Cross-modal interactions in the perception of musical performance

We investigate the dynamics of sensory integration for perceiving musical performance, a complex natural behavior. Thirty musically trained participants saw, heard, or both saw and heard, performances by two clarinetists. All participants used a sliding potentiometer to make continuous judgments of tension (a measure correlated with emotional response) and continuous judgments of phrasing (a measure correlated with perceived musical structure) as performances were presented. The data analysis sought to reveal relations between the sensory modalities (vision and audition) and to quantify the effect of seeing the performances on participants' overall subjective experience of the music. In addition to traditional statistics, functional data analysis techniques were employed to analyze time-varying aspects of the data. The auditory and visual channels were found to convey similar experiences of phrasing but different experiences of tension through much of the performances. We found that visual information served both to augment and to reduce the experience of tension at different points in the musical piece (as revealed by functional linear modeling and functional significance testing). In addition, the musicians' movements served to extend the sense of phrasing, to cue the beginning of new phrases, to indicate musical interpretation, and to anticipate changes in emotional content. Evidence for an interaction effect suggests that there may exist an emergent quality when musical performances are both seen and heard. The investigation augments knowledge of human communicative processes spanning language and music, and involving multiple modalities of emotion and information transfer.     

Two spatial memories are not better than one: evidence of exclusivity in memory for object location

This paper studies the dynamics of attempting to access two spatial memories simultaneously and its implications for the accuracy of recall. Experiment 1 demonstrates in a range of conditions that two cues pointing to different experiences of the same object location produce little or no higher recall than that observed with a single cue. Experiment 2 confirms this finding in a within-subject design where both cues have previously elicited recall. Experiment 3 shows that these findings are only consistent with a model in which two representations of the same object location are mutually exclusive at both encoding and retrieval, and inconsistent with models that assume information from both representations is available. We propose that these representations quantify directionally specific judgments of location relative to specific anchor points in the stimulus; a format that precludes the parallel processing of like representations. Finally, we consider the apparent paradox of how such representations might contribute to the acquisition of spatial knowledge from multiple experiences of the same stimuli.     

Selflessness &; Cognition

What are the cognitive mechanisms that underlie selfless conduct, both ‘thinking’ and unthinking? We first consider deliberate selflessness, a manner of selecting acts in which, in evaluating options, one expressly chooses not to weigh the potential consequences for oneself (though this formulation is seen as needing some qualification). We then turn to unthinking behavior in general, and whether we are responsible for it, as the foundation for analyzing the unthinking variety of selflessness. Using illustrative cases (Grenade Gallantry, The Well-Meaning Miner, Ignorant Ilya, Self-Disregarding Sally) we explore just what is involved in setting aside one's self-interests unthinkingly. Eventually, this account links up with work on mental compartmentalization, as it becomes apparent that unthinking selflessness encompasses both unthinking behavior (calling upon inexplicit cognitive utilization of stored images) that is selfless, and thinking behavior (calling upon reasoning with sentences) that is unthinkingly selfless (by virtue of an unreasoned, automatic shift of cognitive standpoint to a ‘compartment’ that omits information about one's self-interests). The analysis points toward a practical program for generating increased selflessness in ourselves and others.     

Detour behaviour in three species of birds: quails (Coturnix sp.), herring gulls (Larus cachinnans) and canaries (Serinus canaria)

Detour behaviour is the ability of an animal to reach a goal stimulus by moving round any interposed obstacle. It has been widely studied and has been proposed as a test of insight learning in several species of mammals, but few data are available in birds. A comparative study in three species of birds, belonging to different eco-ethological niches, allows a better understanding of the cognitive mechanism of such detour behaviour. Young quails (Coturnix sp.), herring gulls (Larus cachinnans) and canaries (Serinus canaria), 1 month old, 10–25 days old and 4–6 months old, respectively, were tested in a detour situation requiring them to abandon a clear view of a biologically interesting object (their own reflection in a mirror) in order to approach that object. Birds were placed in a closed corridor, at one end of which was a barrier through which the object was visible. Four different types of barrier were used: vertical bar, horizontal bar, grid and transparent. Two symmetrical apertures placed midline in the corridor allowed the birds to adopt routes passing around the barrier. After entering the apertures, birds could turn either right or left to re-establish social contact with the object in the absence of any local sensory cues emanating from it. Quails appeared able to solve the task, though their performance depended on the type of barrier used, which appeared to modulate their relative interest in approaching the object or in exploring the surroundings. Young herring gulls also showed excellent abilities to locate spatially the out-of-view object, except when the transparent barrier was used. Canaries, on the other hand, appeared completely unable to solve the detour task, whatever barrier was in use. It is suggested that these species differences can be accounted for in terms of adaptation to a terrestrial or aerial environment.     

Precis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Philosophy and Neuroscience</Emphasis>: <Emphasis Type="Italic">A Ruthlessly Reductive Account</Emphasis>

This book precis describes the motives behind my recent attempt to bring to bear “ruthlessly reductive” results from cellular and molecular neuroscience onto issues in the philosophy of mind. Since readers of this journal will probably be most interested in results addressing features of conscious experience, I highlight these most prominently. My main challenge is that philosophers (even scientifically-inspired ones) are missing the nature and scope of reductionism in contemporary neuroscience by focusing exclusively on higher-level cognitive neuroscience, and ignoring the discipline's cell-physiological and molecular-biological core.     

Patterns and predictors of change in energy and mood around a vacation from the workplace: Distinguishing the effects of supplemental work activity and work-related perseverative cognition

This study contributes to the vacation literature by exploring predictors of change in school teachers' negative affective states around a 2-week (Christmas) vacation. Drawing from a combination of self-regulatory and effort-recovery theoretical principles, we hypothesized that supplemental work activity during the vacation might have some positive consequences for mood state, while simultaneously impairing the ability to recover from work-related exhaustion. Ninety teachers completed measures across eight consecutive weeks, spanning the period before, during and after vacation (710 observations in total). Teachers' weekly levels of emotional exhaustion, anxious mood and depressed mood decreased significantly from before to during the vacation. Following the vacation, anxious mood showed the most rapid rate of increase, returning to its prevacation level within 2 weeks of work resumption. Exhaustion and depressed mood re-emerged more gradually across 4 consecutive weeks following the vacation. Supplemental work activity during the vacation was associated with weaker recovery from exhaustion, but did not exhibit a detrimental relationship with change in anxious or depressed mood. Of note, supplemental working during the vacation was associated with a less pronounced re-emergence of anxious mood after the vacation. Work-related perseverative cognition (worry and rumination) during the vacation impeded energy restoration and mood repair and was related to faster fade out of beneficial vacation effects. These findings demonstrate the utility of examining discrete energy and mood states in respite research, reveal the mixed functions of engaging in supplemental work activity during vacations and highlight the harmful impact of perseverative cognition on the recovery from work process.     

The effects of physical activity timing and complexity on episodic memory: A randomized controlled trial

The role of two types of acute physical activity (PA) bouts were assessed on young adults’ free-recall and recognition memory in two experiments, which differed in the temporal relation of PA and word encoding. Before or following training on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Task, participants performed a simple two-step dance, a complex four-step dance, or remained seated. Hypotheses proposed that PA prior to encoding and complex PA would enhance PA’s mnemonic benefits. Memory assessed post-PA, 24 h, and 7 days after training indicated that timing and complexity of PA did not impact free-recall or recognition memory. Findings differ from a previous study showing complex PA benefited motor learning more than simple PA (Tomporowski & Pendleton, 2018). The inconsistency may be due to different working memory processes underlying consolidation and retrieval of procedural or episodic information. Theory-based explanations regarding memory storage and retrieval are proposed to elucidate this selective process.     

‘The system is unfair’: Uncontrollable attributions for inequality predict more equitable giving in adolescents

Socioeconomic position is often determined by uncontrollable, structural factors, yet people from the United States tend to attribute wealth and poverty to individual control. However, information about behavioural correlates of such beliefs across development is relatively lacking. Thus, we examined adolescents' reasoning about the causes of inequality in a sample of 599 adolescents from a socioeconomically, ethnically, and racially diverse middle school (grades 6–8). Additionally, early adolescents were presented with two novel groups with an unexplained wealth disparity and given a task in which they could perpetuate or rectify inequality. We found that while adolescents tended to give equitably and rectify the inequality, this outcome was predicted by the type of explanation they gave for societal inequality. Furthermore, participants' socioeconomic status and sexual identity predicted their inequality explanations. These results add to our knowledge of adolescent reasoning about inequality by demonstrating a potential link between attributions for inequality and giving behaviour.     

The social-encoding benefit in face recognition is generalized to other-race faces

Faces are visual stimuli that convey rich social information. Previous experiments found better recognition for faces that were evaluated based on their social traits than on their perceptual features during encoding. Here, we ask whether this social-encoding benefit in face recognition is also found for categories of faces that we have no previous social experience with, such as other-race faces. To answer this question, we first explored whether social and perceptual evaluations for other-race faces are consistent and valid. We then asked whether social evaluations during encoding improve recognition for other-race faces. Results show that social and perceptual evaluations of own- and other-race faces were valid. We also found high agreement in social and perceptual evaluations across individuals from different races. This indicates that evaluations of other-race faces are not random but meaningful. Furthermore, we found that social evaluations facilitated face recognition regardless of race, demonstrating a social-encoding benefit for both own- and other-race faces. Our findings highlight the role of social information in face recognition and show how it can be used to improve recognition of categories of faces that are hard to recognize due to lack of experience with them.