Individual differences and the use of nonspecifying variables in learning to perceive distance and size: comments on McConnell, Muchisky, and Bingham (1998).

McConnell, Muchisky, and Bingham (1998) showed that observers are able to judge the distance and size of falling, rolling, and swinging balls and that performance improves after practice with feedback. They concluded that observers use information that specifies the spatial scales of the different event types--namely, event duration in combination with event-specific constants. The improvement was interpreted as the calibration of the event-specific constants. We argue that their analyses should have considered the use of optical variables that do not specify the to-be-perceived metrics and individual differences in variable use. Furthermore, we propose convergence on the more useful variables as an alternative explanation for the observed improvement. The viability of these arguments is demonstrated with an experiment in which participants are trained with feedback to judge the distance and size of freely falling balls.     

Individual differences and the use of nonspecifying variables in learning to perceive distance and size: Comments on McConnell, Muchisky, and Bingham (1998)

McConnell, Muchisky, and Bingham (1998) showed that observers are able to judge the distance and size of falling, rolling, and swinging balls and that performance improves after practice with feedback. They concluded that observers use information that specifies the spatial scales of the different event types—namely, event duration in combination with event-specific constants. The improvement was interpreted as the calibration of the event-specific constants. We argue that their analyses should have considered the use of optical variables that do not specify the to-be-perceived metrics and individual differences in variable use. Furthermore, we propose convergence on the more useful variables as an alternative explanation for the observed improvement. The viability of these arguments is demonstrated with an experiment in which participants are trained with feedback to judge the distance and size of freely falling balls.     

Crossmodal duration perception involves perceptual grouping, temporal ventriloquism, and variable internal clock rates

Here, we investigate how audiovisual context affects perceived event duration with experiments in which observers reported which of two stimuli they perceived as longer. Target events were visual and/or auditory and could be accompanied by nontargets in the other modality. Our results demonstrate that the temporal information conveyed by irrelevant sounds is automatically used when the brain estimates visual durations but that irrelevant visual information does not affect perceived auditory duration (Experiment 1). We further show that auditory influences on subjective visual durations occur only when the temporal characteristics of the stimuli promote perceptual grouping (Experiments 1 and 2). Placed in the context of scalar expectancy theory of time perception, our third and fourth experiments have the implication that audiovisual context can lead both to changes in the rate of an internal clock and to temporal ventriloquism-like effects on perceived on- and offsets. Finally, intramodal grouping of auditory stimuli diminished any crossmodal effects, suggesting a strong preference for intramodal over crossmodal perceptual grouping (Experiment 5).     

Spatial and temporal relations in conditioned reinforcement and observing behavior

In Experiment 1, depressing one perch produced stimuli indicating which of two keys, if pecked, could produce food (spatial information) and depressing the other perch produced stimuli indicating whether a variable-interval or an extinction schedule was operating (temporal information). The pigeons increased the time they spent depressing the perch that produced the temporal information but did not increase the time they spent depressing the perch that produced the spatial information. In Experiment 2, pigeons that were allowed to produce combined spatial and temporal information did not acquire the perch pressing any faster or maintain it at a higher level than pigeons allowed to produce only temporal information. Later, when perching produced only spatial information, the time spent depressing the perch eventually declined. The results are not those implied by the statement that information concerning biologically important events is reinforcing but are consistent with an interpretation in terms of the acquisition of reinforcing properties by a stimulus associated with a higher density of primary reinforcement.     

The way the ball bounces: visual and auditory perception of elasticity and control of the bounce pass

Human observers may perceive not only spatial and temporal dimensions of the environment, but also dynamic physical properties that are useful for the control of behavior. A study is presented in which visual and auditory perception of elasticity in bouncing objects, which was specified by kinematic (spatiotemporal) patterns of object motion, were examined. In experiment 1, observers could perceive the elasticity of a bouncing ball and were able to regulate the impulse applied to the ball in a bounce pass. In experiments 2 and 3, it was demonstrated that visual perception of elasticity was based on relative height information, when it was available, and on the duration of a single period under other conditions. Observers did not make effective use of velocity information. In experiment 4, visual and auditory period information were compared and equivalent performance in both modalities was found. The results are interpreted as support for the view that dynamic properties of environmental events are perceived by means of kinematic information.     

Memories of a bicycle tour

One person's memories of a 47-day bicycle tour of Scandinavia were tested 3–4 months later. The tests assessed frequency, spatial, and temporal knowledge of events. Results indicated that frequency judgements were based on some combination of counts of discrete event memories and a general impression of the tour. Episodic memories showed clear variation as a function of where events had occurred, and judged and actual locations of episodes were strongly related. In fact, knowledge of the week in which something had happened appeared to hinge on where in a sequence of locations it was thought to have taken place. The apparent dependence of temporal judgements on spatial information is consistent with other findings in the literature indicating that temporal memories about past events are derived from a variety of other associated information, much of which is temporally referenced.     

Using Personal Landmark Events Improves Judgments about Time,but not Contents,in Autobiographical Memory

Landmark events are strong memories that function as reference points for other memories. We examined whether people's accuracy in recalling when an earlier target event occurred was related to whether they spontaneously used personal landmark events or not. Participants completed two questionnaires separated by 2‐31 days. In the first, they described a personal event including what happened, who was there, where it was, and when it occurred. In the second questionnaire, they recalled the personal event and specific details. They also described whether they had used landmark events to assist their recall. Overall, participants' memories for temporal and content information faded over time. Spontaneous use of landmark events was associated with an increase in participants’ recall of temporal information but not content information. Analysis of the landmark events revealed that almost two‐thirds were significant events, such as birthdays, parties, and travel‐related events. Applications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

情境模型的更新：事件框架依赖假设的进一步证据

采用多指标探测范式, 从客体信息以及活动信息的角度出发, 考察事件框架内外时间、空间转换对情境模型更新的影响。结果发现：在事件框架内, 维度转换并不是情境模型更新的充分条件, 时间转换与终止的活动信息相结合引起情境模型的快速更新, 而空间转换与移除的客体信息相结合引起情境模型的快速更新; 在事件框架外, 维度转换是情境模型更新的充分条件, 维度转换会引起情境模型的更新。研究丰富了事件框架依赖假设。     

Commentary on Jacobs and Michaels (2001): Calibration and perceptual learning in event perception

Jacobs and Michaels (2001) have argued that increased precision in judgments of the viewing distance to a perceived event should be attributed in part to perceptual learning. They found that observers used feedback to attune to the appropriate information variables gradually. McConnell, Muchisky, and Bingham (1998) had found that observers used feedback to calibrate event-specific scaling coefficients, that the calibration of one type of event generalized to other types, and that calibration occurred suddenly. We argue that Jacobs and Michaels must be partially correct and that, in our experiments, both calibration and perceptual attunement were required for accurate and precise judgments.     

Commentary on Jacobs and Michaels (2001): calibration and perceptual learning in event perception.

Jacobs and Michaels (2001) have argued that increased precision in judgments of the viewing distance to a perceived event should be attributed in part to perceptual learning. They found that observers used feedback to attune to the appropriate information variables gradually. McConnell, Muchisky, and Bingham (1998) had found that observers used feedback to calibrate event-specific scaling coefficients, that the calibration of one type of event generalized to other types, and that calibration occurred suddenly. We argue that Jacobs and Michaels must be partially correct and that, in our experiments, both calibration and perceptual attunement were required for accurate and precise judgments.     

Constructing autobiographical events within a spatial or temporal context: a comparison of two targeted episodic induction techniques

ABSTRACT

Recalling and imagining autobiographical experiences involves constructing event representations within spatiotemporal contexts. We tested whether generating autobiographical events within a primarily spatial (where the event occurred) or temporal (the sequence of actions that occurred) context affected how the associated mental representation was constructed. We leveraged the well-validated episodic specificity induction (ESI) technique, known to influence the use of episodic processes on subsequent tasks, to develop variants that selectively enhance spatial or temporal processing. We tested the effects of these inductions on the details used to describe past and future autobiographical events. We first replicated the standard ESI effect, showing that ESI enhances generating episodic details, particularly those that are perception-based, when describing autobiographical events (Experiment 1). We then directly compared the effects of the spatial and temporal inductions (Experiment 2 and 3). When describing autobiographical events, spatial induction enhanced generating episodic details, specifically perception-based details, compared to the control or temporal inductions. A greater proportion of the episodic details generated after the temporal induction were gist-based than after the spatial induction, but this proportion did not differ from a control induction. Thus, using a spatial or temporal framework for autobiographical event generation alters the associated details that are accessed.     

Self-evaluative effects of temporal and social comparison

Social and temporal comparisons are two fundamental information sources for evaluating one’s characteristics and abilities. The current study demonstrates that when social comparison (where people’s performance stood in the overall distribution) and temporal comparison (whether performance improved or deteriorated over time) information are both provided, each independently influences actors’ self-evaluations of task performance and ability. In contrast, yoked observer participants paid virtually no attention to temporal comparison information, preferring to evaluate actors based solely on their status relative to others. Furthermore, when the feedback actors received suggested that they were getting worse, their self-evaluation ratings were approximately equal to that of the observers who had access to the same information. However, when their fortunes improved over time, actors used this temporal information as a basis for evaluating themselves more favorably than observers. We argue that both egocentrism and self-enhancement account for the differences between actors’ and observers’ performance evaluations.     

An empirical and computational investigation of perceiving and remembering event temporal relations

Events have beginnings, ends, and often overlap in time. A major question is how perceivers come to parse a stream of multimodal information into meaningful units and how different event boundaries may vary event processing. This work investigates the roles of these three types of event boundaries in constructing event temporal relations. Predictions were made based on how people would err according to the beginning state, end state, and overlap heuristic hypotheses. Participants viewed animated events that include all the logical possibilities of event temporal relations, and then made temporal relation judgments. The results showed that people make use of the overlap between events and take into account the ends and beginnings, but they weight ends more than beginnings. Neural network simulations showed a self-organized distinction when learning temporal relations between events with overlap versus those without.     

Pre-requisites for conscious awareness: clues from electrophysiological and behavioral studies of unilateral neglect patients

Encoding sensory events entails processing of several physical attributes. Is the processing of any of these attributes a pre-requisite of conscious awareness? This selective review examines a recent set of behavioral and event-related potentials, studies conducted in patients with visual and auditory unilateral neglect or extinction, with the aim of establishing what aspects of initial processing are impaired in these patients. These studies suggest that extinguished visual stimuli excite the sensory cortices, but perhaps to a lesser degree than acknowledged stimuli do. However, encoding spatial attributes of auditory and visual stimuli appear to be preferentially impaired. In light of results from patients with other neuro-behavioral deficits, it is argued that egocentric spatial information is an essential pre-requisite for knowing that an external event occurred. In contrast, information handled by mostly domain-specific circuits, such as in the ventral temporal lobe, supports awareness of the identity of a stimulus, but not of its mere presence. Without spatial information, the stimulus identity will remain implicit.     

Placing events in time: The role of autobiographical recollection

Episodic experience is argued to be rich in temporal information, but it remains unclear whether temporal information is directly coded in the event memory or is reconstructed at retrieval. The two experiments reported here emphasise the role of reconstructive processes of autobiographical context in establishing the date of memories. Younger and older participants were presented with famous public events, although only the latter had actually lived through them. Participants were asked to make forced-choice judgements about the date of the event and other event-related facts. Overall, while the older group showed better fact knowledge of the events, this did not translate into better dating performance. This older group showed similar dating performance across events with high and low factual knowledge. In contrast, the younger group's dating accuracy was determined by their level of knowledge. This suggests that older individuals who have direct episodic experience of an event may perform the task in a qualitatively different manner, eschewing semantic facts in favour of other sources of information. Crucially, this process does not appear to enhance performance. A second experiment addressed the issue of whether older participants date events based on general qualities of the event memory (e.g., vividness), the availability of other event-related semantic facts, or autobiographical context. It was found that the ability to place an event in autobiographical context is related to dating accuracy, but not to other aspects of memory.     

Placing events in time: the role of autobiographical recollection

Episodic experience is argued to be rich in temporal information, but it remains unclear whether temporal information is directly coded in the event memory or is reconstructed at retrieval. The two experiments reported here emphasise the role of reconstructive processes of autobiographical context in establishing the date of memories. Younger and older participants were presented with famous public events, although only the latter had actually lived through them. Participants were asked to make forced-choice judgements about the date of the event and other event-related facts. Overall, while the older group showed better fact knowledge of the events, this did not translate into better dating performance. This older group showed similar dating performance across events with high and low factual knowledge. In contrast, the younger group's dating accuracy was determined by their level of knowledge. This suggests that older individuals who have direct episodic experience of an event may perform the task in a qualitatively different manner, eschewing semantic facts in favour of other sources of information. Crucially, this process does not appear to enhance performance. A second experiment addressed the issue of whether older participants date events based on general qualities of the event memory (e.g., vividness), the availability of other event-related semantic facts, or autobiographical context. It was found that the ability to place an event in autobiographical context is related to dating accuracy, but not to other aspects of memory.     

情境模型中时间和空间维度更新的相互影响

运用移动窗口技术考察情境模型中时间和空间维度同时或序列转变时二者间的相互关系。结果发现：(1)时间和空间同时转变时, 二者存在易化关系, 但时间对空间的易化作用更大; (2)当二者序列转变时, 以中文为材料的结果只发现时间对空间的易化关系, 而以英语为材料的结果则发现存在双向易化关系, 但时间对空间的易化作用更大。据此, 情境模型中的时间和空间维度更新的捆绑－预期假设得到证明。     

Temporal references and temporal relations in sentence comprehension

The author investigated the interpretation of temporal references during comprehension of sentences containing a main and subordinate clause. Experiments 1 and 2 examined state and event subordinate clauses, respectively, and showed that subordinate temporal references overlapping with or close to the time of the main clause event were read faster than nonoverlapping distant references. Experiment 3 examined temporal references in nonsubordinate main clauses and confirmed that temporal relations between main and subordinate clauses were established on-line in the previous experiments. Experiment 4 independently manipulated temporal overlap and distance and suggested that event and state clauses are processed according to distinct temporal parameters. The results are explained by the contingency relations that events and states establish with other discourse events.     

Spatiotemporal integration and contour interpolation revealed by a dot localization task with serial presentation paradigm

The visual system seems to integrate information that is presented over time in a spatially fragmented fashion, with the result that observers are able to report the whole shape of objects. This research considers relations in space and time that allow the integrated percepts of complete objects. Specifically, temporal characteristics for spatiotemporal integration of illusory contour and spatial characteristics of interpolated contour are examined. A serial presentation paradigm and a dot localization task were used in two experiments; observers localized a probe dot relative to a perceived contour of an illusory object. Each of four inducing figures was briefly presented in a serial order to observers and the total time of the series was manipulated. In Experiment 1 short time ranges varied up to 180 ms, whereas longer times were examined in Experiment 2. Overall, the results demonstrate that a short time allows spatiotemporal integration, and that the perceived location of contour consistently shifts with time range. These experiments suggest that the mechanism of spatiotemporal integration operates on spatial integration as a limiting case.     

Discrimination of spatial and temporal intervals defined by three light flashes: Effects of spacing on temporal judgments and of timing on spatial judgments

Observers were presented stimulus patterns consisting of a sequence of three laterally displaced light flashes, which defined two spatial intervals and two temporal intervals. The position and time of the second flash were varied factorially, and observers were asked to make relative judgments of either the two spatial intervals or the two temporal intervals. “Induction” effects of stimulus timing on spatial judgments and of stimulus spacing on temporal judgments were both found; however, the directionality of these effects differed between subjects. The results are inconsistent with the hypothesis, derived from previous findings, that such effects are determined primarily by a tendency toward perceiving constant velocity of apparent motion; it is proposed that the directionality of the induction effects is determined largely by the strategy adopted by the observer for combining spatial and temporal stimulus information.