When the voluntary mind meets the irresistible event: Stimulus–response correspondence effects on task selection during voluntary task switching

In the present study, we investigated how task selection is biased by inherent stimulus characteristics in the voluntary task-switching paradigm. We used digits as the task stimuli, since they may automatically induce spatially horizontal representations of numbers. Specifically, we examined whether an irrelevant spatial representation of a number coincides with its associated response codes and whether such a stimulus–response (S–R) correspondence effect biases task selection for a digit. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two different action code layout conditions: Two numerical tasks were arranged as inner/outer in the horizontal layout condition or as upper/down in the vertical layout condition. Participants in the horizontal layout condition were more likely to choose a task when the task’s action code and the digit’s spatial representation corresponded, as compared with when they did not. On the other hand, no selection bias was observed in the vertical layout condition, since there was no overlapping spatial representation between the stimulus and response. The present study extends previous findings by considering the influence of the stimulus-driven effect on task selection with regard to the S–R correspondence effect.     

Smoking,Muslim religious commitments,and the experience and behaviour of Ramadan in Pakistani men

This study examined the possibility that smoking may interfere with Muslim commitments in general and with the experience and behaviour of Ramadan in particular. During Ramadan, a sample of 29 smoking and 46 non-smoking Pakistani men responded to measures of smoking, Religious Orientation, Religious Interest, Positive and Negative Ramadan Experience, and Ramadan Behaviour. Various indices of smoking predicted a disinterest in religion, less of an Intrinsic Religious Orientation, lower levels of Positive Ramadan Experience, higher Negative Ramadan Experience, and reductions in Ramadan Behaviour. These data offered preliminary support for the suggestion that smoking presents a challenge to Muslim beliefs and practices, especially during Ramadan.     

Effects of Domain,Retention Interval,and Information Load on Young and Older Adults’ Visuospatial Working Memory

Age-related differences in visuospatial working memory were examined in 69 young adults and 49 older adults exposed to three pairs of tasks. Each pair consisted of one task involving information about the form or appearance of items and another task involving information about item locations. The first pair of tasks manipulated retention interval and required maintaining information about one item. The second pair also manipulated retention interval and required maintaining information about multiple items presented simultaneously. The third pair manipulated the number of sequentially presented items. Analyses of the first two pairs of tasks revealed significant age deficits in working memory for spatial locations but not in working memory for visual features. Notably, there were no age differences in the effect of retention interval on any of the four tasks, suggesting that visuospatial information is lost at similar rates in older and young adults. Analyses of the third pair of tasks revealed that, regardless of domain, increasing the amount of information impaired older adults’ memory performance to a greater extent than young adults’ performance. Thus, the present results suggest differences in basic working memory capacity in both domains, but a lack of age differences in rates of forgetting from working memory, and greater age-related deficits in the spatial domain than in the object domain.     

Unwanted Beliefs: Age Differences in Beliefs of False Information

Two experiments were conducted to test the Spinozan model of believing. Because of their reduced cognitive resources, older adults were predicted to be more likely than young adults to believe false information. Experiment 1 used a dispositional attribution paradigm to test this hypothesis. Young and older adults were exposed to both true and false (either positive or negative) trait information about the target persons. Participants then made dispositional ratings and evaluated the target persons on overall likeability scales. Results supported the Spinozan model of believing. Older adults were more likely than young adults to believe false information and their dispositional ratings were reliably biased by the valence of false information. Experiment 2 further examined whether these false beliefs of older adults were actually conscious beliefs. It was found that older adults consciously recollected the false statements as true and these false beliefs mediated age differences in dispositional attribution.     

刷新功能对汉语口吃者语音编码的影响

该研究采用双任务实验范式比较了口吃者和非口吃者在色点位置刷新任务的同时重复双声词和叠韵词的反应时和口吃频率。结果表明,口吃者和非口吃者加工叠韵词比加工双声词均需要更多的刷新功能。研究结果支持了口吃的"内在修正假说",对口吃的诊断和治疗有重要的启示。     

Entropy of Linkography: Evaluating the Creativity of Short Animation

There are important research issues surrounding the best methods for evaluating creativity of animation. This study proposed an approach to evaluate the creativity of short animation by adopting Linkography. This article reported the results of two experiments performed to test this approach. In study 1, participants identified as impressive a set of images drawn from a short animation. These images then represented moves on Linkography. Next, the interrelations between images were recognized as links on Linkography. The creativity of a short animation was determined by entropy, which was calculated by links. Results of study 1 revealed that entropy of Linkography had a high correlation (.86) with the evaluation scores obtained through a questionnaire, thus confirming the adequacy of using Linkography as a tool in evaluating the creativity of short animation. In study 2, an experiment was conducted to adjust entropy calculation. The study results showed that there existed alternatives for adjusting this calculation to reflect better the irregularity of ideas, which serves as an indicator of creativity. Further studies are needed to test the generalization of the present findings.     

Bio-Inspired Design of Soft Robotic Assistive Devices: The Interface of Physics,Biology, and Behavior

Wearable assistive robotic devices are characterized by an interface, a meeting place of living tissue and mechanical forces, at which potential and kinetic energy are converted to one or the other form. Ecological scientists may make important contributions to the design of device interfaces because of a functional perspective on energy and information exchange. For ecological scientists, (a) behavioral forms are an assembly of whole functional systems from available parts, emerging in energy flows, and (b) nature explores for informationally based adaptive solutions to assemble behavioral forms by generating spontaneous patterns containing fluctuations. We present data from ongoing studies with infants that demonstrate how infants may explore for adaptive kicking solutions. Inspired by the ecological perspective and data from developing humans, ecological scientists may design interfaces to assist individuals with medical conditions that result in physical and/or mental impairment. We present one such device, what is called the “second skin,” to illustrate how a soft, prestressed material, worn on the skin surface, may be used synergistically with synthetic and biological muscles for assisting action. Our work on the second skin, thus far, suggests a set of ecologically inspired principles for design of wearable assistive robotic devices.