The functional independence of trait self-knowledge: commentary on Sakaki (2007)

In a recent paper, Sakaki (2007) proposed that Klein and Loftus's conclusion that semantic and episodic trait self-knowledge are functionally independent (e.g., Klein, Babey, & Sherman, 1997; Klein & Loftus, 1993a; Klein, Loftus, Trafton, & Fuhrman, 1992b) was based on questionable assumptions and not supported by the available evidence. In this paper we show that Sakaki (2007) has misinterpreted our position on the independence of self-knowledge, omitted mention of large portions of the relevant research at odds with her contention, and conducted her studies with procedures we explicitly warned against due to interpretive ambiguities associated with their use.     

The functional independence of trait self-knowledge: Commentary on Sakaki (2007)

In a recent paper, Sakaki (2007) proposed that Klein and Loftus's conclusion that semantic and episodic trait self-knowledge are functionally independent (e.g., Klein, Babey, & Sherman, 1997; Klein & Loftus, 1993a; Klein, Loftus, Trafton, & Fuhrman, 1992b) was based on questionable assumptions and not supported by the available evidence. In this paper we show that Sakaki (2007) has misinterpreted our position on the independence of self-knowledge, omitted mention of large portions of the relevant research at odds with her contention, and conducted her studies with procedures we explicitly warned against due to interpretive ambiguities associated with their use.     

Semantic self-knowledge and episodic self-knowledge: independent or interrelated representations?

In this study of the structure of self-knowledge, we examined priming effects for the recall of personal episodes in order to investigate whether abstract trait knowledge and personal episodes are independent mental representations. We found that accessing similar abstract representations of traits facilitated a faster recall of related personal episodes than did accessing irrelevant abstract representations of traits (Experiments 1 and 2), reading a nonword prime (Experiments 2 and 3), accessing knowledge of one's mother (Experiment 3), or accessing semantic knowledge (Experiment 3). Contrary to previous findings, which indicated that abstract trait knowledge is represented independently of related personal episodes (e.g., Klein & Loftus, 1993; Tulving, 1993), our results suggest that abstract trait knowledge is associated with personal episodes, and therefore that semantic self-knowledge is associated with episodic self-knowledge in long-term self-knowledge.     

Perceptual interference at encoding enhances item-specific encoding and disrupts relational encoding: Evidence from multiple recall tests

Interfering with perception during encoding can enhance later memory, a phenomenon known as the perceptual interference effect. This effect is investigated in the context of the item-specific-relational framework (e.g., Hunt & McDaniel, 1993), which suggests that the perceptual interference enhances item-specific encoding and impedes relational encoding. Two experiments performed with multiple recall tests support this view. Prior research indicates that item-specific processing increases item gains across tests, whereas relational processing protects against item losses (e.g., Burns, 1993; Klein, Loftus, Kihlstrom, & Aseron, 1989). Consistent with the item-specific-relational framework, perceptual interference produced significant increases in both item gains and losses relative to a control condition.     

Win some, lose some: Hypermnesia for actions reflects increased item-specific processing

Memory for simple action phrases (e.g., “Break a match”) improves when subjects perform the actions at study. The relative contribution of item-specific and relational processing to this enactment effect has been an issue of considerable debate. It was addressed in the present study by examining hypermnesia in a multiple-test free recall paradigm, -based on the assumptions that itemspecific processing increases the probability of intertest gains and relational processing protects against intertest forgetting (e.g., Burns, 1993; Klein, Loftus, Kihlstrom, & Aseron, 1989). It was found that the enactment condition produced both significantly more gains and more losses than did the nonenactment condition, resulting in a net gain (hypermnesia) for the enactment condition. The results suggest that enactment promotes item-specific processing at the expense of relational processing.     

Implications of Independent Versus Interdependent Self-knowledge for Motivated Social Cognition: The Semantic Procedural Interface Model of the Self

The Semantic Procedural Interface Model of the Self (SPI) suggests that, depending on the strength of the situational accessibility of independent or interdependent self-knowledge, people will tend to process stimuli either unaffected by context (context-independency) or cognizant of context (context-dependency). In this paper we describe the cognitive processes underlying context-independent or context-dependent information processing. We suggest that degree of context-dependency depends on cognitive control processes (attentional focus on focal or task-relevant information; inhibition of contextual or task-irrelevant information; task-management). Second, we predict motivational effects of the self's independence/interdependence by including assumptions about possible selves.     

Making sense of word senses: the comprehension of polysemy depends on sense overlap

Studies of polysemy are few in number and are contradictory. Some have found differences between polysemy and homonymy (L. Frazier & K. Rayner, 1990), and others have found similarities (D. K. Klein & G. Murphy, 2001). The authors investigated this issue using the methods of D. K. Klein and G. Murphy (2001), in whose study participants judged whether ambiguous words embedded in word pairs (e.g., tasty chicken) made sense as a function of a cooperating, conflicting, or neutral context. The ambiguous words were independently rated as having low, moderate, or highly overlapping senses to approximate a continuum from homonymy to metonymic polysemy. The effects of meaning dominance were examined. Words with highly overlapping meanings (e.g., metonymy) showed reduced effects of context and dominance compared with words with moderately or low overlapping meanings (e.g., metaphorical polysemy and homonymy). These results suggest that the comprehension of ambiguous words is mediated by the semantic overlap of alternative senses/meanings.     

Age-differential effects on updating cue information: Evidence from event-related potentials

Recent models on cognitive aging consider the ability to maintain and update context information to be a key source of age-related impairments in various cognitive tasks (Braver & Barch in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 26: 809–817, 2002). Context updating has been investigated with a modified AX-continuous-performance task by comparing performance and brain activity between context-dependent trials (i.e., correct responses require updating of the preceding cue information) and context-independent trials (i.e., correct responses are independent of cue information). We used an event-related potential (ERP) approach to identify sources of age differences in context processing in the early and late processing of cue information. Our behavioral data showed longer latencies and higher error rates on context-dependent than on context-independent trials for older than for younger adults, suggesting age-related impairments in context updating. The ERP data revealed larger P3b amplitudes for context-dependent than for context-independent trials only in younger adults. In contrast, in older adults, P3b amplitudes were more evenly distributed across the scalp and did not differ between context conditions. Interestingly, older but not younger adults were sensitive to changes of cue identity, as indicated by larger P3b amplitudes on cue-change than on cue-repeat trials, irrespective of the actual context condition. We also found a larger CNV on context-dependent than on context-independent trials, reflecting active maintenance of context information and response preparation. The age-differential effects in the P3b suggest that both younger and older adults were engaged in updating task-relevant information, but relied on different information: Whereas younger participants indeed relied on context cues to update and reconfigure the task settings, older adults relied on changes in cue identity, irrespective of context information.     

Altering access to autobiographical episodes with prior semantic knowledge

Within autobiographical knowledge, semantic and episodic memory are traditionally considered separate, but newer models place them along a continuum, which raises the possibility of an intermediate form of knowledge - personal semantics. This study tested how different types of semantics – general semantics and two forms of personal semantics – impact access to personal episodic memories. In two experiments, participants made a series of true/false judgments about a prime statement, which reflected a general semantic fact, a context-dependent (e.g., repeated event) or context-independent (e.g., trait), personal semantic fact and then retrieved a specific past episodic memory. There was a significantly stronger priming effect for accessing specific episodic memories after judging personal semantic facts versus general facts. We also found that context-dependent and -independent personal semantic facts had separable priming effects on episodic memory. These findings support a continuum model of memory and verifies that there are multiple forms of personal knowledge.     

Episodic and semantic knowledge in emotional self-report: evidence for two judgment processes

Three studies involving 3 participant samples (Ns = 39, 55, and 53) tested the hypothesis that people retrieve episodic emotion knowledge when reporting on their emotions over short (e.g., last few hours) time frames, but that they retrieve semantic emotion knowledge when reporting on their emotions over long (e.g., last few months) time frames. Support for 2 distinct judgment strategies was based on judgment latencies (Studies 1 and 2) and priming paradigms (Studies 2 and 3). The authors suggest that self-reports of emotion over short versus long time frames assess qualitatively different sources of self-knowledge.     

The role of context and functionality in the interpretation of quantifiers

The aim of the three experiments that are reported was to investigate the role of context, especially size and functionality, in the interpretation of quantifiers. The studies all used a task in which participants rated the appropriateness of quantifiers describing the number of balls in a bowl. The size of the balls was found to have an effect: Identical numbers of balls were given different ratings depending on ball size. It was also found that quantifiers were rated as more appropriate when the balls were in their natural functional relationship with the bowl (i.e., contained within the bowl), than when the functional relationship was breached (i.e., the balls overflowed the bowl). Tilting the bowl had surprising effects in that it led to some quantifiers being rated as more appropriate. The results are interpreted as indicating that quantifiers carry little specific meaning in themselves but instead derive their meaning from the context in which they occur.     

The effect of career interventions designed to increase self-knowledge on the self-concepts of adolescents

This paper reports a study that used a quasi-experimental design to examine if a career intervention designed to increase self-knowledge enabled self-discovery or self-construction, determined by the structure of the personality inventory used. This study, situated within the theoretical model of Markus’s research in self-schemata (1977), used instruments that measured the Big Five personality factors. Results showed that after only one exercise designed to increase self-knowledge, high school students in the experimental group elaborated “self-schemata” that encompassed the five dimensions corresponding to the structure of the instrument used. Findings suggested that the self-knowledge tool constituted a sort of structured “looking glass” in which young people saw themselves reflected according to the dimensions in the inventory used.     

Phonological underspecification and mapping mechanisms in the speech recognition lexicon

The problem of recognizing phonological variations in the speech input has triggered numerous treatments in speech processing models. Two areas of current controversy are the possibility of phonological underspecification in the mental lexicon and the nature of the mapping mechanism from the speech signal to the abstract lexical entry. We present data from cross-modal repetition priming experiments in English designed to test the differing predictions of speech recognition models regarding tolerance of phonological mismatch in speech. The results show effects of underspecification, supporting models using underspecified lexical entries (e.g. Lahiri & Marslen-Wilson, 1991; Reetz & Lahiri, 2001) over those using fully specified lexical entries (e.g., McClelland & Elman, 1986). The results also show no effects of context, thus favoring context-independent mapping, such as that in the three-way matching mechanism of the Lahiri and Reetz FUL model ( Lahiri, 1999; Reetz, 1998 and Reetz, 1999; Reetz & Lahiri, 2001) over context-dependent mapping used in phonological inference rules ( Gaskell and Marslen-Wilson, 1996 and Gaskell and Marslen-Wilson, 1998).     

中国员工基于组织自尊的内容探析：概念构图法的应用

基于对26名来自不同组织、有不同职业背景员工的深度采访,本文运用定性和定量相结合的分析方法——概念构图法,实证探索了中国员工基于组织的自尊（OBSE）的内容。本研究发现,中国员工自尊包括五个维度：基于工作单位的自尊、基于工作绩效的自尊、基于工作角色的自尊,基于领导的自尊和基于下属和同事的自尊。本文通过对OBSE的实证分析详细介绍了概念构图法的过程和应用,为如何对新概念、新现象进行探索性研究提供了参考。     

Learning the form of causal relationships using hierarchical bayesian models

People learn quickly when reasoning about causal relationships, making inferences from limited data and avoiding spurious inferences. Efficient learning depends on abstract knowledge, which is often domain or context specific, and much of it must be learned. While such knowledge effects are well documented, little is known about exactly how we acquire knowledge that constrains learning. This work focuses on knowledge of the functional form of causal relationships; there are many kinds of relationships that can apply between causes and their effects, and knowledge of the form such a relationship takes is important in order to quickly identify the real causes of an observed effect. We developed a hierarchical Bayesian model of the acquisition of knowledge of the functional form of causal relationships and tested it in five experimental studies, considering disjunctive and conjunctive relationships, failure rates, and cross-domain effects. The Bayesian model accurately predicted human judgments and outperformed several alternative models.     

Scene context influences without scene gist: Eye movements guided by spatial associations in visual search

Although the use of semantic information about the world seems ubiquitous in every task we perform, it is not clear whether we rely on a scene’s semantic information to guide attention when searching for something in a specific scene context (e.g., keys in one’s living room). To address this question, we compared contribution of a scene’s semantic information (i.e., scene gist) versus learned spatial associations between objects and context. Using the flash-preview–moving-window paradigm Castelhano and Henderson (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 33:753–763, 2007), participants searched for target objects that were placed in either consistent or inconsistent locations and were semantically consistent or inconsistent with the scene gist. The results showed that learned spatial associations were used to guide search even in inconsistent contexts, providing evidence that scene context can affect search performance without consistent scene gist information. We discuss the results in terms of hierarchical organization of top-down influences of scene context.     

Attention and memory in children and adults in context-interactive and context-independent situations

The relation between attention to target and context information and target recall in an incidental learning task for children and adults was examined in seven experiments. In Experiment 1, second- and sixth-graders and college adults were presented with hard (e.g., hawk eagle canary), easy (river lake canary), or unrelated (river pencil canary) word triplets, varying in the difficulty of identifying the “odd” target word (canary), and were required to identify the target themselves (oddity choice), or such identification was optional, since the experimenter identified the target (read). Trial duration was either 3 or 7 s. The attentional patterns varied with triplet type, orienting activity, and trial duration. Most important, target and incidental context word recall seemed to vary directly with the extent of the interactive processing of context and target conceptual information, and the adults seemed more disposed to do such processing than the children. These results support a distinction between context-interactive and context-independent situations and suggest that the attentional patterns that are efficient for memory may differ with the kind of situation. The other experiments extend and establish the generality of these results.     

Self-Standards and Self-Discrepancies. A Structural Model of Self-Knowledge

A model of self-knowledge is proposed which summarizes and integrates a few distinctions concerning self-standards and related self-discrepancies. Four types of self-standards are distinguished (i.e. ideal, ought, undesired and forbidden selves) and a hierarchical organization of these standards is postulated. There is a basic contrast between positive and negative standards at the higher level of the hierarchy, whereas Higgins’ distinction between ideals and oughts is found at the lower level. Every self-standard is analyzed in terms of two types of self-discrepancies. Many previous studies explored discrepancies between self-standards and the actual self, i.e. the perceived actualization of standards. The present study proposed that discrepancies between self-standards and the can self are a second type of discrepancy that should be included in structural models of self-knowledge. The can self consists of self-beliefs referring to capabilities and potentials; thus, this additional type of discrepancy reflects the perceived attainability of standards. Consequently, the present study explored a set of eight self-discrepancies, i.e. both the perceived actualization and the attainability of four self-standards. In order to assess the intercorrelations among these eight self-discrepancies, participants (N?=?404) completed a newly developed online measure. CFA modeling confirmed the postulated two-level hierarchy of self-standards. The reasonability of including discrepancies between self-standards and the can self in the structural model of self-knowledge was also confirmed.     

Extinction and latent inhibition of within-event learning are context specific

Exposure to a solution composed of an odor (almond) and a taste (salt) produced a context-independent preference when rats were subsequently tested with almond under a salt appetite. Postcompound exposure to either the almond or the salt alone reduced almond preferences but only when rats were tested in the extinction context. Exposure to either the almond or the salt in 1 context in advance of exposure to the compound in a different context also reduced preferences but only when the rats were tested in the context in which the element had been pre-exposed. These results show that extinction and latent inhibition of within-event learning are context specific.