The effect of category focus at encoding on category frequency estimation strategies

We investigated whether category focus at encoding affects how people estimate category frequencies. Participants in three experiments viewed items of various categories. They estimated category frequencies after categorizing them into relevant versus irrelevant categories (Experiments 1-2) or after categorizing versus memorizing them (Experiment 3). Verbal protocols (Experiments 2A and 2B), response latencies (Experiments 2A and 2B), frequency estimate changes (Experiment 2B), and the relationships between objective and estimated category frequencies and instance recall (Experiments 1-3) showed that the participants mainly used availability to estimate category frequencies after memorizing instances (Experiment 3) or after categorizing them into irrelevant categories (Experiments 1-2). After categorizing items into relevant categories, the participants relied more often on stored category frequency information (Experiments 1-3).     

Crowded and sparse domains in object recognition: consequences for categorization and naming

Some models of object recognition propose that items from structurally crowded categories (e.g., living things) permit faster access to superordinate semantic information than structurally dissimilar categories (e.g., nonliving things), but slower access to individual object information when naming items. We present four experiments that utilize the same matched stimuli: two examine superordinate categorization and two examine picture naming. Experiments 1 and 2 required participants to sort pictures into their appropriate superordinate categories and both revealed faster categorization for living than nonliving things. Nonetheless, the living thing superiority disappeared when the atypical categories of body parts and musical instruments were excluded. Experiment 3 examined naming latency and found no difference between living and nonliving things. This finding was replicated in Experiment 4 where the same items were presented in different formats (e.g., color and line-drawn versions). Taken as a whole, these experiments show that the ease with which people categorize items maps strongly onto the ease with which they name them.     

Automatic and directed search processes in solving simple semantic-memory problems

The cognitive processes involved in simple semantic-memory problems were investigated in four experiments. On each trial of Experiments 1 and 2, two stimulus words were presented, with the instructions to find a third word (i.e., the solution) that, when coupled with each of the stimuli, would yield two word pairs used in everyday language (e.g., surprise and birthday, for which the solution is party). The results of the two experiments indicated that informing the subject whether the solution constituted the first or the second element in the word pairs facilitated both likelihood and speed of solution attainment. In addition, solution attainment was relatively high for items based on frequently used word pairs (Experiment 1) and for items in which the stimuli appear, in everyday language, in a small number of word pairs (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, the subjects were required to produce word pairs containing one of the two stimulus words from the items used in Experiment 2. Solution production was facilitated by rehearsing the second stimulus word of the specific item. The conclusion, supported by a post hoc analysis of the results of Experiments 2 and 3 (Experiment 4), was that indirect priming from one stimulus word may facilitate solution production from a searched word. These results are interpreted in terms of automatic and controlled processes, and their relevance to two different models for retrieval from semantic memory is discussed.     

Conceptual priming with pictures and environmental sounds

A series of experiments was conducted to examine conceptual priming within and across modalities with pictures and environmental sounds. In Experiment 1, we developed a new multimodal stimulus set consisting of two picture and sound exemplars that represented 80 object items. In Experiments 2, we investigated whether categorization of the stimulus items would be facilitated by picture and environmental sound primes that were derived from different exemplars of the target items; and in Experiments 3 and 4, we tested the additional influence on priming when trials were consolidated within a target modality and the inter stimulus interval was lengthened. The results demonstrated that target categorization was facilitated by the advanced presentation of conceptually related exemplars, but there were differences in effectiveness when pictures and sounds appeared as primes.     

Are Arabic and verbal numbers processed in different ways?

Four experiments were conducted in order to examine effects of notation--Arabic and verbal numbers--on relevant and irrelevant numerical processing. In Experiment 1, notation interacted with the numerical distance effect, and irrelevant physical size affected numerical processing (i.e., size congruity effect) for both notations but to a lesser degree for verbal numbers. In contrast, size congruity had no effect when verbal numbers were the irrelevant dimension. In Experiments 2 and 3, different parameters that could possibly affect the results, such as discriminability and variability (Experiment 2) and the block design (Experiment 3), were controlled. The results replicated the effects obtained in Experiment 1. In Experiment 4, in which physical size was made more difficult to process, size congruity for irrelevant verbal numbers was observed. The present results imply that notation affects numerical processing and that Arabic and verbal numbers are represented separately, and thus it is suggested that current models of numerical processing should have separate comparison mechanisms for verbal and Arabic numbers.     

Semantic congruity effects in perceptual comparisons

Semantic congruity effects occur when, as in Experiment 1, for example, the time to select the shorter of two relatively short lines is faster than the time to select the longer; conversely, selection of the longer of two relatively long lines is faster than selection of the shorter. Semantic congruity effects are also demonstrated in experiments requiring comparisons of the heaviness of weights (Experiment 2) and horizontal extent (Experiment 3). In Experiment 1, the magnitude of the semantic congruity effect was larger under conditions emphasizing accuracy rather than speed and when the comparison was difficult. In fact, when comparisons were errorless, the effect was minimal (20 msec), thereby replicating previous failures to obtain the effect with supraliminal perceptual comparisons (Banks, Mermelstein, & Yu, 1982; Marschark & Paivio, 1981; Petrusic & Baranski, 1988a). In confirmation of Henmon's (1911) introspective analyses of psychophysical comparisons, Experiments 2 and 3 extend the range of the semantic congruity effect to include judgments of confidence. However, in each of the three experiments, semantic congruity effects were not evident with the response-accuracy measure. Finally, using highly confusable stimuli, in Experiment 3 the magnitude of the semantic congruity effect was shown to be larger for error than for correct response times. The implications of these findings for a decisional locus of the effect and for the semantic coding theory are discussed.     

The magic spell of language: linguistic categories and their perceptual consequences

Language is a tool that directs attention to different aspects of reality. Using participants from the same linguistic community, the authors demonstrate in 4 studies that metasemantic features of linguistic categories influence basic perceptual processes. More specifically, the hypothesis that abstract versus concrete language leads to a more global versus local perceptual focus was supported across 4 experiments, in which participants used (Experiment 1) or were primed either supraliminally (Experiments 2 and 3) or subliminally (Experiment 4) with abstract (adjectives) or concrete (verbs) terms. Participants were shown to display a global versus specific perceptual focus (Experiments 1 and 4), more versus less inclusiveness of categorization (Experiments 2 and 3), and incorporation of more rather than less contextual information (Experiment 3). The implications of this new perspective toward the language-perception interface are discussed in the context of the general linguistic relativity debate.     

Unsupervised categorization and category learning.

When people categorize a set of items in a certain way they often change their perceptions for these items so that they become more compatible with the learned categorization. In two experiments we examined whether such changes are extensive enough to change the unsupervised categorization for the items-that is, the categorization of the items that is considered more intuitive or natural without any learning. In Experiment 1 we directly employed an unsupervised categorization task; in Experiment 2 we collected similarity ratings for the items and inferred unsupervised categorizations using Pothos and Chater's (2002) model of unsupervised categorization. The unsupervised categorization for the items changed to resemble more the learned one when this was specified by the suppression of a stimulus dimension (both experiments), but less so when it was almost specified by the suppression of a stimulus dimension (Experiment 1, nonsignificant trend in Experiment 2). By contrast, no changes in the unsupervised categorization were observed when participants were taught a classification that was specified by a more fine tuning of the relative salience of the two dimensions.     

The effects of distributed and focused attention on rapid scene categorization

It has been argued that distributed attention facilitates the rapid extraction of summary statistics that underpins rapid scene categorization. We directly examined this hypothesis by investigating whether distributed or focused attention is more compatible with the extraction of both summary statistics (Experiment 1) and semantic scene information (Experiments 2–4). Experiment 1 replicated Chong and Treisman’s (2005a) result that mean circle size judgments are more compatible with a distributed attention task than a focused attention task. Experiment 2 investigated whether this finding extends to simple scene categorization by replacing the averaging task with an animal detection task. Consistent with Experiment 1, the ability to detect the presence of an animal was more compatible with a distributed attention task than a focused attention task. Experiments 3 and 4 addressed whether distributed attention influences scene categorization tasks. When observers were asked to classify scenes based on their basic level (e.g., beach or forest; Experiment 3), there was no statistically significant difference between focused and distributed attention task conditions; however, superordinate level categorization (e.g., natural or manmade; Experiment 4) was faster when combined with a task requiring distributed attention compared to a task requiring focused attention.     

Semantic congruity and lexical marking in symbolic comparisons: An expectancy hypothesis

Lexical marking and semantic congruity effects were investigated in four symbolic size comparison experiments. Predictions followed from an expectancy hypothesis suggested by results of recent comparative judgment studies. According to the present position, lexical marking and semantic congruity should be mutually exclusive effects in such tasks, and the demonstration of either dependent upon the order in which the stimuli and the comparative term are evaluated. When the comparative precedes the stimuli, an expectancy is created whereby the subject is more likely to be prepared for, say, large items following the comparative “larger” and small items following the comparative “smaller.” In addition, the usual advantage of unmarked as compared to marked comparisons should be offset by the initial processing of the comparative. As predicted, the comparative-stimulus presentation order produced a significant semantic congruity effect and no effect of lexical marking in Experiment 1. Conversely, when stimuli precede the comparative, or are presented simultaneously with it, no expectancy should be created, as the items are immediately available to the subject, and the semantic congruity effect should not be obtained. Upon presentation of the comparative, however, unmarked comparisons should be easier than marked comparisons. Experiments 2 and 4 confirmed these expectations, as significant lexical marking effects were obtained and significant congruity effects were not. These findings are contrary to predictions derived from a semantic coding interpretation of the symbolic comparison process.     

Recognition and frequency judgments in young and elderly adults

Three experiments examined frequency judgments and recognition memory in young and elderly adults. Subjects were presented a long list of words at either a 5-s rate (Experiments 1 & 3) or a 1-s rate (Experiment 2), after which frequency-judgment and recognition memory tasks were administered. Either an absolute (Experiments 1 & 2) or a relative (Experiment 3) frequency-judgment task was used. The recognition test, which involved repeated tests of some items, involved either one incorrect item paired with each correct item (Experiments 1 & 2), or four incorrect items (Experiment 3). Age-related differences in frequency judgments, for the more frequently presented items, were found in all three experiments. For the recognition scores, the predicted interaction between age and successive tests was found only in Experiment 3. The results were interpreted within the framework of age-related differences in elaborative encoding and in distractibility to irrelevant stimuli.     

A recency-based account of the primacy effect in free recall

Seven experiments investigated the role of rehearsal in free recall to determine whether accounts of recency effects based on the ratio rule could be extended to provide an account of primacy effects based on the number, distribution, and recency of the rehearsals of the study items. Primacy items were rehearsed more often and further toward the end of the list than middle items, particularly with a slow presentation rate (Experiment 1) and with high-frequency words (Experiment 2). Recency, but not primacy, was reduced by a filled delay (Experiment 3), although significant recency survived a filled retention interval when a fixed-rehearsal strategy was used (Experiment 4). Experimenter-presented schedules of rehearsals resulted in similar serial position curves to those observed with participant-generated rehearsals (Experiment 5) and were used to confirm the main findings in Experiments 6 and 7.     

Congruity and the perceptual comparison task

The effects of congruity between comparatives and the relative magnitudes of to-be-compared stimuli were investigated in six perceptual comparison experiments. Experiments 1-5 failed to obtain congruity effects in purely perceptual tasks even when subjects had extensive practice with a relatively small stimulus set. Experiment 6 obtained a congruity effect with perceptual stimuli but only when the stimuli were described as representing real-world objects. All of the results indicated that congruity effects occur only in tasks that include major symbolic or memorial components; a review of the perceptual comparison literature reveals consistent support for this position. These findings are discussed in terms of expectancy and semantic coding interpretations of the congruity effect.     

Evidencefor implicitscaling in comparative judgment

In two experiments, we examined the effects of manipulating the density of stimuli on comparison difficulty in a comparative judgment task. In Experiment 1, subjects were slower at judging the relative size of a pair when the members were adjacent items in the linear order than when the members were separated by items of intervening magnitudes. In Experiment 2, the advantage of choosing the larger rather than the smaller of two large-stimuli (e.g., the congruity effect) increased when the linear order included many small items. In contrast, the advantage of choosing the smaller of two small items increased when the linear order included many large items. The applicability of the range-frequency theory (Parducci,1965) to these results is discussed.     

Semantic congruity in symbolic comparisons: Evidence against an expectancy hypothesis

A previously proposed expectancy hypothesis predicts that the semantic congruity effect typically observed in symbolic comparison tasks will be eliminated when the items to be compared are presented prior to the comparative. Previous studies testing this hypothesis have been inconclusive. The present experiments demonstrate that a semantic congruity effect can be obtained when the comparative follows the pair after a 1-sec (Experiment 1) or 4-sec (Experiment 2) delay. Lexical markedness effects were also obtained. The key to producing a “comparative-after” congruity effect is to intermix questions about several different dimensions, so that when the pair is presented, subjects will be unable to anticipate the question. The results disconfirm the expectancy hypothesis.     

Attention to distinguishing features in object recognition

This study advances the hypothesis that, in the course of object recognition, attention is directed to distinguishing features: visual information that is diagnostic of object identity in a specific context. In five experiments, observers performed an object categorization task involving drawings of fish (Experiments 1–4) and photographs of natural sea animals (Experiment 5). Allocation of attention to distinguishing and non-distinguishing features was examined using primed-matching (Experiment 1) and visual probe (Experiments 2, 4, 5) methods, and manipulated by spatial precuing (Experiment 3). Converging results indicated that in performing the object categorization task, attention was allocated to the distinguishing features in a context-dependent manner, and that such allocation facilitated performance. Based on the view that object recognition, like categorization, is essentially a process of discrimination between probable alternatives, the implications of the findings for the role of attention to distinguishing features in object recognition are discussed.     

Regret Causes Ego-Depletion and Finding Benefits in the Regrettable Events Alleviates Ego-Depletion

ABSTRACT. This study tested the hypotheses that experiencing regret would result in ego-depletion, while finding benefits (i.e., “silver linings”) in the regret-eliciting events counteracted the ego-depletion effect. Using a modified gambling paradigm (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) and a retrospective method (Experiments 3 and 5), five experiments were conducted to induce regret. Results revealed that experiencing regret undermined performance on subsequent tasks, including a paper-and-pencil calculation task (Experiment 1), a Stroop task (Experiment 2), and a mental arithmetic task (Experiment 3). Furthermore, finding benefits in the regret-eliciting events improved subsequent performance (Experiments 4 and 5), and this improvement was mediated by participants’ perceived vitality (Experiment 4). This study extended the depletion model of self-regulation by considering emotions with self-conscious components (in our case, regret). Moreover, it provided a comprehensive understanding of how people felt and performed after experiencing regret and after finding benefits in the events that caused the regret.     

The impact of open and closed mindsets on evaluative priming

In the present research, we argue that open versus closed mindsets, accompanying ongoing versus completed mental jobs on the prime, determine the size of congruity effects in the evaluative priming paradigm. More specifically, we hypothesised that disfluent primes that resist an easily completed encoding process should induce an open mindset and thereby result in stronger congruity effects than fluent primes that induce closed mindsets. Across two experiments, we applied two different manipulations of prime fluency: gradual demasking (Experiment 1) and colour contrast (Experiment 2). As expected, in both experiments we found robust congruity effects, but only on trials with disfluent (vs. fluent) primes. Results of a follow-up experiment suggest that these effects are not due to attentional processes. We conclude that the mindsets resulting from individuals' activities during encoding are crucial in determining the outcome of evaluative priming effects.     

Automatic emotion regulation after social exclusion: tuning to positivity

Nine experiments tested competing hypotheses regarding nonconscious affective responses to acute social exclusion and how such responses may relate to positive mental health. The results strongly and consistently indicated that acute social exclusion increased nonconscious positive affect. Compared to nonexcluded participants, excluded participants recalled more positive memories from childhood than did accepted participants (Experiment 1), gave greater weight to positive emotion in their judgments of word similarity (Experiments 2 and 3), and completed more ambiguous word stems with happy words (Experiments 4a and 4b). This process was apparently automatic, as participants asked to imagine exclusion overestimated explicit distress and underestimated implicit positivity (Experiment 3). Four final experiments showed that this automatic emotion regulation process was found among participants low (but not high) in depressive symptoms (Experiments 5 and 6) and among participants high (but not low) in self-esteem (Experiments 7 and 8). These findings suggest that acute exclusion sets in motion an automatic emotion regulation process in which positive emotions become highly accessible, which relates to positive mental health.