The Cognitive Architecture of Perceived Animacy: Intention,Attention, and Memory

Human vision supports social perception by efficiently detecting agents and extracting rich information about their actions, goals, and intentions. Here, we explore the cognitive architecture of perceived animacy by constructing Bayesian models that integrate domain‐specific hypotheses of social agency with domain‐general cognitive constraints on sensory, memory, and attentional processing. Our model posits that perceived animacy combines a bottom–up, feature‐based, parallel search for goal‐directed movements with a top–down selection process for intent inference. The interaction of these architecturally distinct processes makes perceived animacy fast, flexible, and yet cognitively efficient. In the context of chasing, in which a predator (the “wolf”) pursues a prey (the “sheep”), our model addresses the computational challenge of identifying target agents among varying numbers of distractor objects, despite a quadratic increase in the number of possible interactions as more objects appear in a scene. By comparing modeling results with human psychophysics in several studies, we show that the effectiveness and efficiency of human perceived animacy can be explained by a Bayesian ideal observer model with realistic cognitive constraints. These results provide an understanding of perceived animacy at the algorithmic level—how it is achieved by cognitive mechanisms such as attention and working memory, and how it can be integrated with higher‐level reasoning about social agency.     

Playing counter-strike versus running: The impact of leisure time activities and cortisol on intermediate-term memory in male students

The everyday life of students is characterized by hours of learning in order to pass exams. After learning they tend to opt for an occupation that provides them with a great deal of entertainment. It is obvious that it would be advantageous if the chosen activity had a positive impact on memory consolidation. Due to the circumstance that such activities can lead to stress and that memory is affected by stress we wanted to look at these coherences. We examined the effect of two different common leisure time activities on cortisol and memory to be able to formulate recommendations for society. For this purpose, a group was tested before and after playing a violent computer game while the second group was tested before and after running. In addition, a control group was set up. Salivary cortisol was measured at the beginning, during, and at the end of the experiment.Our data demonstrates that running increases cortisol levels and, performed immediately after a learning period, facilitates memorization of neutral information. In contrast, playing a violent computer game tends to impair memorization.The results of the present study have practical implications for the choice of recreational activities in the context of learning.     

视觉感觉记忆在字音选取作业中的作用

该研究通过四项实验探讨了视觉感觉记忆(VSM)在字音选取作业中的作用。实验材料为48个汉字。实验结果表明:当被试只能利用短时记忆(STM)中的信息进行选取作业时,能选取的汉字数与转换到STM中的汉字数之间无显著性差异;当被试可以同时利用VSM和STM中的信息时,能选取的汉字数要显著多于转换到STM中的汉字数。这表明,人能根据字音特征从VSM信息中选取字符。     

The impact of affective and cognitive focus on attitude formation

We examined the effects of unobtrusive affective and cognitive focus on attitude formation. To induce focus, participants worked on a word-search puzzle consisting of either affective (e.g., emotion) or cognitive (e.g., reasoning) words. They then read positive and negative affective and cognitive information about a new attitude object. In the affective focus condition, evaluations were more congruent with the valence of the affective information than they were in the cognitive focus condition, where evaluations were more congruent with the valence of the cognitive information than they were in the affective focus condition. Affective focus also resulted in enhanced recall of affective information. The effects on evaluations remained stable over time, whereas effects on memory disappeared. Finally, affective focus was associated with faster response times, suggesting enhanced accessibility of affect-based attitudes. The present research shows that an affective or cognitive focus leads to the formation of different attitudes.     

ERP evidence of early cross-modal links between auditory selective attention and visuo-spatial memory

Previous dual-task research pairing complex visual tasks involving non-spatial cognitive processes during dichotic listening have shown effects on the late component (Ndl) of the negative difference selective attention waveform but no effects on the early (Nde) response suggesting that the Ndl, but not the Nde, is affected by non-spatial processing in a dual-task. Thus to further explore the nature of this dissociation and whether the Nd waveform is affected by spatial processing; fourteen adult participants performed auditory dichotic listening in conjunction with visuo-spatial memory in a cross-modal dual-task paradigm. The results showed that the visuo-spatial memory task decreased both the Nde and Ndl waveforms, and also attenuated P300 and increased its latency. This pattern of results suggests that: (1) the Nde reflects a memory trace that is shared with vision when the information is spatial in nature, and (2) P300 latency appears to be influenced by the discriminability of stimuli underlying the Nde and Ndl memory trace.     

Bilateral saccades increase intrahemispheric processing but not interhemispheric interaction: Implications for saccade-induced retrieval enhancement

Retrieval of memories is enhanced when bilateral saccades are made immediately before attempting retrieval. One hypothesis is that saccades enhance retrieval by increasing interaction of the brain hemispheres. To test this, subjects viewed arrays of lateralized letters and indicated whether target letters matched either of two probe letters. Matching targets and probes were presented to either the same hemisphere (within-hemisphere trials) or separate hemispheres (across-hemisphere trials). Match detection requires interhemispheric interaction on across-hemisphere trials but primarily intrahemispheric processing on within-hemisphere trials. Subjects performed letter matching following saccades and a fixation control condition. Saccades increased match-detection accuracy on within-hemisphere trials only, suggesting that, counter to the hypothesis, saccades enhance intrahemispheric processing but not interhemispheric interaction. Across-hemisphere accuracy was higher, however, for subjects who were not strongly right-handed, versus those who were, and the absence of strong right-handedness may reflect greater interhemispheric interaction. We discuss implications for accounts of saccade-induced retrieval enhancement.     

Memory and consciousness: trace distinctiveness in memory retrievals

The aim of this article was to provide experimental evidence that classical dissociation between levels of consciousness associated with memory retrieval (i.e., implicit or explicit) can be explained in terms of task dependency and distinctiveness of traces. In our study phase, we manipulated the level of isolation (partial vs. global) of the memory trace by means of an isolation paradigm (isolated words among non-isolated words). We then tested these two types of isolation in a series of tasks of increasing complexity: a lexical decision task, a recognition task, and a free recall task. The main result of this study was that distinctiveness effects were observed as a function of the type of isolation (level of isolation) and the nature of the task. We concluded that trace distinctiveness improves subsequent access to the trace, while the level of trace distinctiveness also appears to determine the possibility of conscious or explicit retrieval.