Adding part-of-speech information to the SUBTLEX-US word frequencies

The SUBTLEX-US corpus has been parsed with the CLAWS tagger, so that researchers have information about the possible word classes (parts?\of?\speech, or PoSs) of the entries. Five new columns have been added to the SUBTLEX-US word frequency list: the dominant (most frequent) PoS for the entry, the frequency of the dominant PoS, the frequency of the dominant PoS relative to the entry??s total frequency, all PoSs observed for the entry, and the respective frequencies of these PoSs. Because the current definition of lemma frequency does not seem to provide word recognition researchers with useful information (as illustrated by a comparison of the lemma frequencies and the word form frequencies from the Corpus of Contemporary American English), we have not provided a column with this variable. Instead, we hope that the full list of PoS frequencies will help researchers to collectively determine which combination of frequencies is the most informative.     

The perception of foreground and background as derived from structural information theory

Subjects were instructed to order stimuli, consisting of a white and a black part, in accordance with the perceived foreground-strength of the white (or black) part. It appeared that this task can be carried out consistently. The order is explained on the basis of Structural Information Theory. It is argued that this task involves central processes, and that the strength depends on the preference for an interpretation, in which the white (black) part is a foreground on a black (white) background, with respect to the opposed interpretation in which the white (black) part is the background and the black (white) part is foreground.     

Proper Name Hypermnesia in an Autistic Subject

The case study of an autistic “savant” subject with person names hypermnesia is presented. NM's performance in memorizing person names is compared to that of normal controls, IQ-matched controls, and one overtrained control. The data show a selective hypermnesia for both the free recall of person names and the recognition of faces. Recall of common names and of biographical informations linked to faces is unremarkable. NM's hypermnesia is restricted to list learning as low performance is observed in face-name learning tasks. A comparison of the data with that of the overtrained control indicates that training is not responsible for NM's pattern of results. These findings, when combined with previous results involving proper names, demonstrate a double dissociation between proper names and other types of semantic and referential information. However, aspects of NM's performance pattern are more compatible with a network model of proper names than with a sequential model. We propose that the contextual regularity of proper names in ecological situations can be responsible for their high memorization by NM.     

Perceiving musical tension in long chord sequences

We attempted to predict perceived musical tension in longer chord sequences by hierarchic and sequential models based on Lerdahl and Jackendoff's and Lerdahl's cognitive theories and on Parncutt's sensory-psychoacoustical theory. Musicians and nonmusicians were asked to rate the perceived tension of chords which were drawn either from a piece composed for the study (Exp. 1) or from a Chopin Prelude (Exps. 2–4). In Exps. 3 and 4, several experimental manipulations were made to emphasize either the global or the local structure of the piece and to verify how these manipultions would affect the respective contribution of the models in the ratings. In all experiments, musical tension was only weakly influenced by global harmonic structure. Instead, it mainly seemed to be determined locally, by harmonic cadences. The hierarchic model of Lerdahl and Jackendoff provided the best fit to tension ratings, not because it accounted for global hierarchic effects, but because it captured the local effect of cadences. By reacting to these local structures, tension ratings fit quite well with a hierarchic model, even though the participants were relatively insensitive to the global structure of the pieces. As a main outcome, it is argued that musical events were perceived through a short perceptual window sliding from cadence to cadence along a sequence. Received: 24 March 1997 / Accepted: 10 May 1998     

The emergence of explicit knowledge during the early phase of learning in sequential reaction time tasks

Five experiments investigated the formation of explicit knowledge of a repeating sequence in a sequential reaction time task. Reliable explicit knowledge was obtained even though various conditions prevented the selective improvement of RTs (Exps. 1–4). This knowledge emerged early during training. Participants were able to recognize segments of the sequence (Exps. 3 and 4) or correctly assess the probabilities of transition of the target between successive locations (Exp. 5) after only two blocks of training trials. These findings rule out an interpretation of sequence learning that posits that explicit knowledge emerges from implicit knowledge during the course of training. Although these findings are compatible with a framework centered around the notion of dissociation between implicit and explicit knowledge, they are also consonant with a questioning of the usefulness of the concept of implicit knowledge.     

An exploration of the moderating effect of trait emotional intelligence on memory and attention in neutral and stressful conditions

Trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) refers to individual differences in the experience, perception, regulation, and utilization of emotions. Research has shown that trait EI moderated subjective and endocrine responses to both natural and laboratory stressors. This study explores, the cognitive processes underlying this effect, under the hypothesis that trait EI moderates the impact of stress on memory and/or attention. Results supported the hypothesis, but solely for the ‘regulation’ EI‐dimension (named self‐control or SC). In neutral conditions, high SC was characterized by an attentional focus to neutral material and a facilitated memory for positive events, whereas low SC was characterized by an attentional focus to emotional material (regardless of valence) and a facilitated memory for negative events. In stressful conditions, high SC individuals engaged attention to emotional material (regardless of valence) and recalled more negative events, while low SC individuals disengaged attention from emotional material and recalled more positive events.     

Speculations on the emergence of self-awareness in big-brained organisms: the roles of associative memory and learning, existential and religious questions, and the emergence of tautologies

This paper argues that self-awareness emerges in organisms whose brains have a sufficiently integrated, complex ability for associative learning and memory. Continual sensory input of information related to the organism leads to the formation of a set of associations that may be termed an organismal “self-image”. After providing the basic mechanistic basis for the emergence of an organismal self-image, this paper proceeds to go through a representative list of behaviors associated with self-awareness, and shows how associative memory and learning, combined with an organismal self-image, leads to the emergence of these various behaviors. This paper also discusses various tautologies that invariably emerge when discussing self-awareness. We continue with various speculations on manipulating self-awareness, and discuss how concepts from set and logic theory may provide a useful set of tools for understanding the emergence of higher cognitive functions in complex organisms.     

Rapid eye-fixation training without eyetracking

Maintenance of stable central eye fixation is crucial for a variety of behavioral, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging experiments. Naive observers in these experiments are not typically accustomed to fixating, either requiring the use of cumbersome and costly eyetracking or producing confounds in results. We devised a flicker display that produced an easily detectable visual phenomenon whenever the eyes moved. A few minutes of training using this display dramatically improved the accuracy of eye fixation while observers performed a demanding spatial attention cuing task. The same amount of training using control displays did not produce significant fixation improvements, and some observers consistently made eye movements to the peripheral attention cue, contaminating the cuing effect. Our results indicate that (1) eye fixation can be rapidly improved in naive observers by providing real-time feedback about eye movements, and (2) our simple flicker technique provides an easy and effective method for providing this feedback. S. Suzuki, satoru@northwestern.edu