Interaction between mode of learning and subjective experience: Translation effects in long-term memory

It has been suggested that writing auditorily presented words at encoding involves distinctive translation processes between visual and auditory domains, leading to the formation of distinctive memory traces at retrieval. This translation effect leads to higher levels of recognition than the writing of visually presented words, a non-translation effect. The present research investigated whether writing and the other translation effect of vocalisation (vocalising visually presented words) would be present in tests of recall, recognition memory and whether these effects are based on the subjective experience of remembering or knowing. Experiment 1 found a translation effect in the auditory domain in recall, as the translation effect of writing yielded higher recall than both non-translation effects of vocalisation and silently hearing. Experiment 2 found a translation effect in the visual domain in recognition, as the translation effect of vocalisation yielded higher recognition than both non-translation effects of writing and silently reading. This translation effect was attributable to the subjective experience of remembering rather than knowing. The present research therefore demonstrates the beneficial effect of translation in both recall and recognition, with the effect of vocalisation in recognition being based on rich episodic remembering.     

Changes in Physiological Stress and Self-Reported Mood in Younger and Older Adults After Exposure to a Stressful Task

ABSTRACT

The objective of the current study was to compare the trajectories of physiological levels of stress and self-report measures of mood in younger and older adults and to examine how a stress induction would affect performance. The current study examined physiological and subjective indicators of stress and mood before, mid-way through, and after being exposed to a stressful computer task. Stress levels and negative affect increased after stress induction relative to levels before and after the stressful task. Practice on the task helped to improve performance (accuracy and reaction time) but high workload measured during the task mitigated accuracy in younger and older adults, whereas it enhanced response speed in younger adults.     

First- and third-person approaches in implicit learning research

How do we find out whether someone is conscious of some information or not? A simple answer is “We just ask them”! However, things are not so simple. Here, we review recent developments in the use of subjective and objective methods in implicit learning research and discuss the highly complex methodological problems that their use raises in the domain.     

Response monitoring and expectancy in random serial RT tasks

Two different sequential patterns have been reported in serial reaction-time (RT) tasks with random stimulus sequences, depending on the response-to-stimulus interval (RSI). When RSI is short a first-order repetition effect and a higher order benefit-only pattern are found, and when RSI is long a cost-benefit pattern is observed. In a series of three experiments, we found that the patterns are not unique for spatial dimensions, and that the benefit-only pattern does not appear for irrelevant stimulus features. The cost-benefit pattern, on the other hand, can shift to irrelevant locations, but not to irrelevant colour. Distributional analyses of the sequential effects demonstrate that the first-order repetition effect can be dissociated from the higher order effects. The results are interpreted as support for the role of response monitoring in the development of the benefit-only pattern at short RSI, while the first-order repetition effect is explained as repetition priming. With a long RSI, the cost-benefit pattern is confirmed as a low-level subjective expectancy process, which is primarily controlled by stimulus location. The data clearly strengthen the support for three different processes generating sequential effects in random serial RT tasks.     

Sequential effects on speeded information processing: a developmental study

Two experiments were performed to assess age-related changes in sequential effects on choice reaction time (RT). Sequential effects portray the influence of previous trials on the RT to the current stimulus. In Experiment 1, three age groups (7-9, 10-12, and 18-25 years) performed a spatially compatible choice task, with response-to-stimulus intervals (RSIs) of 50 and 500 ms varied between trial blocks. In Experiment 2, three age groups (7-9, 15-16, and 18-25 years) performed the task with spatial stimulus-response (S-R) mappings (compatible versus incompatible) varied between participants. For adults, the experiments yielded a pattern of sequential effects suggestive of "automatic facilitation" (i.e., a first-order repetition effect and a higher order benefit-only pattern for short RSIs) and "subjective expectancy" (i.e., a first-order alternation effect and a higher order cost-benefit pattern for long RSIs). Automatic facilitation was more pronounced for incompatible responses than for compatible responses. Both experiments showed the anticipated decrease in automatic facilitation with advancing age. Finally, the first-order alternation effect showed the predicted age-related increase, but the cost-benefit pattern revealed an opposite trend, suggesting that the first-order and higher order indexes of subjective expectancy may relate to dissociable mechanisms.     

The happy cyclist: Examining the association between generalized authoritarianism and subjective well-being

Although authoritarianism can negatively impact others (e.g., by predicting prejudiced intergroup attitudes), implications for the self are mixed and require clarification. Extending previous research, we examined the association between generalized authoritarianism (GA, indicated by right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation) and subjective well-being (SWB, indicated by positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction) by testing simultaneously the general-level association between GA and SWB as well as specific residual associations between GA and SWB components, independent of basic personality dimensions. We observed a significant general-level association between GA and SWB whereby heightened authoritarianism predicted greater SWB. No residual associations were found between specific GA and SWB components. Despite being “bad” for others, generalized authoritarianism may be “good” for the self.     

Non-monotonic relationships between emotional arousal and memory for color and location

Recent research points to the decreased diagnostic value of subjective retrieval experience for memory accuracy for emotional stimuli. While for neutral stimuli rich recollective experiences are associated with better context memory than merely familiar memories this association appears questionable for emotional stimuli. The present research tested the implicit assumption that the effect of emotional arousal on memory is monotonic, that is, steadily increasing (or decreasing) with increasing arousal. In two experiments emotional arousal was manipulated in three steps using emotional pictures and subjective retrieval experience as well as context memory were assessed. The results show an inverted U-shape relationship between arousal and recognition memory but for context memory and retrieval experience the relationship was more complex. For frame colour, context memory decreased linearly while for spatial location it followed the inverted U-shape function. The complex, non-monotonic relationships between arousal and memory are discussed as possible explanations for earlier divergent findings.     

The nature of the memory buffer in implicit learning: Learning Chinese tonal symmetries

Previous research has established that people can implicitly learn chunks, which (in terms of formal language theory) do not require a memory buffer to process. The present study explores the implicit learning of nonlocal dependencies generated by higher than finite-state grammars, specifically, Chinese tonal retrogrades (i.e. centre embeddings generated from a context-free grammar) and inversions (i.e. cross-serial dependencies generated from a mildly context-sensitive grammar), which do require buffers (for example, last in-first out and first in-first out, respectively). People were asked to listen to and memorize artificial poetry instantiating one of the two grammars; after this training phase, people were informed of the existence of rules and asked to classify new poems, while providing attributions of the basis of their judgments. People acquired unconscious structural knowledge of both tonal retrogrades and inversions. Moreover, inversions were implicitly learnt more easily than retrogrades constraining the nature of the memory buffer in computational models of implicit learning.     

认知负荷主观评价量表比较

运用双任务实验范式,比较了三种认知负荷主观评价量表的灵敏度与效度。结果发现：在本研究任务条件下,次任务反应时的稳定性、抗干扰性较好,可以作为认知负荷主观评价的标尺;WP量表与PAAS量表的敏感性均较好,其中WP量表的敏感性、诊断性高于后者,TLX量表的敏感性较弱;WP量表与PAAS量表的效度较好,且好于TLX量表。综合各项指标,在中低难度任务下,WP量表是目前认知负荷较为理想的测量工具。