Policy conflict and policy change as a function of task characteristics 1. The effects of cue validity and function form

Brehmer, B. & Kostron, L. Policy conflict and policy change as a function of task characteristics. I. The effects of cue validity and function form. Scand. J. Psychol., 1973, 14, 44–55.-Policy conflict and policy change in the "lens model" interpersonal conflict paradigm were studied as a function of the distribution of cue validities in a two-cue task with one linear and one nonlinear cue. Agreement was higher in the conditions where the linear cue was more valid than the nonlinear cue than in the conditions where the nonlinear cue was more valid than the linear cue. This was primarily due to the fact that the subjects' policies were more consistent in predominantly linear conditions. The amount of policy change in the various conditions suggested that the subjects' behavior was the result of a compromise between conflict reduction and task adaptation.     

The influence of memory for prior instances on performance in a conflict detection task

In 3 experiments, the authors examined the role of memory for prior instances for making relative judgments in conflict detection. Participants saw pairs of aircraft either repeatedly conflict with each other or pass safely before being tested on new aircraft pairs, which varied in similarity to the training pairs. Performance was influenced by the similarity between aircraft pairs. Detection time was faster when a conflict pair resembled a pair that had repeatedly conflicted. Detection time was slower, and participants missed conflicts, when a conflict pair resembled a pair that had repeatedly passed safely. The findings identify aircraft features that are used as inputs into the memory decision process and provide an indication of the processes involved in the use of memory for prior instances to make relative judgments.     

Remembering ads: The effects of encoding strategies,retrieval cues,and emotional response

This study uses the encoding specificity principle ( Tulving & Thomson, 1973 ) and the distinction between episodic and semantic knowledge to test predictions about the effects of processing goals and retrieval cues on memory for emotional and neutral TV commercials. Subjects viewed five emotional and five neutral ads embedded in programming. Encoding instructions asked subjects to either (a) evaluate each product or (b) “just watch” as they viewed the ads. Retrieval cues were either the opening scene of each ad (executional cue) or the product category (categorical cue). Both recall and response-time measures were used to index ad memory-trace accessibility. The results showed that when encoding and retrieval conditions were compatible (evaluation instructions with categorical cue, and just-watch instructions with executional cue) ad memory traces were retrieved more rapidly than when encoding and retrieval conditions were incompatible. In addition, subjects who “just watched” emotional ads were able to retrieve those ad memory traces more rapidly when given an executional cue compared to a categorical cue, whereas subjects who evaluated neutral ads at encoding recalled more ads, and retrieved them more rapidly, when given a categorical cue compared to an executional cue. Finally, we show that searching memory first with an executional cue and then with a product-category cue leads to an increase in ad recall for both emotional and neutral ads, whereas searching first with a categorical cue and then with an executional cue leads to a decrease in ad recall for neutral ads.     

Fear imagery and the startle-probe reflex

Blink reflexes to acoustic probes, heart rate, and subjective reports were studied during affective memory imagery. Thirty-six undergraduates memorized 6 pairs of neutral and fearful sentences. After learning each pair, they relaxed and listened to a series of uniform tones, one every 6 s. A change in tone pitch (higher or lower) cued recall of one of the two sentences. At the first cue tone, groups (n = 12) were under different instructions: (a) ignore the sentence and relax, (b) silently articulate the sentence, and (c) imagine the sentence content as a personal experience. At the second cue tone, all subjects performed the imagery task. Startle probes (50-ms, 95-dB white noise) were presented unpredictably during relaxation and recall trials. Probe blink reflexes were larger and cardiac rate faster at fear sentence recall than at neutral sentence recall or relaxation. For probe reflexes, this effect was greater for imagery than for nonsemantic recall tasks.     

Serial learning with wild card items by monkeys (Cebus apella): implications for knowledge of ordinal position

We investigated monkeys' knowledge of the ordinal positions of stimuli that formed a 5-item serial list, ABCDE, by means of wild card items (W) that could substitute for items in the original series. In Experiment 1, training with wild cards was given on 3-, 4-, and 5-item series. In the last of these series, the wild card substitutions created five wild card sequences, WBCDE through ABCDW. During the final 10 sessions of training with each of two different wild cards (Items x and Y), the 3 subjects were able to successfully complete almost 60% of the wild card sequences. In Experiment 2, the two wild cards were presented on the same trial in 10 different double wild card sequences (e.g., AXCDY). The 2 monkey subjects correctly completed about 59% of the double wild card sequences during the final two training sessions. The performance levels achieved on single and on double wild card sequences, although well below that observed on the baseline sequence ABCDE (90% or better), support the view that the monkeys possessed some knowledge regarding the ordinal position of each baseline item. Consequently, an associative chain interpretation, which does not provide for knowledge of ordinal position, falls short as a complete account of the monkey's capacity for serial learning.     

Representation of serial order in pigeons (Columba livia)

In Experiment 1, 2 groups of pigeons were trained to respond to either a 4-item (A→B→C→D) or 5-item (A→B→C→D→E) list. After learning their respective list, half of the subjects were trained on a positive pair with reinforcement provided when pairs were responded to in the order true to that of the original sequence (4-item: B→C; 5-item: B→D). The remaining subjects were trained on a negative pair with reinforcement provided for responding to the pairs in the order opposite to that learned in the original sequence (4-item: C→B; 5-item: D→B). Subjects in the positive pair condition learned their respective pair faster than did subjects in the negative pair condition. In Experiment 2, after reaching criterion on a 4-item list, subjects received 16 BC probe trials spread across 4 sessions of training. Subjects performed significantly above chance on the probe trials. The performance of our subjects in Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrates that, similar to monkeys, pigeons form a representation of the lists that they learn.     

Naming and categorization in young children: v. manual sign training

Following pre-training with everyday objects, 8 children aged from 2 to 4 years learned to produce one manual sign (fists placed one above the other, in front of body) to one stimulus and an alternative manual sign (shoulders touched with ipsilateral hands) to the other stimulus, with each of three pairs of different arbitrary wooden shapes (Set 1). The six stimuli then were presented in category match-to-sample tests, which all subjects passed. Three of the children were next trained to produce the manual signs (denoted as fist/shoulder) for an additional six arbitrary stimuli, Set 2. All 3 children went on to pass category match-to-sample tests for Set 2, and for Set 1 and Set 2 combined. In the final experimental phase, 2 of the children were trained, for one of the six stimulus pairs, to produce the vocal tact "zag" to one stimulus and "vek" to the other. Both children showed category transfer of these vocalizations in test trials with each of the remaining five stimulus pairs, and all the stimuli combined in a 12-stimulus array. In line with Horne and Lowe's (1996) naming account, manual sign naming was found to be as effective as vocal naming in establishing arbitrary stimulus categorization, measured in terms of category sorting and transfer of function. The findings also have implications for the training of verbal repertoires in people with learning disabilities.     

Test of a distributional theory of intuitive numerical prediction

This paper investigates models that describe how subjects combine uncertain information to arrive at an intuitive prediction of a criterion. Subjects were trained, with feedback, to predict a numerical criterion from each of three single cues. Then they were asked to predict the criterion, without feedback, either from pairs of cues or from single cues. Their predictions were not consistent with a relative weight averaging model, since pairs of cues did not combine additively. Instead, the effect of a cue was inversely proportional to the standard deviation of the criterion at each level of the cue. Subjects appeared to apply greater weight to cue levels with smaller variance, i.e., those cue levels that were more valid. The data could be described by a distributional theory referred to as the equal probability model. For the present experiment, this model implies that the criterion means associated with the levels of each cue are weighted by the reciprocals of the standard deviations and then averaged. Relations between the equal probability model and other models of impression formation are discussed.     

Generalization hypothesis of abstract-concept learning: learning strategies and related issues in Macaca mulatta, Cebus apella, and Columba livia

The generalization hypothesis of abstract-concept learning was tested with a meta-analysis of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella), and pigeons (Columba livia) learning a same/different (S/D) task with expanding training sets. The generalization hypothesis states that as the number of training items increases, generalization from the training pairs will increase and could explain the subjects' accurate novel-stimulus transfer. By contrast, concept learning is learning the relationship between each pair of items; with more training items subjects learn more exemplars of the rule and transfer better. Having to learn the stimulus pairs (the generalization hypothesis) would require more training as the set size increases, whereas learning the concept might require less training because subjects would be learning an abstract rule. The results strongly support concept or rule learning despite severely relaxing the generalization-hypothesis parameters. Thus, generalization was not a factor in the transfer from these experiments, adding to the evidence that these subjects were learning the S/D abstract concept.     

情节记忆中的前摄干扰：神经心理药物学及计算认知建模研究

记忆障碍患者的前摄干扰敏感性显著上升, 但其认知机制仍不清楚。结合神经心理药物学实验和计算认知建模方法对这一问题进行了研究。实验为被试内、双盲设计, 由健康成年人进行两次词对任务的学习, 间隔一周, 两次测试中或注射0.03 mg/kg体重咪唑安定或注射相同浓度的生理盐水。学习过程中及学习结束后进行测试, 要求被试根据线索词回忆靶词。实验结果发现, 注射咪唑安定可引起情节记忆的短时下降, 两种注射条件下均呈现明显的前摄干扰; 与生理盐水条件相比, 注射咪唑安定时引起的前摄干扰显著较高。基于SAC (Source of Action Confusion)的计算认知建模结果较好地拟合了实验数据。这一结果提示, 编码困难可能是记忆障碍患者前摄干扰敏感性较高的主要原因。     

Semantic-memory sources of episodic retrieval failure

In a cued-recall paradigm, retrieval blocking was investigated as a source of episodic retrieval failure. Each unrelated-interference (UR-I) word pair (e.g., “nurse-dollar”) had its own “competitive alternative” (e.g., “doctor’), which not only was strongly related to the cue word, but also possessed the same first two letters and final letter as did the target word. None of the unrelated-control (UR-C) word pairs (e.g., “clock-dollar”) had such an alternative. Cued recall substantially increased from the cue-word-only (e.g., “nurse- ”) to the three-letters-also cue condition (e.g., “nurse-do___r”) for the UR-C but not for the UR-I word pairs. Instead, subjects frequently reported the competitive alternatives in place of the UR-I target words in the three-letters-also cue condition. It was suggested that, relying on the primary plausibility judgment, subjects falsely accepted the competitive alternatives while the UR-I target words were blocked from retrieval by the potent retrieval of these plausible alternatives.     

Retrospective Revaluation and Inhibitory Associations: Does Perceptual Learning Modulate our Perception of the Contingencies Between Events?

The reported experiments seek to reconcile the conflict between proposed explanations of retrospective revaluation of contingency judgements in experiments with humans (e.g. Dickinson & Burke, 1996) and those of a perceptual learning phenomenon discovered in rats (Espinet, Iraola, Bennett, &Mackintosh, 1995). The experiments employ a medical diagnosis scenario, in which subjects are asked to judge whether particular symptoms signal the presence or absence of a fictitious disease. In Experiment 1, following alternating exposure to pairs of symptoms, AX and BX, subjects were informed that symptom A was predictive of illness. As a result of this training, subjects rated symptom B as predictive of the absence of the illness. In Experiment 2, a possible mechanism behind this effect was considered. In particular, it was established that pre-exposure in which the AX pair reliably preceded the BX pair produced the same pattern of results as those shown in Experiment 1. In contrast, when the order of pairs was reversed, so that BX reliably preceded AX, the reduction in ratings for symptom B was not obtained. Several extant associative theories are discussed, but none are found to account adequately for this pattern of results. To overcome these inadequacies, a parsimonious theory is suggested that explains all the effects observed in these experiments.     

Establishing auditory stimulus control over an eight-member equivalence class via conditional discrimination procedures

Two eight-member equivalence classes of visual stimuli were established during three phases of a training program. In Phase 1, two training arrangements were compared. In one, 3 subjects were taught on different trials to select from a single pair of comparison stimuli (A1, A2) in response to eight sample stimuli that were trained in pairs (B1, B2; C1, C2; D1, D2; E1, E2). In the second arrangement, subjects were taught to select from four pairs of comparisons (B1, B2; C1, C2; D3, D2; E2, E2) in response to two samples (A1, A2). Training with the single pair of comparison stimuli resulted in the development of equivalence relations (B1C1, B2C2, D1B1, D2B2, B1E1, B2E2, C1D1, C2D2, C1E1, C2E2, D1E1, D2E2, and their reciprocals) between the sample stimuli without direct training of these relations. In the other training arrangement, these relations among the comparison stimuli developed in the performance of 1 subject only. In Phase 2, three new pairs of stimuli (F1, F2; G1, G2; H1, H2) were substituted for three of the original pairs (B1, B2; C1, C2; D1, D2) and the training arrangements for the groups were reversed. Following training, the performances that showed equivalence relations on the probes in the first phase also showed equivalence relations in the second phase. If such relations did not develop in the first phase, they did not do so in the second phase. In Phase 3, relations between stimuli across the two previous phases (e.g., B1F1, B2F2, B1G1, B2H2, C1F1, etc.) were investigated. The 4 subjects whose performances showed the development of these relations were taught to select one stimulus from each class (E1 and E2) in response to a verbal label (I1 and I2) and then were tested to see if the verbal label controlled responding to the remaining members of the class (e.g., I1A1, I2A2, I1B1, I2B2, etc.). For 3 subjects, this generalized control occurred; for the 4th, generalization occurred only after verbal training with a second pair of visual stimuli (F1 and F2). In retests several months later, these auditory-visual relations were found to be intact or, if not, were recovered without direct training.     

Spontaneous discrimination of natural stimuli by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Six chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were presented with pairs of color photographic images of 5 different categories of animals (cat, chimp, gorilla, tiger, fish). The subjects responded to each pair using symbols for "same" and "different." Both within- and between-category discriminations were tested, and all chimpanzees classified the image pairs in accordance with the 5 experimenter-defined categories under conditions of nondifferential reinforcement. Although previous studies have demonstrated identification or discrimination of natural categories by nonhuman animals, subjects were typically differentially reinforced for their responses. The present findings demonstrate that chimpanzees can classify natural objects spontaneously and that such classifications may be similar to those that would be observed in human subjects.     

Imagery and compatibility of pairing in the free recall of adjective-noun pairs

Can the image-evoking value (I) of single words be used to predict the recall of grammatical units in which they occur? Thirty-two subjects free-recalled a list of 24 adjective-noun pairs varying in the I of the adjective and the noun, and the compatibility (C) of the pairing (i.e. whether or not the pair was immediately meaningful). Analysis showed all three variables to affect recall. High I adjectives facilitated recall irrespective of the I of the noun or the C of the pairing. Noun I and C facilitated recall only when both noun I was high and the pairing was compatible. An examination of intertrial repetitions failed to find evidence of organization in recall. Where only one word from a pair was recalled it tended to come from an incompatible pair, supporting the hypothesis that the recall of one word from an incompatible pair is less likely to cue recall of the other word than is the recall of one word from a compatible pair.     

CVC syllables for investigating the phonetic sensitivity of Mandarin and English speakers

Although many individual speech contrasts pairs have been studied within the cross-language literature, no one has created a comprehensive and systematic set of such stimuli. This article justifies and details an extensive set of contrast pairs for Mandarin Chinese and American English. The stimuli consist of 180 pairs of CVC syllables recorded in two tokens each (720 syllables total). Between each CVC pair, two of the segments are identical, whereas the third differs in that a segment drawn from a "native" phonetic category (either Mandarin, English, or both) is partnered with a segment drawn from a "foreign" phonetic category (nonnative to Mandarin, English, or both). Each contrast pair differs by a minimal phonetic amount and constitutes a meaningful contrast among the world's languages (as cataloged in the UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database of 451 languages). The entire collection of phonetic differences envelops Mandarin and English phonetic spaces and generates a range of phonetic discriminability. Contrastive segments are balanced through all possible syllable positions, with noncontrastive segments being filled in with other "foreign" segments. Although intended to measure phonetic perceptual sensitivity among adult speakers of the two languages, these stimuli are offered here to all for similar or for altogether unrelated investigations.     

Revelation effect in metamemory

Test items are more likely to be judged as previously studied if they need to be discovered before the recognition decision. In the present experiments, this revelation effect was extended to metamemory judgments. Participants studied word pairs and then tried to recall the second word of each pair when given the first word as a cue. In Experiment 1, a fragment of the target was either gradually increased in size or held constant, and in Experiment 2, sometimes an anagram of the cue was given instead of the cue itself. Thus, for some items, there was a revelation task before a recall attempt. If recall failed, the participants gave feeling-of-knowing (FOK) ratings. In both experiments, the participants gave higher FOK ratings after a revelation task, even though the items that these FOKs referred to remained unrecalled. Analyses showed a criterion shift but no differences in sensitivity.     

Spatial separation of target and competitor cues enhances blocking of human causality judgements

Three experiments were carried out. Each required subjects to make judgements about the causal status of cues following a two-stage blocking procedure. In Stage 1 a competitor cue was consistently paired with an outcome, and in Stage 2 the competitor continued to be paired with the outcome but was accompanied by a target cue. It was predicted that causal judgements for the target would be reduced by the presence of the competitor. In Experiments 1 and 2 the blocking procedure was implemented as a computer simulation of a card game during which subjects had to learn which cards produced the best payouts. The cues that subjects used to make their judgement were colours and symbols that appeared on the backs of the cards. When the target and competitor cues appeared on the same card blocking effects did not emerge, but when they appeared as part of different cards blocking effects were found. Thus, spatial separation of target and competitor cues appeared to facilitate blocking. Experiment 3 replicated the blocking result using spatially separated target and competitor cues.     

The comprehension and recall of similes as a function of context and cue

Participants read 56 sentence pairs and attempted to judge if the context sentence of each pair was related to the figurative message of the following simile. Reaction times and error rates both indicated that (a) participants could judge subject-related contexts more easily that predicate-related contexts, (b) they could judge irrelevant contexts more easily than misleading ones, and (c) these two effects were relatively independent of one another. The cued recall of similes previously paired with relevant or misleading contexts was affected by both a context effect (contexts containing a simile's predicate led to better recall than those containing its subject) and, even more strongly, a cuing effect (the simile's predicate was a better cue than its subject), whereas the cued recall of similes previously paired with irrelevant contexts was affected only by the context effect. In no case was there evidence of an interaction that would have indicated that a cue would be more potent if it referred to the same simile term as had the context.     

Influence of Response Similarity on Interference in Perceptual Motor Learning

Motor interference was measured in terms of average response time in sorting 15 pairs of cards, each pair containing words which were either unrelated or identical but printed in different colors. The two words of each pair were used in labeling two cubicles in such a way that they were apart by 0, 1, 2, or 3 intervening cubicles in quasirandomly chosen directions. Interference was inversely related to response similarity, but this relationship may not appear in the absence of sufficient stimulus similarity. The findings are interpreted in the light of a hypothesis which views motor interference as a tendency for responses to deflect from their own courses and be pulled towards those of other responses with which they are at conflict.