Recognition Memory for Faces: Reliability and Validity of the Warrington Recognition Memory Test (RMT) in a Neurological Sample

In response to critiques regarding the psychometric limitations of the Warrington Recognition Memory Test for faces (RMT-F), the current study was conducted to examine the test-retest reliability and validity of the measure in a neurological sample. Forty adult outpatients, ages 35–81, were administered the RMT-F as part of their diagnostic exam. A second evaluation was conducted after an average interval of 7 months (range = 2–20 months). Results yielded a Pearson reliability coefficient of 0.81 (p < .001), indicating a clinically satisfactory index of stability. Correlations with other measures were conducted to examine convergent and divergent validity. Results indicate that the facial component of the RMT has adequate reliability for patients with established neurological disease, shows moderate correlations with other measures of complex visuospatial function, and shows no significant correlation with measures of verbal reasoning, visual problem-solving, or verbal fluency. These findings provide additional support for the clinical efficacy of this instrument for use in a diverse neurological patient sample.     

Memory systems within a cognitive architecture

This article addresses the division of memory systems in relation to an overall cognitive architecture. As understanding the architecture is essential to understanding the mind, developing computational cognitive architectures is an important enterprise in computational psychology (computational cognitive modeling). The article proposes a set of hypotheses concerning memory systems from the standpoint of a cognitive architecture, in particular, the four-way division of memory (including explicit and implicit procedural memory and explicit and implicit declarative memory). It then discusses in detail how these hypotheses may be validated through examining qualitatively the literature on memory. A quick review follows of computational simulations of a variety of quantitative data (which are not limited to narrowly conceived “memory tasks”). Results of accounting for both qualitative and quantitative data point to the promise of this approach.     

RACE/A: an architectural account of the interactions between learning, task control, and retrieval dynamics

This article discusses how sequential sampling models can be integrated in a cognitive architecture. The new theory Retrieval by Accumulating Evidence in an Architecture (RACE/A) combines the level of detail typically provided by sequential sampling models with the level of task complexity typically provided by cognitive architectures. We will use RACE/A to model data from two variants of a picture-word interference task in a psychological refractory period design. These models will demonstrate how RACE/A enables interactions between sequential sampling and long-term declarative learning, and between sequential sampling and task control. In a traditional sequential sampling model, the onset of the process within the task is unclear, as is the number of sampling processes. RACE/A provides a theoretical basis for estimating the onset of sequential sampling processes during task execution and allows for easy modeling of multiple sequential sampling processes within a task.     

An Extension of SIC Predictions to the Wiener Coactive Model

The survivor interaction contrasts (SIC) is a powerful measure for distinguishing among candidate models of human information processing. One class of models to which SIC analysis can apply are the coactive, or channel summation, models of human information processing. In general, parametric forms of coactive models assume that responses are made based on the first passage time across a fixed threshold of a sum of stochastic processes. Previous work has shown that the SIC for a coactive model based on the sum of Poisson processes has a distinctive down-up-down form, with an early negative region that is smaller than the later positive region. In this note, we demonstrate that a coactive process based on the sum of two Wiener processes has the same SIC form.     

A unified framework for interpreting a range of motivation-performance phenomena

Effects of motivation on cognition and performance have been found empirically in different fields. However, the relationship between motivation and performance seems complex and multi-faceted. While seemingly inconsistent or incompatible studies and theories of different disciplinary origins exist in this regard, we show that many of them can potentially be synthesized. Simulations within a unifying computational cognitive architecture account for empirical phenomena from different studies, which demonstrate that a mechanistic (computational) account can potentially unify the interpretations of these studies, largely based on utility calculation from intrinsic motives, and allow for further, more detailed explorations.     

Towards autonomous artificial agents with an active self: Modeling sense of control in situated action

In this paper we present a computational modeling account of an active self in artificial agents. In particular we focus on how an agent can be equipped with a sense of control and how it arises in autonomous situated action and, in turn, influences action control. We argue that this requires laying out an embodied cognitive model that combines bottom-up processes (sensorimotor learning and fine-grained adaptation of control) with top-down processes (cognitive processes for strategy selection and decision-making). We present such a conceptual computational architecture based on principles of predictive processing and free energy minimization. Using this general model, we describe how a sense of control can form across the levels of a control hierarchy and how this can support action control in an unpredictable environment. We present an implementation of this model as well as first evaluations in a simulated task scenario, in which an autonomous agent has to cope with un-/predictable situations and experiences corresponding sense of control. We explore different model parameter settings that lead to different ways of combining low-level and high-level action control. The results show the importance of appropriately weighting information in situations where the need for low/high-level action control varies and they demonstrate how the sense of control can facilitate this.     

Autonomic and subjective responsivity to emotional images in people with dissociative seizures

People with dissociative seizures (DS) report a range of difficulties in emotional functioning and exhibit altered responding to emotional facial expressions in experimental tasks. We extended this research by investigating subjective and autonomic reactivity (ratings of emotional valence, arousal and skin conductance responses [SCRs]) to general emotional images in 39 people with DS relative to 42 healthy control participants, whilst controlling for anxiety, depression, cognitive functioning and, where relevant, medication use. It was predicted that greater subjective negativity and arousal and increased SCRs in response to the affective pictures would be observed in the DS group. The DS group as a whole did not differ from controls in their subjective responses of valence and arousal. However, SCR amplitudes were greater in ‘autonomic responders’ with DS relative to ‘autonomic responders’ in the control group. A positive correlation was also observed between SCRs for highly arousing negative pictures and self‐reported ictal autonomic arousal, in DS ‘autonomic responders’. In the DS subgroup of autonomic ‘non‐responders’, differences in subjective responses were observed for some conditions, compared to control ‘non‐responders’. The findings indicate unaffected subjective responses to emotional images in people with DS overall. However, within the group of people with DS, there may be subgroups characterized by differences in emotional responding. One subgroup (i.e., ‘autonomic responders’) exhibit heightened autonomic responses but intact subjective emotional experience, whilst another subgroup (i.e., ‘autonomic non‐responders’) seem to experience greater subjective negativity and arousal for some emotional stimuli, despite less frequent autonomic reactions. The current results suggest that therapeutic interventions targeting awareness and regulation of physiological arousal and subjective emotional experience could be of value in some people with this disorder.     

A Systematic Scoping Review of the Choice Architecture Movement: Toward Understanding When and Why Nudges Work

In this paper, we provide a domain‐general scoping review of the nudge movement by reviewing 422 choice architecture interventions in 156 empirical studies. We report the distribution of the studies across countries, years, domains, subdomains of applicability, intervention types, and the moderators associated with each intervention category to review the current state of the nudge movement. Furthermore, we highlight certain characteristics of the studies and experimental and reporting practices that can hinder the accumulation of evidence in the field. Specifically, we found that 74% of the studies were mainly motivated to assess the effectiveness of the interventions in one specific setting, while only 24% of the studies focused on the exploration of moderators or underlying processes. We also observed that only 7% of the studies applied power analysis, 2% used guidelines aiming to improve the quality of reporting, no study in our database was preregistered, and the used intervention nomenclatures were non‐exhaustive and often have overlapping categories. Building on our current observations and proposed solutions from other fields, we provide directly applicable recommendations for future research to support the evidence accumulation on why and when nudges work. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Our Followers Are Lions,Theirs Are Sheep: How Social Identity Shapes Theories About Followership and Social Influence

Two studies examine how self‐categorization theory can be used to refine our understanding of people's implicit theories about followership and social influence. Results from Study 1 show that perceivers regard followers of a group they themselves identify strongly with (rather than not at all) to be more representative of the prototype of effective followers (displaying enthusiasm, industry, good citizenship) and to be less representative of the antiprototype of effective followers (displaying conformity, incompetence, and insubordination). Results are replicated in a second experiment in which we compare the views of those self‐categorizing as either Republican or Democrat responding to followers of the Republican and Democratic Party. Results of Study 2 replicate those of Study 1 and also reveal qualitative differences in the preferred influence strategy for dealing with followers. Specifically, respondents seek to engage in persuasion when trying to change the behavior of ingroup followers, while resorting to coercion when trying to change the behavior of outgroup followers. Our results are the first to provide evidence that perceivers' theories about what followers are like and how they are influenced most effectively are structured by perceivers' identification (and dis‐identification) with the particular groups that leaders are championing.     

Architecture and psychoanalysis. Nathaniel Kahn and the search for the father

Abstract

This text is intended as a contribution to the study of the profound mutual relations between architecture and psychoanalysis. Architecture creates representations that conceal unconscious forms of thought; psychoanalysis helps to explain the meanings of these representations – forms of construction and forms of the psyche. The multifaceted work of psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas – his thoughts on the relationships between psychoanalysis and architecture, on the vitality of objects, on the creative implications of the Oedipal relationship – serves as a critical and decisive instrument for the authors’ inquiry. The issue of the “vitality of objects” as described by Bollas also concerns – but only in part – the architectural “object.” One modern form of architecture with an inordinate capacity empathy has to be Louis Kahn’s. Kahn’s youngest son , Nathaniel, lost his father when he was still a child and hardly had a chance to get to know him. After becoming an adult and an established film-maker, he managed to recover his father in two ways: by discovering him in his works, with their powerful affective impact; and by drawing from those very works of his father to enhance his own creative process in his filmic art. As it turns out, it is this very process that has allowed for an emblematically positive resolution of the Oedipal relationship.