Automatic-heuristic and executive-analytic processing during reasoning: Chronometric and dual-task considerations

Human reasoning has been shown to overly rely on intuitive, heuristic processing instead of a more demanding analytic inference process. Four experiments tested the central claim of current dual-process theories that analytic operations involve time-consuming executive processing whereas the heuristic system would operate automatically. Participants solved conjunction fallacy problems and indicative and deontic selection tasks. Experiment 1 established that making correct analytic inferences demanded more processing time than did making heuristic inferences. Experiment 2 showed that burdening the executive resources with an attention-demanding secondary task decreased correct, analytic responding and boosted the rate of conjunction fallacies and indicative matching card selections. Results were replicated in Experiments 3 and 4 with a different secondary-task procedure. Involvement of executive resources for the deontic selection task was less clear. Findings validate basic processing assumptions of the dual-process framework and complete the correlational research programme of K. E. Stanovich and R. F. West (2000).     

Subconscious image recognition

Two experiments demonstrate the influence of an unconscious form of information storage on behavior. In the learning phase, subjects see pictures in which other pictures or figures are embedded. The experimental procedure makes sure that these embedded figures cannot be seen (or consciously identified) by the subjects. Nevertheless, the results of a perceptual identification task in the test phase prove that information of these unidentified figures has been stored by the subjects: In a clarification task, subjects were shown the cut out, previously embedded figures and other pictures which they had to name as quickly as possible. The experimental group, which had seen the pictures with the embedded figures in the learning phase, was much quicker in responding to the naming task than the control group, which had not seen these pictures before. These results are discussed in terms of a distinction between sensori-perceptual and conceptual information storage in humans. Conceptual information is characterized as meaningful, symbolic, and accessible to conscious reasoning and remembering, while sensori-perceptual information is seen as nonsymbolic, modality-bound, and restricted to unconscious reactivations in data-driven process repetitions.     

Test of a potential link between analytic and nonanalytic category learning and automatic, effortful processing

The link between automatic and effortful processing and nonanalytic and analytic category learning was evaluated in a sample of 29 college undergraduates using declarative memory, semantic category search, and pseudoword categorization tasks. Automatic and effortful processing measures were hypothesized to be associated with nonanalytic and analytic categorization, respectively. Results suggested that contrary to prediction strong criterion-attribute (analytic) responding on the pseudoword categorization task was associated with strong automatic, implicit memory encoding of frequency-of-occurrence information. Data are discussed in terms of the possibility that criterion-attribute category knowledge, once established, may be expressed with few attentional resources. The data indicate that attention resource requirements, even for the same stimuli and task, vary depending on the category rule system utilized. Also, the automaticity emerging from familiarity with analytic category exemplars is very different from the automaticity arising from extensive practice on a semantic category search task. The data do not support any simple mapping of analytic and nonanalytic forms of category learning onto the automatic and effortful processing dichotomy and challenge simple models of brain asymmetries for such procedures.     

Individual differences in the detection of embedded figures

The individual differences in processing obtained by Hock (1973) were extended to two experiments in which the embedded figures test was recast into the form of a yes-no reaction time task. Ss emphasizing analytic processes detected the embedded figures more rapidly than Ss emphasizing structural processes, supporting the hypothesis that attention to the parts of the embedded figures was the strategy most appropriate for the task. Based on the interaction between familiarity (normal vs rotated orientation) and embeddedness (intact vs embedded figures), it was concluded in both experiments that familiarity facilitated the detection of the embedded figures for analytic Ss. For structural Ss, familiarity was similarly found to facilitate the detection of the embedded figures, but only when a template-matching strategy was possible (when the target figure and the embedded figure were physically identical).     

Automatic–heuristic and executive–analytic processing during reasoning: Chronometric and dual-task considerations

Human reasoning has been shown to overly rely on intuitive, heuristic processing instead of a more demanding analytic inference process. Four experiments tested the central claim of current dual-process theories that analytic operations involve time-consuming executive processing whereas the heuristic system would operate automatically. Participants solved conjunction fallacy problems and indicative and deontic selection tasks. Experiment 1 established that making correct analytic inferences demanded more processing time than did making heuristic inferences. Experiment 2 showed that burdening the executive resources with an attention-demanding secondary task decreased correct, analytic responding and boosted the rate of conjunction fallacies and indicative matching card selections. Results were replicated in Experiments 3 and 4 with a different secondary-task procedure. Involvement of executive resources for the deontic selection task was less clear. Findings validate basic processing assumptions of the dual-process framework and complete the correlational research programme of K. E. Stanovich and R. F. West (2000).     

Musicians processing music: Measurement of brain potentials with EEG

Abstract

In the present study, the EEG was recorded from the scalp of musicians while mentally active in their field. Analytic, creative and memory processes of the brain were observable using a special electrophysiological method called DC-potential recording. Music students listened to a sequence of four notes and subsequently were either to reverse the sequence (task 1 = analytic) or to compose a new continuation (task 2 = creative). In task 3, the initial segment of a well-known melody was presented and had to be continued (memory task). All tasks had to be solved mentally (imagery). In tasks 1 and 2, either tonal or atonal sequences were presented.

While processing, the results show that the analytic task elicited the highest brain activity. The analytic task involved mainly parieto-temporal areas of both hemispheres, the left hemisphere showing a tendency for domination. The memory task produced predominant activity over the right hemisphere. The creative task caused the lowest brain activation and elicited an unexpected lateralisation to the left, though we expected creativity to be a right hemispheric holistic-synthetic phenomenon.

Comparing listening with processing of the perceived music, we found a significant shift from an insignificant right hemispheric to an insignificant left hemispheric predominance (except with the memory task). This indicates that musicians do not lateralise to the left hemisphere per se when listening to music. Whether one finds a left hemispheric lateralisation in listening tasks or a right hemispheric one probably depends on the amount of simultaneous analytic-sequential processing the musician undertakes.     

Heuristic and analytic processing: age trends and associations with cognitive ability and cognitive styles

Developmental and individual differences in the tendency to favor analytic responses over heuristic responses were examined in children of two different ages (10- and 11-year-olds versus 13-year-olds), and of widely varying cognitive ability. Three tasks were examined that all required analytic processing to override heuristic processing: inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning under conditions of belief bias, and probabilistic reasoning. Significant increases in analytic responding with development were observed on the first two tasks. Cognitive ability was associated with analytic responding on all three tasks. Cognitive style measures such as actively open-minded thinking and need for cognition explained variance in analytic responding on the tasks after variance shared with cognitive ability had been controlled. The implications for dual-process theories of cognition and cognitive development are discussed.     

Field independence and simultaneous processing in preschool children

The present study examined the relations between field independence and simultaneous processing of preschool children as measured by the Preschool Embedded Figures Test (PEFT) and subtests from the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC), respectively. Data partially supported the assumption that field-independent children would perform significantly better on simultaneous processing tasks in general. Significant age and sex differences on field-independence/field-dependence and simultaneous-processing abilities were found among the embedded figures task and selected portions of the K-ABC. Analysis of embedded figures further indicated age differences, but no significant sex differences.     

Acute alcohol effects on repetition priming and word recognition memory with equivalent memory cues

Acute alcohol intoxication effects on memory were examined using a recollection-based word recognition memory task and a repetition priming task of memory for the same information without explicit reference to the study context. Memory cues were equivalent across tasks; encoding was manipulated by varying the frequency of occurrence (FOC) of words in the study lists. Twenty-two female and male social drinkers (age 21-24 years) completed equivalent versions of the memory tasks in two counterbalanced sessions (alcohol challenge, no-alcohol). Alcohol and the FOC manipulation affected recollection-based memory processing, but not repetition priming. Results supported alcohol's dissociative effects on memory systems.     

Impairment of cognition, risk-taking, and self-perception by alcohol

The effects of alcohol on risk-taking, visual signal detection, and perceptual-motor skills were examined under controlled conditions. Skill in two videogame tasks (driving and racquetball simulations) was unaffected by a massive dose of alcohol, whereas risk-taking in the driving task was increased. Alcohol also impaired performance on the signal-detection task, decreasing both perceptual vigilance and caution (d' and beta). The dependent measures yielded minor correlations with personality and biographical variables, although men were more skilled and riskier in their behaviour than women. A second experiment employing the signal-detection task indicated that even moderate doses of alcohol can significantly impair visual perception and perceptual decision making. Both studies showed that subjects who receive a massive dose of alcohol (bac .12% or .16%) significantly underestimate the amount consumed, and rate themselves as being much less than totally drunk.     

Automatic and conscious processing in retarded and nonretarded adolescents

Educable mentally retarded and nonretarded adolescents participated in incidental learning tasks that emphasized the utilization of processes that were consciously controlled but not deliberately aimed at memory (Experiment 1). Retarded individuals' performance on a standard recognition test was equivalent to that of nonretarded subjects following phonetic encoding and nonstrategic encoding, but was deficient following semantic encoding. Retarded subjects also demonstrated a lower level of performance on a rhyme recognition task. In Experiment 2, retarded subjects provided a pattern of responding identical to that of nonretarded subjects on a picture-word interference task designed to assess automatic processing. The two groups produced equivalent levels of semantic activation. It was argued that the results of the two experiments indicate deficient semantic processing on the part of retarded individuals relative to that of nonretarded individuals that cannot be accommodated by a structural-deficiency model, a developmental-lag model, or a hypothesis that predicts intelligence-related differences only when the task involves the use of deliberate mnemonic strategies.     

Preliminary identification of nonlinear correlations for spatial tests and reaction-time tasks

Scores on three spatial tests (mental rotation, embedded figures, and gestalt completion) were significantly correlated with four same-different reaction-time tasks in a sample of 48 female university students. Scores on the Vandenberg-Kuse mental rotation test correlated best with a one-different-all-different task, embedded figures with a one-different-all-same task, and the gestalt completion with a one-same-all-same task, suggesting that the strategies subjects employ for each spatial test are similar to the strategies they use in each of the same-different tasks with which their scores correlate best. Present results support the position that stronger correlations than previously noted between scores on spatial tests and reaction-time tasks are observed when matching the tests and tasks in terms of hypothesized underlying processes.     

Empathy and feedback processing in active and observational learning

The feedback-related negativity (FRN) and the P300 have been related to the processing of one’s own and other individuals’ feedback during both active and observational learning. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the role of trait-empathic responding with regard to the modulation of the neural correlates of observational learning in particular. Thirty-four healthy participants completed an active and an observational learning task. On both tasks, the participants’ aim was to maximize their monetary gain by choosing from two stimuli the one that showed the higher probability of reward. Participants gained insight into the stimulus–reward contingencies according to monetary feedback presented after they had made an active choice or by observing the choices of a virtual partner. Participants showed a general improvement in learning performance on both learning tasks. P200, FRN, and P300 amplitudes were larger during active, as compared with observational, learning. Furthermore, nonreward elicited a significantly more negative FRN than did reward in the active learning task, while only a trend was observed for observational learning. Distinct subcomponents of trait cognitive empathy were related to poorer performance and smaller P300 amplitudes for observational learning only. Taken together, both the learning performance and event-related potentials during observational learning are affected by different aspects of trait cognitive empathy, and certain types of observational learning may actually be disrupted by a higher tendency to understand and adopt other people’s perspectives.     

Effects of cocaine and alcohol, alone and in combination, on human learning and performance.

The acute effects of cocaine hydrochloride (4 to 96 mg/70 kg) and alcohol (0 to 1.0 g/kg), administered alone and in combination, were assessed in two experiments with human volunteers responding under a multiple schedule of repeated acquisition and performance of response chains. Subjects were intermittent users of cocaine and regular drinkers who were not cocaine or alcohol dependent. Alcohol was mixed with orange juice and ingested in six drinks within 30 min; cocaine was administered intranasally 45 min after completion of drinking. In each component of the multiple schedule, subjects completed response sequences using three keys of a numeric keypad. In the acquisition component, a new sequence was learned each session. In the performance component, the response sequence always remained the same. Results were consistent in both experiments, despite variations in the order in which the drugs were tested alone and in combination. Alcohol administered alone increased overall percentage of errors and decreased rates of responding in the acquisition component, whereas responding in the performance component generally was unaffected. Cocaine administered alone decreased rates of responding but did not affect accuracy of responding in the acquisition component, and enhanced accuracy of responding without affecting rates of responding in the performance component. The combined doses of cocaine and alcohol attenuated the effects observed with alcohol and cocaine alone. These results suggest that, under the conditions investigated in this study, (a) alcohol produces greater behavioral disruption than cocaine or cocaine-alcohol combinations, (b) cocaine and alcohol each attenuate effects of the other, and (c) such attenuation is most pronounced for cocaine attenuating the disruptive effects of alcohol.     

People newly in love are more responsive to positive feedback

Passionate love is associated with increased activity in dopamine-rich regions of the brain. Increased dopamine in these regions is associated with a greater tendency to learn from reward in trial-and-error learning tasks. This study examined the prediction that individuals who were newly in love would be better at responding to reward (positive feedback). In test trials, people who were newly in love selected positive outcomes significantly more often than their single (not in love) counterparts but were no better at the task overall. This suggests that people who are newly in love show a bias toward responding to positive feedback, which may reflect a general bias towards reward-seeking.     

Effects of test anxiety on motor learning: The processing efficiency hypothesis

Abstract

The hypothesis that, under test (stress) conditions, high trait-anxious individuals invest extra processing resources to reach motor learning levels similar to those of low-anxious individuals was investigated. A transfer procedure (practice trial, rest interval, and transfer trial) was employed to analyse motor learning effects. In Experiment 1, a secondary task (click detection) was used to measure the extra processing resources expenditure on motor learning during the practice trial. Neither motor performance in the transfer trial nor secondary task performance differed as a function of test condition or anxiety trait. A critical analysis of the secondary task paradigm suggested that it was not sensitive enough to reflect the amount of processing capacity expended on the primary motor tasks. In Experiment 2, subjects performed a loading task (verbal shadowing of sentences) concurrently with the motor tasks during the practice trial to prevent extra resources from being allocated to motor learning. Results showed that anxiety trait was associated to performance time increments on the high-demanding motor tasks in the transfer trial. A plausible explanation is that anxiety impairs learning because it reduces the efficiency of processing. An alternative interpretation, concerning an ability deficit of high trait-anxious individuals, is discussed.     

Alcohol and Complex Functioning1

Twenty-five managers participated in two parallel 6-hour quasi-experimental simulations. On placebo treatment days, the subjects received hourly placebo drinks. On alcohol treatment days (order counterbalanced), enough alcohol was provided prior to the fourth hour of simulation participation to attain a breath alcohol level (BAL) of near 0.10. All other drinks contained a placebo beverage. Complex task performance was assessed on five variables derived from complexity theory, comparing performance for three measurement periods: (a) prior to the fourth hour of simulation participation (placebo treatment), (b) during the fourth hour (rising BALs on alcohol treatment days), and (c) during the fifth/sixth hours (falling BALs). Alcohol diminished the participants’ breadth of approach (differentiation). Performance on indicators of strategic functioning (integration) decreased after BALs had begun to fall but not while BALs were rising. The implications for performance of complex tasks under the influence of alcohol and for the applicability of the acute tolerance phenomenon to complex task environments are considered.     

Item type,occlusion, and gender differences in mental rotation

Two experiments were conducted to examine the role of item type in mental rotation. In each experiment, participants completed two computerized mental rotation tasks, one with blocks as stimuli and one with human figures as stimuli. The tasks were formatted either as a multiple-choice psychometric test (Experiment 1) or as a same–different type task (Experiment 2). Aside from the expected replication of a decreased effect of occlusion on women's accuracy when processing human figures compared to block figures, it was hypothesized that response times would increase when processing the complex but familiar human figures, compared to the simple but unfamiliar block figures. In Experiment 1, the results relevant to occlusion were replicated. However, the presence of a speed–accuracy trade-off suggested that participants processed human figures faster but less accurately than block figures. In Experiment 2, both men and women performed faster and more accurately when processing occluded human figures than when processing nonoccluded human figures. The effect of item type, its potential link to embodied cognition, and the role of strategy selection on gender differences in mental rotation are discussed.     

Local and global processing in savant artists with autism

We explored the hypothesis that an enhanced local processing style is characteristic of both art and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by examining local and global processing in savant artists with ASD. Specifically, savant artists were compared against non-talented individuals with ASD or mild/moderate learning difficulties (MLD), as well as artistically talented or nontalented students, on the block-design task and meaningful and abstract versions of the embedded figures test (EFT). Results demonstrated that there were no significant differences between the meaningful and abstract versions of the EFT, in any of the groups. This suggests that the primary process governing performance on this task was perceptual (local), rather than conceptual (global). More interestingly, the savant artists performed above the level of the ASD and MLD groups on the block-design test, but not the EFT. Despite both the block-design task and the EFT measuring local processing abilities, we suggest that this result is due to the block-design task being an active construction task (requiring the conversion of a visual input into a motor output), whereas the EFT is a passive recognition task. Therefore, although an enhanced local processing style is an important aspect of savant artistic talent, motor control also appears to be a necessary skill.     

Drunk,but not blind: The effects of alcohol intoxication on change blindness

Alcohol use has long been assumed to alter cognition via attentional processes. To better understand the cognitive consequences of intoxication, the present study tested the effects of moderate intoxication (average BAC between .071 and .082) on attentional processing using complex working memory capacity (WMC) span tasks and a change blindness task. Intoxicated and sober participants were matched on baseline WMC performance, and intoxication significantly decreased performance on the complex span tasks. Surprisingly, intoxication improved performance on the change blindness task. The results are interpreted as evidence that intoxication decreases attentional control, causing either a shift towards more passive processing and/or a more diffuse attentional state. This may result in decreased performance on tasks where attentional control or focus are required, but may actually facilitate performance in some contexts.