Self-notions and top-down distortion

Abstract

John Perry offers an unusually substantive, and initially plausible, account of the conceptual role of first-person thought. This paper critiques Perry’s account, particularly in what it says about action explanation, and offers a partial alternative. It also identifies three high-level assumptions about what accounts of conceptual roles should look like that plausibly explain why Perry’s account goes off track in the ways that it does – this is the top-down distortion of the title. Identifying and arguing against the three assumptions helps point in the direction of a better account.     

Memory distortion in group recall

Earlier we reported (Basden, Basden, Bryner, ...Thomas, 1997) that, in comparison with nominal groups (three people tested individually), three-person collaborative groups recalled fewer presented words but intruded more nonpresented words. In the present research, Experiment 1 showed that when presented words were associatively related to critical nonpresented words, collaboration inhibited recall of presented words but did not influence recall of critical nonpresented words. Experiment 2 showed that with categorized lists, recall of high taxonomic frequency critical nonpresented words was greater for collaborative groups than for nominal groups. Collaboration did not inhibit recall of presented words, presumably because guessing supplemented recall in collaborative groups. Greater false recall in collaborative than in nominal groups appears to result from activation of superordinate-to-item associations rather than item-to-item associations.     

Prism distortion and accommodative change

The literature concerning oculomotor changes during adaptation to prism distortion has dealt mainly with the question of eye movements. The present study examined accommodation during exposure to distortion by ophthalmic prisms. Ss were asked to fixate four targets of equal visual angle at four distances. Accommodation was measured at each distance by means of a Laser-Badal optometer. Repeated measures for the same target distances were obtained prior to during and after exposure to binocular prisms. The results indicated that prisms induce underaccommodation at each of the target distances, although the total range of predistortion and distortion accommodation was restricted. Significant recovery from the effects of induced underaccommodation was observed at near target distances. No significant aftereffects of wearing the prisms was observed. In a second experiment, where target background contrast was increased, consistent underaccommodation was again observed and recover was observed at the near target distance. The range of accommodative change was also considerably improved. It was concluded that the angular magnification of ophthalmic prisms induced underaccommodation. It was suggested that partial recovery from the prism effect may be related to alterations in vergence.     

Reinforcing capabilities of television distortion

The effectiveness of television distortion as a negative reinforcer was analyzed. Contingency arrangements involving television distortion were found to be capable of (a) accelerating the work rate of a naive, mildly retarded subject on a simulated production-line task involving card-sorting, and (b) reducing gross hyperactivity of a mildly retarded subject. An escape-avoidance contingency was arranged for the production-line behavior of the first subject and a punishment contingency for the hyperactive behavior of the second subject. Television distortion appears to be an effective and practical negative reinforcer for use in behavior modification.     

Subjective comparisons of auditory distortion

To assess the accuracy of comparing different levels of distortion when levels are well above threshold, judgments were elicited from 340 subjects using two test tones of similar harmonic distribution in terms of frequency. Even though the total level of distortion in one of the tones had been reduced, subjects could not invariably select the less distorted tone in a comparison. This was true even for those subjects who stated that they could tell that the two tones sounded different from each other. There are implications concerning the validity of subjects' reports in making auditory estimations of 'quality' between signals.     

Pragmatic causal distortion in counselling

A person's actions are caused by the interaction between external environmental forces and internal personal forces. Attributing actions to one or the other set of forces is an arbitrary distortion. In therapy, attributing actions to external forces - particularly past events - relieves the client of guilt and helps him to make sense out of his actions. Attributing actions to internal sources provides a means by which the client can change his actions by changing his ideas, interpretation of events, and attitudes. Using both of these distortions of cause, a method of therapy is presented which emphasises the client's responsibility for his actions, and is aimed at developing the client as an active causal agent in his own life.     

Eyewitness testimony and memory distortion

Abstract: Do memories change as we acquire new information? Recent research on memory distortion using implicit tests along with research using confidence is reviewed and new studies are presented. Two new studies asked misinformed subjects to provide reasons for their answers. In each study 15% to 27% of subjects said they remembered seeing items they had only read about. In another study subjects were asked to identify the source of misleading items they had seen in slides or read in misleading questions. Subjects were more likely to say they had seen in slides something they read about in the questions than they were to confuse information from two nearly identical sets of slides. Recent work shows that, not only is it possible to distort memory for events, it is possible to implant an entire memory for something that never happened. The evidence is now clear that we can become mentally tricked into making large as well as small changes in the way we recall the past.     

Electrophysiological correlates of face distortion after-effects

When observers are exposed to a distorted face the perceived configuration of a subsequently presented face is altered, a phenomenon called face distortion after-effect (FDAE). We compared the face-related components of the event-related potential (ERP) after adaptation to noise images—veridical and distorted faces. We found large bilateral adaptation effects on the P100 and N170 components that are related to face detection. Moreover, we found smaller adaptation effects on the N170, recorded over the right hemisphere, which can be related to the behavioural distortion after-effect and to face configurations. Our results suggest that the observed ERP adaptation effects are general for various steps of face processing and that the FDAEs similarly to gender after-effects are related to the early face-specific ERP components.     

Memory distortion: an adaptive perspective

Memory is prone to distortions that can have serious consequences in everyday life. Here we integrate emerging evidence that several types of memory distortions - imagination inflation, gist-based and associative memory errors, and post-event misinformation - reflect adaptive cognitive processes that contribute to the efficient functioning of memory, but produce distortions as a consequence of doing so. We consider recent cognitive and neuroimaging studies that link these distortions with adaptive processes, including simulation of future events, semantic and contextual encoding, creativity, and memory updating. We also discuss new evidence concerning factors that can influence the occurrence of memory distortions, such as sleep and retrieval conditions, as well as conceptual issues related to the development of an adaptive perspective.     

Rapid adaptation to a prismatic distortion

Among several shape distortions caused by a wedge prism is one where a pattern of evenly spaced lines that are parallel to the prism base reaches the eye with distances seen through the base region contracted and distances seen through the apex region expanded. Rapid partial adaptation to this distortion was obtained by having subjects who wore the prism in vertical orientation move the head up and down during the exposure period. The head movements caused the distortion to shift up and down through the line pattern. When, with subjects’ heads stationary, the distortion was made to shift up and down by artificial means, rapid adaptation failed to develop. It is proposed that head movements are here needed for adaptation to develop, because the covariance between them and the shifting of the distortion serves as a signal that the distortions are not objective facts and causes the initiation of the adaptation process.     

The distortion of criteria after decision-making

The results of two experiments indicate that decision-makers separately distort their interpretations of decision criteria and evaluations of information in a manner that justifies their decisions. In Study 1, participants reported a yes/no decision either before or after they rated the applicable decision criterion and problem information. Participants distorted their criterion and information ratings more when they reported their decisions before, rather than after, they rated the decision criterion and problem information. Study 2 demonstrated that distortion of decision criterion ratings occurred after a decision had been made whereas distortion of information evaluations occurred during the process of reaching a decision. These results are consistent with a two-stage model of decision-making in which the distortion of decision criteria is distinct from the distortion of decision information.