Spatial legend compatibility within versus between graphs in multiple graph comprehension

Previous research has shown that spatial compatibility between the data region and the legend of a graph is beneficial for comprehension. However, in multiple graphs, data–legend compatibility can come at the cost of spatial between-graph legend incompatibility. Here we aimed at determining which type of compatibility is most important for performance: global (legend–legend) compatibility between graphs, or local (data–legend) compatibility within graphs. Additionally, a baseline condition (incompatible) was included. Participants chose one out of several line graphs from a multiple panel as the answer to a data-related question. Compatibility type and the number of graphs per panel were varied. Whereas Experiment 1 involved simple graphs with only two lines/legend entries within each graph, Experiment 2 explored more complex graphs. The results indicated that compatibility speeds up comprehension, at least when a certain threshold of graph complexity is exceeded. Furthermore, we found evidence for an advantage of local over global data–legend compatibility under specific conditions. Taken together, the results further support the idea that compatibility principles strongly determine the ease of integration processes in graph comprehension and should thus be considered in multiple-panel design.     

Effects of spatial compatibility on integration processes in graph comprehension

A precondition for efficiently understanding and memorizing graphs is the integration of all relevant graph elements and their meaning. In the present study, we analyzed integration processes by manipulating the spatial compatibility between elements in the data region and the legend. In Experiment 1, participants judged whether bar graphs depicting either statistical main effects or interactions correspond to previously presented statements. In Experiments 2 and 3, the same was tested with line graphs of varying complexity. In Experiment 4, participants memorized line graphs for a subsequent validation task. Throughout the experiments, eye movements were recorded. The results indicated that data-legend compatibility reduced the time needed to understand graphs, as well as the time needed to retrieve relevant graph information from memory. These advantages went hand in hand with a decrease of gaze transitions between the data region and the legend, indicating that data-legend compatibility decreases the difficulty of integration processes.     

Spatial compatibility interference effects: a double dissociation between two measures

ABSTRACT

In spatial compatibility tasks, when the spatial location of a stimulus is irrelevant it nevertheless interferes when a response is required in a different spatial location. For example, response with a left key-press is slowed when the stimulus is presented to the right as compared to the left side of a computer screen. However, in some conditions this interference effect is not detected in reaction time (RT) measures. It is typically assumed that the lack of effect means the irrelevant spatial code was not analysed or that the information rapidly decayed before response. However, we show that even in conditions where there appears to be no spatial interference when measuring RTs, effects can nevertheless be detected after response when recording facial electromyography responses. This dissociation between two measures highlights the importance of diverging methods to investigate visuomotor processes as conclusions based on only one measure can be misleading.     

Integration processes during frequency graph comprehension: Performance and eye movements while processing tree maps versus pie charts

Frequency graph types differ in the way how data are translated into visual representations. We compared 2 visualization methods, a traditional circular representation (pie chart) and a rectangular representation (constant column width tree map), which were hypothesized to differ regarding the cognitive ease of visual comparison processes. Performance was evaluated in tasks involving proportion and comparison judgments under both highly controlled and more realistic circumstances. The results showed performance benefits (in terms of reduced response times or error rates) for rectangular representations. Additional eye movement analyses revealed that this benefit was mainly due to a facilitation of scanning the graph for relevant information. The results suggest that facilitating comparison processes by representing the critical variable in less complex visual dimensions (i.e., straight length with constant orientation instead of surface area or curved length) eventually enhances the efficiency of integration processes during graph comprehension.     

Dichotic listening performance to CVs between versus within groups

The present study is concerned with comparing group mean data between groups with individual performance within groups in dichotic listening (DL). It is argued that only comparing mean ear performance in dichotic listening between groups may obscure important individual differences within groups in DL performance. In the present study we compared between group vs. within group performance in four groups of subjects (male and female, right- and left-handers). The stimuli were 66 trials of consonant-vowel combinations with the six stop-consonants and the vowels a and u. The results showed a group mean right ear advantage for consonants in the two right-handed groups, and a left-ear advantage in the two let-handed groups. The analysis of the individual distributions within each group, however, showed clear differences between the male and female groups. Generally, though, only the male right-handed group revealed enough homogeneity within the group to warrant the conclusion that the group mean REA reflects a left hemisphere specialization for speech perception.     

Correction to: The development of dynamic perceptual simulations during sentence comprehension

Cognitive Processing - A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-021-01027-4     

Correction to: Flourishing within the Working-Aged Finnish Population

Applied Research in Quality of Life - Figure 1 image of the original version contained a mistake by having two charts with the same data.     

Speech versus sign comprehension in autistic children: analysis and prediction

Autistic children have severe problems in acquiring language. For this reason, special techniques have been developed to teach them speech and sign language. It is not known, however, whether these children will profit more from speech or sign training. The research literature implies that verbal imitative ability may predict language learning characteristics particularly in the speech modality. In view of this possibility, two groups of autistic children--good versus poor verbal imitators--were studied within the context of a receptive label acquisition task. Good imitators acquired receptive speech whereas poor imitators typically did not. Both groups acquired receptive signs. The results were discussed in terms of the role that imitative ability may play with respect to language acquisition in this population.     

听障儿童错误信念理解与谎言理解的关系：情绪理解的调节作用

本研究主要探讨听障儿童自我/他人错误信念理解与谎言理解各层面的关系,以及情绪理解在其中的调节作用。实验1采用错误信念理解和谎言理解来探讨自我/他人错误信念理解与谎言理解各层面的关系。实验2增加了情绪理解任务,并探讨情绪理解在错误信念理解和谎言理解之间关系的机制。结果发现：（1）听障儿童他人错误信念理解、真假信息辨别、谎言意图理解的正确率显著不如典型发展儿童,且他人错误信念理解越好,越容易进行真假信息辨别和谎言意图理解;（2）典型发展儿童自我/他人错误信念理解越准确,谎言意图理解越好;（3）当听障儿童情绪理解得分较高时,自我/他人错误信念理解对谎言行为判断具有正向预测作用;（4）典型发展儿童情绪理解得分较高时,自我错误信念理解对真假信息辨别有正向预测作用,他人错误信念理解对谎言行为判断、真假信息辨别有正向预测作用。这些研究结果不仅表明听障儿童他人错误信念理解对谎言理解具有解释作用,而且表明高情绪理解在谎言理解中有促进作用以及表明高情绪理解在对错误信念理解与谎言理解中的调节作用更加显著。     

Dividing attention within and between hemispheres: testing a multiple resources approach to limited-capacity information processing

Two experiments tested the limiting case of a multiple resources approach to resource allocation in information processing. In this framework, the left and right hemispheres are assumed to have separate, limited-capacity pools of undifferentiated resources that are not mutually accessible, so that tasks can overlap in their demand for these resources either completely, partially, or not at all. We tested all three degrees of overlap in demand for left hemisphere supplies, using dual-task methodology in which subjects were induced to pay different amounts of attention to each task. Experiment 1 compared complete and partial overlap by combining a verbal memory load with a task in which subjects named nonsense syllables briefly presented to either the left or right visual field (LVF and RVF, respectively). Experiment 2 compared complete versus no overlap by using the same verbal memory load combined with a laterally presented same-different judgment task that did not require a spoken response. Decrements from single-task performance were always more severe when the visual field task stimulus was presented to the RVF. Further, subjects in Experiment 1 were able to trade performance between tasks on both LVF and RVF trials because there was always at least some overlap in left hemisphere demand. In Experiment 2, performance trade-offs were observed on RVF (complete overlap) trials, but not on LVF trials, where no overlap in demand existed. These results contradict a single-capacity model, but they support the idea that the hemispheres' resource supplies are independent and have implications for both cerebral specialization and divided attention issues.     

Reading and listening comprehension in Broca's aphasia: Lexical versus syntactical errors

Ten agrammatic Broca's aphasics were presented with a series of four picture plates together with a spoken or written sentence stimulus. All sentence stimuli were of the structure, the + N + is/are + V + ing + the + N. The four pictures on each stimulus plate represented (a) the correct response, (b) a reversal of the stimulus sentence subject and object, (c) a change in the number of the subject of the stimulus sentence, and (d) a change in one of the major lexical items of the stimulus sentence. Subjects selected the correct picture most often. When they erred, they usually selected a subject-object reversal. Number errors were less frequent, and the patients seldom selected a change in major lexical item. This pattern occurred with both written and spoken sentences. These results were interpreted as reflecting the dependence of agrammatic Broca's aphasics on the semantic interpretation of the lexicon for decoding sentences in the face of deficits in syntactical-grammatical interpretation, irrespective of comprehension modality.     

Correction to: Variations on intra-theoretical logical pluralism: internal versus external consequence

Philosophical Studies - In the original publication of the article, in Definition 4, the sixth line which reads as     

Spontaneous versus instructed use of multiple standards for evaluating comprehension: Effects of age,reading proficiency,and type of standard

Nine- and eleven-year-old children differing in reading proficiency read and commented on brief expository passages containing three different types of embedded problems (nonsense words, prior knowledge violations, and internal inconsistencies). Half of the children were specifically instructed as to the types of standards they should apply in order to detect the problems (lexical, external consistency, and internal consistency); the remaining children were simply instructed to look for problems. Both quantitative and qualitative differences in standard use were revealed by the children's comments about all parts of the passages. Older and better readers used more different standards and they used them more frequently than younger and poorer readers. The lexical standard was more likely to be adopted spontaneously than the other two standards and it was the only standard used by a substantial proportion of both younger and poorer readers. Finally, the consistent effects of instruction type indicate that children's evaluation activities were strongly influenced by the amount of guidance received.     

Correction to: Distinguishing volumetric content from perceptual presence within a predictive processing framework

The original version of this article unfortunately has missing statement in the Acknowledgments section.     

An eye-tracking investigation into readers' sensitivity to actual versus expected utility in the comprehension of conditionals

The successful comprehension of a utility conditional (i.e., an “if p, then q” statement where p and/or q is valued by one or more agents) requires the construction of a mental representation of the situation described by that conditional and integration of this representation with prior context. In an eye-tracking experiment, we examined the time course of integrating conditional utility information into the broader discourse model. Specifically, the experiment determined whether readers were sensitive, during rapid heuristic processing, to the congruency between the utility of the consequent clause of a conditional (positive or negative) and a reader's subjective expectations based on prior context. On a number of eye-tracking measures we found that readers were sensitive to conditional utility—conditionals for which the consequent utility mismatched the utility that would be anticipated on the basis of prior context resulted in processing disruption. Crucially, this sensitivity emerged on measures that are accepted to indicate early processing within the language comprehension system and suggests that the evaluation of a conditional's utility informs the early stages of conditional processing.     

Auditory word comprehension impairment in acute stroke: relative contribution of phonemic versus semantic factors

Auditory word comprehension was assessed in a series of 289 acute left hemisphere stroke patients. Participants decided whether an auditorily presented word matched a picture. On different trials, words were presented with a matching picture, a semantic foil, or a phonemic foil. Participants had significantly more trouble with semantic foils across all levels of impairment.     

Spatial compatibility effects in the writing page: A comparison of left-handed inverters and noninverters

In recent contribution, Moscovitch and Smith (1979) and Smith and Moscovitch (1979) reported that left-handed inverters responded faster, using one hand, to target stimuli presented in the contralateral, rather than ipsilateral, visual field. Moscovitch and Smith attributed this finding to an anomaly in the visual or visuomotor neurological organization of inverters. The present experiment was an attempt to replicate the Moscovitch and Smith result with the purpose of questioning the validity of their neurological account. Therefore quite a similar visual RT paradigm was used in left-handed inverters and noninverters, but the form of the response was changed. The subjects responded to the stimuli with a stylus contact, made with their left dominant hand, on an A4-format sheet of metal, in well-contrasted conditions of inverted and noninverted writing posture. Both groups, in either condition, displayed faster RTs for stimuli presented in the visual field ipsilateral to their responding hand. In addition, this visual field effect strongly interacted with the lateral position of the response-stylus on the page, despite the fact that this position was varied between trials. The present experiment shows that the Moscovitch and Smith result is not reliable. It also demonstrates that spatial S-R compatibility effects may arise in tasks not involving a choice between concurrent response locations.     

Looking to understand: the coupling between speakers' and listeners' eye movements and its relationship to discourse comprehension

We investigated the coupling between a speaker's and a listener's eye movements. Some participants talked extemporaneously about a television show whose cast members they were viewing on a screen in front of them. Later, other participants listened to these monologues while viewing the same screen. Eye movements were recorded for all speakers and listeners. According to cross-recurrence analysis, a listener's eye movements most closely matched a speaker's eye movements at a delay of 2 sec. Indeed, the more closely a listener's eye movements were coupled with a speaker's, the better the listener did on a comprehension test. In a second experiment, low-level visual cues were used to manipulate the listeners' eye movements, and these, in turn, influenced their latencies to comprehension questions. Just as eye movements reflect the mental state of an individual, the coupling between a speaker's and a listener's eye movements reflects the success of their communication.     

Correction to: Safety in Sosa

Synthese - Shortly after the publication of this paper, I had the opportunity to discuss related issues with Thomas Grundmann, who convinced me that the final section contains a demonstrable mistake.     

Learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli: Variations within and between displays

Pigeons were exposed to stimuli differing in orientation. Some birds received both horizontal and vertical on every trial; others received two horizontals on some trials and two verticals on other trials. These stimuli were irrelevant, i.e., did not predict reliably the availability of reinforcement. When required to learn a discrimination between horizontal and vertical, the birds that had experienced the stimulus variation within each display learned more slowly. This was true whether the test problem was a simultaneous or a successive discrimination. It is argued that this result implies that animals will actively learn to ignore stimuli that are irrelevant.