On the time-course of adjacent and non-adjacent transposed-letter priming

We compared effects of adjacent (e.g. atricle-ARTICLE) and non-adjacent (e.g. actirle-ARTICLE) transposed-letter (TL) primes in an event-related potential (ERP) study using the sandwich priming technique. TL priming was measured relative to the standard double-substitution condition. We found significantly stronger priming effects for adjacent transpositions than non-adjacent transpositions (with two intervening letters) in behavioural responses (lexical decision latencies), and the adjacent priming effects emerged earlier in the ERP signal, at around 200-ms post-target onset. Non-adjacent priming effects emerged about 50 ms later and were short-lived, being significant only in the 250- to 300-ms time-window. Adjacent transpositions on the other hand continued to produce priming in the N400 time-window (300- to 500-ms post-target onset). This qualitatively different pattern of priming effects for adjacent and non-adjacent transpositions is discussed in the light of different accounts of letter transposition effects and the utility of drawing a distinction between positional flexibility and positional noise.     

Orientation perception in rhesus monkeys (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Macaca mulatta</Emphasis>)

It was previously demonstrated that monkeys divide the orientation continuum into cardinal and oblique categories. However, it is still unclear how monkeys perceive within-category orientations. To better understand monkeys' perception of orientation, two experiments were conducted using five monkeys. In experiment 1, they were trained to identify either one cardinal or one oblique target orientation out of six orientations. The results showed that they readily identified the cardinal target whether it was oriented horizontally or vertically. However, a longer training period was needed to identify the oblique target orientation regardless of its degree and direction of tilt. In experiment 2, the same monkeys were trained to identify two-oblique target orientations out of six orientations. These orientations were paired, either sharing the degree of tilt, direction of tilt, or neither property. The results showed that the monkeys readily identified oblique orientations when they had either the same degree or direction of tilt. However, when the target orientations had neither the same degree nor direction of tilt, the animals had difficulty in identifying them. In summary, horizontal and vertical orientations are individually processed, indicating that monkeys do not have a category for cardinal orientation, but they may recognize cardinal orientations as non-obliques. In addition, monkeys efficiently abstract either the degree or the direction of tilt from oblique orientations, but they have difficulty combining these features to identify an oblique orientation. Thus, not all orientations within the oblique category are equally perceived.     

疼痛对心理的影响及其机制

疼痛对个体的认知、情绪等心理过程有消极影响。疼痛会干扰个体的选择性和持续性注意, 损害其记忆功能。长期疼痛还会诱发焦虑和抑郁等消极情绪。目前疼痛的机制主要有闸门控制理论和神经网络理论, 分别从脊髓水平和大脑水平解释疼痛与心理的交互作用。大脑对疼痛信息的编码方式包括特异化理论、模块化理论和中枢整合机制学说。未来研究应注意实验室研究与临床研究的差异, 区分急、慢性疼痛的特有机制, 进一步探讨疼痛理论的合理性。     

小学儿童空间物体位置编码( Ⅱ)

采用找物范式研究小学7、9、11岁儿童利用线与线之间的关系对目标物位置进行编码的认知发展。结果表明:交点位置编码和平行线上对应点编码认知成绩的年龄效应显著。实验任务对儿童认知成绩的影响不同,11岁组儿童交点位置编码认知成绩显著好于平行线上对应点编码认知成绩,7岁组和9岁组两个任务的认知成绩差异不显著。     

Noise,uncertainty, and interest: Predictive coding and cognitive penetration

This paper concerns how extant theorists of predictive coding conceptualize and explain possible instances of cognitive penetration. Section 1 offers brief clarification of the predictive coding framework and of cognitive penetration. Section 2 develops more precise ways that the predictive coding framework can explain genuine top-down causal effects on perceptual experience. Section 3 develops these insights further with an eye towards tracking one extant criterion for cognitive penetration, namely, that the relevant cognitive effects on perception must be sufficiently direct. In Section 4, we analyze and criticize a claim made by some theorists of predictive coding, namely, that (interesting) instances of cognitive penetration tend to occur in perceptual circumstances involving substantial noise or uncertainty. We argue that, when applied, the claim fails to explain (or perhaps even be consistent with) a large range of important and uncontroversially interesting possible cases of cognitive penetration. We conclude with a general speculation about how the recent work on the predictive mind may influence the current dialectic concerning top-down effects on perception.     

Expectation creates something out of nothing: The role of attention in iconic memory reconsidered

Conscious experience is modulated by attention and expectation, yet is believed to be independent of attention. The experiments on iconic memory (IM) are usually taken as support for this claim. However, a recent experiment demonstrated that when attention is diverted away from the IM letter display subjects fail to see the absence of IM letters. Here we contribute to the ongoing debate by overcoming experimental shortcomings of this previous experiment, by measuring subjective visibility and by testing the effect of the post-cue. We were able to replicate these earlier findings and extend them by demonstrating that subjects who do not realize the absence of letters perceive illusory letters. This result means that there is still phenomenal consciousness, even when attention is diverted. Expectation creates illusory content that overwrites valid IM content. Taken together these findings suggest that the present experimental paradigm is not appropriate to make claims about IM content.     

社会性预期优势效应的神经机制

社会性预期优势效应是指个体在预期条件下的信息加工能力显著优于非预期条件。探讨社会性预期优势效应的神经机制, 是心理学家和认知神经科学家关注的一项重要课题。社会性预期编码模型可以为预期静默效应(预期刺激引起的神经活动减弱)提供理论解释, 但该模型不能解释社会性预期刺激诱发的增强神经活动。因此, 研究1和研究2将考察无意识和意识社会性注意在社会性预期编码模型中的作用, 从而将它们整合到该模型中。研究3不再局限于对社会性预期编码模型的考察, 而是扩展到对预期转换机制的探讨, 最终将社会性预期编码模型和预期转换机制整合在预期节俭化框架之下。对于社会性预期优势效应神经机制的研究不仅能够完善社会性预期编码模型, 还有助于拓宽社会性预期研究的视角。     

Holographic string encoding

In this article, we apply a special case of holographic representations to letter position coding. We translate different well-known schemes into this format, which uses distributed representations and supports constituent structure. We show that in addition to these brain-like characteristics, performances on a standard benchmark of behavioral effects are improved in the holographic format relative to the standard localist one. This notably occurs because of emerging properties in holographic codes, like transposition and edge effects, for which we give formal demonstrations. Finally, we outline the limits of the approach as well as its possible future extensions.     

Rhythmic structure facilitates learning from auditory input in newborn infants

Rhythm and metrical regularities are fundamental properties of music and poetry - and all of those are used in the interaction between infants and their parents. Music and rhythm perception have been shown to support auditory and language skills. Here we compare newborn infants’ learning from a song, a nursery rhyme, and normal speech for the first time in the same study. Infants’ electrophysiological brain responses revealed that the nursery rhyme condition facilitated learning from auditory input, and thus led to successful detection of deviations. These findings suggest that coincidence of prosodic cue patterns and to-be-learned items is more important than the format of the input. Overall, the present results support the view that rhythm is likely to create a template for future events, which allows auditory system to predict prospective input and thus facilitates language development.