Cognitive tempo in children and their parents.

An adoption study was conducted to determine if cognitive tempo (as characterized by errors and latencies on the Matching Familiar Figures Test) is more similar between parents and their biological children or between parents and their adopted children. Zero-order correlations between parents and children were not significant (regardless of familial relationship), but the results of canonical correlations for mean of parents' scores with those of biological and adopted children respectively were consonant with hypothesized values, suggesting a degree of heritability exists. A slight trend for parents' latency to be consistently related to their biological children's latency was noted, but no such trend was present for errors. The heritability of latency versus errors in cognitive tempo is discussed.     

Creative potential and conceptual tempo in preschool children

The individual stylistic variations of creative potential and conceptual tempo were investigated in preschool children (n = 61; mean age = 56.9 months). The measure used for the conceptual tempo was the Kansas Reflection Impulsivity Scale for Preschoolers (KRISP), and the Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure (MSFM) was used to assess ideational fluency and creative potential Contrary to expectations, no differences between reflective and impulsive preschoolers were found on the ideational fluency measure. However, analysis of all four quadrants of the conceptual tempo dimensions derived from median splits revealed an interaction of KRISP latency and error scores, F(157) = 12.78, p < .001, with greater originality scores evidenced by the fast/accurate and slow/inaccurate groups than the slow/ accurates and fast/inaccurates. Implications of this unusual finding were discussed in terms of the manner in which children may approach convergent and divergent tasks.     

Predictable long-delay matching-to-sample trials result in long-latency sample responding by pigeons

When a delayed matching-to-sample task does not involve short-delay trials interspersed among the long-delay trials, there is evidence that pigeons show long latencies in responding to the sample (sample observing response). They may even stop responding altogether. Two experiments were conducted to confirm the phenomenon and determine what aspect of the procedure is responsible for it. In Experiment 1 pigeons were trained on a delayed matching-to-sample task in which the delay remined constant throughout each session and was increased as each bird reached a performance criterion. The results indicated that sampleresponse latency increased in a regular fashion as delay increased. When the delay increased to 8.0 s, responding to the sample often stopped for long periods of time. In Experiment 2 pigeons were exposed to constant delay sessions (LONG), or mixed delay sessions with the delay length signaled (COR) or unsignaled (UNC). Sample-response latencies increased with increasing delay on long-delay trials for the LONG and the COR groups but not for the UNC group. Results supported the hypothesis that predictability of the long delay and not the loss of association between sample responses and reinforcement was responsible for the increased sample-response latency.     

Speed-accuracy tradeoff in double stimulation: Effects on the first response

A single-stimulation and two double-stimulation response conditions were compared using explicit payoff matrices to vary speed-accuracy tradeoff. Under accuracy payoff, response latency (RT(1)) to the first stimulus increased as ISI dropped but accuracy remained high and relatively constant. Under speed payoff, RT(1) was only slightly affected by ISI but accuracy dropped as ISI decreased. Transmitted information rates consistently reflected detrimental effects of short ISI. In double stimulation, but not in single stimulation, error response latency exceeded correct response latency. Furthermore, error response latencies were found to be far more variable and more sensitive to changes in speed-accuracy condition than were correct response latencies. Finally, under both speed and accuracy conditions, response latency to the first of two successive stimuli was faster if a response was also required to the second stimulus. Implications of the data for possible models of double-stimulation speed-accuracy tradeoff are considered.     

Speed of phonological and orthographic processing as factors in dyslexia: electrophysiological evidence

The author investigated the hypothesis that speed of processing in the phonological and orthographic systems is one of the underlying variables of word-reading effectiveness. Speed of processing was assessed using measures of behavioral reaction time and electrophysiological latencies during phonological and orthographic task performance. Participants were 20 dyslexic and 20 normal-reading, male college students. An electrophysiological component complex (N1-P2-N2), as well as 2 other components (P3 and N4), was identified in both groups on each of the experimental tasks. Significant group differences were obtained only on the phonological tasks. Speed of processing during phonological judgment tasks was significantly prolonged among the dyslexic readers compared with the controls as reflected by P2, P3, and N4 latencies and reaction time. Between-task comparisons revealed significantly prolonged P2, P3, and N4 latencies on phonological compared with orthographic tasks in both dyslexic and normal readers, indicating that phonological classification of words may demand more time than orthographic classification. However, the gap score between speed of processing on the phonological and orthographic tasks was larger among the dyslexic readers and was observed mainly in P3 latency and reaction time. The highest correlation between word-reading accuracy score and the experimental measures was obtained in the dyslexic group with P3 latency gap score and in the control group with P2 latency gap score. The author proposes that slow phonological processing may cause "asynchrony" between the processing speeds within and between phonological and orthographic systems and may lead to a lack of efficient integration among the various subprocesses activated in reading, may slow down reading rate, and may impair word-reading effectiveness.     

Kinesthetic Cues in the Development of Time Concepts

The intent of this study was to document general behavioral correlates of cognitive impulsivity. Fourth-grade children were individually administered the Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) test, and the resulting measures (latency and errors) were correlated with a group administered scale of impulsivity, the Impulsivity Scale for Children (ISC) and eight teacher ratings evaluating the child on a series of different behaviors. No relationships existed between MFF measures and the ISC; and only one teacher rating correlated significantly with either MFF variable. This teacher rating (tendency to respond) was found to be the only discriminating teacher rating, and the high correlation between it and the MFF latency was explained because of the high task similarity between MFF requirements and the behaviors rated on “tendency to respond.” Cognitive impulsivity was not predicted by classroom behavior, implying that an individual's preferred conceptual tempo is not a part of a global impulsive behavior pattern but rather a relatively independent dimension of cognitive style. The questionable validity of the ISC was discussed for children of this age group, as was the significant correlation between Primary Mental Abilities (PMA) scores and the ISC scores.     

Motor activity in group‐housed and isolated mice with short and long attack latencies: Effects of scopolamine

Isolation‐induced behavioral changes are well described in mice, although few studies have investigated the involvement of the cholinergic system in these effects. It has also been suggested that mice that display short or long attack latencies show differences in their reactions to a novel environment. The purpose of the present study was, first, to investigate locomotor activity in grouped and isolated mice that displayed short or long attack latencies and, second, to evaluate locomotor activity to determine whether it was affected interactively by differential housing and scopolamine treatment. Two experiments were performed in which NMRI mice, either isolated or group housed, were used as subjects. In the first experiment, results showed that there were no significant differences in locomotor activity between isolated mice with short and long attack latencies, although both groups were more active than grouped mice. These results indicate that motor activity in NMRI mice is influenced by housing conditions but not by levels of aggressiveness. In the second experiment it was observed that scopolamine (1 mg/kg) increased total activity counts both in isolated and group‐housed mice (both groups selected with long attack latencies), suggesting that differential housing in this strain does not substantially modify the motor effects of this dose of scopolamine. Aggr. Behav. 28:328–336, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Behavioral definition of minimal reaction time in monkeys

Two monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were trained to press a key after onset of a tone and to release it after a 1-sec fixed foreperiod terminated by a light. The effects of imposing temporal contingencies on key release reaction times were determined by reinforcing only those releases whose latencies from the light fell within a “payoff band”, two time limits 50 msec apart located at some delay following the light. Over several days this delay was first gradually decreased, shortening the interval between light and payoff band, and then gradually increased again. For each delay, the median reaction time and a measure of variability were obtained from the latency distribution. For both animals, median latency could be decreased to 180 msec with the variability remaining small. Moving the payoff band still closer to the light resulted in further decrease in median latency but an abrupt increase in variability. This is in agreement with a model for simple reaction time derived from human research which suggests that this increased variability results from the inclusion of high-variability foreperiod time estimations in the latency distribution. These results indicate that interpretation of monkey response latencies as “minimal reaction times” requires examination of temporal reinforcement contingencies and variability of latencies.     

Thinking about false belief: It’s not just what children say,but how long it takes them to say it

We examined 240 children’s (3.5-, 4.5-, and 5.5-year-olds) latency to respond to questions on a battery of false-belief tasks. Response latencies exhibited a significant cross-over interaction as a function of age and response type (correct vs. incorrect). 3.5-year-olds’ incorrect latencies were faster than their correct latencies, whereas the opposite pattern emerged for 4.5- and 5.5-year-olds. Although these results are most consistent with conceptual change theories of false-belief reasoning, no extant theory fully accounts for our data pattern. We argue that response latency data provide new information about underlying cognitive processes in theory of mind reasoning, and can shed light on concept acquisition more broadly.     

The Relationship of Cognitive Tempo to Psychological Differentiation and Locus of Control

In this study, we investigated the relationship of cognitive tempo to psychological differentiation and locus of control. The 103 male and female undergraduate students who participated in this study were administered the adolescent and adult version of the Matching Familiar Figures Test, the Group Embedded Figures Test, and the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Scale. Using multiple regression analyses, we found that field dependence and independence were significantly related to both cognitive tempo latency and cognitive tempo errors. Contrary to expectation, no relationship was found between locus of control and cognitive tempo. We concluded that psychological differentiation is highly useful in the direct prediction of cognitive tempo, although locus of control is not. Overall, the value of examining cognitive tempo latency and errors separately was upheld. The importance of these relationships is discussed.     

Reading skill and the identification of words in discourse context

Word identification latencies and word prediction accuracy were compared for groups of skilled and less skilled young readers in three experiments. In each experiment, discourse context reduced identification latencies for less skilled as well as skilled readers. This was true both when context was heard and when it was read. The general relationship between word predictability and latency was the same for skilled readers and for less skilled readers, but only less skilled readers’ identification latencies were affected by word length and word frequency when the word appeared in context. When subjects predicted the word before identifying it, correctly predicted words were identified more quickly than words not predicted correctly, and skilled readers were more accurate in prediction than were less skilled readers. Although reading-related differences in the use of discourse context may characterize other aspects of reading comprehension, the use of context in identifying words is not a major source of reading difficulty.     

The temporal selectivity of additive factor effects on the reaction process revealed in ERP component latencies

An experiment was conducted to relate individual components of the event-related brain potential to specific stages of information processing in a two-choice reaction time (RT) task in a group of undergraduate students. Specifically, the latency of the P300 component and the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) were studied as a function of variations in stimulus degradation and response complexity. It was hypothesized that degrading the stimulus would delay the P300 and LRP to the same extent as RT, and that increasing response complexity would affect RT but not P300 latency. The extant literature did not permit any hypothesis regarding the effect of response complexity on LRP latency. The two task variables were found to have additive effects on RT. As predicted, variations in stimulus degradation influenced the latencies of both components, whereas alterations in response complexity had no effect on P300 latency. A significant new finding was that the onset latency of the LRP remained unchanged across levels of response complexity. The overall pattern of results supports the notion of temporal selectivity of stage manipulations that is derived from discrete stage models of human information processing. Furthermore, these results refine the functional interpretation of the LRP by indicating that within the conceptual framework of a stage model the processes this component indexes succeed the start of response choice but precede the start of motor programming.     

网球运动专长对深度运动知觉影响的ERP研究

结合专家-新手范式与ERP技术,研究网球运动专长对个体深度运动知觉产生的影响。通过记录网球专家和新手各19名进行深度运动模式判断时的行为和ERP数据,比较两组个体深度运动知觉的行为反应差异和脑电特征。结果显示,网球专家组深度运动知觉的判断准确率高于新手组;新手组在球体靠近时P1(PO7点)的潜伏期比球体远离时的潜伏期长,专家组无显著性差异;专家组在球体靠近时的P2(Oz点)成分潜伏期长于球体远离时的潜伏期。结果表明,网球运动专家的深度运动知觉能力在准确性上较新手高;运动专长效应与选择性注意资源的调用以及模式识别有关;枕区P2成分可作为深度运动知觉的评价指标。     

Multiple Visual Latency

It has long been known that a dark visual stimulus is seen later than a bright one, with a delay up to several 10s of milliseconds. Systematic studies of various phenomena demonstrating this delay have revealed that the perceptual latency decreases monotonically as the stimulus intensity increases. Because latencies measured by psychological methods and cortical evoked responses are very similar to electroretinogram latencies, it has become a common belief that there is little in the intensity-dependent latency function that cannot be explained by retinal processes. In this study, we report evidence that there is no one absolute visual delay common to the whole visual system, but rather that the delay varies considerably in different perceptual subsystems. The relative visual latency was found to be considerably shorter in the task involving detecting the direction of movement than in other perceptual tasks that presume visual awareness of the beginning or temporal order of visual events.     

Introducing conceptual tempo: an attempt to refocus health decision making in youth

This paper reassesses the current trend toward health decision-making skills for youth. A new field of research for health behavior called conceptual tempo is introduced in an attempt to make health decision-making interventions more effective. The argument is made that decision-making programs may not realize their full potential because of the lack of emphasis placed on the child's rate of response or "conceptual tempo" in making health decisions. Suggestions are made on how best to utilize the conceptual tempo literature to enhance health decision-making program objectives in school health education.     

Age at onset of blindness and the development of the semantics of color names

The relationship between multiple measures of response inhibition and variations in young (age 5–7 years) children's short-term learning history was examined in a laboratory setting. Exposure to experimenter-directed delay periods (of either increasing, decreasing, or fixed durations) and to various rules for behavior management during the delay intervals was manipulated. Subsequent measures of resistance to temptation, an index of conceptual tempo (the Matching Familiar Figures Test), children's preference for delay vs immediate reward, and a test of motor control was obtained. Results indicated: (a) that the effects of rule provision extended to all resistance measures and to MFFT latency, while delay experiences significantly influenced only the latency to first transgression in the resistance task; (b) that a general and positive rationale for response inhibition was superior to an arbitrary rule or no rule structure; (c) that experience with gradually increasing delay of reward assisted children in inhibiting their first transgression significantly longer than the other delay patterns or no treatment; and (d) that experimental effects showed temporal stability over one week.     

Response Amendment Latencies During Discrete Arm Movements

Examinations of the ability to rapidly modify ongoing movements have found that amendment latencies are shorter when a visual stimulus specifies an increase in movement velocity as compared to when a movement reversal is required. Our present study examined the hypothesis that amendment latencies for both continue and reverse instructions are dependent on the muscle activation state when the amendment is produced. Visual stimuli representing continue and reverse instructions were presented at four different phases of a discrete arm movement, with amendment latencies measured to modified electromyographic (EMG) patterns. Amendment latencies for the continue instruction were shortest when the stimulus was presented early in the movement and increased when the stimulus was presented later in the response. The opposite trend was true for the reversal condition with long latencies occurring when the stimulus was presented early in the movement. Our findings support the notion that amendment latencies are directly related to the active state of the motor system when the modification is required, and the nature of the amendment to be generated.     

Response amendment latencies during discrete arm movements

Examinations of the ability to rapidly modify ongoing movements have found that amendment latencies are shorter when a visual stimulus specifies an increase in movement velocity as compared to when a movement reversal is required. Our present study examined the hypothesis that amendment latencies for both continue and reverse instructions are dependent on the muscle activation state when the amendment is produced. Visual stimuli representing continue and reverse instructions wer represented at four different phases of a discrete arm movement, with amendment latencies measured to modified electromyographic (EMG) patterns. Amendment latencies for the continue instruction were shortest when the stimulus was presented early in the movement and increased when the stimulus was presented later in the response. The opposite trend was true for the reversal condition with long latencies occurring when the stimulus was presented early in the movement. Our findings support the notion that amendment latencies are directly related to the active state of the motor system when the modification is required, and the nature of the amendment to be generated.     

Temporal accuracy of gait after metronome practice

Humans readily entrain their movements to a beat, including matching their gait to a prescribed tempo. Rhythmic auditory cueing tasks have been used to enhance stepping behavior in a variety of clinical populations. However, there is limited understanding of how temporal accuracy of gait changes over practice in healthy young adults. In this study, we examined how inter-step interval and cadence deviated from slow, medium, and fast tempos across steps within trials, across trials within blocks, and across two blocks that bookended a period of practice of walking to each tempo. Participants were accurate in matching the tempo at the slow and medium tempos, while they tended to lag behind the beat at the fast tempo. We also found that participants showed no substantial improvement across steps and trials, nor across blocks, suggesting that participants had a robust ability to entrain their gait to the specified metronome tempo. However, we did find that participants habituated to the prescribed tempo, showing self-paced gait that was faster than self-paced baseline gait after the fast tempo, and slower than self-paced baseline gait after the slow tempo. These findings might represent an “after-effect” in the temporal domain, akin to after-effects consistently shown in other sensorimotor tasks. This knowledge of how healthy participants entrain their gait to temporal cues may have important implications in understanding how clinical populations acquire and modify their gait in rhythmic auditory cueing tasks.