语言转换影响双语认知优势的发展进程

本研究包括两部分,第一部分对双语转换问卷进行修订,用于客观测量双语者的语言转换能力;第二部分采用数字命名任务考察语言转换对双语认知优势发展进程的影响。结果发现,在低水平阶段,语言转换频率与转换消耗存在显著负相关;在高水平阶段,语言转换频率与转换消耗、混用消耗均存在显著负相关。结果说明,语言转换首先影响瞬时转换能力,积累一定的经验之后,才会对持续监控能力与抑制控制能力产生积极影响。本研究结果表明,双语认知优势效应的发展具有一定的顺序性。     

Executive Function: The Search for an Integrated Account

ABSTRACT— In general, executive function can be thought of as the set of abilities required to effortfully guide behavior toward a goal, especially in nonroutine situations. Psychologists are interested in expanding the understanding of executive function because it is thought to be a key process in intelligent behavior, it is compromised in a variety of psychiatric and neurological disorders, it varies across the life span, and it affects performance in complicated environments, such as the cockpits of advanced aircraft. This article provides a brief introduction to the concept of executive function and discusses how it is assessed and the conditions under which it is compromised. A short overview of the diverse theoretical viewpoints regarding its psychological and biological underpinnings is also provided. The article concludes with a consideration of how a multilevel approach may provide a more integrated account of executive function than has been previously available.     

Sticky plans: Inhibition and binding during serial-task control

Recent evidence suggests substantial response-time costs associated with lag-2 repetitions of tasks within explicitly controlled task sequences [Koch, I., Philipp, A. M., Gade, M. (2006). Chunking in task sequences modulates task inhibition. Psychological Science, 17, 346-350; Schneider, D. W. (2007). Task-set inhibition in chunked task sequences. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 970-976], a result that has been interpreted as inhibition of no-longer relevant tasks. Experiments 1-3 confirm much larger lag-2 costs under serial-control than under externally cued conditions, but also show (a) that these costs occur only when sequences contain at least two distinct chunks and (b) that direct lag-2 repetitions are not a necessary condition for their occurrence. This pattern suggests the hypothesis that rather than task-set inhibition, the large lag-2 costs observed in complex sequences, reflect interference resulting from links between positions within a sequential plan and the individual tasks controlled by this plan. The remaining experiments successfully test this hypothesis (Experiment 4), rule out chaining accounts as a potential alternative explanation (Experiment 5), and demonstrate that interference results from information stored in long-term memory rather than working memory (Experiment 6). Implications of these results for an integration of models of serial-order control and serial memory are discussed.     

Exploring the forgetting mechanisms in working memory: Evidence from a reasoning span test

In working memory (WM) span tests participants have to maintain to-be-remembered information while processing other, potentially distracting, information. Previous studies have shown that WM span scores are greater when span lists start with a long processing task and end with a short processing task than when these processing tasks are presented in the reverse order (e.g., Towse, Hitch, & Hutton, 2000). In Experiment 1, we obtained a similar stimulus order effect in a reasoning span test, using reasoning sentences that were equated for length in terms of the number of constituent words, but which differed in processing complexity; span scores were greater when lists began with a complex sentence and ended with a simple sentence than when this stimulus order was reversed. In Experiment 2, the stimulus order effect was not found when processing duration was held constant while sentence complexity was varied using a computer-paced moving window presentation paradigm. These results suggest that duration-based constraints can affect degree of forgetting independently of the load generated during processing phases in WM span performance and therefore imply that time-related forgetting can occur in WM span tests, particularly when the difficulty of the processing component blocks active maintenance of to-be-remembered material.     

The focus of attention in working memory: Evidence from a word updating task

Three experiments examined the cognitive costs of item switching within working memory with a novel word updating task, thereby extending previous research to the field of linguistic stimuli and linguistic-graphemic updating operations. In Experiments 1 and 2 costs for switching between working memory items were evident on the word level, and they increased with an increasing word set size (Experiment 2). In contrast, a surprisingly similar switch effect on the level of letters was not affected by word set size (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 showed that this effect is not simply based on the need for re-orienting visual spatial attention. To account for the overall picture of results, a recursive model of attentional foci is proposed. Moreover, individual working memory span appears to be associated with the accuracy of item switching, but not with its speed.     

To switch or not to switch: Inviting bilingual clients to switch languages in psychotherapy

In the present study, we used an audio-analog design to test whether exposing bilingual participants to a therapist who invited a bilingual client to switch languages in a psychotherapy session would have a positive effect on participants’ perceptions of the therapist. We also explored whether participants’ sense of belonging to their ethnic group and to the larger US culture would enhance or attenuate this effect. Sixty-three bilingual Latino/a university students listened to one of two recordings of a simulated psychotherapy session with a bilingual Latina therapist and client. In one recording, the therapist invited the client to switch from English to Spanish when the client had trouble expressing complicated feelings; in the other, the therapist did not invite the client to switch. When listening, participants were asked to imagine themselves in the role of client and to rate the credibility and multicultural competence of the therapist, and the emotional bond they would anticipate with her. Contrary to expectation, only participants who expressed a greater sense of belonging to US culture rated the therapist who invited the client to switch as being more multiculturally competent. We discuss how these findings contribute to the literature on language switching and bilingualism in psychotherapy.     

Modality-specific preparatory influences on the flexibility of cognitive control in task switching

In the current study, we addressed modality-specificity of the flexibility of cognitive control. We compared performance in single-task and mixed-tasks blocks between blocked auditory and visual stimuli assessing alternation costs (single vs. mixed). Mixed blocks comprised task switches only. The tasks consisted of numerical parity, magnitude, and distance judgments about numbers between one and nine without five. A cue indicated the relevant task. The cue–stimulus interval was varied (short vs. long interval) to examine preparation effects. The results indicated higher response times (RTs) and error rates (ERs) in mixed- vs. single-tasks blocks. The alternation costs in ERs were larger for auditory compared to visual stimulus presentation. Moreover, the reduction of RT alternation costs based on increased preparation time was more pronounced for the auditory modality compared to the visual modality. These results suggest a modality-specific influence on processes involved in maintaining and updating task sets in working memory.     

Components of task switching: A closer look at task switching and cue switching

Research using the diffusion model to decompose task-switching effects has contributed to a better understanding of the processes underlying the observed effect in the explicit task cueing paradigm: Previous findings could be reconciled with multiple component models of task switching or with an account on compound-cue retrieval/repetition priming. In the present study, we used two cues for each task in order to decompose task-switch and cue-switch effects. Response time data support previous findings that comparable parts of the switching effect can be attributed to cue-switching and task-switching. A diffusion model analysis of the data confirmed that non-decision time is increased and drift rates are decreased in unpredicted task-switches. Importantly, it was shown that non-decision time was selectively increased in task-switching trials but not in cue-switching trials. Results of the present study specifically support the notion of additional processes in task-switches and can be reconciled with broader multiple component accounts.     

Cultural effects in emotion and gender recognition

There is evidence for cultural differences in how people respond to basic properties of faces. We examined task switching between two properties of faces, emotion and gender, for individuals drawn from Western (White UK citizens) and Asian (Pakistani) cultures. There were three main results of interest. First, there was a double dissociation between gender and emotion classification across the participant populations – Western participants were faster to make gender than emotion classifications while Asian participants were faster to make emotion than gender classifications. It is argued that the different patterns of results reflect the greater attentional weight given to contrasting face dimensions in the different cultures, and the dependence on using different attributes to make gender discriminations in individuals from varying cultures. Second, Asian participants showed smaller switch costs overall than did White British participants. This result may be attributed to effects of bilingualism in the Asian participants, which results in their having greater executive resources. Third, emotion decisions showed larger switch costs than gender decisions but essentially because emotion decisions benefited from priming on non‐switch trials. It is argued that emotion decisions benefit from the activation of a specific processing module across consecutive trials.