Attentional Limitations in Doing Two Tasks at Once

ABSTRACT— People generally have difficulty doing two tasks at once. To explain this fact, theorists have proposed that central processing—the thought-like stages following perceptual encoding and preceding response processing—takes place for only one task at a time. Because this bottleneck imposes severe limits on human cognitive processes, research has attempted to find exceptions. There is now solid evidence that, at least in the laboratory, the entire bottleneck can be completely bypassed under favorable combinations of circumstances. While these findings provide a ray of hope for enabling parallel multitasking in real-world scenarios, it will not be easy to take advantage of the combination of conditions that appear to be necessary.     

QUANTUM AND CONSCIOUSNESS: IN SEARCH OF A NEW PARADIGM

Abstract. Two fundamental issues raised by Lothar Schäfer are considered: (1) the question of a suitable paradigm within which the findings of quantum physics can be optimally interpreted and (2) the question of the assessment of the presence and importance of mind and consciousness in the universe. In regard to the former, I contend that the ideal of science is to interpret its findings in an optimally consistent and minimally speculative framework. In this context Schäfer's assertion that certain findings in quantum physics (those that relate to virtual states) indicate the presence of mind at the quantum level implies a dualistic and hence unnecessarily speculative assumption. In regard to the assessment of mind and consciousness, a consistent and parsimonious paradigm suggests that mind and consciousness are not part of a chain of events consisting of an admixture of physical and mental events but that physical events form a single, coherent set of events, and mental events another set, with the two sets related, as Teilhard (and a number of other philosophers, including White head) affirmed, as the “within” and the “without” (or the “mental pole” and the “physical pole”) of one and the same fundamental reality. This panpsychist as contrasted with Schäfer's dualist paradigm provides a single self‐consistent framework for the interpretation of quantum (and all natural) events while recognizing the presence of mind in the universe as the least speculative realist implication of our immediate experience of consciousness.     

Bayesian test and Kuhn’s paradigm

Kuhn’s theory of paradigm reveals a pattern of scientific progress, in which normal science alternates with scientific revolution. But Kuhn underrated too much the function of scientific test in his pattern, because he focuses all his attention on the hypothetico-deductive schema instead of Bayesian schema. This paper employs Bayesian schema to re-examine Kuhn’s theory of paradigm, to uncover its logical and rational components, and to illustrate the tensional structure of logic and belief, rationality and irrationality, in the process of scientific revolution. __________ Translated from Ziran Bianzhengfa Tongxun 自然辩证法通讯 (Journal of Dialectics of Nature), 2005 (6) by Zhang Jianfeng, proofread by Wang Dong     

Subjective reports of stimulus,response, and decision times in speeded tasks: How accurate are decision time reports?

Four experiments examined how accurately participants can report the times of their own decisions. Within an auditory reaction time (RT) task, participants reported the time at which (a) the tone was presented, (b) they decided on the response, or (c) the response key was pressed. Decision time reports were checked for plausibility against the actual RTs, and we compared the effects of experimental manipulations on these two measures to see whether the reported decision times showed appropriate effects. In addition, we estimated the amount of error associated with individual decision time reports by checking how often participants’ decision time reports were implausibly early (i.e., before stimulus onset) or late (i.e., after response), and by using several quantitative models. Overall, the results suggest that decision time reports are not very accurate but they may be usable for some purposes.     

启动情绪和呈现方式对错误记忆的影响

采用DRM范式(Deese-Roediger-Mc Dermott paradigm),考察了启动情绪状态下词表项目的呈现方式对错误记忆的影响。结果发现:(1)启动情绪主效应不显著。(2)词表项目的呈现方式主效应显著。(3)启动情绪与呈现方式间存在交互作用。在愉快启动情绪状态下分组呈现的错误再认率明显高于随机呈现条件;当词表项目分组呈现时,三种情绪状态下的错误再认率有显著差异,其中愉快启动情绪下的错误再认率最高,其次是悲伤情绪,最低的为对照组—非启动情绪状态。说明启动的愉快情绪增强了对关键诱饵的连续激活累积效应,从而导致对关键诱饵较高的错误再认率。     

联系可觉察度对错误记忆的影响

本研究采用DRM词表学习法和图片刺激对学习法两种研究范式考察了关键诱饵与学习项目间联系可觉察度对错误记忆的影响。结果显示,学习项目与关键诱饵的联系可觉察度对错误记忆起重要作用:在词表学习范式中,随着联系可觉察度的提高,被试觉察到的词表的关联性更高,错误记忆就更容易发生;在刺激对学习范式中,随着联系可觉察度的提高,学习项目和关键诱饵间的差异区分性提高,导致二者间的关联性降低,从而减少错误记忆。本研究为进一步揭示错误记忆的机制、更好地理解记忆及其机制提供了新的证据,并对如何提高记忆效率具有一定的实际应用价值。     

论主客同一的心理学研究范式

本文考察了主客同一研究范式的内涵、发展脉络及历史地位。作者认为,主客同一研究范式体现着心理学的人文科学定向,张扬的是人有别于自然物的“天使”形象,展示的是将人的心理、行为视作“生活”,试图从内部体验、直观以达成对人的独特本质洞察的“内观心理学”境界。它和主客二分研究范式均可在未来心理学中获得各自合理存在的空间。     

句法启动研究的范式及其在语言理解中的争论

重复是一种非常重要的行为现象。在心理语言学领域, 句法启动是重复的一种非常独特的表现形式, 有助于推进研究者更好地理解语言是如何表征和加工的。在系统梳理文献的基础上, 归纳了句法启动研究使用的句子类型, 详细阐述了句法启动研究的实验范式, 即句子复述－图片描述范式、句子补全范式、句子回忆范式和视觉情境眼动范式, 指出了不同范式的优缺点; 系统探讨了语言理解中句法启动研究的核心争论, 即句子理解中的启动是策略的, 语义的, 还是句法的; 如果存在句法启动效应, 那么该效应是词汇驱动的, 还是词汇独立的。最后, 对语言理解中句法启动效应在未来研究中需解决的问题进行了展望。     

The role of structural consistency between categories and attributes in hierarchical category learning

This study investigated how consistency between categories and attributes determines attribute selection in hierarchical category learning. Participants learned six categories for which number and color were equally relevant attributes, followed by a transfer task, to test which attribute was used. Before that, half of them learned embedding higher-level categories for which numbers were likely to be used. Orthogonal to this factor, the hierarchical structure was made explicit for half of them by category labels. The results showed that participants used numbers in the prior learning, but that the use of numbers was inhibited in the subsequent six-category learning task. However, this inhibitory effect was reduced when the hierarchical structure was explicit. The pattern of results suggests that attribute selection is determined by structural consistency between categories and attributes, not by a prior use of an attribute.     

错误记忆的产生是否依赖对词表的有意加工：无意识激活的证据

使用DRM范式考察了错误记忆产生过程中无意识激活的存在与否。通过操纵实验任务和呈现方式,导致被试对学习词表的无意加工和不同水平的有意加工。结果发现,无意加工时所产生的对关键诱饵的无意识激活足以导致错误记忆效应,说明对词表的有意加工并非错误记忆产生所必需。随着对词表有意加工水平的提高,多次无意识激活的累积可导致增强的错误记忆效应,且表现出与真实记忆的共变,而阻断连续激活累积的因素可有效降低错误记忆