Categorizing identity from facial motion

It has been suggested that acronyms like BBC are processed like real words. This claim has been based on improved performance with acronyms in the Reicher–Wheeler task, the letter string matching task, the visual feature integration task, and the N400 component in event-related potential (ERP) studies. Unfortunately, in all these tasks performance on acronyms resembled performance on pseudowords more than performance on words. To further assess the similarity of acronyms and words, we focused on the meaning of the acronyms and used masked priming to examine whether target words can be primed to the same extent with associatively related acronyms as with associatively related words. Such priming was possible at a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 84 ms. In addition, the priming of the acronyms did not depend on the letter case in which they were presented: The target word “books” was primed as much by isbn and iSbN as by ISBN.     

Priming of reach trajectory when observing actions: Hand-centred effects

When another person's actions are observed it appears that these actions are simulated, such that similar motor processes are triggered in the observer. Much evidence suggests that such simulation concerns the achievement of behavioural goals, such as grasping a particular object, and is less concerned with the specific nature of the action, such as the path the hand takes to reach the goal object. We demonstrate that when observing another person reach around an obstacle, an observer's subsequent reach has an increased curved trajectory, reflecting motor priming of reach path. This priming of reach trajectory via action observation can take place under a variety of circumstances: with or without a shared goal, and when the action is seen from a variety of perspectives. However, of most importance, the reach path priming effect is only evoked if the obstacle avoided by another person is within the action (peripersonal) space of the observer.     

Facilitation versus inhibition in the masked priming same–different matching task

In the past years, growing attention has been devoted to the masked priming same–different task introduced by Norris and Kinoshita (2008 Norris, D. and Kinoshita, S. 2008. Perception as evidence accumulation and Bayesian inference: Insights from masked priming. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 137: 433–455. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Journal of Experimental Psychology: General). However, a number of researchers have raised concerns on the nature of the cognitive processes underlying this task—in particular the suspicion that masked priming effects in this task are mostly inhibitory in nature and may be affected by probe–prime contingency. To examine the pattern of facilitative/inhibitory priming effects in this task, we conducted two experiments with an incremental priming paradigm using four stimulus–onset asynchronies (13, 27, 40, and 53 ms). Experiment 1 was conducted under a predictive-contingency scenario (probe–prime–target; i.e., “same” trials: HOUSE–house–HOUSE vs. house–water–HOUSE; “different” trials: field–house–HOUSE vs. field–water–HOUSE), while Experiment 2 employed a zero-contingency scenario (i.e., “same” trials: HOUSE–house–HOUSE vs. house–water–HOUSE; “different” trials: field–field–HOUSE vs. field–water–HOUSE). Results revealed that, for “same” responses, both facilitation and inhibition increased linearly with prime duration in the two scenarios, whereas the pattern of data varied for “different” responses, as predicted by the Bayesian Reader model.     

Embodied representation of the body contains veridical spatial information

In two experiments, the extent to which mental body representations contain spatial information was examined. Participants were asked to compare distances between various body parts. Similar to what happens when people compare distances on a real visual stimulus, they were faster as the distance differences between body parts became larger (Experiment 1), and this effect could not (only) be explained by the crossing of major bodily categories (umbilicus to knee vs. knee to ankle; Experiment 2). In addition, participants also performed simple animate/inanimate verification on a set of nouns. The nouns describing animate items were names of body parts. A spatial priming effect was found: Verification was faster for body part items preceded by body parts in close spatial proximity. This suggests automatic activation of spatial body information. Taken together, results from the distance comparison task and the property verification task showed that mental body representations contain both categorical and more metric spatial information. These findings are further discussed in terms of recent embodied cognition theories.     

Getting to know you: From view-dependent to view-invariant repetition priming for unfamiliar faces

Recent research suggests that repetition priming (RP) for unfamiliar faces is highly view dependent and is eliminated when the viewpoint of target faces changes between study and test. The current research examined whether increased familiarity with novel faces from a single viewpoint at study would support RP from an alternative viewpoint at test. Participants passively viewed novel face images from a single viewpoint at study (i.e., either front or three-quarters), with half of the images seen once and half seen on five occasions. During a sex classification task at test, participants were faster to respond to face images seen from the same view as that at study than they were to previously unseen distractor faces for both single exposure faces and faces seen on five occasions (i.e., standard RP). When, however, face images at test were shown from a different viewpoint from that at study, RP only occurred for faces viewed on five occasions.     

Exploring the additive effects of stimulus quality and word frequency: The influence of local and list-wide prime relatedness

Stimulus quality and word frequency produce additive effects in lexical decision performance, whereas the semantic priming effect interacts with both stimulus quality and word frequency effects. This pattern places important constraints on models of visual word recognition. In Experiment 1, all three variables were investigated within a single speeded pronunciation study. The results indicated that the joint effects of stimulus quality and word frequency were dependent upon prime relatedness. In particular, an additive effect of stimulus quality and word frequency was found after related primes, and an interactive effect was found after unrelated primes. It was hypothesized that this pattern reflects an adaptive reliance on related prime information within the experimental context. In Experiment 2, related primes were eliminated from the list, and the interactive effects of stimulus quality and word frequency found following unrelated primes in Experiment 1 reverted to additive effects for the same unrelated prime conditions. The results are supportive of a flexible lexical processor that adapts to both local prime information and global list-wide context.     

Examining the lag effect under incidental encoding: Contributions of semantic priming and reminding

Memory is better when repeated learning events are spaced than when they are massed (spacing effect), as well as when material is processed semantically than when it is processed graphemically (levels-of-processing effect). Examination of the relationship between levels of processing and spacing for both deeply and shallowly encoded items has shown a spacing effect for items processed deeply, but not shallowly. A semantic priming account of spacing was proposed to explain the interaction between levels of processing and spacing on memory. The current study manipulated levels of processing and the amount of spacing (lag) that occurred between repetitions of items that were incidentally encoded. Results from Experiments 1A and 1B revealed lag effects in test performance when items were deeply and shallowly encoded. Although these findings are inconsistent with a semantic priming account, they can be interpreted within a reminding account, which is explored in Experiment 2. Results from the second experiment indicate that bringing reminding under conscious control benefited items that were presented at a long lag but not at a shorter lag. Together, this study provides evidence that is difficult to accommodate with a semantic priming account of spacing and instead provides additional support for a reminding account suggesting that automatic and controlled processes may both underlie the reminding process.     

Current versus past ambiguity in intertrial priming

Visual search is speeded when the target is repeated from trial to trial compared to when it changes, suggesting that selective attention learns from previous events. Such intertrial effects are stronger when there is more competition for selection, for example in ambiguous displays where the target is accompanied by a salient distractor. Here we investigate whether this is because the competition strengthens the learning itself, or because it allows for a learned representation to exert a greater effect. The results point to the latter. Observers looked for a colour-defined target that could repeat or change from trial to trial. A salient distractor could be present on the current trial, the previous trial, both, or neither. Intertrial effects were greater when a distractor was present on the current trial, suggesting that a primed target representation is more beneficial under conditions of competition. In contrast, distractor presence on the previous trial had no effects whatsoever, indicating that the learning process itself is not affected by competition. This suggests that the source of the learning resides at postselection stages, whereas the effects may occur at the perceptual level.     

Recognition advantage of happy faces in extrafoveal vision: Featural and affective processing

Happy, surprised, disgusted, angry, sad, fearful, and neutral facial expressions were presented extrafoveally (2.5° away from fixation) for 150 ms, followed by a probe word for recognition (Experiment 1) or a probe scene for affective valence evaluation (Experiment 2). Eye movements were recorded and gaze-contingent masking prevented foveal viewing of the faces. Results showed that (a) happy expressions were recognized faster than others in the absence of fixations on the faces, (b) the same pattern emerged when the faces were presented upright or upside-down, (c) happy prime faces facilitated the affective evaluation of emotionally congruent probe scenes, and (d) such priming effects occurred at 750 but not at 250 ms prime–probe stimulus–onset asynchrony. This reveals an advantage in the recognition of happy faces outside of overt visual attention, and suggests that this recognition advantage relies initially on featural processing and involves processing of positive affect at a later stage.     

Eye movement indices of memory reveal re-processing of visual information: Evidence from Chinese characters

ABSTRACT

This study examined the nature of the memory effect revealed in eye movements. Chinese characters were processed visually, phonologically or semantically during the study phase. The proportion of viewing time during the subsequent recognition test was compared between characters associated with different types of encoding. To eliminate the influence of response selection on eye movements, participants were asked to select the unstudied character and make the selection after the viewing period ended. Results showed that the proportion of viewing time in the recognition test was larger for visually encoded characters than it was for semantically (Experiment 1) and phonologically encoded (Experiment 3) characters, even after the participants had presumably made the decision. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the proportion of viewing time between phonologically and semantically encoded characters (Experiment 2). These findings suggest that the viewing time change in eye movements during the recognition test is an obligatory consequence of re-processing the visual information encoded during the study phase.