Individual response patterns in binary choice tasks with nondiscriminable stimuli

The present experiment sought to determine whether individual Ss tend to employ repeatedly the same response patterns in binary choice tasks containing nondiscriminable stimuli and, if so, whether the response sequences when used to construct stimulus sequences improve the performance of other choice tasks. Information and frequency analyses of the response sequences of 48 Ss showed moderate consistency of patterning within a light and within a tone task. Performance of a card task following the light and tone tasks was closely related to the task (light or tone) from which the stimulus sequence was obtained. The frequency analysis showed that repetition patterns were preferred by most Ss but at the expense of alternation responses. The presentation of reinforcement in the card task did not improve performance over that observed in the light and tone tasks.     

Individual response patterns in binary choice tasks with nondiscriminable stimuli

The present experiment sought to determine whether individual Ss tend to employ repeatedly the same response patterns in binary choice tasks containing nondiscriminable stimuli and, if so, whether the response sequences when used to constructstimulus sequences improve the performance of other choice tasks. Information and frequency analyses of the response sequences of 48 Ss showed moderate consistency of patterning within a light and within a tone task. Performance of a card task following the light and tone tasks was closely related to the task (light or tone) from which the stimulus sequence was obtained. The frequency analysis showed that repetition patterns were preferred by most Ss but at the expense of alternation responses. The presentation of reinforcement in the card task did not improve performance over that observed in the light and tone tasks.     

What has happened to Prägnanz? Coding,stability, or resonance

Three theoretical measures of Prägnanz were compared with four data sets. The theoretical measures were a stimulus-coding one (structural information load, SIL), a measure related to within memory processes (stability), and one based on the interaction of perception and memory (resonance). The four data sets were obtained in two experiments and involved goodness rating, grouping, and immediate and delayed recall. A complete set of seven-element binary serial patterns was used in each experiment. Both SIL and resonance were shown to correlate reliably with the data sets across tasks. The resonance measure, however, performed best. Prägnanz thus appears to be explained better by resonance than by stimulus coding or memory storage. Resonance explained all systematic variance in the recall tasks, but not in the other tasks. Regarding these, partial-correlation analyses showed that the effect of stability could be fully reduced to resonance. SIL could not be similarly reduced. Therefore, additional perceptual constraints, other than resonance, would be needed for a complete account of goodness in the judging or grouping tasks.     

Verbal Fluency,Semantics, Context and Symptom Complexes in Schizophrenia

Lexical-semantic access and retrieval was examined in 15 adults diagnosed with schizophrenia and matched controls. This study extends the literature through the inclusion of multiple examinations of lexical-semantic production within the same patient group and through correlating performance on these tasks with various positive and negative clinical symptoms. On tasks of verbal fluency, meaning generation, sentence production using contextual information and confrontation naming, participants with schizophrenia made significantly more semantic errors on naming tasks; produced fewer meanings for homophones; produced fewer items on semantic, phonological, cued and switching fluency tasks; and produced more errors on sentence production tasks when compared to healthy controls. Significant correlations were also observed between ratings of psychomotor poverty and measures of semantic production and mental inflexibility. This study has provided additional evidence for deficits in lexical-semantic retrieval which are not due to underlying semantic store degradation, do not involve phonological based retrieval, and at the level of sentence generation appear to vary as a function of the contextual constraints provided.     

What has happened to Pr?gnanz? Coding, stability, or resonance.

Three theoretical measures of Pr?gnanz were compared with four data sets. The theoretical measures were a stimulus-coding one (structural information load, SIL), a measure related to within memory processes (stability), and one based on the interaction of perception and memory (resonance). The four data sets were obtained in two experiments and involved goodness rating, grouping, and immediate and delayed recall. A complete set of seven-element binary serial patterns was used in each experiment. Both SIL and resonance were shown to correlate reliably with the data sets across tasks. The resonance measure, however, performed best. Pr?gnanz thus appears to be explained better by resonance than by stimulus coding or memory storage. Resonance explained all systematic variance in the recall tasks, but not in the other tasks. Regarding these, partial-correlation analyses showed that the effect of stability could be fully reduced to resonance. SIL could not be similarly reduced. Therefore, additional perceptual constraints, other than resonance, would be needed for a complete account of goodness in the judging or grouping tasks.     

Components of Random Generation by Normal Subjects and Patients with Dysexecutive Syndrome

The study presents a hypothesis on how randomness could be simulated by human subjects. Three sources of deviation from randomness are predicted: (1) the preferred application of overlearned production schemata for producing sequences of digits, (2) a wrong concept of randomness, and (3) the impossibility to monitor for redundancies of higher- than those of first-order. Deviations of random generation of digits produced by healthy subjects, patients with chronic frontal lobe damage, and patients with Parkinson′s disease from random sequences produced by a computer program can be explained by the differential influence of these factors. Whereas incorrect concepts of randomness and limits on monitoring capacity distinguished all sequences produced by humans from actual random sequences, persistence on a single production strategy distinguished brain-damaged patients from controls. Random generation of digits appears to be a theoretically transparent and clinically useful test of executive function.     

Working memory in chess

Three experiments investigated the role of working memory in various aspects of thinking in chess. Experiment 1 examined the immediate memory for briefly presented chess positions from master games in players from a wide range of abilities, following the imposition of various secondary tasks designed to block separate components of working memory. Suppression of the articulatory loop (by preventing subvocal rehearsal) had no effect on measures of recall, whereas blocking the visuospatial sketchpad (by manipulation of a keypad) and blocking the central executive (by random letter generation) had equivalent disruptive effects, in comparison with a control condition. Experiment 2 investigated the effects of similar secondary tasks on the solution (i.e., move selection) of tactical chess positions, and a similar pattern was found, except that blocking the central executive was much more disruptive than in Experiment 1. Experiment 3 compared performance on two types of primary task, one concerned with solving chess positions as in Experiment 2, and the other a sentence-rearrangement task. The secondary tasks in each case were both designed to block the central executive, but one was verbal (vocal generation of random numbers), while the other was spatial in nature (random generation of keypresses). Performance of the spatial secondary task was affected to a greater extent by the chess primary task than by the verbal primary task, whereas there were no differential effects on these secondary tasks by the verbal primary task. In none of the three experiments were there any differential effects between weak and strong players. These results are interpreted in the context of the workingmemory model and previous theories of the nature of cognition in chess.     

Measuring delay discounting in a crowdsourced sample: An exploratory study

Delay discounting is a measure of preferences for smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. Discounting has been assessed in many ways; these methods have variably and inconsistently involved measures of different lengths (single vs. multiple items), forced‐choice methods, self‐report methods, online and laboratory assessments, monetary and non‐monetary compensation. The majority of these studies have been conducted in laboratory settings. However, over the past 20 years, behavioral data collection has increasingly shifted online. Usually, these experiments involve completing short tasks for small amounts of money, and are thus qualitatively different than experiments in the lab, which are typically more involved and in a strongly controlled environment. The present study aimed to determine how to best measure future discounting in a crowdsourced sample using three discounting measures (a single shot measure, the 27‐item Kirby Monetary Choice Questionnaire, and a one‐time Matching Task). We examined associations of these measures with theoretically related variables, and assessed influence of payment on responding. Results indicated that correlations between the discounting tasks and conceptually related measures were smaller than in prior laboratory experiments. Moreover, our results suggest providing monetary compensation may attenuate correlations between discounting measures and related variables. These findings suggest that incentivizing discounting measures changes the nature of measurement in these tasks.     

Analyzing human random generation behavior: A review of methods used and a computer program for describing performance

In this paper, we consider the different methods that have been developed to quantify random generation behavior and incorporate these measurement scales into a Windows95 computer program called RgCalc. RgCalc analyzes the quality of human attempts at random generation and can provide computer-generated, pseudorandom sequences for comparison. The program is designed to be appropriate for the analysis of various types of random generation situations employed in the psychological literature. The different algorithms for the evaluation of a dataset are detailed and an outline of the program is described. Performance measures are available for assessing various aspects of the response distribution, the sequencing of pairs, the ordinal relationships between sets of items, and the tendency to repeat alternatives over different lengths. A factor analysis is used to illustrate the multiple dimensions underlying human randomization processes.     

热手谬误？赌徒谬误？ ——随机序列知觉中近因效应的格式塔现象研究

通过两个实验来探讨随机序列中的近因效应。在实验1中,采用传统实验范式,让被试进行一系列的抛掷硬币结果的猜测并给予反馈,结果发现：（1）在最近连续几次硬币呈现的结果不同时,人们通常把各个结果分别作为独立的单元来看待,大部分情况下做出随机性的预期;（2）在最近连续几次硬币呈现的结果相同时,人们通常把连续几次相同的结果作为一个认知单元来看待,在最近猜测对错两种情况下分别出现了截然相反的两种近因效应。当最近1次猜对时,对下一结果的预期出现正近因效应即热手谬误,但是最近几次连续猜对时谬误减少乃至消失;当最近1次猜错时,对下一结果的预期出现负近因效应即赌徒谬误,并且最近几次连续猜错时负近因效应并未受到太大影响。实验2在实验1范式的基础上,把硬币抛掷的结果人为分组,发现被试对每一组的第一个结果做出预期时,实验1中的各种效应均消失,该现象支持关于随机序列知觉的“格式塔理论”。     

The Relationship between Reaction Time and Psychometric Intelligence in a Rural Guatemalan Adolescent Population

In industrialized countries reaction time has been found to be related to measures of intelligence and cognitive abilities. Little, however, is known about the validity of using such tasks in nonindustrialized countries. The present research investigated the association between reaction time and psychometric intelligence in a rural Guatemalan adolescent population. Results indicated that speed and consistency of processing on reaction time tasks were related to psychometric intelligence. However, the magnitude of these relationships were considerably smaller than those reported in industrialized populations. Reaction time task performance accounted for less than 5% of the variance in psychometric intelligence. Findings suggest that although reaction time tasks are associated with intelligence, the predictive validity of such measures needs to be established before use in nontraditional populations.     

A multidimensional scaling analysis of judged similarity of complex forms from two task situations

Ss provided judgments of pairwise stimulus similarities for 21 12-turn random forms in two experimental tasks: a scaling task, involving a variant of the method of graded dichotomies, and a sorting task, which simply required Ss to categorize the forms. The grouped data from both tasks, when analyzed using nonmetric multidimensional scaling techniques, yielded five-dimensional configurations with euclidean distances. The correspondence of these two spaces, assessed using canonical correlations, was extremely good. The psychological dimensions derived from both tasks were related to two sets of physical measures on the forms: the factor space suggested by Brown and Owen and a set of more basic physical measures. Physical cues of greatest importance involved size, dispersion, angularity, and rotation measures. The value of the tasks and the utility of the Brown and Owen measures were discussed.     

Sequential task predictability in task switching

Many studies of task switching have found that a prolonged preparation time reduces switch costs. An alternative manipulation of task preparation is based on sequential task predictability, rather than preparation time. In Experiments 1 and 2 of the present study, participants performed explicitly instructed task sequences (i.e., AABB) and were then transferred to a random sequence. The observed benefit of predictability-based task preparation was not switch specific. In Experiment 3, the participants changed from random to predictable tasks. The observed predictability benefit again was not switch specific. The data thus suggest that task switching does not necessarily require a switch-specific reconfiguration process. Rather, task-specific control processes may be needed in both task switches and repetitions.     

Hill-climbing by pigeons

Pigeons were exposed to two types of concurrent operant-reinforcement schedules in order to determine what choice rules determine behavior on these schedules. In the first set of experiments, concurrent variable-interval, variable-interval schedules, key-peck responses to either of two alternative schedules produced food reinforcement after a random time interval. The frequency of food-reinforcement availability for the two schedules was varied over different ranges for different birds. In the second series of experiments, concurrent variable-ratio, variable-interval schedules, key-peck responses to one schedule produced food reinforcement after a random time interval, whereas food reinforcement occurred for an alternative schedule only after a random number of responses. Results from both experiments showed that pigeons consistently follow a behavioral strategy in which the alternative schedule chosen at any time is the one which offers the highest momentary reinforcement probability (momentary maximizing). The quality of momentary maximizing was somewhat higher and more consistent when both alternative reinforcement schedules were time-based than when one schedule was time-based and the alternative response-count based. Previous attempts to provide evidence for the existence of momentary maximizing were shown to be based upon faulty assumptions about the behavior implied by momentary maximizing and resultant inappropriate measures of behavior.     

Random number generation deficit in early schizophrenia

Random number generation with a written response mode provides a potentially appealing marker for executive processes. Impaired performance on written random number generation tasks has been reported in chronic schizophrenic patients. However, no study has investigated whether such a deficit occurs in early schizophrenia and whether its profile and severity are similar to those in patients with chronic illness. This study investigated the ability to generate random numbers in patients with early schizophrenia (n = 44) and a healthy control group (n = 48). Patients were less able to maintain several production strategies and generated more stereotyped response sequences, whereas their abilities to identify randomness with an even-handed treatment of digits and to monitor the equality of occurrence of single digits appeared to remain intact. These results provide evidence that some aspects of the deficits in random number generation among chronic schizophrenic patients are also present at early psychotic episode, while some other aspects are relatively less affected in the early years.     

Perception of psychophysical experiments

Summary Two experiments were conducted to determine perceived similarities among psychophysical tasks. In Exp. I Ss first participated in five brightness-perception tasks: category estimation, magnitude estimation, absolute judgment, method of constant stimuli, and binary choice. At the conclusion of this phase, they rated the similarity of each pair of tasks according to each of four judgment criteria: general similarity, visual discrimination, learning, and memory. The average ratings were scaled, yielding a one-dimensional solution; where absolute judgment and category estimation were grouped at one end, constant stimuli and binary choice at the other, and magnitude estimation in between. In Experiment II another group rated similarity of the tasks based only upon relevant instructions. (They did not actually judge brigthness.) Scaling results were in agreement with those obtained in Exp. I. Theoretical implications are examined and tested in the second part of this work (Baird & Szilagyi, 1977)The present article is the first of a two-part series. Some of the results reported here were first presented at the 1974 meetings of the Psychonomic Society in Boston     

The Effects of Noise and Speech on Cognitive Task Performance

In the present study, which is based on Loeb's 1986 analysis, we used five levels of noise that varied in intermittency and meaningfulness, crossed with sex of subject and time of day. Memory tasks that differed in their reliance upon long-term, short-term free recall, and sequential short-term memory were used as dependent variables. A total of 160 subjects, 20 per block, participated in the 2 × 2 × 5 (Sexes X Time of Day X Noise Conditions) experimental design. Results support the prediction that white noise enhances performance on tasks with sequential short-term memory demands (anagrams: p < .05; random letter generation: p < .002). We found complex interactions by sex of subject, time of day, and type of noise for those tasks that placed a heavy demand on short-term working memory, i.e., complex sorting (Noise X Sex, p < .05) and random letter generation (Sex X Noise X Time of Day, p < .05). The predicted effects for anagrams were not supported. These results call into question previous generalizations about the effects of noise on performance (Broadbent, 1978; Dornic, Sarnelid, Larson, Svensson, & Fernaeus, 1982; Poulton, 1977), alternative interpretations are presented.     

Emotion perception and recognition: An exploration of cultural differences and similarities

The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a powerful method for investigation of different cognitive processes. Recently, EEG analysis became very popular and important, with classification of these signals standing out as one of the mostly used methodologies. Emotion recognition is one of the most challenging tasks in EEG analysis since not much is known about the representation of different emotions in EEG signals. In addition, inducing of desired emotion is by itself difficult, since various individuals react differently to external stimuli (audio, video, etc.). In this article, we explore the task of emotion recognition from EEG signals using distance-based time-series classification techniques, involving different individuals exposed to audio stimuli. Furthermore, since some of the participants in the experiment do not understand the language of the stimuli, we also investigate the impact of language understanding on emotion perception. Using time-series distances as features for the construction of new data representations, applied here for the first time to emotion recognition and related tasks, lead to excellent classification performance, indicating that differences between EEG signals can be used to build successful models for recognition of emotions, individuals, and other related tasks. In the process, we observed that cultural differences between the subjects did not have a significant impact on the recognition tasks and models.     

A method for judging measures of stochastic dependence: further comments on the current controversy.

A large number of reports have been published on stochastic independence between implicit and explicit measures of memory. This is often taken to imply that different memory systems mediate implicit and explicit memory performance. In these cases, stochastic independence is inferred from contingency analysis of overall success rates in two memory tasks when performance in one or both of the tasks is, to a large extent, mediated by factors other than memory. Typically, the difference between performance with studied and nonstudied items is not large in implicit memory tasks. It is argued that this must be taken into account when evaluating the contingency analysis. A method is presented for estimating the relevant joint and conditional probabilities, assuming that the aspects of performance in the two tasks that are related to memory are dependent to the maximum possible extent. The method is applied to a number of published studies, and it is shown that the difference between these estimated probabilities and those given by stochastic independence is too small to allow any conclusion to be drawn about memory systems from contingency analysis of data reported in these studies.     

Fractal models for event-based and dynamical timers

Some recent papers proposed to distinguish between event-based and emergent timing. Event-based timing is conceived as prescribed by events produced by a central clock, and seems to be used in discrete tasks (e.g., finger tapping). Emergent or dynamical timing refers to the exploitation of the dynamical properties of effectors, and is typically used in continuous tasks (e.g., circle drawing). The analysis of period series suggested that both timing control processes possess fractal properties, characterized by self-similarity and long-range dependence. The aim of this article is to present two models that produce period series presenting the statistical properties previously evidenced in discrete and continuous rhythmic tasks. The first one is an adaptation of the classical activation/threshold models, including a plateau-like evolution of the threshold over time. The second one is a hybrid limit-cycle model, including a time-dependent linear stiffness parameter. Both models reproduced satisfactorily the spectral signatures of event-based and dynamical timing processes, respectively. The models also produced auto-correlation functions similar to those experimentally observed. Using ARFIMA modeling we show that these simulated series possess fractal properties. We suggest in conclusion some possible extensions of this modeling approach, to account for the effects of metronomic pacing, or to analyze bimanual coordination.