Are preference reversals reduced when made explicit?

Previous research has shown that preferences for options, such as gambles, can reverse depending on the response mode. These preference reversals have been demonstrated when tasks were performed sequentially. That is, subjects completed one task before beginning another. In an attempt to eliminate preference reversals, we asked subjects to perform tasks simultaneously. That is, subjects made two types of responses for each pair of gambles before evaluating the next pair. In the condition with no financial incentives, preference reversal rates were slightly reduced. In another condition, subjects were paid for their participation and they were allowed to play a gamble with real monetary compensation. A gamble pair was randomly selected, and if a subject's responses in the two tasks were consistent for that pair, he or she was allowed to play the ‘preferred’ gamble. Otherwise, the experimenter selected the gamble from the pair. With these financial incentives, systematic preference reversals were eliminated for two of the three task combinations. Preference reversals continued to occur for attractiveness ratings versus selling prices, although, even for that pair of tasks, the reversal rate was significantly reduced. For all three task pairs, preference orders from the two tasks appeared to merge into more consistent orders.     

Information search and choice accuracy as a function of task complexity and task structure

Previous research has consistently shown that subjects switch to noncompensatory information search behaviour when task complexity increases. However, a rather specific class of tasks was used in these studies for which complete information search is not necessary to attain accurate task performance. In the present study information search behaviour, choice accuracy, subjective difficulty and confidence were registered under various task complexity conditions in two different task environments. In the first task, subjects had to make a choice between apartments; in the second task, a choice was required between baskets containing groceries of different prices. Forty subjects made choices by means of computerized information boards. The results showed effects of both complexity and type of task on information search behaviour. The lowest proportion of requested information and the most variable search pattern was observed for the apartments task in the complex task condition. However, accuracy remained constant over all complexity conditions. Together, the results suggest that under high task complexity levels subjects try to work smarter rather than harder. In the context of a choice requirement the specific task structure may allow them to switch to noncompensatory strategies while maintaining accuracy and avoiding the integration of large amounts of information.     

The effect of task and pitch structure on pitch-time interactions in music

Musical pitch-time relations were explored by investigating the effect of temporal variation on pitch perception. In Experiment 1, trained musicians heard a standard tone followed by a tonal context and then a comparison tone. They then performed one of two tasks. In the cognitive task, they indicated whether the comparison tone was in the key of the context. In the perceptual task, they judged whether the comparison tone was higher or lower than the standard tone. For both tasks, the comparison tone occurred early, on time, or late with respect to temporal expectancies established by the context. Temporal variation did not affect accuracy in either task. Experiment 2 used the perceptual task and varied the pitch structure by employing either a tonal or an atonal context. Temporal variation did not affect accuracy for tonal contexts, but did for atonal contexts. Experiment 3 replicated these results and controlled potential confounds. We argue that tonal contexts bias attention toward pitch and eliminate effects of temporal variation, whereas atonal contexts do not, thus fostering pitch-time interactions. Psychonomic Society, Inc.     

Experiencing extinction within a task makes nonextinguished information learned within a different task context-dependent

In two experiments with rats, we analyzed the effect of experiencing extinction in one task on the context specificity of a new association learned within a different task. Rats were trained to run in a runway for water in Task 1, and received taste aversion conditioning in Task 2 (the tasks were reversed in Exp. 2). Half of the rats received conditioning and extinction of Task 1 in Context A, whereas the other half received no extinction. Then all animals received training in the alternate task in Context B, prior to testing in Context C. When they were tested in Context C, Task 2 performance was attenuated if Task 1 had been extinguished prior to Task 2. These results are similar to those we have reported in humans, and consistent with the idea that extinction prompts attention to contexts, regardless of whether or not the contexts were involved in extinction.     

A method for obtaining psychophysical estimates of movement costs

Although researchers generally accept the proposition that movement costs are taken into account in the planning of voluntary movements, there is no established psychophysical method for estimating such costs. The authors tested and introduce a possible method. Participants were given every possible pair of tasks from a set of tasks that varied along one or more dimensions. In each trial, they indicated which task was easier to perform. The authors used participants' probability of preferring any given task over others to estimate the judged relative cost (JRC) of that task, and they used the JRCs of all the tasks to quantify the relation between task preference and task properties. The method was applied in 3 experiments in which university students (Experiment 1, N = 20; Experiment 2, N = 40; Experiment 3, N = 20) chose which spatial target to move to in carrying an object from one position to another. The data were consistent with the hypothesis that the JRC of moving an object increases with the degree to which the object must be translated and rotated. The simplicity of the method encourages its application to a wide range of questions about motor behavior.     

Does Scope of Attention Affect Creativity? Testing the Attentional Priming Hypothesis

Creativity is linked to broad scope of attention, a state or trait that allocates attentional resources over a wide range of perceptual stimuli. According to the attentional priming hypothesis, a mechanism underlying the creativity–attention link is that broad perceptual attention scope primes broad conceptual attention scope—the activation of a wide range of memory contents—which therefore facilitates creative ideation. This study aimed to test the hypothesis in three experiments using three manipulations and two creativity tasks. Experiment 1 used the Navon letter task to prime attention to global patterns or local details of composite stimuli and measured creativity via the task to generate alternative uses of daily objects. Experiment 2 modified a cue-size procedure in which participants repeatedly attended to large or small visual cues before a target stimulus appeared. Experiment 3 devised a manipulation that required participants to view and visualize images associated with broad or narrow attention and adopted the alternative uses task and the task to invent alien creatures. Across the experiments, although the results were in the predicted direction, they were non-significant. This study found no evidence that broadness of perceptual attention affects creativity.     

The strategies in past temporal discounting

对过去事件的加工涉及到对现在信息的加工,过去获得的价值能够为现在的生活带来的收益可能对过去事件的价值估计具有影响。本研究探讨了过去事件对现在生活的影响在过去时间贴现中的作用。采用延迟时间贴现范式任务,选取2周到50年共10个过去时间长度,要求被试在现在获得的奖金和过去获得的奖金之间进行偏好选择,并且完成对过去时间贴现决策策略的问题回答。采用曲线下的单位面积UAUr(t1,t1) 为过去时间贴现率,发现过去时间贴现率在过去2周和过去1个月之间[Z = 2.662,p = .008]、过去1年和过去3年之间[Z = 2.587, p = .010] 差异显著。对决策策略的回答进行内容分析(频次统计信度为0.875),发现过去事件能够为现在生活带来的收益影响了被试对过去事件的价值估计和偏好选择。从现在起到过去2周内,被试看重近的过去获得的奖金对现在的生活的帮助,偏好选择过去获得的奖金;在较远的过去,从过去2周起到过去1年内,奖金数量和获得奖金的时间之间的比例影响了被试的偏好选择;从过去1年起到过去50年内,远的过去获得的奖金对现在生活的影响微乎其微,被试偏好现在获得的奖金。本研究的结果支持了过去时间贴现和未来时间贴现具有不同的心理加工机制,并且有助于进一步了解过去时间的差别感受性的变化规律。     

Task interference from prospective memories covaries with contextual associations of fulfilling them

One of the current issues in the field of prospective memory concerns whether having an intention produces a cost to other ongoing activities (called task interference). The evidence to date suggests that certain intentions held over the shorter term do interfere with other tasks. Because the cumulative effect of such costs would be prohibitively expensive in everyday life, the present study examined one means by which that interference may be reduced. Participants who formed a specific association to fulfilling an intention in a future context did not exhibit task interference over the intervening period until that context was encountered. This outcome was observed with both an event-based and a time-based prospective memory task. The results suggest that associating intention fulfillment with a specific context can eliminate task interference, and they emphasize the importance of studying intentions that are linked to future contexts versus those that are not.     

Control of spatial orienting: Context-specific proportion cued effects in an exogenous spatial cueing task

Cognitive control refers to the ability to adjust strategy use based on the demands of a current context or task. Recent research using attentional filtering tasks has shown that cognitive control can adapt rapidly and automatically in accord with learning that is specific to particular tasks, items, and contexts (Crump, Gong, & Milliken, 2006; Fernandez-Duque & Knight, 2008; Jacoby, Lindsay, & Hessels, 2003). However, the role of context-specific control has not been investigated in detail in spatial orienting tasks. In a series of three experiments, the proportion of validly cued trials in an exogenous spatial cueing task was manipulated for one context but not for another context, with the two contexts intermixed randomly across trials. The results revealed that spatial/temporal contextual cues in conjunction, but not individually, produced context-specific control over spatial orienting.     

Some determinants of task preference and the desire for information about the self

This research examined the influence of task difficulty and diagnosticity (ability information) on task choice and preference. It was found that males preferred diagnostic over non-diagnostic tasks, but among females significant preferences along this variable were not exhibited. Furthermore, the desire to obtain ability-relevant information decreased as a function of prior knowledge about one's ability. Both high and low ability self-perceptions, induced through prior experiences of success and failure, decreased the attraction toward diagnostic in formation. There was no indication that individuals with high ability self-concepts are especially avoidant of further ability-relevant information, as recent literature has suggested. In addition, and contrary to prior findings, difficult tasks were most preferred rather than easy or intermediate tasks, given that diagnosticity is held constant.     

The crutch of context-dependency: Effects of contextual support and constancy on acquisition and retention

Paired associates (Tagalog–English word pairs) were studied and practiced with pairs superimposed over pictorial contexts, and tested with no context cues. On every retrieval practice (RP) incidental or conceptually supportive contexts were repeatedly shown with the same pair (constant context condition), or else new contexts were shown on every RP trial (varied context condition). Incidental contexts in the constant condition and supportive contexts in both constant and varied context conditions facilitated practice scores, but left learning susceptible to forgetting when context cues were not provided. In contrast, varying incidental contexts during practice resulted in slower acquisition, but greater retention in the absence of context cues. The results show that varying incidental contexts during practice can be a desirable difficulty.     

Is handedness just response bias?

Although most people prefer to use the right hand for unimanual tasks, it is unknown whether handedness arises from response bias. Whether it does is a question inspired by signal detection theory. We drew on the framework of signal detection theory to assess bias and sensitivity in hand choice by asking right-handers to choose between two tasks—one performed with the left hand, and one performed with the right. For some participants, the left-hand task stayed constant while the right-hand task was varied. For other participants, the right-hand stayed constant while the left-hand task was varied. We reasoned that if hand preference only reflected bias, participants would choose the generally preferred hand to the same degree, regardless of whether its task was constant or varied. Our participants followed this strategy only to some extent, suggesting that bias and sensitivity both contribute to hand preference.     

Insight into the law of large numbers: A comparison of piagetian and judgement theory

Subjects were tested for their understanding of the law of large numbers in three ways: by means of a Piagetian task involving the distribution of balls between two compartments, by means of written tasks similar to those devised by Kahneman and Tversky (1972), and by means of a task involving comparisons of samples of counters drawn from a larger population. For the sample comparison task, subjects relied heavily on proportional information-ignoring sample size, thereby supporting the conclusions of Kahneman and Tversky (1972). However with regard to the other two tasks an order effect was found: subjects did significantly better with the Kahneman and Tversky tasks if they had first been tested on a Piagetian task. In Experiment II, the order effect was replicated, indicating that subjects may have a narrow insight into the law of large numbers which is not recruited in appropriate contexts unless primed by the task environment.     

Boundary Distance Effects on Overshooting

Experiments with a subject-paced pursuit tracking task show that overshoot rate is dependent upon the distance between the target and the display boundary measured in the direction of movement, and that a previously noted inverse relationship with distance to the target is artifactual. The effect held for tasks with direct and reverse control-display relations, and for tasks with constant and variable target distances. The findings were consistent with Wetford’s (1968) hypothesis that a pursuit response is initiated with a ballistic, distance-covering, movement. Ralph Leonardo carried out extensive work in collecting data, Fred Hyde maintained the apparatus, and Georgie Green assisted in data analysis.     

A limited role for the hippocampus in the modulation of novel-object preference by contextual cues

Recent evidence suggests that rats require an intact hippocampus in order to recognize familiar objects when they encounter them again in a different context. The two experiments reported here further examined how changes in context affect rats' performance on the novel-object preference (NOP) test of object-recognition memory, and how those effects interact with the effects of HPC damage. Rats with HPC lesions and control rats received NOP testing in either the same context in which they had previously encountered sample objects, or in a different but equally familiar context. In Experiment 1, the two contexts had very few overlapping cues within or outside the apparatus; thus, the differences between them were global. Consistent with previous results, control rats showed a novel-object preference in both the unchanged and (globally) changed contexts, whereas rats with HPC lesions displayed a preference only in the unchanged context. In Experiment 2, the context shift included only local features proximal to the test objects. The main results were the reverse of Experiment 1--rats with HPC lesions displayed a novel-object preference in both the unchanged and (locally) changed contexts, whereas control rats displayed a preference only in the unchanged context. The findings are consistent with the view that HPC damage does not cause a general inability to recognize objects, nor an inability to encode or store a representation of the context in which the objects are encountered. They suggest instead that HPC damage impairs the ability to remember specific locations of familiar objects within a particular context.     

Stimulus context and duration discrimination

The ability of human observers to discriminate duration was assessed in two types of tasks: (1) pulse tasks, in which the observer compared the duration of two brief increments in an ongoing sinusoid, and (2) gap tasks, in which the observer compared the duration of two brief interruptions in an ongoing sinusoid. Performance in these tasks was assessed in three different contexts: noise alone, noise plus continuous sinusoids, and noise plus continuous sinusoids chosen to induce a pitch segregation effect. Performance in the pulse task was independent of the changes in context; however, performance in the gap task changed as a function of context condition. There was a large decrement in the observers’ ability to discriminate duration when the stimulus ensemble induced the pitch segregation effect. The results are discussed in terms of the relationship between duration discrimination and stimulus variations which do not carry duration information.     

Attentionally splitting the mass distribution of hand-held rods

Two experiments on the length-perception capabilities of effortful or dynamic touch differed only in terms of what the subject intended to perceive, while experimental conditions and apparatus were held constant. In each trial, a visually occluded rod was held as still as possible by the subject at an intermediate position. For two thirds of the trials, a weight was attached to the rod above or below the hand. In Experiment 1, in which the subject's task was to perceive the distance reachable with the portion of the rod forward of the hand, perceived extent was a function of the first moment of the mass distribution associated with the forward portion of the rod, and indifferent to the first moment of the entire rod. In Experiment 2, in which the task was to perceive the distance reachable with the entire rod if it was held at an end, the pattern of results was reversed. These results indicate the capability of selective sensitivity to different aspects of a hand-held object's mass distribution, without the possibility of differential exploration specific to these two tasks. Results are discussed in relation to possible roles of differential information, intention, and self-organization in the explanations of selective perceptual abilities.     

Spatial relational learning in rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus)

There is increasing evidence that animals can learn abstract spatial relationships, and successfully transfer this knowledge to novel situations. In this study, rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) were trained to feed from either the lower or the higher of two flowers. When presented with a test pair of flowers, one of which was at a novel height, they chose the flower in the appropriate spatial position rather than the flower at the correct height. This response may also have been influenced by a preference for taller flowers as acquisition of the task during experimental training occurred more readily when the reward flower was the taller of the pair. Thus, it appears that although learning abstract relationships may be a general phenomenon across contexts, and perhaps across species, the ease with which they are learned and the context in which they are subsequently used may not be the same.     

Effects of environmental context manipulated by the combination of place and task on free recall

Three experiments, using a 2 (study context) x 2 (test context) between-subjects design, were conducted to examine the effects of environmental context manipulated by the combination of two contextual elements, place and task, on free recall. Undergraduates individually studied nouns and received a free-recall test, with a 10-minute filled retention interval. The contexts were manipulated by the combination of task and place in Experiment 1, by place alone in Experiment 2, and by task alone in Experiment 3. For the manipulation of place and task, two perceptually distinctive places and two distinctive tasks (a calculation task and a fine-motor task) were used. Tasks were imposed before and after studying target items and before a free-recall test. Significant environmental-context effects were yielded in Experiment 1, but not in the other experiments. The implications of the results are discussed.     

Effects of environmental context manipulated by the combination of place and task on free recall

Three experiments, using a 2 (study context) × 2 (test context) between‐subjects design, were conducted to examine the effects of environmental context manipulated by the combination of two contextual elements, place and task, on free recall. Undergraduates individually studied nouns and received a free‐recall test, with a 10‐minute filled retention interval. The contexts were manipulated by the combination of task and place in Experiment 1, by place alone in Experiment 2, and by task alone in Experiment 3. For the manipulation of place and task, two perceptually distinctive places and two distinctive tasks (a calculation task and a fine‐motor task) were used. Tasks were imposed before and after studying target items and before a free‐recall test. Significant environmental‐context effects were yielded in Experiment 1, but not in the other experiments. The implications of the results are discussed.