The joint flanker effect and the joint Simon effect: On the comparability of processes underlying joint compatibility effects

Previous studies observed compatibility effects in different interference paradigms such as the Simon and flanker task even when the task was distributed across two co-actors. In both Simon and flanker tasks, performance is improved in compatible trials relative to incompatible trials if one actor works on the task alone as well as if two co-actors share the task. These findings have been taken to indicate that actors automatically co-represent their co-actor’s task. However, recent research on the joint Simon and joint flanker effect suggests alternative non-social interpretations. To which degree both joint effects are driven by the same underlying processes is the question of the present study, and it was scrutinized by manipulating the visibility of the co-actor. While the joint Simon effect was not affected by the visibility of the co-actor, the joint flanker effect was reduced when participants did not see their co-actors but knew where the co-actors were seated. These findings provide further evidence for a spatial interpretation of the joint Simon effect. In contrast to recent claims, however, we propose a new explanation of the joint flanker effect that attributes the effect to an impairment in the focusing of spatial attention contingent on the visibility of the co-actor.     

Introducing a new age-and-cognition-sensitive measurement for assessing spatial orientation using a landmark-less virtual reality navigational task

Age-related impairments during spatial navigation have been widely reported in egocentric and allocentric paradigms. However, the effect of age on more specific navigational components such as the ability to drive or update directional information has not received enough attention. In this study we investigated the effect of age on spatial updating of a visual target after a series of whole–body rotations and transitions using a novel landmark-less virtual reality (VR) environment. Moreover, a significant number of previous studies focused on measures susceptible to a general decline in motor skills such as the spent time navigating, the distance traversed. The current paper proposes a new compound spatial measure to assess navigational performance, examines its reliability and compares its power with those of the measures of duration and traversed distance in predicting participants' age and cognitive groups assessed by Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores. Using data from 319 adults (20–83 years), our results confirm the reliability, the age sensitivity, and the cognitive validity of the designed spatial measure as well as its superiority to the measures of duration and traversed distance in predicting age and MoCA score. In addition, the results show the significant effect of age cognitive status on spatial updating.     

Motor expertise and performance in spatial tasks: A meta-analysis

The present study aimed to provide a summary of findings relevant to the influence of motor expertise on performance in spatial tasks and to examine potential moderators of this effect. Studies of relevance were those in which individuals involved in activities presumed to require motor expertise were compared to non-experts in such activities. A final set of 62 effect sizes from 33 samples was included in a multilevel meta-analysis. The results showed an overall advantage in favor of motor experts in spatial tasks (d = 0.38). However, the magnitude of that effect was moderated by expert type (athlete, open skills/ball sports, runner/cyclist, gymnast/dancers, musicians), stimulus type (2D, blocks, bodies, others), test category (mental rotation, spatial perception, spatial visualization), specific test (Mental Rotations Test, generic mental rotation, disembedding, rod-and-frame test, other), and publication status. These findings are discussed in the context of embodied cognition and the potential role of activities requiring motor expertise in promoting good spatial performance.     

Brain regions involved in subprocesses of small-space episodic object-location memory: a systematic review of lesion and functional neuroimaging studies

Object-location memory (OLM) enables us to keep track of the locations of objects in our environment. The neurocognitive model of OLM (Postma, A., Kessels, R. P. C., & Van Asselen, M. (2004). The neuropsychology of object-location memory. In G. L. Allen (Ed.), Human spatial memory: Remembering where (pp. 143–160). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, Postma, A., Kessels, R. P. C., & Van Asselen, M. (2008). How the brain remembers and forgets where things are: The neurocognition of object-location memory. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 32, 1339–1345. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.05.001) proposes that distinct brain regions are specialised for different subprocesses of OLM (object processing, location processing, and object-location binding; categorical and coordinate OLM; egocentric and allocentric OLM). It was based mainly on findings from lesion studies. However, recent episodic memory studies point to a contribution of additional or different brain regions to object and location processing within episodic OLM. To evaluate and update the neurocognitive model of OLM, we therefore conducted a systematic literature search for lesion as well as functional neuroimaging studies contrasting small-space episodic OLM with object memory or location memory. We identified 10 relevant lesion studies and 8 relevant functional neuroimaging studies. We could confirm some of the proposals of the neurocognitive model of OLM, but also differing hypotheses from episodic memory research, about which brain regions are involved in the different subprocesses of small-space episodic OLM. In addition, we were able to identify new brain regions as well as important research gaps.     

Transitivity,Space, and Hand: The Spatial Grounding of Syntax

Previous research has linked the concept of number and other ordinal series to space via a spatially oriented mental number line. In addition, it has been shown that in visual scene recognition and production, speakers of a language with a left‐to‐right orthography respond faster to and tend to draw images in which the agent of an action is located to the left of the patient. In this study, we aim to bridge these two lines of research by employing a novel method that measures the spatial bias produced by transitive sentences that use a wide variety of abstract and concrete verbs. Across four experiments, participants read sentences and then responded to probe words appearing on either the left or right sides of the screen. Probe words consisted of agents, patients, other words in the sentence, or newly encountered words. We found consistent lateral biases to responding to agents and patients, which appears to be independent of order of mention in the sentence but which does reflect a correspondence between position in the sentence and role in the causal sequence of the action. Our results also show that this spatial bias is driven by the use of the hands in two different ways: The left hand shows a greater sensitivity to the spatial effect than the right hand, and vocal responses produce no spatial effect.     

Dealing with Big Numbers: Representation and Understanding of Magnitudes Outside of Human Experience

Being able to estimate quantity is important in everyday life and for success in the STEM disciplines. However, people have difficulty reasoning about magnitudes outside of human perception (e.g., nanoseconds, geologic time). This study examines patterns of estimation errors across temporal and spatial magnitudes at large scales. We evaluated the effectiveness of hierarchical alignment in improving estimations, and transfer across dimensions. The activity was successful in increasing accuracy for temporal and spatial magnitudes, and learning transferred to the estimation of numeric magnitudes associated with events and objects. However, there were also a number of informative differences in performance on temporal, spatial, and numeric magnitude measures, suggesting that participants possess different categorical information for these scales. Educational implications are discussed.     

The influence of performance on action-effect integration in sense of agency

Sense of agency refers to the subjective feeling of being able to control an outcome through one’s own actions or will. Prior studies have shown that both sensory processing (e.g., comparisons between sensory feedbacks and predictions basing on one’s motor intentions) and high-level cognitive/constructive processes (e.g., inferences based on one’s performance or the consequences of one’s actions) contribute to judgments of sense of agency. However, it remains unclear how these two types of processes interact, which is important for clarifying the mechanisms underlying sense of agency. Thus, we examined whether performance-based inferences influence action-effect integration in sense of agency using a delay detection paradigm in two experiments. In both experiments, participants pressed left and right arrow keys to control the direction in which a moving dot was travelling. The dot’s response delay was manipulated randomly on 7 levels (0–480 ms) between the trials; for each trial, participants were asked to judge whether the dot response was delayed and to rate their level of agency over the dot. In Experiment 1, participants tried to direct the dot to reach a destination on the screen as quickly as possible. Furthermore, the computer assisted participants by ignoring erroneous commands for half of the trials (assisted condition), while in the other half, all of the participants’ commands were executed (self-control condition). In Experiment 2, participants directed the dot as they pleased (without a specific goal), but, in half of the trials, the computer randomly ignored 32% of their commands (disturbed condition) rather than assisted them. The results from the two experiments showed that performance enhanced action-effect integration. Specifically, when task performance was improved through the computer’s assistance in Experiment 1, delay detection was reduced in the 480-ms delay condition, despite the fact that 32% of participants’ commands were ignored. Conversely, when no feedback on task performance was given (as in Experiment 2), the participants reported greater delay when some of their commands were randomly ignored. Furthermore, the results of a logistic regression analysis showed that the threshold of delay detection was greater in the assisted condition than in the self-control condition in Experiment 1, which suggests a wider time window for action-effect integration. A multivariate analysis also revealed that assistance was related to reduced delay detection via task performance, while reduced delay detection was directly correlated with a better sense of agency. These results indicate an association between the implicit and explicit aspects of sense of agency.     

Multi-scale control influences sense of agency: Investigating intentional binding using event-control approach

Control exercised by humans through interactions with the environment is critical for sense of agency. Here, we investigate how control at multiple levels influence implicit sense of agency measured using intentional binding. Participants are asked to hit a moving target using a joystick with noisy control followed by an intentional binding task initiated by the target hitting action. Perceptual-motor level control was manipulated through noise in the joystick controller (experiment 1) and goal-level control in terms of feedback about successful hit (experiments 2a and 2b). In the first experiment, intentional binding increased with amount of joystick control only when goal was not achieved and independent otherwise suggesting that the two levels interact hierarchically. In the second experiment, the estimated duration was dependent on when participants knew about goal completion. The results are similar to those obtained with explicit measures of sense of agency indicating that multi-scale event control influences agency.     

认知过程中的捆绑问题--认知神经科学的研究

捆绑问题是当前脑科学研究中的主要问题之一,近来已成为意识争论的焦点。该文结合国外对捆绑问题研究的最新成果,在概括介绍关于捆绑机制的主要理论的基础上,综述了捆绑问题与主要认知功能关系的研究,并指出不同认知过程中捆绑脑机制的精细化研究和一般性捆绑脑机制的系统化研究可能是今后这方面研究的重点。     

The extent of working memory deficits associated with Williams syndrome: exploration of verbal and spatial domains and executively controlled processes

The present study investigated verbal and spatial working memory (WM) functioning in individuals with the neuro-developmental disorder Williams syndrome (WS) using WM component tasks. While there is strong evidence of WM impairments in WS, previous research has focused on short-term memory and has neglected assessment of executive components of WM. There is a particular lack of consensus concerning the profile of verbal WM functioning in WS. Here, WS participants were compared to typically developing participants matched for (1) verbal ability and (2) spatial ability (N = 14 in each of the 3 groups). Individuals with WS were impaired on verbal WM tasks, both those involving short-term maintenance of information and executive manipulation, in comparison to verbal-matched controls. Surprisingly, individuals with WS were not impaired on a spatial task assessing short-term maintenance of information in memory (remembering spatial locations) compared to spatial-matched controls. They were, however, impaired on a spatial executive WM task requiring the manipulation of spatial information in memory. The present study suggests that individuals with WS show WM impairments that extend to both verbal and spatial domains, although spatial deficits are selective to executive aspects of WM function.