Aging and Comparative Search for Feature Differences

ABSTRACT

In a comparative visual search experiment, two halves of a display contained visual primitives of various shapes and colors. These halves were identical (50% of trials) or contained a non-matching pair (50% of trials). Response time (RT), accuracy, and eye movements were measured in both young and older adults. There were Age Group × Display Size interactions found for RT, with older adult RT affected more than younger adult RT by increases in display size. This interaction was consistent with predictions generated by sequential-sampling models for RT. There were age group main effects on fixation number and fixation duration, but no age group main effects on accuracy, saccade amplitude, or measures of scan-path efficiency; this indicated that search strategies were similar across age groups. Overall, the results showed no special age group deficits for comparative visual search.     

Aging and the Search for Meaning

SUMMARY

The natural science model is not adequate alone to deal with some of the profound problems of gerontology because it does not deal well with meaning and values issues. This paper develops the topic “Aging and the Search for Meaning” using phenomenological and hermeneutical methods. It is assumed that finding a meaning in life is a primary drive across the years. Such a quest requires a hermeneutic, i.e. a means by which life may be symbolized or given meaning and direction. Using Viktor Frankl's meaning theory, the paper introduces an approach which describes the process by which the meaning of aging can be interpreted.     

比较视觉搜索任务的认知老化研究

本研究通过增加组成图片的图形数量和改变目标图形的特征,考察老年人和大学生在比较视觉搜索任务中的眼动特点和图形特征加工的优先性。结果表明与青年人相比,老年人在比较视觉搜索过程中总注视时间和注视次数增加,平均眼跳幅度减少,对目标刺激的注视时间增加。老年人和青年人在目标刺激的注视过程中都表现出图形维度数量的优先性,即表现为颜色和形状都不同的目标刺激注视时间最短,颜色不同和形状不同的目标刺激在注视时间上差异不显著。说明老年人在比较视觉搜索过程中存在认知老化,在图形特征加工的优先性上结果和青年人一致,以上结果与年龄和研究任务有关。     

儿童空间观点采择的自动性及其发展

使用空间观点采择任务,探究7~11岁儿童的空间观点采择的自动性和发展趋势。结果发现：（1）在他人任务中,正确率随着角度的增长而减小;（2）在自我任务中,相比于空间关系不一致时,一致时的正确率更高,且反向的一致性效应出现在150°~180°间。本研究结果显示：本项空间观点采择任务对儿童有效;7~9岁的儿童可以自动进行空间转换;11岁的儿童可以自动进行需要判断左右位置的空间观点采择。本研究首次证明,11岁是儿童自动进行需要判断左右位置的空间观点采择的相对年龄转折点。     

Automaticity and the detection of speech

The development of automatic perceptual responses to speech stimuli was examined. In the first experiment, phoneme-monitoring performance for speech syllables was examined under conditions in which stimulus-to-response mapping and memory load were manipulated. The results indicated that automaticity develops under consistent-mapping conditions. In the second experiment, a dual-task procedure was combined with mapping and selective attention manipulations in order to examine the development of automaticity across single- and multiple-channel conditions. The results indicated that performance under consistently mapped training conditions was interfered with by dividing attention across multiple channels of input. It is concluded that there may be differences in the way that automaticity develops across visual and auditory modalities and that these differences need to be examined more closely.     

Automaticity and interference in bilinguals

Summary In an experimental study with 40 English-German and 40 German-Swedish bilingual high school students, automaticity and interference were analyzed on the basis of Shiffrin and Schneider's theory of controlled and automatic processing. Confirming the assumptions inferred from the theory, dominant bilinguals reacted significantly faster to pictured objects in their dominant language than did balanced bilinguals in either of their two languages. Interaction effects with frequency indicated less experience with rare words in the balanced groups. Matched on the basis of reaction time scores, the balanced groups continued to show a higher error rate in recall, but not in recognition when compared with the dominant groups. It was concluded that training alone could not account for the differences in recall. A congenitally determined mental speed factor was suggested for which the theory makes no direct commitment. The strong interrelation between automaticity and interference was shown; their significance for bilinguals in highly speeded and unstructured tasks was also shown. The results reveal high cross-cultural consistency.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 3rd Nordic Symposium on Bilingualism, held in Umea, Sweden, June 4 to 5, 1980     

Automaticity in rule-based and information-integration categorization

Three experiments studied the effects of category structure on the development of categorization automaticity. In Experiment 1, participants were each trained for over 10,000 trials in a simple categorization task with one of three category structures. Results showed that after the first few sessions, there were no significant behavioral differences between participants who learned rule-based versus information-integration category structures. Experiment 2 showed that switching the locations of the response keys after automaticity had developed caused a similar highly significant interference, regardless of category structure. In Experiment 3, a simultaneous dual task that engaged executive functions did not interfere with either rule-based or information-integration categorization. These novel results are consistent with a theory assuming separate processing pathways for initial rule-based and information-integration category learning but a common processing pathway after the development of automaticity.     

Automaticity in spelling competence

Two studies examined the speed with which good spellers and poor spellers spell easy and difficult words. At both the elementary school (Grades 3 and 4) and undergraduate levels, good spellers spelled words more quickly than poor spellers. This difference appeared even for very easy words that all subjects could spell. Implications for the importance of automaticity in spelling competence are discussed.     

Automaticity and the ACT* theory.

An explanation of automaticity within the framework of the Adaptive Control of Thought (ACT*) production system theory (Anderson, 1983, 1987) is presented. There is no automaticity mechanism per se in ACT*. This is as we would expect it to be. It would be the exception rather than the rule that we would find in a scientific theory mechanisms that directly correspond to natural language concepts. The critical question is whether ACT* can give an account of the phenomena associated with the term automaticity. This article is structured as follows: First, I will try to identify the phenomena of automaticity to be explained, then give a brief overview of the ACT* theory, and finally explain how these phenomena of automaticity are to be understood in terms of the theory.     

Automaticity in clinical psychology.

The authors provide an overview of the literature on the ability of response expectancies to elicit automatic responses in the form of self-fulfilling prophecies and link it to the broader psychological investigation of automatic processes. The authors review 3 areas of research in which response expectancies have been shown to affect experience, behavior, and physiology: placebo effects, the effects of false biofeedback on sexual arousal, and the alteration of perceptual and cognitive functions by hypnotic and nonhypnotic suggestion. Also reviewed are data suggesting that all behavior, including novel and intentional behavior, is initiated automatically. Following this review, the authors summarize some of the ways in which knowledge of response expectancy effects and other automatic processes that influence experience and behavior can enhance clinical practice.     

Habitual Virtuous Actions and Automaticity

Dual process theorists in psychology maintain that the mind’s workings can be explained in terms of conscious or controlled processes and automatic processes. Automatic processes are largely nonconscious, that is, triggered by environmental stimuli without the agent’s conscious awareness or deliberation. Automaticity researchers contend that even higher level habitual social behaviors can be nonconsciously primed. This article brings work on automaticity to bear on our understanding of habitual virtuous actions. After examining a recent intuitive account of habitual actions and habitual virtuous actions, the author offers her own explanation in terms of goal-dependent automaticity. This form of automaticity provides an account of habitual virtuous actions that explains the sense in which these actions are rational, that is, done for reasons. Habitual virtuous actions are rational in the sense of being purposive or goal-directed and are essentially linked with the agent’s psychological states. Unlike deliberative virtuous actions, the agent’s reasons for habitual virtuous actions are not present to her conscious awareness at the time of acting.

Automaticity and preattentive processing.

The characteristics of automatized performance resemble those of preattentive processing in some respects. In the context of visual search tasks, these include spatially parallel processing, involuntary calling of attention, learning without awareness, and time-sharing with other tasks. However, this article reports some evidence suggesting that extended practice produces its effects through different mechanisms from those that underlie preattentive processing. The dramatic changes in search rate seem to depend not on the formation of new preattentive detectors for the task-relevant stimuli, nor on learned abstracted procedures for responding quickly and efficiently, but rather on changes that are very specific both to the particular stimuli and to the particular task used in practice. We suggest that the improved performance may depend on the accumulation of separate memory traces for each individual experience of a display (see Logan, 1988), and we show that the traces differ for conjunction search in which stimuli must be individuated and for feature search where a global response to the display is sufficient.     

Automaticity of two-digit numbers

Automatic processing of 2-digit numbers was demonstrated using the size congruency effect (SiCE). The SiCE indicates the processing of the irrelevant (numerical) dimension when 2 digits differing both numerically and physically are compared on the relevant (physical) dimension. The SiCE was affected by the compatibility between unit and decade digits but was unaffected by the global magnitude of the numbers. Together these results suggest automatic processing of the magnitudes of the components of the 2-digit numbers but not of whole numbers. Finally, the SiCE was affected more by the magnitude of the decade digits compared with the unit digits, indicating that the syntactic roles of the digits were represented. The implications of these results for understanding the numerical representations are discussed.     

Faithful Aging and the Development of Character

The author tests the kinship of the concepts faithful aging, the centerpiece of her book, The Art of Growing Old: A Guide to Faithful Aging (1998), and development of character, central to James Hillman's book, The Force of Character and the Lasting Life (1999). Faithful aging is assessed in characters from two plays: Graham Greene's The Potting Shed and Robert Anderson's I Never Sang for My Father. Finally, Saussy reflects on the development of character as a theological issue.     

视角采择的自动性

视角采择是个体表征他人或自己所看到世界的能力。个体在判断他人的视角时总是会自动激活自己的视角，但是当个体采取自己的视角时，并不总是会自动激活他人的视角。研究表明，当采取自己的视角时，成人和儿童可以自动做一级视觉视角采择，二级视觉视角采择的过程是非自动的，且成人可以自动做空间视角采择。未来研究需要继续探讨一级视觉视角采择自动性的影响因素，实验设置和个体因素是否会影响二级视觉视角采择的自动性，空间视角采择自动性的发展趋势和影响因素，视角采择的自动性是否与被试完成任务时所使用的策略有关，以及视角采择自动性的发展机制和脑神经机制。     

Development of the Generic Multifaceted Automaticity Scale (GMAS) and preliminary validation for physical activity

ObjectivesThis article presents the validation of a Generic Multifaceted Automaticity Scale (GMAS) assessing the automatic properties of habitual behaviours.DesignA quantitative approach was adopted within various adult samples in order to confirm the internal and external validity of the GMAS pertaining to Physical Activity (PA).MethodStudy 1 investigated the content validity of a series of items among experts (N = 13) and respondents (N = 26). Study 2 examined the scale's construct validity for PA (N = 293). Study 3 tested the GMAS external validity (N = 161). Study 4 evaluated the internal consistency and predictive validity for the GMAS applied to transportation modes (N = 167). Study 5 used a 1-week prospective design and included Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 2012) variables in order to test the predictive validity of the GMAS for active transportation (N = 125).ResultsStudy 1 supported the fact that the 9 items primarily reflected one facet of automaticity. Study 2 validated the hierarchical structure of the scale. In Study 3, convergent validity was confirmed regarding PA through significant correlations with the Self-Report Behavioural Automaticity Index (SRBAI; Gardner et al., 2012) and predictive validity was supported by significant correlations with self-report PA behaviour. Study 4 confirmed its internal consistency and predictive validity. Study 5 demonstrated that the scores derived from the GMAS significantly predicted active transportation behaviour, above and beyond TPB constructs.DiscussionThe GMAS appears as a valid instrument for research on everyday PA behaviours.     

Activation and Automaticity of Colonial Mentality

Among Filipino Americans, colonial mentality (CM) is characterized by automatic preference for anything American and automatic rejection of anything Filipino that may be manifested overtly and covertly. Thus, 3 studies were conducted to test CM's theorized covertness and automaticity. Study 1 attempted to activate and capture the existence of CM‐consistent cultural knowledge schemas; Study 2 investigated whether CM may be automatically activated using a lexical decision task; and Study 3 tested whether Filipino Americans have associated pleasantness with anything American, and unpleasantness with anything Filipino using the Implicit Association Test. The results suggest that many Filipino Americans hold a CM‐consistent cultural knowledge schema, and that CM may be conceptualized as a set of automatic associations that cannot be consciously controlled.     

Experiments on the Automaticity of Political Beliefs and Attitudes

Political science has long relied on explicit responses in order to understand what and how people think. New research in the cognitive sciences suggests that this reliance on conscious considerations provides but a partial picture of how citizens think and reason. Given the limitations of conscious working memory and the growing evidence that much of human cognition occurs outside of awareness, the defining empirical assumption of modern public opinion research—that citizens can tell us what is on their minds—seems increasingly suspect. Moreover, social science is particularly challenged by the sensitivity of their topics, which in turn raises social and personal desirability concerns about self-report data. In order to overcome these limitations, we propose an implicit experimental approach. We contend that implicit measures enable us to measure some of the automatic and affective responses and predispositions that influence thoughts and behaviors outside of conscious awareness.