How Speech Modifies Visual Attention

Auditory distractions can have serious consequences in critical situations such as driving. Mobile phones, radios, media players, and information devices that interpret and produce speech are increasingly common in vehicles, but the threats to visual attention are not yet fully understood. In three experiments, we found that most speech tasks had relatively small adverse effects on the detection of a briefly presented target among distractors across a 60° subarea of the visual field. Although there was a little impact on detectability, moderately difficult speech tasks slowed responding relative to silence. Our most demanding condition—generating and speaking a word beginning with the last letter of another word—had the greatest effects on accuracy and latency, with responding slowed by about 900 ms. An impairment of this magnitude presents a significant threat to safe driving and calls into question the belief that hands‐free voice‐controlled devices are the answer to the problem of driver distraction. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mapping the time course of the positive classification advantage: An ERP study

The aim of the present study was to investigate the time course of the positive advantage in the expression classification of faces by recording event-related potentials (ERPs). Although neutral faces were classified more quickly than either happy or sad faces, a significant positive classification advantage (PCA)—that is, faster classification for happy than for sad faces—was found. For ERP data, as compared with sad faces, happy faces elicited a smaller N170 and a larger posterior N2 component. The P3 was modulated by facial expressions with higher amplitudes and shorter latencies for both happy and neutral stimuli than for sad stimuli, and the reaction times were significantly correlated with the amplitude and latency of the P3. Overall, these data showed robust PCA in expression classification, starting when the stimulus has been recognized as a face revealed by the N170 component.     

The cognitive advantage for one’s own name is not simply familiarity: An eye-tracking study

Eye-tracking technique and visual search task were employed to examine the cognitive advantage for one’s own name and the possible effect of familiarity on this advantage. The results showed that fewer saccades and an earlier start time of first fixations on the target were associated with trials in which participants were asked to search for their own name, as compared to search for personally familiar or famous names. In addition, the results also demonstrated faster response times and higher accuracy in the former kind of trials. Taken together, these findings provide important evidence that one’s own name has the potential to capture attention and that familiarity cannot account for this advantage.     

A biased-competition approach to spatial cueing: Combining empirical studies and computational modelling

We examined the effects of cue luminance on visual orienting. Experiment 1 established that the commonly-found early facilitation and late inhibition of return (IOR) effects were independent of cue luminance with single cues in terms of their amplitude, although IOR was delayed in the low compared to the high luminance cue condition. In contrast, Experiment 2 revealed that, with dual cues of mixed luminance, both facilitation and IOR effects were found only with bright cues. When cues had equal luminance, however, there were cueing effects for two cued locations but only when the cues were bright. The data were accommodated in a neural network model of biased competition in which cueing effects emerge at more than one location provided input activation is sufficient to overcome competitive damping of the selection system.     

Updating beliefs in light of uncertain evidence: Descriptive assessment of Jeffrey's rule

Jeffrey (1983) proposed a generalisation of conditioning as a means of updating probability distributions when new evidence drives no event to certainty. His rule requires the stability of certain conditional probabilities through time. We tested this assumption (“invariance”) from the psychological point of view. In Experiment 1 participants offered probability estimates for events in Jeffrey's candlelight example. Two further scenarios were investigated in Experiment 2, one in which invariance seems justified, the other in which it does not. Results were in rough conformity to Jeffrey's (1983) principle.     

学龄儿童的情景记忆与心理理论的关系

为考察学龄儿童心理理论与情景记忆的关系,111名小学4-6年级儿童在两周内完成了心理理论(包括二级错误信念、失言和白谎等)和情景记忆(回忆过去"一个星期内"、"一个月内"和"一年内"亲历的具体事件;以及想象将来"一个星期内"、"一个月内"和"一年内"可能发生在自己身上的具体事件)等任务。控制了年龄效应后,线性回归分析发现儿童回忆过去时"谈及他人"、想象将来时"谈及自我"和"谈及他人"与心理理论的认知成分存在显著关联。而儿童回忆过去时"谈及他人"与心理理论的情感成分有显著关联。结果表明,学龄儿童心理理论可以分为认知成分和情感成分,情景记忆与心理理论不同成分的关系存在差异。     

A neural autopilot theory of habit: Evidence from consumer purchases and social media use

This article applies a two-process “neural autopilot” model to field data. The autopilot model hypothesizes that habitual choice occurs when the reward from a behavior has low numerical “doubt” (i.e., reward prediction errors are small). The model toggles between repeating a previous choice (habit) when doubt is low and making a goal-directed choice when doubt is high. The model has ingredients established in animal learning and cognitive neuroscience and is simple enough to make nonobvious predictions. In two empirical applications, we fit the model to field data on purchases of canned tuna and posting on the Chinese social media site Weibo. This style of modeling is called “structural” because there is a theoretical model of how different variables influence choices by agents (the “structure”), which tightly restricts how hidden variables lead to observed choices. There is empirical support for the model, more strongly for tuna purchases than for Weibo posting, relative to a baseline “reduced-form” model in which current choices are correlated with past choices without a mechanistic (structural) explanation. An interesting set of predictions can also be derived about how consumers react to different kinds of changes in prices and qualities of goods (this is called “counterfactual analysis”).     

关于归因定向与行为预测的实验研究

不同的归因方式将导致人们对行为的不同预测倾向。本文正是基于这样的假设,来考察在信息匮乏的情况下,性情归因和情景归因对他人积极行为和消极行为的预测倾向的影响。结果发现,两种归因方式都导致被试对积极行为的预测多于对消极行为的预测,而情景归因下的被试对积极行为的预测又显著多于性情归因下的被试。在此基础上,在引人价值判断的因素后,发现不同的归因方式启动了不同的价值判断,进而影响到对行为的预测。     

双陈述任务下演绎推理的错觉

研究了双陈述任务下的复合命题推理和三段论推理的错觉。被试为暨南大学本科生60名。使用冠有“只有一个陈述是正确的”作为限制条件的双陈述推理任务。实验1为纯命题任务,实验2为角色化任务。t检验的结果表明被试只考虑了正确的陈述,却忽略了错误的陈述而出现推理的错觉。结果支持了心理模型理论中的正面表征原则,初步提出正反信息转换机制的观点。     

“鲁学”北渐与齐鲁古道

齐鲁大地,海岱之间,古道众多,但据严耕望先生考证"有东西两条重要之南北交通线",现代考古发现也证实了此观点。春秋末发源于鲁的儒学在战国时期兴盛于齐,既而在西汉成为"罢黜百家,独尊儒术"的显学。这一过程背后有很多因素,本文仅从儒学传播的地理途径——齐鲁古道入手,以孔子、孟子来往于齐鲁两地的行迹为中心,将史籍文献、历代地理变迁之大势以及迄今所存之历史遗迹等线索汇集一起,阐释齐鲁古道在"鲁学"北渐中的特殊意义。