Inhibitory control in number-conservation and class-inclusion tasks: A neo-Piagetian inter-task priming study

We investigated whether success in number-conservation and class-inclusion tasks relies on a general ability to inhibit misleading strategies. Two groups of 10-year-olds performed inter-task priming between computerized versions of class-inclusion and number-conservation tasks (Experiment 1). In one group, the class-inclusion task served as a prime and the number-conservation task as an assessment probe and vice versa in the other group. Response times were shorter in the number-conservation task when performed after the class-inclusion task (and vice versa in the other group) than in control prime-probe sequences in which the primes did not require the inhibition of a misleading strategy. Experiment 2 showed that these inter-task priming effects did not simply reflect that class inclusion and number conservation rely on the reversibility of concrete operations as Piaget would have hypothesized. Taken together the results are consistent with the neo-Piagetian assumption that cognitive development is rooted in both the acquisition of knowledge of incremental complexity and the ability to resist (inhibit) previous knowledge. Critically, the present finding suggests that the inhibitory ability is not domain- or strategy-specific.     

Implicit identification of irrelevant local objects interacts with global/local processing of hierarchical stimuli

This work aimed at studying interactions between automatic object identification and global/local perceptual processing. We designed a paradigm in which participants were presented with pairs of hierarchically organized items, composed of global forms made up of local forms. Both global and local forms could represent either objects or non-objects. Subjects were instructed to detect whether the two hierarchical items composing a pair were identical or different. In a dissimilar pair, items differed at one level (target level), the other level, made of similar forms on both sides, was irrelevant to perform the task. We hypothesized that the automatic identification of object could affect the global precedence principle defined by Navon. In agreement with our hypothesis, we found that when the irrelevant level was made of objects, the global precedence effect was reversed. In contrast, the irrelevant level had no effect when the target level included only objects, or when the irrelevant level was made of non-object, the global precedence principle was being preserved in these cases. This interaction is compatible with the existence of two distinct processes working in parallel, namely automatic identification and structural analysis, that could either interfere or act together for the detection of differences.     

What does the nature of the stimuli tell us about the Global Precedence Effect?

The "Global Precedence Effect" (GPE) is a well-established phenomenon characterised by a global advantage (global response times that are faster than local response times) and an interference effect from global distractors during identification of local targets but not vice versa. In the present study, two experiments were carried out to examine how the GPE is affected by the meaningfulness of the stimuli. Using global/local compound stimuli based on either meaningful or meaningless stimuli, we found, on the one hand, that the global level was always processed faster than the local level, irrespective of the meaningfulness of the material. On the other hand, results show that the interference effect occurred only with meaningful stimuli. We propose that automatic identification of meaningful stimuli plays a role in the interference effect. These results suggest that the GPE involves both "sensory mechanisms" (responsible for the global advantage) and "cognitive mechanisms" (responsible for the interference effect).     

Does the transcranial direct current stimulation improve dual-task postural control in young healthy adults?

Cognitive Processing - Some studies have suggested that postural balance improved after a single session of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), whereas others have found minimal, if...     

Functional magnetic resonance imaging study of Piaget's conservation-of-number task in preschool and school-age children: a neo-Piagetian approach

Jean Piaget’s theory is a central reference point in the study of logico-mathematical development in children. One of the most famous Piagetian tasks is number conservation. Failures and successes in this task reveal two fundamental stages in children’s thinking and judgment, shifting at approximately 7 years of age from visuospatial intuition to number conservation. In the current study, preschool children (nonconservers, 5-6 years of age) and school-age children (conservers, 9-10 years of age) were presented with Piaget’s conservation-of-number task and monitored by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The cognitive change allowing children to access conservation was shown to be related to the neural contribution of a bilateral parietofrontal network involved in numerical and executive functions. These fMRI results highlight how the behavioral and cognitive stages Piaget formulated during the 20th century manifest in the brain with age.     

Counterfactually mediated emotions: a developmental study of regret and relief in a probabilistic gambling task

Regret and relief are related to counterfactual thinking and rely on comparison processes between what has been and what might have been. In this article, we study the development of regret and relief from late childhood to adulthood (11.2-20.2 years), and we examine how these two emotions affect individuals' willingness to retrospectively reconsider their choice in a computerized monetary gambling task. We asked participants to choose between two "wheels of fortune" that differed in the amount of gain and loss expected and the probability of winning. We manipulated the outcome of the wheel of fortune that was not selected by participants to induce regret or relief. For each trial, participants rated how they felt about the outcome and their willingness to modify their choice. Participants' ratings suggest that regret and relief are stronger in adults than in children and adolescents. Regret affects participants' willingness to modify their initial choice, but this desire is stronger for adults than for children. In children, the experience of regret seems to be dissociated from the willingness to reconsider a choice. This study provides the first evidence that the ability to experience counterfactually mediated emotions, such as regret and relief, and the ability to take them into consideration continue to develop during late childhood and adolescence.     

First came the trees, then the forest: developmental changes during childhood in the processing of visual local-global patterns according to the meaningfulness of the stimuli

This study investigated how global and local perceptual processes evolve during childhood according to the meaningfulness of the stimuli. Children had to decide whether visually presented pairs of items were identical or not. Items consisted of global forms made up of local forms. Both global and local forms could represent either objects or nonobjects. In dissimilar pairs, items differed at one level (target level), while the other level included similar forms on both sides (irrelevant level). The results indicate an evolution from local preference at 4 years of age to adult-like global preference at 9 years of age. Moreover, as previously reported in adults, regardless of age, identification impaired performance when the irrelevant level was made of objects and the target level was made of nonobjects (interference). However, in younger children, this interference existed even when objects were present at all levels, suggesting that the strategy used to perform the comparison task also varied according to age.     

Cosmetics: They Influence More Than Caucasian Female Facial Attractiveness

The study explored whether 4 Caucasian women would be evaluated differently on 4 social measures depending on whether they were presented with or without makeup. Participants—152 men and 171 women—were split into 2 groups and were presented with the women's facial photographs either with or without cosmetics. Women presented wearing cosmetics were perceived as healthier and more confident than when presented without. Participants also awarded women wearing makeup with a greater earning potential and with more prestigious jobs than the same women without cosmetics. The results suggest that women can successfully employ cosmetics to manipulate how they are assessed, which may be advantageous in social situations where women may be judged on their appearance, such as job interviews.     

You can detect the trees as well as the forest when adding the leaves: Evidence from visual search tasks containing three-level hierarchical stimuli

The present study investigated how multiple levels of hierarchical stimuli (i.e., global, intermediate and local) are processed during a visual search task. Healthy adults participated in a visual search task in which a target was either present or not at one of the three levels of hierarchical stimuli (global geometrical form made by intermediate forms themselves constituted by local forms). By varying the number of distractors, the results showed that targets presented at global and intermediate levels were detected efficiently (i.e., the detection times did not vary with the number of distractors) whereas local targets were processed less efficiently (i.e., the detection times increased with the number of distractors). Additional experiments confirmed that these results were not due to the size of the target elements or to the spatial proximity among the structural levels. Taken together, these results show that the most local level is always processed less efficiently, suggesting that it is disadvantaged during the competition for attentional resources compared to higher structural levels. The present study thus supports the view that the processing occurring in visual search acts dichotomously rather than continuously. Given that pure structuralist and pure space-based models of attention cannot account for the pattern of our findings, we discuss the implication for perception, attentional selection and executive control of target position on hierarchical stimuli.