The role of attention in temporal integration

When two visual patterns are presented in rapid succession, their contours may be combined into a single unified percept. This temporal integration is known to be influenced by such low-level visual factors as stimulus intensity, contour proximity, and stimulus duration. In this study we asked whether temporal integration is modulated by an attentional-blink procedure. The results from a localisation task in experiment 1 and a detection task in experiment 2 pointed to two separate effects. First, greater attentional availability increased the accuracy of spatial localisation. Second, it increased the duration over which successive stimuli could be integrated. These results imply that theories of visible persistence and visual masking must account for attentional influences in addition to lower-level effects. They also have practical implications for use of the temporal-integration task in the assessment of group and individual differences.     

Assessment of psychopathology in 2‐ to 5‐year‐olds: Applying the Infant–Toddler Social Emotional Assessment

The information provided by parents is indispensable for the early identification of psychopathology; for this reason, developmentally appropriate, reliable, and valid questionnaires are needed to gather their information. This study was designed to examine the utility of the Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (ITSEA), a parent‐report questionnaire covering a wide range of behavior and emotional problems and competencies, in preschoolers referred for child psychiatric evaluation. The fathers and mothers of 85 children (23.2% girls; age 15–57 months) with autism spectrum, externalizing, or internalizing disorders completed the ITSEA, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/2–3 and 4–18 versions), and the child domain of the Parenting Stress Index (PSI). The ITSEA showed good interrater reliability between parents, and validity was supported by significant correlations with corresponding CBCl and PSI domains. Evidence supporting the validity of the ITSEA for psychopathology was mixed across scales, with good diagnostic accuracy at the level of the broader psychiatric syndromes being achieved by the combination of subscales within the Externalizing, Internalizing, and Competence domains. The value of the ITSEA lies in the ability to systematically evaluate a wide range of problem behaviors and competencies. The ITSEA may be useful to create profiles of children's functioning in preschoolers referred for psychiatric assessment.     

Rule transition on the balance scale task: a case study in belief change

For various domains in proportional reasoning cognitive development is characterized as a progression through a series of increasingly complex rules. A multiplicative relationship between two task features, such as weight and distance information of blocks placed at both sides of the fulcrum of a balance scale, appears difficult to discover. During development, children change their beliefs about the balance scale several times: from a focus on the weight dimension (Rule I) to occasionally considering the distance dimension (Rule II), guessing (Rule III), and applying multiplication (Rule IV; Siegler, 1981). Because of the detailed empirical findings the balance scale task has become a benchmark task for computational models of proportional reasoning. In this article, we present a large empirical study (N = 420) of which the findings provide a challenge for computational models. The effect of feedback and the effect of individually adapted training items on rule transition were tested for children using Rule I or Rule II. Presenting adapted training items initiates belief revision for Rule I but not for Rule II. The experience of making mistakes (by providing feedback) induces a change for both Rule I and Rule II. However, a delayed posttest shows that these changes are preserved after 2 weeks only for children using Rule I. We conclude that the transition from Rule I to Rule II differs from the transition from Rule II to a more complex rule. Concerning these empirical findings, we will review performance of computational models and the implications for a future belief revision model.

It is one Thing, to show a Man that he is in an Error, and another, to put him in possession of Truth. John Locke

     

Characterizing sequence knowledge using online measures and hidden Markov models

What knowledge do subjects acquire in sequence-learning experiments? How can they express that knowledge? In two sequence-learning experiments, we studied the acquisition of knowledge of complex probabilistic sequences. Using a novel experimental paradigm, we were able to compare reaction time and generation measures of sequence knowledge online. Hidden Markov models were introduced as a novel way of analyzing generation data that allowed for a characterization of sequence knowledge in terms of the grammar that was used to generate the stimulus material. The results indicated a strong correlation between the decrease in reaction times and an increase in generation performance. This pattern of results is consistent with a common knowledge base for improvement on both measures. On a more detailed level, the results indicate that at the start of training, generation performance and reaction times are uncorrelated and that this correlation increases with training.     

Bargaining strength and group polarization in intergroup negotiations

In the context of a labour-management simulation study, three-man union teams were made to believe that they had either a very strong or a very weak bargaining position vis-à-vis the other party. In half of each of these conditions, a cooperative and a competitive orientation toward the other group was induced. In preparation for the intergroup negotiations, the subjects were first asked to indicate their individual aspirations for three negotiation issues. After a group discussion, their collective aspirations were obtained. Regardless of the experimental conditions. groups set significantly higher aspiration levels than individuals on the most important issue but were more conservative and cautious on less important issues. In general, for all three topics, significant or near-significant interactions were found between bargaining strength and the direction of the group-induced shift. In the strong bargaining condition, groups set higher aspiration levels than the average of prior individual judgments; in the weak bargaining condition the opposite trend occurred. An effort was made to relate these findings to the various theories developed in the ‘risky-shift’ literature.     

Does prism adaptation affect visual search in spatial neglect patients: A systematic review

Prism adaptation (PA) is a widely used intervention for (visuo‐)spatial neglect. PA‐induced improvements can be assessed by visual search tasks. It remains unclear which outcome measures are the most sensitive for the effects of PA in neglect. In this review, we aimed to evaluate PA effects on visual search measures. A systematic literature search was completed regarding PA intervention studies focusing on patients with neglect using visual search tasks. Information about study content and effectiveness was extracted. Out of 403 identified studies, 30 met the inclusion criteria. The quality of the studies was evaluated: Rankings were moderate‐to‐high for 7, and low for 23 studies. As feature search was only performed by five studies, low‐to‐moderate ranking, we were limited in drawing firm conclusions about the PA effect on feature search. All moderate‐to‐high‐ranking studies investigated cancellation by measuring only omissions or hits. These studies found an overall improvement after PA. Measuring perseverations and total task duration provides more specific information about visual search. The two (low ranking) studies that measured this found an improvement after PA on perseverations and duration (while accuracy improved for one study and remained the same for the other). This review suggests there is an overall effect of PA on visual search, although complex visual search tasks and specific visual search measures are lacking. Suggestions for search measures that give insight in subcomponents of visual search are provided for future studies, such as perseverations, search path intersections, search consistency and using a speed–accuracy trade‐off.     

A re-examination of the impact of object processing on shifts of spatial attention

When two targets are presented in rapid succession at the same spatial location, processing of the first is highly efficient, while processing of the second is often profoundly impaired at brief inter-target intervals (attentional blink; AB). While the AB has been shown to impact many processes, it is still unclear whether this includes the ability to shift spatial attention. The present study examined this question using a more sensitive dependent measure than past studies; namely, response times. It also evaluated whether masking of the cue stimulus modulated the effect of the AB on spatial shifts. The results showed significant cueing effects on T2 response times that were strongly modulated by the AB. This supports suggested links between mechanisms underlying object processing and spatial shifts of attention.