Extrafoveal Processing in Categorical Search for Geometric Shapes: General Tendencies and Individual Variations

The paper addresses the capabilities and limitations of extrafoveal processing during a categorical visual search. Previous research has established that a target could be identified from the very first or without any saccade, suggesting that extrafoveal perception is necessarily involved. However, the limits in complexity defining the processed information are still not clear. We performed four experiments with a gradual increase of stimuli complexity to determine the role of extrafoveal processing in searching for the categorically defined geometric shape. The series of experiments demonstrated a significant role of extrafoveal processing while searching for simple two-dimensional shapes and its gradual decrease in a condition with more complicated three-dimensional shapes. The factors of objects’ spatial orientation and distractor homogeneity significantly influenced both reaction time and the number of saccades required to identify a categorically defined target. An analysis of the individual p-value distributions revealed pronounced individual differences in using extrafoveal analysis and allowed examination of the performance of each particular participant. The condition with the forced prohibition of eye movements enabled us to investigate the efficacy of covert attention in the condition with complicated shapes. Our results indicate that both foveal and extrafoveal processing are simultaneously involved during a categorical search, and the specificity of their interaction is determined by the spatial orientation of objects, type of distractors, the prohibition to use overt attention, and individual characteristics of the participants.     

An object-based template for rejection effect

ABSTRACT

In the process of searching for targets, our visual system not only prioritizes target-relevant features, but can also suppress nontarget-related features. Although this template for rejection has been well demonstrated, whether the features (i.e. the objects) or locations are suppressed remains unresolved due to the experimental paradigms in previous studies: in particular, object-based templates for rejection were confounded with location-based inhibition in visual search paradigms. The present study examined an object-based template for rejection by introducing search arrays comprised of two overlapping shapes with search items distributed along the shape's contours. To discourage location-based inhibition, the two shapes were spatially intermingled (Experiment 1), rotated (Experiment 2), or jiggled (Experiment 3). Participants identified the colour of a target cross. The pre-cue indicated the shape in which the target would appear (positive cue condition), the shape in which only distractors would appear (negative cue condition), or the shape that was irrelevant to the current search array (neutral cue condition). In all three experiments, the reaction times for the negative cue condition were shorter than those for the neutral cue condition, which is a hallmark of the object-based template for rejection effect, even under conditions in which location-based inhibition was discouraged.     

Response-time evidence for mixed memory states in a sequential-presentation change-detection task

Response-time (RT) and choice-probability data were obtained in a rapid visual sequential-presentation change-detection task in which memory set size, study-test lag, and objective change probabilities were manipulated. False “change” judgments increased dramatically with increasing lag, consistent with the idea that study items with long lags were ejected from a discrete-slots buffer. Error RTs were nearly invariant with set size and lag, consistent with the idea that the errors were produced by a stimulus-independent guessing process. The patterns of error and RT data could not be explained in terms of encoding limitations, but were consistent with the hypothesis that long retention lags produced a zero-stimulus-information state that required guessing. Formal modeling of the change-detection RT and error data pointed toward a hybrid model of visual working memory. The hybrid model assumed mixed states involving a combination of memory and guessing, but with higher memory resolution for items with shorter retention lags. The work raises new questions concerning the nature of the memory representations that are produced across the closely related tasks of change detection and visual memory search.     

The pay premium for high-potential women: A constructive replication and refinement

In this constructive replication, we revisit a provocative study by Leslie, Manchester, and Dahm (2017). They found that gender and being designated a high-potential employee interacted in accounting for pay and that this resulted in a reversal in the commonly observed gender pay gap favoring men. Our primary aim was to examine important boundary conditions associated with their work by (a) conducting a study using a sample that would better generalize across industries and to individuals who aspire to reach senior management, (b) adding critical control variables to the statistical models used in the pay equation, and (c) by introducing a different conceptualization of the high-potential construct. Also, to better understand the consequences of their study, we considered an additional dependent variable that addressed pay satisfaction. Even after making these model additions, the gender by high-potential interaction term was significant—ruling out four plausible third-variable explanations for the Leslie et al. finding. Moreover, these confirming results were observed using a sample that represented individuals employed in a wide range of industries, who had the educational backgrounds, career histories, and motivational states typically required of candidates competing for senior executive roles. Furthermore, high-potential women did not report higher levels of pay satisfaction, suggesting that high-potential women did not perceive their pay premium to be an inequitable advantage and that there may be limited positive return associated with using a pay premium to retain high-potential talent.     

Introduction What aptitudes,values, and behaviors for an already present future?

Abstract

Evolution, in particular demographic growth, and progress in the world of science and technology, has led to deep‐seated transformations on economic, social and political levels. How are we to teach the young to build the 21st century in the most suitable way? What are the values, what are the aptitudes and behaviors which will enable them to flourish as actors on the stage of a changing, complex and uncertain world?     

Opening the cuebox: The information children and young adults generate and rely on when making inferences from memory

We used a cue‐generation and a cue‐selection paradigm to investigate the cues children (9‐ to 12‐year‐olds) and young adults (17‐year‐olds) generate and select for a range of inferences from memory. We found that children generated more cues than young adults, who, when asked why they did not generate some particular cues, responded that they did not consider them relevant for the task at hand. On average, the cues generated by children were more perceptual but as informative as the cues generated by young adults. When asked to select the most informative of two cues, both children and young adults tended to choose a hidden (i.e., not perceptual) cue. Our results suggest a developmental change in the cuebox (i.e., the set of cues used to make inferences from memory): New cues are added to the cuebox as more cues are learned, and some old, perceptual cues, although informative, are replaced with hidden cues, which, by both children and young adults, are generally assumed to be more informative than perceptual cues.     

工作记忆内容驱动完全无关刺激捕获注意

研究通过三个实验以检验工作记忆内容能否自动引导注意选择视场中与之匹配的任务完全无关刺激。实验一要求被试在工作记忆保持阶段完成一个视觉搜索任务，结果发现当搜索序列外的无关干扰刺激与工作记忆内容匹配时搜索绩效显著降低；实验二结果表明该干扰效应不能归因于自下而上的启动机制，因为对颜色刺激仅仅进行知觉辨认而没有工作记忆加工时并没有产生启动效应；实验三通过缩短搜索任务刺激的呈现时间以使得被试在完成搜索任务前没有足够时间眼跳至无关干扰刺激，结果发现了与实验一类似的干扰效应，说明在没有眼跳的情况下与工作记忆内容匹配的完全无关刺激可以捕获注意。这些结果表明保持在工作记忆中的信息表征可以自动引导注意选择视场中与之匹配的任务完全无关刺激，为基于工作记忆内容的注意捕获提供了新证据支持。     

Independent operation of implicit working memory under cognitive load

Implicit working memory (WM) has been known to operate non-consciously and unintentionally. The current study investigated whether implicit WM is a discrete mechanism from explicit WM in terms of cognitive resource. To induce cognitive resource competition, we used a conjunction search task (Experiment 1) and imposed spatial WM load (Experiment 2a and 2b). Each trial was composed of a set of five consecutive search displays. The location of the first four displays appeared as per pre-determined patterns, but the fifth display could follow the same pattern or not. If implicit WM can extract the moving pattern of stimuli, response times for the fifth target would be faster when it followed the pattern compared to when it did not. Our results showed implicit WM can operate when participants are searching for the conjunction target and even while maintaining spatial WM information. These results suggest that implicit WM is independent from explicit spatial WM.     

Compositional inductive biases in function learning

How do people recognize and learn about complex functional structure? Taking inspiration from other areas of cognitive science, we propose that this is achieved by harnessing compositionality: complex structure is decomposed into simpler building blocks. We formalize this idea within the framework of Bayesian regression using a grammar over Gaussian process kernels, and compare this approach with other structure learning approaches. Participants consistently chose compositional (over non-compositional) extrapolations and interpolations of functions. Experiments designed to elicit priors over functional patterns revealed an inductive bias for compositional structure. Compositional functions were perceived as subjectively more predictable than non-compositional functions, and exhibited other signatures of predictability, such as enhanced memorability and reduced numerosity. Taken together, these results support the view that the human intuitive theory of functions is inherently compositional.     

关于轮廓与视觉搜索顺序的实验研究

轮廓是图形识别的重要线索,在平行加工形成轮廓的基础上,进一步的特征搜索会与轮廓有关。本研究通过3个实验探讨轮廓对于搜索顺序的作用。实验一的目的在于确认轮廓因素在视觉搜索中的关键作用,实验结果进一步验证了视觉搜索中存在“可能目标”的心理表征。实验二结果显示,图形的重叠虽然可以产生新的特征,但是未必提高搜索速度。由此引入关于轮廓与视觉搜索顺序的关系问题,提出了在轮廓形成的基础上搜索区别性特征的顺序为轮廓外区→轮廓本身→轮廓内区的假设。实验三进一步检验这个假设。