Spatial distribution of attentional bias in visuo-spatial working memory following multiple cues

When attention is focused on one location, its spatial distribution depends on many factors, such as the distance between the attended location and the target location, the presence of visual meridians in between them, and the way, endogenous or exogenous, by which attention is oriented. However, it is not well known how attention distributes when more than one location is endogenously or exogenously cued, which was the focus of the current study. Furthermore, the distribution of attention has been manly investigated in perception. In the present study we faced this issue from a different perspective, by examining the spatial distribution of the attentional bias in visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM), when attention is oriented either exogenously or endogenously, i.e., after two peripheral vs. central symbolic cues (also manipulating cue–target predictability). Results indicated a systematic difference between endogenous and exogenous attention regarding the distribution of the attentional bias over VSWM. In fact, attentional bias following endogenous cues was affected by the presence of visual meridians and by the split of the attentional focus, converging in a unipolar attentional distribution, independently of cue–target predictability. On the other hand, when pulled by exogenous cues, attention distributed uni-modally or multi-modally depending on the distance between the cued locations, with larger effects for highly predictive cues. Results are discussed in terms of space-based, object-based and perceptual grouping mechanisms.     

Inhibitory mechanism of the matching heuristic in syllogistic reasoning

A number of heuristic-based hypotheses have been proposed to explain how people solve syllogisms with automatic processes. In particular, the matching heuristic employs the congruency of the quantifiers in a syllogism — by matching the quantifier of the conclusion with those of the two premises. When the heuristic leads to an invalid conclusion, successful solving of these conflict problems requires the inhibition of automatic heuristic processing. Accordingly, if the automatic processing were based on processing the set of quantifiers, no semantic contents would be inhibited. The mental model theory, however, suggests that people reason using mental models, which always involves semantic processing. Therefore, whatever inhibition occurs in the processing implies the inhibition of the semantic contents.     

Reward anticipation enhances brain activation during response inhibition

The chance to achieve a reward starts up the required neurobehavioral mechanisms to adapt our thoughts and actions in order to accomplish our objective. However, reward does not equally reinforce everybody but depends on interindividual motivational dispositions. Thus, immediate reward contingencies can modulate the cognitive process required for goal achievement, while individual differences in personality can affect this modulation. We aimed to test the interaction between inhibition-related brain response and motivational processing in a stop signal task by reward anticipation and whether individual differences in sensitivity to reward (SR) modulate such interaction. We analyzed the cognitive–motivational interaction between the brain pattern activation of the regions involved in correct and incorrect response inhibition and the association between such brain activations and SR scores. We also analyzed the behavioral effects of reward on both reaction times for the “go” trials before and after correct and incorrect inhibition in order to test error prediction performance and postinhibition adjustment. Our results show enhanced activation during response inhibition under reward contingencies in frontal, parietal, and subcortical areas. Moreover, activation of the right insula and the left putamen positively correlates with the SR scores. Finally, the possibility of reward outcome affects not only response inhibition performance (e.g., reducing stop signal reaction time), but also error prediction performance and postinhibition adjustment. Therefore, reward contingencies improve behavioral performance and enhance brain activation during response inhibition, and SR is related to brain activation. Our results suggest the conditions and factors that subserve cognitive control strategies in cognitive motivational interactions during response inhibition.     

Effects of Stimulus Dimension on the Emergence of Transitivity Relations

The Psychological Record - The effect of stimuli dimension was assessed on the emergence of transitivity relations by the use of a go/no go procedure and the training of identity relations. Four...     

Characteristics of Online Pornography and Interventions Against its Negative Effects in Young People: Results from an International Delphi Panel

Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy - Online pornography represents a complex experience. The identification of determinant characteristics of this experience may allow to...     

Simultaneous interpretation selectively influences working memory and attentional networks

Recent research has shown that becoming an expert in a certain domain may lead to a transfer of the acquired skills to other domains requiring similar abilities. Thus, the cognitive skills acquired by professional interpreters after intensive training may also transfer to other domains. Simultaneous interpreters are known to develop high working memory capacity (e.g., Christoffels, de Groot, & Kroll, 2006; Signorelli, Haarmann, & Obler, 2012). However, little is known about transfer of other processes such us updating and some aspects of attention also involved in interpretation. In Experiment 1, we found that interpreters outperformed a control group in updating skills, as measured through a dual version of the n-back task (Jaeggi et al., 2007). In Experiment 2, use of the ANTI-V allowed us to reveal that interpreting differentially modulates the interactions between attentional networks. Thus, we found no group differences in conflict resolution, but the interaction between the alertness and orienting networks differed between interpreters and non-interpreters. Taken together, these results suggest that experience in simultaneous interpreting transfers to other domains, but this transfer seems specific to the cognitive processes more closely involved in the interpreting tasks.     

Non‐parametric three‐way mixed ANOVA with aligned rank tests

Research problems that require a non‐parametric analysis of multifactor designs with repeated measures arise in the behavioural sciences. There is, however, a lack of available procedures in commonly used statistical packages. In the present study, a generalization of the aligned rank test for the two‐way interaction is proposed for the analysis of the typical sources of variation in a three‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures. It can be implemented in the usual statistical packages. Its statistical properties are tested by using simulation methods with two sample sizes (n = 30 and n = 10) and three distributions (normal, exponential and double exponential). Results indicate substantial increases in power for non‐normal distributions in comparison with the usual parametric tests. Similar levels of Type I error for both parametric and aligned rank ANOVA were obtained with non‐normal distributions and large sample sizes. Degrees‐of‐freedom adjustments for Type I error control in small samples are proposed. The procedure is applied to a case study with 30 participants per group where it detects gender differences in linguistic abilities in blind children not shown previously by other methods.     

Unconscious phantasy and its conceptualizations: An attempt at conceptual integration

That there is a lack of consensus as to how to decide between competing, at times even contradictory theories, and about how to integrate divergent concepts and theories is well known. In view of this situation, the IPA Committee on Conceptual Integration (2009–2013) developed a method for comparing the different versions of any given concept, together with the underlying theories and fundamental assumptions on which they are based. Only when situated in the same frame of reference do similarities and differences begin to appear in a methodically comprehensible and reproducible form. After having studied the concept of enactment followed by the publication of a paper in this Journal in 2013, we proceeded to analyze the concept of unconscious phantasy while at the same time continuing to improve our method. Unconscious phantasy counts among the central concepts in psychoanalysis. We identified a wide range of definitions along with their various theoretical backgrounds. Our primary concern in the present paper addresses the dimensional analysis of the semantic space occupied by the various conceptualizations. By way of deconstructing the concepts we endeavoured to establish the extent to which the integration of the different conceptualizations of unconscious phantasy might be achieved.