Process Dissociation Procedure: Double Dissociations Following Divided Attention and Speeded Responding

The validity of the process dissociation procedure was examined by manipulating attention and speed of responding in a recognition task. Both manipulations were expected to decrease the probability of controlled memory processes, c, while leaving the probability of automatic memory processes, a, unaffected. In order to estimate c and a, a multinomial processing tree modelwas fittedto the data.Contrary to expectation, a double dissociation (i.e.a decrease inc coupled with an increase in a) was obtained, suggesting that a does not accurately measure the probability of automatic processes. The results are discussed with reference to the independence assumption in the process dissociation procedure.     

广告频率和品牌成熟度对信息加工模式的影响

广告可以通过受众的自动化加工和控制性加工两条途径为品牌价值的建立作出贡献。该研究运用加工分离程序,探讨了在不同的呈现频率下,受众对不同成熟度商品的广告的信息加工模式。结果发现：(1)在非注意条件下,与新品牌相比,成熟品牌会引起更多的自动化加工,控制性加工在各种成熟度的商品之间差异不显著;(2)在低卷入学习状态下,重复既提高了广告的自动影响,也提高了控制性加工的影响。因此,重复播放是提高广告有效性的一条途径。     

Controlled recall of verbal material in temporal lobe epilepsy

This study used a guided process‐dissociation procedure to examine the contribution of controlled and automatic uses of memory to a cued‐recall task in 24 patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE: 12 left‐sided; 12 right‐sided), and 12 neurotypical controls. In an inclusion task, participants attempted to complete three‐letter word stems using previously studied words, in an exclusion task they aimed to avoid using studied words to complete stems. Patients with left TLE produced fewer target completions under inclusion conditions. Completion rates were not significantly different under exclusion conditions. Estimates derived from process dissociation calculations, confirmed that the cued‐recall deficit in left TLE patients arose entirely from impairment in controlled memory processes. There were no group differences in the estimates of automatic processes. Recognition judgements of stems corresponding to studied words did not differ between the groups. Overall the results support the view that controlled and automatic memory processes are mediated by separable neural systems. Hippocampal and related structures within the left MTL are more important than corresponding right hemisphere structures for the controlled retrieval of verbal material. In contrast, the findings from this study do not suggest that the left and right temporal lobes make a differential contribution to automatic memory processing. The theoretical and clinical relevance of these findings are discussed.     

Measuring automatic retrieval

A variety of procedures have been used to assess automatic retrieval effects on memory, including implicit memory tests and the process dissociation approach. Theoretical concerns with each are summarized prior to describing a procedure for evaluating automatic retrieval that is based on retrieval speed. Specifically, in a speeded implicit task, participants were encouraged to complete word stems using strictly automatic retrieval by presenting several practice test trials that did not allow responding based on previously studied items and by encouraging speed of responding. This speeded implicit task was compared with a condition in which conscious retrieval of studied information was not possible and a condition in which conscious retrieval was required, providing converging evidence to support the hypothesis that the speeded implicit procedure can yield pure estimates of automatic retrieval. Furthermore, evidence from a standard implicit memory task yielded comparable data that suggests that participants engaged automatic retrieval processes on this task also.     

A role for set in the control of automatic spatial response activation

Spatial stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility effects are widely assumed to reflect the automatic activation of a spatial response by the spatial attributes of a stimulus. The experiments reported here investigate the role of the participant's set in enabling or interacting with this putatively automatic spatial response activation. Participants performed a color discrimination task (Experiment 1) or a localization task (Experiment 2). In each experiment, two different S-R mappings were used and a task-cue indicated the appropriate mapping on each trial. S-R compatibility and the time between the task-cue and target were manipulated, and compatibility effects were assessed as a function of (a) the time between the task-cue and the stimulus, and (b) whether the S-R mapping repeated or switched on consecutive trials. Critically, whether response mappings repeated or switched on consecutive trials determined the relation between compatibility effects and the time between task-cue and stimulus. These results are discussed in terms of an interaction between automatic spatial response activation and the participant's set.     

Implicit proactive interference, age, and automatic versus controlled retrieval strategies

We assessed the extent to which implicit proactive interference results from automatic versus controlled retrieval among younger and older adults. During a study phase, targets (e.g., "ALLERGY") either were or were not preceded by nontarget competitors (e.g., "ANALOGY"). After a filled interval, the participants were asked to complete word fragments, some of which cued studied words (e.g., "A_L_ _GY"). Retrieval strategies were identified by the difference in response speed between a phase containing fragments that cued only new words and a phase that included a mix of fragments cuing old and new words. Previous results were replicated: Proactive interference was found in implicit memory, and the negative effects were greater for older than for younger adults. Novel findings demonstrate two retrieval processes that contribute to interference: an automatic one that is age invariant and a controlled process that can reduce the magnitude of the automatic interference effects. The controlled process, however, is used effectively only by younger adults. This pattern of findings potentially explains age differences in susceptibility to proactive interference.     

Evidence from a response choice task reveals a selection bias in the attentional cueing paradigm

In a typical attentional cueing paradigm, irrelevant peripheral cues produce early facilitation (fast responses) followed by later inhibition (slow responses) to cued locations. Here we examine whether cues not only influence the speed with which responses are produced, but also impact or bias which location is ultimately selected as requiring a response. Specifically, can cues influence not only the speed with which we respond but also influence the behavior produced? To examine this question, a choice localization task was used in which no targets were presented, and subjects were asked to choose which effector (left hand, right hand) to use in response to a centrally presented tone. Thus, following either a left or right peripheral cue, and then a central tone, subjects were free to respond with either their left or right hand. Early facilitation and later inhibition with this choice procedure were found in both response times and the proportion of responses to the cued and uncued locations. These results suggest that there are processes which initially bias response selection toward cued locations and then subsequently bias response selection away from cued locations.     

Top-down versus bottom-up: when instructions overcome automatic retrieval

Research on human action has extensively covered controlled and automatic processes in the transformation of stimulus information into motor action, and how conflict between both types of processes is solved. However, the question of how automatic stimulus–response (S–R) translation per se depends on top-down control states remains unanswered. The present study addressed this issue by manipulating top-down control state (instructed S–R mapping) and automatic bottom-up processing (retrieval of S–R memory traces) independently from each other. Using a color/shape task-switching paradigm, we compared cross-talk triggered by distractor stimuli, for which the instructed S–R mapping and the S–R associations compiled at the beginning of the experiment matched, with the cross-talk triggered by distractor stimuli, for which (re-)instructed mapping and compiled S–R associations did not match. We show that the latter distractors do not yield any cross-talk in RTs and even reversed cross-talk in error rates, demonstrating that automatic S–R retrieval is modulated by top-down control states.     

Automatic and controlled cognitive responses to intergroup threat as assessed using the process dissociation procedure: a study of a low-status group from China

Xiang, L. & Zhao, Y. (2012). Automatic and controlled cognitive responses to intergroup threat as assessed using the process dissociation procedure: A study of a low-status group from China. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 280-285. Explicit and implicit methods are typically employed to investigate the respective controlled and automatic cognitive responses to intergroup threat. However, these may not be "process pure" measures of automatic or controlled responses. The present study used the process dissociation procedure to investigate the relative contributions of automatic and controlled cognitive responses to intergroup threat. Following exposure to a threat/no threat manipulation, fifty Chinese rural undergraduates who were regarded as low-status group members completed a recognition memory task, in which they were asked to identify all or select "old" (previously presented) trait words relating to an urban outgroup. The results showed that compared to the non-threat group, when rural members perceived threat from an urban group, their automatic response was a decrease in favoritism for this outgroup, but was not derogative, whereas the controlled response was neither positive nor negative. These findings are inconsistent with previous research using explicit and implicit methods. The reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.     

Dimensional overlap: cognitive basis for stimulus-response compatibility--a model and taxonomy

The classic problem of stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility (SRC) is addressed. A cognitive model is proposed that views the stimulus and response sets in S-R ensembles as categories with dimensions that may or may not overlap. If they do overlap, the task may be compatible or incompatible, depending on the assigned S-R mapping. If they do not overlap, the task is noncompatible regardless of the assigned mapping. The overlapping dimensions may be relevant or not. The model provides a systematic account of SRC effects, a taxonomy of simple performance tasks that were hitherto thought to be unrelated, and suggestive parallels between these tasks and the experimental paradigms that have traditionally been used to study attentional, controlled, and automatic processes.     

A process-dissociation analysis of semantic illusions

We examine semantic illusions from a dual-process perspective according to which the processes that go into failing or succeeding to detect such illusions can be decomposed into controlled processes (checking the facts in the sentence against the information in memory) and automatic processes (the impression of truth that comes from the semantic associations between the elements in the sentence). These processes, we argue, make largely independent contributions to truth judgments about semantic-illusory sentences. The Process Dissociation Procedure was used to obtain estimates of these two kinds of processes. In Study 1, participants judged whether sentences were true or false while under high or low cognitive load. Cognitive load increased the rate of semantic illusions by specifically affecting controlled processing but not automatic processing. In Study 2, a previous paired-associate learning task also increased the rate of semantic illusions, but it did so by specifically affecting automatic processing, not controlled processing.     

Recognition memory and awareness: Occurrence of perceptual effects in remembering or in knowing depends on conscious resources at encoding, but not at retrieval

We report four experiments in which a remember-know paradigm was combined with a response deadline procedure in order to assess memory awareness in fast, as compared with slow,recognition judgments. In the experiments, we also investigated the perceptual effects of study-test congruence, either for picture size or for speaker's voice, following either full or divided attention at study. These perceptual effects occurred in remembering with full attention and in knowing with divided attention, but they were uninfluenced by recognition speed, indicating that their occurrence in remembering or knowing depends more on conscious resources at encoding than on those at retrieval. The results have implications for theoretical accounts of remembering and knowing that assume that remembering is more consciously controlled and effortful, whereas knowing is more automatic and faster.     

Process-dissociation procedure: a testable model for considering assumptions about the stochastic relation between consciously controlled and automatic processes

This paper presents an extension of the process-dissociation procedure with wordstem completion, which makes possible the measurement of the stochastic relationship between consciously controlled and automatic processes. By means of an indirect wordstem completion test, the conditional probabilities of conscious remembering with and without automatic processes can be successfully determined. A multinomial model for the evaluation of this extended process-dissociation procedure is presented. This model makes the distinction between voluntary and involuntary conscious memory processes possible and has been applied to two experiments discussed in this paper. The results show that the assumption of stochastic independence is often violated, albeit not as strongly as predicted by the redundancy or exclusivity model variants. Two conscious processes were found, voluntary and involuntary conscious memory processes, each with a different probability of occurrence.     

Effects of age and divided attention on memory components derived for the category exemplar generation task

Age differences in memory performances on a conceptually driven task, the category exemplar generation (CEG) test, were investigated. Thirty-six younger adults and 36 healthy older adults studied word lists in full and divided attention conditions. Recall was tested with category names. The process-dissociation procedure was used to derive estimates of controlled and automatic memory. Old-old adults (70-84 years) exhibited poorer conscious recollection than both younger (18-24) and young-old adults (59-69). In contrast, no age differences were found in estimates of automatic memory. For the younger and older adults, the divided encoding manipulation reduced both the consciously controlled and automatic estimates of memory. The results suggest that the few prior findings of age deficits in priming on the CEG may have been an artifact of contamination from conscious retrieval processes. They also indicate that the opportunity for greater semantic processing enhances the conceptual priming of both younger and older adults.     

Response preparation in Parkinson's disease: automatic vs. controlled processing

Using a finger cuing paradigm, we investigated response preparation in Parkinson's disease (PD). The central question was whether PD individuals are differentially affected by preparatory cues that specify a more automatic response set configuration (that induces within-hand preparation) as opposed to a more controlled one (that induces between-hands preparation). Reaction times (RTs) and error rates were measured in 20 non-demented individuals with PD and 20 healthy control participants with a long and short preparation interval (500 ms and 2000 ms). RT benefits and/or costs were measured for cues indicating a within- and between-hands motor preparatory set. Overall, RTs were significantly longer, and errors more frequent, for PD participants than for control participants. More importantly, in comparison with control subjects, PD individuals showed a significant deficit in between-hands preparation but not in within-hand preparation. Furthermore, longer preparation intervals slowed down cued RTs of the control participants, but not those of the PD individuals. Together, these findings suggest that whereas automatic response preparation processes are spared in PD, controlled response preparation processes operate at a slower rate and/or are delayed in time.     

The cognitive loci of the display and task-relevant set size effects on distractor interference: Evidence from a dual-task paradigm

The congruency effect of a task-irrelevant distractor has been found to be modulated by task-relevant set size and display set size. The present study used a psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm to examine the cognitive loci of the display set size effect (dilution effect) and the task-relevant set size effect (perceptual load effect) on distractor interference. A tone discrimination task (Task 1), in which a response was made to the pitch of the target tone, was followed by a letter discrimination task (Task 2) in which different types of visual target display were used. In Experiment 1, in which display set size was manipulated to examine the nature of the display set size effect on distractor interference in Task 2, the modulation of the congruency effect by display set size was observed at both short and long stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs), indicating that the display set size effect occurred after the target was selected for processing in the focused attention stage. In Experiment 2, in which task-relevant set size was manipulated to examine the nature of the task-relevant set size effect on distractor interference in Task 2, the effects of task-relevant set size increased with SOA, suggesting that the target selection efficiency in the preattentive stage was impaired with increasing task-relevant set size. These results suggest that display set size and task-relevant set size modulate distractor processing in different ways.     

Distinguishing automatic and controlled components of attitudes from direct and indirect measurement methods

Distinct automatic and controlled processes are presumed to influence social evaluation. Most empirical approaches examine automatic processes using indirect methods, and controlled processes using direct methods. We distinguished processes from measurement methods to test whether a process distinction is more useful than a measurement distinction for taxonomies of attitudes. Results from two studies suggest that automatic components of attitudes can be measured directly. Direct measures of automatic attitudes were reports of gut reactions (Study 1) and behavioral performance in a speeded self-report task (Study 2). Confirmatory factor analyses comparing two-factor models revealed better fits when self-reports of gut reactions and speeded self-reports shared a factor with automatic measures versus sharing a factor with controlled self-report measures. Thus, distinguishing attitudes by the processes they are presumed to measure (automatic versus controlled) is more meaningful than distinguishing based on the directness of measurement.     

The neural basis of cognitive control: Response selection and inhibition

The functional neuroanatomy of tasks that recruit different forms of response selection and inhibition has to our knowledge, never been directly addressed in a single fMRI study using similar stimulus–response paradigms where differences between scanning time and sequence, stimuli, and experimenter instructions were minimized. Twelve right-handed participants were scanned on two standard cognitive control tasks, a stimulus–response incompatibility task, and a response inhibition task. A compound trial design allowed comparison of preparing to inhibit an upcoming automatic response to wholly inhibiting an automatic response. Furthermore, inhibiting an automatic response to perform an alternative task-relevant response was compared to wholly inhibiting an automatic response. No differences were found in prefrontal activity when preparing to inhibit an automatic response was compared to wholly inhibiting an automatic response, suggesting a mostly common network. The left inferior frontal gyrus was found to be commonly recruited during both tasks when controlled responses were required, likely due to its role in response selection. In contrast, the right inferior frontal gyrus was found to be more involved when task demands were stronger for response inhibition. Our results are largely consistent with models of cognitive control that postulate that separate psychological constructs, such as response selection and inhibition, are related processes largely served by a common prefrontal network. This prefrontal network is recruited to a greater or lesser extent depending on specific task demands.     

Synchrony effects in automatic and controlled retrieval

Using a speeded retrieval procedure, we investigated time-of-day effects in automatic and controlled retrieval. Morning-type adults were tested at either peak (early morning) or off-peak (late afternoon) times on a speeded implicit (Experiment 1) or explicit (Experiment 2) stem completion task. In Experiment 1, retrieval strategies were identified by changes in response speed between a practice phase with rapid retrieval and an implicit memory test phase. Performance based on controlled retrieval (shown by slowdown participants) showed more priming at peak than at off-peak times of day, a finding confirmed in Experiment 2, in which the participants were given intentional retrieval instructions when the materials switched. In contrast, performance based on automatic retrieval (shown by nonslowdown participants) did not differ across peak and off-peak times. The finding suggests a robust synchrony effect in controlled retrieval, but not in automatic retrieval, which does not appear to vary across the day.     

Differential effects of aging on processes underlying task switching

In this study, we used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to examine the effects of aging on processes underlying task switching. The response time data revealed an age-related increase in mixing costs before controlling for general slowing and no effect of aging on switching costs. In the cue-locked epoch, the ERP data revealed little effect of age on the parietal P3 related to cue encoding, an age-related decrease in parietal activity related to cue retrieval, and an age-related increase in the amplitude of the parietal and frontal activity related to task set configuration and rule mapping. In the target-locked epoch, there was differential neural recruitment in younger and older adults in response to task mixing. These data are consistent with the idea that older adults may not fully implement task set before onset of the target stimulus.