Psychonomic Bulletin & Review最新文献

The perception of duration is influenced by various factors, including attention and the physical properties of stimuli. However, the interaction between these factors remains poorly understood. The present study investigated how covert visual attention, stimulus brightness, and contrast jointly influence time perception using a novel attentional temporal bisection task. Participants categorized the duration of a cued target stimulus as "short" or "long" while the brightness and contrast (relative to background) of the target and a distractor stimulus were systematically manipulated. Results showed that high-contrast targets were perceived as lasting longer than low-contrast targets. Surprisingly, brighter targets were perceived as shorter than dimmer targets. At the unattended location, the effects of distractor contrast and brightness were the mirror image, such that targets were perceived as longer in the presence of bright distractors and (though not reliably) low-contrast distractors. Taken together, the findings point to local encoding effects at the target (contrast lengthens; higher target brightness shortens) and a modest decisional/context bias from the distractor, consistent with partial competition across locations. Findings further indicate that contrast, rather than absolute brightness, is the primary determinant of perceived duration, with its effects mediated by attention. This study provides novel insights into how bottom-up stimulus properties and top-down attention jointly influence temporal processing, highlighting the need for more nuanced models of time perception that account for the complex interplay between attention, brightness, and contrast. Finally, the counterintuitive finding that increasing brightness can shorten perceived duration challenges the notion of a monotonic relationship between stimulus intensity and perceived time.

Why do some people perform a task better than others? Influential theories of skill acquisition and expertise suggest that cognitive determinants of performance vary as a function of practice and task features. Previous research identified consistent stimulus-response mappings as a primary determinant of whether a task can become automatic (Fitts & Posner, 1967). This theory has held for simple tasks where fluid abilities become less predictive of performance over time (Ackerman & Woltz, Journal of Educational Psychology,86, 487-515, 1994). However, for more complex tasks, fluid abilities continue to predict performance despite training (Ackerman & Cianciolo, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8, 194-208, 2002). In a large sample of university and community participants (N = 818), we extend previous research by using an extensive cognitive ability battery and a novel complex learning task that allows us to manipulate stimulus-response consistency while also controlling other task features. Using multigroup structural equation modeling, we demonstrate that while variable-mapping impairs performance, the performance-ability relationships in this complex task remain unchanged. Variable mapping did not alter which cognitive abilities were required by the task initially or following practice. Performance on both consistently and variably mapped versions was best predicted by fluid intelligence, whereas completion time was predicted by both fluid intelligence (higher = slower) and processing speed (higher = faster). Viewed in the context of prior literature, these findings suggest that complexity can override the benefits of consistency, maintaining the influence of cognitive abilities despite practice.

Repulsive adaptation effects are widely assumed to obtain for all perceptually represented dimensions. However, the ubiquity of adaptation effects within perception remains untested. We examined ensemble size adaptation as a case study to probe whether adaptation occurs for all perceptually encoded properties. Across four experiments, we investigated whether observers adapt to average size and/or cumulative size of dot arrays. In Experiments 1a, 1b, and 1c participants adapted to displays varying in cumulative and/or average dot size, then judged either the average dot size (1a) or the cumulative dot size (1b) of paired test displays. Results revealed robust adaptation to cumulative size but not average size, regardless of task instructions, and even when confounds with brightness were controlled for (1c). Experiment 2 tested "reverse" adaptation to displays containing smaller average and/or cumulative dots size and, again, found adaptation effects for cumulative size only. The observed lack of adaptation to average size across each of these experiments forces a reinterpretation of previous studies that have investigated size adaptation and calls into question arguments which have assumed adaptation to be universal within perception, given a large body of work that finds average size to be perceptually encoded.

Despite the intuition that attention can be willfully heightened on demand in response to warnings that alert people to impending distraction (e.g., "Pay attention!"), the empirical evidence for this notion from studies employing congruency pre-cues is surprisingly weak, posing a challenge to some theoretical accounts. Here, we examine this puzzle of profitless pre-cues via the first systematic review of the literature on pre-cues in conflict tasks (e.g., the Stroop task)-a classic instance of proactive cognitive control. We first outline important conceptual and methodological considerations to delineate the process of greatest theoretical and practical importance, namely, the volitional attenuation of distraction when the precise target and distractor features are not known in advance. This is followed by a comprehensive literature review, revealing limited evidence for the effective use of pre-cues to attenuate distraction in conflict tasks (and we note a similar status in adjacent fields, like task switching and visual search). To elucidate this puzzle, we synthesize key findings alongside design parameters employed across studies to develop a novel theoretical framework, called TEPID. TEPID proposes a two-phase model that highlights the interactivity of a small set of task-related factors (preparation time, cue type, response modality, and task type) and person-related factors (motivation and ability) which we believe to be crucial for determining whether pre-cues are exploited to proactively modulate control. From this synthesis, several recommendations and predictions are derived to position the field for future investigations of proactive control using pre-cueing manipulations, as well as their translation to real-life applications.

Zhan and Wang (2025) claim that the relevance effect found in Skovgaard-Olsen et al. (2016) might be an artifact due to "boundary cases" of zero or one probabilities. The relevance effect refers to the finding that people's expectations about the probabilistic relevance of the antecedent for the consequent influences people's probability judgments of indicative conditions, "If A, then C". In Skovgaard-Olsen et al. (2016, 2017), this effect was found not by using probabilistic notions of relevance, like ΔP=P(C|A)-P(C|-A), as direct predictors of P(if A, then C). Instead, stimulus materials were pre-validated to implement different qualitative reason relation assessments of whether A is a reason for C, A reason against C, or neither, which were operationalized via categories of probabilistic relevance (positive relevance ΔP>0, negative relevance ΔP<0, irrelevance ΔP=0). Despite this, this commentary addresses the fact that the binomial statistical model used by Zhan and Wang (2025) is invalid for the type of data collected. The purpose of this paper is to do a re-analysis of the two data sets of Zhan and Wang (2025). First, we reanalyze the new data that Zhan and Wang (2025) present. Then we re-analyze the data from Skovgaard-Olsen et al. (2016), which Zhan and Wang (2025) in turn re-analyze in Table 5 of their paper. In both cases, we find that invalid statistical models were applied and that the conclusions that Zhan and Wang (2025) draw must be rejected once valid statistical models are applied.

To behave adaptively, people need to integrate information about probabilistic outcomes and balance drives to approach positive outcomes and avoid negative outcomes. However, questions remain about how uncertainty in positive and negative outcomes influence approach-avoid decision-making dynamics. To fill this gap, we developed a novel Probabilistic Approach-Avoidance Task (PAAT) and characterized behavior in this task using sequential sampling models. In this task, participants (Study 1: blinded mixed clinical sample N = 34; Study 2: online nonpsychiatric sample N = 58) made a series of choices between pairs of options, each consisting of variable probabilities of reaching a positive outcome (monetary reward) and of reaching a negative outcome (aversive image). Participants tended to choose options that maximized the likelihood of reward and minimized the likelihood of aversive outcomes. Moreover, the weights they placed on each of these differed for choices where these likelihoods were in opposition (i.e., the riskier option was also more rewarding; incongruent trials) relative to when these were aligned (congruent trials). Computational modeling revealed that the relative influence of rewarding and aversive outcomes on choice was captured by differences in the rate of decision-relevant information accumulation. These modeling results were validated with a series of model comparisons and posterior predictive checks, demonstrating that our sequential sampling models reliably captured our behavioral data. Together, these findings improve our understanding of the influence of motivational conflict, outcome type, and levels of uncertainty on approach-avoid decision making.

Listeners can use lexical information to accommodate ambiguity in speech input. Some evidence suggests that lexically guided perceptual learning persists over time. However, other evidence suggests that lexically guided perceptual learning attenuates throughout the test session, consistent with learning that occurs given exposure to the test stimuli. The current study aimed to determine whether this apparent discrepancy could be resolved when viewed through the lens of the belief-updating theory of speech adaptation, which posits continuous sensitivity to statistical cues in speech input. During exposure, listeners (n = 160) heard speech sounds ambiguous between /ʃ/ and /s/ in a lexically-biasing context. At test, listeners categorized tokens from an ashi-asi continuum. Critically, the duration of the initial test phase was manipulated between subjects to be either brief or long. Approximately 24 hours later, all listeners completed a second test phase. Though evidence of lexically guided perceptual learning was present at all timepoints for both biasing groups, attenuation of learning was observed given continued testing. Strikingly, the position of the 24-hour time delay relative to duration of the initial test had no significant effect on learning. These results and a re-analysis of previous work align a seemingly mixed literature under a unifying account characterizing lexically guided perceptual learning as an iterative, continuous sensitivity to dynamic changes in speech input that is insensitive to time alone in the initial 24-hour learning window.

Temporal synchrony is widely recognized as one of the key factors facilitating the emergence of crossmodal correspondences and affecting their crossmodal effects. However, several issues regarding the definition of temporal synchrony and the mechanisms underlying its crossmodal effects remain open, depending on the specific experimental/perceptual context/stimuli used, as well as the influence of crossmodal congruency and structural (including isomorphic) crossmodal correspondences. In this review, we take a closer look at the literature that has been published in this area over recent decades in order to critically evaluate what is currently known concerning the crossmodal effects that are mediated by temporal synchrony. We focus especially on mid-level audiovisual crossmodal correspondences, defined as those that involve multi-element, or dynamic, auditory and visual stimuli. We examine the different experimental methodologies used and their limitations as well as the theoretical frameworks that have been proposed to account for the viewer's impression of (and the meaning/affect that is associated with) such experimental audiovisual displays, including those that are based on the 'Congruency-Associationist Model', Gestalt perceptual grouping, as well as the phenomenon of multisensory emergence. Finally, we outline several directions for future research on temporal synchrony in the context of audiovisual crossmodal correspondences.

For more than 40 years, selective attention has been summarized as operating through two distinct mechanisms: a bottom-up mechanism (exogenous attention, driving attentional selection based on stimulus features such as salience) and a top-down mechanism (endogenous attention, driving attentional selection based on goal-related information). This dichotomy is still an integral part of discourse on selective attention, despite contemporary research clearly showing that this is an oversimplification. In the present theoretical synthesis, we summarize nine key lines of arguments showing that exogenous and endogenous attention are not cleanly distinguishable in terms of either neurocognitive or computational mechanisms, and that they do not exhaustively represent the types of attentional signals that contribute to attentional selection. We then outline how the framework of priority maps can help better describe the combined influence of salience-based, goal-based, and other stimulus- and observer-related sources of attentional bias. In this view, selective attention is more usefully summarized in the form of various concurrent attentional signals being integrated in a priority map, which represents attentional weights at different space locations. This framework also helps conceptualize possible types of interactions between attentional signals, including early and late interactions during the course of attentional processing.

Social attention is fundamental to social interaction and is experimentally indexed by the gaze-cueing effect (GCE) derived from the gaze-cueing task. Although atypical social attention is often considered a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), empirical findings regarding the GCE in ASD remain heterogeneous. This inconsistency highlights the need to investigate social attention across the broader autism trait continuum (autism-like traits [ALT]) in the general population to clarify these mechanisms. This meta-analysis synthesized 28 correlational studies (77 effect sizes) and eight group-comparison studies (21 effect sizes) to resolve these inconsistencies. A three-level model integrated the effect sizes, with moderation analyses testing the influence of sample characteristics (proportion of males, sample size), ALT measure type, and experimental parameters (face type, expression, SOA, task type). Results revealed a significant, albeit small, negative correlation: higher ALT levels predicted reduced GCE. Conversely, group comparisons (high ALT vs. low ALT) yielded nonsignificant results. These findings align with the continuum hypothesis, suggesting a gradient relationship rather than a distinct subgroup effect, although statistical power in group comparisons should also be considered. Moderation analyses indicated that the negative association intensified in samples with a higher male proportion but weaker in those with larger sample sizes; no other moderators were significant. Together, these findings indicate that the link between autistic traits and social attention is subtle, continuous, and moderated by sample characteristics, underscoring the necessity for future research using more ecologically valid paradigms to capture the dynamic nature of social processing.