Attentional orienting and awareness: evidence from a discrimination task

We used several cue–target SOAs (100, 500, 1000 ms) and three different degrees of cue predictability (Non-predictive-50%, Predictive-75%, Counter-predictive-25%), to investigate the role of awareness of cue–target predictability on cueing effects. A group of participants received instructions about the informative value of the cue, while another group did not receive such instructions. Participants were able to extract the predictive value of a spatially peripheral cue and use it to orient attention, whether or not specific instructions about the predictive value of the cue were given, and no matter their ability to correctly report it in a post-test questionnaire. In the non-predictive block, bad estimators who received no instructions showed regular cueing effects, while good estimators exhibited smaller and non-significant facilitatory effects at the short SOA and an absence of significant IOR at longer SOAs. However, for the instructions group, the pattern of results reversed.     

No evidence for a cue mismatch in negative priming

An experiment is reported in which the cue mismatch hypothesis of negative priming, an important novel variant of the mismatching hypothesis, was tested. A cue mismatch and a no mismatch condition were contrasted in a visual discrimination task. In the prime display of cue mismatch ignored-repetition trials, the colour of the prime distractor was different from the colour of the cue indicating the selection feature (coloured square). In probe displays, cue and repeated stimulus had the same colour. In the no mismatch condition, the visual cue was neutral in terms of colour (always black), so that there was always no cue mismatch between prime and probe displays. Contrary to the prediction of the cue mismatch hypothesis, the negative priming effect was not larger in the cue mismatch than in the no mismatch condition. The cue mismatch hypothesis must therefore be rejected. In contrast, the episodic retrieval account is consistent with the results.     

Enclosure shape influences cue competition effects and goal location learning

In virtual-environment spatial-learning procedures, Experiment 1 investigated blocking of learning about distal landmarks beyond the walls of an enclosure following preliminary training to find a goal using local landmarks within the enclosure. Separate sets of blocking and control groups searched within enclosures that, in plan view, formed either a square or a circle. Blocking was apparent when training and testing occurred in the circular but not the square enclosure. In Experiment 2, preliminary training to find a goal using local landmarks blocked spatial learning based on a circular enclosure divided into four differently coloured sections. The results are discussed in relation to theories of incidental versus error-correcting learning linked to different types of spatial cue.     

Strategic flexibility in response preparation: Effects of cue validity on reaction time and pupil dilation

This study examined the ability of participants to strategically adapt their level of response preparation to the predictive value of preparatory cues. Participants performed the finger-precuing task under three levels of cue validity: 100, 75 and 50% valid. Response preparation was indexed by means of reaction time (RT) and pupil dilation, the latter providing a psychophysiological index of invested effort. Results showed a systematic increase in RT benefits (generated by valid cues) and RT costs (generated by invalid cues) with increments in the predictive value of cues. Converging with these behavioural effects, pupil dilation also increased systematically with greater cue validity during the cue-stimulus interval, suggesting more effortful response preparation with increases in cue validity. Together, these findings confirm the hypothesis that response preparation is flexible and that it can be strategically allocated in proportion to the relative frequency of valid/invalid preparatory cues.     

Sense of agency: Sensorimotor signals and social context are differentially weighed at implicit and explicit levels

Sense of agency (SoA) describes the experience of being the author of an action. Cue integration approaches divide SoA into an implicit level, mostly relying on prospective sensorimotor signals, and an explicit level, resulting from an integration of sensorimotor and contextual cues based on their reliability. Integration mechanisms at each level and the contribution of implicit to explicit SoA remain underspecified. In a task of movements with visual outcomes, we tested the effect of social context (contextual cue) and sensory prediction congruency (retrospective sensorimotor cue) over implicit (intentional binding) and explicit (verbal judgments) SoA. Our results suggest that prospective sensorimotor cues determine implicit SoA. At the explicit level, retrospective sensorimotor cues and contextual cues are partly integrated in an additive way, but contextual cues can also act as a heuristic if sensorimotor cues are highly unreliable. We also found no significant association between implicit and explicit SoA.     

A Psychometric Evaluation of the Approach and Avoidance of Alcohol Questionnaire (AAAQ) in Alcohol Dependent Outpatients

The Approach and Avoidance of Alcohol Questionnaire (AAAQ; McEvoy et al. in Addiction 99:482–497, 2004) was administered to a clinical sample of 138 alcohol dependent men and women. An exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the AAAQ factor structure and a confirmatory analysis run on a second administration of the AAAQ. Convergent validity was examined by conducting an alcohol cue reactivity test and by administering the Timeline Follow-Back (TLFB), a retrospective calendar method for assessing alcohol consumption, and several measures of alcohol-related problems. The factor analysis supported a two-factor solution representing approach and avoidance dimensions. Regressions predicting measures of alcohol cue reactivity, alcohol consumption, and other alcohol-related constructs with the AAAQ provide support for its convergent validity. The results suggest that alcohol craving may be viewed as a multi-dimensional construct that includes both approach and avoidance inclinations which may vary depending on the population under examination.

The role of memory for compounds in cue competition

Revisions of common associative learning models incorporate a within-compound association mechanism in order to explain retrospective cue competition effects (e.g., [Dickinson, A., & Burke, J. (1996). Within-compound associations mediate the retrospective revaluation of causality judgements. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49B, pp. 60-80.]). These models predict a correlation between memory for compounds (as a measure for the strength of within-compound associations) and retrospective cue competition but not forward cue competition. This was indeed found in a study of [Melchers, K. G., Lachnit, H., & Shanks, D. (2004). Within-compound associations in retrospective revaluation and in direct learning: A challenge for comparator theory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57B, pp. 25-54.]. We argue that a higher-order reasoning account of causal learning can also explain the evidence for the role of within-compound associations in cue competition. Moreover, this account predicts that if making inferences during the learning stage is impeded, a correlation between memory for compounds and forward cue competition should be found as well. The results of a new study confirmed this prediction.     

Causal competition based on generic priors

Although we live in a complex and multi-causal world, learners often lack sufficient data and/or cognitive resources to acquire a fully veridical causal model. The general goal of making precise predictions with energy-efficient representations suggests a generic prior favoring causal models that include a relatively small number of strong causes. Such “sparse and strong” priors make it possible to quickly identify the most potent individual causes, relegating weaker causes to secondary status or eliminating them from consideration altogether. Sparse-and-strong priors predict that competition will be observed between candidate causes of the same polarity (i.e., generative or else preventive) even if they occur independently. For instance, the strength of a moderately strong cause should be underestimated when an uncorrelated strong cause also occurs in the general learning environment, relative to when a weaker cause also occurs. We report three experiments investigating whether independently-occurring causes (either generative or preventive) compete when people make judgments of causal strength. Cue competition was indeed observed for both generative and preventive causes. The data were used to assess alternative computational models of human learning in complex multi-causal situations.     

The phenomenology and temporal distributions of autobiographical memories elicited with emotional and neutral cue words

In this study we examined whether the temporal distribution of autobiographical memory changes when different types of cue words are used to elicit the memories, and how the type of cue word affects the phenomenal characteristics of the memories. A total of 76 participants, ranging in age from 21 to 69 years, were presented with 22 cue words (emotional, emotion-provoking, and neutral). They were asked to recall a personal event and to complete the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire (Rubin, Schrauf, & Greenberg, 2003, 2004) for each cue word. Results showed that the phenomenological properties of autobiographical memories which were cued with emotional and emotion-provoking words were rated higher than those of memories which were cued with neutral words, and that the peak in the temporal distributions of the autobiographical memories that were cued with emotional or emotion-provoking words were located later than the peak of the distribution of the memories that were cued with neutral words.