Behavior of rats under fixed consecutive number schedules: effects of drugs of abuse.

Four rats responded under a simple fixed consecutive number schedule in which eight or more consecutive responses on the run lever, followed by a single response on the reinforcement lever, produced the food reinforcer. Under this simple schedule, dose-response curves were determined for diazepam, morphine, pentobarbital, and phencyclidine. The rats were then trained to respond under a multiple fixed consecutive number schedule in which a discriminative stimulus signaled when the response requirement on the run lever had been completed in one of the two fixed consecutive number component schedules. Under control conditions, the percentage of reinforced runs under the multiple-schedule component with the discriminative stimulus added was much higher than the percentage of reinforced runs under the multiple-schedule component without the discriminative stimulus. All of the drugs decreased the percentage of reinforced runs under each of the fixed consecutive number schedules by increasing the conditional probability of short run lengths. This effect was most consistently produced by morphine. The drugs produced few differences in responding between the multiple fixed consecutive number components. Responding under the simple fixed consecutive number schedule, however, was affected at lower doses of the drugs than was responding under the same fixed consecutive number schedule when it was a component of the multiple schedule. This result may be due to the difference in schedule context or, perhaps, to the order of the experiments.     

The relationship between discrimination and memory for spacing and feature changes in houses

Adults need to discriminate between stimuli and recognize those previously seen. For faces, feature changes (e.g., different eyes) and spacing changes (e.g., distances between eyes) are important cues. In two experiments, we assessed the influence of these on discrimination and recognition of houses, a commonly used control in face studies. In both experiments, discrimination was better for feature than spacing changes. Memory for spacing changes was generally poor but aided by extra learning and intermixing change types. Conversely, memory for features was good, especially when there were few houses, and change type was blocked. Unexpectedly, memory was best for differences that might signal something about occupants (e.g., changes to garden or bins), perhaps akin to hairstyles for faces. Overall, results are consistent with previous work showing poor discrimination of spacing in non-face objects and extends them to show that, unlike for faces, spacing differences are also not well remembered.     

个体近似数量系统与其数学能力之间的关系：发展研究的证据

近似数量系统在个体数学能力的发展中起着重要的作用, 二者之间的关系受到年龄因素的影响。主要表现为, 随着年龄的增长, 相关程度逐渐减弱, 二者之间关系的作用机制可能由基数知识中介转变为多种中介变量的共同作用。未来可采用更严格的实验设计和多种研究方法考察各年龄段儿童近似数量系统与不同数学能力之间关系的发展趋势、因果方向、关键转折点和潜在机制, 以更好地理解近似数量系统在个体数学能力发展中所起的作用。     

大小数量加工机制分离现象的ERP研究

大量行为研究表明,个体对4以上非符号数量的加工存在加工机制分离现象,但是相关的神经机制研究还很少。本研究选取21名大学生被试,结合ERP技术和数量判断任务,以数量比率效应为指标,比较4以上不同大小数量加工的神经反应模式。结果显示,大小数量加工条件下数量比率效应对P2p成分幅值的调节模式存在显著差异。这支持了小数量加工基于数量属性,大数量加工基于非数量属性的观点。     

Moving attention along the mental number line in preschool age: Study of the operational momentum in 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children's non‐symbolic arithmetic

People tend to underestimate subtraction and overestimate addition outcomes and to associate subtraction with the left side and addition with the right side. These two phenomena are collectively labeled 'operational momentum' (OM) and thought to have their origins in the same mechanism of 'moving attention along the mental number line'. OM in arithmetic has never been tested in children at the preschool age, which is critical for numerical development. In this study, 3–5 years old were tested with non‐symbolic addition and subtraction tasks. Their level of understanding of counting principles (CP) was assessed using the give‐a‐number task. When the second operand's cardinality was 5 or 6 (Experiment 1), the child's reaction time was shorter in addition/subtraction tasks after cuing attention appropriately to the right/left. Adding/subtracting one element (Experiment 2) revealed a more complex developmental pattern. Before acquiring CP, the children showed generalized overestimation bias. Underestimation in addition and overestimation in subtraction emerged only after mastering CP. No clear spatial‐directional OM pattern was found, however, the response time to rightward/leftward cues in addition/subtraction again depended on stage of mastering CP. Although the results support the hypothesis about engagement of spatial attention in early numerical processing, they point to at least partial independence of the spatial‐directional and magnitude OM. This undermines the canonical version of the number line‐based hypothesis. Mapping numerical magnitudes to space may be a complex process that undergoes reorganization during the period of acquisition of symbolic representations of numbers. Some hypotheses concerning the role of spatial‐numerical associations in numerical development are proposed.     

Frege's ‘On the Concept of Number’ (1891) – an unnoticed publication

A short piece by Frege, heretofore overlooked, containing a précis of his views on the concept of number, is presented, after some very brief questions about Frege's possible involvement in the wider intellectual milieu.     

视觉工作记忆中的特征捆绑

特征捆绑是认知科学和神经科学研究的前沿问题,近来已经成为研究者们关于意识问题争论的焦点所在。很多心理活动涉及复杂对象各种特征的捆绑,在工作记忆中保持这些捆绑的机制是心理加工得以有效进行的基础。视觉工作记忆中的特征捆绑近来成为研究热点之一,有关研究大多凭借变化检测范式和单刺激探测范式,探讨了视觉工作记忆中捆绑特征的保持是否需要注意参与,以及分离特征存储和捆绑特征存储的关系等问题,但目前这些问题仍都没有明确的答案。     

“All I remember is the black eye”: A distinctive facial feature harms eyewitness identification

Many crimes occur in which a perpetrator has a distinctive facial feature, such as a tattoo or black eye, but few eyewitness identification (ID) studies have involved such a feature. We conducted an experiment to determine how eyewitness ID performance is impacted by a distinctive facial feature, and how police could deal with this issue. Participants (N = 4,218) studied a target face with or without a black eye, and later viewed a simultaneous photo lineup either containing the target or not. For those who saw a target with a black eye, this feature was either replicated among all lineup members or was removed. The black eye harmed empirical discriminability regardless of replication or removal, which did not differ. However, participants responded more conservatively when the black eye was removed, compared to replication. Lastly, immediate confidence was consistently indicative of accuracy.