Emotional facilitation effect in the picture–word interference task: An ERP study

In this paper, we aimed to verify the emotional facilitation effect in the picture–word interference task using event-related potentials. Twenty-one healthy subjects were asked to categorize the emotional valences of pictures accompanied by emotionally congruent, either centrally or laterally positioned Chinese words. For both the foveal and lateral word presentations, the reaction times were faster compared to the picture-only presentation. Compared to the picture-only presentation, P200 amplitude increased under the foveal word presentation condition and decreased under the lateral word presentation condition, indicating that more attentional resources were required when an accompanying word was in the center of a picture than when the word was in the lateral position. Latency of P300 was shorter in response to picture–word stimuli irrespective of word position, indicating that an emotionally congruent word facilitated the emotional processing of the target picture, which verified the emotional facilitation effect and was consistent with the results in psychology. The late positive component was more positive when the picture–word stimuli were more positive, which reflected the feature of positivity offset. The findings suggest that the time window for an emotional facilitation effect may be limited to processing aspects associated with P300 (i.e., affective evaluation).     

汉语单音节词汇产生中的激活反馈

采取图画-词汇干扰实验范式,探索汉语词汇产生中词条选择和音韵编码两个阶段之间是否存在激活的反馈。实验一探索的是字形激活能否反馈至语义层产生语义激活,结果发现,与无关条件相比,目标图画(如“锯”)的字形中介(“镇”)的语义相关字(“村”)条件显著地延长了图画命名的时间。这表明在汉语词汇产生过程中,字形层的激活能反馈至语义层。实验二探索的是语音激活能否反馈至语义层产生语义激活,结果发现,与无关条件相比,目标图画(“梨”)的语音中介(“厘”)的语义相关字(“毫”)条件并未显著地影响图画命名的时间。这表明语音层的激活不能反馈至语义层,或者反馈回的激活太微弱不能影响图画命名过程。实验一和二的结果更倾向于支持词汇产生中词条选择和音韵编码两个阶段独立的观点。     

Task choice and semantic interference in picture naming

Evidence from dual-task performance indicates that speakers prefer not to select simultaneous responses in picture naming and another unrelated task, suggesting a response selection bottleneck in naming. In particular, when participants respond to tones with a manual response and name pictures with superimposed semantically related or unrelated distractor words, semantic interference in naming tends to be constant across stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between the tone stimulus and the picture–word stimulus. In the present study, we examine whether semantic interference in picture naming depends on SOA in case of a task choice (naming the picture vs reading the word of a picture–word stimulus) based on tones. This situation requires concurrent processing of the tone stimulus and the picture–word stimulus, but not a manual response to the tones. On each trial, participants either named a picture or read aloud a word depending on the pitch of a tone, which was presented simultaneously with picture–word onset or 350 ms or 1000 ms before picture–word onset. Semantic interference was present with tone pre-exposure, but absent when tone and picture-word stimulus were presented simultaneously. Against the background of the available studies, these results support an account according to which speakers tend to avoid concurrent response selection, but can engage in other types of concurrent processing, such as task choices.     

Memory Without Consolidation: Temporal Distinctiveness Explains Retroactive Interference

Is consolidation needed to account for retroactive interference in free recall? Interfering mental activity during the retention interval of a memory task impairs performance, in particular if the interference occurs in temporal proximity to the encoding of the to‐be‐remembered (TBR) information. There are at least two rival theoretical accounts of this temporal gradient of retroactive interference. The cognitive neuroscience literature has suggested neural consolidation is a pivotal factor determining item recall. According to this account, interfering activity interrupts consolidation processes that would otherwise stabilize the memory representations of TBR items post‐encoding. Temporal distinctiveness theory, by contrast, proposes that the retrievability of items depends on their isolation in psychological time. According to this theory, information processed after the encoding of TBR material will reduce the temporal distinctiveness of the TBR information. To test between these accounts, implementations of consolidation were added to the SIMPLE model of memory and learning. We report data from two experiments utilizing a two‐list free recall paradigm. Modeling results imply that SIMPLE was able to model the data and did not benefit from the addition of consolidation. It is concluded that the temporal gradient of retroactive interference cannot be taken as evidence for memory consolidation.     

Mapping self‐reported to behavioral impulsiveness: The role of task parameters

Despite being regarded as indicators of a common psychological capacity, behavioral and self‐reported measures of impulsiveness have been found to barely correlate with each other. Acknowledging the construct's multidimensional nature, the present study set out to map dissociable components of behavioral self‐control (delay discounting, response inhibition) onto lower‐order facets of self‐reported impulsiveness. In addition, we examined whether the relationship between response inhibition and self‐reported impulsiveness depends on the balance between facilitative and interfering priming processes involved in a laboratory task. In two consecutive studies, 185 participants completed laboratory self‐control tasks as well as self‐report questionnaires designed to measure facets of impulsiveness. Correlational analyses revealed an association between subscales of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) and response inhibition in a go/no‐go paradigm involving simultaneously presented task‐irrelevant distractors. This association vanished when an onset asynchrony between distractor and target stimuli was introduced. Previous findings regarding correlations between BIS subscales and delay discounting or intra‐individual response variability could not be replicated. Results indicate that the relationship between response inhibition and self‐reported impulsiveness critically varies as a function of subtle task parameters. Focusing on these procedural details and the multidimensionality of self‐reported impulsiveness might allow for a more differentiated analysis of the convergent validity of self‐control measures.     

大学生心理咨询中价值干预的处理原则

依据大学生的心理特点,提出大学生心理咨询中价值干预的处理原则。即两种价值干预并重的原则、心理咨询的原则、接纳和共情的原则、沟通和澄清的原则、修正和艺术的原则。重点阐述在接纳和共情的基础上,咨询者既能保持对自身价值观的高度自觉,又能帮助来访者澄清自身的价值观。     

Trial distinctiveness in visuospatial working memory: effects on individual differences

ABSTRACT

Previous research has shown that proactive interference (PI) negatively affects performance on working memory (WM) tasks, particularly when to-be-remembered items are similar across trials, and that individuals with low WM spans are more susceptible to PI than those with high spans. The two experiments of the present study further explored individual differences in susceptibility to PI in the visuospatial domain. The similarity of the to-be-remembered locations was manipulated across trials by varying whether locations were presented in different colours and/or accompanied by unique sounds. It was hypothesised that these manipulations would reduce PI, improving participants’ memory. In addition, because of their increased susceptibility to PI, it also was hypothesised that low spans would benefit more than high spans from increases in distinctiveness. The results of both experiments were consistent with these hypotheses, suggesting that even low-span individuals can overcome the effects of PI, given the right task support.     

Age differences in proactive interference in verbal and visuospatial working memory

Abstract

In a free recall situation, subjects can predict, with some degree of accuracy, which words they will subsequently recall. This study focused on the question of why subjects often recall words to which they assign low prediction ratings. This problem was approached by comparing the properties of recall-not-predicted (RNP) and recall-predicted (RP) words which appeared in subjects' recall protocols. No differences were found between the two types of items (RNP and RP) in retrieval monitoring. The two types of items were differentiated by whether subjects could recollect the actual occurrence of the recalled items in the study list (“remember” responses) or not (“know” responses). Furthermore, the recall of RNP items, but not RP items, was improved by retrieval prompts. These results were taken to support the position that weakly encoded items may be recalled if they encounter a highly favourable retrieval environment, not anticipated by subjects during study.     

About the locus of the distractor frequency effect: Evidence from the production of clitic pronouns

In this study, we report results from two experiments in which pictures were shown with superimposed distractors that varied along two dimensions: frequency (high vs. low) and semantic relation with respect to the picture (related vs. unrelated). In one condition of Experiment 1, participants named pictures with a noun utterance; in the other condition of Experiment 1 and in Experiment 2 participants named pictures with a pronominal utterance. Low frequency distractor words produced greater interference with respect to high frequency words in noun production, but not in pronoun production. Critically, a semantic interference effect, greater interference in the semantically related than unrelated condition, was reported in both experiments, suggesting that distractor words were equally processed in both noun and pronoun conditions. These results are discussed in the context of current models of picture–word interference.