New approaches to demystifying insight

After a person has become stuck on a problem, they sometimes achieve a clear and sudden solution through insight--the so-called Aha! experience. Because of its distinctive experience, the origins and characteristics of insight have received considerable attention historically in psychological research. However, despite considerable progress in characterizing insight, the underlying mechanisms remain mysterious. We argue that research on insight could be greatly advanced by supplementing traditional insight research, which depends on a few complex problems, with paradigms common in other domains of cognitive science. We describe a large set of mini-insight problems to which multiple methods can be applied, together with subjective reports to identify insight problem-solving. Behavioral priming and neuroimaging methods are providing evidence about what, where, and how neural activity occurs during insight. Such evidence constrains theories of component processes, and will help to demystify insight.     

Toward a taxonomy of attention shifting: Individual differences in fMRI during multiple shift types

Although task switching is often considered one of the fundamental abilities underlying executive functioning and general intelligence, there is little evidence that switching is a unitary construct and little evidence regarding the relationship between brain activity and switching performance. We examined individual differences in multiple types of attention shifting in order to determine whether behavioral performance and fMRI activity are correlated across different types of shifting. The participants (n=39) switched between objects and attributes both when stimuli were perceptually available (external) and when stimuli were stored in memory (internal). We found that there were more switchrelated activations in many regions associated with executive control—including the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal and parietal cortices—when behavioral switch costs were higher (poor performance). Conversely, activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and the rostral anterior cingulate was consistently correlated with good performance, suggesting a general role for these areas in efficient attention shifting. We discuss these findings in terms of a model of cognitive-emotional interaction in attention shifting, in which reward-related signals in the VMPFC guide efficient selection of tasks in the lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices.     

Laboratory behavioral measures of impulsivity

Previous research and theory have conceptualized impulsivity as a multifaceted construct that requires multiple modes of measurement for accurate assessment. This article describes a software package that includes four paradigms for measuring multiple and unique aspects of impulsivity. Specifically, four tasks are described: (1) the two choice impulsivity paradigm, (2) the single key impulsivity paradigm, (3) the GoStop impulsivity paradigm, and (4) the time paradigm. These tasks measure processes related to the capacity to tolerate delay for reward, to inhibit an already initiated response, and to estimate the passage of time. These processes have been found to be important to the understanding of impulsive behaviors. The programs are flexible and allow the experimenter to manipulate a number of parameters related to delay-reward contingencies, timing, performance feedback/payment, and data output variables. Manipulation of these parameters makes the paradigms scalable to a wide range of ability levels and appropriate for samples ranging from children to adults. The four paradigms in this software package are available at no cost and can be obtained by contacting the corresponding author.     

Negative Affect in Victimized Children: The Roles of Social Withdrawal, Peer Rejection, and Attitudes Toward Bullying

This study evaluated the validity of mediating pathways in predicting self-assessed negative affect from shyness/social withdrawal, peer rejection, victimization by peers (overt and relational), and the attitude that aggression is legitimate and warranted. Participants were 296 3rd through 5th graders (156 girls, 140 boys) from 10 elementary schools. Self-report measures of victimization, attitudes, and negative affect, and a teacher-report measure of shyness/social withdrawal and peer rejection were completed during the spring semesters of 2 consecutive years. Hierarchical regression analyses supported the mediational model in predicting negative affect at Time 2. However, an increase in negative affect over the 12-month study period was best accounted for by direct effects of increased victimization and changes in attitudes/attributions regarding aggression. Implications for the planning of school interventions designed to interrupt these victimization-maladjustment pathways are discussed.     

Attending and glancing

The activities of glancing and attending are rarely compared, yet they have significant affinities to the point where we may say that glancing is a mode of attending while the latter, in turn, often proceeds by glances. This paper explores these affinities, showing that each activity is a form of reactive spontaneity (James) and that each engages in a particular version of advertence. Mental as well as ordinary perceptual glances are examined, with examples being taken from laboratory studies, everyday life, meditation, and the psychotherapeutic technique of focusing. In the end, the two acts collaborate closely, enhance each other, and can be considered conterminous in many of their aims and procedures for reaching them.     

The role of rehearsal and generation in false memory creation

The current research investigated one possible mechanism underlying false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. In the DRM paradigm, participants who study lists of related words (e.g., "table, sitting, bench ...") frequently report detailed memories for the centrally related but non-presented critical lure (e.g., "chair"). One possibility is that participants covertly call to mind the critical non-presented lure during the study phase, and later misattribute memory for this internally generated event to its external presentation. To investigate this, the DRM paradigm was modified to allow collection of on-line thoughts during the study phase. False recognition increased following generation during study. False recognition also increased following study of longer lists; this effect was partially explained by the fact that longer lists were more likely to elicit generations of the critical lure during study. Generation of the lure during study contributes to later false recognition, although it does not explain the entire effect.     

Transitive responding in hooded crows requires linearly ordered stimuli

Eight crows were taught to discriminate overlapping pairs of visual stimuli (A+ B-, B+ C-, C+ D-, and D+ E-). For 4 birds, the stimuli were colored cards with a circle of the same color on the reverse side whose diameter decreased from A to E (ordered feedback group). These circles were made available for comparison to potentially help the crows order the stimuli along a physical dimension. For the other 4 birds, the circles corresponding to the colored cards had the same diameter (constant feedback group). In later testing, a novel choice pair (BD) was presented. Reinforcement history involving stimuli B and D was controlled so that the reinforcement/nonreinforcement ratios for the latter would be greater than for the former. If, during the BD test, the crows chose between stimuli according to these reinforcement/nonreinforcement ratios, then they should prefer D; if they chose according to the diameter of the feedback stimuli, then they should prefer B. In the ordered feedback group, the crows strongly preferred B over D; in the constant feedback group, the crows' choice did not differ significantly from chance. These results, plus simulations using associative models, suggest that the orderability of the postchoice feedback stimuli is important for crows' transitive responding.