The relationship between latency of auditory evoked potentials,simple reaction time,and stimulus intensity

Summary The effects of loudness on the latency of evoked potentials and on simple reaction time were compared. It was found that both reaction time and the evoked-potential latency increases with decreasing stimulus intensity. However, different slopes of the curves were found. This is explained in terms of the arousal effect of loud auditory stimuli.     

Pareto simulated annealing—a metaheuristic technique for multiple-objective combinatorial optimization

This paper presents a multiple-objective metaheuristic procedure—Pareto simulated annealing. The goal of the procedure is to find in a relatively short time a good approximation of the set of efficient solutions of a multiple-objective combinatorial optimization problem. The procedure uses a sample, of so-called generating solutions. Each solution explores its neighbourhood in a way similar to that of classical simulated annealing. Weights of the objectives, used for their local aggregation, are tuned in each iteration in order to assure a tendency for approaching the efficient solutions set while maintaining a uniform distribution of the generating solutions over this set. A computational experiment shows that the method is a better tool for approximating the efficient set than some previous proposals. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Ease of Retrieval and Attribution in Memory Judgments: Judging Your Memory as Worse Despite Recalling More Events

Participants who had to recall 12 childhood events (a difficult task) were more likely to infer that they could not remember large parts of their childhood than participants who had to recall 4 events (an easy task), although the former recalled three times as many events. This pattern of results suggests that memory judgments are based on the experienced ease or difficulty of recall. Accordingly, the negative impact of recalling 12 events was attenuated when participants were led to attribute the experienced difficulty to the task rather than to the poor quality of their memory. The findings emphasize the role of subjective experiences and attribution in metamemory judgments.     

Cn-Definitions of Propositional Connectives

We attempt to define the classical propositional logic by use of appropriate derivability conditions called Cn-definitions. The conditions characterize basic properties of propositional connectives.     

Taking Up the Threads: The Aesthetic,Temporal, and Political Dimensions of Teaching

Studies in Philosophy and Education -     

Mental states inside out: Switching costs for emotional and nonemotional sentences that differ in internal and external focus

Mental states—such as thinking, remembering, or feeling angry, happy, or dizzy—have a clear internal component. We feel a certain way when we are in these states. These internal experiences may be simulated when people understand conceptual references to mental states. However, mental states can also be described from an “external” perspective, for example when referring to “smiling.” In those cases, simulation of visible outside features may be more relevant for understanding. In a switching costs paradigm, we presented semantically unrelated sentences describing emotional and nonemotional mental states while manipulating their internal or external focus. The results show that switching costs occur when participants shift between sentences with an internal and an external focus. This suggests that different forms of simulation underlie understanding these sentences. In addition, these effects occurred for emotional and nonemotional mental states, suggesting that they are grounded in a similar way—through the process of simulation.     

Does the Brain Differentiate Between Related and Unrelated Cuts When Processing Audiovisual Messages? An ERP Study

The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that during audiovisual message processing (e.g., television or film), cuts in the video track cause an orienting response, which is reflected in the involuntary shift of attention. In classic research by Reeves et al. (1985) Reeves, B., Thorson, E., Rothschild, M. L., McDonald, D., Hirsch, J. and Goldstein, R. 1985. Attention to television: Intrastimulus effects of movement and scene change on alpha variation over time. International Journal of Neuroscience, 27: 241–255. doi:10.3109/00207458509149770[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], changes in the alpha band were noticed in reaction to montage cuts. We propose an investigation of the brain's reaction to montage cuts by means of event-related potentials (ERPs), which are the brain's electrophysiological responses to a stimulus. Well-known indices of orienting response are two ERP components: P3 and slow cortical potential (SCP). Ten participants watched a film consisting of 105 related and 114 unrelated cuts while an electroencephalographic signal was recorded. The hypothesis that unrelated cuts in the video track when watching an audiovisual message cause more pronounced SCP was confirmed. There was no effect of unrelated cuts on P3. The results of this study provide a good starting point for further research on brain reactions to the structural features of an audiovisual message, such as close ups or camera moves.