Showing papers in "Psychonomic Bulletin & Review in 2008"
TL;DR: This work argues that gestures emerge from perceptual and motor simulations that underlie embodied language and mental imagery, and proposes the gestures-as-simulated-action framework to explain how gestures might arise from an embodied cognitive system.
Abstract: Spontaneous gestures that accompany speech are related to both verbal and spatial processes We argue that gestures emerge from perceptual and motor simulations that underlie embodied language and mental imagery We first review current thinking about embodied cognition, embodied language, and embodied mental imagery We then provide evidence that gestures stem from spatial representations and mental images We then propose the gestures-as-simulated-action framework to explain how gestures might arise from an embodied cognitive system Finally, we compare this framework with other current models of gesture production, and we briefly outline predictions that derive from the framework
699 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that OLD20 provides significant advantages over ON in predicting both lexical decision and pronunciation performance in three large data sets, and interacts more strongly with word frequency and shows stronger effects of neighborhood frequency than does ON.
Abstract: Visual word recognition studies commonly measure the orthographic similarity of words using Coltheart’s orthographic neighborhood size metric (ON). Although ON reliably predicts behavioral variability in many lexical tasks, its utility is inherently limited by its relatively restrictive definition. In the present article, we introduce a new measure of orthographic similarity generated using a standard computer science metric of string similarity (Levenshtein distance). Unlike ON, the new measure—named orthographic Levenshtein distance 20 (OLD20)—incorporates comparisons between all pairs of words in the lexicon, including words of different lengths. We demonstrate that OLD20 provides significant advantages over ON in predicting both lexical decision and pronunciation performance in three large data sets. Moreover, OLD20 interacts more strongly with word frequency and shows stronger effects of neighborhood frequency than does ON. The discussion section focuses on the implications of these results for models of visual word recognition.
521 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that JOLs—what people believe they know—directly influence people’s study choices.
Abstract: Three experiments investigated whether study choice was directly related to judgments of learning (JOLs) by examining people’s choices in cases in which JOLs were dissociated from recall. In Experiment 1, items were given either three repetitions or one repetition on Trial 1. Items given three repetitions received one on Trial 2, and those given one repetition received three on Trial 2—equating performance at the end of Trial 2, but yielding different immediate Trial 2 JOLs. Study choice followed the “illusory” JOLs. A delayed JOL condition in Experiment 2 did not show this JOL bias and neither did study choice. Finally, using a paradigm (Koriat & Bjork, 2005) in which similar JOLs are given to forward and backward associative pairs, despite much worse performance on the backward pairs, study choice again followed the mistaken JOLs. We concluded that JOLs—what people believe they know—directly influence people’s study choices.
338 citations
TL;DR: This study used a masking paradigm to measure the efficiency of encoding, and neurophysiological recordings to directly measure visual working memory maintenance while subjects viewed multifeatures and were required to remember only a single feature or all of the features of the objects.
Abstract: It has been shown that we have a highly capacity-limited representational space with which to store objects in visual working memory. However, most objects are composed of multiple feature attributes, and it is unknown whether observers can voluntarily store a single attribute of an object without necessarily storing all of its remaining features. In this study, we used a masking paradigm to measure the efficiency of encoding, and neurophysiological recordings to directly measure visual working memory maintenance while subjects viewed multifeature objects and were required to remember only a single feature or all of the features of the objects. We found that measures of both encoding and maintenance varied systematically as a function of which object features were task relevant. These experiments show that individuals can control which features of an object are selectively stored in working memory.
244 citations
TL;DR: Investigating whether intensive long-term practice leads to change that transcends stimulus and task parameters found improvement in the nonpracticed spatial task was greater than that in the VAT; thus, improvement was not merely due to greater ease with computerized testing.
Abstract: Spatial transformation skills are an essential aspect of cognitive ability These skills can be improved by practice, but such improvement has usually been specific to tasks and stimuli The present study investigated whether intensive long-term practice leads to change that transcends stimulus and task parameters Thirty-one participants (14 male, 17 female) were tested on three cognitive tasks: a computerized version of the Shepard-Metzler (1971) mental rotation task (MRT), a mental paper-folding task (MPFT), and a verbal analogies task (VAT) Each individual then participated in daily practice sessions with the MRT or the MPFT over 21 days Postpractice comparisons revealed transfer of practice gains to novel stimuli for the practiced task, as well as transfer to the other, nonpracticed spatial task Thus, practice effects were process based, not instance based Improvement in the nonpracticed spatial task was greater than that in the VAT; thus, improvement was not merely due to greater ease with computerized testing
206 citations
TL;DR: Three experiments show compatibility effects between the dimensions of space (left-right) and time (earlier-later) and indicate that the concept of time does indeed evoke spatial associations that facilitate responses to targets at spatially compatible locations.
Abstract: The concept of time is elusive to direct observation, yet it pervades almost every aspect of our daily lives. How is time represented, given that it cannot be perceived directly? Metaphoric mapping theory assumes that abstract concepts such as time are represented in terms of concrete, readily available dimensions. Consistent with this, many languages employ spatial metaphors to describe temporal relations. Here we investigate whether the time-is-space metaphor also affects visuospatial attention. In a first experiment, subjects categorized the names of actors in a manner compatible or incompatible with the orientation of a timeline. In two further experiments, subjects categorized or detected left- or right-side targets following prospective or retrospective time words. All three experiments show compatibility effects between the dimensions of space (left-right) and time (earlier-later) and indicate that the concept of time does indeed evoke spatial associations that facilitate responses to targets at spatially compatible locations.
184 citations
TL;DR: Three semantic richness measures are compared to determine their abilities to account for response time and error variance in lexical decision and semantic categorization tasks and provide new clues about how words are represented and suggest that word recognition models need to accommodate each of these influences.
Abstract: Previous studies have reported that semantic richness facilitates visual word recognition (see, e.g., Buchanan, Westbury, & Burgess, 2001; Pexman, Holyk, & Monfils, 2003). We compared three semantic richness measures—number of semantic neighbors (NSN), the number of words appearing in similar lexical contexts; number of features (NF), the number of features listed for a word’s referent; and contextual dispersion (CD), the distribution of a word’s occurrences across content areas—to determine their abilities to account for response time and error variance in lexical decision and semantic categorization tasks. NF and CD accounted for unique variance in both tasks, whereas NSN accounted for unique variance only in the lexical decision task. Moreover, each measure showed a different pattern of relative contribution across the tasks. Our results provide new clues about how words are represented and suggest that word recognition models need to accommodate each of these influences.
177 citations
TL;DR: This article presents Bayesian analyses of three influential psychological models: multidimensional scaling models of stimulus representation, the generalized context model of category learning, and a signal detection theory model of decision making.
Abstract: Bayesian statistical inference offers a principled and comprehensive approach for relating psychological models to data. This article presents Bayesian analyses of three influential psychological models: multidimensional scaling models of stimulus representation, the generalized context model of category learning, and a signal detection theory model of decision making. In each case, the model is recast as a probabilistic graphical model and is evaluated in relation to a previously considered data set. In each case, it is shown that Bayesian inference is able to provide answers to important theoretical and empirical questions easily and coherently. The generality of the Bayesian approach and its potential for the understanding of models and data in psychology are discussed.
174 citations
TL;DR: In the present study, numbers and letters are used to show that the comparison distance effect can be dissociated from a more direct behavioral signature of representational overlap, the priming distance effect.
Abstract: When participants are asked to compare two stimuli, responses are slower for stimuli close to each other on the relevant dimension than for stimuli further apart. Previously, it has been proposed that this comparison distance effect originates from overlap in the representation of the stimuli. This idea is generally accepted in numerical cognition, where it is assumed that representational overlap of numbers on a mental number line accounts for the effect (e.g., Cohen Kadosh et al., 2005). In contrast, others have emphasized the role of response-related processes to explain the comparison distance effect (e.g., Banks, 1977). In the present study, numbers and letters are used to show that the comparison distance effect can be dissociated from a more direct behavioral signature of representational overlap, the priming distance effect. The implication is that a comparison distance effect does not imply representational overlap. An interpretation is given in terms of a recently proposed model of quantity comparison (Verguts, Fias, & Stevens, 2005).
164 citations
TL;DR: These findings show that spatial iconicity patterns are reflected in word order patterns and that comprehenders are sensitive to these word order pattern patterns in language-processing tasks.
Abstract: Studies of embodied cognition have shown that comprehenders process iconic word pairs (attic-basement) more quickly than reverse-iconic pairs (basement-attic) when the pairs are presented to them in a vertical spatial arrangement. This effect disappears in a horizontal spatial arrangement. This has been claimed to show that comprehenders perceptually simulate these word pairs. A complementary explanation is that linguistic conceptualizations (word order) reflect prelinguistic conceptualizations (spatial iconicity), whereby comprehenders use these linguistic conceptualizations in the comprehension process. The results of corpus linguistic, rating, and semantic judgment studies reported here supported this explanation: Iconic word pairs were more frequent than reverse-iconic word pairs; frequency of word order explained response times in a semantic judgment task better than iconicity did; and when iconic word pairs were presented in a horizontal arrangement, the iconicity effect disappeared, but the word order effect remained. These findings show that spatial iconicity patterns are reflected in word order patterns and that comprehenders are sensitive to these word order patterns in language-processing tasks. nt]mis|This research was supported by Grant NSF-IIS-0416128. The usual exculpations apply. I thank Rick Dale, David Rapp, and Rolf Zwaan for comments on previous drafts.
157 citations
TL;DR: The effects of performance on size perception in golfers are demonstrated and demonstrate that perception is influenced by the perceiver’s current ability to act effectively in the environment.
Abstract: When people are engaged in a skilled behavior, such as occurs in sports, their perceptions relate optical information to their performance. In the present research, we demonstrate the effects of performance on size perception in golfers. We found that golfers who played better judged the hole to be bigger than did golfers who did not play as well. In follow-up laboratory experiments, participants putted on a golf mat from a location near or far from the hole and then judged the size of the hole. Participants who putted from the near location perceived the hole to be bigger than did participants who putted from the far location. Our results demonstrate that perception is influenced by the perceiver’s current ability to act effectively in the environment.
TL;DR: There is strong evidence that the peak-end rule applies to both material goods and pain, and the impact of positivity and timing on the retrospective evaluations of material goods is investigated.
Abstract: Prior research suggests that the addition of mild pain to an aversive event may lead people to prefer and directly choose more pain over less pain (Kahneman, Fredrickson, Schreiber, & Redelmeier, 1993). Kahneman et al. suggest that pain ratings are based on a combination of peak pain and final pain. Similarly, people rate a happy life that ends suddenly as being better than one with additional years of mild happiness (Diener, Wirtz, & Oishi, 2001), even though the former objectively consists of less pleasure than the latter. Applying these concepts to material goods, we investigated the impact of positivity and timing on the retrospective evaluations of material goods. We found strong evidence that the peak-end rule applies to both material goods and pain.
TL;DR: This work presents a simple extension of signal detection theory—the decision noise model—with which it is demonstrated that shifts in a decision criterion can be masked by decision noise and proposes a new statistic that can help identify whether the violations of SDT stem from perceptual or from decision processes.
Abstract: In signal detection theory (SDT), responses are governed by perceptual noise and a flexible decision criterion. Recent criticisms of SDT (see, e.g., Balakrishnan, 1999) have identified violations of its assumptions, and researchers have suggested that SDT fundamentally misrepresents perceptual and decision processes. We hypothesize that, instead, these violations of SDT stem from decision noise: the inability to use deterministic response criteria. In order to investigate this hypothesis, we present a simple extension of SDT—the decision noise model—with which we demonstrate that shifts in a decision criterion can be masked by decision noise. In addition, we propose a new statistic that can help identify whether the violations of SDT stem from perceptual or from decision processes. The results of a stimulus classification experiment—together with model fits to past experiments—show that decision noise substantially affects performance. These findings suggest that decision noise is important across a wide range of tasks and needs to be better understood in order to accurately measure perceptual processes.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose an item-order account that assumes that free recall of unrelated lists depends on order and item information, and that unusual items attract greater individual item processing but disrupt order encoding regardless of list composition.
Abstract: In mixed lists, stable free recall advantages are observed for encoding conditions that are unusual, bizarre, or attract extensive individual item elaboration relative to more common encoding conditions; but this recall advantage is often eliminated or reversed in pure lists. We attempt to explain this ubiquitous memory puzzle with an item-order account that assumes that (1) free recall of unrelated lists depends on order and item information; (2) unusual items attract greater individual item-processing but disrupt order encoding regardless of list composition; and (3) list composition determines differences in order encoding across unusual and common items. We show that the item-order account provides a unifying explanation of five memory phenomena for which the requisite data exist. The account also successfully anticipates pure-list reversals, in which the standard mixed-list recall pattern is obtained in pure, structured lists, a finding that competing accounts cannot handle. Extending the item-order account to other “established” recall phenomena may prove fruitful.
TL;DR: Whereas older adults exhibited reduced memory capacity as compared with that of younger adults, both groups stored integrated object representations in visual working memory, contrasted with other work that suggests that age-related memory decline is due, at least in part, to associative deficits.
Abstract: Remembering visual material, such as objects, faces, and spatial locations, over a short period of time (seconds) becomes more difficult as we age. We investigated whether these deficits could be explained by a simple reduction in visual working memory capacity or by an impairment in one’s ability to form or maintain appropriate associations among pieces of related information. In three experiments, we used recognition and recall tests to address the efficacy with which older adults can create bound object representations by varying the number of features of each object that had to be remembered for a subsequent memory test. Results demonstrated that whereas older adults exhibited reduced memory capacity as compared with that of younger adults, both groups stored integrated object representations in visual working memory. These results are contrasted with other work that suggests that age-related memory decline is due, at least in part, to associative deficits.
TL;DR: A scene onset delay paradigm is used to investigate the degree to which individual fixation durations are under direct moment-to-moment control of the viewer’s current visual scene, and supports a mixed control model in which the durations of some fixations proceed regardless of scene presence, whereas others are under the direct moment of moment control of ongoing scene analysis.
Abstract: Recent behavioral and computational research on eye movement control during scene viewing has focused on where the eyes move. However, fixations also differ in their durations, and when the eyes move may be another important indicator of perceptual and cognitive activity. Here we used a scene onset delay paradigm to investigate the degree to which individual fixation durations are under direct moment-to-moment control of the viewer's current visual scene. During saccades just prior to critical fixations, the scene was removed from view so that when the eyes landed, no scene was present. Following a manipulated delay period, the scene was restored to view. We found that one population of fixations was under the direct control of the current scene, increasing in duration as delay increased. A second population of fixations was relatively constant across delay. The pattern of data did not change whether delay duration was random or blocked, suggesting that the effects were not under the strategic control of the viewer. The results support a mixed control model in which the durations of some fixations proceed regardless of scene presence, whereas others are under the direct moment-to-moment control of ongoing scene analysis.
TL;DR: Strong influences of fluid intelligence were apparent in the simplest versions and on the initial trials in the working memory tasks, which suggests that the relation between working memory and fluid intelligence is not dependent on the amount of information that must be maintained, or on processes that occur over the course of performing the tasks.
Abstract: Nearly 1,000 adults performed a battery of cognitive tests and working memory tasks requiring simultaneous storage and processing of information. Because the amount of to-be-remembered information, or set size, varied randomly across trials, the relation between fluid intelligence and working memory could be examined across different levels of complexity and across successive trials in the working memory tasks. Strong influences of fluid intelligence were apparent in the simplest versions and on the initial trials in the working memory tasks, which suggests that the relation between working memory and fluid intelligence is not dependent on the amount of information that must be maintained, or on processes that occur over the course of performing the tasks.
TL;DR: In this paper, formal models are used to evaluate the force of these descriptions and show that this problem is not addressed by the common practice of comparing performance on chosen and forced trials.
Abstract: Results that point to animals' metacognitive capacity bear a heavy burden, given the potential for competing behavioral descriptions. In this article, formal models are used to evaluate the force of these descriptions. One example is that many existing studies have directly rewarded so-called uncertainty responses. Modeling confirms that this practice is an interpretative danger because it supports associative processes and encourages simpler interpretations. Another example is that existing studies raise the concern that animals avoid difficult stimuli not because of uncertainty monitored, but because of aversion given error-causing or reinforcement-lean stimuli. Modeling also justifies this concern and shows that this problem is not addressed by the common practice of comparing performance on chosen and forced trials. The models and related discussion have utility for metacognition researchers and theorists broadly, because they specify the experimental operations that will best indicate a metacognitive capacity in humans or animals by eliminating alternative behavioral accounts.
TL;DR: The results constrain the way in which existing models of word recognition can be extended to unbalanced bilingualism, and are compatible with a theory by which the frequency effect originates from implicit learning.
Abstract: A lexical decision experiment with Dutch-English bilinguals compared the effect of word frequency on visual word recognition in the first language with that in the second language. Bilinguals showed a considerably larger frequency effect in their second language, even though corpus frequency was matched across languages. Experiment 2 tested monolingual, native speakers of English on the English materials from Experiment 1. This yielded a frequency effect comparable to that of the bilinguals in Dutch (their L1). These results constrain the way in which existing models of word recognition can be extended to unbalanced bilingualism. In particular, the results are compatible with a theory by which the frequency effect originates from implicit learning. They are also compatible with models that attribute frequency effects to serial search in frequency-ordered bins (Murray & Forster, 2004), if these models are extended with the assumption that scanning speed is language dependent, or that bins are not language specific.
TL;DR: It is shown that people use familiarity and fluency—the ease with which they process information—to determine an item’s value.
Abstract: Although people routinely estimate the value of items in their environment, from goods and services to natural resources and lost earnings following an accident, the processes that underlie human valuation estimates are not well understood. We show that people use familiarity and fluency—the ease with which they process information—to determine an item’s value. In three experiments, participants believed that familiar forms of currency (e.g., a familiar $1 bill) had greater purchasing power than their unfamiliar counterparts (e.g., a rare and unfamiliar coin). Mechanistic analyses showed a positive correlation between participants’ familiarity with the unfamiliar currency and their estimates of its value. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our findings for researchers, marketing experts, and policymakers alike.
TL;DR: The counter argument is made that perceivingspeech is not perceiving gestures, that the motor system is not recruited for perceiving speech, and that speech perception can be adequately described by a prototypical pattern recognition model, the fuzzy logical model of perception (FLMP).
Abstract: Galantucci, Fowler, and Turvey (2006) have claimed that perceiving speech is perceiving gestures and that the motor system is recruited for perceiving speech. We make the counter argument that perceiving speech is not perceiving gestures, that the motor system is not recruited for perceiving speech, and that speech perception can be adequately described by a prototypical pattern recognition model, the fuzzy logical model of perception (FLMP). Empirical evidence taken as support for gesture and motor theory is reconsidered in more detail and in the framework of the FLMP. Additional theoretical and logical arguments are made to challenge gesture and motor theory.
TL;DR: It is shown that there are situations in which small numbers of trials per condition cause group analysis to outperform individual analysis, and conditions in which group analysis outperforms individual analysis are demonstrated.
Abstract: Analyzing the data of individuals has several advantages over analyzing the data combined across the individuals (the latter we term group analysis): Grouping can distort the form of data, and different individuals might perform the task using different processes and parameters. These factors notwithstanding, we demonstrate conditions in which group analysis outperforms individual analysis. Such conditions include those in which there are relatively few trials per subject per condition, a situation that sometimes introduces distortions and biases when models are fit and parameters are estimated. We employed a simulation technique in which data were generated from each of two known models, each with parameter variation across simulated individuals. We examined how well the generating model and its competitor each fared in fitting (both sets of) the data, using both individual and group analysis. We examined the accuracy of model selection (the probability that the correct model would be selected by the analysis method). Trials per condition and individuals per experiment were varied systematically. Three pairs of cognitive models were compared: exponential versus power models of forgetting, generalized context versus prototype models of categorization, and the fuzzy logical model of perception versus the linear integration model of information integration. We show that there are situations in which small numbers of trials per condition cause group analysis to outperform individual analysis. Additional tables and figures may be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society Archive of Norms, Stimuli, and Data, www.psychonomic.org/archive.
TL;DR: The results suggest that perceptual expertise enhances the resolution but not the number of representations that can be held in working memory, and support recent suggestions that number and resolution represent distinct facets of working memory ability.
Abstract: Despite its central role in cognition, capacity in visual working memory is restricted to about three or four items. Curby and Gauthier (2007) examined whether perceptual expertise can help to overcome this limit by enabling more efficient coding of visual information. In line with this, they observed higher capacity estimates for upright than for inverted faces, suggesting that perceptual expertise enhances visual working memory. In the present work, we examined whether the improved capacity estimates for upright faces indicates an increased number of “slots” in working memory, or improved resolution within the existing slots. Our results suggest that perceptual expertise enhances the resolution but not the number of representations that can be held in working memory. These results clarify the effects of perceptual expertise in working memory and support recent suggestions that number and resolution represent distinct facets of working memory ability.
TL;DR: The results suggest that sequential modulations are due to the automatic retrieval of episodic event representations that integrate stimuli, actions, and situational and task-specific control information, so that later reactivation of some elements of a given representation tends to retrieve the other elements as well.
Abstract: People respond more slowly if an irrelevant feature of a target stimulus is incompatible with the relevant feature or the correct response. Such compatibility effects are often reduced in trials following an incompatible trial, which has been taken to reflect increased cognitive control. This pattern holds only if two trials share some similarities, however, suggesting that it may be modulated by the episodic context. To look into this possibility, we had participants respond to high- or low-pitched tones by saying “high” or “low,” respectively, and ignore the simultaneously presented auditory word “high” or “low.” As expected, performance was impaired if the heard word was incompatible with the required response, and this Stroop-like effect was reduced after incompatible trials. This sequential modulation was observed, however, only if the voice in the two successive trials was the same, whereas no modulation was obtained when the speaker changed. The results suggest that sequential modulations are due to the automatic retrieval of episodic event representations that integrate stimuli, actions, and situational and task-specific control information, so that later reactivation of some elements of a given representation tends to retrieve the other elements as well.
TL;DR: The varying abstraction model of categorization (VAM) is proposed, which investigates the possibility that partial abstraction may play a role in category learning and provides support for the idea that some form of partial abstraction can be used in people’s category representations.
Abstract: A longstanding debate in the categorization literature concerns representational abstraction. Generally, when exemplar models, which assume no abstraction, have been contrasted with prototype models, which assume total abstraction, the former models have been found to be superior to the latter. Although these findings may rule out the idea that total abstraction takes place during category learning and instead suggest that no abstraction is involved, the idea of abstraction retains considerable intuitive appeal. In this article, we propose the varying abstraction model of categorization (VAM), which investigates the possibility that partial abstraction may play a role in category learning. We apply the VAM to four previously published data sets that have been used to argue that no abstraction is involved. Contrary to the previous findings, our results provide support for the idea that some form of partial abstraction can be used in people’s category representations.
TL;DR: The role of working memory (WM) in framing is explored by manipulating WM loads during risky decisions by replicating the typical finding of risk aversion with positive frames and risk seeking with negative frames.
Abstract: Framing effects occur in a wide range of laboratory and natural decision contexts, but the underlying processes that produce framing effects are not well understood. We explored the role of working memory (WM) in framing by manipulating WM loads during risky decisions. After starting with a hypothetical stake of money, participants were then presented a lesser amount that they could keep for certain (positive frame) or lose for certain (negative frame). They made a choice between the sure amount and a gamble in which they could either keep or lose all of the original stake. On half of the trials, the choice was made while maintaining a concurrent WM load of random letters. In both load and no-load conditions, we replicated the typical finding of risk aversion with positive frames and risk seeking with negative frames. In addition, people made fewer decisions to accept the gamble under conditions of higher cognitive load. The data are congruent with a dual-process reasoning framework in which people employ a heuristic to make satisfactory decisions with minimal effort.
TL;DR: The semantic properties of a class of illusions, of which the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm is the most prominent example, are studied, in which subjects falsely remember words that are associates of studied words.
Abstract: We studied the semantic properties of a class of illusions, of which the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm is the most prominent example, in which subjects falsely remember words that are associates of studied words. We analyzed DRM materials for 16 dimensions of semantic content and assessed the ability of these dimensions to predict interlist variability in false memory. For the more general class of illusions, we analyzed pairs of presented and unpresented words that varied in associative strength for the presence of these same 16 semantic properties. DRM materials proved to be exceptionally rich in meaning, as indexed by these semantic properties. Variability in false recall, false recognition, and backward associative strength loaded on a single semantic factor (familiarity/meaningfulness), whereas variability in true recall loaded on a quite different factor (imagery/concreteness). For word association generally, 15 semantic properties varied reliably with forward or backward association between words. Implications for semantic versus associative processing in this class of illusions, for dual-process theories, and for semantic properties of word associations are discussed.
TL;DR: Using a visual search paradigm, it is demonstrated that characteristic sounds facilitated visual localization of objects, even when the sounds carried no location information, which suggests that characteristicSounds cross-modally enhance visual (rather than conceptual) processing of the corresponding objects.
Abstract: In a natural environment, objects that we look for often make characteristic sounds. A hiding cat may meow, or the keys in the cluttered drawer may jingle when moved. Using a visual search paradigm, we demonstrated that characteristic sounds facilitated visual localization of objects, even when the sounds carried no location information. For example, finding a cat was faster when participants heard a meow sound. In contrast, sounds had no effect when participants searched for names rather than pictures of objects. For example, hearing “meow” did not facilitate localization of the word cat. These results suggest that characteristic sounds cross-modally enhance visual (rather than conceptual) processing of the corresponding objects. Our behavioral demonstration of object-based cross-modal enhancement complements the extensive literature on space-based cross-modal interactions. When looking for your keys next time, you might want to play jingling sounds.
TL;DR: This work decoupled the time course of detection and categorization through two task manipulations and found inverted objects were categorized significantly less accurately than upright objects across a range of image presentation durations, but no significant effect on object detection was observed.
Abstract: A tight temporal coupling between object detection (is an object there?) and object categorization (what kind of object is it?) has recently been reported (Grill-Spector & Kanwisher, 2005), suggesting that image segmentation into different objects and categorization of those objects at the basic level may be the very same mechanism. In the present work, we decoupled the time course of detection and categorization through two task manipulations. First, inverted objects were categorized significantly less accurately than upright objects across a range of image presentation durations, but no significant effect on object detection was observed. Second, systematically degrading stimuli affected categorization significantly more than object detection. The time course of object detection and object categorization can be selectively manipulated. They are not intrinsically linked. As soon as you know an object is there, you do not necessarily know what it is.
TL;DR: The findings indicated that whereas all the criminal groups tended to select disadvantageously, the cognitive profiles exhibited by different groups were considerably different and overweighted potential gains as compared with losses, similar to chronic cocaine abusers.
Abstract: Using a novel quantitative model of repeated choice behavior, we investigated the cognitive processes of criminal offenders incarcerated for various crimes. Eighty-one criminals, including violent offenders, drug and sex offenders, drivers operating a vehicle while impaired, and 18 matched controls were tested. The results were also contrasted with those obtained from neurological patients with focal brain lesions in the orbitofrontal cortex and from drug abusers. Participants performed the computerized version of the Iowa gambling task (Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994), and the results were decomposed into specific component processes, using the expectancy valence model (Busemeyer & Stout, 2002). The findings indicated that whereas all the criminal groups tended to select disadvantageously, the cognitive profiles exhibited by different groups were considerably different. Certain subpopulations--most significantly, drug and sex offenders--overweighted potential gains as compared with losses, similar to chronic cocaine abusers. In contrast, assault/murder criminals tended to make less consistent choices and to focus on immediate outcomes and, in these respects, weremore similar to patients with orbitofrontal damage. The present cognitive model provides a novel way for building a bridge between cognitive neuroscience and complex human behaviors.