The attention cascade model and attentional blink

An attention cascade model is proposed to account for attentional blinks in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of stimuli. Data were collected using single characters in a single RSVP stream at 10Hz [Shih, S., & Reeves, A. (2007). Attentional capture in rapid serial visual presentation. Spatial Vision, 20(4), 301-315], and single words, in both single and dual RSVP streams at 19Hz [Potter, M. C., Staub, A., & O'Connor, D. H. (2002). The time course of competition for attention: Attention is initially labile. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 28(5), 1149-1162]. The model adopts similar architecture of the cognitive accounts of attentional blinks and employs computational details from theories of attention gating. The model has elaborated working memory and attention control mechanism. Both bottom-up and top-down salience are explicit in the model. Quantitative fits are good and the model parameters have plausible values. The model handles stimulus competition, lag 1 sparing, intrusion errors, and magnitude of the dip; it also accounts for commonly observed effects such as stimulus similarities (local and global), target+1 blank, and stimulus salience.     

多参照系条件下信息获取方式对绝对方位判断的影响

把参照系整合基础上的绝对方位判断分解成路径获取过程（目标位置信息）、自身定向过程（前行方向信息）和物体定位过程（目标物体相对于参照物体的方位信息）,系统地考察了多参照系条件下信息获取方式对该任务的影响。研究以视觉形式呈现空间信息,实验1a和1b的任务中均包括上述三个过程,前者以地图的形式呈现前行方向信息、后者以语词的形式直接呈现前行方向信息;实验2有两个任务,分别独立于路径描述（定位后判断）和自身定位（定向后判断）。所有任务均为目标位置（R0o－前、R45o－左前/右前、R90o－左/右、R135o－左后/右后, R180o－后）×前行方向（北、东南西、斜方向）的组内设计、因变量为正确率和判断时间为主,共有64名大学生被试（男女各半）参与实验。发现：0o和180o位置优势效应、朝北优势效应在所有任务中都很明显;实验1和定向后判断任务中存在正方向R90o位置优势效实;定位后判断时间短于定向后判断时间,但总体所用时间上没有差异。结合信息获取的方式和可能使用到的判断策略,从绝对方位判断的认知结构上展开了讨论。     

Dissociations among ABA, ABC, and AAB recovery effects

In a human predictive learning experiment, the strengths of ABA, ABC, and AAB recovery effects after discrimination reversal learning were compared. Initially, a discrimination between two stimuli (X+, Y−) was trained in Context A. During Phase 2, participants received discrimination reversal training (X−, Y+) either in Context A (Group AAB) or in Context B (Group ABA, Group ABC). Testing occurred in the reversal context and in a neutral context (Group AAB, Group ABC) or in the reversal context and in the acquisition context (Group ABA). Recovery effects were similar in ABA and ABC procedures, whereas no AAB recovery effect occurred. Furthermore, the rate of discrimination reversal learning during Phase 2 was unaffected by whether training was conducted in the same or in a different context as initial learning. Results indicate that contextual stimuli are processed before interfering information is presented. These representations, however, do not acquire the ability to control performance.     

A Note on the Aesthetics of Mirror Reversal

According to Roy Sorensen [Philosophical Studies 100 (2000) 175–191] an object cannot differ aesthetically from its mirror image. On his view, mirror-reversing an object – changing its left/right orientation – cannot bring about any aesthetic change. However, in arguing for this thesis Sorensen assumes that aesthetic properties supervene on intrinsic properties alone. This is a highly controversial assumption and nothing is offered in its support. Moreover, a plausible weakening of the assumption does not improve the argument. Finally, Sorensen’s second argument is shown to be formally flawed. As a result, the case for the aesthetic irrelevancy of orientation seems still open.     

Quantity judgments of sequentially presented food items by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

Recent assessments have shown that capuchin monkeys, like chimpanzees and other Old World primate species, are sensitive to quantitative differences between sets of visible stimuli. In the present study, we examined capuchins’ performance in a more sophisticated quantity judgment task that required the ability to form representations of food quantities while viewing the quantities only one piece at a time. In three experiments, we presented monkeys with the choice between two sets of discrete homogeneous food items and allowed the monkeys to consume the set of their choice. In Experiments 1 and 2, monkeys compared an entirely visible food set to a second set, presented item-by-item into an opaque container. All monkeys exhibited high accuracy in choosing the larger set, even when the entirely visible set was presented last, preventing the use of one-to-one item correspondence to compare quantities. In Experiment 3, monkeys compared two sets that were each presented item-by-item into opaque containers, but at different rates to control for temporal cues. Some monkeys performed well in this experiment, though others exhibited near-chance performance, suggesting that this species’ ability to form representations of food quantities may be limited compared to previously tested species such as chimpanzees. Overall, these findings support the analog magnitude model of quantity representation as an explanation for capuchin monkeys’ quantification of sequentially presented food items.

试析内隐学习的材料敏感性

在人工语法范式、序列反应时任务范式以及复杂系统控制任务范式中，内隐学习对学习材料的难度及复杂度、材料性质、材料呈现方式等较为敏感。具体表现为难度和复杂程度较高的学习材料，以及形象性较突出的学习材料，更适合内隐学习，而使材料结构特点变得明显的呈现方式不利于内隐学习。然而，内隐学习的材料敏感性在其它范式上的普遍性有待进一步的实验研究。     

Influence of two types of information trials on the formation of a discrimination-reversal learning set in Japanese monkeys

Abstract: Three groups of male adult Japanese monkeys were trained in 30 discrimination-reversal learning-set (LS) problems using the Wisconsin General Test Apparatus. A control group ( N = 3) was trained in the standard procedure: acquisition of up to 12 consecutive correct responses, reversal to the same criterion, and then shift to a new problem. To the other two groups, three information trials signaling the stimulus value in reversal were given after they reached the criterion in acquisition. Subjects in the positive-stimulus information (PSI) group ( N = 4) were exposed only to the reversal positive stimulus, and a response to it was rewarded. Subjects in the negative-stimulus information (NSI) group ( N = 4) were exposed only to the reversal negative stimulus, and any response to it was not rewarded. Information trials reduced reversal errors and NSI trials were more effective than PSI trials in error reduction ( p < .05). Information trials also aided in acquisition: the NSI and PSI groups learned the acquisition phase of the problems with significantly fewer errors than control group ( p < .01) in the last stage of training. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to strategy learning and attention learning in LS formation.     

Relax and try this instead: abbreviated habit reversal for maladaptive self-biting.

We evaluated the effectiveness of an abbreviated habit reversal procedure to reduce mal-adaptive oral self-biting in an adolescent boy in residential care. Treatment involved a combination of relaxation and two competing responses. Results of a withdrawal design and two posttreatment medical evaluations indicated that the intervention eliminated the biting and the tissue damage it caused.     

MODIFYING LETTER AND NUMBER REVERSALS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN1

Children from regular and special-education classes were exposed to tutoring procedures designed to modify letter and number reversals. In Experiment I, two students showed reversals during letter-naming (e.g., saying p for q) and two-digit number (e.g., writing 31 for 13) exercises. In Experiment II, one subject made two-digit reversals, while the other child reversed single-digit numbers (e.g., 9 written with circle on right side of stem). The subject in Experiment III emitted letter reversals under naming, dictation, and copying exercises. The child in Experiment IV showed written letter reversals on both sides of the “body midline” under dictation procedures. Basic treatment procedures during all experiments involved modelling of correct and incorrect symbol formation, and differential experimenter feedback following student responses. During Experiments I and II, subjects were praised for each correct response, and informed when a reversal occurred. Experiment III included a Modelling Only Phase before these feedback procedures. Besides praise, treatment conditions in Experiment IV consisted of additional feedback following correct responses (e.g., charting correct responses), and temporal delays imposed between dictated letters and student responses. Except for occasional letter-naming reversals of one subject (Experiment I), and letter dictation errors of another (Experiment IV), reversals were eliminated when all experiments terminated. The Modelling Only Phase in Experiment III also reduced reversals to a low level. These findings suggest that a variety of reversal problems may be effectively assessed and remediated via simple modelling and reinforcement procedures. In addition, postcheck observations indicated that the effects were enduring. The present procedures should be easily implemented by school personnel.     

Sensitivity to reinforcer duration in a self-control procedure

In a concurrent-chains procedure, pigeons' responses on left and right keys were followed by reinforcers of different durations at different delays following the choice responses. Three pairs of reinforcer delays were arranged in each session, and reinforcer durations were varied over conditions. In Experiment 1 reinforcer delays were unequal, and in Experiment 2 reinforcer delays were equal. In Experiment 1 preference reversal was demonstrated in that an immediate short reinforcer was chosen more frequently than a longer reinforcer delayed 6 s from the choice, whereas the longer reinforcer was chosen more frequently when delays to both reinforcers were lengthened. In both experiments, choice responding was more sensitive to variations in reinforcer duration at overall longer reinforcer delays than at overall shorter reinforcer delays, independently of whether fixed-interval or variable-interval schedules were arranged in the choice phase. We concluded that preference reversal results from a change in sensitivity of choice responding to ratios of reinforcer duration as the delays to both reinforcers are lengthened.