Direct control of fixation times in scene viewing: Evidence from analysis of the distribution of first fixation duration

Participants' eye movements were monitored in two scene viewing experiments that manipulated the task-relevance of scene stimuli and their availability for extrafoveal processing. In both experiments, participants viewed arrays containing eight scenes drawn from two categories. The arrays of scenes were either viewed freely (Free Viewing) or in a gaze-contingent viewing mode where extrafoveal preview of the scenes was restricted (No Preview). In Experiment 1a, participants memorized the scenes from one category that was designated as relevant, and in Experiment 1b, participants chose their preferred scene from within the relevant category. We examined first fixations on scenes from the relevant category compared to the irrelevant category (Experiments 1a and 1b), and those on the chosen scene compared to other scenes not chosen within the relevant category (Experiment 1b). A survival analysis was used to estimate the first discernible influence of the task-relevance on the distribution of first-fixation durations. In the free viewing condition in Experiment 1a, the influence of task relevance occurred as early as 81 ms from the start of fixation. In contrast, the corresponding value in the no preview condition was 254 ms, demonstrating the crucial role of extrafoveal processing in enabling direct control of fixation durations in scene viewing. First fixation durations were also influenced by whether or not the scene was eventually chosen (Experiment 1b), but this effect occurred later and affected fewer fixations than the effect of scene category, indicating that the time course of scene processing is an important variable mediating direct control of fixation durations.     

Encoding the target or the plausible preview word? The nature of the plausibility preview benefit in reading Chinese

Previous studies have shown that a plausible preview word can facilitate the processing of a target word as compared to an implausible preview word (a plausibility preview benefit effect) when reading Chinese (Yang, Wang, Tong, & Rayner, 2012; Yang, 2013). Regarding the nature of this effect, it is possible that readers processed the meaning of the plausible preview word and did not actually encode the target word (given that the parafoveal preview word lies close to the fovea). The current experiment examined this possibility with three conditions wherein readers received a preview of a target word that was either (1) identical to the target word (identical preview), (2) a plausible continuation of the pre-target text, but the post-target text in the sentence was incompatible with it (initially plausible preview), or (3) not a plausible continuation of the pre-target text, nor compatible with the post-target text (implausible preview). Gaze durations on target words were longer in the initially plausible condition than the identical condition. Overall, the results showed a typical preview benefit, but also implied that readers did not encode the initially plausible preview. Also, a plausibility preview benefit was replicated: gaze durations were longer with implausible previews than the initially plausible ones. Furthermore, late eye movement measures did not reveal differences between the initially plausible and the implausible preview conditions, which argues against the possibility of misreading the plausible preview word as the target word. In sum, these results suggest that a plausible preview word provides benefit in processing the target word as compared to an implausible preview word, and this benefit is only present in early but not late eye movement measures.     

Impaired task switching performance in children with dyslexia but not in children with autism

Problems with cognitive control in both autism and dyslexia have already been reported in different studies. The present study specifically examined task-switching performance in children with autism and dyslexia. For this purpose, a multiple-trial paradigm was used with cues for colour- and shape-matching tasks presented before a run of trials. The cue could imply a task switch (when the cue changed the task) or a task repetition (when the cue did not change the task). Both reaction times and error rates were measured for switching, restarting, and general task performance. Participants were children with autism (24) and with dyslexia (25) and healthy controls (27) with normal IQ and ages from 12 to 18 years. The main finding was that while similar switching performance was observed between children with autism and the healthy controls, children with dyslexia showed a significant switch-specific delay relative to both healthy controls and children with autism. Furthermore, no deficit in restarting performance was observed for any of the two patient groups. Finally, additional evidence is provided for a more general deficit in information processing in dyslexia. Our data suggest that children with autism are able to switch between tasks in a similar way as do normally developing children as long as the tasks are unambiguously specified. Furthermore, the data imply switch-specific deficits in dyslexia additionally to the deficits in general information processing already reported in the literature. The implications of our data are further discussed in relation to the interpretation of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.     

Asymmetric cost and benefit perceptions in willingness-to-donate decisions

Charitable giving entails the act of foregoing personal resources in order to improve the conditions of other people. In the present paper, we systematically examine two dimensions integral to donation decisions that have thus far received relatively little attention but can explain charitable behavior rather well: the perceptions of cost for the donor and benefit for the recipients. In line with current theories in judgment and decision making, we hypothesize that people weigh these dimensions subjectively and perceive them asymmetrically, consistent with prospect theory. Costs for the donor are typically perceived as losses, whereas benefits for recipients are perceived as gains. In four studies, we presented several scenarios to participants in which both donation amounts (costs) and number of lives helped (benefits) were manipulated while keeping the ratio of costs and benefits constant. Results from Studies 1 and 2 showed that willingness to help decreased as donation amounts and number of lives helped increased. Additionally, Studies 3 and 4 provide evidence for a solution to reduce the asymmetry and increase donation amounts as the number of lives at risk increases.     

Patch choice as a function of procurement cost and encounter rate.

The effects of patch encounter rate on patch choice and meal patterns were studied in rats foraging in a laboratory environment offering two patch types that were encountered sequentially and randomly. The cost of procuring access to one patch was greater than the other. Patches were either encountered equally often or the high-cost patch was encountered more frequently. As expected, rats exploited the low-cost patch on almost 100% of encounters and exploited the high-cost patch on a percentage of encounters that was inversely proportional to its cost. Meal size was the same at both patches. Surprisingly, when low-cost patches were rare, the rats did not increase their use of high-cost patches. This resulted in spending more time and energy searching for patches and a higher average cost per meal. The rats responded to this increased cost by reducing the frequency and increasing the size of meals at both patches and thereby limited total daily foraging cost and conserved total intake.     

Assessment and treatment of problem behavior maintained by mand compliance

We modified functional analysis procedures to include a condition in which we reinforced problem behavior by complying with a child's mands. After identifying compliance with mands as a reinforcer, we evaluated the efficacy of a token system with a response‐cost contingency and incorporated discriminative stimuli to signal when mands would be reinforced. The token system with response cost effectively reduced problem behavior. Similar procedures may be beneficial when continuous adult compliance is not possible, when adults want to control when they will comply with the child's mands, or to build a child's tolerance for adult‐directed situations.     

真实创新预览、企业可雇佣性责任感与可雇佣型建言的关系

以59家科技型创业企业368名知识员工为被试,从新型员工—组织关系模式下个体认知的视角,探讨了企业真实创新预览与知识员工可雇佣型建言的关系,以及知识员工之企业可雇佣性责任感的中介作用。PLSSEM分析结果表明:(1)企业真实创新预览对知识员工的企业可雇佣性责任感各维度、可雇佣型建言具有显著正向影响;(2)知识员工的企业可雇佣性责任感各维度中,基于角色内胜任力提高、基于角色外能力提升2个维度对知识员工可雇佣型建言具有显著正向影响,并在企业真实创新预览与知识员工可雇佣型建言之间起部分中介作用;而基于个人生涯发展维度对知识员工可雇佣型建言的影响不显著,其在企业真实创新预览与知识员工可雇佣型建言之间也不起中介作用。     

Analog scale,magnitude estimation,and person trade‐off as measures of health utility: biases and their correction

Subjects judged the disutility of health conditions (e.g. blindness) using one of them (e.g. blindness+deafness) as a standard, using three elicitation methods: analog scale (AS, how bad is blindness compared to blindness+deafness?); magnitude estimation (ME, blindness+deafness is how many times as bad as blindness?); and person trade‐off (PTO, how many people cured of blindness is as good as 10 people cured of blindness+deafness?). ME disutilities of the less bad condition were smallest, and AS was highest. Interleaving PTO with ME made PTO more like ME. AS disutilities were inconsistent with direct judgments of differences between pairs of conditions. ME and PTO judgments were internally inconsistent: e.g. the disutility of one‐eye‐blindness relative to blindness+deafness was larger than predicted from comparison of each to blindness. Consistency training reduced inconsistency, increased agreement between AS and PTO, and transferred from one method to the other. The results support the use of consistency checks in utility elicitation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bicriteria cost versus service analysis of a distribution network—a case study

In order to improve the distribution system for the Nordic countries the BASF AG considered 13 alternative scenarios to the existing system. These involved the construction of warehouses at various locations. For every scenario the transportation, storage, and handling cost incurred was to be as low as possible, where restrictions on the delivery time were given. The scenarios were evaluated according to (minimal) total cost and weighted average delivery time. The results led to a restriction to only three cases involving only one new warehouse each. For these, a more accurate model for the cost was developed and evaluated, yielding results similar to a simple linear model. Since there were no clear preferences between cost and delivery time, the final decision was chosen to represent a compromise between the two criteria. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

合理性对汉语阅读中双字词语义预视效益的优势作用：眼动研究

语义预视效益(SPB)对于揭示阅读中读者能否从副中央凹提取高水平信息具有重要意义。关于SPB的产生机制仍然存在争议。本研究通过同时操控预视词的合理性和语义相关性考察了二者对汉语阅读中双字词SPB的影响。结果发现,合理性主效应显著,合理预视下目标词的注视时间显著短于不合理预视;语义相关性主效应不显著,未发现二者的交互作用。研究结果支持了语境匹配假说,进一步说明了汉语阅读中预视词的合理性对SPB的优势作用。