Emotions in context: pictorial influences on affective attributions

The visual illusion Terror Subterra, by Roger Shepard (1990), depicts a seemingly large creature chasing another in a tunnel, yet both creatures are physically identical. In addition to this visual illusion, the two creatures also appear to exhibit different emotions, as the background creature (the pursuer) appears angry whereas the foreground creature (the pursued) appears fearful. We explored this context effect by first establishing the magnitude of the emotional bias effect. We then modified the original drawing in various ways, such as equating for perceived size, removing one creature from the scene, and removing the pictorial context altogether. Findings suggest that the emotional bias is due to the pictorial setting and to the perceived social-emotional relationship between the two creatures. These results highlight the importance of both perceptual and social-emotional influences in driving affective attributions.     

Language learning and control in monolinguals and bilinguals

Parallel language activation in bilinguals leads to competition between languages. Experience managing this interference may aid novel language learning by improving the ability to suppress competition from known languages. To investigate the effect of bilingualism on the ability to control native-language interference, monolinguals and bilinguals were taught an artificial language designed to elicit between-language competition. Partial activation of interlingual competitors was assessed with eye-tracking and mouse-tracking during a word recognition task in the novel language. Eye-tracking results showed that monolinguals looked at competitors more than bilinguals, and for a longer duration of time. Mouse-tracking results showed that monolinguals' mouse movements were attracted to native-language competitors, whereas bilinguals overcame competitor interference by increasing the activation of target items. Results suggest that bilinguals manage cross-linguistic interference more effectively than monolinguals. We conclude that language interference can affect lexical retrieval, but bilingualism may reduce this interference by facilitating access to a newly learned language.     

Evidence for a workspace model of working memory from semantic implicit processing in neglect

Three experiments tested the hypothesis that activation of semantic memory from perceptual input does not require initial retention of the perceptual material in working memory as assumed by a widely held view of information processing. In Expt 1, two brain-damaged patients with left-sided unilateral spatial neglect were tested. They were asked to listen to and read a series of familiar (British) and unfamiliar (foreign) proverbs and to choose which proverb was the best match to a depicted figure shown with the target object(s) on the left (neglected side) of the patients' visual field. Expt 2 simulated the testing conditions for the neglect patients with healthy participants using subliminal presentation of one half of each picture. Using different materials, Expt 3 replicated the outcomes of Expts 1 and 2 with a third neglect patient and a new group of controls. In all three experiments, participants appeared to be unaware of target features; however they selected familiar, but not unfamiliar, target proverbs above chance. The results showing implicit processing of semantic material can be explained by a model in which working memory is a separate system that deals with activated contents of semantic memory, and in which there is direct activation of semantic memory from perception without intermediate stages of processing in working memory.