Dissociations of personally significant and task-relevant distractors inside and outside the focus of attention: a combined behavioral and psychophysiological study

Studies of attentional capture by personally significant stimuli have reached inconsistent results, possibly because of improper control of the participants' attention. In the present study, the authors controlled visual attention by using a Stroop-like task. Participants responded to a central color and ignored a word presented either centrally (i.e., at the focus of attention) or peripherally (i.e., outside the focus of attention). Central words led to slower reaction times and larger orienting responses for significant items than for neutral items. These effects largely disappeared when the words appeared in a peripheral location. The peripheral words interfered with performance when they were relevant to task demands. These results indicate that there is a fundamental difference between task-relevant words and personally significant words: The former capture attention even when presented peripherally, whereas the latter do not.     

The effects of emotion and encoding strategy on associative memory

Research has demonstrated that when discrete pieces of information are integrated together at encoding-imagining two items together as a single entity, for example-there is a mnemonic benefit for their relationship. A separate body of literature has indicated that the presence of emotional information can have an impact on the binding of associated neutral details, in some cases facilitating associative binding (MacKay et al. Memory and Cognition 32:474-488, 2004; Mather, Perspectives on Psychological Science 2:33-52, 2007), and in other cases impeding the processing of associated details (Easterbrook, Psychological Review 66:183-201, 1959; Kensinger, Emotion Review 1:99-113, 2009). In the present experiments, we investigated how memory for neutral words is affected by the emotionality of the information with which they are presented (whether with an emotional word or a second neutral word) and the encoding context (integrated or nonintegrated strategy). Participants viewed word pairs and were instructed to visualize the items as an integrated unit or to visualize them separately from one another. The results of Experiment 1 showed a disproportionate mnemonic benefit for neutral items that were integrated with other neutral items over those integrated with emotional items. The results of Experiments 2A and 2B showed that this effect interacted with encoding time: When given 2?s to encode, participants showed no effect of integration on memory for neutral-neutral pairs, but showed a significant mnemonic benefit for integrating emotional-neutral pairs. When given 4 or 6?s, the integrative benefit increased significantly for neutral-neutral pairs but decreased for emotional-neutral pairs. These results suggest that creating an integrated mental image of two neutral items requires a more time-consuming process than integrating an emotional and a neutral item, but that extra effort may result in a downstream mnemonic benefit.     

认知干扰还是情绪干扰：病理性网络使用大学生的内隐心理特点比较

通过实验的方法研究病理性网络使用（Pathological Internet Use , PIU）大学生是否存在认知和情绪干扰。实验大学生671人,使用传统的STROOP范式和修正的情绪STROOP范式进行实验。结果发现,PIU被试和高成瘾组被试对网络关联词语的反应时间比中性词语的反应时间长,差异显著,但是中等组和低分组则在网络关联词语和中性词语的反应时间上则没有显著差异。PIU大学生和高成瘾组大学生在网络关联词语的反应时间比中等组大学生和低分组大学生长,差异显著,但是在中性词语方面则差异不显著。大学生被试对情绪关联的反应时间比中性词语的反应时间长,表现出了典型的情绪STROOP效应。PIU被试和高成瘾倾向大学生在情绪关联词语上的反应时间都比其他两组成瘾倾向不明显的大学生反应时间长,差异显著,但是在中性词语上的反应时间差异不明显。PIU大学生和高成瘾倾向的大学生有对情绪关联词语有更加突出的的反应延迟特点,表现出了明显的情绪干扰     

网络成瘾者不同情绪状态下的认知加工特征

取在校大学生454人,通过《青少年病理性互联网使用量表》（Adolescent Pathological Internet Use Scale, APIUS),筛查出网络成瘾者31名为实验组,随机抽取样本中其他非成瘾大学生31人为对照组。使用词首－词尾对应三重意义组合图片60个为实验材料,用人物图片为情绪启动刺激,研究被试在不同情绪状态下的认知选择,记录被试选择词组性质和反应时间。研究发现,所有被试对积极词语的选择最多,对消极词语的选择最少,表现出“趋乐避苦”的认知选择倾向;成瘾组被试对积极词语的选择比对照组少,但是对消极词语选择比对照组多。悲伤启动情况下,成瘾组被试对积极词语的选择比对照组少,但是对消极词语的选择则比对照组多。成瘾组被试对积极信息的选择速度比对照组慢,但是对中性信息和消极信息的选择速度则比对照组快。愉快情绪启动下,成瘾组被试的反应时间比对照组短,在悲伤情绪启动下,成瘾组被试的反应时间比对照组长。悲伤情绪启动下,成瘾组被试对积极词语的反应时间比对照组慢,但是对消极词语的反应时间比对照组快。这些研究结果对网络成瘾的治疗有重要的参考价值。     

Accent modulates access to word meaning: Evidence for a speaker-model account of spoken word recognition

Speech carries accent information relevant to determining the speaker’s linguistic and social background. A series of web-based experiments demonstrate that accent cues can modulate access to word meaning. In Experiments 1–3, British participants were more likely to retrieve the American dominant meaning (e.g., hat meaning of “bonnet”) in a word association task if they heard the words in an American than a British accent. In addition, results from a speeded semantic decision task (Experiment 4) and sentence comprehension task (Experiment 5) confirm that accent modulates on-line meaning retrieval such that comprehension of ambiguous words is easier when the relevant word meaning is dominant in the speaker’s dialect. Critically, neutral-accent speech items, created by morphing British- and American-accented recordings, were interpreted in a similar way to accented words when embedded in a context of accented words (Experiment 2). This finding indicates that listeners do not use accent to guide meaning retrieval on a word-by-word basis; instead they use accent information to determine the dialectic identity of a speaker and then use their experience of that dialect to guide meaning access for all words spoken by that person. These results motivate a speaker-model account of spoken word recognition in which comprehenders determine key characteristics of their interlocutor and use this knowledge to guide word meaning access.     

The impact of emotion on prospective memory and monitoring: No pain, big gain

The emotionally enhanced memory effect is robust across studies of retrospective memory, with heightened recall for items with emotional content (e.g., words like ??murder??) relative to neutral items (e.g., words like ??envelope??). Only a handful of studies have examined the influence of emotion on prospective memory (PM), with mixed results. In some cases emotion enhances PM, and in others it impairs PM. Interpretation of these findings is clouded by methodological differences across studies and by the fact that, to date, no study has examined the impact of emotion on PM monitoring. In our study, we assessed PM performance when PM targets were neutral, negative, and positive, and also investigated monitoring across these different PM target types. Participants showed heightened PM performance for positive and negative relative to neutral targets, yet there was no evidence of additional monitoring for emotional targets. In fact, measures of monitoring were significantly reduced when the PM targets were emotional rather than neutral. Our findings suggest that it is possible to boost PM performance in a focal task using emotional cues, and that the use of emotional cues reduces the need for monitoring.     

A discourse on semantic priming

The processing of a word is sometimes affected if earlier words are semantically related to it (semantic “priming”). Priming phenomena have generally been interpreted as reflecting the organization of the mental lexicon. Past studies have shown that priming effects have a very fast rise time and a relatively rapid decay time. This paper investigates the rate of decay of semantic facilitation in both sentences and lists. It was hypothesized that sentence processing involves the construction of a discourse model in which the main topics stay active. If true, then words referring to related objects or events will be processed rapidly even if they occur later in the input, i.e., there will be no decay of facilitation. Three experiments with college students examined the relative time to process a critical word when it was preceded by either a pair of semantically related words or more neutral words. The materials occurred in either sentences or lists, the latter being word-level anagrams of the sentences. Subjects carried out the phonememonitoring task, responding to a word-initial target phoneme that occurred immediately after the critical word. In Experiments I (N = 58) and II (N = 40) 12 words separated the related/neutral words and the critical items. Facilitation in processing the critical word was present in sentences but not in lists. Experiment III (N = 128) showed that the amount of facilitation in sentences was the same when 12 words separated the related/neutral and critical words as when 1.5 words separated them. Thus, there was no evidence obtained here for decay of facilitation in sentences. The results are taken to be consistent with a discourse-model interpretation of semantic facilitation in sentences.     

False memory in aging: effects of emotional valence on word recognition accuracy

Memory is susceptible to distortions. Valence and increasing age are variables known to affect memory accuracy and may increase false alarm production. Interaction between these variables and their impact on false memory was investigated in 36 young (18-28 years) and 36 older (61-83 years) healthy adults. At study, participants viewed lists of neutral words orthographically related to negative, neutral, or positive critical lures (not presented). Memory for these words was subsequently tested with a remember-know procedure. At test, items included the words seen at study and their associated critical lures, as well as sets of orthographically related neutral words not seen at study and their associated unstudied lures. Positive valence was shown to have two opposite effects on older adults' discrimination of the lures: It improved correct rejection of unstudied lures but increased false memory for critical lures (i.e., lures associated with words studied previously). Thus, increased salience triggered by positive valence may disrupt memory accuracy in older adults when discriminating among similar events. These findings likely reflect a source memory deficit due to decreased efficiency in cognitive control processes with aging.     

不同学习目标条件下学习时间分配的习惯性反应

采用眼动记录技术,探讨不同学习目标条件下词对位置对学习时间分配的影响。实验结果发现：在高学习目标条件下,词对位置对项目选择存在显著影响,对自定步调学习时间不存在显著影响;在低学习目标下,词对位置对项目选择和自定步调学习时间均不存在显著影响。表明议程驱动和习惯性反应是影响学习时间分配的两种认知机制,学习者会根据学习情境采用议程驱动或习惯性反应来有效地进行学习时间分配,以最小的努力实现学习目标。     

A Measuring Device for the Galvanic Reflex

Twenty words were scaled according to their reinforcing value. Ss rated the words according to whether they would like or dislike to have a respected person say the word after S performed a task. A frequency table was compiled which indicated the number of times each word was chosen. Items in the frequency table with a high numerical value were denoted as liked and positive; items with a low numerical value were denoted as disliked and negative. One each of the positive, negative, and neutral reinforcers was used in a verbal conditioning experiment. After “I-We” sentences, Ss—depending upon the group to which they were assigned—were given orally one of the three reinforcing words by the E. The positive reinforcer produced a rapid progressive increase in the rate of responding; the negative reinforcer, a successive decreasing rate of responding; the neutral reinforcer produced at first an increasing rate of responding, then a decreasing reinforcing characteristic. Comparison of the initial set of I-We sentences revealed that conditioning did occur in the direction the numerical values indicated.     

The emotional carryover effect in memory for words

Emotional material rarely occurs in isolation; rather it is experienced in the spatial and temporal proximity of less emotional items. Some previous researchers have found that emotional stimuli impair memory for surrounding information, whereas others have reported evidence for memory facilitation. Researchers have not determined which types of emotional items or memory tests produce effects that carry over to surrounding items. Six experiments are reported that measured carryover from emotional words varying in arousal to temporally adjacent neutral words. Taboo, non-taboo emotional, and neutral words were compared using different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), recognition and recall tests, and intentional and incidental memory instructions. Strong emotional memory effects were obtained in all six experiments. However, emotional items influenced memory for temporally adjacent words under limited conditions. Words following taboo words were more poorly remembered than words following neutral words when relatively short SOAs were employed. Words preceding taboo words were affected only when recall tests and relatively short retention intervals were used. These results suggest that increased attention to the emotional items sometimes produces emotional carryover effects; however, retrieval processes also contribute to retrograde amnesia and may extend the conditions under which anterograde amnesia is observed.     

故事情境下真实记忆与虚假记忆的活动差异

以故事情境为实验材料,采用学习再认实验范式,通过操纵再认靶词与故事情境的关联性考察了情境故事对关联虚假记忆和真实再认神经活动的影响。结果发现：在记忆再认的熟悉性加工和回想性加工阶段,虚假记忆与真实记忆所诱发FN400和LPC成分走向一致;在额叶后提取阶段,虚假再认所诱发的晚慢成分波幅大于真实再认。结果说明：情境性关联虚假记忆与真实记忆表现出相似的熟悉性和回想性加工,但在后期需耗费额外的加工资源进行成功的提取。     

Reduced repetition suppression in the occipital visual cortex during repeated negative Chinese personality‐trait word processing

Reduced neural activation have been consistently observed during repeated items processing, a phenomenon termed repetition suppression. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether and how stimuli of emotional valence affects repetition suppression by adopting Chinese personality‐trait words as materials. Seventeen participants were required to read the negative and neutral Chinese personality‐trait words silently. And then they were presented with repeated and novel items during scanning. Results showed significant repetition suppression in the inferior occipital gyrus only for neutral personality‐trait words, whereas similar repetition suppression in the left inferior temporal gyrus and left middle temporal gyrus was revealed for both the word types. These results indicated common and distinct neural substrates during processing Chinese repeated negative and neutral personality‐trait words.     

初中生学习成绩与成就STROOP干扰

取某普通中学初中学生129人,使用修正的Stroop任务,测试被试对积极关联词语、消极关联词语和中性词语的颜色命名的反应时间,结果发现,初中学生对成就关联词语的反应时间比中性词语长,特别是在消极关联词语方面,差异显著,表现出了典型的Stroop干扰;学习好的同学在所有词语方面的反应时间都比学习成绩差的同学反应时间长,特别是在成就关联词语方面,差异极显著,学习好的同学表现出了更加明显的Stroop干扰.学习成绩与成就关联词语的反应时间有显著的相关.女同学对所有词语的反应时间都比男同学时间长,特别是在高成就反应时间上,二者差异显著,女同学比男同学有更加明显的成就Stroop干扰.     

The assessment of emotional clarity via response times to emotion items: shedding light on the response process and its relation to emotion regulation strategies

Researchers have begun to use response times (RTs) to emotion items as an indirect measure of emotional clarity. Our first aim was to scrutinise the properties of this RT measure in more detail than previously. To be able to provide recommendations as to whether (and how) emotional intensity – as a possible confound – should be controlled for, we investigated the specific form of the relation between emotional intensity and RTs to emotion items. In particular, we assumed an inverted U-shaped relation at the item level. Moreover, we analysed the RT measure’s convergent validity with respect to individuals’ confidence in their emotion ratings. As a second aim, we compared the predictive validity of emotional clarity measures (RT measure, self-report) with respect to daily emotion regulation. The results of three experience sampling studies showed that the association between emotional intensity and RT followed an inverted U shape. RT was in part related to confidence. Emotional clarity measures were unrelated to reappraisal. There was some evidence that lower emotional clarity was related to a greater use of suppression. The findings highlight that emotional intensity and squared emotional intensity should be controlled for when using the RT measure of emotional clarity in future research.     

ERP evidence for the control of emotional memories during strategic retrieval

Neural evidence for the strategic retrieval of task-relevant ‘target’ memories at the expense of less relevant ‘nontarget’ memories has been demonstrated across a wide variety of studies. In ERP studies, this evidence consists of the ERP correlate of recollection (i.e. the ‘left parietal old/new effect’) being evident for targets and attenuated for nontargets. It is not yet known, however, whether this degree of strategic control can be extended to emotionally valenced words, or whether these items instead reactivate associated memories. The present study used a paradigm previously employed to demonstrate the strategic retrieval of neutral words (Herron & Rugg, Psychonomic Bulletin and & Review, 10(3), 703-–710, 2003b) to assess the effects of stimulus valence on behavioural and event-related potential (ERP) measures of strategic retrieval. While response accuracy and reaction times associated with targets were unaffected by valence, negative nontargets and new items were both associated with an elevated false alarm rate and longer RTs than their neutral equivalents. Both neutral and negative targets and nontargets elicited early old/new effects between 300 and 500 ms. Critically, whereas neutral and negative targets elicited robust and statistically equivalent left parietal old/new effects between 500 and 800 ms, these were absent for neutral and negative nontargets. A right frontal positivity associated with postretrieval monitoring was evident for neutral targets versus nontargets, for negative versus neutral nontargets, and for targets versus new items. It can therefore be concluded that the recollection of negatively valenced words is subject to strategic control during retrieval, and that postretrieval monitoring processes are influenced by emotional valence.     

Recalling pictures and words: Reversing the generation effect

Blind and sighted children’s memory for words and raised shape pictures was tested. The investigation compared performance with items when they were studied under neutral conditions (naming words and pictures) and when they were self-generated in response to cues (cue: hot ?: response: cold). The blind children could identify and name the raised shape pictures with the same apparent ease as blind-folded sighted children (as long as a cue was provided). The sighted children showed the generation effect (Slamecka and Graf, 1978) for both words and pictures, namely that self-generated items were far better recalled than neutral ones. The pattern of results for the blind children was markedly different. Although the level of memory performance overall was the same as that of the sighted controls, the congenitally blind children showed areverse generation effect. A stem completion study indicated that these results couldnot be accounted for by a relatively greater reliance on data-driven processing by the blind.     

抑郁症患者识别情绪词时执行功能实验研究

为了研究抑郁症患者识别汉语情绪词时的执行功能特征,采用神经扫描仪STIM刺激反应系统记录16名抑郁症患者和18名正常对照组执行四类Go／No go汉语情绪词识别作业时的反应时和正确率,抑郁自评量表(SDS)评价抑郁严重程度,自动思维问卷(ATQ)评价负性认知偏差程度。结果发现,识别正／负性词时抑郁症组反应时均明显延长,正确率明显降低。组内方差分析显示,随着情绪词识别作业难度增加,正常对照组正／负性词反应时缩短,正确率逐渐提高,且不受双重作业任务的影响。抑郁症组则表现为反应时延长,正确率变化不明显。重复测量多因素方差分析显示。词性、作业、组别间因素对反应时的主效应均有显著性意义;组别间因素对正确率的主效应均有显著性意义。抑郁症患者SDS、ATQ分与反应时、正确率相关无显著性。提示抑郁症患者区分正负性汉语情绪词时存在执行功能障碍。     

害羞者对模糊情境信息的解释偏向

以模糊情境句子和形容词为刺激材料,分别采用文本材料范式和改编的词汇情境联接范式,对害羞者的延时解释和即时解释偏向特点进行探讨。结果发现：害羞者对模糊情境信息不仅缺乏积极的即时解释偏向特点,而且也缺乏积极的延时解释偏向特点;害羞者未表现出消极的即时和延时解释偏向特点。研究表明害羞者可能是社交焦虑的前期阶段,对害羞者的干预可以通过引导其积极的解释偏向的方式来实现。     

错误记忆的自我参照效应：易化的作用

采用DRM范式,设置三种参照对象条件（自我、他人和中性参照）,考察错误记忆是否存在自我参照效应。结果发现：（1）与正确记忆一样,错误记忆中亦存在自我参照效应;（2）无论是正确记忆还是错误记忆,自我参照条件下的回忆成分均显著多于他人参照和中性参照,但熟悉性成分在三种不同参照对象条件下没有显著差异;（3）当词表中学习项目由分组呈现变为随机呈现时,错误记忆的自我参照效应仍稳定存在。结果揭示,自我参照效在促进正确记忆的同时,亦可易化错误记忆效应。