奖励和惩罚在注意控制过程中的优化和分离：眼动研究

通过两个眼动实验考察金钱奖励和惩罚引起的动机对个体在不同空间线索条件下注意控制加工的影响。实验1采用朝向/反向眼跳范式, 被试通过内源性线索提供心理准备的情况下做出简单的朝向眼跳以及需要抑制优势反应的反向眼跳。结果发现, 相比无奖惩条件, 奖励条件下朝向眼跳任务的正确率更高, 惩罚条件下反向眼跳任务的正确率更高; 两种眼跳任务中有奖惩条件下的眼跳峰速度均比无奖惩条件高。实验2采用Go/No-go任务, 进一步探讨了由副中央凹加工外源性边缘线索从而不能提供充分心理准备的情况下奖励和惩罚对注意控制的影响。结果发现, 奖励条件下Go反应的眼跳潜伏期更短, 惩罚条件下No-go反应正确率更高, 眼跳峰速度在两种条件下均比无奖惩条件高。以上结果表明, 奖励和惩罚均能够促进个体的注意控制, 但二者的加工过程是分离的, 奖励能够改善趋近行为, 惩罚则能够显著促进抑制控制行为, 且奖励和惩罚在注意控制加工过程中具有不同的作用模式, 奖励能够更早唤醒注意控制系统从而更快地促进行为的发生与执行, 惩罚则能够通过调节注意资源促进以目标为导向的行为中对优势反应的抑制。     

Tracking hand movements captures the response dynamics of the evaluative priming effect

We tested the response dynamics of the evaluative priming effect (i.e. facilitation of target responses following evaluatively congruent compared with evaluatively incongruent primes) using a mouse tracking procedure that records hand movements during the execution of categorisation tasks. In Experiment 1, when participants performed the evaluative categorisation task but not the non-evaluative semantic categorisation task, their mouse trajectories for evaluatively incongruent trials curved more toward the opposite response than those for evaluatively congruent trials, indicating the emergence of evaluative priming effects based on response competition. In Experiment 2, implementing a task-switching procedure in which evaluative and non-evaluative categorisation tasks were intermixed, we obtained reliable evaluative priming effects in the non-evaluative semantic categorisation task as well as in the evaluative categorisation task when participants assigned attention to the evaluative stimulus dimension. Analyses of hand movements revealed that the evaluative priming effects in the evaluative categorisation task were reflected in the mouse trajectories, while evaluative priming effects in the non-evaluative categorisation tasks were reflected in initiation times (i.e. the time elapsed between target onset and first mouse movement). Based on these findings, we discuss the methodological benefits of the mouse tracking procedure and the underlying processes of evaluative priming effects.     

交流语境对学习过程中学习者语言选择性注意的影响

依据交流语境特征创设了语言交流、共享对象的语言交流、共享对象和表情的语言交流,通过交流范式探查：交流语境对学习过程中学习者语言选择性注意的影响。结果显示：（1）语言交流条件下语言选择性注意整体水平最高;不同语境下选择性注意整体水平随交流时间进程而增高。（2）语言交流条件下语言选择性注意指向性水平最高;共享对象和表情条件最低,但集中性水平最高;总体上,指向性和集中性水平随学习进程相对稳定增高,但语言交流条件与共享对象条件下学习阶段1的集中性水平显著高于中间学习阶段。结果发现：交流语境不同时,不同非语言因素对于语言认知加工产生的影响作用不同;交流双方认知的协调过程同时受到语言和非语言因素的共同作用。概言之,非语言因素降低了语言选择性注意的整体水平和指向性水平;但表情因素提高了集中性水平。     

高中生羞怯与学校适应:一个有调节的中介模型

目的:探讨羞怯对高中生学校适应的影响机制。方法:采用中学生羞怯量表、学校适应问卷、核心自我评价量表、自我关注量表对山东省1770名高中生进行调查。结果:①羞怯不仅能直接负向预测高中生的学校适应,还能通过核心自我评价进而影响其学校适应; ②自我关注在中介模型的后半路径起到调节作用。     

Consciousness in a multilevel architecture: What causes the lateralization of effective connectivity under resting state?

Here we present our answers to a critical commentary by Elkhonon Goldberg on our recent publication (Velichkovsky et al., 2018). To avoid discussions about novelty effects in the human brain activity and memory processes, we narrowed down this response to a reanalysis of our data along the lines proposed in the commentary, namely to comparing the effective links between symmetrical brain structures during the first and the last parts of a prolonged resting-state fMRI experiment. We also tested for sex differences in our results and checked for a stability of top-down interactions during the course of experiment because learning is often expressed in the weakening of upper level control over low-level mechanisms. Our attempts to test the predictions based on the novelty hypothesis has led to mixed results suggesting that the discovered right-to-left dominance of causal connections at rest may have a deeper origin than supposed in the Goldberg’s commentary.     

Meditation focused on self-observation of the body impairs metacognitive efficiency

In the last decade of research on metacognition, the literature has been focused on understanding its mechanism, function and scope; however, little is known about whether metacognitive capacity can be trained. The specificity of the potential training procedure is in particular still largely unknown. In this study, we evaluate whether metacognition is trainable through generic meditation training, and if so, which component of meditation would be instrumental in this improvement. To this end, we evaluated participants’ metacognitive efficiency before and after two types of meditation training protocols: the first focused on mental cues (Mental Monitoring [MM] training), whereas the second focused on body cues (Self-observation of the Body [SoB] training). Results indicated that while metacognitive efficiency was stable in MM training group, it was significantly reduced in the SoB group after training. This suggests that metacognition should not be conceived as a stable capacity but rather as a malleable skill.     

Establishing praise as a conditioned reinforcer: Pairing with one versus multiple reinforcers

Praise and other forms of attention may not function as reinforcers for the behavior of children with autism. Previous research demonstrated that contingently pairing praise with reinforcers (response stimulus) can establish praise as a conditioned reinforcer. We evaluated a procedure for establishing praise as a generalized conditioned reinforcer (pair praise with four reinforcers) and compared it with a procedure to establish praise as a conditioned reinforcer (pair praise with one reinforcer). We compared the two conditions in a reversal design with “praise” and “no programmed consequence” conditions rapidly alternated after pairing phases. With three out of five participants with autism, responding in the “pair‐with‐four” condition showed higher levels of responding or more increasing trends compared with that in “pair‐with‐one” condition. We also replicated previous contingent pairing research with two participants in a multiple baseline across participants design. A limitation was the absence of manipulating motivating operations in assessing the efficacy of praise as a generalized conditioned reinforcer. Nevertheless, these data contribute to the research on establishing praise as a reinforcer, and we recommend directions for future research.     

Suppression in object-based attention

This study examines suppression in object-based attention in three experiments using an object-based attention task similar to Egly, R., Driver, J., & Rafal, R. D. (1994. Shifting visual attention between objects and locations: Evidence from normal and parietal lesion subjects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123(2), 161–177. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.123.2.161) with the addition of a distractor. In Experiment 1 participants identified a target object at one of four ends of two rectangles. The target location was validly cued on 72% of trials. The remaining 28% were located on the same or a different object. Sixty-eight percent of trials also included a distractor on one of the two objects. Experiment 1 failed to show suppression when a distractor was present, but did demonstrate the spread of attention across the attended object when no distractor was present. Experiment 2 added a mask to the paradigm to make the task more difficult and engage suppression. When suppression was engaged in the task, data showed suppression on the unattended (different) object, but not on the attended (same) object. Experiment 3 replicated findings from Experiment 1 and 2 using a within participants design. Findings are discussed in relation to the role of suppression in visual selective attention.     

Endogenous modulation of compatibility effects: an Investigation into the temporal dynamics

Compatibility effects (CEs) arise when multiple stimuli fall within the visual field, providing an indication of stimulus processing. Previous research demonstrated that exogenous factors (e.g., luminance) influence the magnitude of CEs and their time course. The current research investigated the influence of endogenous factors. We used a flanker paradigm with a variable temporal delay (SOA) between a flanker and a subsequent central stimulus appearing. To manipulate endogenous factors, we required responses to the flanker on either half or all of the trials. The results indicate that increasing the task relevance of the flanker strengthened the initial positive CE (measured at short SOAs), consistent with past findings related to exogenous factors. However, at longer SOAs, the CE did not reverse into a negative CE, which stands against findings related to exogenous factors. These results indicate that CEs are subject to endogenous modulation, but the temporal dynamics do not mimic exogenous modulation.     

Suppression history of distractor location biases attentional and oculomotor control

Past selection experience greatly affects the deployment of attention such that targets are more readily selected if their features or locations were more frequently selected in the past. Crucially, recent studies have shown similar experience-dependent effects also for salient task irrelevant stimuli: distractors exerted less interference if they appeared at a location where they were presented more often, relatively to other possible locations. Here we investigated the effects of such suppression history on the immediate behavioural correlates of attentional deployment, i.e., eye movements. Participants were to make saccadic eye movements to a target stimulus, while ignoring a highly distracting irrelevant visual onset appearing abruptly on the screen in a proportion of trials. Crucially, this irrelevant onset occurred more frequently in two locations on the visual display and our results showed that, relatively to distractors elsewhere, onsets presented at these locations became easier to ignore, giving rise to reduced oculomotor capture. Consistent with the notion that experience can alter attentional deployment towards spatial locations, these findings indicate that, through learning, the priority of high frequency locations becomes suppressed, attenuating the intrinsic saliency of distractors appearing therein. Traces left by individual events of attentional suppression decrease the processing priority of coordinates within topographic maps of the visual space.