Experimental results of affective valence and arousal to avatar's facial expressions.

The objectives of this study were to propose a method of presenting dynamic facial expressions to experimental subjects, in order to investigate human perception of avatar's facial expressions of different levels of emotional intensity. The investigation concerned how perception varies according to the strength of facial expression, as well as according to an avatar's gender. To accomplish these goals, we generated a male and a female virtual avatar with five levels of intensity of happiness and anger using a morphing technique. We then recruited 16 normal healthy subjects and measured each subject's emotional reaction by scoring affective arousal and valence after showing them the avatar's face. Through this study, we were able to investigate human perceptual characteristics evoked by male and female avatars' graduated facial expressions of happiness and anger. In addition, we were able to identify that a virtual avatar's facial expression could affect human emotion in different ways according to the avatar's gender and the intensity of its facial expressions. However, we could also see that virtual faces have some limitations because they are not real, so subjects recognized the expressions well, but were not influenced to the same extent. Although a virtual avatar has some limitations in conveying its emotion using facial expressions, this study is significant in that it shows that a new potential exists to use or manipulate emotional intensity by controlling a virtual avatar's facial expression linearly using a morphing technique. Therefore, it is predicted that this technique may be used for assessing emotional characteristics of humans, and may be of particular benefit for work with people with emotional disorders through a presentation of dynamic expression of various emotional intensities.     

Memory markers: How consumers recall the duration of experiences

In the present article, we propose a three-stage memory marker model of memory for experience. The human mind generates and encodes “memory markers” of specific episodes, stores them in memory, and after a temporal delay retrieves these markers to reconstruct the experience and make relevant judgments. Rich experiences characterized by vivid stimuli seem to pass by quickly, yet feel longer when recalled after a period of time because the number of retrieved memory markers is large. We also examine situations in which key predictions of the memory marker model can be moderated. A field study and five laboratory experiments were conducted to test various aspects of the memory marker model and provide process support.     

An investigation of surface reconstruction from binocular disparity based on standard regularization theory: comparison between "membrane" and "thin-plate" potential energy models

Visible surfaces of three-dimensional objects are reconstructed from two-dimensional retinal images in the early stages of human visual processing. In the computational model of surface reconstruction based on the standard regularization theory, an energy function is minimized. Two types of model have been proposed, called "membrane" and "thin-plate" after their function formulas, in which the first or the second derivative of depth information is used. In this study, the threshold of surface reconstruction from binocular disparity was investigated using a sparse random dot stereogram, and the predictive accuracy of these models was evaluated. It was found that the thin-plate model reconstructed surfaces more accurately than the membrane model and showed good agreement with experimental results. The likelihood that these models imitate human processing of visual information is discussed in terms of the size of receptive fields in the visual pathways of the human cortex.     

汉字位置加工和词边界效应的认知机制

在中文阅读中, 为了进行词汇识别, 需要对汉字在词中的相对顺序进行加工, 即汉字位置加工。汉字位置加工是词汇识别和阅读理解的重要环节。如果汉字位置未得到加工, 可转置词将很难被区分。可转置词由相同汉字构成, 但每个汉字所处位置不同。以往研究发现, 词内汉字位置加工是比较灵活的; 而且词边界信息会影响汉字位置的加工, 即汉字位置加工存在词边界效应。该效应产生的原因及影响因素有哪些?本项目采用眼动追踪技术, 在自然阅读中系统探讨如下三个问题:(1)词的首/尾汉字如何调节汉字位置加工过程; (2)嵌套词和歧义词边界如何影响汉字位置加工; (3)语境合理性和预测性如何影响汉字位置加工的词边界效应。本项目将为首个中文汉字位置加工模型的建立提供数据支持和科学基础, 推进现有的中文词汇识别和词切分模型的进一步完善, 并为词汇的高效率教授与学习提供科学指导。     

航空模拟舱飞行行为的EPIC理论仿真

利用计算机技术,以执行过程交互控制(EPIC)理论框架为基础,建立了一个虚拟飞行员飞行过程的计算模型,并对人在复杂任务下的作业绩效进行了仿真。结果表明：(1)该研究在原有EPIC理论基础上发展的仿真模型合理可行;(2)仿真结果和实验结果拟合良好,模型具有良好的预测能力。该研究为以仿真方法研究复杂任务的心理过程提供了一次有益的尝试。     

Head and eye movements affect object processing in 4‐month‐old infants more than an artificial orientation cue

This study investigates the effects of attention‐guiding stimuli on 4‐month‐old infants' object processing. In the human head condition, infants saw a person turning her head and eye gaze towards or away from objects. When presented with the objects again, infants showed increased attention in terms of longer looking time measured by eye tracking and an increased Nc amplitude measured by event‐related potentials (ERP) for the previously uncued objects versus the cued objects. This suggests that the uncued objects were previously processed less effectively and appeared more novel to the infants. In a second condition, a car instead of a human head turned towards or away from objects. Eye‐tracking results did not reveal any significant difference in infants' looking time. ERPs indicated only a marginally significant effect in late slow‐wave activity associated with memory encoding for the uncued objects. We conclude that human head orientation and gaze direction affect infants' object‐directed attention, whereas movement and orientation of a car have only limited influence on infants' object processing.     

A technique for measuring processing load during speech production

A technique is presented for the measurement of fluctuations in processing demands during spontaneous speech. The technique consists of the analysis of errors on a secondary tracking task. Data are presented from illustrative samples of spontaneous speech; thus, evidence was found to suggest that one level of planning in speech is clauses that contain a single main verb. Evidence was also obtained that there is an increase in processing demands at the gap in subject relative and object relative clauses. It is concluded that the secondary tracking task is a useful technique that could be extended to studies of reading and speech comprehension.     

追踪手势对视空间学习的增强作用

本研究采用地图学习任务范式考察了追踪手势对视空间学习的影响和增强, 并试图从追踪手势的角度寻找能够有效促进操作者视空间学习的方法。实验1探究了产生追踪手势对视空间学习的增强作用; 实验2采用遮挡范式考察了产生追踪手势增强视空间学习的作用机制, 发现产生追踪手势所提供的视觉信息和感觉运动信息共同作用于视空间学习过程; 实验3从具身认知的视角探索了基于追踪手势的视空间学习增强方式, 发现以自我为参照产生追踪手势可以更好地增强个体的视空间学习。本研究结果很好地支持并补充了手势的具身认知理论。     

The effect of marker frequency disparity on the discrimination of gap duration in monkeys

Duration-discrimination thresholds of the silent interval (gap) between two successive tones (markers) were measured in four Japanese monkeys. The task was serial discrimination, and monkeys were required to release the lever when the gap duration decreased from 200 ms. Monkeys successfully acquired the task, and gap thresholds of monkeys were revealed to be larger than previous data with human subjects. Gap thresholds were not affected by marker frequency when the two markers were identical in frequency, though the thresholds increased when large frequency differences existed between markers. The effect of marker frequency disparity on gap thresholds in monkeys is discussed in terms of the difficulty in integrating information from discrete frequency channels.     

Movement of Pt markers in MgO during a solid-state reaction

The effectiveness of Pt in marking the initial location of heterophase boundaries between two reactants in a thin-film solid-state reaction is discussed. The Pt markers were produced by dewetting a continuous Pt film at elevated temperatures, thus forming an array of small isolated particles. These particles can then serve as fine-scale markers for tracking the motion of interfaces. The thin-film diffusion couples with Pt markers were used, in this study, to investigate the effect of an applied electric field on a spinel-forming reaction. The reacted diffusion couples with Pt markers were analysed using both transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Analysis of the diffusion couples showed that the Pt markers could be affected by, or themselves affect, the reaction process. The interface between the Pt marker and surrounding oxide matrix plays an important role in the reliability of Pt as an effective marker.     

Transverse diffusivity of cerebral parenchyma predicts visual tracking performance in relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis

This study investigated the relation between cerebral damage related to multiple sclerosis (MS) and cognitive decline as determined by two classical mental tracking tests. Cerebral damage in 15 relapsing–remitting MS patients was measured by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Fractional anisotropy, longitudinal and transverse diffusivity were defined in the cerebral parenchyma. Cognitive performance of the MS patients was assessed with the oral response format of the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) and the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). A significant correlation was found between performance on the SDMT and the fractional anisotropy in the brain. This correlation was predominantly induced by transverse diffusivity. Transverse diffusivity refers to the diffusion across fibers rather than along the fibers and is believed to be a specific marker for axonal loss and demyelination associated with MS. No significant association between DTI-measures and PASAT performance was found and this negative finding was mainly attributed to psychometric qualities. These results indicate that diffusivity along the non-principal diffusion direction, a possible signature of MS-related white matter pathology, contributes to information processing speed as measured with the SDMT, a task that requires close visual tracking and a widely used clinical marker for cognitive decline in MS.     

人声加工的神经机制

人声是人类听觉环境中最熟知和重要的声音, 传递着大量社会相关信息。与视觉人脸加工类似, 大脑对人声也有着特异性加工。研究者使用电生理、脑成像等手段找到了对人声有特异性反应的脑区, 即颞叶人声加工区(TVA), 并发现非人类动物也有类似的特异性加工区域。人声加工主要涉及言语、情绪和身份信息的加工, 分别对应于三条既相互独立又相互作用的神经通路。研究者提出了双通路模型、多阶段模型和整合模型分别对人声的言语、情绪和身份加工进行解释。未来研究需要进一步讨论人声加工的特异性能否由特定声学特征的选择性加工来解释, 并深入探究特殊人群(如自闭症和精神分裂症患者)的人声加工的神经机制。     

Intermittency in human manual tracking tasks

We confirm Craik's (1947) observation that the human manual1y tracking a visual target behaves like an intermittent servo-control1er. Such tracking responses are indicative of "sampled" negative-feedback control but could be the result of other, continuous, mechanisms. Tracking performance therefore was recorded in a task in which visual feedback of the position of the hand-held joystick could be eliminated. Depriving the subjects of visual feedback led to smoother tracking and greatly reduced the signal power of their responses between 0.5-1.8 Hz. Their responses remained intermittent when they used feedback of their own position but not of the target to track a remembered (virtual) target. Hence, intermittency in tracking behavior is not exclusively a signature of visual feedback control but also may be a sign of feedback to memorized waveforms. Craik's (1947) suggestion that the intermittency is due to a refractory period following each movement was also tested. The errors measured at the start of each intermittent response, during tracking of slow waveforms, showed evidence of a small error deadzone (measuring 0.7 cm on the VDU screen or 0.80 degrees at the eye). At higher target speeds, however, the mean size of starting errors increased, and the upper boundary of the distribution of starting error was close to that expected of a refractory delay of approximately 170 ms between responses. We consider a model of the control system that can fit these results by incorporating an error deadzone within a feedback control loop. We therefore propose that the initiation of intermittent tracking responses may be limited by a positional error deadzone and that evidence for a refractory period between successive corrective movements can be satisfied without evoking an explicit timing or sampling mechanism.     

Temporal discrimination as a function of marker duration

In a series of three experiments, the effect of marker duration on temporal discrimination was evaluated with empty auditory intervals bounded by markers ranging from 3 to 300 msec or presented as a gap within a continuous tone. As a measure of performance, difference thresholds in relation to a base duration of 50 msec were computed. Performance on temporal discrimination was significantly better with markers ranging from 3 to 150 msec than with markers ranging from 225 to 300 msec or under the gap condition. However, within each range of marker duration (3–150 msec; 225–300 msec or gap) performance did not differ significantly. A fourth experiment provided evidence that the effect of marker duration cannot be explained in terms of marker-induced masking. A good approximation of the relationship between marker duration and temporal discrimination performance in the present experiments is a smooth step function, which can account for 99.3% of the variance of mean discrimination performance. Thus, the findings of the present study point to the conclusion that two different mechanisms are used in the processing of temporal information, depending on the duration of the auditory markers. The tradeoff point for the hypothetical shift from one timing mechanism to the other may be found at a marker duration of approximately 200 msec.     

瞳孔是心灵的窗口吗?——瞳孔在心理学研究中的应用及测量

瞳孔大小是眼动研究中一个重要的参数指标, 在一定程度上能够反映人的心理活动并影响他人的心理与行为。一方面, 瞳孔变化受到自上而下的知觉与注意、情绪与动机、心理努力、社会认知与发展等因素的影响, 另一方面, 大瞳孔能引起他人更多的积极评价和积极行为。瞳孔的神经机制(蓝斑-去甲肾上腺素系统)和自适应增益理论解释了瞳孔与心理之间存在紧密联系的原因。瞳孔测量(pupillometry)作为一种有效的眼动追踪方法有助于理解瞳孔与心理的关系, 研究者在测量瞳孔时需要关注无关变量(如亮度、注视位置), 原始数据处理(如基线校正、眨眼处理)及瞳孔指标选取(如瞳孔直径、震颤频率)等问题, 未来研究应继续探讨瞳孔与其他心理之间的关系, 并探索更有效地处理和使用瞳孔指标的方法。     

A dynamic investigation of cognitive dedifferentiation with control for retest: evidence from the Swiss Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study on the Oldest Old

Empirical examinations of the hypothesis of dedifferentiation of cognitive abilities in old and very old age (a) do not account for possible retest effects, which consequently may yield biased estimates of age effects, and (b) focus on time-independent relations (e.g., number of latent constructs, correlations between latent or measured variables). The authors applied a structural equation model with statistical control for retest effects to investigate the dynamic relations between a marker of perceptual speed (cross out) and a marker of verbal fluency (category-fruits). Longitudinal data are from 5 waves of the Swiss Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study on the Oldest Old (N = 377, baseline age range = 79.5- 84.5 years). The authors found that, independently of retest effects, performance on the cross-out task affected changes in performance on the category task while the opposite did not hold true. This analytical technique could be applied to various markers of broad fluid-mechanic and broad crystallized-pragmatic components of cognition.     

Neurological basis of language and sequential cognition: evidence from simulation,aphasia, and ERP studies

The current research addresses the hypothesis that certain aspects of sequential cognition have made substantial contributions to the human language processing capability, from a functional neurophysiology perspective. We first describe a cognitive sequence processing model that was developed based on the functional neuroanatomy of primate cortex and basal ganglia. We demonstrate how this model is capable of simulating the behavior of human infants in extracting serial, temporal and abstract structure from language-like sound sequences as revealed in recent psycholinguistic experiments. We then demonstrate how, through training, this model can perform adult level syntactic comprehension, based on dissociated processing streams for open vs. closed class words. The model subsequently predicts: (1) that impaired syntactic processing (as in agrammatic aphasia) will be associated with impairments in corresponding non-linguistic cognitive sequencing tasks, and (2) that neurophysiological processes (as revealed by ERPs) involved in syntactic processing should also be involved in the corresponding non-linguistic cognitive sequencing tasks. Data confirming these predictions are reviewed. We conclude that the study of sequential cognition will provide a new paradigm for the investigation of the neurophysiological bases of language.     

Processing of visual illusions in the frequency and spatial domains

In the results we report here, complex periodic and aperiodic illusions are revealed by filtering with filters containing one or more straight edges. Positive definite filters are used both in the frequency domain and in the space domain to reveal each illusion. Rotating slit and half-plane filters are used in the frequency domain, while processing is done in the spatial domain by convolution with a rotating slit. These two schemes show similar results in revealing the illusory patterns. The implications for human visual processing are discussed.