Anomaly detection in the right hemisphere: The influence of visuospatial factors

Previous research with both brain-damaged and neurologically intact populations has demonstrated that the right cerebral hemisphere (RH) is superior to the left cerebral hemisphere (LH) at detecting anomalies (or incongruities) in objects (Ramachandran, 1995; Smith, Tays, Dixon, & Bulman-Fleming, 2002). The current research assesses whether the RH advantage for anomaly detection is due to the RH superiority for visuospatial skills or is a distinct cognitive process. Sixty undergraduate participants completed tasks assessing anomaly detection, mental rotation, and global and local perceptual abilities. The results demonstrate that anomaly detection is negatively correlated with mental rotation. These findings suggest that anomaly detection is not simply a function of visuospatial skills.     

Attendance probabilities of participants in a human experiment

This study investigated how different prompting strategies affected the attendance probabilities of 60 undergraduate students participating in an experiment. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: no prompt, phone-message prompt, or phone-voice prompt. Analysis showed that participants in the no-prompt condition attended the study at a rate of 50%. Participants who received a phone-message prompt attended at a rate of 55%, while participants who received a phone-voice prompt attended at a rate of 100%.     

Seeing double: the role of meaning in alphanumeric-colour synaesthesia

When PD, an alphanumeric-colour synaesthete, is shown black digits or letters, each grapheme elicits a highly specific colour, called a "photism" (e.g., a 2 induces green, a Z induces brown). Previous experiments showed that photisms interfere with video-colour naming when the photism colour and the video colour are incongruent. Here we used coloured ambiguous graphemes that could be interpreted as either digits or letters depending on context (e.g., an ambiguous grapheme was interpreted as a 2 if presented within a block of digit trials, but as a Z if presented within a block of letter trials). Ambiguous graphemes were presented in video colours that were either congruent or incongruent with PD's photisms. Crucially, what was a congruent trial in one context was an incongruent trial in the other context. PD's pattern of response times indicated that identical graphemes could induce differently coloured photisms depending on their interpretation. This suggests that the meaning of graphemes ultimately determines their synaesthetic colour.     

Synaesthetic photisms guide attention

We evaluated whether synaesthetic colour experiences (i.e., photisms) guide or attract attention. An alphanumeric-colour synaesthete, J, and seven non-synaesthetes searched for target digits presented against backgrounds that were either congruent or incongruent with the colours of J's photisms for the target digits. For J, the slope of the search function for detecting the target digits on incongruent trials was shallower than the slope of the search function for detecting the target digits on congruent trials. In contrast, for the seven non-synaesthetes, the slopes of the search functions for detecting the target digits on congruent and incongruent trials were equivalent. These findings suggest that synaesthetic colour experiences influence the efficiency of visual search by guiding or attracting attention.     

Latent change models of adult cognition: are changes in processing speed and working memory associated with changes in episodic memory?

The authors used 6-year longitudinal data from the Victoria Longitudinal Study (VLS) to investigate individual differences in amount of episodic memory change. Latent change models revealed reliable individual differences in cognitive change. Changes in episodic memory were significantly correlated with changes in other cognitive variables, including speed and working memory. A structural equation model for the latent change scores showed that changes in speed and working memory predicted changes in episodic memory, as expected by processing resource theory. However, these effects were best modeled as being mediated by changes in induction and fact retrieval. Dissociations were detected between cross-sectional ability correlations and longitudinal changes. Shuffling the tasks used to define the Working Memory latent variable altered patterns of change correlations.     

Generating initial models for reasoning

Much of the knowledge that children and adults have about the world resides in intuitive models. Previous work shows that intuitive models allow for computation of specific outcomes given information about the system, but little is known about how such models are acquired. The current study tested three hypotheses about how children and adults construct intuitive models when they encounter a new property: (1) intuitive models are constructed by transferring principles from familiar properties; (2) with development, children shift from applying a default model to constructing specialized models; and (3) younger children's model construction is constrained by the domain, but becomes increasingly domain independent with development. Participants from three age groups (10, 13, and 19 years) made a series of judgments about two familiar properties and one novel property. Causal models showed that all age groups transferred principles from the familiar properties to the novel property. None of the age groups used a default model. There was developmental change in the effect of domain; younger, but not older, children's models were affected by domain. These findings suggest that the transfer process is developmentally invariant but that constraints on the process (i.e., domain dependence and understanding of base models) change with development.     

The role of vision in the on-line correction of illusion effects on action.

In this study, participants reached out and picked up a bar placed on a background grating that induced an illusion in the perceived orientation of the bar. The illusion had a large effect on the orientation of the hand early in the reaches, but this effect decreased continuously as the hand approached the target. This pattern occurred whether or not participants were allowed vision of the hand and target while reaching. These results are consistent with a "planning/control" model of action, in which actions are planned using a context-dependent visual representation but monitored and corrected on-line using a context-independent visual representation. The hypothesized neural bases of these representations are discussed.     

A computerized slot machine simulation to investigate the variables involved in gambling behavior

The present paper describes a computerized slot machine simulation designed to examine many of the potential variables involved in gambling behavior. This program was created in Visual Basic Version 6.0 and is designed to run on any Windows 95 or higher equipped computer. The program allows for experimenter manipulation of probabilities of payoffs, visual display of potential winning symbols, exact sequences of wins and losses, as well as pose run time questions to the subject on prespecified trials. The program records data on a trial-bytrial basis to a text file for easy importation into many data analysis and statistical programs. Conceptual and experimental questions that may be addressed with the described program are also discussed.