Contingency learning and unlearning in the blink of an eye: A resource dependent process

Recent studies show that when words are correlated with the colours they are printed in (e.g., MOVE is presented 75% of the time in blue), colour identification is faster when the word is presented in its correlated colour (MOVE in blue) than in an uncorrelated colour (MOVE in green). The present series of experiments explored the possible mechanisms involved in this colour-word contingency learning effect. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the effect is already present after 18 learning trials. During subsequent unlearning, the effect extinguished equally rapidly. Two reanalyses of data from Schmidt, Crump, Cheesman, and Besner (2007) ruled out an account of the effect in terms of stimulus repetitions. Experiment 2 demonstrated that participants who carry a memory load do not show a contingency effect, supporting the hypothesis that limited-capacity resources are required for learning. Experiment 3 demonstrated that memory resources are required for both storage and retrieval processes.     

In the blink of an eye: Real-time stimulus factors in delay and trace conditioning of the rabbit's nictitating membrane response

Since Pavlov, theories of conditioning have assumed that CR evocation is governed by a series of internal stimuli generated by the CS. This hypothesis was tested in conditioning of the rabbit's nictitating membrane (NM) response by attempting to manipulate the internal sequence through truncating a delay CS and extending a trace CS on test trials. These perturbations of CS duration produced large deficits in CR likelihood and smaller alterations in the CR's time course. As predicted by many models of conditioning, the onset of the CS appeared to play a large but not exclusive role compared to CS duration and CS offset in both evocation and timing of the CR. The results are discussed with respect to their implications for real-time models of conditioning.     

The gist of the abnormal: Above-chance medical decision making in the blink of an eye

Very fast extraction of global structural and statistical regularities allows us to access the “gist”—the basic meaning—of real-world images in as little as 20 ms. Gist processing is central to efficient assessment and orienting in complex environments. This ability is probably based on our extensive experience with the regularities of the natural world. If that is so, would experts develop an ability to extract the gist from the artificial stimuli (e.g., medical images) with which they have extensive visual experience? Anecdotally, experts report some ability to categorize images as normal or abnormal before actually finding an abnormality. We tested the reality of this perception in two expert populations: radiologists and cytologists. Observers viewed brief (250- to 2,000-ms) presentations of medical images. The presence of abnormality was randomized across trials. The task was to rate the abnormality of an image on a 0–100 analog scale and then to attempt to localize that abnormality on a subsequent screen showing only the outline of the image. Both groups of experts had above-chance performance for detecting subtle abnormalities at all stimulus durations (cytologists d' ≈ 1.2 and radiologists d' ≈ 1), whereas the nonexpert control groups did not differ from chance (d' ≈ 0.23, d' ≈ 0.25). Furthermore, the experts’ ability to localize these abnormalities was at chance levels, suggesting that categorization was based on a global signal, and not on fortuitous attention to a localized target. It is possible that this global signal could be exploited to improve clinical performance.     

Interpretation revealed in the blink of an eye: depressive bias in the resolution of ambiguity

Self-report measures of interpretation have been criticized on methodological grounds. An approach is introduced in this article that enables the assessment of interpretive bias with a greater degree of methodological rigor than previously has been the case. Psychophysiological researchers have established that the magnitude of the human blink reflex is augmented when elicited during negative rather than neutral imagery. The 1st experiment demonstrates that the blink reflex is sensitive to the emotional valence of imagery evoked by interpretations imposed on ambiguous stimuli. In the 2nd experiment, this measure is used to assess interpretations imposed on ambiguous stimuli by individuals who differ in depression levels. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that depression is associated with a negative interpretive bias.     

Cardiac modulation of startle: Effects on eye blink and higher cognitive processing

Cardiac cycle time has been shown to affect pre-attentive brainstem startle processes, such as the magnitude of acoustically evoked reflexive startle eye blinks. These effects were attributed to baro-afferent feedback mechanisms. However, it remains unclear whether cardiac cycle time plays a role in higher startle-related cognitive processes, as well. Twenty-five volunteers responded first by ’fast as possible’ button pushes (reaction time, RT), and second, rated perceived intensity of 60 acoustic startle stimuli (85, 95, or 105 dB; 50 ms duration; binaural; instantaneous rise time), which were presented either 230 or 530 ms after the R-wave, and eye blink responses were measured by EMG. RT was divided into evaluation and motor response time according to previous research. Increasing stimulus intensity enhanced startle eye blink, intensity ratings, and RT components. Eye blinks and intensity judgments were lower when startle was elicited at a latency of R + 230 ms, but RT components were differentially affected: the evaluative component was attenuated, and the motor component was accelerated when stimuli were presented 230 ms after the R-wave. We conclude that the cardiac cycle affects the attentive processing of acoustic startle stimuli.     

The eye blink as a time-locked response: implications for serial and second-order conditioning

A series of experiments were conducted to determine what factors control responding to the first element of a two-element serial compound in rabbit eyelid conditioning. An examination of response topography indicated that the eye-blink CR is rigidly timed to occur when the US is expected. This response-system characteristic prevents the occurrence of a CR during the first element of a serial compound or during the second-order CS in second-order conditioning. The comparison of a serial gap procedure with conventional serial and trace conditioning procedures suggested that the associative strength of the first element of a serial CS is not strongly influenced by either a second-order conditioning process or by the variable-reinforcement principle.     

Acute stress impairs trace eye blink conditioning in females without altering the unconditioned response

Exposure to an acute stressor of inescapable swimming or intermittent tail shocks impairs classical eye blink conditioning 24h later in female rats. This effect is often attributed to a deficit in "learning," but since stress has been shown to induce analgesia, an alternative explanation is that stressor exposure reduces conditioning by lessening the perceived intensity of the unconditioned stimulus (US). To address this possibility we examined the amplitude of the unconditioned response (UR) during training and found that although exposure to the stressor impaired trace conditioning, there was no difference in the UR amplitude. We also found that eye blink responses to different US intensities (4-12 V) in the absence of training were unaffected by stressor exposure. Taken together, these experiments indicate that the stress-induced impairment of conditioning in females is not due to a decreased perception of US strength.     

Using interactive computing to expand intelligence testing: A critique and prospectus

Microcomputers can serve as automated testing stations for use in psychometric assessment. There are economic advantages in conducting aptitude and intelligence testing with such stations. It is possible to improve the quality of cognitive assessment by extending the range of cognitive abilities to be assessed? Two types of extension are considered; modifying and expanding testing procedures for psychological functions that are components of conventional tests, and the extension oof testing to psychological functions not generally assessed by conventional intelligence or aptitude tests. Computerized presentations will make relatively little difference in our ways of testing verbal comprehension. Computer controlled testing could well extend the ways in which we evaluate spatial-visual reasoning and memory. The impact of testing on the evaluation of reasoning is unclear. Computer-controlled item presentation makes it possible to conceive of tests of learning and attention, neither of which are evaluated in most psychometric programs today. The psychological nature of the abilities being assessed raises problems in assessment that are not addressed by the fact oof computer-control. Some research questions are identified that ought to be explored before testing is extended into these fields. Computer-controlled evaluation could be extended to the assessment of criterion performance, either in the normal working situation or in a simulation of the workplace. While evaluation of this sort does raise social questions, it clearly presents an opportunity to obtain validation data for psychological assessment studies.     

Minds on the blink: The relationship between inattentional blindness and attentional blink

Failures of conscious visual awareness occur when specific task demands prevent an observer from detecting a stimulus that would otherwise be clearly visible. Two examples are inattentional blindness (IB) and attentional blink (AB). IB is the failure to detect an unexpected stimulus when attention is otherwise engaged. AB describes the inability to detect a second target that is presented within 180-500?ms of the first target. Previous research has suggested that similar cognitive processes underlie both IB and AB; however, they are distinct phenomena, and no evidence has directly linked the two. We tested the same group of observers on an IB task and an AB task. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that "non-noticers" who failed to detect an unexpected stimulus in the IB task also demonstrated a larger AB effect. This suggests that some observers may be more generally susceptible to failures of conscious visual awareness, regardless of specific context.     

In the eye of the examinee: likable examiners interfere with performance

We investigated effects of examiners’ ascribed likability and examiners’ gender on test performance during a standardized face-to-face testing situation assessing self-estimated and de facto verbal knowledge. One hundred fourteen nonpsychology students were individually tested by one of 22 examiners. A moderated regression analysis revealed a significant three-way interaction of test taker’s gender, examiner’s gender, and examiner’s likability on de facto knowledge: Men and women showed lower scores on de facto knowledge with a same-gender examiner rated as likable compared to their performance with a likable opposite-gender examiner or in interaction with a nonlikable examiner.     

The attentional blink: A review of data and theory

Under conditions of rapid serial visual presentation, subjects display a reduced ability to report the second of two targets(Target2; T2) in a stream of distractors if it appearswithin200-500 msec of Target 1 (Tl). This effect. known as the attentional blink(AB),has been central in characterizing the limits of humans’ ability to consciously perceive stimuli distributed across time. Here, we review theoretical accounts of the AB and examine how they explain key findings in the literature. We conclude that the AB arises from attentional demands of Tl for selection, working memory encoding, episodic registration,and response selection, which prevents this high-level central resource from being applied to T2 at shortT1-T2 lags. Tl processing also transiently impairs the redeployment of these attentional resources to subsequent targets and the inhibition of distractors that appear in close temporal proximity to T2. Although these findings are consistent with a multifactorial account of the AB,they can also be largely explained by assuming that the activation of these multiple processes depends on a common capacity-limited attentional process for selecting behaviorally relevant events presented among temporally distributed distractors. Thus, at its core, the attentional blink may ultimately reveal the temporal limits of the deployment of selective attention.     

More than meets the eye: The attentional blink in multisensory environments. Commentary on Kranczioch and Thorne

Temporal fluctuations of attention can influence performance of cognitive tasks substantially. A common paradigm to investigate temporal fluctuations of attention is the attentional blink paradigm. Kranczioch and Thorne (2013) report new evidence for the impact of auditory stimuli on the visual attentional blink in the current issue of Advances in Cognitive Psychology.     

Rapid serial visual distraction: task-irrelevant items can produce an attentional blink

When two sequential targets (T1 and T2) are presented within about 600 msec, perception of the second target is impaired. This attentional blink (AB) has been studied by means of two paradigms: rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), in which targets are embedded in a stream of central distractors, and the two-target paradigm, in which targets are presented eccentrically without distractors. We examined the role of distractors in the AB, using a modified two-target paradigm with a central stream of task-irrelevant distractors. In six experiments, the RSVP stream of distractors substantially impaired identification of both T1 and T2, but only when the distractors shared common characteristics with the targets. Without such commonalities, the distractors had no effect on performance. This points to the subjects' attentional control setting as an important factor in the AB deficit and suggests a conceptual link between the AB and a form of nonspatial contingent capture attributable to distractor processing.     

Too much control can hurt: A threaded cognition model of the attentional blink

Explanations for the attentional blink (AB; a deficit in identifying the second of two targets when presented 200-500 ms after the first) have recently shifted from limitations in memory consolidation to disruptions in cognitive control. With a new model based on the threaded cognition theory of multi-tasking we propose a different explanation: the AB is produced by an overexertion of control. This overexertion is produced by a production rule that blocks target detection during memory consolidation. In addition to fitting many known effects in the literature, the model predicts that adding certain secondary tasks will decrease the AB. In Experiment 1, a secondary task is added to the AB task in which participants have to respond to a moving dot. As predicted, AB decreases. Experiment 2 expands this result by controlling for learning, and adds a second variation, rotating the first target. For this variation the model predicts an increase in AB, which is indeed what we found.     

In the eye of the storm: race and genomics in research and practice

The difficulties of operationalizing race in research and practice for social, behavioral, and genetic researchers and practitioners are neither new nor related to recent genetic knowledge. For geneticists, the bases for understanding groups are clines, observed traits that gradually change in frequency between geographic regions without distinct identifiable population boundaries and population histories that carry information about the distribution of genetic variants. For psychologists, race may not exist or be a social and cultural construct associated with fluid social inferences. Because definitions of populations and race can be socially and biologically incongruent, the authors suggest that geneticists and social and behavioral scientists and clinicians attend to external validity issues by operationalizing population and racial categories and avoiding race proxies for other biological, social, and cultural constructs in research designs, data analyses, and clinical practice.     

Alpha,beta: The rhythm of the attentional blink

Extant theories of the attentional blink propose that the most critical factor in determining second target accuracy is the time that elapses between the first and second targets. We report that this conclusion has overlooked an equally important determinant, namely, the frequency of the entraining stream in which these targets are embedded. Specifically, we show in two experiments that the signature of the attentional blink—second target accuracy that increases with intertarget lag—is significantly larger for entraining streams that are in the alpha-beta frequency range, relative to streams that are slower (theta) or faster (gamma). This finding ties the attentional blink critically, for the first time, to these two prominent oscillation frequencies that are known to be involved in the control of human attention and consciousness.