Verbal cues flexibly transform spatial representations in human memory

ABSTRACT

Humans possess a unique ability to communicate spatially-relevant information, yet the intersection between language and navigation remains largely unexplored. One possibility is that verbal cues accentuate heuristics useful for coding spatial layouts, yet this idea remains largely untested. We test the idea that verbal cues flexibly accentuate the coding of heuristics to remember spatial layouts via spatial boundaries or landmarks. The alternative hypothesis instead conceives of encoding during navigation as a step-wise process involving binding lower-level features, and thus subsequently formed spatial representations should not be modified by verbal cues. Across three experiments, we found that verbal cues significantly affected pointing error patterns at axes that were aligned with the verbally cued heuristic, suggesting that verbal cues influenced the heuristics employed to remember object positions. Further analyses suggested evidence for a hybrid model, in which boundaries were encoded more obligatorily than landmarks, but both were accessed flexibly with verbal instruction. These findings could not be accounted for by a tendency to spend more time facing the instructed component during navigation, ruling out an attentional-encoding mechanism. Our findings argue that verbal cues influence the heuristics employed to code environments, suggesting a mechanism for how humans use language to communicate navigationally-relevant information.     

Immediate and delayed recall of a small-scale spatial array

The study examined people's spatial memory of a small-scale array of objects. Earlier work has primarily relied on short-retention intervals, and to date it is not known whether performance is affected by longer intervals between learning and recall. In the present investigation, university students studied seven target objects. Recall was tested immediately after learning and after an interval of seven days. Performance was found to be similar in the immediate and delayed conditions, and the results suggested that recall was facilitated by egocentric and intrinsic cues. The findings are discussed with reference to recent investigations that have shown task parameters can influence spatial recall.     

Resolving conflicting views: Gaze and arrow cues do not trigger rapid reflexive shifts of attention

It has become widely accepted that the direction of another individual's eye gaze induces rapid, automatic, attentional orienting, due to it being such a vital cue as to where in our environment we should attend. This automatic orienting has also been associated with the directional-arrow cues used in studies of spatial attention. Here, we present evidence that the response-time cueing effects reported for spatially nonpredictive gaze and arrow cues are not the result of rapid, automatic shifts of attention. For both cue types, response-time effects were observed only for long-duration cue and target stimuli that overlapped temporally, were largest when the cues were presented simultaneously with the response-relevant target, and were driven by a slowing of responses for invalidly cued targets rather than speeding for validly cued ones. These results argue against automatic attention-orienting accounts and support a novel spatial-incongruency explanation for a whole class of rapid behavioural cueing effects.     

The Need for Power and Fear of Assertiveness in English-Speaking South African Female Graduates

The present study demonstrated that Winter's (1973) power arousal procedure and scoring system for the need for power, which were developed in the United States, are valid for English-speaking South African female graduates. Subjects in whom the need for power had been aroused by a prerecorded inspirational speech (n = 20) had significantly higher n Power scores than matched nonaroused subjects (n = 20), T ²(8, 31) = 56.17, p ≤ .01. Further, it was argued that the fear of assertiveness is a component of the need for power, and a scoring system for measuring this motive was suggested. Fear of assertiveness was shown to correlate significantly with various behavioral and dispositional measures of assertiveness, relating especially to a dependency pattern of behavior.     

Single-Letter Retrieval Cues for Anagram Solution

Anagram solution, as related to single-letter retrieval cues and first letter of the solution word (consonant or vowel), was examined. In Experiment 1, college-aged solvers were presented both types of 5-letter words and either the first letter of the solution word as a cue, or no cue. In Experiment 2, the effects of four types of retrieval cues (first, middle, or last letter or no cue) upon solving consonant-beginning words was examined. Finally, Experiment 3 examined the solution of both types of solution words as related to the preceding four types of retrieval cues. The results of all 3 experiments showed that a single letter can be an effective cue. For consonant-beginning words, the middle and last letters were as effective as the first letter. For vowel-beginning words, the first letter was more effective than either the middle or last letter. It was concluded that solvers select one letter of the anagram, typically a consonant, to serve as the first letter of the solution word, and then rearrange the remaining letters.     

African American Children's Ability to Identify Emotion in Facial Expressions and Tones of Voice of European Americans

This study examined whether African American children's ability to identify emotion in the facial expressions and tones of voice of European American stimuli was comparable to their European American peers and related to personality, social competence, and achievement. The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy (DANVA; Now-icki & Duke, 1994) was administered to 84 African American children. It was found that they performed less accurately on adult and child tones of voice and adult facial expressions. Further, girls' ability to read emotion in tones of voice was related to better social competence and achievement, whereas boys' ability to identify emotion in adult tones of voice was related to teacher-rated social competence. Results suggest that more research is needed with ethnic groups to clarify the impact of nonverbal processing skills on social and achievement outcomes.     

Relations between 18-month-olds’ gaze pattern and target action performance: A deferred imitation study with eye tracking

Deferred imitation studies are used to assess infants’ declarative memory performance. These studies have found that deferred imitation performance improves with age, which is usually attributed to advancing memory capabilities. Imitation studies, however, are also used to assess infants’ action understanding. In this second research program it has been observed that infants around the age of one year imitate selectively, i.e., they imitate certain kinds of target actions and omit others. In contrast to this, two-year-olds usually imitate the model's exact actions. 18-month-olds imitate more exactly than one-year-olds, but more selectively than two-year-olds, a fact which makes this age group especially interesting, since the processes underlying selective vs. exact imitation are largely debated. The question, for example, if selective attention to certain kinds of target actions accounts for preferential imitation of these actions in young infants is still open. Additionally, relations between memory capabilities and selective imitation processes, as well as their role in shaping 18-month-olds’ neither completely selective, nor completely exact imitation have not been thoroughly investigated yet. The present study, therefore, assessed 18-month-olds’ gaze toward two types of actions (functional vs. arbitrary target actions) and the model's face during target action demonstration, as well as infants’ deferred imitation performance. Although infants’ fixation times to functional target actions were not longer than to arbitrary target actions, they imitated the functional target actions more frequently than the arbitrary ones. This suggests that selective imitation does not rely on selective gaze toward functional target actions during the demonstration phase. In addition, a post hoc analysis of interindividual differences suggested that infants’ attention to the model's social-communicative cues might play an important role in exact imitation, meaning the imitation of both functional and arbitrary target actions.     

内外部线索对不同类型学习判断的影响

以Koriat的线索模型理论为基础,在前人研究的基础上探讨两种学习判断的差异,并进一步考察内外部线索对即时学习判断和延迟学习判断的不同影响。研究结果发现：（1）延迟学习判断的相对准确性显著高于即时学习判断,验证了延迟学习判断效应的存在。（2）不同的线索类型对学习判断的影响不同,学习判断对内部线索更加敏感。（3）相同的线索在不同的学习判断条件下影响不同。（4）即时学习判断条件下的JOL值分布呈现逐渐上升的趋势;延迟学习判断条件下的JOL值分布呈“U”型曲线。     

The impact of smoking cues in antismoking messages among intermittent and light smokers

Objective: Based on the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing, this study explored the effects of smoking cues in antismoking Public Service Announcements (PSAs) on message processing among intermittent/light smokers and nonsmokers.

Method: A 2 (smoking cues: present vs. absent) × 2 (smoking status: smokers vs. nonsmokers) mixed experimental design was conducted. Self-report measures and two physiological measures including skin conductance and heart rate were examined.

Results: Messages with smoking cues generated higher levels of arousal (F = 4.57, p = .04), attention (F = 2.51, p = .04), positive message evaluation (F = 28.70, p < .001) and less intent to smoke (F = 26.60, p < .001). Intermittent and light smokers had much stronger reactions to messages containing tobacco-related visuals, including arousal (F = 4.10, p = .04), perceived ad effectiveness (F = 9.24, p = .03) and intent to smoke (F = 22.98, p < .001).

Implication: The antismoking arguments may have suppressed cue-induced smoking urges, which dampened negative persuasion outcomes. Limitations included the restricted generalisability and the focus on short-term effect. Future research may use a random sample of PSAs with a general population.