Cognitive control in cued task switching with transition cues: Cue processing,task processing,and cue–task transition congruency

We investigated the processes underlying performance during cued task switching with transition cues. To this end, transition cueing and explicit cueing were compared in a design controlling for sequential effects in the two preceding trials in order to further examine the contribution of cue processes, task processes, and cue–task transition congruency during transition cueing. The study confirmed that the task-switch cost in transition cueing is larger than the task-switch cost in explicit cueing and showed that this larger switch cost is mainly due to cue processing. We also successfully decomposed performance in transition cueing into cue processing, task processing, and cue–task transition congruency on both a theoretical (Experiment 1) and an empirical basis (Experiments 2–3). Our empirical dissociation also demonstrates that cue–task transition congruency affects performance during both cue processing and task processing. We discuss the importance of our findings in relation to the different theories on task switching.     

Inhibition of return in response to gaze cues: The roles of time course and fixation cue

Recent studies have demonstrated that orienting of attention in response to nonpredictive gaze cues arises rapidly and automatically, in a similar fashion to peripheral sudden onset cueing. However, while peripheral cues consistently elicit inhibition of return (IOR) at about 300 ms following cue onset, very little is known about inhibition effects in response to gaze cues. The present experiments systematically examined the conditions under which IOR arises with such cues. Reliable inhibition effects were obtained. Importantly, IOR emerged only at long cue-target intervals and only when a second cue actively triggered attention away from the cued location. This suggests that compared to sudden onset cueing, gaze cueing results in both prolonged facilitation and a delayed onset of inhibition processes. Thus, although both types of cues elicit very similar orienting effects in terms of their basic behavioural outcomes, there are more subtle differences between gaze and peripheral cues with respect to the maintenance and quality of those cueing effects across time.     

Aging and semantic cueing during learning and retention of verbal episodic information

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of semantic cues provided at encoding and during retention for older adults' memory. For the California Verbal Learning Test-II, participants received semantic or nonsemantic cues that were varied across groups at encoding and during the retention interval. Provision of a semantic cue at encoding led to greater semantic clustering at learning, but not increased recall performance. Providing a semantic cue during the retention interval led to better delayed free recall and greater semantic clustering. No group differences in recall or semantic clustering were found at delayed cued recall. The current findings suggest that semantic cues can be beneficial for recalling unstructured information when administered during the retention interval.     

Negative Cueing Effects with Weak and Strong Intralist Cues

In three experiments, we studied cueing effects of relational and itemspecific information after enacted and non-enacted encoding of short sentences (e.g. lift the pen, fold the paper). In Experiment 1, all subjects were instructed at encoding to remember only the nouns of these sentences; half of the subjects were informed about the categorical nature of the nouns, whereas the other half were not. At retrieval, all subjects were given a free recall test and a cued recall test with the verb of each sentence as the cue. In Experiment 2, all subjects were instructed at encoding to remember the whole sentence; as in Experiment 1, half of the subjects were informed about the categorical nature of the nouns and half were not. At test, all subjects were given two cued recall tests, one categorical cue for each noun in the first test and one verb cue and one categorical cue for each noun in the second test. In Experiment 3, at encoding, all subjects were informed about the categorical nature of nouns and were instructed to remember the whole sentence. In this experiment, the actions were performed with imaginary objects; free recall and cued recall tests were given to different subjects. In all three experiments, there was a negative effect of intralist cueing with verbs. This finding is at odds with the Encoding Specificity Principle, which assumes facilitation of cueing at retrieval if the cues were encoded together with the to-be-remembered information at encoding. Also, the effect of intralist cueing was different after encoding with enactment than after encoding without enactment; this difference holds true for enactment with real objects but not for enactment with imaginary objects. Enactment increased both the relational and the item-specific cueing efficiency. The results are discussed in terms of encoding interference between cues and targets and between item-specific processing and relational processing. Enacted encoding is conceived as integrating episodic information both with respect to item specificity and relational aspects of the information.     

Differential time course of implicit and explicit cueing by colour and orientation in visual search

Using a cued conjunction search task, Anderson, Heinke, and Humphreys (2010) demonstrated larger effects from cueing target colour than from cueing target orientation. In this study, we separated the implicit (nonexpectation-dependent) and explicit (expectation-dependent) effects of orientation and colour visual cues. In Experiment 1, we replicated the original findings for short cue durations (100–200 ms), demonstrating that cues matching the physical property of the target on 80% of trials exert a rapid effect on search. These early cueing effects on reaction times were supported by evidence of guidance from cues on early eye movements. Experiment 2 introduced a feature to the cue that randomly matched the colour or orientation of the target. When cue orientation was predictive, there were strong implicit effects based on whether the colour of the cue and target matched. When cue colour was predictive, there were only weak effects from the cue's orientation. Implicit effects from cue colour remained when orientation-predictive cues were used and colour was unlikely to predict the target (Experiment 3). The data suggest that strong effects of colour cueing result from a combination of implicit and explicit processes, whereas effects from orientation cues are largely limited to the explicit guidance of visual search.     

A biased-competition approach to spatial cueing: Combining empirical studies and computational modelling

We examined the effects of cue luminance on visual orienting. Experiment 1 established that the commonly-found early facilitation and late inhibition of return (IOR) effects were independent of cue luminance with single cues in terms of their amplitude, although IOR was delayed in the low compared to the high luminance cue condition. In contrast, Experiment 2 revealed that, with dual cues of mixed luminance, both facilitation and IOR effects were found only with bright cues. When cues had equal luminance, however, there were cueing effects for two cued locations but only when the cues were bright. The data were accommodated in a neural network model of biased competition in which cueing effects emerge at more than one location provided input activation is sufficient to overcome competitive damping of the selection system.     

Aging and Semantic Cueing during Learning and Retention of Verbal Episodic Information

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of semantic cues provided at encoding and during retention for older adults' memory. For the California Verbal Learning Test-II, participants received semantic or nonsemantic cues that were varied across groups at encoding and during the retention interval. Provision of a semantic cue at encoding led to greater semantic clustering at learning, but not increased recall performance. Providing a semantic cue during the retention interval led to better delayed free recall and greater semantic clustering. No group differences in recall or semantic clustering were found at delayed cued recall. The current findings suggest that semantic cues can be beneficial for recalling unstructured information when administered during the retention interval.     

部分线索对记忆提取的影响:认知抑制能力的作用

在回忆时,以刚刚学过的部分项目作为提取线索,被试的回忆成绩反而比没有任何线索时的回忆成绩差,这一现象被称为部分线索效应。该效应通常被认为是抑制执行控制过程对非线索项目记忆表征强度抑制的结果。本研究以Stroop效应量(实验1)和工作记忆容量(实验2)为指标,从个体差异角度考察了认知抑制能力对部分线索效应的影响。结果发现,Stroop效应量与部分线索效应各指标呈显著负相关,Stroop效应量越小,部分线索效应各指标的值越大;工作记忆容量与部分线索效应各指标呈显著正相关,高工作记忆容量个体的部分线索效应各指标的值也更大。结果表明,认知抑制能力越强,部分线索对回忆的破坏作用越大,研究结果支持部分线索效应的提取抑制假说。     

Facilitation of recall with intralist cues: Time-dependent characteristics of cued recall

List items were given as retrieval cues in a free-recall experiment which factorially combined the presence or absence of cues with the amount of time allowed for use of each cue (10 sec or 30 sec). A categorizable list of 75 randomly presented words was learned, and 48 h later a free-recall test trial was given, followed by a final memory search task. During the final task, cued subjects received words from categories that had not been recalled during the free-recall test. With both time intervals, cued subjects recalled more words than noncued subjects, indicating that random presentation of categorized words does not necessarily preclude the observation of a cueing effect with list items, as has been reported previously. The composition of recall, whether from previously recalled or nonrecalled categories, varied as a function of time for both groups. The results were interpreteod in terms of retrieval strategies employed by cued and noncued subjects and the effect of time on these strategies.     

Resolving conflicting views: Gaze and arrow cues do not trigger rapid reflexive shifts of attention

It has become widely accepted that the direction of another individual's eye gaze induces rapid, automatic, attentional orienting, due to it being such a vital cue as to where in our environment we should attend. This automatic orienting has also been associated with the directional-arrow cues used in studies of spatial attention. Here, we present evidence that the response-time cueing effects reported for spatially nonpredictive gaze and arrow cues are not the result of rapid, automatic shifts of attention. For both cue types, response-time effects were observed only for long-duration cue and target stimuli that overlapped temporally, were largest when the cues were presented simultaneously with the response-relevant target, and were driven by a slowing of responses for invalidly cued targets rather than speeding for validly cued ones. These results argue against automatic attention-orienting accounts and support a novel spatial-incongruency explanation for a whole class of rapid behavioural cueing effects.     

Detection costs and contingent attentional capture

Peripheral cues reduce reaction times (RTs) to targets at the cued location with short cue-target SOAs (cueing benefits) but increase RTs at long SOAs (cueing costs or inhibition of return). In detection tasks, cueing costs occur at shorter SOAs and are larger compared with identification tasks. To account for effects of task, detection cost theory claims that the integration of cue and target into an object file makes it more difficult to detect the target as a new event, which is the principal task-requirement in detection tasks. The integration of cue and target is expected to increase when cue and target are similar. We provided evidence for detection cost theory in the modified spatial cueing paradigm. Two types of cues (onset, color) were paired with two types of targets (onset, color) in separate blocks of trials. In the identification task, we found cueing benefits with matching (i.e., similar) cue-target pairs (onset-onset, color-color) and no cueing effects with nonmatching cue-target pairs (onset-color, color-onset), which replicates previous work. In the detection task, cueing effects with matching cues were reduced and even turned into cueing costs for onset cues with onset targets, suggesting that cue-target integration made it more difficult to detect targets at the cued location as new events. In contrast, the results for nonmatching cue-target pairs were not affected by task. Furthermore, the pattern of false alarms in the detection task provides a measure of similarity that may explain the size of cueing benefits and costs.     

A configural dominant account of contextual cueing: Configural cues are stronger than colour cues

Previous work has shown that reaction times to find a target in displays that have been repeated are faster than those for displays that have never been seen before. This learning effect, termed “contextual cueing” (CC), has been shown using contexts such as the configuration of the distractors in the display and the background colour. However, it is not clear how these two contexts interact to facilitate search. We investigated this here by comparing the strengths of these two cues when they appeared together. In Experiment 1, participants searched for a target that was cued by both colour and distractor configural cues, compared with when the target was only predicted by configural information. The results showed that the addition of a colour cue did not increase contextual cueing. In Experiment 2, participants searched for a target that was cued by both colour and distractor configuration compared with when the target was only cued by colour. The results showed that adding a predictive configural cue led to a stronger CC benefit. Experiments 3 and 4 tested the disruptive effects of removing either a learned colour cue or a learned configural cue and whether there was cue competition when colour and configural cues were presented together. Removing the configural cue was more disruptive to CC than removing colour, and configural learning was shown to overshadow the learning of colour cues. The data support a configural dominant account of CC, where configural cues act as the stronger cue in comparison to colour when they are presented together.     

Semantic cueing effects on word retrieval in aphasic patients with lexical retrieval deficit

We examined lexical access in word production, focusing on lexical retrieval deficit in aphasic patients. These patients were asked to name one picture at a time and we investigated how semantic cueing affected their ability to retrieve the word. When the subjects experienced a retrieval failure, they were presented with one type of cue, and then they tried to name the target picture again. Four types of cues were used: phonological, semantic related, semantic category member, and baseline cue. Both phonological and semantically related cues improved performance. In contrast, category member cues had no effects on releasing the retrieval block. These results can be explained by an interactive activation model in word production (Dell & O'Seaghdha, 1991).     

多媒体学习中线索效应的元分析

作为多媒体学习中一种重要的指导性教学设计形式, 线索能否引导学习者的注意并促进学习效果, 目前结论尚不一致。研究运用元分析技术, 分别以保持测验、迁移测验的成绩作为学习效果的结果变量, 以线索区的注视时间、注视次数作为注意引导的结果变量, 探讨多媒体环境中的线索对学习效果和注意引导的影响, 并通过调节效应检验考察线索效应的边界条件。采用严格标准进行文献检索和筛选后, 共获取43篇符合元分析的文献。在保持测验成绩和迁移测验成绩上, 分别生成了44个(3910人)和41个(3906人)独立效应量; 在对线索区的注视时间和注视次数上, 分别生成了14个(938人)和11个(816人)独立效应量。结果发现, 线索的加入显著提高了保持测验成绩(g = 0.53)和迁移测验成绩(g = 0.36), 同时也增加了学习者对线索区的注视时间(g = 0.50)和注视次数(g = 0.70)。调节效应分析发现：在保持测验成绩上, 静态学习材料、陈述性知识、理工科条件下的线索效应分别高于动态学习材料、程序性知识和文科; 在迁移测验成绩上, 时空线索、静态学习材料、陈述性知识条件下的线索效应分别高于物理线索、动态学习材料和程序性知识; 而在眼动指标上, 线索对注意的引导主要受线索类型的调节, 物理线索条件下学习者对线索区的注视时间和注视次数均高于时空线索。结论认为, 线索的加入确实促进了学习者对学习材料的识记和理解效果, 同时也引导了学习者的注意分配; 但线索效应一定程度上受线索类型、学习材料动态性、知识类型、学科属性等因素的调节。未来研究需进一步考察线索效应的其他边界条件。     

The illusion of control: Sequential dependencies underlie contingent attentional capture

The degree to which humans have top-down control over which information they process remains a central debate within the attention literature. Most of the evidence supporting the top-down control of visuospatial attention has come from cueing paradigms in which target stimuli are preceded by cues that are similar or dissimilar from the target. These studies find that the cues similar to targets capture attention, but dissimilar cues do not, suggesting the top-down control of attention. Here, we used a modified cueing paradigm to investigate an alternative possibility that the cue type differences are due to sequential dependency effects occurring between cue and target processing rather than the top-down control of attention. When individuals searched for color targets, we replicated contingent capture effects in RTs, which are susceptible to sequential dependencies, but memory performance was always best at the cued locations, regardless of the cue’s identity. When individuals searched for onset targets, we observed contingent capture in both tasks. These results demonstrate the utility of the memory probe paradigm and suggest an asymmetry between how strongly onsets and color defined cues capture attention.     

Autobiographical memory in two older adults over a twenty-year retention interval

This article reports on a study of autobiographical memory in two older adults, wife and husband, over a retention interval of 20 years. The female participant kept a 20-year log of daily events. A sampling of events that varied in distinctiveness, from unique, one-of-a-kind events to routine, almost daily events, was used to examine cued recall using an incremental scoring system. Each event recalled was also rated on phenomenological scales of remembering versus knowing, rehearsal, and importance. The strongest effect on recall was the order of the cues, with an initial what cue, containing the content of the event, proving superior to cues containing who or where elements. When was the most effective second cue. The results demonstrate regularity in retention over time and highlighted the utility of this approach for understanding the factors that influence autobiographical memory performance.     

Eye gaze versus arrows as spatial cues: two qualitatively different modes of attentional selection

This study aimed to evaluate the type of attentional selection (location- and/or object-based) triggered by two different types of central noninformative cues: eye gaze and arrows. Two rectangular objects were presented in the visual field, and subjects' attention was directed to the end of a rectangle via the observation of noninformative directional arrows or eye gaze. Similar experiments with peripheral cues have shown an object-based effect: faster target identification when the target is presented on the cued object as compared to the uncued object, even when the distance between target and cue was the same. The three reported experiments aimed to compare the location- and object-based attentional orienting observed with arrows and eye gaze, in order to dissociate the orienting mechanisms underlying the two types of orienting cues. Results showed similar cueing effects on the cued versus oppositely cued locations for the two cue types, replicating several studies with nonpredictive gaze and arrow cues. However, a pure object-based effect occurred only when an arrow cue was presented, whereas a pure location-based effect was only found for eye-gaze cues. It is suggested that attention is nonspecifically directed to nearby objects when a noninformative arrow is used as cue, whereas it is selectively directed to a specific cued location when noninformative eye gaze is used. This may be mediated by theory of mind mechanisms.     

Arrow-elicited cueing effects at short intervals: Rapid attentional orienting or cue-target stimulus conflict?

The observation of cueing effects (faster responses for cued than uncued targets) rapidly following centrally-presented arrows has led to the suggestion that arrows trigger rapid automatic shifts of spatial attention. However, these effects have primarily been observed during easy target-detection tasks when both cue and target remain on the screen until the behavioral response. We manipulated stimulus duration and task difficulty in an attention-cueing experiment to explore non-attentional explanations for rapid cueing effects. Contrary to attention-based predictions, short-interval cueing effects were observed only for long-duration cue and target stimuli, occurred even when the cue and target were presented simultaneously, and were driven by slowing of the uncued-target responses, rather than any facilitation for cued targets. We propose that, under these long-duration, short-interval conditions, the processing of the cue and target interact more extensively in the brain, and that when the cue and target convey incongruent spatial information (i.e., on invalidly cued trials) it leads to conflict-related slowing of responses.     

The role of temporal and spatial factors in the covert orienting of visual attention tasks

There is a biphasic pattern in response times to peripheral uninformative cues, with faster responses to targets in cued locations when the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) is under 300 ms and slower responses when it is over 300 ms. The effect has typically been attributed entirely to the SOA while ignoring other aspects of the cues (duration, spatial configuration). To examine these other factors, along with SOA, the present experiments included manipulations of SOA (50, 100, 200, 400, 800 ms), inter-stimulus interval (ISI; 0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 350, 400, 500, 600, 700, and 750 ms), and whether or not the cue and target overlap in the same space. The results indicate that cueing effects depend on the combination of cue duration, ISI, SOA, and the spatial configuration of the cues and targets. Three factors are used to explain these time course results.     

Comparing word fragment completion and cued recall with letter cues

Cued recall with word stems as cues and fragment completion rely on different types of letter cues and also differ in the explicit-implicit nature of the retrieval orientation. Despite these differences, variables effective in one task may be effective in the other because both rely on letter cues. Two variables known to affect cued recall were manipulated: Lexical set size (number of words that fit the letter cue) and meaning set size (number of associates generated to the studied words). Across four experiments, subjects in each task were less likely to recover targets from larger lexical sets. However, meaning set size affected cued recall but not fragment completion. These results indicate that fragment completion and letter-cued recall are based on lexical search but that cued recall also involves a semantic search component. Furthermore, type of retrieval cue had a greater effect than type of retrieval orientation.