Attentional and structural constraints on visual encoding

We examined the mechanisms that mediate the transfer of information from visual input to storage in memory. Observers performed two concurrent tasks, one of which required input into memory. We discovered that the processes involved in the transfer of information from sensory input into memory cause slowing in concurrent cognitive tasks (dual-task slowing). We used the dual-task slowing effect to demonstrate that memory encoding requires more time when more information is to be encoded and to show that dual-task slowing occurs long after the initial perceptual encoding of visual information (Exp. 1). These results suggest a late and central locus of interaction between the two tasks. Experiment 2 also used two concurrent tasks. However, we reversed the direction of interaction between them and produced a memory deficit from the execution of a concurrent task. Together the results suggest that the mechanisms that encode information into memory belong to a family of mechanisms that are involved in dual-task slowing phenomena and that have been studied under the rubric of the PRP effect (psychological refractory period). We were able to locate the most probable locus of the dual-task interactions to a process that appears necessary for memory encoding. We call this process short-term consolidation. Received: 20 July 1997 / Accepted: 17 March 1998     

Highs and Lows in Motor Control Development

Abstract

Motor control is classically described as relying on two components: anticipatory control (feedforward processing) and online control (feedback processing). Here we aimed to unveil the developmental steps of both feedback and feedforward control in 5–10 years old children, using a simple and ecological task. We manipulated object’s weight in a reach-to-displace paradigm. When the weight was known before lifting it, anticipatory processes were quantifiable during the reaching phase. Conversely, an unknown weight triggered online corrections during the displacing phase. Movement kinematics revealed that children anticipate this objet property as young as 5 y-o. This anticipation becomes adequate around 7 y-o and is paralleled by poor online corrections. This simple yet relevant paradigm should allow quantifying deviations from neurotypical patterns in disorders of motor control.     

Effects of background music on phonological short-term memory

Immediate memory for visually presented verbal material is disrupted by concurrent speech, even when the speech is unattended and in a foreign language. Unattended noise does not produce a reliable decrement. These results have been interpreted in terms of a phonological short-term store that excludes non-speechlike sounds. The characteristics of this exclusion process were explored by studying the effects of music on the serial recall of sequences of nine digits presented visually. Experiment 1 compared the effects of unattended vocal or instrumental music with quiet and showed that both types of music disrupted STM performance, with vocal music being more disruptive than instrumental music. Experiment 2 attempted to replicate this result using more highly trained subjects. Vocal music caused significantly more disruption than instrumental music, which was not significantly worse than the silent control condition. Experiment 3 compared instrumental music with unattended speech and with noise modulated in amplitude, the degree of modulation being the same as in speech. The results showed that the noise condition did not differ from silence; both of these proved less disruptive than instrumental music, which was in turn less disruptive than the unattended speech condition. Theoretical interpretation of these results and their potential practical implications for the disruption of cognitive performance by background music are discussed.     

Concerning the Sociological Analysis of Technological Innovation

Des observations paradoxales faites pendant les phases d'une recherche sur les salaires dans des entreprises industrielles françaises, nous ont conduit àénoncer que leur situation est le résultat de la présence de trois modèles de valorisation validés simultanément. On a observé que l'innovation technologique est une source de modification de l'équilibre des salaires. L'approche en termes de modéle de valorisation aide à comprendre le processus de régulation qui peut être remarqué après l'apparition de ce type d'innovation. Le processus qui a conduit à un nouvel équilibre des salaires des spécialistes de l'informatique est offert ici en exemple.
Some paradoxical observations made during a research study on wages in French industrial firms have led us to propose that the state of wages is the result of the presence of three simultaneously legitimate models of validation. Technological innovation is a source of modification of the equilibrium observed at any moment with regard to wages. The approach in terms of models of validation helps the understanding of the regulation process which may be observed after the appearance of such an innovation. The process which has led to a new equilibrium of the wages of specialists in data processing is offered as an example.     

Manipulation of the apparatus and response context may reduce the US pre-exposure interference effect

In two experiments, we investigated whether manipulations of associations formed between the context and unconditioned stimulus (US) during exposure would reduce the retardation of future conditioning produced by exposure to the US. In the first experiment, we found that extinguishing the context reduced fear of the context and partially attenuated interference with future conditioning. This attenuation was only transient and there was considerable interference which was unaffected by extinction. In the second experiment, we found that signalling the US during pre-exposure which was carried out off-baseline did not reduce interference when conditioning was also carried out off-baseline. However, signalling the US did reduce interference when conditioning was subsequently continued on-baseline. These results suggest that although the US interference effect is partly mediated by conditioning of the context, it may also depend on learning about the unpredictability of the US during exposure, and some long-term, perhaps context specific, adaption-like mechanism.     

External thought—does sketching assist problem analysis?

An experimental study (n = 60 students) tests the advantages of being allowed to sketch a representation of a mechanical system (involving components such as weights, ropes and pulleys) when one is to be subsequently asked questions about this system. In comparison to a control group who were not allowed to sketch the system, the main advantages of sketching were found to be a reduction in the perceived difficulty of the problems and an increase in the likelihood of correctly inferring relations between the components. These advantages came at no extra cost in terms of additional time being needed to analyse the situation or solve the problems. However, sketching conferred no advantage in terms of the correct recall of system components. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.