Expectancy-learning and evaluative learning in human classical conditioning: affective priming as an indirect and unobtrusive measure of conditioned stimulus valence

It has been argued that in classical conditioning two processes might be operative. First, one may learn that the conditioned stimulus (CS+) is a valid predictor for the occurrence of the biologically negative or positive event (US; expectancy-learning). Second, one may learn to perceive the conditioned stimulus itself as a negative or positive stimulus, depending on the valence of the event it has been associated with (evaluative learning). Until the present, however, both forms of learning have been investigated using rather different conditioning procedures. Using a differential aversive conditioning preparation with pictures of human faces as CSs and an electrocutaneous stimulus as US, we were able to demonstrate that both forms of learning can co-occur. Moreover, the extent of evaluative learning in this aversive conditioning procedure did not significantly differ from the amount of evaluative learning in an evaluative conditioning procedure with positive and negative adjectives as USs, which was administered to the same participants. In the present study evaluative learning was not only indexed by direct evaluative ratings, but we introduced affective priming as an indirect and unobtrusive, reaction time based measure of stimulus valence. Finally, imagery instructions during acquisition did not facilitate expectancy-learning nor evaluative learning.     

Antecedent priming at trace positions in Japanese long-distance scrambling

We report the results from three cross-modal lexical decision experiments investigating antecedent priming effects in Japanese. In the first two experiments we examined antecedent reactivation at the preverbal trace position in long-distance scrambling sentences. We found an interaction between the participants' working memory (WM) span and antecedent priming. For the high span group, the magnitude of antecedent priming at the trace position was significantly larger than at the earlier control position; for the low span group, on the other hand, there was no such difference. In a third experiment, we examined whether similar reactivation effects could be observed for argument expressions that are not base-generated adjacent to the verb. Contrary to scrambled objects, subject noun phrases (NPs) in canonically ordered sentences were not reactivated at the preverbal test position in either of the two participant groups. We argue that the priming effect observed in the high span group supports a trace-based account of long-distance scrambling. The degree of complexity of the experimental sentences was such that they exceeded the memory span of the low span group. We conclude that argument traces access their antecedents irrespective of the position of their subcategorizers.     

Cross-modality priming for individual words in memory for coherent texts

This study explores implicit memory within the domain of text processing. Three experiments were designed to study cross-modality priming in a word-stem completion test following presentation of target words in the context of a coherent text. Four main results emerged. First, we found a significant priming effect for words previously studied in a text, this priming is higher with low-frequency words than with high-frequency words. Second, subjects demonstrated more repetition priming when study and test modalities matched than when they were different. Third, the magnitude of the priming effect in the visual condition varied with the perceptual processing of the text read. Fourth, priming effects did not depend on subjects' remembering of the words of text read as measured by a yes/no recognition test since no modality effect was found in this latter memory test. These results challenge Levy's (1993) view and are discussed in the framework of the transfer-appropriate processing view proposed by Roediger, Weldon and Challis (1989).     

抑制控制在类比映射发展中的作用:认知负荷的影响

本研究采用负启动范式,设置不同的认知负荷任务,探究抑制控制在儿童和成人类比映射中的作用。实验一中,31名7岁儿童、33名10岁儿童和34名成人完成高认知负荷的相对大小类比映射的负启动任务。结果表明,所有群体均出现负启动效应,且负启动效应随年龄增长而减小。实验二中,30名7岁儿童、30名10岁儿童和32名成人完成低认知负荷的相对大小类比映射的负启动任务。结果表明,所有群体均出现负启动效应,但负启动效应无显著年龄差异。本研究的结果揭示了抑制控制和认知负荷在类比映射发展中的重要作用。     

Changing perspectives on frontotemporal dementia: A review

This article examines the evolution in understanding of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) during the last four decades. A central theme is the recognition of heterogeneity. Originally construed as a disorder of behaviour and executive impairment, FTD is now known also to be associated with alterations in language, conceptual knowledge and praxis. An absence of neurological signs is the hallmark of many FTD patients, but there is also an established association with motor neurone disease (MND), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD). FTD is commonly defined as an early onset dementia, yet about a quarter of patients present after the age of 65. The underlying pathological protein is tau, TDP-43 or more rarely fused-in-sarcoma (FUS). Distinct genetic mutations have been identified in familial FTD. There are predictable relationships between clinical phenotype, pathological substrate and genetic mutation. For example, a circumscribed semantic disorder predicts TDP-43 pathology, and speech or limb apraxia tau pathology. The co-occurrence of MND predicts TDP-43 pathology, and PSP and CBD tau pathology. FUS pathology is associated with very youthful onset, stereotyped behaviours and caudate atrophy. Non-fluent aphasia is linked to progranulin (GRN) mutations and MND and psychosis to repeat expansions in the C9orf72 gene. Despite striking worldwide consensus in findings there remain some issues of contention, largely related to the classification of FTD and its sub-variants. Understanding the diverse nature of FTD is crucial for effective diagnosis, management and the development of targeted therapies.     

The Idea of Moral Progress

This paper shows that moral progress is a substantive and plausible idea. Moral progress in belief involves deepening our grasp of existing moral concepts, while moral progress in practices involves realizing deepened moral understandings in behavior or social institutions. Moral insights could not be assimilated or widely disseminated if they involved devising and applying totally new moral concepts. Thus, it is argued, moral failures of past societies cannot be explained by appeal to ignorance of new moral ideas, but must be understood as resulting from refusals to subject social practices to critical scrutiny. Moral philosophy is not the main vehicle for disseminating morally progressive insights, though it has an important role in processes that lead to moral progress. Yet we have grounds for cautious optimism, since progressive moral insights can be disseminated and can, sometimes, have constructive social effects.     

Positive priming: Locations containing relevant information are labeled accordingly

Individuals engaged in a location task where the relevancy status [relevant (stimulus) vs irrelevant (distractor) information] of these locations was reversed from one trial (prime) to the next (probe). The results produced by these reversals (Distractor-to-Stimulus and Stimulus-to-Distractor) indicated that both stimulus and distractor items are given relevancy status labels which participate in the future processing at the labeled locations. These findings support the view that selective processing involves both ‘facilitatory' and ‘inhibitory' components. Further, unlike identity tasks, the data indicated that neither the formation nor the subsequent use of these ‘location' labels (stimulus or distractor) is related to the presence of a response conflict.PsycINFO classification: 2330; 2340     

On the nature of consonant/vowel differences in letter position coding: Evidence from developing and adult readers

In skilled adult readers, transposed‐letter effects (jugde ‐JUDGE ) are greater for consonant than for vowel transpositions. These differences are often attributed to phonological rather than orthographic processing. To examine this issue, we employed a scenario in which phonological involvement varies as a function of reading experience: A masked priming lexical decision task with 50‐ms primes in adult and developing readers. Indeed, masked phonological priming at this prime duration has been consistently reported in adults, but not in developing readers (Davis, Castles, & Iakovidis, 1998). Thus, if consonant/vowel asymmetries in letter position coding with adults are due to phonological influences, transposed‐letter priming should occur for both consonant and vowel transpositions in developing readers. Results with adults (Experiment 1) replicated the usual consonant/vowel asymmetry in transposed‐letter priming. In contrast, no signs of an asymmetry were found with developing readers (Experiments 2–3). However, Experiments 1–3 did not directly test the existence of phonological involvement. To study this question, Experiment 4 manipulated the phonological prime‐target relationship in developing readers. As expected, we found no signs of masked phonological priming. Thus, the present data favour an interpretation of the consonant/vowel dissociation in letter position coding as due to phonological rather than orthographic processing.     

Subliminal repetition primes help detection of phonemes in a picture: Evidence for a phonological level of the priming effects

In this research, we combine a cross-form word–picture visual masked priming procedure with an internal phoneme monitoring task to examine repetition priming effects. In this paradigm, participants have to respond to pictures whose names begin with a prespecified target phoneme. This task unambiguously requires retrieving the word-form of the target picture's name and implicitly orients participants' attention towards a phonological level of representation. The experiments were conducted within Spanish, whose highly transparent orthography presumably promotes fast and automatic phonological recoding of subliminal, masked visual word primes. Experiments 1 and 2 show that repetition primes speed up internal phoneme monitoring in the target, compared to primes beginning with a different phoneme from the target, or sharing only their first phoneme with the target. This suggests that repetition primes preactivate the phonological code of the entire target picture's name, hereby speeding up internal monitoring, which is necessarily based on such a code. To further qualify the nature of the phonological code underlying internal phoneme monitoring, a concurrent articulation task was used in Experiment 3. This task did not affect the repetition priming effect. We propose that internal phoneme monitoring is based on an abstract phonological code, prior to its translation into articulation.