Psychonomic Bulletin & Review最新文献

This study examined whether individuals with higher levels of global precedence recognized thematic relations faster and exhibited a stronger preference for them. In Study 1, the Global-Local Precedence Index was calculated based on results from the Navon task to reflect the degree of individual global precedence. Preferences for thematic or taxonomic relations and recognition speed were measured using the forced-choice triad task and the similarity-matching task, respectively. The results showed that participants with a higher Global-Local Precedence Index had a higher proportion of thematic choices in the forced-choice triad task and identified thematically similar options faster in the similarity-matching task. In Study 2, we replaced the stimulus set of the forced-choice triad task with a larger and more diverse set of stimuli and replaced the similarity-matching task (a word-based task) with a semantic priming task (a picture-based task). The results still showed that participants with a higher Global-Local Precedence Index chose thematic options more frequently in the forced-choice triad task and responded faster to correctly judge whether the orientation of Gabor patches was the same or different after thematic priming. The findings indicate that individuals with higher global precedence recognize thematic relations faster and show a stronger preference for them.

Absolute pitch (AP) refers to the ability to identify the pitch of a tone without external references. It is commonly believed that only individuals with special genetic makeup and early musical training within the critical period can develop AP. Recent studies have begun to challenge the critical period notion by showing the possibility of AP acquisition in adults. However, the learning effects could be attributed to learning of pitch height instead of chroma, extended working memory, relative pitch strategies, chance under repeated attempts, pre-existing AP abilities and/or specific cognitive profiles. An 8-week online computerized training program was designed to address these concerns and clarify learnability of AP in adulthood. Twelve musicians on average spent 21.4 h completing 15,327 training trials. By the end of the training, they learned to name an average of 7.08 pitches (ranging from 3 to 12) at an accuracy of 90% or above and within a response-time (RT) window of 1,305-2,028 ms. After training, pitch-naming accuracy was significantly improved by 128.1% (from .139 to .317) and size of error reduced by 42.7% (from 2.62 to 1.50 semitones) for the trained timbre, which generalized partially to an untrained timbre. Overall, results provide more convincing evidence for the learnability of AP judgment in adulthood beyond the critical period, similar to most perceptual and cognitive abilities.

Metacognitive confidence in memory judgments is typically assessed with a numeric self-report rating scale, a measurement approach that reliably predicts judgment accuracy but may also capture individual differences unrelated to memory per se. Recent research in perceptual discrimination suggests that the acoustical features of verbally rendered cognitive judgments (i.e., prosody) may provide relatively automatic and direct cues to the accuracy of those judgments. The current study tested whether prosody would predict the accuracy of spoken long-term episodic memory judgments. Subjects studied and were tested on memory for faces in a forced-choice recognition procedure. Test responses were given by saying "Number One/Two/Three/Four" to indicate the selected face. The pitch, loudness, speech rate, and onset time of these responses were extracted and used as predictors of accuracy. Despite a retention interval in the tens of minutes and the brief, generic nature of the verbal utterance, all four speech signals discriminated accurate and inaccurate responses: Correct recognition judgments were higher pitched, louder, faster, and initiated earlier than incorrect judgments. The same pattern of results was observed comparing judgments on more difficult (4AFC) versus less difficult (2AFC) trials. Modeling analyses demonstrated that pitch and loudness provide redundant predictive information with speech rate and onset time, and that speech rate and onset time predict accuracy above and beyond explicit confidence ratings. Prosodic features thus appear to carry information about the accuracy of memory reports, and may indeed help humans make metamnemonic inferences of others.

Researchers have generally assumed that listeners perceive speech compositionally, based on the combined processing of local acoustic-phonetic cues associated with individual linguistic units. Yet, these cue-based approaches have failed to fully account for variation in listeners' identification of the words produced by a talker (i.e., variation in talker intelligibility). The current study adopts an alternative approach, estimating the perceptual representations used to process speech (the perceptual similarity space) using the machine learning technique of self-supervised learning. We assessed intelligibility of 114 second-language (L2) English talkers and 25 L1 American English talkers through a speech-in-noise experiment (collecting data from ten L1 English listeners per talker, each transcribing 120 sentences). For each sample in a speech recording, we obtained a representation from a self-supervised learning model; the sequence of these representations forms a trajectory in the perceptual similarity space. The holistic distance between trajectories (two speakers' productions of the same sentence) was analyzed. We found that for L2 talkers, the average distance between the trajectories of an L2 talker and the L1 American English talker group predicts relative intelligibility of a given L2 talker. Crucially, the distance measure predicted relative intelligibility among L2 talkers over and above a set of traditional acoustic-phonetic cues. Additionally, we found that the distance measure accounts for some of the relative intelligibility among L1 talkers. These results provide evidence that relative talker intelligibility is better captured with the perceptual similarity space approach, suggesting it is an appropriate tool to study variability in human speech production and perception.

Gestures express redundant or complementary information to speech they accompany by depicting visual and spatial features of referents. In doing so, they recruit both spatial and verbal cognitive resources that underpin the processing of visual semantic information and its integration with speech. The relation between spatial and verbal skills and gesture comprehension, where gestures may serve different roles in relation to speech is yet to be explored. This study examined the role of spatial and verbal skills in processing gestures that expressed redundant or complementary information to speech during the comprehension of spatial relations between objects. Turkish-speaking adults (N=74) watched videos describing the spatial location of objects that involved perspective-taking (left-right) or not (on-under) with speech and gesture. Gestures either conveyed redundant information to speech (e.g., saying and gesturing "left") or complemented the accompanying demonstrative in speech (e.g., saying "here," gesturing "left"). We also measured participants' spatial (the Corsi block span and the mental rotation tasks) and verbal skills (the digit span task). Our results revealed nuanced interactions between these skills and spatial language comprehension, depending on the modality in which the information was expressed. One insight emerged prominently. Spatial skills, particularly spatial working memory capacity, were related to enhanced comprehension of visual semantic information conveyed through gestures especially when this information was not present in the accompanying speech. This study highlights the critical role of spatial working memory in gesture processing and underscores the importance of examining the interplay among cognitive and contextual factors to understand the complex dynamics of multimodal language.

Rhythmic brain activity has been proposed to structure visual processing. Here we investigated the causal contributions of parietal beta oscillations to context-dependent visual size perception, which is indicated by the classic Ebbinghaus and Ponzo illusions. On each trial, rhythmic transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied over the left or right superior parietal lobule in a train of five pulses at beta frequency (20 Hz). Immediately after the last pulse of the stimulation train, participants were presented with the illusory configuration, and performed a size-matching task. The results revealed that right parietal stimulation significantly increased the magnitudes of both size illusions relative to control vertex stimulation, whereas the illusion effects were unaffected with left parietal stimulation. Moreover, the stimulation effect was not observed with right parietal TMS at theta frequency (5 Hz). The findings clearly demonstrate the functional relevance of beta oscillations for the implementation of cognitive performance, supporting the causal contribution of parietal cortex to the processing of visual size illusions.

Keeping track of event times and the uncertainty in the resultant representation time intervals is pivotal for adaptive decision-making and action planning. To this end, earlier experiments showed that humans and rodents can generate adaptive biases in decision-making considering their representational timing uncertainty. More recent studies showed that humans and rats can also track whether and how much one has underestimated or overestimated the duration of an event (resulting from timing uncertainty). These studies overlooked a more rudimentary form of time-dependent awareness-that is, knowing whether or not a response is emitted under temporal control. This type of dual-system control is a common feature of responses in tasks requiring animals to wait. We tested this hypothesis in C57BL/6 male mice (N = 16) that were trained to depress a lever for a minimum target duration to receive a reward. No reward was given when mice under-produced the minimum required target interval. During test trials, the rate of nose-pokes into the food hopper during a variable response window following time production was recorded. Mice nose-poked more vigorously (reflecting higher reward expectancy) following temporal productions around the target duration compared with when they underproduced the minimum target interval. This result suggests that mice can monitor whether their responses resulted from temporal control versus its failure. Our findings point to a rudimentary form of time-dependent awareness in mice.

Retrieving personal memories is usually accompanied by eye movements. Although the functional significance of eye movements during retrieval is relatively well established in the case of episodic memory, their role in autobiographical memory is not clearly delineated in the literature. This systematic review critically examines existing studies in the field to summarize the current understanding of eye movements during autobiographical recall, leading to three conclusions. First, eye movements can be taken to reflect the retrieval of mental visual images in autobiographical memory. Second, eye movements may serve a functional role and support recall by helping retrieve visual details of the memory. Third, eye movements appear to be modulated by various aspects of the retrieval process, suggesting that they could meaningfully reflect aspects of the cognitive processes at play. The discussion highlights the major limitations of current research and proposes suggestions for future studies that will allow developing a more robust theoretical framework.

Mind wandering is a common everyday phenomenon, and previous research has shown that people may mind wander strategically, suggesting a sensitivity to more versus less opportune times to let our minds wander. In the current study, we aimed to replicate the evidence for strategic mind wandering and address a novel question: Who are those individuals who are more apt to strategically mind wander? Following Seli et al. Psychological Science, 29, 1247-1256, (2018a), Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147, 431-443, participants (N = 269) completed a mind-wandering clock task with periodic thought probes to assess mind wandering and cognitive (working memory capacity [WMC] and fluid intelligence [Gf]) and dispositional (trait spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering and prospective memory ability/strategy use) individual differences measures. The results demonstrated that strategic mind wandering occurred in the mind wandering clock task, replicating previous work. Critically, only individual differences in WMC predicted the strategic modulation of mind wandering. Strategic mind wandering was more pronounced in individuals with higher WMC, such that these individuals showed a larger shift away from mind wandering in the moments before demands of the clock task were highest. This suggests people who are better at actively maintaining goal-relevant information are more strategic in decisions to mind wander. These findings highlight that mind wandering is not necessarily a failure of control, but something that people can control, especially those that are high in WMC.