Two modes of confidence rating: An effect of episodic information of participant's own past responses in a repeated-question paradigm

Abstract: General knowledge questions with two answer alternatives were employed in experimental session 1; in session 2, the same questions were presented together with participants' own session-1 responses. In order to examine whether or not the episodic information of participant's own responses would suppress standard confidence-rating mode in session 2, rates of answer- and confidence-changes between sessions were analyzed. In session 2, participants were able to change the confidence value to another, if they thought the initial value inadequate. They then had a chance to change the answer to the other and rated their confidence in the new answer. The major results were as follows: (a) Between-session answer change rate was very low; (b) Between-session answer change rate was not a monotonic decreasing function of confidence; (c) However, the rate depended on confidence change from session 1 to before-answer-change rating. These results clearly contrasted with a previous study ( Saito, 1998 ) in which episodic information of participant's own session 1 answers and confidence values was not presented. It was argued that the episodic information triggered another mode of confidence rating or a decision inertia effect.     

I see into your mind too well: working memory adjusts the probability judgment of others' mental states

Although an increasing number of studies on adults have indicated that working memory (WM) contributes to the ability to understand the mental states of others (i.e., theory of mind), the detailed mechanism by which WM contributes to successful reasoning has not previously been revealed. This study shows that WM modulates the degree of attribution of one's own knowledge to others' mental states. Participants were asked to read a story twice (Experiment 2) or as carefully as possible (Experiment 3) and to estimate the probability percentages of possible choices for a naive protagonist's behavior. The participants were then asked to maintain either a two- or seven-letter alphabet string (i.e., a light or heavy WM load, respectively) during the probability estimation but not during the story comprehension. The results showed that compared to the participants with a light WM load, those with a heavy WM load estimated a significantly higher probability of the choice indicating that the protagonist would behave on the basis of a fact that the participants knew but the protagonist did not. This result indicates that WM moderates the extent to which adults attribute their own knowledge to others' mental states. The role of WM in theory of mind and in heuristic strategy for making probability judgments was then discussed.     

Disruption of visual feature binding in working memory

In a series of five experiments, we studied the effect of a visual suffix on the retention in short-term visual memory of both individual visual features and objects involving the binding of two features. Experiments 1A, 1B, and 2 involved suffixes consisting of features external to the to-be-remembered set and revealed a modest but equivalent disruption on individual and bound feature conditions. Experiments 3A and 3B involved suffixes comprising features that could potentially have formed part of the to-be-remembered set (but did not on that trial). Both experiments showed greater disruption of retention for objects comprising bound features than for their individual features. The results are interpreted as differentiating two components of suffix interference, one affecting memory for features and bindings equally, the other affecting memory for bindings. The general component is tentatively identified with the attentional cost of operating a filter to prevent the suffix from entering visual working memory, whereas the specific component is attributed to the particular fragility of bound representations when the filter fails.     

Marital Breakdown,Shame, and Suicidality in Men: A Direct Link?

The influence of feelings of shame originating from marital breakdown on suicidality is examined. The role of mental health problems as probable mediating factors is also considered. Internalized shame, state (related to separation) shame, and mental health problems were significantly correlated with the score for suicidality during separation in both genders. Tested structural equation model indicated that internalized shame was not directly linked to suicidality, but was mediated either by state shame or mental health problems in males in the context of separation. Our findings seem to indicate that separated males are more vulnerable to the experience of state shame in the context of separation, which might lead to the development of suicidality.     

Does test delay eliminate collaborative inhibition?

Earlier research has demonstrated that collaborative groups recall more than individuals, but less than nominal groups (pooled performance of individuals), thus exhibiting collaborative inhibition. In two experiments, all participants were first asked to recall story material on their own. Some participants were then assigned to pairs and recalled the material collaboratively. On the other hand, the participants in the individual recall condition were asked to recall the material once again on their own. In Experiment 1, the collaborative pairs recalled less than the nominal pairs in accordance with previous studies. In Experiment 2, the timing of the initial individual recall was manipulated by inserting one week between the learning and the recall. The collaborative inhibition was eliminated in this situation. Sources of the collaborative inhibition in immediate recall and its disappearance in delayed recall are discussed in terms of the effect of cross cueing in collaborative remembering.     

The genetic structure of Cloninger's seven-factor model of temperament and character in a Japanese sample

Theoretical assumptions regarding the genetic and environmental structure of personality proposed in Cloninger's seven-factor model of temperament and character were verified in a Japanese sample by using the twin method. The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) was administered to 296 twin pairs ranging in age from 14 to 28 years old. Among four temperament dimensions (novelty seeking [NS], harm avoidance [HA], reward dependence [RD], and persistence [PS]), HA and PS showed significant additive genetic contributions and no shared environmental effect, supporting the original theoretical assumption. NS and RD could be explained by either genetic or shared environmental factors with nonshared environment. All three character dimensions (cooperativeness [CO], self-directedness [SD], and self-transcendence [ST]) could be explained exclusively by additive contributions and no shared environmental effect. Multivariate genetic analysis indicated that there were no significant associations between NS, HA, and RD, as the theory predicts, and the genetic components of PS, SD, and CO were derived from those of the temperament dimensions. The fourth genetic component, which had a substantial load specifically on ST and overlapped with PS, was identified. Although most of the nonshared environmental effects were trait-specific, the phenotypic correlation between NS and HA could be explained by nonshared environmental overlap.     

The effect of number of kanji radical companions in character activation with a multi-radical-display task

The majority of Japanese complex kanji consist of two subword units (radicals), and each radical is differentiated according to its combinability. Radical-type frequency is defined as the number of radical companions (NC) functioning as the number of characters containing that radical. The current study is intended to address the question of whether the NC plays a role in kanji character activation under a multi-radical-display (MRD) instead of a tachistoscopic display. An MRD task was used in which the NC was manipulated and the frequency of use of the whole characters was matched on average across the experimental conditions. Participants were divided into two groups (good knowledge vs poor knowledge) according to the score of a kanji completion task. The participants' task was to select an appropriate combination of radicals to compose a legitimate character under the MRD condition. The poor-knowledge group yielded relatively more errors than did the good-knowledge group in the low-NC condition, whereas the good-knowledge group yielded more errors in the high-NC condition than in the low-NC condition. These results demonstrate the different influences of NC as metaknowledge (tacit knowledge of radical productivity) in both good and poor readers.     

Verbal representation in task order control: An examination with transition and task cues in random task switching

Recent task-switching studies in which a predictable task sequence has been used have indicated that verbal representation contributes to the control of task order information. The present study focused on the role of verbal representation in sequential task decisions, which are an important part of task order control, and examined the effects of articulatory suppression in a random-task-cuing paradigm with two different types of cues presented just before the presentation of a stimulus: a transition cue and a task cue. The former cue provided information only about switching or repeating the task, whereas the latter was associated directly with the identity of the task (i.e., indicating a parity or a magnitude task). In Experiment 1, in which transition cues guided task sequences, articulatory suppression impaired performance in both repetition and switch trials, thereby increasing the mixing costs. In Experiment 2, in which a task cue, rather than a transition cue, was presented to examine the influence of a cue-decoding process, articulatory suppression had no specific effect on task performance. Experiment 3, in which the transition cue and the task cue were randomly presented in the same block to equalize the memory load and task strategy for the two types of cues, confirmed that articulatory suppression significantly increased the mixing costs only in transition cue trials. The results from the three experiments indicated that the use of verbal representation is effective in sequential task decision—that is, in selecting a task set on the basis of transient task order information in both repetition and switch trials.