The drawing effect: Evidence for reliable and robust memory benefits in free recall

In 7 free-recall experiments, the benefit of creating drawings of to-be-remembered information relative to writing was examined as a mnemonic strategy. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were presented with a list of words and were asked to either draw or write out each. Drawn words were better recalled than written. Experiments 3–5 showed that the memory boost provided by drawing could not be explained by elaborative encoding (deep level of processing, LoP), visual imagery, or picture superiority, respectively. In Experiment 6, we explored potential limitations of the drawing effect, by reducing encoding time and increasing list length. Drawing, relative to writing, still benefited memory despite these constraints. In Experiment 7, the drawing effect was significant even when encoding trial types were compared in pure lists between participants, inconsistent with a distinctiveness account. Together these experiments indicate that drawing enhances memory relative to writing, across settings, instructions, and alternate encoding strategies, both within- and between-participants, and that a deep LoP, visual imagery, or picture superiority, alone or collectively, are not sufficient to explain the observed effect. We propose that drawing improves memory by encouraging a seamless integration of semantic, visual, and motor aspects of a memory trace.     

认知操作背景下在线元认知调节能力的特征

利用认知任务为载体,对在线元认知调节特征进行研究,探讨了在线元认知调节的跨任务一致性和规则特异性。实验采用字母记忆与跟踪击键两种任务作为在线元认知调节的载体,通过逐步增加“提示线索”,观测个体在任务作业上的“成绩”（字母作业任务）或“成绩提高量”（跟踪击键任务）,以此作为评价在线元认知调节能力的指标。结果发现,随着认知任务中潜在规律线索数量的增加,被试能够通过在线元认知调节过程提高其认知作业水平;被试通过认知任务与追述报告分别反映的在线元认知调节水平具有一致性;在线元认知调节一方面具有跨任务情境的一致性,另一方面具有规则发现的差异性。因此,基于认知操作为背景的元认知评价方法能够较好地评估在线元认知调节能力     

Looking for answers: eye movements in non-visual cognitive tasks

It is not known why people move their eyes when engaged in non-visual cognition. The current study tested the hypothesis that differences in saccadic eye movement rate (EMR) during non-visual cognitive tasks reflect different requirements for searching long-term memory. Participants performed non-visual tasks requiring relatively low or high long-term memory retrieval while eye movements were recorded. In three experiments, EMR was substantially lower for low-retrieval than for high-retrieval tasks, including in an eyes closed condition in Experiment 3. Neither visual imagery nor between-task difficulty was related to EMR, although there was some evidence for a minor effect of within-task difficulty. Comparison of task-related EMRs to EMR during a no-task waiting period suggests that eye movements may be suppressed or activated depending on task requirements. We discuss a number of possible interpretations of saccadic eye movements during non-visual cognition and propose an evolutionary model that links these eye movements to memory search through an elaboration of circuitry involved in visual perception.     

认知负荷和控制性注意对工作记忆广度任务成绩的影响

通过stroop干扰实验严格筛选被试,考察了控制性注意能力不同的被试在加工部分认知负荷不同的工作记忆广度任务中的成绩。结果表明：任务复杂性和加工速度对工作记忆广度任务成绩有重要影响,任务越复杂或加工速度越快,被试的工作记忆广度任务成绩越低;在复杂的和加工速度快的工作记忆广度任务中,控制性注意能力高的被试成绩要好于控制性注意能力低的被试,但在简单的和加工速度慢的任务中两者成绩没有显著差异。     

Executive and motivational inhibition: Associations with self-report measures related to inhibition

Inhibition involves the withholding or suppressing of attention or responses to irrelevant or distracting stimuli. We examined the relationship between five experimental tasks of inhibition, represented by two measures of executive, intentional control inhibition and three measures of motivational inhibition characterized by bottom-up interruption of affective and reward/punishment sensitive mechanisms. Associations between these experimental tasks with three self-report measures related to inhibition were also examined. Correlational analyses indicated a small but significant association between the measures in the executive domain (stop task and Stroop task), but a lack of associations between the measures in the motivational domain (emotional Stroop task, a card playing task involving rewards and punishments, and a gambling task). Both measures of executive and motivational inhibition entered as significant predictors on the self-report measures related to inhibition in simultaneous regression analyses, but not consistently in the expected direction. The results suggest that inhibition is not a unitary construct, and demonstrate an association between experimental measures of inhibition and self-report measures related to inhibition.     

Characterising mobile phone calls while driving on limited-access roads based on SHRP 2 naturalistic driving data

Research has found that mobile phone call engagement while driving negatively affects driving performance. However, no studies exist characterising hand-held mobile phone calls while driving under naturalistic conditions that include aspects such as the duration of mobile phone subtasks and glance behaviour. Identifying the particularly distracting phases of hand-held telephoning and the nature of influencing factors are the basis for developing design recommendations (e.g. for an in-vehicle information system). Potential influencing factors on driving performance such as call type, mobile phone storage location, or any self-regulatory behaviour need to be taken into account. The present study aimed to draw a comprehensive picture of making hand-held mobile phone calls while driving on limited-access roads using SHRP 2 naturalistic driving data. Mobile phone phase duration, glance behaviour, call type, and mobile phone storage location were coded manually across 98 events. The results show that the handling phase of a mobile phone call (e.g. searching for contacts, dialling) was the most dangerous due to longer mean off- than on-road glances. Outgoing calls caused longer mean off-road glances than incoming; nevertheless, the 2 s critical threshold was not exceeded. A significant influence of mobile phone storage location on glance behaviour did not exist. Moreover, at least in free-flow driving conditions, drivers had enough spare capacity to conduct a mobile phone call without reducing vehicle speed. The results suggest that in low complexity traffic situations drivers can compensate for the increased driving task demand due to telephoning by making minor changes in glance behaviour.     

Role of the secondary visual cortex in HMAX model for object recognition

The models inspired by visual systems of life creatures (e.g., human, mammals, etc.) have been very successful in addressing object recognition tasks. For example, Hierarchical Model And X (HMAX) effectively recognizes different objects by modeling the V1, V4, and IT regions of the human visual system. Although HMAX is one of the superior models in the field of object recognition, its implementation has been limited due to some disadvantages such as the unrepeatability of the process under constant conditions, extreme redundancy, high computational load, and time-consuming. In this paper, we aim at revising the HMAX approach by adding the model of the secondary region (V2) in the human visual system which leads to removing the mentioned drawbacks of standard HMAX. The added layer selects repeatable and more informative features that increase the accuracy of the proposed method by avoiding the redundancy existing in the conventional approaches. Furthermore, this feature selection strategy considerably reduces the huge computational load. Another contribution of our model is highlighted when a small number of training images is available where our model can efficiently cope with this issue. We evaluate our proposed approach using Caltech5 and GRAZ-02 database as two famous benchmarks for object recognition tasks. Additionally, the results are compared with standard HMAX that validate and highlight the efficiency of the proposed method.     

The Impact of Stimuli Color in Lexical Decision and Semantic Word Categorization Tasks

In two experiments, we examined the impact of color on cognitive performance by asking participants to categorize stimuli presented in three different colors: red, green, and gray (baseline). Participants were either asked to categorize the meaning of words as related to the concepts of “go” or “stop” (Experiment 1) or to indicate if a neutral verbal stimulus was a word or not (lexical decision task, Experiment 2). Overall, we observed performance facilitation in response to go stimuli presented in green (vs. red or gray) and performance inhibition in response to go stimuli presented in red. The opposite pattern was observed for stop‐related stimuli. Importantly, results also indicated that color might also be used to categorize neutral stimuli. Overall, these findings provide support to the green‐go and red‐stop color associations and test the potential functional autonomy acquired by these colors and the boundary conditions to their effects on stimuli categorization.     

Approximately counting and sampling knowledge states

Approximately counting and sampling knowledge states from a knowledge space is a problem that is of interest for both applied and theoretical reasons. However, many knowledge spaces used in practice are far too large for standard statistical counting and estimation techniques to be useful. Thus, in this work we use an alternative technique for counting and sampling knowledge states from a knowledge space. This technique is based on a procedure variously known as subset simulation, the Holmes–Diaconis–Ross method, or multilevel splitting. We make extensive use of Markov chain Monte Carlo methods and, in particular, Gibbs sampling, and we analyse and test the accuracy of our results in numerical experiments.     

The effects of interference on recognition of haptic pictures in blindfolded sighted participants: the modality of representation of haptic information

Haptic picture recognition was tested in 36 undergraduate students to determine whether haptic representations are visual or multi-modal. Participants explored target haptic pictures and were asked to recognize the target from three alternatives. Each participant completed eight control and eight interference trials in visual, lexical and tactile recognition modalities. For interference, participants were assigned to either an articulatory suppression (repeat "the" at a constant rate) or a visual interference (watch a visual display) condition, to prevent recoding into a verbal or visual code. The results showed that accuracy was higher at control compared to interference trials and for tactile compared to lexical recognition. Additionally, lexical and tactile recognition decreased with articulatory suppression whereas only tactile recognition decreased with visual interference. These findings suggest that haptic pictures may be represented by coordinating visual and verbal codes.