Contrasting graded effects of semantic similarity and association across the concreteness spectrum

Evidence from healthy individuals and neuropsychological patients with deep dyslexia or semantic refractory access dysphasia suggests that abstract and concrete concepts have different dependencies upon associative and similarity-based representational frameworks. However, the importance of information about semantic similarity for concepts that lie across the full concreteness spectrum has not been investigated. Here we report the performance of healthy individuals on an odd-one-out task involving semantically related word triplets that showed continuous variation for the key variables of concreteness, similarity strength, and association strength. In addition, data from a stroke aphasic patient tested on a matching-to-sample task based on the same abstract, middle-concreteness, and concrete stimuli are also presented. The effects of similarity and association strength upon performance were both shown to interact significantly with concreteness, but in opposite directions. The effect of semantic similarity increased with concreteness but the effect of association decreased with concreteness. This research provides further evidence for the proposal that abstract and concrete words have different dependencies upon associative and similarity-based information. It also develops the proposal by providing data that are consistent with a graded and not binary or ungraded model of the relationship between concreteness and these two forms of semantic relationship.     

Toddlers' language-mediated visual search: They need not have the words for it

Eye movements made by listeners during language-mediated visual search reveal a strong link between visual processing and conceptual processing. For example, upon hearing the word for a missing referent with a characteristic colour (e.g., “strawberry”), listeners tend to fixate a colour-matched distractor (e.g., a red plane) more than a colour-mismatched distractor (e.g., a yellow plane). We ask whether these shifts in visual attention are mediated by the retrieval of lexically stored colour labels. Do children who do not yet possess verbal labels for the colour attribute that spoken and viewed objects have in common exhibit language-mediated eye movements like those made by older children and adults? That is, do toddlers look at a red plane when hearing “strawberry”? We observed that 24-month-olds lacking colour term knowledge nonetheless recognized the perceptual–conceptual commonality between named and seen objects. This indicates that language-mediated visual search need not depend on stored labels for concepts.     

Attention,spatial integration,and the tail of response time distributions in Stroop task performance

A few studies have examined selective attention in Stroop task performance through ex-Gaussian analyses of response time (RT) distributions. It has remained unclear whether the tail of the RT distribution in vocal responding reflects spatial integration of relevant and irrelevant attributes, as suggested by Spieler, Balota, and Faust (2000 Spieler, D. H., Balota, D. A. and Faust, M. E. 2000. Levels of selective attention revealed through analyses of reaction time distributions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26: 506–526. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Here, two colour–word Stroop experiments with vocal responding are reported in which the spatial relation between colour and word was manipulated. Participants named colours (e.g., green; say “green”) while trying to ignore distractors that were incongruent or congruent words (e.g., red or green), or neutral series of Xs. The vocal RT was measured. Colour words in colour, white words superimposed onto colour rectangles (Experiment 1), and colour rectangles combined with auditory words (Experiment 2) yielded Stroop effects in both the leading edge and the tail of the RT distributions. These results indicate that spatial integration is not necessary for effects in the tail to occur in vocal responding. It is argued that the findings are compatible with an association of the tail effects with task conflict.     

Valence and vertical space: Saccade trajectory deviations reveal metaphorical spatial activation

Concepts of positive and negative valence are metaphorically structured in space (e.g., happy is up, sad is down). In fact, coupling a conceptual task (e.g., evaluating words as positive or negative) with a visuospatial task (e.g., identifying stimuli above or below fixation) often gives rise to metaphorical congruency effects. For instance, after reading a positive concept, visual target processing is facilitated above fixation. However, it is possible that tasks requiring upwards and downwards attentional orienting artificially strengthen the link between vertical space and semantic valence. For this reason, in the present study the vertical axis was uncoupled from the response axis. Participants made eye movements along the horizontal axis after reading positive or negative affect words, while their saccade movement trajectories were recorded. Based on previous research on saccade trajectory deviation, we predicted that fast saccade trajectories curve towards the salient segment of space, whereas slow saccade trajectories would curve away from the salient segment. Examining saccadic trajectories revealed a pattern of deviations along the vertical axis consistent with the metaphorical congruency account, although this pattern was mainly driven by positive concepts. These results suggest that semantic processing of valence can automatically recruit spatial features along the vertical axis.     

Temporal integration of face view sequences and recognition of novel views

When faces are learned from rotating view sequences, novel views may be recognized by matching them with an integrated representation of the sequence or with individual views. An integrated-representation process should benefit from short view durations, and thus from the inclusion of views in a short temporal window, allowing the distribution of attention over the entire sequence. A view-matching process should benefit from long view durations, allowing the attention to focus on each view. In a sequential comparison task, we tested the recognition of learned and novel interpolated and extrapolated views after learning faces from rapid and slow sequences (240 ms or 960 ms for each view). We found a superiority of rapid over slow sequences, in favour of the integrated-representation hypothesis. In addition, the recognition pattern for the different viewpoints in the sequence depended on the absence or presence of extrapolated views, showing a bias of the distribution of attention.     

A response binding effect in visual short-term memory

The current study aimed to investigate the effect of action on the preservation of stored feature bindings. Prior research suggests that stimuli presented after a memory array can disrupt the feature bindings of memory array items. Here, we conducted three experiments to examine whether response to targets disrupts feature bindings. Two of four letters (A, B, C, D) were presented in a memory array, and were followed by a second array containing a single target letter. After either identifying or localizing the target letter, participants were required to report the identity or location of the memory array items. There was a deficit in memory performance involving spatial repetition when participants were required to localize targets, and involving identity repetition when participants were required to identify targets. We conclude that response codes are fundamentally linked to stimulus representations, and can affect retrieval from visual working memory.     

Identification of fragmented object outlines: A dynamic interplay between different component processes

The speed of fragmented picture identification depends on a large number of factors whose effects might change in time during an identification attempt. Using survival analysis and fixed fragmentation levels, previous research has shown that effects of complexity, fragment curvature, and time interact. Here, we study the effects of presentation duration and dynamic fragmentation levels. Fragmented object outlines were presented repetitively every 2.25 s, and at each presentation longer fragments were shown (possibly until closure). We recorded the lowest presentation number (minimum 1, maximum 10) that resulted in correct naming by the participants (N=84). Survival analysis was employed to investigate whether and when different factors like presentation duration, complexity, object category (natural vs. artifactual), symmetry, proximity, and fragment curvature influence correct identification. The results confirm and extend previous findings, and are interpreted within a dynamic, interactive processing framework.     

Integration and Social Identity of Foreign African Professionals in South African Organisations

This study explored integration and social identity of foreign African nationals in the South African workplace. The study also explored the implications of the Employment Equity Act of 2006 as interpreted by foreign African nationals within the contexts of integration and social identity. The study interviewed eight men and two women working in South Africa. The average age of the participants was 37 years. Data on integration and social identity of African professionals working in South Africa were collected through interviews and the data were analysed qualitatively. The findings of the study were that the South African labour legislation on employment equity was perceived as discriminatory to foreign African nationals. The professional foreign African workers perceived less xenophobia and racism directed at them that could be experienced by others in nonprofessional positions.     

The Polish Catholic Church’s perception of the processes of EU integration and Europeanisation in the context of traditional norms and values

The Catholic Church has historically played a significant role in the sociocultural and political life of Poland. Its activity was particularly evident and significant during the process of political transformation. Since 1989, however, the sociopolitical conditions have remarkably changed, thereby placing the church in a new, challenging context. Poland’s post-1989 political aspirations (opening to the West in particular) have come to the fore of the public debate, in which the church has actively participated. In this article I aim to analyse the church’s position on the process of EU integration and the Europeanisation of Polish law and culture. The main questions concern the direction of argumentation used by the church’s internal wings and the politicisation of the discourse on the axiological shape of Polish culture and tradition. My analysis embraces the debate surrounding the process of European integration, with special consideration of the church’s internal divisions (between the ‘centre-right’ and ‘radical-right’ in particular) and ideological discrepancies concerning the very idea of integration and the debates on the draft Constitution of the European Union (Constitutional Treaty) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of the European Union.     

Emotional expressions facilitate human–human trust when using automation in high-risk situations

This study investigated the utility of emotional expression for human decision aids, when human aids conflict with an automated decision support system (DSS). The increasing presence of automation in society has resulted in critical, and often life threatening, situations when information from human and automated sources disagree. It has been known that reliance on human aids decrease during high-risk situations, while reliance on automated aids increase. However, it is also possible that human decision aids gain credibility from users when they embody the charismatic and emotionally expressive gesticulations seen in successful organizational leaders. The present study tested how a human agent's expressiveness when providing information would influence participants' behavioral reliance. Using the program Convoy Leader, participants (n=56) engaged in three decision-making scenarios where risk was manipulated as a within-subject factor and emotional expression as a between-subject factor. Emotional susceptibility, perceived risk, and trust for human as well as automated aids were measured. Overall trust was higher for the automated tool than human decision aid, and that pattern was amplified in conditions without an emotionally expressive human aid. Reliance was greater for emotionally expressive human aids, than stoic human aids, particularly during high risk conditions. The findings suggest that emotional expression of a human aid significantly impacts both reliance and trust of a decision aid, especially at higher risk levels. Emotionally expressive human agents should be utilized in decision conflicts where the automated system has certainly failed.