Should metacognition be measured by logistic regression?

Are logistic regression slopes suitable to quantify metacognitive sensitivity, i.e. the efficiency with which subjective reports differentiate between correct and incorrect task responses? We analytically show that logistic regression slopes are independent from rating criteria in one specific model of metacognition, which assumes (i) that rating decisions are based on sensory evidence generated independently of the sensory evidence used for primary task responses and (ii) that the distributions of evidence are logistic. Given a hierarchical model of metacognition, logistic regression slopes depend on rating criteria. According to all considered models, regression slopes depend on the primary task criterion. A reanalysis of previous data revealed that massive numbers of trials are required to distinguish between hierarchical and independent models with tolerable accuracy. It is argued that researchers who wish to use logistic regression as measure of metacognitive sensitivity need to control the primary task criterion and rating criteria.     

Bridging novelty and familiarity-based recognition memory: A matter of timing

Novelty detection is essential to adapt to changes. However, the relationship between novelty detection and visual recognition memory remains unclear. To characterize the temporal dynamics of novelty and its connection to familiarity, we probed early behavioural performance of novelty and familiarity in 31 participants using a speeded go/no-go recognition task with a 600-ms response deadline. Responses to familiarity and novelty produced symmetrical biases and correlated accuracies and biases, but novelty decisions were less accurate and had slower minimal reaction times (410?ms). These processes thus appear to be independent, as suggested by a more efficient system in the case of familiarity, but with common factors bringing overlapping contributions to both processes. This may possibly be explained by the more fluent processing of repeated stimuli, but with familiarity and novelty potentially relying on one decision criterion, as suggested by the correlated and remarkably symmetrical biases. This study supports models that conceptualize novelty and familiarity decisions as two partly overlapping processes.     

Attentional bias for body and food in eating disorders: increased distraction, speeded detection, or both?

Previous research suggests that eating disorder patients show an attentional bias for body- and food-related information. However, so far little is known about the mechanisms that underlie the attentional favoring of this particular information in eating disorder patients. In the present study, we used both a body and a food visual search task to study speeded detection and increased distraction in eating disorder patients (n=67) and healthy controls (n=60). Compared with controls, eating disorder patients showed evidence of speeded detection of body-related information, and increased distraction by food information. These results suggest that the mechanism underlying the biased attentional allocation of eating disorder patients varies, and is dependent upon the type of information they are presented with.     

The cognitive locus of distraction by acoustic novelty in the cross-modal oddball task

Unexpected stimuli are often able to distract us away from a task at hand. The present study seeks to explore some of the mechanisms underpinning this phenomenon. Studies of involuntary attention capture using the oddball task have repeatedly shown that infrequent auditory changes in a series of otherwise repeating sounds trigger an automatic response to the novel or deviant stimulus. This attention capture has been shown to disrupt participants' behavioral performance in a primary task, even when distractors and targets are asynchronous and presented in distinct sensory modalities. This distraction effect is generally considered as a by-product of the capture of attention by the novel or deviant stimulus, but the exact cognitive locus of this effect and the interplay between attention capture and target processing has remained relatively ignored. The present study reports three behavioral experiments using a cross-modal oddball task to examine whether the distraction triggered by auditory novelty affects the processing of the target stimuli. Our results showed that variations in the demands placed on the visual analysis (Experiment 1) or categorical processing of the target (Experiment 2) did not impact on distraction. Instead, the cancellation of distraction by the presentation of an irrelevant visual stimulus presented immediately before the visual target (Experiment 3) suggested that distraction originated in the shifts of attention occurring between attention capture and the onset of the target processing. Possible accounts of these shifts are discussed.     

Executive working memory processes in dyslexia: Behavioral and fMRI evidence

Beneventi, H., Tønnessen, F. E., Ersland, L. & Hugdahl, K. (2010). Executive working memory processes in dyslexia: Behavioral and fMRI evidence. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 192–202. Dyslexia is an impairment in learning to read and write, primarily associated with a phonological core deficit. However, the manifestation of symptoms in dyslexia also includes impaired working memory (WM). The aim of this study was to investigate cortical activation related to verbal WM in dyslexic and normal readers aged around 13 years, controlling for phonological awareness processing. We used a modified WM n‐back task where the participants remembered the first or last speech segment (phonemes) of the names of common objects shown as pictures. Dyslexic readers were impaired compared with the control group. Compared with the dyslexic readers, controls showed increased fMRI activation in the left superior parietal lobule and the right inferior prefrontal gyrus. Unlike controls, dyslexics did not show a significant increase in activation in WM areas with increased memory load. These findings provide support for a specific working memory deficit in dyslexic individuals.     

Psychophysics of remembering: to bias or not to bias

Delayed matching to sample is typically a two-alternative forced-choice procedure with two sample stimuli. In this task the effects of varying the probability of reinforcers for correct choices and the resulting receiver operating characteristic are symmetrical. A version of the task where a sample is present on some trials and absent on others is analogous to a yes/no recognition task. We describe data from two experiments where an asymmetry in performance in the yes/no task could be attributed to a change in response bias with increasing retention-interval duration from a matching-law perspective, but not from a signal-detection perspective. Both approaches make explicit assumptions about response bias. The apparent inconsistency between the two approaches to the treatment of response bias is resolved in terms of a model proposed by K. G. White and J. T. Wixted (1999) which predicts asymmetrical matching-law functions and receiver operating characteristics without making any assumptions about response bias.     

信号检测论在测定“人肉搜索”参与者社会认知辨别力中的应用

采用"人肉搜索结果期待问卷"对225位"人肉搜索"参与者进行在线问卷调查,运用UlehlaAdams构建的信号检测模式进行数据分析,以期探讨参与者的社会认知辨别力(Social Cognitive Discriminability,SCD)及其主要影响因素。结果表明:(1)参与者群体具有一定的SCD(d′=0.61±0.44),即对公权信息和私权信息具有一定的区分能力,且反应偏向β适中(1.24±0.39);(2)性别、受教育程度、月收入和上网时长对SCD及各分测量指标的影响均不显著,而不同居住地参与者的SCD差异边缘性显著,且在"自我体验"分测量指标上差异显著;(3)在"搜集信息"和"社会参与"上具有不同活动倾向的参与者,其SCD具有显著差异,且在"自我体验"和"同伴认同"分测量指标上也有显著差异。可见,SCD主要受参与者上网活动倾向的影响。     

Fantasy proneness as a confounder of verbal lie detection tools

This study investigated whether high fantasy‐prone individuals have superior storytelling abilities. It also explored whether this trait is related to specific linguistic features (i.e. self‐references, cognitive complexity, and emotional words). Participants high (n = 30) and low (n = 30) on a fantasy proneness scale were instructed to write down a true and a fabricated story about an aversive situation in which they had been the victim. Stories were then examined using two verbal lie detection approaches: criteria‐based content analysis (CBCA) and linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC). Irrespective of the truth status of the stories, independent observers rated stories of high fantasy‐prone individuals as being richer in all nine CBCA elements than those of low fantasy‐prone individuals. Furthermore, overall, high fantasy‐prone people used more self‐references in their stories compared with low fantasy‐prone individuals. High fantasy prones' fabricated stories scored higher on various truth indices than authentic stories of low fantasy prones. Thus, high fantasy‐prone people are good in creating a sense of authenticity, even when they fabricate stories. Forensic experts should bear this in mind when they employ verbal lie detection tools. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Detecting true and false opinions: The Devil's Advocate approach as a lie detection aid

We examined the efficacy of a new approach to detect truths and lies in expressing opinions: the Devil's Advocate approach. Interviewees are first asked an opinion eliciting question that asks participants to argue in favour of their personal view. This is followed by a Devil's Advocate question that asks participants to argue against their personal view. People normally think more about reasons that support rather than oppose their opinion. Therefore we expected truth tellers to provide more information and shorter latency times in their responses to the opinion eliciting question than to the Devil's Advocate question. Liars are expected to reveal the opposite pattern as the Devil's Advocate question is more compatible with their beliefs than is the opinion eliciting question. In Experiment 1, we interviewed seventeen truth tellers and liars via the Devil's Advocate approach and measured the difference in number of words and latency times to the two questions. Our hypotheses were supported. In Experiment 2, 25 observers were shown these interviews, and made qualitative judgements about the statements. Truth tellers' opinion eliciting answers were seen as more immediate and plausible and revealed more emotional involvement than their Devil's Advocate answers. No clear differences emerged in liars' answers to the two types of question. We conclude that the Devil's Advocate approach is a promising lie detection approach that deserves attention in future research.     

Role of attention, memory, and covariation-detection processes in clinically significant eating-disorder symptoms

Cognitive theorists implicate a role for cognitive processing of shape- and weight-related information in the maintenance and potential etiology of eating disorders. The present study examines the role of women’s processing of information regarding other women’s body size and affect in eating disorder symptoms among young women. 253 female undergraduates completed attention, memory, and covariation-detection tasks that presented full-body photographs of young women, as well as an eating-disorder measure. High-Symptom women, relative to Medium- and Low-Symptom women, showed greater relative attention to body size than affect, better memory for body size and worse memory for affect, and enhanced sensitivity to the manipulated covariation between body size and affect. All participants perceived an illusory correlation between body size and affect. These findings suggest that cognitive theories may be extended usefully by considering processing of other-relevant and affective information, as well as the role of covariation-detection processes in eating disorders.