Temporal grouping effects in musical short-term memory

Recent theoretical accounts of verbal and visuo-spatial short-term memory (STM) have proposed the existence of domain-general mechanisms for the maintenance of serial order information. These accounts are based on the observation of similar behavioural effects across several modalities, such as temporal grouping effects. Across two experiments, the present study aimed at extending these findings, by exploring a STM modality that has received little interest so far, STM for musical information. Given its inherent rhythmic, temporal and serial organisation, the musical domain is of interest for investigating serial order STM processes such as temporal grouping. In Experiment 1, the data did not allow to determine the presence or the absence of temporal grouping effects. In Experiment 2, we observed that temporal grouping of tone sequences during encoding improves short-term recognition for serially presented probe tones. Furthermore, the serial position curves included micro-primacy and micro-recency effects, which are the hallmark characteristic of temporal grouping. Our results suggest that the encoding of serial order information in musical STM may be supported by temporal positional coding mechanisms similar to those reported in the verbal domain.     

Causal Networks or Causal Islands? The Representation of Mechanisms and the Transitivity of Causal Judgment

Knowledge of mechanisms is critical for causal reasoning. We contrasted two possible organizations of causal knowledge—an interconnected causal network, where events are causally connected without any boundaries delineating discrete mechanisms; or a set of disparate mechanisms—causal islands—such that events in different mechanisms are not thought to be related even when they belong to the same causal chain. To distinguish these possibilities, we tested whether people make transitive judgments about causal chains by inferring, given A causes B and B causes C, that A causes C. Specifically, causal chains schematized as one chunk or mechanism in semantic memory (e.g., exercising, becoming thirsty, drinking water) led to transitive causal judgments. On the other hand, chains schematized as multiple chunks (e.g., having sex, becoming pregnant, becoming nauseous) led to intransitive judgments despite strong intermediate links ((Experiments 1–3). Normative accounts of causal intransitivity could not explain these intransitive judgments (Experiments 4 and 5).     

Postural Mechanisms to Control Body Displacements in the Performance of Lateral Gaze Shifts

Medialateral postural control mechanisms (bodyweight distribution and center of pressure location) have been studied in static conditions. Our objective was to determine how these mechanisms are adjusted to perform voluntary movements, in our case 80° lateral gaze shifts at 0.125 Hz and 0.25 Hz. In healthy, young adults, we expected body marker (neck, lower back) and center of pressure displacements to be significantly greater in gaze shift conditions than in the stationary gaze condition. To explain these changes in center of pressure displacement, the amplitude contribution of both mechanisms was expected to increase significantly. All these results were found accordingly. Unexpectedly, the active contribution of the bodyweight distribution mechanism was negatively related to body marker displacements in the gaze shift conditions (ns in stationary condition). Moreover, changes in the contribution of the mechanisms were statistically weaker in effect size than changes in body displacement. However, the participants were not unstable because they performed the visual tasks as requested. We propose that the strength of medialateral postural control mechanisms may not only be strengthened to control challenging ML stance conditions but also slightly weakened to allow the performance of adequate body motions in ongoing tasks.     

Big Gods and other watcher mechanisms in the formation of large groups

Norenzayan's effort to integrate genetic and cultural evolution is a welcome advance over previous efforts, as is the attention he devotes to different levels of analysis from cognitive mechanisms to large group interactions. The scope of Norenzayan's argument, however, is bound to leave many scholars of religion feeling uneasy. The content of his model, which is most likely over specified, will need further testing in light of historical evidence. Comparison of Big Gods with Robert Bellah's Religion in Human Evolution (2011) highlights some of the choices Norenzayan made in designing his model and suggests ways it could be elaborated. Historians of religion who would like to help test his model could keep an eye out for ‘watcher mechanisms’ that might play more of a role than ‘moralizing Big Gods’ in some traditions and, thus, potentially offer an alternative route to large, anonymous, yet stable groups.     

基于双加工理论解释下信念偏差效应的神经机制

信念偏差效应是指人们已有的知识信念对逻辑推理的影响现象.对此,双加工理论认为这是由于信念偏向系统和逻辑分析系统之间的冲突所导致的.近年来,该理论得到来自认知神经科学证据的有力支持:一方面,基于功能磁共振成像(fMRI)、近红外光谱(NIRS)以及重复性经颅磁刺激(rTMS)等技术的研究从不同角度证实右侧前额皮层与信念偏差抑制有关;另一方面,基于脑电(ERP)的研究表明,晚期正成分和晚期负成分可能参与了不同推理类型下信念偏差效应的认知加工.未来的研究可以从工作记忆、不同加工阶段、推理前提本身可信度、实验分析、实验材料生态学效度以及思维训练等方面对信念偏差效应作进一步探索.     

Covert communication in laboratories, classrooms, and the truly real world

Hundreds of research studies have demonstrated that one person's expectations for the behavior of another person can actually affect that other person's behavior. These studies implicate the operation of processes of covert communication, communication that is subtle, largely nonverbal, and ordinarily unintended. The earliest studies of these processes showed that through their expectations, laboratory researchers unwittingly affected the responses of their research participants. Later studies showed that teachers' experimentally induced expectations about their pupils affected the pupils' intellectual performance. Most recently, studies of covert communication processes have extended to diverse contexts, such as the judicial and health care systems. For example, research indicates that judges' beliefs about the guilt of trial defendants can be unwittingly communicated to juries by the judges' nonverbal behavior during jury instruction. In addition, studies of covert communication in medical contexts show that physicians' effectiveness in persuading their patients to enter into treatment can be predicted from their tone of voice in talking to or about their patients. For example, one study showed that surgeons who used a bossy tone of voice when talking to their patients were more likely to be sued by their patients than were surgeons who used a more respectful tone. In sum, then, we have learned a great deal about the importance of subtle processes of nonverbal communication, but a great deal more is yet to be learned about these processes as they occur in the relatively sheltered context of laboratories and classrooms and in the rough-and-tumble of the truly real world beyond.     

Proximal and Distal Defense: A New Perspective on Unconscious Motivation

Death-related thoughts produce different effects on thought and behavior when they are in current focal attention and when they are on the fringes of consciousness. When such thoughts are conscious, people attempt to either remove them from consciousness or push death into the distant future by distorting their beliefs to logically imply that they have many remaining years to live. When such thoughts are highly accessible but outside current focal attention, people increase efforts to view themselves as persons of value living in a meaningful universe. In this way, awareness of the inevitability of death produces diverse effects on human thought and behavior that bear little obvious resemblance to the problem of death.     

错认总比错过好——面孔视错觉的发生机制及其应用

面孔视错觉现象表现为个体从其他事物中感知到并不存在的面孔。面孔视错觉要素已广泛应用于艺术、广告及商品中,起到吸引注意、促进消费的作用。同时,先前的研究通过采用各种范式,发现患者在面孔视错觉的产生上同常人的差异,以及视错觉与视幻觉之间的联系。根据视觉加工通路的不同,相关范式可分为视错觉监测范式,以及视错觉辨认范式。前者侧重于基于提取的类面孔特征所做出的快速预测,后者侧重于主观期望引导个体对物体特征的提取,两者最终均会影响到后续的认知判断。日后研究可从面孔视错觉的发生机制出发,结合自上而下和自下而上两种加工通路,为面孔视错觉产生机制提供理论依据,并拓宽该要素在临床诊断及商业广告领域上的应用。     

Afraid of one afraid of all: When threat associations spread across face-types

Fear can be acquired for objects not inherently associated with threat (e.g. birds), and this threat may generalize from prototypical to peripheral category members (e.g. crows vs. penguins). When categorizing people, pervasive stereotypes link Black men to assumed violence and criminality. Faces with Afrocentric features (prototypical) are more often associated with threat and criminality than non-Afrocentric (peripheral) faces regardless of whether the individual is Black or White. In this study, using a priming paradigm, threat associations related to negative racial stereotypes were tested as a vehicle for spreading fear across face-type categories. Results showed more negative than positive judgments for White face targets but only when the prime was primarily non-Afrocentric (i.e. Eurocentric). Black face targets were judged more negatively than positively regardless of prime. This suggests some cognitive processes related to threat generalizations of objects extend to complex social categories.