Relief from Rescue

Philosophical Studies - Moral extremists argue for highly demanding duties of beneficence on the ground that accepting a more moderate position commits us to denying the common-sense moral...     

Effect of negative emotional pictures on associative memory for peripheral information

We investigated the influence of negative emotional pictures on associative memory. A visual object was embedded in the periphery of negative emotional or neutral pictures. Memory was assessed for central item (pictorial) information, peripheral (object) information, and the association between item and peripheral information. On tests of item information, negative emotional pictures were remembered better than neutral pictures. However, associative memory between item and peripheral information was less accurate when the pictures were negative compared to neutral. This occurred despite equivalent recall (Experiments 1 and 2) and recognition (Experiment 2) for the peripheral objects themselves. Further experiments confirmed that performance on the associative test was not influenced by testing order (Experiment 3). These findings suggest that negative emotional arousal can particularly disrupt the associative binding of peripheral information to a central emotional event.     

Action information from classification learning

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois Much of our learning comes from interacting with objects. Two experiments investigated whether or not arbitrary actions used during category learning with objects might be incorporated into object representations and influence later recognition judgments. In a virtual-reality chamber, participants used distinct arm movements to make different classification responses. During a recognition test phase, these same objects required arm movements that were consistent or inconsistent with the classification movement. In both experiments, consistent movements were facilitated relative to inconsistent movements, suggesting that arbitrary action information is incorporated into the representations.     

Auditory presentation leads to better analogical retrieval than written presentation

Research on analogical retrieval suggests that cues with object similarity to a prior episode in memory lead to better retrieval than do cues with relational similarity. We suggest that previous work may have underestimated the effectiveness of relational cues, because this work has presented cues and targets in written format. There is some evidence that spoken presentations lead to better memory than do written presentations. We tested this hypothesis using a continuous reminding paradigm in which people read and recalled proverbs that were presented either in spoken or written format. The spoken format led to better retrieval from relational cues, particularly at longer lags between cue and memory item.     

Regulatory fit effects in a choice task

This article examines the interface between motivation and choice. In category learning, a regulatory fit has been shown to increase exploration of alternative response strategies even when exploration is suboptimal. In the present study, promotion- and prevention-focused subjects performed a choice task that required them to choose from one of two decks of cards on each trial. They either gained or lost points with each draw. In Experiment 1, optimal performance required an exploratory response pattern that entailed sampling from a deck that initially appeared disadvantageous but ultimately became advantageous. In Experiment 2, optimal performance required an exploitative response pattern. A softmax action selection model that includes an exploitation parameter was applied to each subject’s data from both experiments and revealed greater exploration of alternative strategies for people with a regulatory fit. This response strategy was optimal in Experiment 1 and led to superior performance, but was suboptimal in Experiment 2 and led to inferior performance.     

Visual and haptic feedback contribute to tuning and online control during object manipulation

The authors employed a virtual environment to investigate how humans use haptic and visual feedback in a simple, rhythmic object-manipulation task. The authors hypothesized that feedback would help participants identify the appropriate resonant frequency and perform online control adjustments. The 1st test was whether sensory feedback is needed at all; the 2nd was whether the motor system combines visual and haptic feedback to improve performance. Task performance was quantified in terms of work performed on the virtual inertia, ability to identify the correct rhythm, and variability of movement. Strict feedforward control was found to be ineffective for this task, even when participants had previous knowledge of the rhythm. Participants (N = 11) performed far better when feedback was available (11 times more work, 2.2 times more precise frequency, 30% less variability; p < .05 for all 3 performance measures). Using sensory feedback, participants were able to rapidly identify 4 different spring-inertia systems without foreknowledge of the corresponding resonant frequencies. They performed over 20% more work with 24% less variability when provided with both visual and haptic feedback than they did with either feedback channel alone (p < .05), providing evidence that they integrated online sensory channels. Whereas feedforward control alone led to poor performance, feedback control led to fast tuning or calibration of control according to the resonant frequency of the object, and to better control of the rhythmic movement itself.     

Object‐based visual processing in children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus: A cognitive neuropsychological analysis

The aim of the study was to use cognitive neuropsychological analysis to investigate object‐based visual processing skills in children with spina bifida myelomeningocele and hydrocephalus (SBH). Fourteen children with SBH (aged 8–12) and 21 age‐, socio‐economic status‐, and Verbal IQ‐matched healthy controls were assessed using the Birmingham Object Recognition Battery. Overall, the performance of the children with SBH on the object‐processing tasks was intact, indicating normal development of the ventral visual processing pathway. While the initial results indicated that the children with SBH performed statistically significantly less accurately on some tasks, these group differences no longer met significance criteria after capacity for sustained attention was statistically controlled.     

Perceptual learning for speech

Adult language users have an enormous amount of experience with speech in their native language. As a result, they have very well-developed processes for categorizing the sounds of speech that they hear. Despite this very high level of experience, recent research has shown that listeners are capable of redeveloping their speech categorization to bring it into alignment with new variation in their speech input. This reorganization of phonetic space is a type of perceptual learning, or recalibration, of speech processes. In this article, we review several recent lines of research on perceptual learning for speech.     

Development and validation of a unifactorial measure of citizenship performance

Citizenship Performance has long been accepted as an important aspect of performance, but there has been little consensus on how best to measure this construct. Previous measures have assessed as many as five sub‐factors, yet recent meta‐analyses have indicated that citizenship is largely unifactorial. At the same time, none of the previously developed unifactorial Citizenship Performance scales have been adequately validated. Consequently, this article reports the development of a unifactorial measure of Citizenship Performance, which was found to have good criterion validity. The unifactorial scale also had superior convergent and divergent validity, and better internal factor structure, than the commonly‐used Job Dedication and Interpersonal Facilitation scales, developed by Van Scotter and Motowidlo (1996).