How lexical is the lexicon? Evidence for integrated auditory memory representations

Previous research has shown that lexical representations must include not only linguistic information (what word was said), but also indexical information (how it was said, and by whom). The present work demonstrates that even this expansion is not sufficient. Seemingly irrelevant information, such as an unattended background sound, is retained in memory and can facilitate subsequent speech perception. We presented participants with spoken words paired with environmental sounds (e.g., a phone ringing), and had them make an “animate/inanimate” decision for each word. Later performance identifying filtered versions of the words was impaired to a similar degree if the voice changed or if the environmental sound changed. Moreover, when quite dissimilar words were used at exposure and test, we observed the same result when we reversed the roles of the words and the environmental sounds. The experiments also demonstrated limits to these effects, with no benefit from repetition. Theoretically, our results support two alternative possibilities: (1) Lexical representations are memory representations, and are not walled off from those for other sounds. Indexical effects reflect simply one type of co-occurrence that is incorporated into such representations. (2) The existing literature on indexical effects does not actually bear on lexical representations – voice changes, like environmental sounds heard with a word, produce implicit memory effects that are not tied to the lexicon. We discuss the evidence and implications of these two theoretical alternatives.     

Coordinated affect with mothers and strangers: A longitudinal analysis of joint engagement between 5 and 9 months of age

The coordination of affect in joint attention was assessed in a longitudinal study of 5- to 9-month-old infants as they interacted with mothers and strangers. Results showed that the coordination of affect with joint attention looks increased reliably with age. In addition, context effects were found such that joint attention looks increased while interacting with strangers but not with mothers. The study demonstrates the emergence of joint engagement before the end of the first year, and suggests that affect may play a key role in aspects of joint attention that may be unique to humans.     

Designing a brief measure of social anxiety: Psychometric support for a three-item version of the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS-3)

Although social situations are enjoyable for most people, they cause extreme anxiety in others. To better understand individual differences in social anxiety, researchers have designed scales, such as the 15-item Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS; Leary, 1983), to measure people’s anxiousness in social situations. Despite the importance of measuring social anxiety, many research settings that require time or space constraints (e.g., field, longitudinal, daily diary studies) cannot always accommodate a 15-item scale. To address this problem, the current research aimed to create and validate a three-item version of the IAS. Studies examined the psychometric properties of a three-item measure of social anxiety (IAS-3). After choosing the best three items using item response theory methods (Study 1), we examined the IAS-3’s (a) concurrent validity with the 15-item IAS in a student sample (Studies 1 and 2), (b) test–retest reliability across 4 months (Study 2), and (c) construct validity in a diverse international sample (Studies 3 and 4). Across all studies, the IAS-3 showed good reliability and validity, supporting its use in future research.     

Exploring explicit learning strategies: A dissociative framework for research

To explain learning, comparative researchers invoke an associative construct by which immediate reinforcement strengthens animal's adaptive responses. In contrast, cognitive researchers freely acknowledge humans' explicit-learning capability to test and confirm hypotheses even lacking direct reinforcement. We describe a new dissociative framework that may stretch animals' learning toward the explicit pole of cognition. We discuss the neuroscience of reinforcement-based learning and suggest the possibility of disabling a dominant form of reinforcement-based discrimination learning. In that vacuum, researchers may have an opportunity to observe animals' explicit learning strategies (i.e., hypotheses, rules, task self-construals). We review initial research using this framework showing explicit learning by humans and perhaps by monkeys. Finally, we consider why complementary explicit and reinforcement-based learning systems might promote evolutionary and ecological fitness. Illuminating the evolution of parallel learning systems may also tell part of the story of the emergence of humans' extraordinary capacity for explicit-declarative cognition.     

Independent operation of implicit working memory under cognitive load

Implicit working memory (WM) has been known to operate non-consciously and unintentionally. The current study investigated whether implicit WM is a discrete mechanism from explicit WM in terms of cognitive resource. To induce cognitive resource competition, we used a conjunction search task (Experiment 1) and imposed spatial WM load (Experiment 2a and 2b). Each trial was composed of a set of five consecutive search displays. The location of the first four displays appeared as per pre-determined patterns, but the fifth display could follow the same pattern or not. If implicit WM can extract the moving pattern of stimuli, response times for the fifth target would be faster when it followed the pattern compared to when it did not. Our results showed implicit WM can operate when participants are searching for the conjunction target and even while maintaining spatial WM information. These results suggest that implicit WM is independent from explicit spatial WM.     

Achievement motive and sport participation

Three studies investigated the relationship between the achievement motive and sport participation. It was expected that both the implicit and the explicit achievement motives are positively associated with how frequently people engage in sport activities. The implicit achievement motive was assessed with indirect motive measures; the explicit achievement motive was either inferred from participants’ personal goals or measured with self-reports. Two hundred five athletes participated including college students enrolled in leisure sport programs offered at their university (Study 1), amateur athletes registered in sports clubs (Study 2), and elite tennis athletes (Study 3). The implicit achievement motive consistently predicted sport participation in all three studies. In contrast, the explicit achievement motive was uncorrelated with sport participation. The interaction between the two motives did not yield an effect on sport participation. The results indicate that the implicit, unconscious need to achieve facilitates regular engagement in sport activities, but the explicit, conscious orientation toward achievement does not. The enrichment of sports environments with incentives for the implicit achievement motive may thus attract more people to participate in sport activities.     

Can musical transformations be implicitly learned?

The dominant theory of what people can learn implicitly is that they learn chunks of adjacent elements in sequences. A type of musical grammar that goes beyond specifying allowable chunks is provided by serialist or 12-tone music. The rules constitute operations over variables and could not be appreciated as such by a system that can only chunk elements together. A series of studies investigated the extent to which people could implicitly (or explicitly) learn the structures of serialist music. We found that people who had no background in atonal music did not learn the structures, but highly selected participants with an interest in atonal music could implicitly learn to detect melodies instantiating the structures. The results have implications for both theorists of implicit learning and composers who may wish to know which structures they put into a piece of music can be appreciated.     

Slower access to visual awareness but otherwise intact implicit perception of emotional faces in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders

Schizophrenia-spectrum disorders are characterized by deficits in social domains. Extant research has reported an impaired ability to perceive emotional faces in schizophrenia. Yet, it is unclear if these deficits occur already in the access to visual awareness. To investigate this question, 23 people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 22 healthy controls performed a breaking continuous flash suppression task with fearful, happy, and neutral faces. Response times were analysed with generalized linear mixed models. People with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders were slower than controls in detecting faces, but did not show emotion-specific impairments. Moreover, happy faces were detected faster than neutral and fearful faces, across all participants. Although caution is needed when interpreting the main effect of group, our findings may suggest an elevated threshold for visual awareness in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, but an intact implicit emotion perception. Our study provides a new insight into the mechanisms underlying emotion perception in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.     

One-year test–retest reliability of the Maryland Resource for the Behavioral Utilization of the Reinforcement of Negative Stimuli (MRBURNS)

The Maryland Resource for the Behavioral Utilization of the Reinforcement of Negative Stimuli (MRBURNS) is a novel behavioral task designed to measure individual differences in negative reinforcement-based risk taking propensity. Performance on the MRBURNS has been linked with alcohol-related problems and negative reinforcement-based drinking motives, as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression; however, it is unclear if performance on the task represents a stable measure of negative reinforcement-based risk taking over time. As such, the current study aimed to examine the test–retest reliability of the MRBURNS over a period of one year. Results indicate that the correlation between year 1 and year 2 risk behavior (average number of pumps) on the MRBURNS was .43 across all trials. With the one year test–retest reliability of the MRBURNS established, the MRBURNS may be a useful approach to measuring the relative contribution of negative reinforcement-based risk taking in the development of risky behaviors over time, and may be used to monitor the effects of novel interventions that aim to reduce negative reinforcement based risk taking in the real world.