Common response processing and psychological refractoriness

This experiment examined whether structural considerations, that is the functional closeness of limb control centres (Kinsbourne and Hicks 1978), have a role to play in common processing models of psychological refractoriness. A typical double stimulation paradigm was used (Kantowitz 1974). On experimental trials, subjects responded with the right hand (RT1) to an auditory signal (0.80 probability). After a varied interstimulus interval (ISI) of 100, 200, 300 or 700 msec, one of three lights corresponding to one of the other limbs provided the signal for the second response (RT2). Control trials for RT1 and RT2 involved both stimuli, but subjects were required to make only one response. Results indicated that experimental RT1 was lengthened considerably over control values. While typical double stimulation effects were found at short ISIs, that is RT2 was lengthened, RT2 at long ISIs was actually faster than double stimulation control values. Although the RT results were not in a pattern that would be predicted by functional distance (Kinsbourne and Hicks 1978), within subject correlations of RT1 and RT2 by limb condition suggest that structural considerations may have a role to play. While within subject correlations were positive at all levels of ISI, they decreased as the interval between the two signals increased. The implications of these results for common processing models are discussed.     

The role of the response in psychological refractoriness.

Two experiments on the PRP were performed in which the signal information was kept constant while varying the response information. The first experiment shows that delays are considerably increased by increasing response information. The second experiment re-affirms this result using unidimensional rather than multidimensional signals. The relevance of these results to theories of PRP is discussed.     

Cultural influence on COVID-19 cognitions and growth speed: The role of collectivism

Major challenges faced by humans often require large-scale cooperation for communal benefits. We examined what motivates such cooperation in the context of social distancing and mask wearing to reduce the transmission intensity of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). We hypothesized that collectivism, a cultural variable characterizing the extent that individuals see themselves in relation to others, contributes to people's willingness to engage in these behaviors. Consistent with preregistered predictions, across three studies (n = 2864), including a U.S. nationally representative sample, collectivist orientation was positively associated with intentions, positive beliefs, norm perceptions, and policy support for the preventive behaviors. Further, at a country level, more collectivist countries showed lower growth rates in both COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths. Together, these studies demonstrate the role of collectivism in reducing COVID-19 transmission, and highlight the value of considering culture in public health policies and communications.     

Performance and ease influence perceived speed

According to the action-specific perception account, perception is a function of optical information and the perceiver's ability to perform the intended action. While most of the evidence for the action-specific perception account is on spatial perception, in the current experiments we examined similar effects in the perception of speed. Tennis players reproduced the time the ball traveled from the feeder machine to when they hit it. The players judged the ball to be moving faster on trials when they hit the ball out-of-bounds than on trials where they successfully hit the ball in-bounds. Follow-up experiments in the laboratory showed that participants judged virtual balls to be moving slower when they played with a bigger paddle in a modified version of Pong. These studies suggest that performance and task ease influence perceived speed.     

The influence of visual flow and perceptual load on locomotion speed

Visual flow is used to perceive and regulate movement speed during locomotion. We assessed the extent to which variation in flow from the ground plane, arising from static visual textures, influences locomotion speed under conditions of concurrent perceptual load. In two experiments, participants walked over a 12-m projected walkway that consisted of stripes that were oriented orthogonal to the walking direction. In the critical conditions, the frequency of the stripes increased or decreased. We observed small, but consistent effects on walking speed, so that participants were walking slower when the frequency increased compared to when the frequency decreased. This basic effect suggests that participants interpreted the change in visual flow in these conditions as at least partly due to a change in their own movement speed, and counteracted such a change by speeding up or slowing down. Critically, these effects were magnified under conditions of low perceptual load and a locus of attention near the ground plane. Our findings suggest that the contribution of vision in the control of ongoing locomotion is relatively fluid and dependent on ongoing perceptual (and perhaps more generally cognitive) task demands.     

The structure of response rate

Interresponse time distributions of the terminal rate under fixed-interval and fixed-ratio schedules were examined, using data from three rats in each case. By means of a sequential analysis, the overall interresponse time distributions were separated into orderly components. Consideration of the component distributions suggested that multiple determinants of rate act in succession, not simultaneously, and that probability of reinforcement has an important effect on the probability of occurrence of interresponse times.     

The influence of walking speed and prior practice on locomotor distance estimation

In an attempt to reconcile discrepant findings in the literature (Elliott, 1986; Thomson, 1983), walking speed, prior practice, and walking delay were manipulated to determine if they had an impact on locomotor distance estimation. Contrary to suggestions by Thomson (1986), walking variability in the direction of locomotion depended only on a subject' initial distance from the targets.     

The influence of speed and force on bimanual finger tapping patterns.

The current study investigated factors that affect the stability of anti-phase bimanual finger tapping. Past research employing the order parameter and control parameter concepts, has identified frequency of movement as a control parameter that affects the stability of finger movement patterns (the order parameter). The present study investigated the hypothesis that multiple movement related variables can interact to influence the stability of an order parameter. Specifically, the combined effect of the rate of movement and movement force on the stability of bimanual finger tapping was examined. Participants were required to initiate an anti-phase tapping pattern under three different movement rate conditions (600, 400, and 200 ms), and were required to increase the force of one finger at the onset of a randomly presented stimulus. The results indicate that an increase in the force parameter at lower tapping rates (600 ms) did not affect the phase relation of the fingers, however at higher rates (200 and 400 ms), the introduction of a force parameter resulted in fluctuations of the phase relation of the fingers, which were followed by pattern shifts from anti-phase to in-phase tapping. The results indicate that movement force and rate of movement interact to influence the outcome of the tapping pattern. Further research is required to investigate force as a control parameter.     

交互自然性的心理结构及其影响

本文通过3个研究探究了交互自然性的心理结构及其影响。研究1通过开展字典检索, 文献回顾和专家访谈, 得到了包含有9个条目的初始量表。研究2问卷调查了353名智能网联汽车用户, 探索性因素分析发现了两因素结构 (“通达舒畅”和“随景应人”)。后续分析表明这两个因素对满意度等关键效标有显著独特的预测作用。研究3使用新样本(n = 349) 验证了双因素模型的稳定性, 还发现这两个交互自然性体验维度对推荐意愿、忠诚感等重要变量也有显著预测作用, 此外还发现, 通达舒畅更多受到基本驾驶辅助系统等功能的影响, 而随景应人更多受到交互和智能相关功能的影响。本文进一步讨论了该量表如何用于未来的人机交互研究。     

Movement and visual coding: the structure of visuo-spatial working memory

The influential model of verbal working memory (WM) introduced by Baddeley and Hitch (Recent advances in learning and motivation. Academic, New York, 1974) comprised three interacting component parts; an executive controller and two subservient systems. The two subservient systems, one underpinning verbal processing and the other underpinning visual processing are themselves subdivided. In the verbal system, a passive phonological store is maintained by an active phonological loop, which is able to rehearse the material in the passive store. The visual working memory system has traditionally been thought of as having a similar architecture with a passive visual store being maintained by an active store, which codes in terms of movement over space. The paper discusses the evidence for this relationship in visuo-spatial WM and concludes that the architecture does not fit well with the experimental literature. A direction for future research is suggested.     

The influence of motor function on processing speed in preterm and term-born children

This study investigates the relationship between motor function and processing speed in preterm children. Processing speed was compared in 145 adolescents, born 25–41 weeks gestational age, utilizing tasks including differing motor demands. The influence of motor cortex excitability and functional motor skills on task performance was assessed. For tasks with motoric demands, differences in performance between preterm and term-born children were mediated by the relationship between gestational age, corticomotor excitability, and motor function. There were no differences in non-motor processing speed task performance between preterm and term-born children. Measures of processing speed may be confounded by a timed motor component.     

Fluency and response speed in recognition judgments

Previous research has suggested that perceptual fluency can contribute to recognition judgments. In this study, we examined whether fluency in recognition is based upon the speed of preceding operations, as suggested by studies of perceptual fluency. Subjects studied items in both lexical decision and naming tasks, and were then tested on two blocks of lexical decision trials with probe recognition trials. Jacoby’s process dissociation procedure was used, and results from this procedure suggested that recognition judgments in the task were based largely upon familiarity. However, the estimated discriminability available from response time distributions was significantly less than the observed recognition discriminability. Simulated memory operating characteristics confirmed this underdetermination of recognition by response times. The results demonstrate, contrary to previous suggestions, that fluency in recognition is not based upon speed.     

The influence of unimanual response on pseudoneglect magnitude

Various factors influence the degree of leftward error (pseudoneglect) (Bowers & Heilman, 1980) that typifies the performance of normal subjects in line bisection tasks (Jewell & McCourt, 2000). The results of this experiment show that unimanual responding also exerts a subtle but significant modulating influence on spatial attention, as indexed by the differential magnitude of pseudoneglect. Using a forced-choice tachistoscopic line bisection protocol, 184 subjects (92 male and 92 female) bisected horizontally oriented lines (22.3 degrees wide x 0.39 degrees height) presented to central vision in two conditions, in which bisection responses were executed via button presses using the first two fingers of either the left (LH) or right (RH) hand. Perceived line midpoint deviated significantly leftward of veridical (p <.05) in both conditions. There was no significant influence of subject sex (p >.05). A significant influence of unimanual response was revealed (p <.05) where pseudoneglect magnitude was greater in the LH than the RH condition. The results are interpreted within the framework of the activation-orientation theory of attentional asymmetry.     

The influence of structure on computer program comprehension

Previous empirical studies that have relied on debugging (Lucas & Kaplan, 1974) and memory (Sheppard, Borst, Curtis, & Love, 1978) as measures of computer program comprehension have led to inconsistent results and conclusions regarding the benefits of structure. The present experiment utilizes a new technique for measuring comprehension that is sensitive to contextual factors that help the programmer to anticipate upcoming lines of a program. Subjects in this experiment were told the general purpose of a program written in English and asked to anticipate the subsequent lines. After the subjects entered their anticipated line, the actual line of the previously written program was shown. Subjects used the lines of the program shown as a contextual guide for their next anticipation. The percentage of correctly anticipated lines was greater for structured programs than for unstructured programs. However, the advantage of structure was more pronounced for long, complex programs than for short, relatively straightforward programs.     

多维对数正态作答时间模型：对潜在加工速度多维性的探究

在心理与教育测量中,潜在加工速度反映学生运用潜在能力解决问题的效率。为在多维测验中探究潜在加工速度的多维性并实现参数估计,本研究提出多维对数正态作答时间模型。实证数据分析及模拟研究结果表明:(1)潜在加工速度具有与潜在能力相匹配的多维结构;(2)新模型可精确估计个体水平的多维潜在加工速度及与作答时间有关的题目参数;(3)冗余指定潜在加工速度具有多维性带来的负面影响低于忽略其多维性所带来的。     

加工速度对晚期第二语言学习者句法加工的影响

两个实验通过操纵句子呈现的速度,考察加工速度因素对于晚期第二语言学习者句法加工的影响。实验1采用视觉方式呈现句子,实验2采用听觉方式呈现句子。被试的母语为汉语,第二语言为英语,属于晚期第二语言学习者,实验任务为句法判断。两个实验的结果表明,加工速度缓慢是导致晚期第二语言学习者句法加工困难的重要因素之一。加工速度缓慢对第二语言句法加工的影响,不是局限于少数一两种句法形式,而是作用于多数句法形式。研究还发现,视觉和听觉两种呈现方式下,不同句法形式的加工难度既存在共性的一面,也存在差异性的一面。