Effect of small cue-response separation on pattern discrimination in macaques (Macaca fuscata and M. mulatta)

In order to elucidate the nature of the effect of small cue-response separations on pattern discriminations by monkeys, three studies were performed. When training on a pattern discrimination with a cue-response separation was discontinued during performance at the chance level, there was no saving on the rate of learning a second task (with identical cues but a different cue-response separation) relative to the performance of naive control animals. By contrast, when training was discontinued at a performance level a little better than chance, there was significant saving on learning a second task. After learning the second task, a third task with new pattern cues was learned, with marked saving on the duration of performance at the chance level. The results indicate that during the initial stage of performance at the chance level, monkeys do not attend to cues if there is even a small separation between the cue and the response site.     

Blocking in successive differential conditioning: Prior acquisition of control by internal cues blocks the acquisition of control by brightness

In each of four experiments the acquisition of discriminative stimulus control by brightness cues (black vs white runway) in a successive go/no-go instrumental discrimination was blocked in groups given prior discrimination training with internal (reward-produced and intertrial interval-related) cues as relevant discriminanda and brightness cues irrelevant. The blocking effects obtained here in instrumental conditioning were substantial and in most cases complete. Blocking occurred whether brightness in Phase I varied across trials but was uncorrelated with reinforcement (varied-irrelevant, V-I, condition) or whether all Phase 1 trials occurred to a single value on the brightness dimension (constant-irrelevant, C-I, condition) which then served as a redundant S+ cue in Phase 2 while the previously unexperienced brightness cue was added to the S- stimulus compound, or vice versa. Blocking in the V-I condition was shown not to be due simply to nondifferential reinforcement of brightness in Phase 1, but to depend on the prior acquisition of discriminative stimulus control by internal cues. As in Pavlovian conditioning, blocking here was an increasing function of amount of prior conditioning to the blocking stimulus. The results encourage the prospect that the procedures used here can be developed into a viable instrumental conditioning companion to the Pavlovian procedures now used almost exclusively to study blocking.     

Reminders can enhance or impair episodic memory updating: a memory-for-change perspective

ABSTRACT

The Memory-for-Change framework proposes that retrieving episodic memories can facilitate new learning when changes between existing memories and new information are integrated during encoding and later recollected. Four experiments examined whether reminders could improve memory updating and enhance new learning. Participants studied two study lists of word pairs and were given a cued recall test on responses from both lists. Reminders of List 1 words pairs (A-B) appeared immediately before List 2 words pairs that included repeated cues and changed responses (A-D). Across experiments, we varied the types of reminders to determine whether differences in their effectiveness as retrieval cues would influence memory for the list membership of responses. We found that presenting intact reminders (cue-response) enhanced the memory benefits associated with recollection-based retrieval of changes relative to when no reminders appeared and when partial reminders (cue-only) appeared with and without feedback. Importantly, cue-response reminders benefitted memory when they were recognised in List 2 and when changes were later recollected. This suggests that integrative encoding can be facilitated when substantial environmental support is available to cue retrieval of existing memories. These findings have practical implications for understanding which reminders best aid the correction of memories for inaccurate information.     

In search of cross-talk facilitation in a dual-cued recall task

Despite earlier evidence that the presence of 2 redundant cues can facilitate activation of a common response, T. C. Rickard and D. Bajic (2004) found no dual-cue facilitation in the case of cued recall, provided that each cue-response association was learned independently. In this study the authors investigated the generality of their results using a dual-task cross-talk design. There was no evidence of dual-cue facilitation for compatible cue trials in the case of associative independence. Race models as well as at least some limited capacity parallel retrieval accounts can be eliminated by these and related results. It appears instead that a preretrieval stage performance bottleneck precludes cued recall through more than 1 independently represented cue-response association at a time.     

How do implementation intentions promote goal attainment? A test of component processes

Implementation intentions are plans that specify the when, where, and how of goal striving in advance, and have been shown to enhance rates of goal attainment compared to merely forming respective goal intentions. The present research investigated whether the accessibility of the specified situation (cue accessibility) and the strength of the association between the specified situation and the intended response (cue-response linkage) explain the impact of implementation intentions on goal achievement. Findings indicated that participants who planned how to undertake a verbal task better attained their goal compared to participants who did not form a plan. Crucially, implementation intention effects were mediated by the accessibility of the specified cue and by the strength of cue-response links. These findings support the idea that implementation intentions benefit performance because control of behavior is delegated to specified situational cues that initiate action automatically.     

The effect of reduced spatial cues on the learning of successive visual reversals

The performance of rats over 12 brightness discrimination reversals was studied under two experimental conditions. Under one condition all visual cues external to the apparatus were eliminated so that only the relative positions of the discriminanda could serve as a visual cue to spatial position. Under the other condition all visual cues to position were eliminated. Under the former condition performance deteriorated with successive reversals but under the latter condition performance improved. Implications of these results for theories of successive reversal improvement were discussed and two possible explanations were suggested.     

Simon effect with and without awareness of the accessory stimulus

The authors investigated whether a Simon effect could be observed in an accessory-stimulus Simon task when participants were unaware of the task-irrelevant accessory cue. In Experiment 1A a central visual target was accompanied by a suprathreshold visual lateral cue. A regular Simon effect (i.e., faster cue-response corresponding reaction times [RTs]) was found. Experiment 1B demonstrated that this effect cannot be attributed to perceptual grouping of the target and cue. Experiments 2A, 2B, and 2C showed a reverse Simon effect (i.e., faster noncorresponding RTs) when participants were not aware of the cue. In this condition, the Simon effect would occur relative to the reorientation of attention from the cue, which would initially capture attention, toward the target. This conclusion is supported by the results of Experiments 3A and 3B, in which the reorientation of attention was induced by having the target flash after its onset. With suprathreshold cues either a reverse or regular Simon effect was observed by using a 100-ms or > or = 200-ms onset flashing interval, respectively, whereas with subthreshold cues a reverse Simon effect was found irrespective of the interval length.     

Detecting Deceit in Pairs of Children1

This study examined adults’ ability to distinguish between truthful and deceptive pairs of children. Adult observers (N = 88) judged the veracity of one of 22 truthful or deceptive pairs of children (12–13 years). The children were interviewed separately about their real or imagined encounters with an unknown man. Analyses showed that the overall accuracy was 62.5%; significantly better than chance level of 50%. Deception detection accuracy was higher when watching both pair members than when watching one child. The analysis of self‐reported cues to deception given by observers showed that the consistency between the children's statements was the most frequent cue. An analysis of the actual consistency of children's statements showed significantly more contradictions in the deceptive statements.     

Head-body ratio as a visual cue for stature in people and sculptural art

Body size is crucial for determining the outcome of competition for resources and mates. Many species use acoustic cues to measure caller body size. Vision is the pre-eminent sense for humans, but visual depth cues are of limited utility in judgments of absolute body size. The reliability of internal body proportion as a potential cue to stature was assessed with a large sample of anthropometric data, and the ratio of head height to body height (HBR) was found to be highly correlated with stature. A psychophysical experiment was carried out to investigate whether the cue actually influences stature judgments. Participants were shown pairs of photographs of human figures in which HBR had been manipulated systematically, and asked to select the figure that appeared taller. Results showed that figures with a relatively small HBR were consistently perceived as taller than figures with a relatively large HBR. Many classical statues such as Michelangelo's David depart from the classical proportions defined in Leonardo's Vitruvian Man. A supplementary experiment showed that perceived stature in classical statues also depends on HBR. Michelangelo's David was created with the HBR of a man 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) tall.     

Transfer and Counterconditioning of Conditional Control in the Rabbit Nictitating Membrane Response

Two experiments using the rabbit nictitating membrane response investigated whether training in one conditional discrimination (A X+, B X-), enabled the feature cues (A and B) to modulate responding to another CS (Y) trained as a target stimulus in a second conditional discrimination (C Y+, D Y-). There was near-complete transfer of the feature cue's conditional control, indicating that the feature cue's ability to modulate responding is not based on an association specific to the training target. Experiment 2 also revealed that the role of a stimulus to act as a conditional cue is affected by its ability to act as a simple conditioned excitor or inhibitor. Following initial acquisition of two conditional discriminations, two feature cues were reinforced in a pattern consistent with the initial conditional discrimination (A +, B-), whereas the other two feature cues were reinforced in the reverse pattern to that of the original conditional discrimination (C-, D +). Subsequent tests revealed that the reversed training of the feature cues interfered with the original conditional discriminations. The results are consistent with theories that the feature cue gains an association with a representation of the emotional attributes of the US, which acts to modulate responding to the target stimulus through a diffuse change in motivational level. However, hierarchical theories of conditional discriminations that assume a lack of CS-specificity may also be able to explain the findings.     

THE ACQUISITION OF PREPOSITIONAL MOTOR RESPONSES IN HANDICAPPED CHILDREN1

The acquisition of prepositional motor responses in three handicapped preschool children was analyzed for three pairs of prepositions. Generalization of prepositional knowledge at each stage of acquisition was assessed by a series of probe trials. In addition, an analysis of the control of prepositional responses when objects of the preposition (OP) and direct objects (DO) were relevant cues was conducted. The effect of this object-cue procedure, as well as a specially devised prompting technique on acquisition, was also determined. Results indicated substantial control by OPs whenever this cue was relevant, but this did not affect acquisition of prepositional concepts when these cues were eliminated. Analysis of the probe data and the prompting technique suggested various ways in which instructional programs for teaching prepositional knowledge to handicapped children could be constructed in a simple and efficient manner.     

Test of a distributional theory of intuitive numerical prediction

This paper investigates models that describe how subjects combine uncertain information to arrive at an intuitive prediction of a criterion. Subjects were trained, with feedback, to predict a numerical criterion from each of three single cues. Then they were asked to predict the criterion, without feedback, either from pairs of cues or from single cues. Their predictions were not consistent with a relative weight averaging model, since pairs of cues did not combine additively. Instead, the effect of a cue was inversely proportional to the standard deviation of the criterion at each level of the cue. Subjects appeared to apply greater weight to cue levels with smaller variance, i.e., those cue levels that were more valid. The data could be described by a distributional theory referred to as the equal probability model. For the present experiment, this model implies that the criterion means associated with the levels of each cue are weighted by the reciprocals of the standard deviations and then averaged. Relations between the equal probability model and other models of impression formation are discussed.     

The effects of transient attention on spatial resolution and the size of the attentional cue

It has been shown that transient attention enhances spatial resolution, but is the effect of transient attention on spatial resolution modulated by the size of the attentional cue? Would a gradual increase in the size of the cue lead to a gradual decrement in spatial resolution? To test these hypotheses, we used a texture segmentation task in which performance depends on spatial resolution, and systematically manipulated the size of the attentional cue: A bar of different lengths (Experiment 1) or a frame of different sizes (Experiments 2-3) indicated the target region in a texture segmentation display. Observers indicated whether a target patch region (oriented line elements in a background of an orthogonal orientation), appearing at a range of eccentricities, was present in the first or the second interval. We replicated the attentional enhancement of spatial resolution found with small cues; attention improved performance at peripheral locations but impaired performance at central locations. However, there was no evidence of gradual resolution decrement with large cues. Transient attention enhanced spatial resolution at the attended location when it was attracted to that location by a small cue but did not affect resolution when it was attracted by a large cue. These results indicate that transient attention cannot adapt its operation on spatial resolution on the basis of the size of the attentional cue.     

Overshadowing in operant conditioning as a function of discriminability

Pigeons were trained in an operant, go/no-go, discrimination by successive presentations of discrete, positive and negative trials. In separate groups, the rate of discriminaion learning based on an auditory cue, on visual cues of different discriminability, and on combined auditory and visual cues was determined. The auditory cue was tone/no-tone, the visual cue was a difference in brightness level on the key. Following discrimination training, stimulus control was tested in extinction by presenting tone or notone at each of four key-brightness levels.Learning was more rapid with two cues than with either cue singly, demonstrating summation. The contribution made by the tone cue to the learning of the discrimination decreased with increasing discriminability of the light cue. The control exerted by the tone cue also decreased (i.e., the tone cue was overshadowed) with increasing discriminability of the light cue. In certain cases, the tone cue decreased control by brightness, showing that in two-cue discriminations each cue may reduce the control exerted by the other.     

Minimal cues in the vocal communication of affect: Judging emotions from content-masked speech

Vocal expressions of emotions taken from a recorded version of a play were content. masked by using electronic filtering, randomized splicing and a combination of both techniques in addition to a no-treatment condition in a 2×2 design. Untrained listener-judges rated the voice samples in the four conditions on 20 semantic differential scales. Irrespective of the severe reduction in the number and types of vocal cues in the masking conditions, the mean ratings of the judges in all four groups agreed on a level significantly beyond chance expectations on the differential position of the emotional expressions in a multidimensional space of emotional meaning. The results suggest that a minimal set of vocal cues consisting of pitch level and variation, amplitude level and variation, and rate of articulation may be sufficient to communicate the evaluation, potency, and activity dimensions of emotional meaning. Each of these dimensions may be associated with a specific pattern of vocal cues or cue combinations. No differential effects of the type of content-masking for specific emotions were found. Systematic effects of the masking techniques consisted in a lowering of the perceived activity level of the emotions in the case of electronic filtering, and more positive ratings on the evaluative dimension in the case of randomized splicing. Electronic filtering tended to decrease, randomized splicing tended to increase inter-rater reliability.This research was supported by a research grant (GS-2654) from the Division of Social Sciences of the National Science Foundation to Robert Rosenthal.     

Retrieval processes for serial order information

Three experiments sought to specify how list structure and rehearsal pattern influence the retrieval of well-learned serial order information. Subjects learned a serial list of 12 words followed by a probed recall task measuring response time. Adjacent list items served as retrieval cues to permit probing of an item by cues which maintained or crossed semantic or rehearsal boundaries. Evidence for structure in serial recall was inferred from the large cue format effects on response time. Such effects were found to be consistent with the semantic relationships in categorized lists and the acquisition rehearsal pattern in unrelated lists. When rehearsal grouping and semantic relatedness were in conflict. the cue format effects conformed mainly to the rehearsal pattern. Extended practice over five sessions did not eliminate these effects for many of the serial items. These results suggest that the structure of the serial list. whether based on previous associations or present rehearsal patterns. can provide a basis for retrieval. A hierarchical search model based on item and order information provided good fits of the data. The model suggested that response time varies with cue formats because cues differ in their efficiency at directing search to the correct response in the list structure. The structure. which is acquired at the time of learning. determines cue efficiency and. hence. the subsequent effects upon response time.     

加工流畅性对学习判断字体大小效应的影响

以自定步调学习时间和习得试验次数为加工流畅性指标,通过操纵不同字号的词对考察了加工流畅性对学习判断字体大小效应的影响。结果发现：（1）字体大小影响学习判断,但不影响回忆成绩;（2）不同字体大小的词对在加工流畅性（学习时间和学习次数）上存在差异,仅自定步调学习时间测量的加工流畅性对学习判断字体大小效应有贡献。这些结果说明学习判断的字体大小效应是一种元认知错觉现象,部分支持了加工流畅性假说。     

注意控制定势和线索类型在注意捕获中的作用

采用前线索范式, 通过3个实验考察了注意控制定势和线索类型在注意捕获中的作用。实验1要求被试搜索颜色奇异项目标或突现目标, 涉及较弱的注意控制定势, 结果表明, 突现线索在作为匹配线索和不匹配线索时都能捕获注意, 而颜色奇异项线索只有在作为匹配线索时才能捕获注意。实验2要求被试搜索具体特征的红色或白色目标, 使被试建立较强的特征搜索定势, 结果表明, 颜色奇异项线索和突现线索在作为匹配线索时都能捕获注意, 但是在不匹配条件下, 颜色奇异项线索被抑制了, 而突现线索不能捕获注意; 实验3采取go/no-go范式, 要求被试对红色目标进行反应, 对白色目标进行抑制, 并通过设置不同的线索-目标时间间隔来进一步考察注意捕获的机制, 结果表明, 在600 ms间隔下, no-go突现线索被抑制, 而对于go颜色奇异项线索来说, 随着时间间隔的增加, 注意捕获效应减少。结果与相倚捕获假说和抑制独立捕获假说不符, 支持注意转移假说：自上而下的注意控制定势通过把注意从和目标不匹配的特征位置转移发挥作用; 颜色奇异项线索和突现线索的注意捕获机制相同, 但是突现线索相对于颜色奇异项线索来说, 在与目标不匹配的条件下, 更容易捕获注意, 更难被抑制。     

Measurement of auditory cues in drivers' distraction

A driving simulator was used to examine the effects on driving performance of auditory cues in an in-vehicle information search task. Drivers' distraction by the search tasks was measured on a peripheral detection task. The difficulty of the search task was systematically varied to test the distraction caused by a quantified visual load. 58 participants completed the task. Performance on both search tasks and peripheral detection tasks was measured by mean response time and percent error. Analyses indicated that in-vehicle information search performance can be severely degraded when a target is located within a group of diverse distractors. Inclusion of an auditory cue in the visual search increased the mean response time as a result of a change in modality from auditory to visual. Inclusion of such an auditory cue seemed to influence distraction as measured by performance on the peripheral detection task; accuracy was lower when auditory cues were provided, and responses were slower when no auditory cues were provided. Distraction by the auditory cue varied according to the difficulty of the search task.