Conflicts between expected and actually performed behavior lead to verbal report of incidentally acquired sequential knowledge

According to the Unexpected-Event Hypothesis (UEH) (Frensch, Haider, Rünger, Neugebauer, Voigt & Werg, 2002), conflicts between expected and actually performed behaviors trigger attribution processes and ultimately lead to the ability to verbally report an incidentally experienced sequential regularity. In two experiments, we manipulated the likelihood that a specific conflict, a premature response, occurred in a sequential version of the Number Reduction Task (NRT). Experiment 1 demonstrated that a longer RSI leads to a larger number of premature responses and to more verbal report than a shorter RSI. However, this effect of the RSI on verbal report was removed when participants were discouraged from emitting premature responses. Experiment 2 revealed that artificially inducing premature responses leads to an increase in verbal report, but only when premature responses are introduced late in training. Overall, the findings strongly support the assumptions of the UEH.     

Using fMRI to study recovery from acquired dysphasia

We have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to characterize brain activations associated with two distinct language tasks performed by a 28-year-old woman after partial recovery from dysphasia due to a left frontal hemispheric ischemic stroke. MRI showed that her ischemic lesion extended posteriorly from the left inferior frontal to the perisylvian cortex. fMRI scans of both language tasks revealed substantial differences in activation pattern relative to controls. The nature of this difference was task-specific. During performance of a verbal semantic decision task, the patient, in contrast to controls, activated a network of brain areas that excluded the inferior frontal gyrus (in either hemisphere). A second task involving rhyme judgment was designed to place a heavier cognitive load on language production processes and activated the left inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's area) strongly in normal controls. During this task, the most prominent frontal activation in the patient occurred in the right homologue of Broca's area. Subsequent analysis of this data by methods able to deal with responses of changing amplitude revealed additional, less sustained recruitment by the patient of cortex adjacent to the infarct in the region inferior to Broca's area during rhyming. These results suggest that in addition to changes in cognitive strategy, recovery from dysphasia could be mediated by both the preservation of neuronal networks in and around the infarct and the use of homologous regions in the contralateral hemisphere.     

Masking disrupts recovery of location information

In two experiments, we tested subjects’ ability to localize a letter in a character string with identification controlled by varying the delay of a mask, dimming the display, or deleting some of the dots used to define the letters on the cathode-ray screen. The first experiment involved two tasks. In the first task, subjects indicated whether or not a letter named verbally had been present in an eight-letter target string. In the second task, they localized a letter named verbally in the target string; the target string was presented by using display parameters shown in the first task to hold character identification between 70% and 75% correct. In the second experiment, we tallied errors in a partial-report bar-probe study after equating performance across the manipulations of display quality. Masking disrupted subjects’ ability to recover location information more than either a manipulation of stimulus luminance or a manipulation of its visual form.     

Multidimensional scaling of nominal data: The recovery of metric information with alscal

Multidimensional scaling has recently been enhanced so that data defined at only the nominal level of measurement can be analyzed. The efficacy of ALSCAL, an individual differences multidimensional scaling program which can analyze data defined at the nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio levels of measurement, is the subject of this paper. A Monte Carlo study is presented which indicates that (a) if we know the correct level of measurement then ALSCAL can be used to recover the metric information presumed to underlie the data; and that (b) if we do not know the correct level of measurement then ALSCAL can be used to determine the correct level and to recover the underlying metric structure. This study also indicates, however, that with nominal data ALSCAL is quite likely to obtain solutions which are not globally optimal, and that in these cases the recovery of metric structure is quite poor. A second study is presented which isolates the potential cause of these problems and forms the basis for a suggested modification of the ALSCAL algorithm which should reduce the frequency of locally optimal solutions.     

位置和轨迹信息在短暂消失目标复原过程中的作用

研究发现在多目标追踪任务中,即使视野中的所有物体同时消失长达几百毫秒,被试也能成功地完成追踪任务。Horowitz等（2006）认为这种能力主要是依靠把刺激消失时的目标信息保存在一种离线存储（off-line memory）记忆当中。这样,当刺激再现时,被试就可以把当前画面与存储的内容进行比较来区分目标和非目标。本研究的目的在于探讨目标位置、运动轨迹等信息在目标复原过程中的作用。结果发现：(1) 目标再现位置与消失位置相同时,被试的成绩最好,这说明在目标复原过程中利用了基于位置匹配的策略。(2)当目标再现位置与其消失前的运动方向一致或位于其消失前的运动轨迹上时,成绩较对照条件（目标再现于运动轨迹的法线方向）要好,这说明被试能够利用目标运动的轨迹和方向等信息。（3）当追踪的目标数量增加时,目标运动轨迹和方向等信息在复原过程中的相对作用下降,且被试只能利用1~2个目标的轨迹和运动方向信息     

Effects of context-induced processing operations on semantic information acquired from discourse

Effects of context on processes involved in understanding discourse were investigated. An experimental context designed to directly affect discourse processing by inducing subjects to generate inferences involving text content was compared to a context in which subjects simply listened to and recalled the content of a text. The extent of inferential discourse processing was estimated from derived semantic information in subjects' text recalls. The experimental context produced effects on inferred and other derived information in subjects' text recalls which were predicted from a constructive model of discourse processing. Also consistent with this model, the amount of derived information increased with repeated exposures to the text. In a third condition, subjects repeatedly listened to the text in the experimental context, but only recalled it once on the last trial. The context produced very substantial effects on proportions of derived information under this condition. Context effects were still present one week later.     

Narratives of trauma,recovery, and growth: The complex role of sport following permanent acquired disability

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to explore how participation in sport may assist an individual in working through experiences of physical trauma.DesignAn instrumental, collective case study was used to illustrate the experiences of two men with acquired disabilities.MethodBoth men participated in sport at a high level and suggested that participation was a central feature of their recovery from trauma. Interviews invited participants to describe their lives pre-trauma, the trauma experience, and the recovery process. A narrative analysis was used to focus on the progression of the plot outlined in each participant's story.ResultsOur results exemplify two narrative types: assimilation and positive accommodation. The narrative of positive accommodation demonstrates how sport provided mastery experiences, enhanced relationships, corporeal understanding and enhanced life philosophies. The alternative narrative of assimilation was associated with resilience to trauma. Our case illustrates that such a narrative may be focused on re-capturing previous life meanings and creating an athletic identity using past definitions of sport.ConclusionWhile the narrative of positive accommodation is most frequently associated with posttraumatic growth, our case outlines the occurrence of synchronous positive and negative experiences, even within the same dimensions of growth. The narrative of assimilation demonstrates the challenges presented by the rehabilitation and sporting environments for an individual who aimed to restore their pre-trauma self and pre-trauma beliefs.     

Social and affective impairments are important recovery after acquired stroke in childhood

Despite a congenital stroke, overall intelligence at school age is generally within the normal range. Language acquisition problems are more prominent when children are younger (<5 years of age) than when they are older. They are present after both right and left lesions, but appear to have different features. They are less apparent than in the child with a developmental language disorder. Acquired aphasia in childhood results in subtle and often persisting deficits. Children with congenital strokes are at risk for behavioral and psychiatric problems. Those with congenital right hemisphere strokes appear to be more difficult infants, but there is no clear side of lesion effect in older children. Children with congenital right hemisphere strokes have more prominent spatial difficulties than their left lesion counterparts. Evaluating both the process and the product highlights this. Increasing the difficulty of the task often brings out deficits in the right lesion group even when they seemingly recovered.     

The role of location and motion information in the tracking and recovery of moving objects

Observers in a multiple object tracking task can track about four to five independently moving targets among several moving distractors, even if all of the stimuli disappear for a 300-msec gap. How observers reacquire targets following such a gap reveals what kind of information they can maintain for targets. Previous research has suggested that participants maintain minimal information about a set of moving objects--namely, just their present spatial locations. We report five new experiments that demonstrate retention of location information for at least four objects, and extrapolated motion information for around two objects.     

The recall of stereotypes: the effects of incidentally activated directed forgetting instructions

Based on the automotive model (J. A. Bargh, 1990) and the directed forgetting paradigm, the present study investigated whether incidentally activated forget and remember cues can lead to similar effects as explicitly given instructions. To this end, the present paper attempted to replicate the findings of Macrae, Bodenhausen, Milne, and Ford (1997) employing their category primes (child abuser, neutral), study lists (List 1, List 2), and procedure. Using explicit directed forgetting instructions, Experiment 1 showed that the recall of the stereotypically relevant words (List 1) was higher when participants were given a remember than a forget instruction. This effect was found regardless of the prime conditions. Similarly, Experiment 2 showed that participants in the child abuser and neutral prime conditions recalled more stereotypically relevant words (List 1) when they were implicitly cued to remember than to forget these words. Experiment 3 showed that cognitively busy participants in the child-abuser, but not in the neutral prime condition, recalled more to-be-forgotten stereotypical words than nonbusy participants. These results are consistent with Macrae et al. s findings, and show that the effects of directed forgetting instructions are similar regardless of whether they were given explicitly or were activated incidentally. Results are discussed in relation to stereotype maintenance.     

The facilitating effect of verbalization on the recognition memory of incidentally learned faces

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that requiring people to verbally describe a target face from memory facilitates their subsequent recognition when their memory for the target is poor and interferes with recognition when such memory is strong. In Experiment 1, a target face was presented to participants for 30 s or 100 s under a nominal task instruction, and they incidentally familiarized themselves with it. Verbalization increased the rate of correct recognition only when the target was presented for 30 s and the performance of control participants was poor. In Experiment 2, participants observed a target without instruction for intentional learning or other nominal instruction, in a more ecologically valid context. Recognition performance was poor for control participants and verbalization increased the rate of correct recognition. These results appear to support the hypothesis. The implications for the identification of persons by eyewitnesses are discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A case of acquired aphasia and convulsive disorder: some linguistic aspects of recovery and breakdown

Among the cases of acquired aphasia and convulsive disorder several children are reported to have experienced more than one aphasic period. We present such a case in more detail, with emphasis on some characteristics of spontaneous speech. The occurrence of paraphasias, and in particular of neologisms, appeared to be associated with language recovery and breakdown. At the beginning of the period of recovery, a rapid and total disappearance of neologisms was observed, while only literal paraphasias remained. A period of language breakdown was preceded by the return of neologisms. The process was not influenced by drug therapy.     

The representational bias of acquired memory processes

The notion that some memory processes are acquired has been around for at least two thousand years. However, acquired memory processes have been made the object of scientific investigation in only the past two decades. Traditionally, psychologists have assumed that acquired memory processes are equally effective across the entire range of memory tasks. This article reviews research that has investigated whether these processes are equally effective across tasks or are more effective for just certain tasks. The review indicates that most, if not all, acquired memory processes are biased to deal effectively just certain kinds of mental representation. The article proposes that these processes are representationally biased because (1) they activate basic memory processes (e.g. imagery, rehearsal) which themselves are biased to process certain representational attributes and because (2) their use of basic processes follows a sequence required by particular memory tasks. Increased understanding of the representational bias of acquired processes may be seen to enable better control of memory performance and to foster more powerful investigations of memory phenomena.     

Examining the durability of incidentally learned trust from gaze cues

In everyday interactions we find our attention follows the eye gaze of faces around us. As this cueing is so powerful and difficult to inhibit, gaze can therefore be used to facilitate or disrupt visual processing of the environment, and when we experience this we infer information about the trustworthiness of the cueing face. However, to date no studies have investigated how long these impressions last. To explore this we used a gaze-cueing paradigm where faces consistently demonstrated either valid or invalid cueing behaviours. Previous experiments show that valid faces are subsequently rated as more trustworthy than invalid faces. We replicate this effect (Experiment 1) and then include a brief interference task in Experiment 2 between gaze cueing and trustworthiness rating, which weakens but does not completely eliminate the effect. In Experiment 3, we explore whether greater familiarity with the faces improves the durability of trust learning and find that the effect is more resilient with familiar faces. Finally, in Experiment 4, we push this further and show that evidence of trust learning can be seen up to an hour after cueing has ended. Taken together, our results suggest that incidentally learned trust can be durable, especially for faces that deceive.     

Word associations are formed incidentally during sentential semantic integration

Sentential context facilitates the incidental formation of word associations (e.g., Prior, A., & Bentin, S. (2003). Incidental formation of episodic associations: the importance of sentential context. Memory and Cognition, 31(2), 306-316). The present study explored the mechanism of this effect. In two experiments, unrelated word pairs were embedded in coherent or semantically anomalous sentences. Anomalous sentences included either a local or a global anomaly. During an incidental study phase, participants performed a sentence categorization task. The strength of the incidental associations formed between two nouns jointly appearing in a sentence was probed by gauging their influence on subsequent paired-associate learning and cued recall in Experiment 1, and by assessing their associative priming effect in a subsequent unexpected explicit recognition test for single words in Experiment 2. In both experiments, significant associative memory was found for noun pairs studied in coherent sentences but not for those appearing in anomalous sentences, regardless of anomaly type. In a sentence rating task, global anomalies yielded less plausible sentences than local anomalies, however both types of anomalies were equally detrimental to the sentence integration process. We suggest that sentence constituents are incidentally associated during sentence processing, particularly as a result of sentence integration and the consolidation of a mental model.     

The mental representation of knowledge acquired from maps

Recognition priming and distance estimation were used to investigate the mental representation of knowledge acquired from maps. In Experiment 1, recognition priming showed that cities close in route distance primed each other more than cities far in route distance, even when Euclidean distance was equated. Experiment 2 showed that this finding was robust and not an artifact of the way subjects learned the maps. Distance estimations in Experiment 1 supported the priming results. These results indicated that psychological distance in cognitive maps is primarily dependent on route distance rather than Euclidean distance.