-directed. That is, humans commu- nicate by exchanging symbols, such as signs or words, in order to produce an intended modification of addressees' cognitive state and behavior (Grice, 1969). As the successful coordination of communica- tive interchange requires the identification and maintenance of com- mon themes and topics, one of the most important cognitive states to modify during and through communication is attention or, more pre- cisely, the attentional focus of one's communicative partner. From this perspective, most signs and symbols can be seen as "nothing more than a social convention by means of which persons who know the convention direct one another's attention to particular aspects of their shared world" (Tomasello & Call, 1997, p. 408). In the present research, we investigated a particularly interesting implication of this perspective on symbolic communication: If a main function of symbols is to orient the attentional focus of human beings, encountering a symbol should automatically redirect one's attentional orientation. Indeed, facing the picture of a realistic (Driver et al., 1999; Langton & Bruce, 1999) or schematic (Friesen & Kingstone, 1998) hu- man face or a pointing gesture (Langton & Bruce, 2000) facilitates the processing of stimuli appearing at the location toward which the face's gaze or the gesture is directed. Even 10-week-old infants (Hood, Willen, & Driver, 1998) and chimpanzees (Povinelli & Eddy, 1996) spontane- ously attend locations human faces look at, suggesting that social sig- nals do have a function in reorienting visual attention. However, previous investigations were restricted to faces and gestures, rather di- rect and nonconventional communicative signals whose processing has been attributed to an innate gaze-detection mechanism (Baron-Cohen, 1995). In contrast, we were interested in whether conventional, over- learned communicative signals are also effective means to control other people's attention. If so, facing a pointing arrow or directional word should involuntarily induce, to some degree, a tendency in an observer to shift his or her attention to the indicated direction. We investigated this implication in four pairs of experiments, each employing a different task, in which subjects responded to spatially unpredictable targets. Shortly before these targets appeared, we pre- sented task-irrelevant arrows and directional words indicating either the correct location of the target ( compatible cues) or an alternative lo- cation ( incompatible cues). Although arrow and word cues were non- predictive and could be ignored—this was explicitly pointed out to the subjects in all the experiments—we expected these symbols' meaning to catch the perceiver's attention and direct it to the indicated location. Accordingly, we expected subjects would perform better when the meaning of an arrow or word cue matched the location of the target stimulus than when it did not.
TL;DR: A new approach to the study of sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events is presented in order to explore the roles of similarity, distinctiveness, and attentional set in the detection of unexpected objects.
Abstract: When people attend to objects or events in a visual display, they often fail to notice an additional, unexpected, but fully visible object or event in the same display. This phenomenon is now known asinattentional blindness. We present a new approach to the study of sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events in order to explore the roles of similarity, distinctiveness, and attentional set in the detection of unexpected objects. In Experiment 1, we found that the similarity of an unexpected object to other objects in the display influences attentional capture: The more similar an unexpected object is to the attended items, and the greater its difference from the ignored items, the more likely it is that people will notice it. Experiment 2 explored whether this effect of similarity is driven by selective ignoring of irrelevant items or by selective focusing on attended items. The results of Experiment 3 suggest that the distinctiveness of the unexpected object alone cannot entirely account for the similarity effects found in the first two experiments; when attending to black items or white items in a dynamic display, nearly 30% of observers failed to notice a bright red cross move across the display, even though it had a unique color, luminance, shape, and motion trajectory and was visible for 5 s. Together, the results suggest that inattentional blindness for ongoing dynamic events depends both on the similarity of the unexpected object to the other objects in the display and on the observer’s attentional set.
TL;DR: It is suggested that visual search requires minimal visual working memory resources, a conclusion that is inconsistent with theories that propose a close link between attention and working memory.
Abstract: Many theories of attention have proposed that visual working memory plays an important role in visual search tasks. The present study examined the involvement of visual working memory in search using a dual-task paradigm in which participants performed a visual search task while maintaining no, two, or four objects in visual working memory. The presence of a working memory load added a constant delay to the visual search reaction times, irrespective of the number of items in the visual search array. That is, there was no change in the slope of the function relating reaction time to the number of items in the search array, indicating that the search process itself was not slowed by the memory load. Moreover, the search task did not substantially impair the maintenance of information in visual working memory. These results suggest that visual search requires minimal visual working memory resources, a conclusion that is inconsistent with theories that propose a close link between attention and working memory.
TL;DR: Watching video clips displaying either themselves or somebody else throwing a dart at a target board and predicted the dart's landing position provided evidence for the claim that perceptual input can be linked with the action system to predict future outcomes of actions.
Abstract: Many theories in cognitive psychology assume that per- ception and action systems are clearly separated from the cognitive system. Other theories suggest that important cognitive functions re- side in the interactions between these systems. One consequence of the latter claim is that the action system may contribute to predicting the future consequences of currently perceived actions. In particular, such predictions might be more accurate when one observes one's own ac- tions than when one observes another person's actions, because in the former case the system that plans the action is the same system that contributes to predicting the action's effects. In the present study, par- ticipants ( N � 104) watched video clips displaying either themselves or somebody else throwing a dart at a target board and predicted the dart's landing position. The predictions were more accurate when participants watched themselves acting. This result provides evidence for the claim that perceptual input can be linked with the action sys- tem to predict future outcomes of actions. Predicting the effects of actions is a very frequent activity in every- day life. For instance, a person who is driving a car and sees that somebody is crossing the street up ahead will usually predict whether the person will have crossed before the car reaches him or her, in order to decide whether it is necessary to hit the brakes. Similarly, people watching a soccer game willingly predict whether a kick will hit the goal or not. Our aim in the present study was to investigate whether the action system contributes to predicting future consequences of cur- rently perceived actions in situations like these. If this is the case, then one might be better able to predict action effects when one observes one's own rather than another person's actions. This is because the same system that was involved in planning the action is also involved in predicting the effects of the currently observed action. In order to provide a theoretical context for our experiment, we start with a short overview of some theoretical positions on interactions between per- ception and action.
TL;DR: The results indicate that such changes originate in children aged 10 and younger, which indicates that sequential cohorts of interacting young children collectively possess the capacity not only to learn, but also to create, language.
Abstract: It has long been postulated that language is not purely learned, but arises from an interaction between environmental expo- sure and innate abilities. The innate component becomes more evident in rare situations in which the environment is markedly impoverished. The present study investigated the language production of a genera- tion of deaf Nicaraguans who had not been exposed to a developed language. We examined the changing use of early linguistic structures (specifically, spatial modulations) in a sign language that has emerged since the Nicaraguan group first came together. In under two decades, sequential cohorts of learners systematized the grammar of this new sign language. We examined whether the systematicity being added to the language stems from children or adults; our results indicate that such changes originate in children aged 10 and younger. Thus, se- quential cohorts of interacting young children collectively possess the capacity not only to learn, but also to create, language.
TL;DR: Five studies showed that Chinese and Americans perceive change differently, and people who predicted change were perceived as wise by Chinese more than by Americans.
Abstract: Five studies studies that Chinese and Americans perceive change differently. Chinese anticipated more changes from an initial state than Americans did. When events were changing in a particular direction. Chinese were more likely than Americans to predict change in the direction of change. Moreover, for patterns with changing slopes, Chinese predicted greater change in the way slopes changed, in comparison to Americans. In addition, people who predicted change were perceived as wise by Chinese more than by Americans. Implications for social attribution, tolerance for contradiction, persistence on tasks, and the illusion of control are discussed.
TL;DR: Using a combination of the gaze-contingent window paradigm and the change blindness flicker paradigm, dramatically larger visual spans are documented for experts while processing structured, but not random, chess positions.
Abstract: The reported research extends classic findings that after briefly viewing structured, but not random, chess positions, chess masters reproduce these positions much more accurately than less- skilled players. Using a combination of the gaze-contingent window paradigm and thechange blindness flicker paradigm, we documented dramatically larger visual spans for experts while processing struc- tured, but not random, chess positions. In addition, in a check- detection task, a minimized 3 ◊ 3 chessboard containing a King and potentially checking pieces was displayed. In this task, experts made fewer fixations per trial than less-skilled players, and had a greater proportion of fixations between individual pieces, rather than on pieces. Our results provide strong evidence for a perceptual encoding advantage for experts attributable to chess experience, rather than to a general perceptual or memory superiority. Simon and Chase (1973) proposed that much as Drosophila can be used as a model organism for the study of genetics, chess offers cognitive scientists an ideal task environment for the study of skilled performance. Since 1946, when de Groot (1978) conducted his pio- neering investigation showing that perception and memory are more important differentiators of expertise than is the ability to think ahead in the search for good moves, chess research has been instrumental in enhancing understanding of human expertise (Ericsson & Charness, 1994) and in contributing to the study of artificial intelligence (Char- ness, 1992). In a classic study, Chase and Simon (1973a, 1973b) replicated and extended de Groot's findings that after viewing chess positions for only a few seconds, chess masters were able to reproduce these positions much more accurately than less-skilled players. There was little difference in performance as a function of expertise when random board configurations were used, indicating that the superior immediate memory performance of the skilled players was not attrib- utable to a general superiority or unique structure of their memory systems or processes (e.g., photographic memory; see Binet, 1894). Rather, Chase and Simon postulated that experts use chess knowledge to create meaningful chunks consisting of several chess pieces, and are thus able to encode structured, but not random, chess configura- tions more quickly and accurately. More recently, a very small but reliable advantage in recall for random configurations has been shown for more expert players, though this is probably attributable to the occasional presence of familiar chunks in random positions (Gobet & Simon, 1996a). Further illustrating the critical importance of knowl- edge structures for performance, Chi's (1978) work comparing chil- dren who were skilled chess players with novice adults showed an advantage for children in chess recall, but an advantage for adults in digit recall. Chase and Simon (1973a, 1973b) hypothesized that much of the skilled chess player's advantage lies in the early perceptual organiza- tion and internal representation of the chess position. Specifically, they argued that the link between skilled perception and skilled prob- lem solving was to be found in the associations between perceptual chunks and generation of plausible moves. The size of an expert's vocabulary of chess-related configurations was initially estimated to be 50,000 to 100,000 chunks (Simon & Gilmartin, 1973), although small perceptual chunks are most likely supplemented by larger struc- tures termed templates (Gobet & Simon, 1996b).
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TL;DR: Epistemic understanding progresses developmentally, but substantial variation remains among adults, with few adults achieving understanding of the complementary strengths and weaknesses of evidence and explanation in argument.
Abstract: To fully understand processes of knowing and knowledge acquisition, it is necessary to examine people's understanding of their own knowing. Individual and developmental differences in what it means to know something, and hence in the criteria for justifying knowledge claims, have potentially wide-ranging implications. In providing support for a claim, young children have difficulty differentiating explanation of why a claim makes sense and evidence that the claim is true. Epistemic understanding progresses developmentally, but substantial variation remains among adults, with few adults achieving understanding of the complementary strengths and weaknesses of evidence and explanation in argument. Epistemic understanding shapes intellectual values and hence the disposition (as opposed to competence) to exercise intellectual skills. Only its most advanced levels support a disposition to engage in the intellectual effort that reasoned argument entails. The sample case of juror reasoning illustrates how epistem...
TL;DR: It is found that changes were detected far more rapidly and accurately in faces than in other objects, suggesting a special role for faces in competition for visual attention and providing support for previous claims that human faces are processed differently than stimuli that may be of less biological significance.
Abstract: Observers seem surprisingly poor at detecting changes in images following a large transient or flicker. In this study, we compared this change blindness phenomenon between human faces and other common objects (e.g., clothes). We found that changes were detected far more rapidly and accurately in faces than in other objects. This advantage for faces, however, was found only for upright faces in multiple-object arrays, and was completely eliminated when displays showed one photograph only or when the pictures were inverted. These results suggest a special role for faces in competition for visual attention, and provide support for previous claims that human faces are processed differently than stimuli that may be of less biological significance.
TL;DR: The present article offers an approach to scientific debate called adversarial collaboration, which requires both parties to agree on empirical tests for resolving a dispute and to conduct these tests with the help of an arbiter.
Abstract: The present article offers an approach to scientific debate called adversarial collaboration. The approach requires both parties to agree on empirical tests for resolving a dispute and to conduct these tests with the help of an arbiter. In dispute were Hertwig's claims that frequency formats eliminate conjunction effects and that the conjunction effects previously reported by Kahneman and Tversky occurred because some participants interpreted the word “and” in “bank tellers and feminists” as a union operator. Hertwig proposed two new conjunction phrases, “and are” and “who are,” that would eliminate the ambiguity. Kahneman disagreed with Hertwig's predictions for “and are,” but agreed with his predictions for “who are.” Mellers served as arbiter. Frequency formats by themselves did not eliminate conjunction effects with any of the phrases, but when filler items were removed, conjunction effects disappeared with Hertwig's phrases. Kahneman and Hertwig offer different interpretations of the findings. We dis...