How do readers handle incorrect information during reading?

How do readers deal with information that is inconsistent with what they know? This question has typically been addressed by examining whether carefully designed texts can help readers revise inaccurate beliefs. However, texts sometimes present incorrect information that runs counter to readers’ accurate knowledge. Three experiments were performed to examine how individuals process incorrect information during reading. Participants read stories describing familiar historical scenarios. These scenarios included historically accurate or inaccurate outcomes. The scenarios also included contexts that either supported accurate outcomes or utilized suspense to call into question the likelihood of those events. Overall, participants took longer to read inaccurate outcomes than to read accurate outcomes, but suspenseful contexts attenuated this difference. This pattern held even with a task that encouraged readers to consider their prior knowledge. Story contexts were particularly influential when modified to present novel scenarios. These results provide insight into the role of prior knowledge when readers encounter incorrect information, and into the consequences of such experiences.     

How should “acceptance of responsibility” be addressed in sexual offending treatment programs?

Sexual offenders in treatment programs are usually expected to take responsibility for their offending—which we define, on the basis of a literature review, as giving a detailed and precise disclosure of events which avoids external attributions of cause and matches the official/victim's account of the offense. However, research has not established that a failure to take responsibility for offending is a risk factor for future recidivism. In this paper, we critically review and evaluate the literature on taking responsibility for offending, to determine the rationale for the popularity of this treatment target. We consider the reasons why sex offenders fail to take responsibility for their offending and examine some potential problems with focusing on this goal in treatment programs. We also describe alternative treatment strategies for taking responsibility and conclude that there is less need for offenders to take responsibility for their past offending than there is for them to take responsibility for their future actions.     

How can studies of information consumers be used to improve the educational communication system?

What do more than, two decades of studies of education information consumers tell us that might be helpful for developing an information system that would be more responsive to consumer needs and more compatible with their information search and use behavior? The essence of the answer is that information and communication behavior, in the aggregate, is extremely complex and multiply determined. However, research suggests that the information market can be segmented into submarkets, that there are several modal “information styles” for each submarket, and that perhaps the most promising strategies for improving systemwide effectiveness would, be to focus more attention on improving the performance of information brokers and intermediaries, and the performance of the print-prone gate keepers in the various types of organizations that use educational information.     

How much “effort” should be devoted to memory?

We focus on the issue of whether cognitive effort is causally related to memory. We begin with a discussion of the concept of cognitive effort as derived from capacity models of attention. We then suggest that the theoretical analysis of memory may involve concepts from different levels of psychological analysis, and we draw a distinction between concepts that represent boundary conditions and sufficient cause. When applied to memory phenomena, attentional concepts serve only as a boundary--or limiting--function in memory theory. In contrast, concepts that represent memorial processes serve as a sufficient cause function. In some instances, cognitive effort appears to have been used as a sufficient cause concept, resulting in some confusion. A review of the literature reveals a haphazard correlation between indexes of cognitive effort and of memory performance. Alternatively, the application of cognitive effort or capacity to the memory performance of certain populations (clinical, children, and elderly) illustrates a potentially more appropriate use of the concept.     

How should libertarians conceive of the location and role of indeterminism?

Libertarianism has, seemingly, always been in disrepute among philosophers. While throughout history philosophers have offered different reasons for their dissatisfaction with libertarianism, one worry is recurring: namely a worry about luck. To many, it seems that if our choices and actions are undetermined, then we cannot control them in a way that allows for freedom and responsibility. My fundamental aim in this paper is to place libertarians on a more promising track for formulating a defensible libertarian theory. I begin by arguing that Robert Kane's influential formulation of libertarianism actually generates an acute worry about luck, showing specifically that Kane's recipe for solving the problem of luck and his attendant conception of the location and role of indeterminism derived from it are deeply problematic. I then offer a reformulation of libertarianism – particularly a new conception of the location and role of indeterminism – that is capable of avoiding the problems that beset Kane's theory and that, I argue, places libertarians on a more promising track for formulating a defensible theory.     

How should careproviders respond to patients' requests that may be refused?

Some requests made to careproviders by patients may be of great personal importance to patients. Careproviders may assign proportionally greater weight to these exceptional requests, and may choose to take exceptional measures to assist. A strong trust relationship may be formed with patients as a result.     

Does anxiety lead to selective processing of threat-related information?

Four experiments investigating the detailed nature of the attentional bias in anxiety are reported. Previous research using the Stroop task has shown that, when compared with non-patient controls, anxious patients are relatively slower at colour naming threat-related words than non-threat words. Experiments One and Two investigated whether this apparent attentional bias is a function of anxiety per se and/or is related to patient/non-patient status. Experiment One compared colour-naming times for threat and non-threat words in low, medium and high trait anxiety normal subjects. High anxiety was not associated with slower colour-naming times for threat words. Experiment Two compared generalized anxiety disorder patients with equally anxious non-patients and found that the patients were significantly slower at colour-naming threat words. Read aloud and dwell tasks were also included in these experiments in order to identify the mechanism of Stroop interference. Experiments Three and Four investigated whether anxious patients' attentional bias is specific to threat-related material or also extends to certain positive, emotional material. In Experiment Three words used in previous Stroop studies were rated for emotionality. Threat words were more emotional, as well as more threatening, than control words, indicating that previous studies have confounded threat and emotionality. Experiment Four compared colour-naming times for threat words, equally emotional positive words, and neutral words. Consistent with the emotionality hypothesis, generalized anxiety disorder patients were slower than non-anxious controls at colour naming both threat words and positive words. The theoretical, methodological and clinical implications of these results are discussed.     

How do we handle interruptions? Investigating the processes underlying the resumption of interrupted tasks

Although many researchers have studied interruptions and how detrimental they can be for performance, only a small number of studies have successfully identified the cognitive processes involved in the resumption of the primary task after an interruption. We carried out two experiments in which the complexity and the timing of interruption were manipulated. The participants also completed a set of cognitive tests assessing cognitive functions, such as working memory, inhibition or shifting, etc. Results showed that decreasing the complexity and introducing the interruption later in the task reduced the time needed to resume the primary task [i.e. resumption lag (RL)]. Moreover, the complexity effect was related to inhibition, shifting, selective attention and automation, while timing was related to working memory and divided attention. This study provides clues to help us better understand the processes involved when we interrupt our activities and indicates the need to look more deeply at the processes underlying resumption after interruptions.     

Is speed of information processing related to fluid or to crystallized intelligence?

Speed of information processing was examined in relation to the theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence. Sixty sixth grade children completed the Standard Progressive Matrices test and the Mill Hill Vocabulary scale, both untimed, as measures of fluid and crystallized intelligence, and three RT tasks: Memory Scanning, Picture Identification, and Sentence-Picture Comparison. As predicted, RT parameters, with the exception of slope on two tasks, were negatively correlated with scores on both tests. There were no consistent differences between the two tests in the size of correlations with RT, and partial correlations, eliminating the effects of fluid and crystallized intelligence respectively, failed to support any causal relationship between fluid and crystallized intelligence in either direction. Some limitations of the research, specifically in the possible effect of error rates on the speed-intelligence relationship, and in the application to individuals of task parameters derived from group performance, are noted.     

How does the provision of semantic information influence the lexicalization of new spoken words?

The integration of a novel spoken word with existing lexical items can proceed within 24 hours of learning its phonological form. However, previous studies have reported that lexical integration of new spoken words can be delayed if semantic information is provided during learning. One possibility is that this delay in lexical integration reflects reduced phonological processing during learning as a consequence of the need to learn the semantic associations. In the current study, adult participants learnt novel words via a phoneme monitoring task, in which half of the words were associated with a picture referent, and half were phonological forms only. Critically, participants were instructed to learn the forms of the novel words, with no explicit goal to learn the word–picture mappings. Results revealed significant lexical competition effects emerging one week after consolidation, which were equivalent for the picture-present and form-only conditions. Tests of declarative memory and shadowing showed equivalent performance for picture-present and form-only words, despite participants showing good knowledge of the picture associations immediately after learning. These data support the contention that provided phonological information is recruited sufficiently well during learning, the provision of semantic information does not slow the time-course of lexical integration.     

Want information? How mood and performance perceptions alter the perceived value of information and influence information-seeking behaviors

Currently, it is not well understood when positive and negative moods would encourage and discourage the process of identifying and seeking out valuable information. Building upon the mood-as-a-resource hypothesis and the mood-behavior-model, this project reconciles mixed findings by investigating and finding support for the hypothesis that positive moods encourage seeking instrumental information when performance is perceived to be weak; whereas negative moods encourage it when performance is perceived to be strong. These effects are due to mood influencing the perceived value (i.e. instrumentality) of information and cannot be explained by arguing that mood altered the affective costs/benefits associated with the information. Overall, these results indicate that positive moods may help individuals acquire information to resolve an existing problem, whereas negative moods may help individuals acquire information when there is no apparent problem.     

How do readers know where to look next? Local information distributions influence eye fixations

Skilled readers' eye movements were recorded as they inspected sentences in preparation for comprehension questions. The sentences were written around target words that had uneven distributions of information, in that the words were predictable, given either the first few letters or the last few letters. Some parts of these words can be described as being more important than others for successful word recognition, and the experiments asked whether inspection patterns reflect the uneven distributions. Four types of ten-letter word were used: words with highly redundant endings (e.g. engagement), with moderately redundant endings (e.g. repatriate), with moderately redundant beginnings (e.g. superstore), and words with informative beginnings and endings (e.g. amalgamate). Redundancy was defined operationally in terms of the number of possible completions of a word given the first few or last few letters. A highly redundant ending is therefore one that occurs frequently and cannot be used to identify the word.

Words gaining just one fixation received this fixation nearer to the word's centre than in the case of the first fixation upon words gaining two fixations. The single fixation also had a longer duration, giving support to the notion of a convenient viewing location, which, when achieved, can lead to a net saving in inspection time. In the case of words with redundant endings gaining just one fixation, the fixation was nearer to the beginning of the word than in the case of words with informative endings, and this influence of word type upon the location of the first fixation was interpreted in favour of the parafoveal processing hypothesis of eye guidance during reading.     

Does subgroup membership information lead to better estimation of true subscores?

Haberman (2008) suggested a method to determine if subtest scores have added value over the total score. The method is based on classical test theory and considers the estimation of the true subscores. Performance of subgroups, for example, those based on gender or ethnicity, on subtests is often of interest. Researchers such as Stricker (1993) and Livingston and Rupp (2004) found that the difference in performance between the subgroups often varies over the different subtests. We suggest a method to examine whether the knowledge of the subgroup membership of the examinees leads to a better estimation of the true subscores. We apply our suggested method to data from two operational testing programmes. The knowledge of the subgroup membership of the examinees does not lead to a better estimation of the true subscore for the data sets.     

How did I remember to do that? Self-reported strategy use for laboratory prospective memory tasks

ABSTRACT

The role of metacognition in prospective memory (PM) has received relatively little attention. This study combined data from several experiments to identify the strategy repertoire employed during a classic laboratory PM task and to determine whether self-reported strategy was related to performance. Participants (N?=?668) completed either a focal or nonfocal PM task embedded in an ongoing lexical decision task. The results indicated that participants reported the same strategy repertoire regardless of PM task focality. Participants who reported using a strategy performed better than those who did not report using one, and this was especially true under nonfocal conditions. Self-reported strategy use was also associated with more cost to the ongoing task when the opportunity to complete the PM task was present. These findings add to what is known about the metacognitive components of PM and underscore the need for additional research in this area.     

How is the visual working memory load of driver influenced by information density of traffic signs?

The rapid development of urban roads has resulted in an increase in the amount of information that needs to be displayed on traffic signs. The overloading of information on traffic signs may increase drivers’ visual cognition burden and cause driving errors. It could be an important factor affecting driving safety and result in accidents. To enable drivers to cognize traffic signs, the information density that they could endure under reasonable workload levels should be determined. In this study, we designed and implemented trials to analyze drivers’ visual working memory load (VWML) caused by different information densities (including stimulus intensity (SI) and interval time of stimulus (IS)) of traffic signs. Twenty-four paid participants (12 females) with a mean age of 23.38 years (SD = 1.38) participated in laboratory simulation trials based on the memory retrieval approach. Subjective ratings (rating scale mental effort (RSME)), and performance measurement based on reaction time and accuracy of information-matching task were measured to reflect drivers’ VWML at different information densities. The results show that information density is an important factor affecting drivers’ VWML. The following are the significant observations of the study: (1) The subjective ratings on mental effort increased with increase in the SI. Meanwhile, it first decreased and then increased with increase in the IS. (2) The response accuracy results show that a high accuracy (≥0.7) was achieved by drivers in an IS of 15 s when the SI was at most 14.16 bit/m². Correspondingly, the drivers underwent less mental workload as a result of their better short-term memory characteristic. (3) The mean reaction time was over 1800 ms when the SI was over 14.16 bit/m². This indicated a reduction in the information-processing capability of the drivers. The results indicate that cognition of information of unreasonable density on traffic signs would increase drivers’ VWML. This would, in turn, result in an increase in their reaction time and decrease in accuracy. The threshold of information density was also determined through the experiment. It would satisfy the information demand of drivers and prevent information redundancy. The results contribute to an understanding of drivers’ VWML while cognizing traffic signs with different information densities and provide safety, effectiveness, and information continuity considerations for the design and setting of traffic signs.     

How much do people remember? some estimates of the quantity of learned information in long-term memory

How much information from experience does a normal adult remember? The “functional information content” of human memory was estimated in several ways. The methods depend on measured rates of input and loss from very long- term memory and on analyses of the informational demands of human memory-based performance. Estimates ranged around 10⁹ bits. It is speculated that the flexible and creative retrieval of facts by humans is a function of a large ratio of “hardware” capacity to functional storage requirements.     

How long to get to the “gist” of real-world natural scenes?

This study aimed at assessing the processing time of a natural scene in a fast categorization task of its context or “gist”. In Experiment 1, human subjects performed 4 go/no-go categorization tasks in succession with colour pictures of real-world scenes belonging to 2 natural categories: “Sea” and “mountain”, and 2 artificial categories: “Indoor” and “urban”. Experiment 2 used colour and grey-level scenes in the same tasks to assess the role of colour cues on performance. Pictures were flashed for 26 ms. Both experiments showed that the gist of real-world scenes can be extracted with high accuracy (>90%), short median RT (400-460 ms) and early responses triggered with latencies as short as 260-300 ms. Natural scenes were processed faster than artificial scenes. Categories for which colour could have a diagnostic value were processed faster in colour than in grey. Finally, processing speed is compared for scene and object categorization tasks.