Attention reduces perceived brightness contrast

The effects of attention on brightness perception was investigated in four experiments. In the first three, subjects estimated the brightness of a briefly presented small grey square by selecting a number that corresponded to one of four possible squares varying on a lightness-darkness dimension. In the last experiment, subjects matched the brightness of two peripheral squares, one attended and one unattended. When the stimulus appeared on a white background (Experiments 1, 2, and 4a) it was judged as brighter when attention was directed to its location than when attention was diverted to another location. When the stimulus appeared on a dark background (Experiments 3 and 4b), the opposite pattern of results was obtained: the attended stimulus was judged as darker than the unattended one. These results show that attention reduces the perceived contrast between the stimulus and its background, suggesting that attention enables subjects to provide a more veridical judgement of stimulus brightness by limiting processing resources to the square itself, at the expense of the surrounding background. As attention produced a directional brightness effect rather than just an improvement in report accuracy, the results can be attributed to early perceptual processing effects, hence providing support for early selection views of attention.     

Controlling for dilution while manipulating load: Perceptual and sensory limitations are just two aspects of task difficulty

Lavie and de Fockert (2003) proposed that perceptual load and sensory limitations reflect two distinct mechanisms producing opposite effects: Perceptual load eliminates distractor interference, whereas sensory limitations enhance it. Tsal and Benoni (2010a) suggested that these results may have been due to the confounding effect of dilution--that is, to the presence (perceptual load) or absence (sensory load) of neutral items capable of diluting distractor interference. In the present study, we jointly manipulated dilution with perceptual load and with sensory degradation. The results show that, with both perceptual and sensory manipulations, the presence of diluting items eliminates distractor interference, whereas controlling for dilution increases distractor interference. We therefore conclude that perceptual and sensory limitations are just two aspects of task difficulty.     

The role of attention in illusory conjunctions

In five experiments, we investigated the effects of attention on illusory conjunctions formed between features of unrelated objects. The first three experiments used a weak manipulation of attention and found that illusory conjunctions formed either among features receiving high attentional priority or among features receiving low attentional priority were not more frequent than were conjunctions formed between mixed features of different attentional priority. The last two experiments used a strong manipulation of attention and failed to reveal any evidence of true illusory conjunctions. The results are inconsistent with the feature-integration theory, which predicts that when attention is focused on a subset of items, illusory conjunctions ought to occur within and outside of the attended subset, but not between the attended and unattended items.     

Not All Great Minds Think Alike: Systematic and Intuitive Cognitive Styles

Individuals process information and make decisions in different ways. Some plan carefully and analyze information systematically, whereas others follow their instincts and do what “feels right.” We aimed to deepen our understanding of the meaning of the intuitive versus systematic cognitive styles. Study 1 (N = 130, 39% female, M_age = 24) compared cognitive styles of arts, accounting, and mathematics students. Cognitive styles were associated with values (Study 2: N = 154, 123, 78; female = 59%, 49%, 85.9%; M_age = 22, 23, 27) and traits (Study 3: N = 77, 140, 151; female = 59%, 66%, 46%; M_age = 22, 25, 23), and they interacted with experience in predicting performance (Study 4: N = 63, 48% female, M_age = 23; Study 5: N = 44, 39% female, M_age = 23). All participants were Caucasian Israeli students. The systematic style was most frequent among accountants, and the intuitive style was most frequent among artists, validating the meaning of the styles. Systematic style was positively correlated with Conscientiousness and with security values and negatively correlated with stimulation values. The intuitive style had the opposite pattern and was also positively correlated with Extraversion. Experience improved rule‐based performance among systematic individuals but had no effect on intuitive ones. Cognitive style is consistent with other personal attributes (traits and values), with implications for decision making and task performance.     

A Generalized Proof-Theoretic Approach to Logical Argumentation Based on Hypersequents

Studia Logica - In this paper we introduce hypersequent-based frameworks for the modelling of defeasible reasoning by means of logic-based argumentation and the induced entailment relations. These...     

Helplessness: The inability to know-that you don’t know-how

The sense of helplessness stands at the very core of the traumatic experience. This paper suggests that a sense of helplessness arises when, despite the functioning of the cognitive system and awareness of circumstances and feelings, an individual is unable to access practical knowledge. As a result, the subject becomes a victim of one’s own inability to perform, or act, in the real world.     

Computerized progressive attentional training (CPAT) program: effective direct intervention for children with ADHD.

We tested the efficacy of a pioneering intervention program grounded in a contemporary theoretical framework of attention and designed to directly improve the various attentional functions of children with ADHD. The computerized progressive attentional training (CPAT) program is composed of four sets of structured tasks that uniquely activate sustained attention, selective attention, orienting of attention, and executive attention. Performance was driven by tight schedules of feedback and participants automatically advanced in ordered levels of difficulty contingent upon performance. Twenty 6- to 13-year-old children with ADHD were assigned to the experimental group and received the CPAT sessions twice a week over an 8-week period. Sixteen age-matched control children with ADHD were assigned to the control group and participated in sessions of the same frequency, length, and format except that instead of performing the training tasks they played various computer games during the session. The experimental participants showed a significant improvement in nontrained measures of reading comprehension, and passage copying as well as a significant reduction of parents' reports of inattentiveness. No significant improvements were observed in the control group. We thus concluded that the above academic and attentional improvements were primarily due to the CPAT.     

A QBF-based formalization of abstract argumentation semantics

We introduce a unified logical theory, based on signed theories and Quantified Boolean Formulas (QBFs) that can serve as the basis for representing and computing various argumentation-based decision problems. It is shown that within our framework we are able to model, in a simple and modular way, a wide range of semantics for abstract argumentation theory. This includes complete, grounded, preferred, stable, semi-stable, stage, ideal and eager semantics. Furthermore, our approach is purely logical, making for instance decision problems like skeptical and credulous acceptance of arguments simply a matter of entailment and satisfiability checking. The latter may be verified by off-the-shelf QBF-solvers.