语言对知觉的影响—— 来自颜色范畴知觉研究的证据

介绍了近年来语言和颜色范畴知觉关系研究的新进展, 特别是颜色范畴知觉效应的偏侧化、婴幼儿颜色范畴知觉的特点等。同时指出了今后需要进一步研究的问题, 如颜色范畴知觉效应偏侧化与语言的关系、右脑语言优势者颜色范畴知觉的特点、颜色加工脑区和语言加工脑区之间的关系以及婴幼儿颜色范畴知觉特点的追踪研究等。     

暴食症的诊断、治疗及其疗效

暴食症已成为目前世界上广泛流行的三大进食障碍之一,我国患者亦不在少数并有增加之势,但对暴食症的研究与治疗尚属起步阶段。文章回顾了暴食症的表征及其诊断技术,简要介绍了常见的三种治疗方法（即行为疗法、认知疗法及伴随症状改善法）,并讨论了影响暴食症疗效的诸个体因素。暴食症的诊断主要是根据美国精神疾病诊断与统计手册第四版（DSM-IV）、进食障碍检测评估表（EDE）（治疗者用）和患者用进食障碍检测问卷（EDE-Q）（患者用）,并结合过往病史和伴随症状。三类治疗方法在理论与操作层面各有倚重,均可收到一定治疗效果。但各疗法的效果与预后会因患者而异甚或迥乎相异,这是因为暴食症疗效还受到患者自身人格、社会和认知诸因素的影响,治疗者应根据特定患者选择适合该患者的疗法。     

The whole is indeed more than the sum of its parts: perceptual averaging in the absence of individual item representation

We tested Ariely's (2001) proposal that the visual system represents the overall statistical properties of sets of objects against alternative accounts of rapid averaging involving sub-sampling strategies. In four experiments, observers could rapidly extract the mean size of a set of circles presented in an RSVP sequence, but could not reliably identify individual members. Experiment 1 contrasted performance on a member identification task with performance on a mean judgment task, and showed that the tasks could be dissociated based on whether the test probe was presented before or after the sequence, suggesting that member identification and mean judgment are subserved by different mechanisms. In Experiment 2, we confirmed that when given a choice between a probe corresponding to the mean size of the set and a foil corresponding to the mean of the smallest and largest items only, the former is preferred to the latter, even when observers are explicitly instructed to average only the smallest and largest items. Experiment 3 showed that a test item corresponding to the mean size of the set could be reliably discriminated from a foil but the largest item in the set, differing by an equivalent amount, could not. In Experiment 4, observers rejected test items dissimilar to the mean size of the set in a member identification task, favoring test items that corresponded to the mean of the set over items that were actually shown. These findings suggest that mean representation is accomplished without explicitly encoding individual items.     

Global precedence effect in audition and vision: evidence for similar cognitive styles across modalities

This study aimed to provide evidence for a Global Precedence Effect (GPE) in both vision and audition modalities. In order to parallel Navon's paradigm, a novel auditory task was designed in which hierarchical auditory stimuli were used to involve local and global processing. Participants were asked to process auditory and visual hierarchical patterns at the local or global level. In both modalities, a global-over-local advantage and a global interference on local processing were found. The other compelling result is a significant correlation between these effects across modalities. Evidence that the same participants exhibit similar processing style across modalities strongly supports the idea of a cognitive style to process information and common processing principle in perception.     

Linking impulsivity and inhibitory control using manual and oculomotor response inhibition tasks

Separate cognitive processes govern the inhibitory control of manual and oculomotor movements. Despite this fundamental distinction, little is known about how these inhibitory control processes relate to more complex domains of behavioral functioning. This study sought to determine how these inhibitory control mechanisms relate to broadly defined domains of impulsive behavior. Thirty adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 28 comparison adults performed behavioral measures of inhibitory control and completed impulsivity inventories. Results suggest that oculomotor inhibitory control, but not manual inhibitory control, is related to specific domains of self-reported impulsivity. This finding was limited to the ADHD group; no significant relations between inhibitory control and impulsivity were found in comparison adults. These results highlight the heterogeneity of inhibitory control processes and their differential relations to different facets of impulsivity.     

The premotor theory of attention and the Simon effect

In the paper by Hommel (2011-this issue), the roles of the theory of event coding (TEC) and the premotor theory of attention (PMTA) for the Simon effect were considered. PMTA was treated by Hommel in terms of the proposal that attentional orienting can be viewed as the preparation of a saccade towards a certain location, and was dismissed as providing no useful contribution for an attentional explanation of the Simon effect. Here we considered a more recent and broader conception of the PMTA, compared this approach with TEC, and confronted both approaches with a few studies focusing on the role of spatial attention for the Simon effect. It was argued that PMTA may account more easily for various studies examining the influence of spatial attention on the Simon effect. We concluded our paper by listing some elements that an overall encompassing theory on the Simon effect should contain.     

Orthographic neighborhood size effect in Chinese character naming: orthographic and phonological activations

The present study examined the effects of orthographic neighborhood (N) size on the cognitive processes underlying Chinese character reading. Previous research has shown increasing N size facilitates word naming and recognition performance in alphabetic languages. Experiment 1 revealed that a large N size was associated with a general inhibition of processes underlying character reading, in contrast to previous findings with alphabetic languages. This inhibitory effect was influenced by regularity and consistency. Experiment 2 sought to assess the effects of higher-frequency neighbors on character naming performance. The results revealed that higher-frequency neighbors with different pronunciation to the target interfered with the phonological retrieval of targets. We propose that this type of interference may have caused the N size effect observed in Experiment 1. The results of Experiment 3 revealed that a large N size facilitated target naming in the absence of higher-frequency neighbors. The current results shed light on the processes underlying character naming, and we propose possible cognitive mechanisms of the N size effect on Chinese character naming.     

Experience dependent changes in odour-viscosity perception

One consequence of experiencing flavour — the combination of taste, smell and somatosensation that occurs during ingestion — is that it can result in perceptual changes for the odour component, when this is later smelled alone. One such change is the acquisition of taste-like properties, but whether odours can also acquire somatosensory-like qualities is largely unknown. Participants here were exposed to one odour sampled in a viscous solution, another sampled in a sweet/viscous solution, and a further odour sampled in water. The odour sampled in the sweet/viscous solution was, when later sniffed alone, judged to smell thicker and sweeter, than the other two odours. Similarly, when the sweet/viscous paired odour was added to a viscous solution, the combination was judged as more viscous, than the other two odours — and sweeter when added to a sweet solution. This experiment suggests that odours can acquire tactile-like somatosensory qualities and this may best occur when a taste is present during learning. Recent work indicates that tastes may be superior to somatosensory stimuli alone in promoting flavour binding, a seeming precondition for this type of learning.     

Conflict and error adaptation in the Simon task

We present recent empirical and theoretical advances in conflict and error monitoring in the Simon task. On the basis of the adaptation by binding account for conflict adaptation and the orienting account for post-error slowing, we predict a dissociation between conflict and error monitoring. This prediction is tested and confirmed as conflict adaptation is task-specific while post-error slowing is not.