Temporal characteristics of visual memory

In order to infer the temporal relations among iconic, short-term, and long-term components of visual memory, random dot patterns were used as memory stimuli in six recognition memory experiments. Experiment 1 demonstrated that recognition was still above chance for intervals up to 12 s. In Experiments 2 and 3, an intervening masking stimulus was found to be effective only if presented within the first 500 ms of the interval. The remaining three experiments employed a two-target task, with the second target replacing the masking stimulus. Recognition performance with the second target was the same as that in a single-target task, whereas performance with the first target was almost at chance level. Increasing the interval between the targets resulted in a gradual improvement in the recognition of the first target.     

回溯式时间记忆特点的实验研究

实验研究在2个月的时间内探索了回溯式时间记忆的特点,实验选取15个影视片断和8个新闻事件,影视片段播放的时间和新闻事件的发生同期,要求被试回忆影视片段和新闻事件的时点、时距和时序。结果表明：（1）在时序上,影视片段时序的准确性高于新闻事件;在时距上,7分钟和15分钟的准确性高于30分钟,7分钟时距倾向于高估,30分钟时距倾向于低估;在时点上,影视片段的准确性高于新闻事件。（2）时点的回溯式记忆受到被试自我卷入程度的影响。（3）回溯式时距估计受到真实时距的长短和延迟时间长短的交互影响。（4）事件序列关系一般倾向于具有网络层次的特征,在无充足思考时间条件下,倾向于具有线形模型的特征。     

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.     

Characteristics of proper names and temporal memory of social news events

Long-term memory of social news events was investigated by means of a questionnaire methodology with a large sample of participants. In Experiment 1, a total of 501 university students were asked to give proper names (i.e., persons and places) that related to a certain news event, and to estimate the date of the event. The accuracy of proper names (especially person names) was superior to that of estimated date (i.e., year). In addition, telescoping effects were found in the events that occurred more than 3 years ago, but time expansion effects emerged in the events that occurred less than 2 years ago. In Experiment 2, in which 182 students participated, the accuracy of proper names and the date estimates tended to be high on the events that participants judged to be given frequent exposure by the mass media. Based on these results, we discuss long-term memory and temporal schemata regarding social news events.     

Characteristics of proper names and temporal memory of social news events

Long-term memory of social news events was investigated by means of a questionnaire methodology with a large sample of participants. In Experiment 1, a total of 501 university students were asked to give proper names (i.e., persons and places) that related to a certain news event, and to estimate the date of the event. The accuracy of proper names (especially person names) was superior to that of estimated date (i.e., year). In addition, telescoping effects were found in the events that occurred more than 3 years ago, but time expansion effects emerged in the events that occurred less than 2 years ago. In Experiment 2, in which 182 students participated, the accuracy of proper names and the date estimates tended to be high on the events that participants judged to be given frequent exposure by the mass media. Based on these results, we discuss long-term memory and temporal schemata regarding social news events.     

Reconstructive memory in the dating of personal and public news events

Two experiments investigated memory for the dates of events selected and recorded by subjects in diaries. In Experiment 1, personal events and public news events were compared, with retention time varying from 1 week up to 9 months. It was found that the day of the week was more accurately identified for personal events than for news events, that day-of-the-week (DOW) accuracy did not decrease with increasing retention time, and that memory of the personal context of both event types was more important for DOW accuracy than was memory of the core of the events. These results support our view that memory of the day of the week is mainly reconstructed by reference to a temporal week schema based on personal experiences, and that the relation of news events to the week schema is mediated by memory of personal context. The distribution of DOW errors was modeled as the outcome of a process of guessing constrained by subdivisions of the week schema, without assuming any special temporal memory trace. In Experiment 2, the model was shown to fit independently collected data from a different subject pool and country equally well.     

Learning and discrimination of audiovisual events in human infants: the hierarchical relation between intersensory temporal synchrony and rhythmic pattern cues

This study examined 4- to 10-month-old infants' perception of audio-visual (A-V) temporal synchrony cues in the presence or absence of rhythmic pattern cues. Experiment 1 established that infants of all ages could successfully discriminate between two different audiovisual rhythmic events. Experiment 2 showed that only 10-month-old infants detected a desynchronization of the auditory and visual components of a rhythmical event. Experiment 3 showed that 4- to 8-month-old infants could detect A-V desynchronization but only when the audiovisual event was nonrhythmic. These results show that initially in development infants attend to the overall temporal structure of rhythmic audiovisual events but that later in development they become capable of perceiving the embedded intersensory temporal synchrony relations as well.     

时间顺序与时间距离对语言理解的影响:进一步的证据

探讨时间顺序和时间距离对语言理解的影响,包括2个实验.实验采用关系再认范式(relation-recognition paradigm)和句子-探测再认范式(sentence-probe-recognition paradigm).实验一探讨探讨在简单句条件下,时间顺序对不同频率事件理解的作用;实验二探讨在复句条件下时间顺序与时间距离对语言理解的影响.2个实验结果一致表明,在语言理解过程中,存在对将来取向(顺时序)的事件进行优先加工处理.时间距离对语言理解的影响取决于不同时距的事件能否整合成情景模型.     

Evidence for a confidence–accuracy relationship in memory for same- and cross-race faces

Discrimination accuracy is usually higher for same- than for cross-race faces, a phenomenon known as the cross-race effect (CRE). According to prior research, the CRE occurs because memories for same- and cross-race faces rely on qualitatively different processes. However, according to a continuous dual-process model of recognition memory, memories that rely on qualitatively different processes do not differ in recognition accuracy when confidence is equated. Thus, although there are differences in overall same- and cross-race discrimination accuracy, confidence-specific accuracy (i.e., recognition accuracy at a particular level of confidence) may not differ. We analysed datasets from four recognition memory studies on same- and cross-race faces to test this hypothesis. Confidence ratings reliably predicted recognition accuracy when performance was above chance levels (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) but not when performance was at chance levels (Experiment 4). Furthermore, at each level of confidence, confidence-specific accuracy for same- and cross-race faces did not significantly differ when overall performance was above chance levels (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) but significantly differed when overall performance was at chance levels (Experiment 4). Thus, under certain conditions, high-confidence same-race and cross-race identifications may be equally reliable.     

公众时间回溯式记忆的特点

采用事后回溯设计,考察了大学生公众时间回溯式记忆的特点。研究选取1995到2001年之间发生可辨别的新闻事件14项,要求被试对新闻事件的时序、时点和时距进行回忆。结果表明：（1）公众事件回溯式时点记忆的正确率随时间的远近发生变化,较远的时间回忆正确率低,而较近的时间回忆正确率较高,存在近因效应。（2）公众事件的回溯式时距估计受真实时距的影响,短时距容易被高估,长时距容易被低估。（3）公众事件的回溯式时序回忆存在近因效应和首因效应,被试对发生较远的事件总是倾向于估计得更远,对发生较近的事件也倾向于估计得较近。而对两者中间的事件的顺序估计较为混乱。（4）本实验研究的公众事件回溯式时间记忆符合时间的重构理论和分段综合模型。     

Infants' intermodal perception of two levels of temporal structure in natural events

Infants' intermodal perception of two levels of temporal structure uniting the visual and acoustic stimulation from natural, complex events was investigated in four experiments. Films depicting a single object (single, large marble) and a compound object (group of smaller marbles) colliding against a surface in an erratic pattern were presented to infants between 3 and months of age using an intermodal preference and search method. These stimulus events portrayed two levels of invariant temporal structure: (a) temporal synchrony united the sights and sounds of object impact, and (b) temporal microstructure, the internal temporal structure of each impact sound and motion, specified the composition of the object (single vs. compound). Experiment 1 demonstrated that by 6 months infants detected a relation between the audible and visible stimulation from these events when both levels of invariant temporal structure guided their intermodal exploration. Experiment 2 revealed that by 6 months infants detected the bimodal temporal microstructure specifying object composition. They looked predominantly to the film whose natural soundtrack was played even though the motions of objects in both films were synchronized with the soundtrack. Experiment 3 assessed infants' sensitivity to temporal synchrony relations. Two films depicting objects of the same composition were presented while the motions of only one of them was synchronized with the appropriate soundtrack. Both 6-month-olds showed evidence of detecting temporal synchrony relations under some conditions. Experiment 4 examined how temporal synchrony and temporal microstructure interact in directing intermodal exploration. The natural soundtrack to one of the objects was played out-of-synchrony with the motions of both. In contrast with the results of Experiment 2, infants at 6 months showed no evidence of detecting a relationship between the film and its appropriate soundtrack. This suggests that the temporal asynchrony disrupted their detection of the temporal microstructure specifying object composition. Results of these studies support on invariant-detection view of the development of intermodal perception.     

The generation of temporal and melodic expectancies during musical listening

When listening to a melody, we are often able to anticipate not onlywhat tonal intervals will occur next but alsowhen in time these will appear. The experiments reported here were carried out to investigate what types of structural relations support the generation of temporal expectancies in the context of a melody recognition task. The strategy was to present subjects with a set of folk tunes in which temporal accents (i.e., notes with a prolonged duration) always occurred in the first half of a melody, so that expectancies, if generated, could carry over to an isochronous sequence of notes in the latter half ofthe melody. The ability to detect deviant pitch changes in the final variation as a function of rhythmic context was then evaluated. Accuracy and reaction time data from Experiment 1 indicated that expectancy formation jointly depends on an invariant periodicity of temporal accentuation and the attentional highlighting ofcertain melodic relations (i.e., phrase ending points). In Experiment 2, once these joint expectancies were generated, the temporal dimension had a greater facilitating effectupon melody recognition than did the melodic one. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for the perceptual processing of musical events.     

时间维度在记叙文理解中的作用

采用事件分割范式探讨了中文条件下时间维度在记叙文理解中的作用。实验1在中文条件下重复了Speer和Zacks(2005)年的研究,结果发现读者更多将时间短语所在位置作为分割边界,表明时间转换在情景模型更新中发挥了重要作用。实验2探讨了在没有时间短语条件下读者对文本分割的情况,结果发现读者主要是按照事件单元进行分割;实验3a和3b在文本的事件单元中插入时间短语,形成时间转换与事件转换分离的条件,探讨读者在这种时间转换与事件单元转换不一致的条件下所采用的分割策略,结果表明,读者更多仍然按照事件单元转换进行分割,而且对事件单元转换的依赖强于时间转换,但同时时间短语仍对文本的分割有一定影响。上述结果表明,事件单元作为建构记叙文心理表征的核心单元,时间维度作为事件单元转换的线索,只有在标识事件转换的情况下,才能引发读者情景模型的更新。     

Determinants of spatial priming in environmental memory

Spatial priming in recognizing objects in experimentally learned environments has been proposed as strong evidence for spatial organization of environmental memory. However, in all studies showing recognition priming effects, encoding and rehearsal contiguity may have coincided with spatial proximity, and thus priming may have been due to temporal associations formed during rehearsal, not encoded spatial relations per se. We investigated this question in four experiments, using a trip trial learning method in which temporal contiguity and spatial relations were independent. In Experiment 1, no spatial priming in recognition was found, even though indirect evidence suggested that subjects had encoded spatial relations. In Experiment 2, the trip trial method was compared with the free study procedure commonly used in previous priming studies. Spatial priming occurred only for free study subjects, even though the two groups were equivalent on direct measures of encoding accuracy. In Experiment 3, spatial priming in recognition was obtained with a modification of the trip trial method in which temporal and spatial contiguity were deliberately confounded. In Experiment 4, the unmodified trip trial method produced spatial priming in a location-decision task. Taken together, our results suggest that environmental memory may be spatially organized, but retrieval of object identities does not necessarily activate encoded spatial relations.     

Development of infants’ intuitions about support relations: sensitivity to stability

Can infants perceive stability when a supported box is put on a supporting box in a balanced position? In Experiment 1, 41 infants saw three events. In a stable event, the supported box was put on a wide supporting box in a balanced position. In an unstable event, the supported box was put on a narrow supporting box in a balanced position. In an impossible event, the supported box was put on the extreme end of a wide supporting box. Infants 4 to 6.5 months old looked equally at all three events. Infants 6.5 to 10 months old looked slightly longer at the impossible event than at the other events. Infants 10 to 13 months old looked reliably longer at the unstable and impossible events than at the stable event. The results of Experiment 2 indicate that these differences in looking times did not come from differences in stimulus configurations between the events. These results suggest that infants above 10 months old are sensitive to stability of support relations.     

Rhesus monkeys (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Macaca mulatta</Emphasis>) remember agency information from past events and integrate this knowledge with spatial and temporal features in working memory

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether rhesus monkeys remember information about their own agency—along with spatial, temporal and contextual properties—from a previously experienced event. In Experiment 1, rhesus monkeys (n = 4) used symbols to reliably indicate whether they had performed or observed an event on a computer screen. In Experiment 2, naïve and experienced monkeys (n = 8) reported agency information when stringent controls for perceptual and proprioceptive cues were included. In Experiment 3, five of the monkeys completed a task in which they reported agency information along with spatial and temporal features of events. Two monkeys performed this agency discrimination when they could not anticipate which memory test they would receive. There was also evidence that these features were integrated in memory. Implications of this research are discussed in relation to working memory, episodic memory and self-awareness in nonhuman animals.     

Automaintenance,contrast, and contingencies: Effects of local vs. overall and prior vs. impending reinforcement context

The pigeon's keypeck was investigated in a variety of multiple schedules of response-independent or -dependent reinforcement. Experiments 1 and 2 found that keypecking developed to a reinforcement-associated cue that signaled an increase in local rate of reinforcement, but signaled either no change or a decrease in the overall rate of reinforcement, defined as that prevailing in the cue's absence. In Experiment 3 a greater rate of responding to a target stimulus was observed when it was preceded by a second signal—associated with the same, or a lower, rate of reinforcement—and followed by extinction than when this temporal sequence was reversed. In Experiment 4 responding to a target cue increased when either a temporally prior or a subsequent reinforcement-associated cue was changed to signal extinction. Experiment 5 examined the conditioned reinforcing effectiveness of target cues in two types of situations varying the local context of reinforcement. Stimuli associated with selected target components of a response-dependent multiple schedule of reinforcement could appear as the terminal-link consequences in a two-link chain schedule. Enhanced responding during a target cue which accompanied the introduction of an extinction period following this cue was paralleled by an increase in the conditioned reinforcement effects of this cue. No such increase was found for target cues in which an enhancement of responding had been produced by the interposition of an extinction period prior to the cue.     

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.     

Temporal accent structure and the remembering of filmed narratives.

Effects of temporal accent structure on the remembering of filmed narratives were examined by varying the placement and number of commercial breaks. Commercials either highlighted a story's underlying organization by occurring between major episode boundaries (i.e., at breakpoint locations) or obscured this structural arrangement by occurring within episodes (i.e., at nonbreakpoints). Relative to the accentuation of nonbreakpoints, results indicated that the attentional highlighting of episode boundaries yielded higher recall and recognition performance and better memory for temporal order information and details from the story's plot. Selective recall and recognition of breakpoint scenes was significantly higher than that of nonbreakpoints, suggesting that people use episode boundaries as referents for attending and remembering. These findings illustrate certain structural invariants across environmental events and ways in which event structure can be used in remembering.