Hemispheric asymmetries in the perception of musical intervals as a function of musical experience and family handedness background

This study examines the effect of musical experience and family handedness background on the categorization of musical intervals (two-note chords). Right-handed subjects, who were divided into four groups on the basis of musical training and presence (or absence) of left-handed family members, categorized musical intervals which were monaurally presented to left or right ear. The results, based on consistency and discreteness of categorization, showed: (1) Musicians' performance is superior to nonmusicians'; (2) musicians and nonmusicians differ significantly on their ear of preference; (3) family handedness background significantly affects ear of preference among musicians but not among nonmusicians.     

Effects of eye movements on the recognition and localization of dichotic stimuli

Three experiments examined the effect of gaze shifts on overall performance and ear differences in dichotic listening. In the first two experiments, lights were switched on and off so as to induce rightward, leftward, or upward gaze during dichotic stimulation. The dichotic material consisted of musical passages in Experiment 1 and two kinds of verbal material in Experiment 2. Vertical eye movements enhanced the accuracy of identification of music but not verbal material. The lateral direction of eye movements affected subjects' ability to localize targets in Experiment 1: localization was more accurate in the direction toward which subjects were looking. In the third experiment it was found that optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) influenced the asymmetry of performance on a dichotic consonant-vowel (CV) test. The right-ear advantage was greatest when the OKN drum rotated from left to right and least when it rotated from right to left. The effect was due to corresponding variation in left-ear scores. Possible mechanisms through which shifts of gaze affect auditory identification and localization are proposed.     

The investigation of ear asymmetry by simple and disjunctive reaction-time tasks

In a disjunctive reaction-time task in which Ss responded to clicks presented to one ear while white noise was presented to the other, RT was significantly faster to stimuli presented to the left ear than to the right ear. In a simple reaction-time task, using the same stimuli. there was no difference in R T to stimuli presented to right or left ear. The results were discussed in relation to functional asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres. and were taken to support a perceptual interpretation of the ear asymmetry effect.     

Electrographic correlates of lateral asymmetry in the processing of verbal and nonverbal auditory stimuli

A veraged evoked potentials (AEP) to verbal (digits) and nonverbal (clicks) auditory stimuli were recorded from left and right temporal leads in ten right-handed Ss. With dichotic presentation, there was no significant difference in accuracy of report of the clicks heard in each ear, but significantly more digits were identified correctly from the right ear than from the left. Dichotic verbal stimuli elicited AEP whose early components were of greater amplitude, and whose later components were of shorter latency, from the left hemisphere than from the right. No consistent latency or amplitude differences were observed between AEP from the left and right hemispheres when clicks were presented dichotically.     

言语编码和视空编码在时间—空间联结中的作用

时间和空间存在反应编码联合效应（spatial—temporal association of response codes effect, STEARC）,该效应的编码是视觉空间性还是言语性还存在争议。本研究借鉴Georges（2015）的研究方式,以2秒内的时距为刺激,实验1采用言语反应和空间反应,词语和空间与时距的关系分为一致和不一致。结果发现言语反应时,短时距用“左边”反应快,长时距用“右边”反应快,空间反应时,时距和空间的一致性效应消失,表明言语编码参与两种反应形式的STEARC效应。实验2将词语改为箭头朝向（视觉编码条件）,发现视觉编码和空间编码存在于相对应的反应形式中。研究表明时空关系的编码形式与具体任务要求有关。     

Right hemisphere comprehension of verbs in patients with complete forebrain commissurotomy: Use of the dichotic method and manual performance

The paradigm of dichotic listening was used to investigate verbal comprehension in the right, so-called “nonverbal,” hemisphere. Verbal commands were presented to the right and left ears in the simultaneous (dichotic) paradigm. There were striking instances, especially when the left hemisphere was occupied with some extraneous task, in which the right hemisphere understood the verbal command and executed the appropriate motor responses. In those instances the left hemisphere gave no overt response. Although the left hemisphere was usually dominant, it can be nevertheless concluded that not only can the right hemisphere understand verbal commands but can also express itself manually by executing actions more complex than object retrieval or pointing. As has been known for some time, the blockage of the ipsilateral pathway seems so complete during dichotic listening in the commissurotomy patient that there is no report of the words in the left ear—only of those presented to the right. At the same time there is normal report when words are presented to the left ear alone. It was found in the present study, however, that this model is too simple and only applies to the verbal response paradigm of dichotic listening. Under circumstances of dichotic presentation where the stimulus in the left ear (ipsilateral pathway) is necessary or important to the left hemisphere for completing a task, words from both pathways are reported. One may conclude that there exists a gating mechanism in each hemisphere that controls the monitoring of each auditory pathway and the degree of ipsilateral suppression.     

Lateralization of lexical codes in auditory word recognition

Three experiments examined the lateralization of lexical codes in auditory word recognition. In Experiment 1 a word rhyming with a binaurally presented cue word was detected faster when the cue and target were spelled similarly than when they were spelled differently. This orthography effect was larger when the target was presented to the right ear than when it was presented to the left ear. Experiment 2 replicated the interaction between ear of presentation and orthography effect when the cue and target were spoken in different voices. In Experiment 3, subjects made lexical decisions to pairs of stimuli presented to the left or the right ear. Lexical decision times and the amount of facilitation which obtained when the target stimuli were semantically related words did not differ as a function of ear of presentation. The results suggest that the semantic, phonological, and orthographic codes for a word are represented in each hemisphere; however, orthographic and phonological representations are integrated only in the left hemisphere.     

The abstraction of musical ideas

Music presents information both sequentially, in the form of musical phrases, and simultaneously, in the form of chord structure. The ability to abstract musical structure presented sequentially and simultaneously was investigated using modified versions of the Bransford and Franks’ (1971) paradigm. Listeners heard subsets of musical ideas. The abstraction hypothesis predicted (1) false recognition of novel instances of the abstracted musical idea, (2) confidence of “recognition” should increase as recognition items approximate the complete musical idea, (3) correct rejection of “noncases,” which deviate from the acquired musical structure. Experiment 1 investigated sequential abstraction by using four-phrase folk melodies as musical ideas. Predictions 1 and 3 were confirmed, but the false recognition rate decreased as the number of phrases increased. Listeners were sensitive to improper combinations of phrases and to novel melodies different from melodies presented during acquisition. Experiment 2 investigated simultaneous abstraction using four-voice Bach chorales as musical ideas. Listeners spontaneously integrated choral subsets into holistic musical ideas. Musically trained listeners were better than naive listeners at identifying noncases.     

模拟网络信息主动增加特征的决策过程研究

与传统信息不同,网络信息具有可以主动增加的互动特征,本研究探讨这种特征对网络情境下决策加工过程的影响。通过改进的信息板技术追踪决策过程。实验一设置可否“主动增加信息”两种情境进行对照研究,发现引入主动增加功能后被试的搜索深度降低,先前知识的水平影响信息加工的模式;实验二设置可以连续要求增加信息的连续任务,比较不同的增加路径和选择阶段的影响,发现被试的搜索深度逐步降低,更多采用非补偿性的策略。两个实验均有超过半数的被试要求增加信息,连续任务有着32%的回头率,研究者推论在信息不断增加的情况下,被试的信息搜索行为更具选择性。     

Priming the mental time-line: effects of modality and processing mode

The notion of a mental time-line (i.e., past corresponds to left and future corresponds to right) supports the conceptual metaphor view assuming that abstract concepts like “time” are grounded in cognitively more accessible concepts like “space.” In five experiments, we further investigated the relationship between temporal and spatial representations and examined whether or not the spatial correspondents of time are unintentionally activated. We employed a priming paradigm, in which visual or auditory prime words (i.e., temporal adverbs such as yesterday, tomorrow) preceded a colored square. In all experiments, participants discriminated the color of this square by responding with the left or the right hand. Although the temporal reference of the priming adverb was task irrelevant in Experiment 1, visually presented primes facilitated responses to the square in correspondence with the direction of the mental time-line. This priming effect was absent in Experiments 2, 3, and 5, in which the primes were presented auditorily and the temporal reference of the words could be ignored. The effect, however, emerged when attention was oriented to the temporal content of the auditory prime words in Experiment 4. The results suggest that task demands differentially modulate the activation of the mental time-line within the visual and auditory modality and support a flexible association between conceptual codes.     

Right hemisphere superiority in processing new symbols for arithmetic operators

A left ear advantage for solving dichotically-presented arithmetic problems was observed in subjects when nonsense words were substituted for familiar operator names (“plus”, “minus”, etc.). The expected right ear advantage was observed when the same problems were solved by the same subjects when the familiar operator names were presented. Since neither the task nor the nonsense words could produce the left ear advantage by themselves, it is hypothesized that introduction of the nonsense symbols created a novel situation which recruited greater functional participation by the right cerebral hemisphere. Accommodating to new symbols for previously assimilated concepts is a common demand in the learning process of formal systems. Thus, the functions of the left and right hemispheres appear to take interactive roles during learning.     

Hemisphere differences in an auditory Stroop test

In an auditory Stroop test, right-handed subjects were required to judge the pitch of the following stimuli: two pure tones, one at a high frequency and one at a low frequency; two congruent words, “high,” sung at the high frequency, and “low,” sung at the low frequency; and two noncongruent words, “high” at low frequency and “low” at high frequency. A sequence of these stimuli was presented monaurally first to one ear, and then to the other. The Stroop effect (the difference between mean RT to congruent words, and mean RT to noncongruent words) was larger for right ear (left hemisphere) presentation. The same experiment was repeated dichotically with a competing message presented to the opposite ear. Again, the Stroop effect was larger for the right ear, and the ear differences were slightly more marked. The result is interpreted as reflecting hemispheric specialization for linguistic and nonlinguistic processing and a model of Stroop conflict in which response competition varies with the relative availability of the conflicting response.

     

Advice conditionals about tips and warnings: interpretations and inferences

Two experiments examine how people interpret and reason about advice conditionals, such as tips, for example, “if you study more your grades will improve”, and warnings, for example, “if you stop exercising you will gain weight”. Experiment 1 showed that when participants reason about whether a tip or warning could be true in different situations, their judgments correspond to a biconditional or conditional interpretation on about half of all trials, but to an enabling or tautology interpretation on many others. Experiment 2 showed that participants make few modus ponens and tollens inferences from tips and warnings, and more modus ponens inferences from tips than warnings. The implications for alternative theories are discussed.     

Spatial and temporal separation fails to counteract the effects of low prevalence in visual search

Recent research has shown that, in visual search, participants can miss 30–40% of targets when they only appear rarely (i.e., on 1–2% of trials). Low target prevalence alters the behaviour of the searcher. It can lead participants to quit their search prematurely (Wolfe, Horowitz, & Kenner, 2005), to shift their decision criteria (Wolfe et al., 2007), and/or to make motor or response errors (Fleck & Mitroff, 2007). In this paper we examine whether the low prevalence (LP) effect can be ameliorated if we split the search set in two, spreading the task out over space and/or time. Observers searched for the letter “T” among “L”s. In Experiment 1, the left or right half of the display was presented to the participants before the second half. In Experiment 2, items were spatially intermixed but half of the items were presented first, followed by the second half. Experiment 3 followed the methods of Experiment 2 but allowed observers to correct perceived errors. All three experiments produced robust LP effects with higher errors at 2% prevalence than at 50% prevalence. Dividing up the display had no beneficial effect on errors. The opportunity to correct errors reduced but did not eliminate the LP effect. Low prevalence continues to elevate errors even when observers are forced to slow down and permitted to correct errors.     

Hemispheric asymmetry in memory search for four-letter names and human faces

Two memory search experiments were conducted using vertically oriented four-letter names and human faces as stimuli. Subjects were required to indicate as quickly and as accurately as possible whether or not a single probe stimulus (presented for 150 msec to either the left or right visual field) was contained in a set of 2, 3, 4, or 5 items being held in short-term memory. The probe stimuli were presented alone (clear condition) or centrally embedded in a matrix of dots (degraded condition). In Experiment 1 (involving names), a right visual field/left hemisphere advantage was obtained and pinpointed at the encoding stage rather than at the memory comparison stage of the information-processing system. For Experiment 2 (involving human faces), no hemispheric advantage was readily observed. In each experiment, both the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere employed an abstract memory comparison operation from which the effects of probe degradation have been removed. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for various models of hemispheric asymmetry.     

产品空间位置、价格音节长度对消费者价格感知的影响

本研究采用实验法考察了视听单通道及双通道下产品空间位置与价格音节长度对消费者价格感知的潜在影响。结果发现,呈现在空间右侧以及以较长音节播放的产品使得被试的价格感知升高;短音节条件下,个体对空间右侧产品的价格感知显著高于空间左侧,长音节条件下两侧则无显著差异;相对于单通道刺激呈现,视听通道呈现信息一致时出现信息冗余效应,个体判断的速度更快,验证了共激活模型假设,视听不一致条件下的速度降低则支持了预测编码模型。     

产品空间位置、价格音节长度对消费者价格感知的影响

本研究采用实验法考察了视听单通道及双通道下产品空间位置与价格音节长度对消费者价格感知的潜在影响。结果发现,呈现在空间右侧以及以较长音节播放的产品使得被试的价格感知升高;短音节条件下,个体对空间右侧产品的价格感知显著高于空间左侧,长音节条件下两侧则无显著差异;相对于单通道刺激呈现,视听通道呈现信息一致时出现信息冗余效应,个体判断的速度更快,验证了共激活模型假设,视听不一致条件下的速度降低则支持了预测编码模型。     

Effects of chlorpromazine on lateralization,cued reaction time,and dichotic listening

In a double-blind cross-over design sixteen subjects took 50 mg of chlorpromazine or placebo in tablet form 2 hours prior to completing a dichotic listening and simple reaction time task with and without warnings. In the simple reaction time task, blocks of 80 stimuli were presented to each ear with and without warning cue under drug and placebo conditions. On the dichotic listening task the expected right ear advantage for reporting digits was obtained. While the drug had no main effect on the number of errors, there were more trials on which an ear advantage was present than in the placebo condition. In the reaction time task there were main effects of drug, warning cue and foreperiod: warnings facilitated reaction; chlorpromazine retarded reaction; and reaction times were most facilitated by warning foreperiods in excess of 1200ms. Several findings were of interest: On uncued trials, with placebo, right ear responses were faster than those for stimuli presented to the left ear. Drug also interacted with foreperiod duration. These results were interpreted in the light of Tucker and Williamson’s (1984) review of the role of Pribram and McGuinness’s Arousal and Activation sytems in lateralized behavior.     

Effects of chlorpromazine on lateralization, cued reaction time, and dichotic listening

In a double-blind cross-over design sixteen subjects took 50 mg of chlorpromazine or placebo in tablet form 2 hours prior to completing a dichotic listening and simple reaction time task with and without warnings. In the simple reaction time task, blocks of 80 stimuli were presented to each ear with and without warning cue under drug and placebo conditions. On the dichotic listening task the expected right ear advantage for reporting digits was obtained. While the drug had no main effect on the number of errors, there were more trials on which an ear advantage was present than in the placebo condition. In the reaction time task there were main effects of drug, warning cue and foreperiod: warnings facilitated reaction; chlorpromazine retarded reaction; and reaction times were most facilitated by warning foreperiods in excess of 1200ms. Several findings were of interest: On uncued trials, with placebo, right ear responses were faster than those for stimuli presented to the left ear. Drug also interacted with foreperiod duration. These results were interpreted in the light of Tucker and Williamson’s (1984) review of the role of Pribram and McGuinness’s Arousal and Activation sytems in lateralized behavior.     

Repetition effects in directed forgetting: evidence for retrieval inhibition

Four experiments were conducted in support of a role for memory retrieval inhibition in directed forgetting. In each experiment, subjects were presented a list of words, some of which they were instructed to remember and some of which they were instructed to forget. After a recall test for all the words, the list was repeated. This time, however, all the words were presented with instructions that they be remembered. The improvement in recall from Trial 1 to Trial 2 was greater for the “forget” (F) words than for the “remember” (R) words. This difference was not due to a memorization-difficulty, item-selection effect (Experiment 2), a differential priority for rehearsal or output position given to the F items on Trial 2 (Experiment 3), or the greater number of F items left to be learned after Trial 1 (Experiment 4). Thus, the differential improvement from List 1 to List 2 for the F items was interpreted as a release of retrieval inhibition owing to the change in cue from forget to remember.