Attention and preattention in theories of automaticity.

The theoretical relation between preattentive processes and automatic processes is different in different approaches to attention and automaticity. In the modal view, automatic and preattentive processes are one and the same; automatic processing is preattentive. In recent views that treat automaticity as a memory phenomenon, automatic processing is postattentive. These views are described and evidence for them is discussed. Two experiments are reported that test whether the training that makes processing automatic also makes it preattentive. The data suggest a dissociation between automatic and preattentive processes that is more consistent with the memory view of automaticity than with the modal view.     

On the control of automatic processes: a parallel distributed processing account of the Stroop effect

Traditional views of automaticity are in need of revision. For example, automaticity often has been treated as an all-or-none phenomenon, and traditional theories have held that automatic processes are independent of attention. Yet recent empirical data suggest that automatic processes are continuous, and furthermore are subject to attentional control. A model of attention is presented to address these issues. Within a parallel distributed processing framework, it is proposed that the attributes of automaticity depend on the strength of a processing pathway and that strength increases with training. With the Stroop effect as an example, automatic processes are shown to be continuous and to emerge gradually with practice. Specifically, a computational model of the Stroop task simulates the time course of processing as well as the effects of learning. This was accomplished by combining the cascade mechanism described by McClelland (1979) with the backpropagation learning algorithm (Rumelhart, Hinton, & Williams, 1986). The model can simulate performance in the standard Stroop task, as well as aspects of performance in variants of this task that manipulate stimulus-onset asynchrony, response set, and degree of practice. The model presented is contrasted against other models, and its relation to many of the central issues in the literature on attention, automaticity, and interference is discussed.     

Assessing automaticity

We propose two principles that should be followed in the study of automaticity for cognitive processes. Both follow from the general rule that experimental research should be guided by a model of the task in question, frequently a process model. The first is that the concept of automaticity is best applied to component processes of complex behaviors rather than to behaviors as a whole. The second is that the criteria chosen for the identification of automaticity should be motivated by the processes in question. Examples are discussed of research programs that are relevant to each principle.     

Conceptual Competence as a Component of Second Language Fluency

In this article we argue that conceptual competence should be seen as a component of second language (L2) communicative competence. Abstract concepts are highly expressed by means of metaphors, metonymies, idioms and other types of figurative language. In literature it is suggested that knowledge and appropriate use of these lexical segments are closely related to L2 mastery and therefore conceptual instruction is expected to facilitate L2 learning. To test the relationship between conceptual and L2 competence we conducted an experiment in which Modern Greek learners were encouraged to express their views on the concept of happiness. The results showed their weak performance in conveying their ideas in a coherent and acceptable manner.     

Strategic and Nonstrategic Information Acquisition

Communication researchers routinely assume that information seeking is a strategic, goaldirected process; however, several domains of theory and research suggest that potentially consequential information may be acquired nonstrategically. Dual‐process theories and research concerned with automaticity and the role conceptual short‐term memory (CSTM) plays in visual information processing are used to illustrate both the ubiquity of nonstrategic information acquisition and its potential consequences on judgments and behavior. Theoretical and methodological implications of nonstrategic information acquisition for the study of information seeking are discussed.     

Conceptual structure and social functions of behavior explanations: beyond person--situation attributions

The traditional approach to studying behavior explanations involves treating them as either person causes or situation causes and assessing them by using rating scales. An analysis of people's free-response behavior explanations reveals, however, that the conceptual distinctions people use in their explanations are more complex and sophisticated than the person-situation dichotomy suggests. The authors, therefore, introduce a model of the conceptual structure of folk behavior explanations (the network of concepts and assumptions on which explanations are based) and test it in 4 studies. The modes and features of behavior explanations within this conceptual structure also have specific social functions. In 2 additional studies, the authors demonstrate that people alter distinct features of their explanations when pursuing particular impression-management goals and that listeners make inferences about explainers' goals on the basis of these features.     

Recognition memory of spatial location information: Another failure to support automaticity

Hasher and Zacks (1979) claimed that spatial location information is automatically encoded. Evaluation of the empirical basis for this claim, however, casts doubt on some of the evidence for the automaticity position. This evaluation led to four experiments in which five criteria for testing the automaticity of cognitive processes were examined using a recognition task. Results of these experiments clearly show thatrecognition memory for spatial location information is influenced by intention, age of subjects, competing task loads, practice, and individual differences. The reported results, which extend those reported by Naveh-Benjamin (1987) for spatial locationrecall memory, are at odds with the claim that memory for spatial location information is exclusively mediated by automatic encoding processes. The concept of automaticity and the appropriateness of the criteria suggested for testing the automaticity of cognitive processes are discussed in light of the current results and recent findings on other features of the environment (e.g., frequency of occurrence) previously claimed to be automatically encoded.     

Classification as diagnostic reasoning

An ongoing goal in the field of categorization has been to determine how objects’ features provide evidence of membership in one category versus another. Well-known findings include that feature diagnosticity is a function of how often the feature appears in category members versus nonmembers, their perceptual salience, how features are used in support of inferences, and how observable features are related to other observable features. We tested how diagnosticity is affected by causal relations between observable and unobserved features. Consistent with our view of classification as diagnostic reasoning, we found that observable features are more diagnostic to the extent that they are caused by underlying features that define category membership, because the presence of the latter can be (causally) inferred from the former. Implications of these results for current views of conceptual structure and models of categorization are discussed.     

Conceptual influences on induction: A case for a late onset

This research examines the mechanism of early induction, the development of induction, and the ways attentional and conceptual factors contribute to induction across development. Different theoretical views offer different answers to these questions. Six experiments with 4- and 5-year-olds, 7-year-olds and adults (N = 208) test these competing theories by teaching categories for which category membership and perceptual similarity are in conflict, and varying orthogonally conceptual and attentional factors that may potentially affect inductive inference. The results suggest that early induction is similarity-based; conceptual information plays a negligible role in early induction, but its role increases gradually, with the 7-year-olds being a transitional group. And finally, there is substantial contribution of attention to the development of induction: only adults, but not children, could perform category-based induction without attentional support. Therefore, category-based induction exhibits protracted development, with attentional factors contributing early in development and conceptual factors contributing later in development. These results are discussed in relation to existing theories of development of inductive inference and broader theoretical views on cognitive development.     

Challenges in the conceptualization of trait self-control as a psychological construct

Self-control is widely believed to be a valuable characteristic that contributes to leading a healthy, happy, and successful life through the effective pursuit of long-term goals. Yet, despite a prolific literature spanning decades, essential questions about the conceptual nature of trait self-control remain unanswered. Substantially different perspectives on the theoretical nature of (trait) self-control coexist side by side. We briefly review prominent views informing what trait self-control as a psychological construct is. On this basis, we identify four conceptual challenges that we think the field should address moving forward: (a) integrating theoretical notions, (b) addressing variability in individual goals, (c) acknowledging variability in dominant responses, and (d) anchoring trait self-control in a nomological network. We highlight why addressing these challenges is crucial for gaining a deeper understanding of trait self-control. We also suggest how theoretical conceptualizations of trait self-control might do so and the implications this would bear for measurement and interventions.     

Placing the perceptual-cognitive approach in perspective

Although some features of the "psychological approach" are compelling, its immediate impact as a theoretical framework appears to be limited by somewhat ambiguous key constructs and the lack of appropriate placement vis-a-vis extant conceptual views.     

The Role of Conscious Awareness in Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior can be influenced by mental processes that occur outside of conscious awareness. It is argued that in each domain of automaticity, researchers should specify the aspects of which consumers are presumably unaware. Three types of awareness are identified. These include awareness of (a) the environmental features that trigger an automatic process, (b) the automatic process itself, and (c) the outcome of that automatic process. Individuals may be unaware of one or more of these stages, thereby making the process nonconscious. With additional clarity regarding which aspects are nonconscious in which domains and the specific role that awareness plays, we can begin building a more comprehensive model of nonconscious processes in consumer behavior.     

Attitudinal Approaches to Health Behavior: Integrating Expectancy‐Value and Automaticity Accounts

Attitudes are a key construct in health psychology due to their central role in motivating and changing behavior. An expectancy‐value framework has been the dominant conceptual approach for exploring the impact of attitudes on health behavior, applications of which emphasize volition and rational decision making. More recently, attention has focused on automatic attitudes, which are believed to capture reflexive aspects of motivation. Dual‐process models such as the MODE generally treat expectancy‐value and automaticity accounts as representing separate processing pathways. However, both accounts depend on associative learning. Learning history pairs beliefs or features with evaluations; subsequent activation of beliefs or features activates associated evaluations and drives overall attitude. Therefore, a single information processing architecture may accommodate expectancy‐value and automaticity approaches within a unifying framework, and this is provided by neural network (connectionist) accounts. In this paper, we highlight how a greater emphasis on the information processing mechanics of associative learning can provide a more parsimonious model of attitudes, which may also extend to a wider array of memory‐related phenomena of relevance to health psychology.     

At the boundaries of automaticity: negation as reflective operation

The present research investigated whether automatic social-cognitive skills are based on the same representations and processes as their controlled counterparts. Using the cognitive task of negating valence, the authors demonstrate that enhanced practice in negating the valence of a stimulus can lead to changes in the underlying associative representation. However, procedural, rule-based components of negations were generally unaffected by practice (Experiments 1-3). Moreover, negations of evaluative stimuli did not influence automatic evaluative responses to these stimuli, unless the negation was included in the associative representation of a stimulus (Experiments 4-6). These results suggest that some practice-related skill improvements are limited to conditions in which a general procedure can be substituted by the retrieval of results of previous applications from associative memory. Implications for research on automaticity and social cognition are discussed.     

A trimodal behavioral conceptualization of clinical pain.

A trimodal behavioral conceptualization of pain is outlined in the current article. It proposes that pain should be viewed as an interacting cluster of gross motor, cognitive, and physiological responses. Such a conceptual system is thought to contain the basic properties needed to incorporate current divergent views of pain held by medical and behavior science into a common conceptual framework.     

Continuous information processing in conceptual identifications

Summary This investigation was aimed at the analysis of processes of the conceptual object identification. Three experiments were performed which utilized a response preparation paradigm developed by Miller (1982). The results confirm the psychological validity of a distinction between sensorily and categorially represented concepts proposed formerly by the authors. The process of identification of objects as belonging to sensory concepts was analysed in more detail. The experimental results suggest that it may be a sequential feature matching process which is characterized by continuous information processing. Early in the process the figurative features allowing an identification of an object as belonging to a more general sensory concept are processed. In following processing stages this first conceptual identification is more and more specified by an additional checking of more detailed figurative features. More importantly, the results indicate that the information about the general conceptual identity of an object is not only available early in the identification process but can also be used for the preparation of following processes or processing stages even before the object is fully identified. Possible influences of the early information on the control of the conceptual identification itself and on the selection and control of motor behavior are discussed.We wish to thank the following psychology students at the Humboldt University in Berlin for their help in performing the experiments: Kathrin Hänel, Erika Küchler and Christina Matthé. Furthermore, we wish to thank the two anaonymous reviewers and Johannes Engelkamp for their helpful comments on a first draft of our paper     

抽象概念表征的具身认知观

抽象概念是否通过感知经验来表征以及如何被感知经验表征是具身认知面临的一大问题.在抽象概念表征是否具有感知经验基础的问题上,具身认知理论认为抽象概念通过情境模拟或隐喻与感知经验发生联系.在抽象概念如何与感知经验表征发生联系的问题上,概念模拟理论强调情景或运动模拟在抽象概念表征中的直接作用;概念隐喻理论则侧重具体经验或具体经验与抽象概念之间的共同结构关系在抽象概念表征中的间接作用.未来研究应改变概念表征的稳定的心理实体观,从语言和抽象表征的关系、正常儿童和特殊群体的抽象概念表征差异入手,整合不同的具身认知观点.     

认知加工的自动化现象：从二分法到渐进观

认知自动化是人类学习和进步的必经之路。传统的二分法通过无意识等特征简单地将认知加工过程分为受控加工与自动化加工。但这些特征取决于研究者所采用的研究范式, 不具有普适性。近年来研究者根据注意资源有限理论提出自动化是一个渐进的过程, 而注意资源需求的减少是自动化发展的核心特征。相比二分法, 这种渐进观更加符合实证研究的发现。而且, 渐进观在信息加工自动化理论和技能习得理论的阶段性中都得以体现, 进一步证明了渐进观的普适性。     

Distinctive features hold a privileged status in the computation of word meaning: Implications for theories of semantic memory

The authors present data from 2 feature verification experiments designed to determine whether distinctive features have a privileged status in the computation of word meaning. They use an attractor-based connectionist model of semantic memory to derive predictions for the experiments. Contrary to central predictions of the conceptual structure account, but consistent with their own model, the authors present empirical evidence that distinctive features of both living and nonliving things do indeed have a privileged role in the computation of word meaning. The authors explain the mechanism through which these effects are produced in their model by presenting an analysis of the weight structure developed in the network during training.     

Contrasting effects of feature-based statistics on the categorisation and basic-level identification of visual objects

Conceptual representations are at the heart of our mental lives, involved in every aspect of cognitive functioning. Despite their centrality, a long-standing debate persists as to how the meanings of concepts are represented and processed. Many accounts agree that the meanings of concrete concepts are represented by their individual features, but disagree about the importance of different feature-based variables: some views stress the importance of the information carried by distinctive features in conceptual processing, others the features which are shared over many concepts, and still others the extent to which features co-occur. We suggest that previously disparate theoretical positions and experimental findings can be unified by an account which claims that task demands determine how concepts are processed in addition to the effects of feature distinctiveness and co-occurrence. We tested these predictions in a basic-level naming task which relies on distinctive feature information (Experiment 1) and a domain decision task which relies on shared feature information (Experiment 2). Both used large-scale regression designs with the same visual objects, and mixed-effects models incorporating participant, session, stimulus-related and feature statistic variables to model the performance. We found that concepts with relatively more distinctive and more highly correlated distinctive relative to shared features facilitated basic-level naming latencies, while concepts with relatively more shared and more highly correlated shared relative to distinctive features speeded domain decisions. These findings demonstrate that the feature statistics of distinctiveness (shared vs. distinctive) and correlational strength, as well as the task demands, determine how concept meaning is processed in the conceptual system.