Cognitive Research-Principles and Implications最新文献

Standard cognitive psychology research practices can introduce inadvertent sampling biases that reduce the reliability and generalizability of the findings. Researchers commonly acknowledge and understand that any given study sample is not perfectly generalizable, especially when implementing typical experimental constraints (e.g., limiting recruitment to specific age ranges or to individuals with normal color vision). However, less obvious systematic sampling constraints, referred to here as "shadow" biases, can be unintentionally introduced and can easily go unnoticed. For example, many standard cognitive psychology study designs involve lengthy and tedious experiments with simple, repetitive stimuli. Such testing environments may 1) be aversive to some would-be participants (e.g., those high in certain neurodivergent symptoms) who may self-select not to enroll in such studies, or 2) contribute to participant attrition, both of which reduce the sample's representativeness. Likewise, standard performance-based data exclusion efforts (e.g., minimum accuracy or response time) or attention checks can systematically remove data from participants from subsets of the population (e.g., those low in conscientiousness). This commentary focuses on the theoretical and practical issues behind these non-obvious and often unacknowledged "shadow" biases, offers a simple illustration with real data as a proof of concept of how applying attention checks can systematically skew latent/hidden variables in the included population, and then discusses the broader implications with suggestions for how to manage and reduce, or at a minimum acknowledge, the problem.

Previous work on indices of error-monitoring strongly supports that errors are distracting and can deplete attentional resources. In this study, we use an ecologically valid multitasking paradigm to test post-error behavior. It was predicted that after failing an initial task, a subject re-presented with that task in conflict with another competing simultaneous task, would more likely miss their response opportunity for the competing task and stay 'tunneled' on the initially errored task. Additionally, we predicted that an error's effect on attention would dissipate after several seconds, making error cascades less likely when subsequent conflict tasks are delayed. A multi-attribute task battery was used to present tasks and collect measures of both post-error and post-correct performance. Results supported both predictions: post-error accuracy on the competing task was lower compared to post-correct accuracy, and error-proportions were higher at shorter delays, dissipating over time. An exploratory analysis also demonstrated that following errors (as opposed to post-correct trials), participants clicked more on the task panel of the initial error regardless of delay; this continued task-engagement provides preliminary support for errors leading to a cognitive tunneling effect.

When a highly salient distractor is present in a search array, it speeds target absent visual search and increases errors during target present visual search, suggesting lowered quitting thresholds (Moher in Psychol Sci 31(1):31-42, 2020). Missing a critical target in the presence of a highly salient distractor can have dire consequences in real-world search tasks where accurate target detection is crucial, such as baggage screening. As such, the current study examined whether emphasizing either accuracy or speed would eliminate the distractor-generated quitting threshold effect (QTE). Three blocks of a target detection search task which included a highly salient distractor on half of all trials were used. In one block, participants received no instructions or feedback regarding performance. In the remaining two blocks, they received instructions and trial-by-trial feedback that either emphasized response speed or response accuracy. Overall, the distractor lowered quitting thresholds, regardless of whether response speed or response accuracy was emphasized in a block of trials. However, the effect of the distractor on target misses was smaller when accuracy was emphasized. It, therefore, appears that while the distractor QTE is not easily eradicated by explicit instructions and feedback, it can be shifted. As such, future research should examine the applicability of these and similar strategies in real-world search scenarios.

We apply a motivational perspective to understand the implications of physicians' longitudinal assessment. We review the literature on situated expectancy-value theory, achievement goals, mindsets, anxiety, and stereotype threat in relation to testing and assessment. This review suggests several motivational benefits of testing as well as some potential challenges and costs posed by high-stakes, standardized tests. Many of the motivational benefits for testing can be understood from the equation of having the perceived benefits of the test outweigh the perceived costs of preparing for and taking the assessment. Attention to instructional framing, test purposes and values, and longitudinal assessment frameworks provide vehicles to further enhance motivational benefits and reduce potential costs of assessment.

The present study examined whether scaling direction and perceptual modality affect children's spatial scaling. Children aged 6-8 years (N = 201) were assigned to a visual, visuo-haptic, and haptic condition in which they were presented with colourful, embossed graphics. In the haptic condition, they were asked to wear a blindfold during the test trials. Across several trials, children were asked to learn about the position of a target in a map and to localize a disc at the same location in a referent space. Scaling factor was manipulated systematically, so that children had to either scale up or scale down spatial information. Their absolute deviations from the correct target location, reversal and signed errors, and response times served as dependent variables. Results revealed higher absolute deviations and response times for the haptic modality as opposed to the visual modality. Children's signed errors, however, showed similar response strategies across the perceptual conditions. Therefore, it seems that a functional equivalence between vision and touch seems to emerge slowly across development for spatial scaling. With respect to scaling directions, findings showed that absolute deviations were affected by scaling factors, with symmetric increases in scaling up and scaling down in the haptic condition. Conversely, children showed an unbalanced pattern in the visual conditions, with higher accuracy in scaling down as opposed to scaling up. Overall, our findings suggest that visibility seems to factor into children's scaling process.

Driving at an inappropriate speed is a major accident cause in the EU. Understanding the underlying sensory mechanisms can help to reduce speed and increase traffic safety. The present study investigated the effect of visuospatial stimuli on speed perception using an adaptive countermeasure to speeding based on a manipulation of optic flow. We added red lights on both sides of a simulated road. We expected speed to be perceived as faster when lights moved toward drivers due to increased optic flow, whereas we expected static light stimuli to not alter the optic flow and thus not influence speed perception. Two experiments applied the method of constant stimuli. To this end, participants encountered several trials of two video sequences on a straight road. A reference sequence showed the same traveling speed while test sequences varied around different traveling speeds. Participants indicated which sequence they perceived as faster, leading to the calculation of the point of subjective equality (PSE). A lower PSE indicates that the speed in this experimental condition is perceived as faster than in another experimental condition. Experiment 1A did not show a difference between PSEs of static and oncoming lights. Because participants had counted reflector posts for speed estimation, we removed these reflector posts in Experiment 1B and found a lower PSE for oncoming lights. Thus, such light stimuli may have an effect only in situations without other competing visual stimuli supporting speed perception. Future research should investigate whether speed perception is indeed a primarily visuospatial control task or whether other sensory information such as auditory factors can have an influence as well.

Highly-automated technologies are increasingly incorporated into existing systems, for instance in advanced car models. Although highly automated modes permit non-driving activities (e.g. internet browsing), drivers are expected to reassume control upon a 'take over' signal from the automation. To assess a person's readiness for takeover, non-invasive eye tracking can indicate their attentive state based on properties of their gaze. Perceptual load is a well-established determinant of attention and perception, however, the effects of perceptual load on a person's ability to respond to a takeover signal and the related gaze indicators are not yet known. Here we examined how load-induced attentional state affects detection of a takeover-signal proxy, as well as the gaze properties that change with attentional state, in an ongoing task with no overt behaviour beyond eye movements (responding by lingering the gaze). Participants performed a multi-target visual search of either low perceptual load (shape targets) or high perceptual load (targets were two separate conjunctions of colour and shape), while also detecting occasional auditory tones (the proxy takeover signal). Across two experiments, we found that high perceptual load was associated with poorer search performance, slower detection of cross-modal stimuli, and longer fixation durations, while saccade amplitude did not consistently change with load. Using machine learning, we were able to predict the load condition from fixation duration alone. These results suggest monitoring fixation duration may be useful in the design of systems to track users' attentional states and predict impaired user responses to stimuli outside of the focus of attention.

Is self-assessment enough to keep physicians' cognitive skills-such as diagnosis, treatment, basic biological knowledge, and communicative skills-current? We review the cognitive strengths and weaknesses of self-assessment in the context of maintaining medical expertise. Cognitive science supports the importance of accurately self-assessing one's own skills and abilities, and we review several ways such accuracy can be quantified. However, our review also indicates a broad challenge in self-assessment is that individuals do not have direct access to the strength or quality of their knowledge and instead must infer this from heuristic strategies. These heuristics are reasonably accurate in many circumstances, but they also suffer from systematic biases. For example, information that feels easy to process in the moment can lead individuals to overconfidence in their ability to remember it in the future. Another notable phenomenon is the Dunning-Kruger effect: the poorest performers in a domain are also the least accurate in self-assessment. Further, explicit instruction is not always sufficient to remove these biases. We discuss what these findings imply about when physicians' self-assessment can be useful and when it may be valuable to supplement with outside sources.