Cross-cultural consistency of coding the strange situation

This study tested whether or not cross-cultural differences in attachment classification distributions result from systematic differences in coding practices. First, we investigated whether or not the interactive scales have been scored consistently in several different cross-cultural samples. Second, the Richters, Waters, and Vaughn (1988) functions were applied to address the question of whether or not attachment classifications were consistently based upon the same pattern of interactive behaviors. Third, cross-cultural coding differences were described from a multivariate perspective. Data sets from seven investigators in six countries were available for analysis. Analyses on this “multinational data set” revealed that except for distance interaction, the interactive scales in the two reunion episodes were scored in accordance with the original coding rules. Furthermore, a good to reasonable agreement appeared to exist between the original classifications and those computed by the functions, except for infants older than 20 months of age. The multivariate principal component analysis showed that classification groups across cultures were more alike than cultures across classification groups. Our data showed, therefore, that attachment classifications have been consistently coded across cultures.     

Naming in conditional discrimination and stimulus equivalence.

Using a matching-to-sample procedure, McIntire, Cleary, and Thompson (1987) taught monkeys the conditional relations A1-R1-A1-R1, A2-R2-A2-R2, A1-R1-B1-R1, A2-R2-B2-R2, B1-R1-C1-R1, and B2-R2-C2-R2, where the first and third terms in each relation refer to the sample and comparison stimuli, respectively, and the second and last terms refer to the emission of a distinctive pattern of responding. The subjects were then tested for the emergent relations A-C, C-A, B-A, C-B, and B-B, with the differential response produced by a given stimulus during training also emitted on test trials (e.g., A1-R1-C1-R1). The performances of both subjects were as accurate on the tested relations as they had been on the trained relations. The new relations were characterized as demonstrations of stimulus equivalence. However, the conditional discrimination literature shows that such training procedures generate control of comparison selection by the differential response patterns. Therefore, no emergent relations were demonstrated because all of the trained response-stimulus relations were preserved on test trials. This paper suggests that these procedures do not provide an appropriate analogy for the kind of emergent stimulus-stimulus relations exhibited by human subjects in equivalence studies and outlines a paradigm for assessing the relative influence of stimulus-stimulus and response-stimulus relations.     

小学儿童空间物体位置编码( Ⅱ)

采用找物范式研究小学7、9、11岁儿童利用线与线之间的关系对目标物位置进行编码的认知发展。结果表明:交点位置编码和平行线上对应点编码认知成绩的年龄效应显著。实验任务对儿童认知成绩的影响不同,11岁组儿童交点位置编码认知成绩显著好于平行线上对应点编码认知成绩,7岁组和9岁组两个任务的认知成绩差异不显著。     

The influence of divided attention on holistic face perception.

There is evidence that upright, but not inverted, faces are encoded holistically. The holistic coding of faces was examined in four experiments by manipulating the attention allocated to target faces. In Experiment 1, participants in a divided attention condition were asked to match two upright flanker faces while encoding a centrally presented upright target face. Although holistic coding was evident in the full attention conditions, dividing attention disrupted holistic coding of target faces. In Experiment 2, we found that while matching upright flanker faces disrupted holistic coding, matching inverted flanker faces did not. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the differential effects of flanker orientation were not due to participants taking longer to match upright, than inverted, flanker faces. In Experiment 4, we found that matching fractured faces had an intermediate effect to that of matching upright and inverted flankers, on the holistic coding of the target faces. The findings emphasize the differences in processing of upright, fractured and inverted faces and suggest that there are limitations in the number of faces that can be holistically coded in a brief time.     

The Challenges of Qualitatively Coding Ancient Texts

We respond to several important and valid concerns about our study (“The Prevalence of Folk Dualism in Early China,”Cognitive Science 35: 997–1007) by Klein and Klein, defending our interpretation of our data. We also argue that, despite the undeniable challenges involved in qualitatively coding texts from ancient cultures, the standard tools used throughout the cognitive sciences—large quantities of data, coders as blind to the hypothesis as possible, intercoder reliability measures, and statistical analysis—allow the noise of randomly distributed interpretative differences to be distinguished from the signal of genuine historical patterns.     

Does the body talk to the body? The relationship between different body representations while observing others’ body parts

The way human bodies are represented is central in everyday activities. The cognitive system must combine internal, visceral, and somatosensory, signals to external, visually driven information generated from the spatial placement of others’ bodies and the own body in the space. However, how different body representations covertly interact among them when observing human body parts is still unclear. Therefore, we investigated the implicit processing of body parts by manipulating either the body part stimuli’ posture (conditions a and b) or the participants’ response body posture (conditions c, d, and e) in healthy participants (N = 70) using a spatial compatibility task called Sidedness task. The task requires participants to judge the colour of a circle superimposed on a task-irrelevant body part picture. Responses are facilitated when the spatial side of the responding hand corresponds to the spatial code generated by the hand stimulus's position with respect to a body of reference. Results showed that the observation of the task-irrelevant body parts oriented participants’ attention and facilitated responses that were spatial compatible with the spatial position such body parts have within a configural representation of the body structure (i.e., Body Structural Representation) in all the five experimental conditions. Notably, the body part stimuli were mentally attached to the body according to the most comfortable and less awkward postures, following the anatomo-physiological constraints. Moreover, the pattern of the results was not influenced by manipulating the participants’ response postures, suggesting that the automatic and implicit coding of the body part stimuli does not rely on proprioceptive information about one's body (i.e., Body Schema). We propose that the human body's morphometry knowledge is enriched by biomechanical and anatomo-physiological information about the real body movement possibilities. Moreover, we discuss the importance of the automatic orienting of attention based on the sidedness within the context of imitational learning.     

Correspondence effects with torches: Grasping affordance or visual feature asymmetry?

Three experiments were conducted to determine whether an object-based correspondence effect for torch (flashlight) stimuli reported by Pellicano et al. [(2010 Pellicano, A., Iani, C., Borghi, A. M., Rubichi, S., & Nicoletti, R. (2010). Simon-like and functional affordance effects with tools: The effects of object perceptual discrimination and object action state. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 2190–2201. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2010.486903[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Simon-like and functional affordance effects with tools: The effects of object perceptual discrimination and object action state. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 2190–2201] is due to a grasping affordance provided by the handle or asymmetry of feature markings on the torch. In Experiment 1 the stimuli were the same as those from Pellicano et al.'s Experiment 2, whereas in Experiments 2 and 3 the stimuli were modified versions with the graspable handle removed. Participants in all experiments performed upright/inverted orientation judgements on the torch stimuli. The results of Experiment 1 replicated those of Pellicano et al.: A small but significant object-based correspondence effect was evident, mainly when the torch was in an active state. With the handle of the torch removed in Experiment 2, making the barrel markings more asymmetric in the display, the correspondence effect was larger. Experiment 3 directly demonstrated an effect of barrel-marking asymmetry on the correspondence effect: When only the half of the markings nearest the light end of the torch was included, the correspondence effect reversed to favour the light end. The results are in agreement with a visual feature-asymmetry account and are difficult to reconcile with a grasping-affordance account.     

Lower limb kinematic variability in dancers performing drop landings onto floor surfaces with varied mechanical properties

Elite dancers perform highly skilled and consistent movements. These movements require effective regulation of the intrinsic and extrinsic forces acting within and on the body. Customized, compliant floors typically used in dance are assumed to enhance dance performance and reduce injury risk by dampening ground reaction forces during tasks such as landings. As floor compliance can affect the extrinsic forces applied to the body, secondary effects of floor properties may be observed in the movement consistency or kinematic variability exhibited during dance performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of floor mechanical properties on lower extremity kinematic variability in dancers performing landing tasks. A vector coding technique was used to analyze sagittal plane knee and ankle joint kinematic variability, in a cohort of 12 pre-professional dancers, through discrete phases of drop landings from a height of 0.2 m. No effect on kinematic variability was observed between floors, indicating that dancers could accommodate the changing extrinsic floor conditions. Future research may consider repeat analysis under more dynamic task constraints with a less experienced cohort. However, knee/ankle joint kinematic variability was observed to increase late in the landing phase which was predominantly comprised of knee flexion coupled with the terminal range of ankle dorsiflexion. These findings may be the result of greater neural input late in the landing phase as opposed to the suggested passive mechanical interaction of the foot and ankle complex at initial contact with a floor. Analysis of joint coordination in discrete movement phases may be of benefit in identifying intrinsic sources of variability in dynamic tasks that involve multiple movement phases.     

The Impact of Asymmetric Partial Feedback on Response‐Bias

For many decisions we make, we are more likely to receive feedback about some outcomes than about others, and thus we must operate under conditions of asymmetric partial feedback. In this paper, we examine the effects of asymmetric partial feedback on decision making across three experiments. Experiment 1 examines the effects of four partial feedback schedules on decision making in a single‐attribute auditory detection task. Experiment 2 examines these same schedules in the context of a simulated experiment in which virtual participants perform a multi‐attribute choice task. Experiment 3 then examines effects of one partial feedback schedule representative of a real‐world decision‐making domain (personnel selection) using an ecologically informed multi‐attribute choice task. All three experiments reveal that asymmetric partial feedback primarily impacts on response‐bias, a parameter of signal detection theory. These findings can be explained in terms of decision makers' attempts to maximize accuracy and the fact that shifts in response‐bias will, under partial feedback, produce misleading impressions of greater accuracy. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the time-course of adjacent and non-adjacent transposed-letter priming

We compared effects of adjacent (e.g. atricle-ARTICLE) and non-adjacent (e.g. actirle-ARTICLE) transposed-letter (TL) primes in an event-related potential (ERP) study using the sandwich priming technique. TL priming was measured relative to the standard double-substitution condition. We found significantly stronger priming effects for adjacent transpositions than non-adjacent transpositions (with two intervening letters) in behavioural responses (lexical decision latencies), and the adjacent priming effects emerged earlier in the ERP signal, at around 200-ms post-target onset. Non-adjacent priming effects emerged about 50 ms later and were short-lived, being significant only in the 250- to 300-ms time-window. Adjacent transpositions on the other hand continued to produce priming in the N400 time-window (300- to 500-ms post-target onset). This qualitatively different pattern of priming effects for adjacent and non-adjacent transpositions is discussed in the light of different accounts of letter transposition effects and the utility of drawing a distinction between positional flexibility and positional noise.