Thinking ahead or not? Natural aging and anticipation during reading

Despite growing evidence of young adults neurally pre-activating word features during sentence comprehension, less clear is the degree to which this generalizes to older adults. Using ERPs, we tested for linguistic prediction in younger and older readers by means of indefinite articles (a’s and an’s) preceding more and less probable noun continuations. Although both groups exhibited cloze probability-graded noun N400s, only the young showed significant article effects, indicating probabilistic sensitivity to the phonology of anticipated upcoming nouns. Additionally, both age groups exhibited prolonged increased frontal positivities to less probable nouns, although in older adults this effect was prominent only in a subset with high verbal fluency (VF). This ERP positivity to contextual constraint violations offers additional support for prediction in the young. For high VF older adults, the positivity may indicate they, too, engage in some form of linguistic pre-processing when implicitly cued, as may have occurred via the articles.     

Attentional sensitization of unconscious visual processing: Top-down influences on masked priming

Classical theories of automaticity assume that automatic processes elicited by unconscious stimuli are autonomous and independent of higher-level cognitive influences. In contrast to these classical conceptions, we argue that automatic processing depends on attentional amplification of task-congruent processing pathways and propose an attentional sensitization model of unconscious visual processing: According to this model, unconscious visual processing is automatic in the sense that it is initiated without deliberate intention. However, unconscious visual processing is susceptible to attentional top-down control and is only elicited if the cognitive system is configured accordingly. In this article, we describe our attentional sensitization model and review recent evidence demonstrating attentional influences on subliminal priming, a prototypical example of an automatic process. We show that subliminal priming (a) depends on attentional resources, (b) is susceptible to stimulus expectations, (c) is influenced by action intentions, and (d) is modulated by task sets. These data suggest that attention enhances or attenuates unconscious visual processes in congruency with attentional task representations similar to conscious perception. We argue that seemingly paradoxical, hitherto unexplained findings regarding the automaticity of the underlying processes in many cognitive domains can be easily accommodated by our attentional sensitization model. We conclude this review with a discussion of future research questions regar-ding the nature of attentional control of unconscious visual processing.     

Increased Attentional Control for Emotional Distractors Moderates the Use of Reflective Pondering in Times of Life Stress: A Prospective Study

According to the response styles theory, rumination is a cognitive response to a stressor with repetitive and self‐focused attention on a negative mood state. The attentional disengagement theory highlights that attentional processes are critical, underlying individual differences in ruminative thinking, such as reflective pondering and depressive brooding. Using a prospective design, the current study sought to determine whether attentional control for negative material was differently associated with brooding and reflection upon life stress. Spanning a period of three months, 76 never depressed undergraduate students completed a baseline measurement of attentional bias by using an emotional modification of the exogenous cueing task (T1) and subsequently, six weeks after T1, completed Internet questionnaires during their final examinations at four weekly fixed moments (T2–T5). Data were analysed with a series of multilevel regression analyses. Results revealed that the relation between stress and the use of reflective pondering is stronger when participants allocate less attention to emotional information (negative and positive stimuli). On the other hand, attentional control did not moderate the relation between stress and depressive brooding. On the basis of the current research findings, it might be important to train attentional control to disengage from emotional distractors, which in turn may increase the use of more self‐controlling thinking in response to stress. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

运算动量效应的理论解释及其发展性预测因素

了解运算偏差的形成与发展对探索算数运算系统的内在机制具有重要意义,早期的算数运算能力是儿童理解和进行复杂数学运算的基础。运算动量偏差是指个体在进行基本数学运算时倾向于高估加法运算结果而低估减法运算结果的一种运算偏差,主要包括三种理论解释,即注意转移假说、启发式解释和压缩解释。鉴于运算动量效应在成年群体中相对稳定却在不同发展阶段儿童中存在不一致的证据,数学能力的提高与空间注意的成熟可结合不同的理论解释来阐明儿童发展过程中运算动量效应的变化趋势。未来可以进一步整合多种研究任务以揭示运算动量效应的发展轨迹,考察数量表征系统与运算动量效应间的关联,探究运算动量效应在不同运算符号中的稳定性,探讨不同因素共同作用对运算动量效应的影响,并设计有关数学能力的干预措施以减少运算动量效应这一运算偏差。     

特殊的视错觉：运动诱导视盲

突显的静止目标被一定空间范围内运动背景所覆盖时, 人类会感受到静止目标消失再重现的发生, 这种视错觉现象叫做运动诱导视盲(motion-induced blindness, MIB)。该现象成因的理论解释主要有：注意竞争理论、知觉完型加工理论以及神经生理机制相关理论。作为特殊的视错觉现象, 该现象与其他盲视现象不同,主要是由客体识别过程中的知觉变化引起; 另一方面, 运动诱导视盲中“反知觉”现象的特殊性也是研究者关注的问题之一。神经生理机制层面的研究关注早期、晚期皮层在该现象发生时的变化, 采用眼动、脑电等技术对错觉现象发生时程进行测量与评估。文章在总结已有相关研究的基础上进一步指出今后可深入探索的研究方向有：MIB发生的深层机制、作为研究意识神经相关、无意识知觉加工等课题的工具、MIB中的意义性加工与认知冲突等。     

自我面孔加工与注意——来自反眼跳的证据

作为一种具有重要生物学意义和社会性的视觉刺激,面孔比一般的视觉刺激更容易吸引注意.本研究以Eyelink 2000车载眼动仪为工具,在混合呈现的反眼跳任务中考察了32名大学生被试对自我面孔、恋人面孔和陌生面孔加工中的注意捕获和维持注意方面的特点.结果发现:在朝向眼跳任务中,自我面孔和恋人面孔的眼跳错误率显著低于异性陌生面孔,并且自我面孔和恋人面孔都表现出了保持注意的优势;而在反眼跳任务中,自我面孔、恋人面孔与陌生人面孔的反眼跳错误率和眼跳潜伏期没有显著差异.这一结果表明:自我面孔、恋人面孔与陌生面孔之间在高水平视觉特征上的差异没有达到影响反眼跳的最小可觉察差别量.因此,在反眼跳任务中面孔的优势效应掩盖了自我相关信息加工的优势,导致了自我面孔与陌生面孔没有表现出对注意捕获或保持注意上的差异.     

Attentional bias toward waiting time information among individuals with high and low trait self-control when making intertemporal choices

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to explore whether the modulation effects of attentional biases toward time information representing immediate rewards and delayed rewards differ between individuals with high and low trait self-control. Forty participants with high trait self-control and 40 with low trait self-control were selected based on their responses to the Chinese version of the self-control scale, and they were asked to complete an intertemporal choice task and dot probe task first and then a cue-target task a week later. The results showed that the participants with low trait self-control were more likely to choose immediate rewards than participants with high trait self-control. Furthermore, facilitated attention and difficulty in attention disengagement toward present-related words were found among participants with low trait self-control with higher frequency than among those with high trait self-control. Finally, facilitated attention toward present-related words moderated the indifference points among the participants with low trait self-control.     

目标探测对记忆提取的影响

采用经典的"学习–再认"范式,在测验阶段设置了目标探测的干扰任务,通过比较目标探测和分心拒绝是否会对记忆提取产生不同的影响,以进一步探讨提取干扰与再认记忆之间的关系。结果发现,无论对目标进行显性(实验1)还是隐性(实验2)的探测反应,目标探测下旧词的再认反应均要比分心拒绝下更优,表明外显记忆的提取也会受到注意资源的调节。但更为重要的是,在辨别力指数(d′)及判断标准(C)上的差异分析发现,目标探测并没有提高被试的再认水平,而是降低了被试的判断标准,使得被试在目标探测条件下更容易对词做出"旧"反应。这种反应倾向与目标探测的动作反应方式无关,也不受词汇的编码加工水平深浅的调节。由此可见,外显记忆提取并非完全的"自动化加工",仍会受到注意资源的调节。     

Feature integration is not the whole story of the sequence effects of symbolic cueing

ABSTRACT

Sequential modulations in symbolic cueing tasks have been attributed to complete versus partial repetition/alternation of stimulus features between consecutive trials. This feature-integration hypothesis is questioned by recent findings and further investigated in the present study. In the first two experiments, when the cueing axes switched between trials, only complete alternation of cue directions and target locations existed. Nevertheless, significant sequence effects were still found in this condition, which did not support the feature-integration hypothesis. Furthermore, although sequence effects were still significant when stimulus identities were manipulated in Experiment 3, it was abolished when different cue categories (gaze and arrow) were presented as cues in Experiment 4. The findings suggest that the integration of stimulus features is not the only source of the sequential effect and some higher level cognitive mechanisms, possibly as described in the task-file or task organization hypotheses, are involved in the sequential modulations of symbolic cueing.     

真实场景视觉搜索中的背景线索效应特点与机制

背景线索效应揭示了个体在视觉搜索过程中对刺激之间具有的稳定空间关系（刺激间不变的相对空间位置）的学习能够提高搜索效率。本文基于经典背景线索效应在内隐习得空间布局的机制下结合真实场景视觉搜索的相关理论，对真实场景背景线索效应的实验范式、学习性质与内容进行归纳梳理，将真实场景视觉搜索中影响背景线索效应的视觉信息分为低水平物理特征及高水平语义信息两个维度进行论述。虽然当前研究涉及真实场景背景线索效应在不同场景维度信息的加工机制，但对于发挥作用的场景信息类别以及作用阶段还较少涉及，未来研究仍需进一步的探讨。