语音回路与阅读理解关系的眼动研究

语音回路是工作记忆中的一个重要成分。由于工作记忆在言语理解中有重要作用,所以负责加工语音信息的语音回路可能也和阅读理解有密切关系。但是,迄今为止直接研究语音回路影响阅读理解的研究不是很多,而且得出的结论也不太一致。研究使用眼动分析方法探讨语音回路与汉语阅读理解的关系。研究采用抑制发音和错误干扰相结合的范式考查正常条件下和抑制发音条件下的阅读特点的差别性。结果表明：（1）在一般阅读难度情况下,语音回路会延缓阅读速度;（2）两种阅读条件下都出现了同音效应,即同音字的首次注视时间、总注视时间都比非同音字短;（3）语音在汉语阅读的早期就发挥了作用,而且同音字错误比非同音字错误更容易被恢复     

Sex Differences in Perception: Exploring the Integration of Sensory Information with Respect to Vision and Proprioception

Inter- and intra-modal matching by right hand preferred Norwegian adults were tested using a matching task. The task required them to locate target pins visually, proprioceptively or in combination, while matching was always carried out without vision. When combined scores for both hands were analysed, the females showed superior performance in the intra-modal matching condition. For both groups, when the scores for the two hands were treated separately, superior performance was obtained in using the right hand to match under the visual condition. The only significant sex difference relative to hand preference was that the females matched the target more accurately with the right hand in the intra-modal matching condition. These findings are discussed relative to inter-hemispheric processing     

The role of perceptual load in inattentional blindness

Perceptual load theory offers a resolution to the long-standing early vs. late selection debate over whether task-irrelevant stimuli are perceived, suggesting that irrelevant perception depends upon the perceptual load of task-relevant processing. However, previous evidence for this theory has relied on RTs and neuroimaging. Here we tested the effects of load on conscious perception using the "inattentional blindness" paradigm. As predicted by load theory, awareness of a task-irrelevant stimulus was significantly reduced by higher perceptual load (with increased numbers of search items, or a harder discrimination vs. detection task). These results demonstrate that conscious perception of task-irrelevant stimuli critically depends upon the level of task-relevant perceptual load rather than intentions or expectations, thus enhancing the resolution to the early vs. late selection debate offered by the perceptual load theory.     

Role of thought-related beliefs and coping strategies in the escalation of intrusive thoughts: an analog to obsessive-compulsive disorder

Cognitive-behavioral models of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) assume that obsessions have their origin in normal intrusive thoughts. These models propose that certain beliefs, such as thought-action fusion (TAF) beliefs, combined with the use of ineffective coping strategies, such as thought suppression, lead to the development of OCD. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between these variables in a non-clinical sample in addition to exploring the effects of an alternative, acceptance-based coping strategy. This study explored the relationship between TAF beliefs, thought suppression, and OC-consistent symptoms via mediational analyses. Results showed that thought suppression mediated the relationship between TAF beliefs and OC-consistent symptoms. This study also experimentally examined the effects of various coping strategies (suppression, acceptance, or monitor-only) on the frequency of a distressing intrusion and appraisal ratings (e.g., anxiety, guilt, responsibility) after a TAF induction. Spontaneous suppression in the monitor-only group made comparisons of the experimental data difficult. However, analyses provided preliminary evidence suggesting that thought suppression is related to more intrusions, higher levels of anxiety, and negative appraisals, whereas an acceptance-based approach may be a useful alternative. Additional findings, limitations of the current study, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Power and the suppression of unwanted thoughts: Does control over others decrease control over the self?

Suppressing unwanted thoughts increases the accessibility of these thoughts after suppression is released. Two studies test the hypothesis that the magnitude of post-suppressional rebound is moderated by power. Study 1 measured participants’ thoughts about a white bear under suppression and expression instructions, following Wegner, Schneider, Carter, and White (1987). Study 2 measured stereotype accessibility after a task that required participants to describe one day in the life of an African-American under suppression or no-suppression instructions. Consistently across the two studies, powerful participants showed stronger post-suppressional rebound relative to powerless participants. The consequences of these findings for decision making and stereotyping are discussed.     

Differentiating the effects of self-control and self-esteem on reactions to mortality salience

Whereas many previous studies suggest that self-esteem may buffer against the psychological threat of death, recent research has begun to suggest that self-control also may serve as a buffer. Two studies examined the possibility that dispositional self-control uniquely predicts responses to mortality salience, above and beyond self-esteem. In Study 1, an initial exercise in emotion regulation increased subsequent accessibility of death thoughts. In Study 2, mortality salience increased worldview defense. Both of these effects were moderated by dispositional self-control, such that the effects occurred among participants with low but not high self-control. More importantly, these moderating effects were observed over and above the moderating effects of self-esteem. Findings suggest that self-control may serve as an important and unique buffer against thoughts of death.     

The development and robustness of young children’s understanding of aspectuality

We investigated whether 6-year-olds’ understanding of perceptual aspectuality was sufficiently robust to deal with the presence of irrelevant information. A total of 32 children chose whether to look or feel to locate a specific object (identifiable by sight or touch) from four objects that were hidden. In half of the trials, the objects were different on only one modality (e.g., four objects that felt different but were the same color). In the remainder of the trials, the objects also differed (partially) on one irrelevant modality (e.g., four objects that felt different, two red and two blue, where the goal was to locate the soft object). Performance was worse on the latter trials. We discuss children’s difficulty in dealing with irrelevant information.     

The egocentric reference for visual exploration and orientation

Clinical signs of damage to the egocentric reference system range from the inability to detect stimuli in the real environment to a defect in recovering items from an internal representation. Despite clinical dissociations, current interpretations consider all symptoms as due to a single perturbation, differentially expressed according to the medium explored (perceptual or representational). We propose an alternative account based on the functional distinction between two separate egocentric mechanisms: one allowing construction of the immediate point of view, the other extracting a required perspective within a mental representation. Support to this claim comes from recent results in the domain of navigation, showing that separate cognitive mechanisms maintain the egocentric reference when actively exploring the visual space as opposed to moving according to an internal map. These mechanisms likely follow separate developmental pathways, seemingly depend on distinct neural pathways and are used independently by healthy adults, reflecting task demands and individual cognitive style. Implications for spatial cognition and social skills are discussed.     

Verbal predicates foster conscious recollection but not familiarity of a task-irrelevant perceptual feature – An ERP study

Research on the effects of perceptual manipulations on recognition memory has suggested that (a) recollection is selectively influenced by task-relevant information and (b) familiarity can be considered perceptually specific. The present experiment tested divergent assumptions that (a) perceptual features can influence conscious object recollection via verbal code despite being task-irrelevant and that (b) perceptual features do not influence object familiarity if study is verbal-conceptual. At study, subjects named objects and their presentation colour; this was followed by an old/new object recognition test. Event-related potentials (ERP) showed that a study-test manipulation of colour impacted selectively on the ERP effect associated with recollection, while a size manipulation showed no effect. It is concluded that (a) verbal predicates generated at study are potent episodic memory agents that modulate recollection even if the recovered feature information is task-irrelevant and (b) commonly found perceptual match effects on familiarity critically depend on perceptual processing at study.     

Beyond perception: Testing for implicit conceptual traces in high-load tasks

The present commentary addresses the main results obtained in the Butler and Klein [Butler, B. C., & Klein, R. (2009). Inattentional blindness for ignored words: Comparison of explicit and implicit memory tasks. Consciousness and Cognition, 18, 811–819.] study and discusses them in relation to the Perceptual Load Theory of Lavie [Lavie, N. (1995). Perceptual load as a necessary condition for selective attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 21, 451–68.]. The authors claim that the use of implicit indexes of conceptual distractor processing in high-load situations would be an important addition to the load literature, which would benefit the research field regardless of their positive or negative findings.