Hypnotic susceptibility and verbal automaticity: automatic and strategic processing differences in the Stroop color-naming task.

The original hypothesis of Dixon, Brunet, and Laurence (1990) that highly hypnotizable (HH) subjects process words more automatically than do low hypnotizable (LH) subjects was retested in a paradigm that separated strategic from automatic processes in the Stroop color-naming task. The words red and blue preceded a color patch that was red or blue. Subjects were told that the word predicted the opposite color 75% of the time. Automatic and strategic processes were assessed by varying the interstimulus interval (ISI) between the word and the color patch. Both HH and LH subjects showed significant strategic effects (faster incongruent-trial, color-naming reaction times than congruent-trial reaction times at ISIs over 400 ms), but only HH subjects showed significant automaticity (significantly faster congruent-trial reaction times than incongruent-trial reaction times at 16.7 ms, the lowest ISI).     

Involuntary retrieval in alphabet-arithmetic tasks: Task-mixing and task-switching costs

This study explores the effects of memory retrieval in task switching. To this end, item-specific stimulus-to-task mappings were manipulated in two alphabet-arithmetic experiments. Letter-stimuli were presented and the responses were verbal letter names. The task was either to name the next letter in the alphabet, (e.g., C D, task plus), or to name the preceding letter (e.g., C B, task minus). The mapping of individual stimuli to the two tasks (and thus to responses) was either consistent (CM) or varied (VM). In Experiment 1, performance was worse for VM items relative to CM items, indicating item-specific task-mapping effects. These task-mapping effects also contributed to mixing costs (i.e., worse performance in mixed-task blocks than in pure-task blocks) but not to switch costs (worse performance in task-switch trials than in repeat trials within mixed blocks). Experiment 2 manipulated pure and mixed tasks between-participants, and the data again showed differential effects of the task-mapping manipulation on mixing costs and switch costs. This suggests that, in these memory-dependent, alphabet-arithmetic tasks, interference due to involuntary task (and/or response) retrieval primarily increases general multi-task effects, such as maintaining activation of the current task.     

Age-of-acquisition effects in semantic processing tasks

In two experiments, we examined whether word age-of-acquisition (AoA) is a reliable predictor of processing times in semantic tasks. In the first task, participants were asked to say the first associate that came to mind when they saw a stimulus word; the second task involved a semantic categorisation between words with a definable meaning and first names. In both tasks, there were significantly faster responses to earlier-acquired than to later-acquired words. On the basis of these results, we argue that age-of-acquisition effects do not originate solely from the speech output system, but from the semantic system as well.     

Filtering versus parallel processing in RSVP tasks

An experiment of McLean, D. E. Broadbent, and M. H. P. Broadbent (1983) using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) was replicated. A series of letters in one of 5 colors was presented, and the subject was asked to identify the letter that appeared in a designated color. There were several innovations in our procedure, the most important of which was the use of a response menu. After each trial, the subject was presented with 7 candidate letters from which to choose his/her response. In three experimental conditions, the target, the letter following the target, and all letters other than the target were, respectively, eliminated from the menu. In other conditions, the stimulus list was manipulated by repeating items in the series, repeating the color of successive items, or even eliminating the target color. By means of these manipulations, we were able to determine more precisely the information that subjects had obtained from the presentation of the stimulus series. Although we replicated the results of McLean et al. (1983), the more extensive information that our procedure produced was incompatible with the serial filter model that McLean et al. had used to describe their data. Overall, our results were more compatible with a parallel-processing account. Furthermore, intrusion errors are apparently not only a pereptual phenomenon but a memory problem as well.     

Auditory distractor processing in sequential selection tasks

In this review, we analyze the cognitive processes contributing to selection in audition. In particular, we focus on the processing of auditory distractors in sequential selection paradigms in which target stimuli are accompanied by distractors. We review the evidence from two established tasks, namely the auditory negative priming and the auditory distractor–response binding task, and discuss the cognitive mechanisms contributing to the results typically observed in these tasks. In fact, several processes have been suggested as to explain how distractors are processed and handled in audition; that is, auditory distractors can be inhibited, encoded with a do-not-respond-tag, integrated into a stimulus–response episode containing the response to the target, or upheld in working memory and matched/mismatched with the following distractor. In addition, variables possibly modulating these cognitive processes are discussed. Finally, auditory distractor processing is compared with distractor processing in vision.     

Involuntary processing of social dominance cues from bimodal face-voice displays

Social-rank cues communicate social status or social power within and between groups. Information about social-rank is fluently processed in both visual and auditory modalities. So far, the investigation on the processing of social-rank cues has been limited to studies in which information from a single modality was assessed or manipulated. Yet, in everyday communication, multiple information channels are used to express and understand social-rank. We sought to examine the (in)voluntary nature of processing of facial and vocal signals of social-rank using a cross-modal Stroop task. In two experiments, participants were presented with face-voice pairs that were either congruent or incongruent in social-rank (i.e. social dominance). Participants’ task was to label face social dominance while ignoring the voice, or label voice social dominance while ignoring the face. In both experiments, we found that face-voice incongruent stimuli were processed more slowly and less accurately than were the congruent stimuli in the face-attend and the voice-attend tasks, exhibiting classical Stroop-like effects. These findings are consistent with the functioning of a social-rank bio-behavioural system which consistently and automatically monitors one’s social standing in relation to others and uses that information to guide behaviour.     

Across-notation automatic numerical processing

In this article, the authors explored the existence of across-notation automatic numerical processing using size comparison and same-different paradigms. Participants were Arabic speakers, who used 2 sets of numerical symbols -- Arabic and Indian. They were presented with number pairs in the same notation (Arabic or Indian) or in different ones (Arabic and Indian). In the size comparison paradigm, 2 digits differing both numerically and physically were compared on the physical dimension. Nevertheless, there was evidence that participants automatically processed the irrelevant numerical dimension in different notation pairs. In the same-different paradigm, 2 digits were presented either in the same or in different notations. Participants had to indicate whether the 2 digits were physically the same. The results again showed evidence for the automatic processing of numerical magnitude for pairs in different notations. Findings of both experiments suggest that numbers in different notations are automatically translated into a common representation of magnitude, in line with M. McCloskey's (1992) abstract representation model.     

Filtering versus parallel processing in RSVP tasks.

An experiment of McLean, D. E. Broadbent, and M. H. P. Broadbent (1983) using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) was replicated. A series of letters in one of 5 colors was presented, and the subject was asked to identify the letter that appeared in a designated color. There were several innovations in our procedure, the most important of which was the use of a response menu. After each trial, the subject was presented with 7 candidate letters from which to choose his/her response. In three experimental conditions, the target, the letter following the target, and all letters other than the target were, respectively, eliminated from the menu. In other conditions, the stimulus list was manipulated by repeating items in the series, repeating the color of successive items, or even eliminating the target color. By means of these manipulations, we were able to determine more precisely the information that subjects had obtained from the presentation of the stimulus series. Although we replicated the results of McLean et al. (1983), the more extensive information that our procedure produced was incompatible with the serial filter model that McLean et al. had used to describe their data. Overall, our results were more compatible with a parallel-processing account. Furthermore, intrusion errors are apparently not only a perceptual phenomenon but a memory problem as well.     

Alexithymia and automatic affective processing

According to recent theories of emotion evaluative information is activated automatically in the associative network on the observation of a stimulus. This study investigates the relationship between alexithymic personality dimensions and automatic affective facilitation effects. The 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was administered to 32 subjects along with two sequential word–word priming tasks (a pronunciation and an evaluation task). The TAS-20 scale ‘Difficulties Describing Feelings’ showed a correlation with affective facilitation based on negative stimuli, whereas the scale ‘Externally Oriented Thinking’ as well as the TAS-20 sum score correlated with affective facilitation based on positive stimuli. Thus, some evidence was found that individuals with difficulties verbalizing their emotions are especially sensitive to the negative valence of stimuli at a pre-attentive level. It is argued that the scale ‘Difficulties Describing Feelings’ might assess aspects of social anxiety or shame. Individuals who report a pragmatic and externally oriented cognitive style seem to be characterized by a heightened perceptual sensitivity for positive information. Methodological problems in measuring affective priming effects are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Facilitation and interference in the color-naming task

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the phonological activation of the name of pictures when participants had to name the color in which these pictures were depicted. In Experiment 1, participants named the color of pictures whose names and color names shared the phonological beginning (phonologically related condition), the color of pictures whose names and color names did not share phonology (phonologically unrelated condition), and the color of abstract forms (neutral condition). A facilitatory effect was obtained, so participants were faster in the related condition than in the unrelated condition. However, naming latencies were similar in the neutral condition and the unrelated condition. In Experiment 2, the unrelated condition was replaced by a phonologically incongruent condition in which the name of the picture was phonologically unrelated to its color name but related to the name of other response color names. The results showed again a facilitatory effect when the related condition was compared with the incongruent condition. Importantly, an interference effect was also observed, so naming latencies were longer in the incongruent condition than in the neutral condition. These results are discussed in terms of language production models.     

Parallel processing of park-whole information in visual search tasks

Combination of information from the parallel processing of different basic features (color, size, etc.) can be used to guide attention to targets defined by conjunctions of those features. Wolfe et al. (1990) argued that, although it was possible to guide attention to the conjunction of, for instance, color and orientation, it was not possible to guide attention to targets defined by conjunctions of two colors or two orientations. The present experiments demonstrate an exception to this rule. Although it is true that attention cannot be guided to a target that hasred and green parts, attention can be guided to an item that can be described as awhole red target with agreen part. In Experiments 1 and 2, we illustrate this point. In Experiments 3 and 4, we rule out some simple size-based accounts of this finding- In Experiments 5 and 6, we begin to explore the nature of these first steps toward dividing the visual scene into parts and wholes.     

Spatial processing and perceptual sequence learning in SRT tasks

We investigated the influence of processing relevant spatial information on learning a probabilistic sequence of irrelevant locations. Using the SRT design of Remillard (2003), we found that spatial perceptual learning occurs with paired but not with single targets. The pairs of targets consisted of the same stimuli, but in a different order, so that responses could have been based on the left-right location of an element, relative to the other element of the pair. The prerequisite of spatial pairs of targets suggests that spatial processing of relevant information plays a crucial role in perceptual location learning. In addition, spatial perceptual learning only took place when the target pair was presented together with other stimuli, but was absent when the target pair was presented in a blank field. Since in the latter case attention is automatically captured, this suggests that sequence learning requires endogenous attention.     

Age-related emotional bias in processing two emotionally valenced tasks

Psychological Research - Previous studies suggest that older adults process positive emotions more efficiently than negative emotions, whereas younger adults show the reverse effect. We examined...     

No face-like processing for objects-of-expertise in three behavioural tasks

In the debate between expertise and domain-specific explanations of "special" processing for faces, a common belief is that behavioural studies support the expertise hypothesis. The present article refutes this view, via a combination of new data and review. We tested dog experts with confirmed good individuation of exemplars of their breed-of-expertise. In all experiments, standard results were confirmed for faces. However, dog experts showed no face-like processing for dogs on three behavioural tasks (inversion; the composite paradigm; and sensitivity to contrast reversal). The lack of holistic/configural processing, indicated in the first two of these tests, is shown by review to be consistent rather than inconsistent with previous studies of objects-of-expertise.     

Conceptual processing effects on automatic memory

In the present study, influences of conceptual processing on automatic forms of memory were investigated, using a category production task. The experiment employed Jacoby's (1991) process dissociation procedure and fits of multinomial models to estimate conscious and automatic memory for semantic and graphemic study tasks. Memory estimates from a generate-source model indicated more automatic memory for semantic than for graphemic items on the category production task. These results provide support for conceptual processing influences on automatic forms of memory.