Keeping the Result in Sight and Mind: General Cognitive Principles and Language‐Specific Influences in the Perception and Memory of Resultative Events

We study how people attend to and memorize endings of events that differ in the degree to which objects in them are affected by an action: Resultative events show objects that undergo a visually salient change in state during the course of the event (peeling a potato), and non‐resultative events involve objects that undergo no, or only partial state change (stirring in a pan). We investigate general cognitive principles, and potential language‐specific influences, in verbal and nonverbal event encoding and memory, across two experiments with Dutch and Estonian participants. Estonian marks a viewer's perspective on an event's result obligatorily via grammatical case on direct object nouns: Objects undergoing a partial/full change in state in an event are marked with partitive/accusative case, respectively. Therefore, we hypothesized increased saliency of object states and event results in Estonian speakers, as compared to speakers of Dutch. Findings show (a) a general cognitive principle of attending carefully to endings of resultative events, implying cognitive saliency of object states in event processing; (b) a language‐specific boost on attention and memory of event results under verbal task demands in Estonian speakers. Results are discussed in relation to theories of event cognition, linguistic relativity, and thinking for speaking.     

Degree of Language Experience Modulates Visual Attention to Visible Speech and Iconic Gestures During Clear and Degraded Speech Comprehension

Visual information conveyed by iconic hand gestures and visible speech can enhance speech comprehension under adverse listening conditions for both native and non‐native listeners. However, how a listener allocates visual attention to these articulators during speech comprehension is unknown. We used eye‐tracking to investigate whether and how native and highly proficient non‐native listeners of Dutch allocated overt eye gaze to visible speech and gestures during clear and degraded speech comprehension. Participants watched video clips of an actress uttering a clear or degraded (6‐band noise‐vocoded) action verb while performing a gesture or not, and were asked to indicate the word they heard in a cued‐recall task. Gestural enhancement was the largest (i.e., a relative reduction in reaction time cost) when speech was degraded for all listeners, but it was stronger for native listeners. Both native and non‐native listeners mostly gazed at the face during comprehension, but non‐native listeners gazed more often at gestures than native listeners. However, only native but not non‐native listeners' gaze allocation to gestures predicted gestural benefit during degraded speech comprehension. We conclude that non‐native listeners might gaze at gesture more as it might be more challenging for non‐native listeners to resolve the degraded auditory cues and couple those cues to phonological information that is conveyed by visible speech. This diminished phonological knowledge might hinder the use of semantic information that is conveyed by gestures for non‐native compared to native listeners. Our results demonstrate that the degree of language experience impacts overt visual attention to visual articulators, resulting in different visual benefits for native versus non‐native listeners.     

视觉工作记忆回溯线索效应的产生机制：认知阶段分离

以往研究关于视觉工作记忆回溯线索效应的产生机制主要存在5种假设,目前依然存在争议。本研究通过改进前人研究实验范式,采用包含内源性回溯线索的颜色回忆报告范式,进一步对这5种假设进行检验。在实验1中,我们调控了线索与探测阵列之间的时间间隔,发现不同时间间隔不影响无线索条件的行为表现,而在正常线索条件中被试的记忆精度以及能记住的项目数量均优于无线索条件;在实验2中,我们对回溯线索伴随的干扰刺激类型进行控制,结果显示,在不同条件下记忆精度不存在差别,但当回溯线索伴随干扰刺激呈现时,被试能记住的项目数量会被降低,降低程度受干扰刺激的类型调制;在实验3中,我们对伴随回溯线索的干扰刺激的呈现时间进行控制,发现虽然回溯线索效应仍然存在,但干扰刺激的呈现时间不会影响效应程度。研究结果表明,回溯线索的出现使得被试能够在决策加工前完成内部注意资源的再分配,从而避免了同时进行这两种认知加工与记忆表征维持本身竞争认知资源。本研究为认知阶段分离假设提供了支持证据,对解决回溯线索效应产生机制的争议以及理解内部注意与视觉工作记忆的关系有重要意义。     

Positive post‐disaster images: A daydream machine?

This study explores the impact of post‐earthquake images inserted in a vigilance task, in terms of performance, self‐reports of task‐focus, and cerebral activity using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Vigilance tasks present a sequence of stimuli in which only a few are pre‐designated critical or target stimuli requiring an overt response from the participant. Seventy‐one residents participated (51 women, 20 men) by taking part in a vigilance task with task‐irrelevant images inserted in the sequence. There were three conditions consisting positive (emotive inducing), negative (emotive inducing), and control (devoid of meaning) images embedded in the vigilance task to assess possible impacts on vigilance performance. The images were obtained through crowdsourcing and represented parts of the city 3–4 years post‐earthquake. Task performance was assessed with signal detection theory metrics of sensitivity A’ and bias β’’. This enables the separation of an individual's ability to accurately discriminate critical signals from non‐critical stimuli (sensitivity) and shifts in their willingness to respond to any stimuli whether critical or not (bias). Individuals viewing the positive images, relating to progress, rebuild, or aesthetic aspects within the city, had a more conservative response bias (they responded less to both rare critical and distractor stimuli) than those in the other conditions. These individuals also reported lower task‐focus, as would be expected. However, contrary to expectations, indicators of cerebral activity (fNIRS) did not differ significantly between the experimental groups. These results, when combined, suggest that mind wandering events may be being generated when exposed to positive post‐earthquake images.     

固定位置区域提示下视觉注意范围等级的ERP研究

研究视觉空间注意中注意范围的脑内时程的动态变化。被试为 14名青年人 ,使用固定位置的、3种不同直径的线圈作为注意范围的区域性提示 ,祛除空间定位因素的影响 ,记录反应时和事件相关电位 (ERP)数据。结果显示 :提示范围由小到中等时 ,反应时延长 ,而由中等到大范围时 ,反应时缩短 ;提示物和靶刺激诱发ERP的早成分 (N1、P1)不受提示范围大小的调节 ,而其P2、N2的波幅与潜伏期均明显受到提示范围大小的影响。这些结果说明 :①视觉注意诱发的P1、N1成分 ,主要与空间定位信息的加工相关 ;②提示物诱发的P2、N2成分与注意范围相关 ;③在视觉信息加工过程中 ,空间位置的信息要早于其它信息被加工 ,支持视觉信息串行加工观点     

客体工作记忆对注意的导向作用：抑制动机的影响

通过两个实验验证了客体工作记忆内容对注意的导向过程是灵活可控的; 与客体工作记忆内容匹配的刺激既可以捕获注意, 也可以被抑制。实验1通过操作匹配试验概率来诱发不同水平的抑制动机, 考察在客体工作记忆内容对注意的导向作用中抑制动机的影响。匹配试验中有分心物与客体工作记忆内容相同。控制试验中所有搜索项目均与客体工作记忆内容不同。实验2保持实际匹配试验概率恒定, 仅通过改变指导语来调节抑制动机水平, 以排除练习的干扰。两实验结果均表明, 当抑制动机水平较低时, 匹配分心物会捕获注意; 而当抑制动机水平足够高时, 匹配分心物会被抑制。并且, 抑制动机水平的高低还会影响认知控制的效应量和时程。     

基于项目区分度的双目标CD-CAT选题策略

针对双目标CD-CAT,将六种项目区分度（鉴别力D、一般区分度GDI、优势比OR、2PL的区分度a、属性区分度ADI、认知诊断区分度CDI）分别与IPA方法结合,得到新的选题策略。模拟研究比较了它们的表现,还考察了区分度分层在控制项目曝光的表现。结果发现：新方法都能明显提高知识状态的判准率和能力估计精度;分层选题均能很好地提高题库利用率。总体上,OR加权能显著提高测量精度;OR分层选题在保证测量精度条件下显著提高项目曝光均匀性。     

从知觉负载理论来理解选择性注意

知觉负载理论被认为解决了选择性注意研究的早选择和晚选择观点之争。当前任务对注意资源的耗用程度决定了与任务无关的干扰刺激得到多少加工,从而导致在低知觉负载下,注意资源自动溢出去加工干扰刺激（晚选择）,而在高知觉负载下,注意资源被当前任务耗尽而无法加工干扰刺激（早选择）。知觉负载理论提出后,研究者进行了一系列研究。一部分工作专注于知觉负载对选择性注意的调节作用;另外一些工作则关注其他认知过程如何影响注意资源的分配,其中知觉负载与工作记忆负载的关系是当前关注重点。     

无觉知条件下的客体注意效应

采用双矩形范式变式考察在对客体无觉知的条件下的客体注意效应,共包括两个实验：实验一考察对完整矩形客体无觉知的条件下能否出现客体注意效应,发现在完整矩形客体不可见的情况下依然出现了客体注意效应。实验二考察对虚拟矩形客体无觉知的情况下是否能够出现客体注意效应,发现在虚拟矩形客体不可见的情况下也能够出现客体注意效应。研究结果表明客体注意效应在无觉知条件下依然存在,为注意与觉知在功能上相互分离的观点提供了新的证据。