Facilitation and transfer with narrative thematic versions of the THOG task

This article reports two experiments investigating the use of narrative form in the presentation of thematic versions of Wason's (1977) THOG problem. Experiment 1 demonstrated that narrative thematic versions that use actions of characters to present the elements of the problem are easier to solve than the classic version. This result was found both for a problem that used thematic examples and for a problem that used the same geometric figures as the classic THOG. Results also suggested that the presence of a character who creates the comparison properties to be used in applying the disjunction rule was useful in separating those properties from the properties of the positive example. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the solution of a narrative thematic version of the THOG could lead to improved performance on the classic abstract THOG, but only when the examples in the narrative version were the geometric figures. Issues of transfer with the THOG problem are discussed.     

Naming the parents of the THOG: Mental representation and reasoning

It was hypothesized that subjects misrepresent the THOG problem by confusing data and hypotheses. An abstract version of the problem in which the given exemplars and the hypothetical ones were designated by two different labels was used in three experiments. Experiment 1 showed that this version elicits a better performance than the standard version of the problem. Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed these results, by ruling out a possible alternative account of the facilitatory effect obtained in Experiment 1. The present results are discussed in relationship to the general issues of content effects and non-consequentialism in reasoning.     

定向遗忘条件下DRM词的加工深度和情境对错误记忆的影响*

在定向遗忘条件下探讨DRM词加工时产生的错误记忆现象,并探究造成这一现象的深层原因。实验一和实验二分别操纵了词的深、浅加工以及词所处的情境。实验一的结果发现只在深加工时,F指令下的DRM词受到抑制激活,低于R指令下的再认正确率,关键诱词的错误再认也与各指令下DRM词的恢复提取密切相关;实验二的结果发现集中情境和随机情境均会受到遗忘指令的影响抑制DRM词的正确再认,但集中情境下关键诱词的错误再认与各指令下DRM词的恢复提取关联更紧密。在定向遗忘条件下,用FTT理论解释实验一的结果较为合理,用AAT理论解释实验二的结果较为合理。     

Laterality effects, levels of processing, and stimulus properties

Two hypotheses of hemispheric specialization are discussed. The first stresses the importance of the kind of processing to which the stimulus is subjected, and the second stresses the importance of the nature of the stimulus. To test these hypotheses, four experiments were carried out. In Experiment 1 verbal material was employed in a same-different classification task, and an overall right visual field superiority was found. Experiment 2, in which verbal stimuli were subjected to visuospatial transformations (i.e. mental rotations), yielded no laterality effect. In Experiment 3 geometrical figures were employed in a classification task similar to that of Experiment 1, and an overall left visual field superiority was found. In Experiment 4 both verbal and geometric stimuli were employed. The results showed a significant interaction between field of presentation and nature of the stimulus and no interaction between field of presentation and level of processing.     

The effects of realism on Wason's THOG problem

Summary In this series of experiments the effects of phrasing Wason's THOG problem in realistic terms were investigated. Experiments 1 and 2 used realistic materials of very different kinds, but neither version of the problem produced any facilitation compared with the original abstract version. Experiment 3 used a version of the problem in which the correct answer was cued in by the realistic material, and a significant improvement was found. Experiment 4 used a version of the problem similar to that used in Experiment 3 and again improved performance was found; since the subjects in this experiment were eight- and nine-year-old children, the facilitation almost certainly was not the result of improved logical ability. The results of Experiment 5, however, suggested that it was difficult to cue in adults to give the logically incorrect answer. It is concluded that realism improves performance on this problem only when the realistic material cues in the correct answer from memory. A review of the research that makes use of other reasoning paradigms suggests that this conclusion may hold true for these as well.     

Prior context and the perception of lexically ambiguous sentences

The perceptual complexity of lexically ambiguous and unambiguous sentences was compared in three experiments. In Experiment 1, the report of ambiguous words from rapidly presented ambiguous sentences was worse than the report of corresponding unambiguous words from unambiguous sentences. Results of Experiment 2 showed that the effect was not reduced by the presence of prior biasing context within the sentence. Experiment 3 repeated the finding with a sentence meaning classification task. It was concluded that both meanings of a lexically ambiguous sentence must be computed, even when prior context makes one meaning more plausible than the other.     

Representation or context as a cognitive strategy in colour constancy?

If an identification task with colour constancy as its objective is carried out under drastically changing illumination, do people rely mainly on colour information or do they rely on other sources of information? This question suggested two hypotheses for testing: (i) context hypothesis: people rely mainly on colour information (spectral reflectance or illumination chromaticity) to achieve colour constancy; (ii) representation hypothesis: people rely mainly on all other clues associated with colour to achieve colour constancy, including form information (any shape elements) and space information (spatial coordinates or spatial correlation). Experiment 1 showed that form information was readily associated with colour information to produce implicit representation. This gave the best colour-constancy performance (95.72%) and the fastest processing speed, so it probably used a top-down process. However, it was also prone to error owing to assumptions. Space information was not readily associated with colour information so colour-constancy performance was halved (48.73%) and processing time doubled. When the subject was deprived of both information sources and only given colour information, this resulted in the longest reaction times and the worst colour-constancy performance (41.38%). These results clearly support the representation hypothesis rather than the context hypothesis. When all three clues were available at the same time, the order of preference was: symbol, location, then colour. Experiment 2 showed that when form information was the main clue, colour-constancy performance was conceptually driven and processed more quickly; this supports the representation hypothesis. However, when form information was not used, colour constancy was data-driven, processed more slowly, and achieved an inferior identification rate overall; this supports the context hypothesis.     

Counting on working memory in arithmetic problem solving

Mental calculation is an important everyday skill involving access to well-learned procedures, problem solving, and working memory. Although there is an active literature on acquiring concepts and procedures for mental arithmetic, relatively little is known about the role of working memory in this task. This paper reports two experiments in which dual-task methodology is used to study the role of components of working memory in mental addition. In Experiment 1, mental addition of auditorily presented two-digit numbers was significantly disrupted by concurrent random letter generation and, to a lesser extent, by concurrent articulatory suppression, but was unimpaired by concurrent hand movement or by presentation of irrelevant pictures. Although the number of errors increased with two of the dual tasks, the incorrect responses tended to be quite close to the correct answer. In Experiment 2, the numbers for addition were presented visually. Here again, random generation produced the largest disruption of mental arithmetic performance, while a smaller amount of disruption was observed for articulatory suppression, hand movement, and unattended auditorily presented two-digit numbers. The overall levels of performance were better and the absolute size of the disruptive effects shown with visual presentation was very small compared with those found for auditory presentation. This pattern of results is consistent with a role for a central executive component of working memory in performing the calculations required for mental addition and in producing approximately correct answers. Visuospatial resources in working memory may also be involved in approximations. The data support the view that the subvocal rehearsal component of working memory provides a means of maintaining accuracy in mental arithmetic, and this matches a similar conclusion derived from previous work on counting. The general implications for the role of working memory in arithmetic problem solving will be discussed.     

Social Influences on the Goal Choices of Group Members1

The influences of anticipation of evaluation, anticipation of group interaction, and taking other group members into consideration were each explored for their impact on the selection of task performance goals by group members. Self-evaluation, esteem maintenance, and comparison with others hypotheses were described as plausible explanations for earlier findings that groups select lower task performance goals than individuals. Results provided considerable support for the self-evaluation and comparison-with-others hypotheses, but indicated that esteem maintenance could not account for some aspects of the data. Discussion focused on understanding the results within the context of social comparison theory.     

价值-项目间隔和项目呈现时间对价值导向元记忆的影响*

采用选择性任务范式,用2个实验考察价值-项目间隔和项目呈现时长对价值导向元记忆的影响。实验1考察不同价值-项目间隔（无, 1s, 2s）时被试的选择性记忆指标SI和记忆成绩。结果发现,随价值-项目间隔增加,被试的记忆选择性逐渐下降,间隔1s时对高价值项目的选择性仍存在,但间隔2s时消失;实验2选取实验1的两种价值-项目间隔（无, 1s）条件,延长其项目呈现时间至4.5s,考察项目呈现时间对价值导向元记忆的影响。结果发现,两种价值-项目间隔条件下记忆选择性水平（SI）均显著降低,但对高价值项目的选择性加工优势并没消失。结论：价值导向元记忆受价值-项目间隔和项目呈现时间的影响。     

Local and Relational Aspects of Face Distinctiveness

Distinctiveness contributes strongly to the recognition and rejection of faces in memory tasks. In four experiments we examine the role played by local and relational information in the distinctiveness of upright and inverted faces. In all experiments subjects saw one of three versions of a face: original faces, which had been rated as average in distinctiveness in a previous study (Hancock, Burton, & Bruce, 1996), a more distinctive version in which local features had been changed ( D-local ), and a more distinctive version in which relational features had been changed ( D-rel ). An increase in distinctiveness was found for D-local and D-rel faces in Experiment 1 (complete faces) and 3 and 4 (face internals only) when the faces had to be rated in upright presentation, but the distinctiveness of the D-rel faces was reduced much more than that of the D-local versions when the ratings were given to the faces presented upside-down (Experiments 1 and 3). Recognition performance showed a similar pattern: presented upright, both D-local and D-rel revealed higher performance compared to the originals, but in upside-down presentation the D-local versions showed a much stronger distinctiveness advantage. When only internal features of faces were used (Experiments 3 and 4), the D-rel faces lost their advantage over the Original versions in inverted presentation. The results suggest that at least two dimensions of facial information contribute to a face's apparent distinctiveness, but that these sources of information are differentially affected by turning the face upside-down. These findings are in accordance with a face processing model in which face inversion effects occur because a specific type of information processing is disrupted, rather than because of a general disruption of performance.     

Separating Implicit from Explicit Retrieval Processes in Perceptual Identification

Light and Kennison (this issue) proposed that bias effects in the forced-choice perceptual identification of words result from a strategy engaged in by subjects to retrieve explicit information about the words. This article enumerates several problems with this proposal and presents new experimental data against it. It is concluded that subjects do not ordinarily employ an explicit retrieval strategy. The data are discussed in the context of the general problem of separating implicit from explicit influences on performance.     

Comparison and contrast in perceptual categorization

People categorized pairs of perceptual stimuli that varied in both category membership and pairwise similarity. Experiments 1 and 2 showed categorization of 1 color of a pair to be reliably contrasted from that of the other. This similarity-based contrast effect occurred only when the context stimulus was relevant for the categorization of the target (Experiment 3). The effect was not simply owing to perceptual color contrast (Experiment 4), and it extended to pictures from common semantic categories (Experiment 5). Results were consistent with a sign-and-magnitude version of N. Stewart and G. D. A. Brown's (2005) similarity-dissimilarity generalized context model, in which categorization is affected by both similarity to and difference from target categories. The data are also modeled with criterion setting theory (M. Treisman & T. C. Williams, 1984), in which the decision criterion is systematically shifted toward the mean of the current stimuli.     

The Interaction of Criterion and Feedback Information in Learning a Drawing Task

Experiments were designed to examine the influence of criterion and feedback information in the learning of a two-dimensional drawing task. Experiment 1 showed that when the task criterion is well known to the subject, the combined presentation of criterion information and information feedback facilitates the rate of acquisition of the skill but not its overall performance level of achievement. Experiment 2 showed that when the task criterion information is not well known to the subject, presentation of criterion information facilitates both the rate of acquisition and the overall performance level and, furthermore, is essential if configuration information feedback is to be utilized effectively. Experiment 3 showed that it is the combined presentation of criterion and configuration information feedback, rather than the isolated presentation of either type of information alone, that facilitates learning and performance. Collectively, the findings from the three experiments suggest an interactive effect of prior knowledge by the learner and type of augmented information in facilitating the acquisition of skill, according to the constraints imposed in the task. The data are consistent with the proposal that the degrees of freedom in the information available to support motor skill learning must match the degrees of freedom to be constraint in the perceptual-motor workspace.     

The interaction of criterion and feedback information in learning a drawing task

Experiments were designed to examine the influence of criterion and feedback information in the learning of a two-dimensional drawing task. Experiment 1 showed that when the task criterion is well known to the subject, the combined presentation of criterion information and information feedback facilitates the rate of acquisition of the skill but not its overall performance level of achievement. Experiment 2 showed that when the task criterion information is not well known to the subject, presentation of criterion information facilitates both the rate of acquisition and the overall performance level and, furthermore, is essential if configuration information feedback is to be utilized effectively. Experiment 3 showed that it is the combined presentation of criterion and configuration information feedback rather than the isolate presentation of either type of information alone, that facilitates learning and performance. Collectively, the findings from the three experiments suggest an interactive effect of prior knowledge by the learner and type of augmented information in facilitating the acquisition of skill, according to the constraints imposed in the task. The data are consistent with the proposal that the degrees of freedom in the information available to support motor skill learning must match the degrees of freedom to be constraint in the perceptual-motor workspace.     

Odour and Proustian memory: reduction of context‐dependent forgetting and multiple forms of memory

In Experiment 1, the reintroduction of the same ambient odour (lemon or lavender) improved performance four weeks later in both free recall and recognition of a word list. This was a cross‐over design that allowed direct comparison between congruent and incongruent odour conditions. A further comparison with an additional group showed that memory was not improved by the presence of a different odour. Experiment 2 investigated the effect of two odour cues (lemon and lavender) in the same cross‐over design using three learning and memory tests: (1) free recall of a word list; (2) problem solving; and (3) spatial learning. While recall of the word list and spatial learning were best when the same odour was present at both learning and test, there was no such context‐dependent effect for the problem‐solving task. However, the presence of the lavender odour at test improved performance in the problem‐solving task, irrespective of the odour present at the first exposure. Thus although lavender had some effect on problem solving, we saw context‐dependent retrieval only in free recall and spatial learning. We discuss the implications of this dissociation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Context dependent learning in the serial RT task

This study investigated the development of contextual dependencies for sequential perceptual-motor learning on static features in the learning environment. In three experiments we assessed the effect of manipulating task irrelevant static context features in a serial reaction-time task. Experiment 1 demonstrated impaired performance after simultaneously changing display color, placeholder shape, and placeholder location. Experiment 2 showed that this effect was mainly caused by changing placeholder shape. Finally, Experiment 3 indicated that changing context affected both the application of sequence knowledge and the selection of individual responses. It is proposed either that incidental stimulus features are integrated with a global sequence representation, or that the changed context causes participants to strategically inhibit sequence skills.     

维度改变卡片分类任务中的负启动效应及其发生的条件

为了探讨负启动效应在学前儿童规则灵活转换中的作用, 用几个不同负启动版本的维度改变卡片分类任务(DCCS)研究了DCCS中的负启动效应及其在3、4岁儿童中的发展。实验一验证了儿童在负启动版本DCCS任务中的年龄发展趋势, 发现与标准版本一样, 大多数3、4岁儿童都不能通过, 但随着年龄增长负启动会逐渐减少, 更多的儿童能够顺利通过任务。实验二考察了DCCS中负启动发生的条件, 发现在任务的转换前阶段, 无论分类规则间存在冲突还是目标卡片与测试卡片间无关维度值上存在冲突, 负启动都会发生, 由此揭示出能引起选择性注意和主动抑制的冲突是负启动发生的关键。实验三探讨了负启动时主动抑制发生的层面, 发现儿童主动抑制的并非是无关维度中一个或某几个特定的值, 而是整个无关的维度, 表明抑制发生在维度这一更抽象的上位水平上。说明由抑制而产生的负启动或许也应成为儿童认知灵活性发展中需要克服的一个问题。     

Context specificity of operant discriminative performance in pigeons: II. Necessary and sufficient conditions

Six experiments were performed to explore the necessary and sufficient conditions for producing context specificity of discriminative operant performance in pigeons. In Experiment 1, pigeons learned a successive discrimination (red S+/blue S−) in two chambers that had a particular odor present and between which they were frequently switched. The birds subsequently learned the reversal (blue S+/ red S−) in one of these chambers with a different odor present. When switched to the alternative chamber, although the odor and the reinforcement contingency were still appropriate to the reversal, performance appropriate to the original discrimination recurred in subjects for which the houselights were on during training and testing but not for those for which the houselights were off. This indicated the importance of visual contextual cues in producing context specificity. Experiment 2 showed that the frequent switching between boxes in initial training was of no consequence, presumably because the apparatus cues were highly salient to the subjects. Experiment 3 showed significantly less context specificity when odor cues were omitted. Experiment 4 showed that simply using a different reinforced stimulus in each phase of training was ineffective in producing context specificity. Experiment 5 showed that the generalization test procedure used in Experiment 4 was sensitive to context specificity when discrimination-reversal training was used with different odors in the two training phases. Experiment 6 replicated the results of Experiment 4, but then showed that when different odors accompanied the two training phases, context specificity was obtained with the single-stimulus paradigm. Thus in both single-stimulus and discrimination-reversal paradigms, redundant odor cues potentiated learning about apparatus cues.     

Spatial congruency between stimulus presentation and response key arrangements in arithmetic fact retrieval

It is known that number and space representations are connected to one another in numerical and arithmetic abilities. Numbers are represented using the metaphor of a mental number line, oriented along horizontal and vertical space. This number line also seems to be linked to mental arithmetic, which is based partly on arithmetic fact retrieval. It seems that number representation and mental arithmetic are linked together. The present study tested the effect of spatial contextual congruency between stimulus presentation and response key arrangements in arithmetic fact retrieval, using number-matching and addition verification tasks. For both tasks in Experiment 1, a contextual congruency effect was present horizontally (i.e., horizontal presentation of stimuli and horizontal response key alignments) but not vertically (i.e., vertical presentation of stimuli but horizontal response key alignments). In Experiment 2, both tasks showed a contextual congruency effect for both spatial conditions. Experiment 1 showed that the interference and distance effects were found in the horizontal condition, probably because of the spatial congruency between stimulus presentation and response key arrangements. This spatial congruency could be related to the activation of the horizontal number line. Experiment 2 showed similar interference and distance effects for both spatial conditions, suggesting that the congruency between stimulus presentation and response alignment could facilitate the retrieval of arithmetic facts. This facilitation could be related to the activation of both horizontal and vertical number lines. The results are discussed in light of the possible role of a mental number line in arithmetic fact retrieval.