Affect intensity and processing fluency of deterrents

The theory of emotional intensity (Brehm, 1999) suggests that the intensity of affective states depends on the magnitude of their current deterrents. Our study investigated the role that fluency—the subjective experience of ease of information processing—plays in the emotional intensity modulations as reactions to deterrents. Following an induction phase of good mood, we manipulated both the magnitude of deterrents (using sets of photographs with pre-tested potential to instigate an emotion incompatible with the pre-existent affective state—pity) and their processing fluency (normal vs. enhanced through subliminal priming). Current affective state and perception of deterrents were then measured. In the normal processing conditions, the results revealed the cubic effect predicted by the emotional intensity theory, with the initial affective state being replaced by the one appropriate to the deterrent only in participants exposed to the high magnitude deterrence. In the enhanced fluency conditions the emotional intensity pattern was drastically altered; also, the replacement of the initial affective state occurred at a lower level of deterrence magnitude (moderate instead of high), suggesting the strengthening of deterrence emotional impact by enhanced fluency.     

Application of Cognitive Load Theory to Develop a Measure of Team Cognitive Efficiency

Improving human systems integration through technologically advanced training and performance aids has become increasingly important to military transformation. Measures of improved cognitive and coordination processes arising from the employment of transformational tools are necessary to guide the refinement and future development of such technologies. In this article, we describe a cognitive load theory approach to developing a combinatory measure of individual workload and team performance following an experimental intervention involving training and a decision support system. We discuss how indicators of what we term team cognitive efficiency can improve assessing the effectiveness of transformational processes and technologies.     

线索在多媒体学习中的作用

线索在多媒体学习中作为一种重要的教学设计形式,具有引导注意、组织和整合信息的功能。综述已有研究发现,线索具有引导学习者加工特定位置信息、忽视无关信息干扰的功能;在特定条件下帮助学习者整合图-文信息,并且提高学习者的学习效果;但对于线索信息组织功能尚缺少充分而有力的证据。关于线索对学习效果的影响,大部分研究证实线索能够促进学习。但是由于线索的多样性以及学习材料的复杂性,线索能否有效地提高学习效果仍然存在争议。从认知负荷理论视角综述发现,线索加入并没有明显降低学习者感知到的主观认知负荷;从知觉加工视角而言,线索作为突显的刺激会吸引学习者的注意,从而简化学习者在知觉加工阶段的视觉搜索。未来研究仍然需要关注以下问题:(1)线索是否真的被学习者所注意和加工?(2)重视学习材料多样性比较和不同线索类型差异探讨,(3)关注学习者经验影响,(4)如何在教学设计上保证线索的有效性。     

The grim reasoner: Analytical reasoning under mortality salience

The human species enjoys uniquely developed capacities for analytical reasoning and rational decision making, but these capacities come with a price: They make us aware of our inevitable physical death. Drawing on terror management theory and dual-process theories of cognition, we investigate the impact of mortality awareness on analytical reasoning. Two experiments show that experimentally induced thoughts of death impair analytical reasoning performance, just as cognitive load would. When made aware of their own mortality, reasoners allocate their executive resources to the suppression of this disturbing thought, therefore impairing their performance on syllogisms that require analytic thought. This finding has consequences for all aspects of rational thinking that draw on executive resources, and calls for an integrated approach to existential psychology and the psychology of rational thought.     

Modeling recall memory for emotional objects in Alzheimer's disease

ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine whether emotional memory (EM) of objects with self-reference in Alzheimer's disease (AD) can be modeled with binomial logistic regression in a free recall and an object recognition test to predict EM enhancement.?Method: Twenty patients with AD and twenty healthy controls were studied. Six objects (three presented as gifts) were shown to each participant. Ten minutes later, a free recall and a recognition test were applied. The recognition test had target–objects mixed with six similar distracter objects. Participants were asked to name any object in the recall test and identify each object in the recognition test as known or unknown.?Results: The total of gift objects recalled in AD patients (41.6%) was larger than neutral objects (13.3%) and a significant EM recall effect for gifts was found (Wilcoxon: p < .003). EM was not found for recognition in AD patients due to a ceiling effect. Healthy older adults scored overall higher in recall and recognition but showed no EM enhancement due to a ceiling effect. A logistic regression showed that likelihood of emotional recall memory can be modeled as a function of MMSE score (p < .014) and object status (p < .0001) as gift or non-gift.?Conclusion: Recall memory was enhanced in AD patients for emotional objects indicating that EM in mild to moderate AD although impaired can be provoked with strong emotional load. The logistic regression model suggests that EM declines with the progression of AD rather than disrupts and may be a useful tool for evaluating magnitude of emotional load.     

Processing fluency as a predictor of salience asymmetries in the Implicit Association Test

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is the most popular indirect measure of attitudes in social psychology. Rothermund and Wentura (2001, 2004) suggested that artifacts such as salience asymmetries are a source of compatibility effects in the IAT, and, therefore, the IAT does not necessarily measure attitude. They claim that salience asymmetries correspond with visual search asymmetries, such that the stimulus categories that are more quickly detected in a visual search task are also compatible in the IAT. We propose that processing fluency is a more reliable indicator of salience asymmetries in the IAT than are visual search asymmetries. To test this hypothesis, we set processing fluency in opposition to visual search asymmetry to see which variable better predicted IAT effects. In one pair of categories, the category that was more quickly detected in visual search was also more fluently processed in a binary classification task. In a second pair of categories, the category that was more quickly detected in visual search was the less fluently processed category. Across four experiments, we demonstrated that compatibility effects in the IAT corresponded with differences in processing fluency between categories, rather than with visual search asymmetries.     

Enhanced processing fluency leads to biases in source memory

The present experiments were conducted to determine whether processing fluency affects source memory decisions. In the first three experiments, participants decided whether test items appeared in the same sensory modality (Experiments 1A, 1B) or perceptual form (font type, Experiment 2) at study and test. The results were consistent across the three studies and showed that perceptual priming leads to an increase in reports that stimuli were presented in the same sensory or perceptual form during the study and test phase. Experiment 3 showed that conceptual fluency affects source attributions in much the same way as perceptual fluency, and Experiment 4 showed that fluency is associated with a subjective experience of familiarity even when it might serve as a basis for source inference. These results are consistent with recent neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence that familiarity-based processes contribute to source memory decisions under some circumstances, such as when items and contexts are unitized rather than merely bound together at encoding.     

Load theory of selective attention and the role of perceptual load: Is it time for revision?

Perceptual load hypothesis is proposed as a compromise between early and late theory of selective attention which states that the selection will operate early when the load on perception is high and it will operate late when the load on perception is low. Experimental findings have shown that the perceptual load hypothesis is too simplistic in nature as perceptual load is not the only determinant of selection processes. It is difficult to apply the load hypothesis to explain the occurrence of early selection in low load displays as well as the selection processes that operate on distractor and target stimuli that are a part of the same object. Factors like spatial proximity, cues that manipulate the spatial extent of attentional focus, salience of targets as well as the distractors, and perceptual grouping between the target and the distractors should be taken into account while explaining the selective control of attention. Thus, the perceptual load of the display is one such factor that affects selective attention and goal-directed behaviour, but it is not the only factor to affect the selective control of attention.     

Preferring alphabet–keyboard compatibility: Congruency between spatial codes shapes the affective connotation of letters

When letters are encountered, two spatial stimulus codes resulting from their positions within the alphabet and on the computer keyboard are activated mentally. If these two spatial codes match, letter processing is more efficient. The present study tested whether the processing fluency gain resulting from alphabet–keyboard compatibility also enhances affective evaluations of letters. In Experiment 1, participants preferred alphabet–keyboard compatible over incompatible letters in a forced-choice preference rating. Similarly, in Experiment 2, liking ratings for alphabet–keyboard compatible letters were higher compared to incompatible letters. Moreover, in Experiment 3, preference ratings of non-words were positively correlated with the relative number of alphabet–keyboard compatible letters within these letter strings. These findings suggest that alphabet–keyboard compatibility shapes the affective connotation of letters. Moreover, this processing fluency–valence association is activated at the level of letters as well as whole letter strings.     

提取练习在记忆保持与迁移中的优势效应：基于认知负荷理论的解释

提取练习比建构概念图更有利于记忆保持和迁移的研究结果尚存在争议。依据认知负荷的3个成分,设计两个实验探究前期知识水平与策略复杂性对以上两种学习策略有效性的影响。结果表明：(1)前期知识水平的主效应不显著,但是与学习策略之间存在交互作用：在提取练习策略条件下,高前期知识水平的被试与低前期知识水平的被试在记忆保持和迁移上的正确率没有显著差异,但是在建构概念图策略条件下,高前期知识水平的被试在记忆保持和迁移上的正确率显著地高于低前期知识水平的被试;(2)当降低概念图的难度后,被试使用建构部分概念图策略产生的认知负荷与使用提取练习策略相比显著降低,并且其在学习阶段学习到的知识量显著地高于使用提取练习策略的结果,但是在最终测试上,其记忆保持与迁移的正确率与使用提取练习策略并没有显著差异,策略的复杂性增加了学习者的额外负荷,但是对策略有效性的发挥却不具有决定性影响。以上结果说明提取练习策略之所以比建构概念图策略更具优势,不是因为其策略本身更易掌握,而是因为其与建构概念图策略相比不受学习者前期知识水平的影响。这意味着认知负荷理论可以很好地解释提取练习在记忆保持与迁移中产生优势效应的内部机制,并进一步证实提取练习与精细编码不同,具有独特的加工机制。