A psychophysiological study of the use of partial information in stimulus-response translation.

Ss performed a hybrid go/no-go reaction task in which colored letters were assigned in various ways to 4 finger responses, 2 on each hand. In addition to reaction time, psychophysiological measures were used to assess the duration of stimulus identification and the onset of central and peripheral motor activity. The results suggest that response selection can begin on the basis of 1 stimulus dimension (e.g., color), while the other dimension (e.g., letter form) has not yet been identified. Other results are discussed with regard to "selection for action" (Allport, 1987) and the importance of stimulus-response translation strategies in the use of partial information.     

Selective response activation can begin before stimulus recognition is complete: a psychophysiological and error analysis of continuous flow

In discussions of process models of human information processing, the continuous flow conception (Eriksen and Schultz 1979) plays a prominent role. A central prediction of this conception is that any information in a display associated with a response activates that response as soon as it becomes available in the perceptual system. If it concerns the correct response channel, then response facilitation occurs. If it concerns the incorrect response channel, then response competition occurs. To assess these mechanisms more directly, we used psychophysiological measures as well as reaction time (RT). We used the latency of the P3 component of the event related brain potential (ERP) as an index of stimulus evaluation duration, the onset of lateralized motor activity derived from the ERP as an index of selective central motor activation, and the onset of electromyographic activity as an index of the start of peripheral motor activation. Subjects were required to respond to target letters that were either flanked by letters that signalled the opposite response (incompatible arrays), by the target itself (compatible arrays), by letters not associated with a response (neutral arrays), or by no other letters (targets alone). Our results replicated the basic findings obtained in this paradigm. RTs to targets alone did not differ from RTs to compatible arrays. The latter were faster than RTs to neutral arrays, which were faster than RTs to incompatible arrays. P3 latencies were longer on incompatible than on neutral trials, and longer on compatible than on target alone trials. Incorrect central response activation on incompatible trials and correct central response activation on compatible trials, both began earlier than on target alone trials. Peripheral responding on both trial types, however, began later than on target alone trials. More incompatible but less compatible trials than neutral ones exhibited incorrect peripheral response activation. Peripheral response execution was faster and more accurate on compatible than on target alone trials, while it was slower and less accurate on incompatible than on neutral trials. These results indicate, that the flankers activated their associated response channel while display evaluation was still going on, and that response facilitation and competition occurred. After applying criteria proposed by Miller (1988), it was concluded that the set of stimulus recognition processes and the set of response activation processes cannot be regarded as independent stages of processing.     

The organization of multidimensional selection on the basis of color and shape: An event-related brain potential study

In this paper, we examine whether color and shape, tied to a single object in space, (1) are identified and selected in series or in parallel, (2) are identified and selected in a dependent, self-terminating manner or in an independent and exhaustive manner, and (3) are conjoined by a feature integration process before or only after an initial stage of separate attribute analyses has finished. We measured response time and the selection negativity (SN) derived from event-related brain potentials when participants responded to a unique conjunction of color and shape in a go/no-go target detection task. The discriminability of the color and the shape of the conjunction was manipulated in three conditions. When color and shape were easy to discriminate, the SNs to color and shape started at the same time. When one attribute was less discriminable, the SN to that attribute started later, but not the SN to the complementary attribute. This suggests that color and shape are identified and selected in parallel. In all three discriminability conditions, the SNs to color and shape were initially independent but later interacted. This suggests that color and shape are initially selected independently and exhaustively, after which their conjunction is analyzed. The SN to local shape features started later than that to the conjunction of color and global shape features, which suggests that feature integration can start before the analyses of the separate attributes have finished.     

Psychophysiological evidence for continuous information transmission between visual search and response processes.

This study was designed to test whether information transmission between the perceptual and motor levels occurs continuously or in discrete steps. Ss performed visual search across nontargets that shared visual features with one of two possible targets, each assigned to a different response. In addition to reaction time, psychophysiological measures were used to assess the duration of target search and the onset of central and peripheral motor activity. Nontargets sharing features with a target selectively activated the response associated with that target, even when it was not present in the display. This suggests that information transmission to the motor level can consist of fine-grained visual information and that visual search and response selection occur in parallel.     

Zwei Briefe von Johannes Daubert an Edmund Husserl aus dem Jahr 1907

Ohne ZusammenfassungMein Dank gilt Herrn Dr. K. Dachs, Leiter der Handschriften- und Inkunabelabteilung der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München, und seiner Mitarbeiterin, Frau Dr. S. von Moisy, für die vielfältige Hilfe bei den Daubert-Forschungen.     

An electrophysiological study of the insertion of overt response choice

Using electrophysiological measures, the authors studied changes in prestimulus state, stimulus identification, and response-related processing when, in a go/no-go task, forced choice between 2 overt go responses was inserted. The authors observed decreased prestimulus motor preparation (electromyogram), no change in stimulus identification time (selection negativity), a minor increase in response selection time (lateralized readiness potential), a large increase in response preparation time (lateralized readiness potential), a minor effect on response execution time (electromyogram), and a decrease in the activation of a response-inhibition process on no-go trials (frontal event-related potential). The existence of the response-inhibition process was verified by the presence of inverted lateralized readiness potentials on no-go trials. Pure insertion of response choice in a task seems impossible because the choice between activation and inhibition (go/no-go) always seems already present.     

Mind the Gap

Journal of Philosophical Logic - In debates about the metaphysics of material objects examples of colocated objects are commonly taken to be examples of coincidence too. But the argument that...     

The Traumatic Grief Inventory Self-Report Version (TGI-SR): Introduction and Preliminary Psychometric Evaluation

Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder (PCBD) is a disorder of grief newly included in the “Emerging Measures and Models” section of the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013 American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. [Google Scholar]). Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) is a disorder with similar symptoms, likely to be included in the forthcoming 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11; World Health Organization, 1992 World Health Organization. (1992). International classification of diseases and related health problems (10th revision). Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. [Google Scholar]). We developed the Traumatic Grief Inventory Self-Report version (TGI-SR), an 18-item measure, for the assessment of symptoms of PCBD and PGD in clinical and research settings. This study was an initial attempt to evaluate psychometric properties of the TGI-SR. To this end, the measure was administered to 327 patients of a mental health institute specialized in the treatment of psychopathology associated with loss and trauma. We found evidence that items of the TGI-SR (all 18 items, as well as the selection of 17 items representing PCBD criteria, and 11 items representing PGD criteria) loaded on one dimension. The TGI-SR demonstrated strong internal consistency. Elevated scores on the TGI-SR were significantly correlated with elevated scores on indices of psychopathology and lower quality of life, attesting to the concurrent validity. Receiver operation characteristic (ROC) analyses of the TGI-SR total score against provisional diagnoses of PCBD and PGD yielded a high area under the curve index suggesting that the TGI-SR total score can be used as an indicator for probable diagnoses of both PCBD and PGD. Results of this study provide initial evidence that PCBD and PGD symptoms may be readily and reliably measured using the TGI-SR.