Font effects of Chinese characters and pseudo-characters on the N400: evidence for an orthographic processing view

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a Chinese character decision task to examine whether N400 amplitude is modulated by stimulus font. Results revealed large negative-going ERPs in an N400 time window of 300-500ms to stimuli presented in degraded Xing Kai Ti (XKT) font compared with more intact Song Ti (ST) font regardless of whether the stimuli were real or pseudo-characters. ERPs for the pseudo-characters were more negative than for the real characters with similar timing and scalp distribution. The N400-like font effect on amplitude is interpreted as analogous to an N400 stimulus degradation effect, an extension to Holcomb (1993); the degraded perceptual cues provided by XKT supposedly account for this degradation effect. This effect is further interpreted to reflect relative difficulty, which results from orthographic processing difficulty, in retrieving the meaning of XKT stimuli compared with ST stimuli.     

Response-specifying cue for action interferes with perception of feature-sharing stimuli

Perceiving a visual stimulus is more difficult when a to-be-executed action is compatible with that stimulus, which is known as blindness to response-compatible stimuli. The present study explored how the factors constituting the action event (i.e., response-specifying cue, response intention, and response feature) affect the occurrence of this blindness effect. The response-specifying cue varied along the horizontal and vertical dimensions, while the response buttons were arranged diagonally. Participants responded based on one dimension randomly determined in a trial-by-trial manner. The response intention varied along a single dimension, whereas the response location and the response-specifying cue varied within both vertical and horizontal dimensions simultaneously. Moreover, the compatibility between the visual stimulus and the response location and the compatibility between that stimulus and the response-specifying cue was separately determined. The blindness effect emerged exclusively based on the feature correspondence between the response-specifying cue of the action task and the visual target of the perceptual task. The size of this stimulus–stimulus (S–S) blindness effect did not differ significantly across conditions, showing no effect of response intention and response location. This finding emphasizes the effect of stimulus factors, rather than response factors, of the action event as a source of the blindness to response-compatible stimuli.     

Does temporal contiguity moderate contingency learning in a speeded performance task?

In four experiments, we varied the time between the onset of distracting nonwords and target colour words in a word–word version of the colour–word contingency learning paradigm. Contingencies were created by pairing a distractor nonword more often with one target colour word than with other colour words. A contingency effect corresponds to faster responses to the target colour word on high-contingency trials (i.e., distractor nonword followed by the target colour word with which it appears most often) than on low-contingency trials (i.e., distractor nonword followed by a target colour word with which it appears only occasionally). Roughly equivalent-sized contingency effects were found at stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 50, 250, and 450 ms in Experiment 1, and 50, 500, and 1,000 ms in Experiment 2. In Experiment 3, a contingency effect was observed at SOAs of –50, –200, and –350 ms. In Experiment 4, interstimulus interval (ISI) was varied along with SOA, and learning was equivalent for 200-, 700-, and 1,200-ms SOAs. Together, these experiments suggest that the distracting stimulus does not need to be presented in close temporal contiguity with the response to induce learning. Relations to past research on causal judgement and implications for further contingency learning research are discussed.     

Correspondence effects with torches: Grasping affordance or visual feature asymmetry?

Three experiments were conducted to determine whether an object-based correspondence effect for torch (flashlight) stimuli reported by Pellicano et al. [(2010 Pellicano, A., Iani, C., Borghi, A. M., Rubichi, S., & Nicoletti, R. (2010). Simon-like and functional affordance effects with tools: The effects of object perceptual discrimination and object action state. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 2190–2201. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2010.486903[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Simon-like and functional affordance effects with tools: The effects of object perceptual discrimination and object action state. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 2190–2201] is due to a grasping affordance provided by the handle or asymmetry of feature markings on the torch. In Experiment 1 the stimuli were the same as those from Pellicano et al.'s Experiment 2, whereas in Experiments 2 and 3 the stimuli were modified versions with the graspable handle removed. Participants in all experiments performed upright/inverted orientation judgements on the torch stimuli. The results of Experiment 1 replicated those of Pellicano et al.: A small but significant object-based correspondence effect was evident, mainly when the torch was in an active state. With the handle of the torch removed in Experiment 2, making the barrel markings more asymmetric in the display, the correspondence effect was larger. Experiment 3 directly demonstrated an effect of barrel-marking asymmetry on the correspondence effect: When only the half of the markings nearest the light end of the torch was included, the correspondence effect reversed to favour the light end. The results are in agreement with a visual feature-asymmetry account and are difficult to reconcile with a grasping-affordance account.     

Independent effects of emotion and attention on sensory and affective pain perception

The present study investigated whether attention and emotion independently influence sensory and affective pain ratings. Fifty-four (27 female) participants rated sensory and affective pain in response to painful mechanic pressure stimulation while exposed to positive, neutral and negative slides from the International Affective Picture System. In doing so, participants were assigned to one of three groups, which focused attention either on the pictures or on the sensory or on the affective aspects of the pressure stimulation. Consistent with the motivational priming hypothesis, sensory and affective pain ratings were generally lower during exposure to positive compared to negative and neutral slides. In line with our assumptions, attention modulated sensory pain ratings with lowest ratings in the picture focusing group and highest in the affective pain focusing group. No attention effect for affective pain ratings and no interactions between emotional and attentional effects on pain perception were found.     

Switching from approach to withdrawal is easier than vice versa

The preparedness theory of classical conditioning proposed by Seligman (1970, 1971) has been applied extensively over the past 40 years to explain the nature and “source” of human fear and phobias. In this review we examine the formative studies that tested the four defining characteristics of prepared learning with animal fear-relevant stimuli (typically snakes and spiders) and consider claims that fear of social stimuli, such as angry faces, or faces of racial out-group members, may also be acquired utilising the same preferential learning mechanism. Exposition of critical differences between fear learning to animal and social stimuli suggests that a single account cannot adequately explain fear learning with animal and social stimuli. We demonstrate that fear conditioned to social stimuli is less robust than fear conditioned to animal stimuli as it is susceptible to cognitive influence and propose that it may instead reflect on negative stereotypes and social norms. Thus, a theoretical model that can accommodate the influence of both biological and cultural factors is likely to have broader utility in the explanation of fear and avoidance responses than accounts based on a single mechanism.     

The effect of statistical learning on internal stimulus representations: Predictable items are enhanced even when not predicted

Statistical learning is the automatic and unconscious learning of environmental regularities and is a basic mechanism of learning in a variety of human perceptual and cognitive domains. Previous studies have mainly focused on the associative mechanisms of statistical learning. However, an unexplored question is whether the internal representations of individual stimuli are altered as their associations are learned. Using a temporal statistical learning paradigm, we examine this question across three experiments and find clear evidence that the internal representations of individual stimuli are differentially altered according to their degree of temporal predictability. These findings complement previous accounts of statistical learning and reveal an enriched mechanism of human learning, such that learning to associate items also enhances the representations of certain items relative to others.     

Conflict adaptation is reflected by response interference

The conflict monitoring theory suggests that the occurrence of conflict in previous trials leads to a reduction in interference in current trials through conflict adaption. The present study included two experiments that used a colour-based flanker task and a Stroop task in combination with a 2:1 stimulus-to-response mapping manipulation and a crossing of transition types (Previous trial type×Current trial type) with stimuli to investigate conflict adaption in relation to stimulus and response interference. The results demonstrate that response interference, but not stimulus interference, was reduced following both stimuli and response conflicts in previous trials. In contrast to some recent evidence, we conclude that conflict adaptation is limited to response interference.     

The effect of stimulus variability on children's judgements of quantity

This study investigates the effect of stimulus variability on development of the ability to make quantity judgements related to area. Participants were 241 children (aged 4, 5, 6, 8, and 12 years) and 82 university students, who were asked to compare the quantities in 2 sets of 5 chocolate bars of constant width but variable length. Participants indicated which set contained more chocolate or that the amounts of chocolate were equal. Judgement accuracy of 12-year-olds and adults decreased monotonically as the variance of bar lengths increased. In younger children, performance was low when variance was very low or very high, but accuracy was higher for intermediate levels of variance, thus resulting in an inverted U-shaped effect. This pattern was confirmed in a second experiment in which we controlled for a possible age-related response bias against “equal” judgements. Findings suggest that judgements of quantity are based on a mixture of learned heuristics and comparisons of approximate quantity representations, both of which develop throughout childhood.     

情境相关性及其对“特质-工作结果”的调节作用

情境相关性是指当情境能够对个体表达特质提供相关行为的线索时, 该情境即具有相关性, 它和情境强度共同组成特质激活的潜能, 并在工业组织心理学中逐渐受到广泛关注。基于情境相关性有研究提出情境维度说, 建立特质激活与评估模型。受到情境中相关线索激活, 特质表达为工作行为。在与不同水平各个维度的线索相一致时, 工作行为被评估为工作绩效。研究表明, 情境调节变量可以在3个水平提供特质激活线索, 调节“特质&;#8722;工作结果”关系, 如任务水平的工作控制、群体水平的领导行为以及组织水平的领导&;#8722;成员交换(LMX)关系等。情境相关性研究在人才选任、绩效管理、改善生产等方面起到积极作用。