Lipread-induced phonetic recalibration in dyslexia

Auditory phoneme categories are less well-defined in developmental dyslexic readers than in fluent readers. Here, we examined whether poor recalibration of phonetic boundaries might be associated with this deficit. 22 adult dyslexic readers were compared with 22 fluent readers on a phoneme identification task and a task that measured phonetic recalibration by lipread speech (Bertelson, Vroomen, & De Gelder, 2003). In line with previous reports, we found that dyslexics were less categorical in the labeling of the speech sounds. The size of their phonetic recalibration effect, though, was comparable to that of normal readers. This result indicates that phonetic recalibration is unaffected in dyslexic readers, and that it is unlikely to lie at the foundation of their auditory phoneme categorization impairments. For normal readers however, it appeared that a well-calibrated system is related to auditory precision as the steepness of the auditory identification curve positively correlated with recalibration.     

The effect of guiding questions on students’ performance and attitude towards statistics

Background. In this study, the effect of guidance on students’ performance was investigated. This effect was hypothesized to be manifested through a reduction of cognitive load and enhancement of self‐explanations. Aim. The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of guiding questions on students’ understanding of statistics. Sample and Method. In an experimental setting, two randomly selected groups of students (N= 49) answered achievement and transfer questions on statistics as a measure of performance. Students in the intervention condition were given guiding questions to direct their way of reasoning before they answered the achievement questions. The students in the control condition were asked to write down their way of thinking before they answered the same achievement questions. In this way, both groups were stimulated to self‐explain, but only the reasoning processes of the students in the intervention condition were guided. Results and Conclusion. It was found that students in the intervention condition performed significantly better on achievement and transfer questions and that this effect of guidance was mediated by self‐explanations. Attitude towards statistics was positively related to performance.     

Stress,Coping, and Emotions on the World Stage: The Experience of Participating in a Major Soccer Tournament Penalty Shootout

This study was designed to capture the first-hand experiences of stressors, coping, and emotions that elite professional soccer players have during a major soccer penalty shootout. Eight players who each took part in an important European Championships penalty shootout were interviewed. The results showed that the experience of stressors, coping, and emotions changed extensively throughout the event. Moreover, the participants experienced a series of different stressors, some of which were specific to the penalty shootout, and they employed a variety of coping strategies. Anxiety was the most common emotion. Practitioners can use these results to help design valid simulation protocols.     

Working and reference memory of pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) in a holeboard spatial discrimination task: the influence of environmental enrichment

Interest in cognitive research in pigs is increasing, but little is known about the impact of environmental conditions on pigs’ cognitive capabilities. The present study investigated the effect of environmental enrichment on cognitive performance of pigs in a holeboard spatial task, in which they had to discriminate four baited buckets out of 16. Pigs (n = 32) were either housed in stimulus-poor, barren pens, or in larger pens enriched with rooting substrates. Pigs were subjected to 30 holeboard trials. Both working memory (WM), that is, the ratio (baited visits/total number of (re)visits to baited buckets), and reference memory (RM), that is, the ratio ((re)visits to baited buckets/total number of visits to all buckets), improved over trials. WM scores were higher in pigs from enriched pens than in pigs from barren pens. Housing did not affect RM scores. Personality type of the pigs, as assessed early in life using a backtest, did not affect WM or RM. In conclusion, housing conditions of pigs did not affect reference memory, but environmental enrichment improved working memory of pigs in a spatial discrimination task. Based on the findings of this study, we suggest that cognitive functioning of pigs may be impaired under commonly used housing conditions.     

Tryptophan and interpersonal spin

Increased serotonergic activity is often described as increasing the inhibition of behaviors. This study examined the more general hypothesis that increased serotonergic activity produces greater control over social behavior. Participants were drawn from two samples, individuals elevated on irritability and individuals unselected on personality characteristics. Individuals participated in a double blind cross-over design, providing event contingent records about their behavior during two 9-day periods which involved taking tryptophan or placebo. When taking tryptophan (which increases serotonergic activity), within-person variability among social behaviors across events (i.e., interpersonal spin) was reduced for irritable individuals, particularly those low on trait Agreeableness. These results suggest that higher levels of serotonergic activity enhance greater control and consistency in social behavior among irritable–disagreeable individuals.     

Word cues affect detection but not localization responses

Many theories assume that preknowledge of an upcoming target helps visual selection. In those theories, a top-down set can alter the salience of the target, such that attention can be deployed to the target more efficiently and responses are faster. Evidence for this account stems from visual search studies in which the identity of the upcoming target is cued in advance. In five experiments, we show that top-down knowledge affects the speed with which a singleton target can be detected but not the speed with which it can be localized. Furthermore, we show that these results are independent of the mode of responding (manual or saccadic) and are not due to a ceiling effect. Our results suggest that in singleton search, top-down information does not affect visual selection but most likely does affect response selection. We argue that such an effect is found only when information from different dimensions needs to be integrated to generate a response and that this is the case in singleton detection tasks but not in other singleton search tasks.     

Effects of prime—target spatial separation and attentional deployment on masked repetition priming

In two masked repetition priming experiments with letter stimuli, the positions of prime and target stimuli were varied horizontally from fixation. Priming effects did not interact with position when prime and target location covaried (Experiment 1A) but diminished with increasing prime eccentricity when targets were always centrally located (Experiment 1B). Two accounts of this pattern of priming effects were proposed that postulate two different mechanisms over and above effects of visual acuity. The integration account postulates degree of separation of prime and target stimuli as the critical factor, and the attentional account postulates spatial attention as the critical factor. The results of Experiment 2, in which prime and target positions were manipulated orthogonally, were in favor of the attentional account. Repetition priming did not vary as a function of whether or not primes and targets appeared at the same location, but target processing was facilitated independently of priming when targets appeared at the same location as primes, especially in the right visual field.     

Blocked goals, persistent action: Implementation intentions engender tenacious goal striving

Research on goal attainment has demonstrated that people are more likely to reach their goals when they form implementation intentions. Three experiments tested whether implementation intentions lead to tenacious goal striving following blockage of an initial attempt to reach the goal. In all three experiments some participants were instructed to form an implementation intention and other participants were not. Subsequently, the initial goal-directed attempt of all participants was unexpectedly blocked. Experiment 1 found that implementation intentions resulted in more attempts to realize one’s goal. Experiment 2 showed that when participants formed an implementation intention their repeated attempt was acted out as intensely as their first, blocked attempt. Experiment 3 found that implementation intentions still allow people to seize an alternative, more onerous means to realize their intention. These results imply that implementation intention conserve self-regulatory strength. After goal blockage, the remaining strength can be used to continue goal-directed action.