Does Attention Modulate the Perception of Luminance Changes?

In a previous study assessing the modulation of visual processing by attention, Bonnel, Possami, and Schmitt showed that, when discriminating line-length, subjects precisely shared processing resources between two pairs of lines presented to the left and right of fixation. In a close replication requiring the detection of luminance increments instead of line-length differences, subjects were unable to follow the instructions and to allocate attention differentially, thus supporting the claim that light detection is fundamentally different from shape discrimination. In a subsequent experiment, we tested and rejected the possibility that luminance perception was not open to modulation by attention due to its physical nature. Replacing brightness detection by brightness identification allowed voluntary control on the quality of processing to be evidenced. The similarity between the latter results and the data from line-length discrimination suggests that task requirements may be crucial in determining the distribution of attention.     

Does Structural Complexity Necessarily Imply Processing Difficulty?

Our goal is to establish a link between the time needed to plan a sentence containing an embedded clause and the structure of this sentence. Contrary to a traditional monolithic conception of subordination, three types of embeddings were considered, depending on their degree of syntactic integration: subcategorized, modifier and pseudo-embedded clauses. We hypothesized that in the case of subcategorization, fewer pauses should occur between the matrix and the subordinate clause since the latter is required by the lexical properties of verbs. By contrast, pseudo-embedded clauses are the less integrated. Hence, they should exhibit planning characteristics similar to the ones of simple sentences, the matrix clause and the subordinate clauses being planned in two steps. Twenty texts produced by French speaking adults were recorded. Pauses were characterized according to their duration and position. Globally, both predictions were confirmed. We conclude that supposedly complex sentences are not necessarily difficult to process.     

Does Articulatory Suppression Remove the Irrelevant Speech Effect?

Salamé and Baddeley (1982) reported that the effect of irrelevant speech on the serial recall of visually presented sequences was abolished when subjects performed articulatory suppression during presentation and recall of the target items. They argued that this is because suppression isolates visually presented material from the phonological store, which they consider to be the locus of the irrelevant speech effect. In the present experiment, an alternative interpretation of Salamé and Baddeley's findings was investigated. Salamé and Baddeley used nine-item sequences, and observed very low levels of recall when articulation was suppressed. It is therefore possible that Salamé and Baddeley's failure to observe any additional effect of irrelevant speech reflects either a floor effect or else a strategic choice by subjects to abandon the use of a phonological memory code because of task difficulty. In the experiment reported here, this issue was investigated by using both six- and nine-item sequences. Results revealed no effect of irrelevant speech under articulatory suppression even at the shorter sequence length. The results therefore replicate and extend the findings of Salamé and Baddeley (1982), and provide support for their view that visually presented material must be articulated before it becomes susceptible to interference from irrelevant speech.     

Does Partisan Bias Modulate Neural Processing of Political Information? An Analysis of the Neural Correlates of Corruption and Positive Messages

Daily worldwide newspapers print articles exposing government corruption. Yet these messages do not lead to a loss of votes for the corrupt parties. Sympathizers’ partisan bias, which respectively minimizes and maximizes corruption and positive messages of their own parties respectively, is widely considered the main cause of the loss of effectiveness of political communications. Despite the well-established existence of such bias when processing political information, little is known as to its psychological origin. Through the use of neuroscience (fMRI), this study explores the underlying brain mechanisms of negative (corruption) and positive political messages related to a conservative and a socialist Spanish political party, as well as the differences between their sympathizers. The findings reveal that negative (vs. positive) political messages exert the greatest neuroimaging impact on the electorate, as shown in aversive, risk, and disappointment-related brain regions. Interestingly, we show that there exists a main partisan bias against opposite parties (and not a positive bias toward one’s own party) that stems from a higher risk, ambiguity, and disbelief provoked by both positive and negative information about rival parties. Furthermore, this bias was more pronounced among conservative supporters. The current findings provide valuable insights for political parties to improve their communication campaigns.     

Does the Conners' Continuous Performance Test Aid in ADHD Diagnosis?

The performance of clinic-referred children aged 6–11 (N = 100) was examined using the Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and measures of auditory attention (Auditory Continuous Performance Test; ACPT), phonological awareness, visual processing speed, and visual-motor competence. The Conners' CPT overall index was unrelated to measures of visual processing speed or visual-motor competence. Although the Conners' CPT converged with the ACPT, the latter demonstrated age and order effects. Significant variance in Conners' CPT parameters was predicted by phonological awareness measures, suggesting that Reading Disordered (RD) children could be false positives on the Conners' CPT. The Conners' CPT overall index, phonological awareness, and visual-motor measures were submitted to a 2×2 MANCOVA (ADHD vs. RD, covarying for age and socieoeconomic status): a main effect for RD status was found. Children with ADHD did not have higher Conners' CPT scores than did clinical controls; however, children with Reading Disorders did. Phonological measures distinguished RD children from ADHD children and other clinical controls. ADHD children who failed the Conners' CPT were rated by teachers as more hyperactive. Despite the strengths of the Conners' CPT, its utility for differential diagnosis of ADHD is questioned.     

The Retentional and the Repressed: Does Freud's Concept of the Unconscious Threaten Husserlian Phenomenology?

This paper investigates the claims made by both Freudian psychoanalysic thought and Husserlian phenomenology about the unconscious. First, it is shown how Husserl incorporates a complex notion of the unconscious in his analysis of passive synthesis. With his notion of an unintentional reservoir of past retentions, Husserl articulates an unconscious zone that must be activated from consciousness in order to “come to life.” Second, it is explained how Husserl still does not account for the Freudian unconscious. Freud's unconscious could be called, in phenomenological terms, a repressed retentional zone that differs from both near and far retention. Finally, an analysis is offered for the significance of this psychoanalytic argument for phenomenology. Does phenomenology provide a complete account of the psychical life of the subject without the Freudian unconscious? Does phenomenology suggest, as is often done, that Freud's “discovery” of the unconscious is a fantastical invention? Or, does the Freudian unconscious represent a true stumbling block for phenomenology?     

Does Global Context Modulate Cerebral Asymmetries? A Review and New Evidence on Word Imageability Effects

In this article we examine whether the distribution of function across the right and left cerebral hemispheres for lexical processing is influenced by the global context within which words are presented. A review of previously published studies indicates that the ubiquitous right visual field (RVF)/left hemisphere advantage for word recognition may be reduced or eliminated for nouns, content words, or high image words, but only when such items are presented along with verbs, function words, or low image words. However, paradoxically, when the former items are presented in more homogeneous contexts, the RVF advantage is uniformly observed. We propose that the processing efficiency of a hemisphere for a given stimulus depends on that item's relation to the other stimuli provided, that is, the global context. This was examined in a visual half-field experiment that varied whether high and low image nouns were presented in homogeneous (blocked lists) or heterogeneous (mixed lists) contexts. An unvarying RVF advantage was observed for high image words in homogeneous contexts, but this advantage was eliminated when the same items were presented in heterogeneous contexts. We suggest that stimulus heterogeneity maximizes reliance on differing, but complementary, computational biases across hemispheres. Hence, the extent to which the left and right hemispheres are recruited for the recognition of individual word types can vary dynamically with variation in the stimulus environment.     

Cognitive Spread: Under What Conditions Does the Mind Extend Beyond the Body?

The extended mind hypothesis (EMH) is the claim that the mind can and does extend beyond the human body. Adams and Aizawa (A&A) contend that arguments for EMH commit a ‘coupling constitution fallacy’. We deny that the master argument for EMH commits such a fallacy. But we think that there is an important question lurking behind A&A's allegation: under what conditions is cognition spread across a tightly coupled system? Building on some suggestions from Haugeland, we contend that the system must exhibit a distinctive sort of semantic activity, semantic activity that the system as a whole takes responsibility for.     

False Memories for an Analogue Trauma: Does Thought Suppression Help or Hinder Memory Accuracy?

In the current study, we investigated whether suppression can produce an amplified memory for a traumatic experience. Participants viewed a distressing film depicting a multi‐fatality car accident. We broke the film down into several short clips, some of which were removed. After viewing the film, we instructed participants to (i) suppress and monitor film‐related thoughts, (ii) think freely and monitor film‐related thoughts or (iii) just think freely. Twenty‐four hours later, participants completed a recognition test. Memory distortion was comparable across conditions; however, suppression and monitoring of trauma‐related thoughts removed the typical bias to falsely remember the most critical and traumatic clips of the film over the least critical clips. Our data suggest that suppression may be effective in reducing trauma‐related cognitions and, therefore, does not predict a more ‘amplified’ memory for trauma. Instead, suppression and thought monitoring encourage an unbiased, although inaccurate, memory for trauma.Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Retrospective Revaluation and Inhibitory Associations: Does Perceptual Learning Modulate our Perception of the Contingencies Between Events?

The reported experiments seek to reconcile the conflict between proposed explanations of retrospective revaluation of contingency judgements in experiments with humans (e.g. Dickinson & Burke, 1996) and those of a perceptual learning phenomenon discovered in rats (Espinet, Iraola, Bennett, &Mackintosh, 1995). The experiments employ a medical diagnosis scenario, in which subjects are asked to judge whether particular symptoms signal the presence or absence of a fictitious disease. In Experiment 1, following alternating exposure to pairs of symptoms, AX and BX, subjects were informed that symptom A was predictive of illness. As a result of this training, subjects rated symptom B as predictive of the absence of the illness. In Experiment 2, a possible mechanism behind this effect was considered. In particular, it was established that pre-exposure in which the AX pair reliably preceded the BX pair produced the same pattern of results as those shown in Experiment 1. In contrast, when the order of pairs was reversed, so that BX reliably preceded AX, the reduction in ratings for symptom B was not obtained. Several extant associative theories are discussed, but none are found to account adequately for this pattern of results. To overcome these inadequacies, a parsimonious theory is suggested that explains all the effects observed in these experiments.     

When Does Gender Count? Further Insights into Gender Schematic Processing of Female Candidates' Political Advertisements

In this study we explored viewers' responses to advertising by female political candidates. Gender schema theory provided the basis for developing a better understanding of the circumstances when voters evaluate female candidates and how cognitive representations of what women are like influence viewer responses. Results showed general support for the predictions derived from gender schema theory. That is, participants did seem to rely on gender schema in making judgments, a form of inference making known as “default processing,” when information was absent. Results also indicated that participants relied more on gender schematic processing when the advertisement elicited positive emotions and less on gender schematic processing when exposed to an attack ad. For comparison, viewers' responses to male candidates' political advertising were also examined. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for political campaigns.     

Continuous Response Monitoring of Relative Time-to-Contact Judgments: Does Effective Information Change During an Approach Event?

In many previous studies of time-to-contact (TTC) judgments of approaching objects, a response was measured after observers viewed the entire event and was used to infer the informational basis for the judgment. Such measures primarily reflect the information used at the end of the approach event and may not reveal whether observers used different information at different times during the event. Evidence indicates that observers use multiple information sources and that the effectiveness of information varies with distance. We introduce a method in which observers continuously report which of 2 approaching objects would reach them first, throughout the approach. We identified the occurrence and time of response reversals. Most observers changed their relative TTC judgments during the event. The pattern of responses indicated that observers did not use tau early during the approach when objects were far and did not use optical size later when the objects were closer. Most observers relied on either optical size or optical expansion rate early during the approach and expansion rate later during the event, although there were individual differences. A single relative TTC judgment measured after observers view an approach event may not reflect judgments or their informational basis throughout the entire event.     

Does the Brain Differentiate Between Related and Unrelated Cuts When Processing Audiovisual Messages? An ERP Study

The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that during audiovisual message processing (e.g., television or film), cuts in the video track cause an orienting response, which is reflected in the involuntary shift of attention. In classic research by Reeves et al. (1985) Reeves, B., Thorson, E., Rothschild, M. L., McDonald, D., Hirsch, J. and Goldstein, R. 1985. Attention to television: Intrastimulus effects of movement and scene change on alpha variation over time. International Journal of Neuroscience, 27: 241–255. doi:10.3109/00207458509149770[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], changes in the alpha band were noticed in reaction to montage cuts. We propose an investigation of the brain's reaction to montage cuts by means of event-related potentials (ERPs), which are the brain's electrophysiological responses to a stimulus. Well-known indices of orienting response are two ERP components: P3 and slow cortical potential (SCP). Ten participants watched a film consisting of 105 related and 114 unrelated cuts while an electroencephalographic signal was recorded. The hypothesis that unrelated cuts in the video track when watching an audiovisual message cause more pronounced SCP was confirmed. There was no effect of unrelated cuts on P3. The results of this study provide a good starting point for further research on brain reactions to the structural features of an audiovisual message, such as close ups or camera moves.