Young adult female fragile X premutation carriers show age- and genetically-modulated cognitive impairments

The high frequency of the fragile X premutation in the general population and its emerging neurocognitive implications highlight the need to investigate the effects of the premutation on lifespan cognitive development. Until recently, cognitive function in fragile X premutation carriers (fXPCs) was presumed to be unaffected by the mutation. Here we show that young adult female fXPCs show subtle, yet significant, age- and FMR1 gene mutation-modulated cognitive impairments as tested by a quantitative magnitude comparison task. Our results begin to define the neurocognitive endophenotype associated with the premutation in adults, who are at risk for developing a neurodegenerative disorder associated with the fragile X premutation. Results from the present study may potentially be applied toward the design of early interventions wherein we might be able to target premutation carriers most at risk for degeneration for preventive treatment.     

Right visual field advantage for perceived contrast: correlation with an auditory bias and handedness

Studies have suggested that supramodal attentional resources are biased rightward due to asymmetric spatial fields of the two hemispheres. This bias has been observed especially in right-handed subjects. We presented left and right-handed subjects with brief uniform grey visual stimuli in either the left or right visual hemifield. Consistent with the proposed asymmetry in attentional resources, right-handed subjects estimated right hemifield targets as having a higher contrast than physically identical stimuli presented in the left hemifield. Left-handed participants did not show a systematic rightward or leftward bias. However, the group of left-handed participants also took part in a dichotic listening experiment whose results showed that visual bias score correlated positively with ear-advantage in dichotic listening. Our results are consistent with the view that supramodal processing resources are biased towards the right hemispace, and that this bias is influenced by handedness.     

Personality attributes that predict cadet performance at West Point

Using data from the United States Military Academy at West Point (N = 1102 and N = 1049) from two successive years, we examined psychological measures of cadets and the correlations of those measures with consequential outcomes such as cadet performance and leadership potential. We examined four broad intelligences, two of which were thing-focused (spatial and mathematical) and two people-focused (verbal and personal intelligences) and their predictions to thing- and people-centered courses (e.g., chemistry versus psychology). We found support for a thing-people differential in reasoning. The broad intelligences and the Big Five personality traits also predicted academic and other performance criteria at consequential levels.     

In any way,shape, or form? Toddlers’ understanding of shapes

Using the intermodal preferential looking paradigm, two-year-old children’s ability to discriminate valid (typical and atypical) squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles from invalid distractors was examined. The cognitive and environmental factors that might predict this ability were also investigated. Two-year-old children (N = 33) were able to discriminate squares, triangles, and circles, but not rectangles. No significant cognitive or environmental predictors of this ability were found. The results suggest that the ability to shape discriminate at age two is under considerable development and that other factors may be responsible for children’s ability to discriminate shapes.     

Experimental Evidence From Newborn Chicks Enriches Our Knowledge on Human Spatial–Numerical Associations

Núñez and Fias raised concerns on whether our results demonstrate a linear number‐space mapping. Patro and Nuerk urge caution on the use of animal models to understand the origin (cultural vs. biological) of the orientation of spatial–numerical association. Here, we discuss why both objections are unfounded.     

Identification and location tasks rely on different mental processes: a diffusion model account of validity effects in spatial cueing paradigms with emotional stimuli

Spatial cueing paradigms are popular tools to assess human attention to emotional stimuli, but different variants of these paradigms differ in what participants’ primary task is. In one variant, participants indicate the location of the target (location task), whereas in the other they indicate the shape of the target (identification task). In the present paper we test the idea that although these two variants produce seemingly comparable cue validity effects on response times, they rest on different underlying processes. Across four studies (total N?=?397; two in the supplement) using both variants and manipulating the motivational relevance of cue content, diffusion model analyses revealed that cue validity effects in location tasks are primarily driven by response biases, whereas the same effect rests on delay due to attention to the cue in identification tasks. Based on this, we predict and empirically support that a symmetrical distribution of valid and invalid cues would reduce cue validity effects in location tasks to a greater extent than in identification tasks. Across all variants of the task, we fail to replicate the effect of greater cue validity effects for arousing (vs. neutral) stimuli. We discuss the implications of these findings for best practice in spatial cueing research.     

Choosing the shortest way to Mum: auditory guided rotation in 6- to 9-month-old infants

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of auditory information for rotation of the shortest way in twelve 6- to 9-month-old sighted infants. Behavior was manipulated by means of an auditory stimulus presented in four different directional angles (90°, 112.5°, 135°, and 157.5°) to the right and to the left behind the infants, and in one non-directional angle (180°). Infants lay in a prone position and had magnetic trackers fastened to the head and body which measured their rotation direction and angular velocity. The results showed that infants not only consistently chose the shortest over the longest way, but also rotated with a higher peak angular velocity as the angle to be covered between themselves and the goal increased. The results did not show significant preferences for one particular rotation direction. The study can contribute to the understanding of the auditory system as a functional listening system where auditory information is used as a perceptual source for prospectively guiding behavior in the environment.     

Working memory in wayfinding-a dual task experiment in a virtual city

This study examines the working memory systems involved in human wayfinding. In the learning phase, 24 participants learned two routes in a novel photorealistic virtual environment displayed on a 220° screen while they were disrupted by a visual, a spatial, a verbal, or—in a control group—no secondary task. In the following wayfinding phase, the participants had to find and to "virtually walk" the two routes again. During this wayfinding phase, a number of dependent measures were recorded. This research shows that encoding wayfinding knowledge interfered with the verbal and with the spatial secondary task. These interferences were even stronger than the interference of wayfinding knowledge with the visual secondary task. These findings are consistent with a dual-coding approach of wayfinding knowledge.     

Spatial reasoning with external visualizations: what matters is what you see, not whether you interact

Three experiments examined the effects of interactive visualizations and spatial abilities on a task requiring participants to infer and draw cross sections of a three-dimensional (3D) object. The experiments manipulated whether participants could interactively control a virtual 3D visualization of the object while performing the task, and compared participants who were allowed interactive control of the visualization to those who were not allowed control. In Experiment 1, interactivity produced better performance than passive viewing, but the advantage of interactivity disappeared in Experiment 2 when visual input for the two conditions in a yoked design was equalized. In Experiments 2 and 3, differences in how interactive participants manipulated the visualization were large and related to performance. In Experiment 3, non-interactive participants who watched optimal movements of the display performed as well as interactive participants who manipulated the visualization effectively and better than interactive participants who manipulated the visualization ineffectively. Spatial ability made an independent contribution to performance on the spatial reasoning task, but did not predict patterns of interactive behavior. These experiments indicate that providing participants with active control of a computer visualization does not necessarily enhance task performance, whereas seeing the most task-relevant information does, and this is true regardless of whether the task-relevant information is obtained actively or passively.     

Particularism and the Spatial Location of Events

According to the Particularist Theory of Events, events are real things that have a spatiotemporal location. I argue that some events do not have a spatial location in the sense required by the theory. These events are ordinary, nonmental events like Smith’s investigating the murder and Carol’s putting her coat on the chair. I discuss the significance of these counterexamples for the theory.