Reactive and proactive control in incarcerated and community adolescents and young adults

This study compared the cognitive control skills of male incarcerated adolescents (n = 44), male control adolescents (n = 33), male incarcerated young adults (n = 41), and male control young adults (n = 35) using the AX-continuous performance test (AX-CPT). This test measures proactive control (the ability to maintain a mental representation of goal-related information in preparation for a behavioral response) and reactive control (the ability to activate goal-related information in response to an external trigger). Incarcerated individuals had more difficulty implementing proactive control, whereas control individuals had more difficulty implementing reactive control. Adolescents had more difficulty with both reactive and proactive control compared with young adults, suggesting that both skills improve with age. Additional analyses indicated that the effect of age on proactive control was due to the presence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, whereas the effect of age on reactive control appeared to be a natural developmental trend that could not be explained by other variables. These findings are considered in relation to the dual mechanisms of control theory [Braver, T. S., Gray, J. R., & Burgess, G. C. (2007). Explaining the many varieties of working memory variation: Dual mechanisms of cognitive control. In A. R. A. Conway, C. Jarrold, M. J. Kane, A. Miyake, & J. N. Towse (Eds.), Variation in Working Memory. New York: Oxford University Press.].     

Graded semantic and phonological similarity effects in priming: evidence for a distributed connectionist approach to morphology

A considerable body of empirical and theoretical research suggests that morphological structure governs the representation of words in memory and that many words are decomposed into morphological components in processing. The authors investigated an alternative approach in which morphology arises from the interaction of semantic and phonological codes. A series of cross-modal lexical decision experiments shows that the magnitude of priming reflects the degree of semantic and phonological overlap between words. Crucially, moderately similar items produce intermediate facilitation (e.g., lately-late). This pattern is observed for word pairs exhibiting different types of morphological relationships, including suffixed-stem (e.g., teacher-teach), suffixed-suffixed (e.g., saintly-sainthood), and prefixed-stem pairs (preheat-heat). The results can be understood in terms of connectionist models that use distributed representations rather than discrete morphemes.     

Contextual influences on interpersonal complementarity

The influence of context on interpersonal complementarity was examined using an event-contingent recording procedure. Setting and role status moderated the relation between how a person behaved and how the other person behaved. Individuals were more likely to respond with agreeable behavior to agreeableness in others when not at work than when at work and when in a high status work role relative to a low status work role. Reciprocity between dominance and submissiveness was found in work settings but not in nonwork settings. Individuals were more likely to reciprocate more submissive behavior by the other person with more dominant behavior and more likely to reciprocate more dominant behavior by the other person with relatively more submissive behavior when in a higher status work role relative to lower status work roles. Results were interpreted in terms of the influence of decreased structure and shared goals on increasing interpersonal complementarity.     

Time of day and the representation of text

This article reports an experiment to investigate the idea that time-of-day differences in memory for text are related to type of text processing that is carried out at different times of day. In particular, it was hypothesized that subjects tested in the morning tend to retain more of the exact wording of the text, whereas those tested in the afternoon are more likely to produce a meaning-based representation. The results of a recognition test showed that, in agreement with other studies, immediate text memory is better in the morning than in the afternoon. As predicted, the subjects tested in the morning better remembered the exact wording of the original passages. However, the idea that memory for meaning is better in the afternoon than the morning was not supported by the data. The results suggest that subjects at both times of day produce a meaning-based representation of the text but, in the morning, this representation is supported by good verbatim memory, enabling accurate recall of the text at that time.     

Spatial cuing in a stereoscopic display: Evidence for a “depth-aware” attentional focus

Two experiments were conducted to explore whether attentional selection occurs in depth, or whether attentional focus is “depth blind,” as suggested by Ghiradelli and Folk (1996). In Experiment 1, observers viewed stereoscopic displays in which one of four spatial locations was cued. Two of the locations were at a near-depth location and two were at a far-depth location, and a single target was presented along with three distractors. The results indicated a larger cost in reaction time for switching attention inx,y and depth than inx,y alone, supporting a “depth-aware” attentional spotlight. In Experiment 2, no distractors were present, similar to the displays used by Ghiradelli and Folk. In this experiment, no effect for switching attention in depth was found, indicating that the selectivity of attention in depth depends on the perceptual load imposed on observers by the tasks and displays.     

A goodness of fit test for the rasch model

The Rasch model is an item analysis model with logistic item characteristic curves of equal slope,i.e. with constant item discriminating powers. The proposed goodness of fit test is based on a comparison between difficulties estimated from different scoregroups and over-all estimates. Based on the within scoregroup estimates and the over-all estimates of item difficulties a conditional likelihood ratio is formed. It is shown that—2 times the logarithm of this ratio isx ²-distributed when the Rasch model is true. The power of the proposed goodness of fit test is discussed for alternative models with logistic item characteristic curves, but unequal discriminating items from a scholastic aptitude test.     

2-D contour perception resulting from kinetic occlusion

Kinetic occlusion, the progressive deletion or accretion of texture elements as one surface covers or uncovers another, has been shown to be an important source of information for determining depth order. In the present study, the importance of this information for 2-D contour perception was examined. In Experiment 1, subjects were asked to discriminate four different target shapes defined solely by kinetic occlusion. Discrimination increased with an increase in texture density and velocity, with density as the major factor. In Experiment 2, the targets were defined by static untextured regions as well as by kinetic occlusion. Overall, accuracy was similar to that found in Experiment 1, indicating that the presence of static information had little impact on accuracy. In Experiment 3, subjects were unable to discriminate among the four targets when presented with static versions of the displays used in Experiment 2. The results from these experiments indicate that kinetic occlusion can be used for discrimination of different 2-D shapes and that density has a more important role in determining accuracy than velocity.     

Velocity gradients and relative depth perception

The effectiveness of velocity gradients in providing relative depth information was assessed using random dot patterns translating horizontally. The gradients simulated two planes meeting at a horizontal line at the center, and subjects judged whether the center was the nearest or farthest part of the display. Accuracy increased with maximum dot speed, exceeding 90% in conditions combining the highest speed (10.4^o/sec) and longer of two display durations (10 sec) with unrestricted fixation. Separate experiments examined a rotational component perceived in the motion of the planes and the latency in reporting a rigid organization of the displays. Possible reasons for the chance accuracy found by Farber and McConkie (1979) and alternative explanations of the effect of maximum dot speed on accuracy are discussed. A model is presented that accounts for the effects of dot speed and display duration on the accuracy of relative depth judgments.     

The use of occlusion to resolve ambiguity in parallel projections

Previous research has shown that the three-dimensional structure of an object usually can be perceived when viewing a parallel projection of the object rotating in depth. Accurate judgments of direction of rotation, however, have been found only with polar projections. The present study demonstrated that accurate direction judgments can occur with parallel projections if occlusion is included in the displays. The stimuli were parallel projections of pentagonal texture elements on the surface of a rotating sphere. In one condition, the elements were occluded as they rounded the edge of an opaque sphere. In another condition, elements on the far surface of a transparent sphere were occluded by elements on the near surface. Accuracy of direction judgments was consistently high in the first condition and increased monotonically with element size in the second condition, from chance to over 80% correct. The relationship of these results to the general issue of perceptually combining structure in depth information from one source with relative distance information from another source is discussed.