Cognitive Research-Principles and Implications最新文献

From video games to laparoscopic surgeries, differences in users' abilities to adapt to new control schemes can have significant, even deadly impacts on performance. Starting with the question of why some video game players invert the y-axis on their console controllers, this work aims to provide a foundation for future investigations of how control schemes can significantly impact performance. We argue that fragmented research across disciplines hinders a unified understanding of how the spatial relationships between users, interfaces, and visual displays affect performance. Therefore, we begin with a multidisciplinary literature synthesis, clarifying existing findings, and identifying methodological inconsistencies that contribute to conflicting results. We then explore the relationship between key behavioral and cognitive factors and y-axis inversion preference in a group of experienced 3rd person gamers. Based on these preliminary results, we propose a "general purpose" framework to systematically investigate how control inversion and visual input influence perception and performance across various movement goals. We demonstrate how this framework can be used to evaluate performance in the context of a common and challenging laparoscopic procedure, and how it can be generalized to assess and predict sensorimotor compatibility effects across a wide variety of real-world situations.

The aim of the present study was to test the replicability of the text generation effect for learning with expository texts while systematically varying contextual factors that-based on extant literature-can be assumed to affect the occurrence and magnitude of the text generation effect. Seven experiments were conducted in which participants either read (control condition) or unscrambled sentences (generation condition) in expository texts. The experiments varied systematically on intentionality of learning, learning time constraint, retention interval, and study design. Contrary to expectations, no text generation effect could be found. Instead, some of the experiments even revealed a learning disadvantage for text generation compared to the reading control condition. In only one experiment (Experiment 6) and for just one of the learning measures, learners performed better when they had generated the texts. In sum, the results indicate that a generation effect is most likely to occur when learning is intentional, when learning time is unrestricted, and for immediate testing. The findings suggest that the applications of text generation in educational contexts are rather limited.

Low target prevalence affects perceptual decisions on both simple and complex stimuli. Without prior knowledge of how often targets may appear, trial-by-trial accuracy feedback modulates the effects of low prevalence partially by providing observers with information about the target base rate. Using simple colored dots, Lyu (PBR 28:1906-1914, 2021) found that at low prevalence, observers demonstrate a classical low prevalence effect (LPE) when receiving feedback. This involves a conservative shift of the decision criterion where observers are less likely to call an ambiguous item a target. In the absence of feedback, observers adopted more liberal criteria and became more likely to classify an item as a target, producing a Prevalence-Induced Concept Change (PICC, Levari et al., Science 360:1465-1467, 2018). The present study examines whether the effects of low prevalence and feedback are modulated by expertise. Novice (n = 26) and expert (n = 24) observers performed a cancer cell discrimination task. The prevalence of cancerous "blast cells" and the presence or absence of trial-by-trial accuracy feedback were manipulated. Unsurprisingly, medical professionals performed better than trained novices. Importantly, both experts and novices showed an LPE with feedback, although that LPE was weaker in experts, suggesting expertise may modulate the size of the LPE. Low prevalence had little effect on the criterion in the absence of feedback in this setting. For both novices and experts, initial exposure to trials with feedback influenced criteria in subsequent no feedback conditions. Interestingly, experts showed a conservative criterion at the start of the experiment, even without having experienced a feedback block. This could reflect previous training or working in a low prevalence setting. Our study shows the interactions of the effects of low prevalence, feedback, and expertise on perceptual decisions and provides direct evidence for prevalence and feedback effects on expert decisions.

Numerate people tend to make more informed judgments and decisions because they are more risk literate (i.e., better able to evaluate and understand risk). Do numeracy skills also help people understand regular science reporting from mainstream news sources? To address this question, we investigated responses to regular science reports (e.g., excerpts from CNN Health), testing a cognitive model linking numeracy, scientific reasoning, judgment biases, and causal theory errors (i.e., interpreting correlational information as causal). In Study 1 (n = 200), structural equation modeling indicated that more numerate people were less likely to exhibit judgment biases because they were better at scientific reasoning, which helped them avoid causal misinterpretations. Study 2 (n = 342) cross-validated findings from Study 1, indicating that the link between numeracy and scientific reasoning was also associated with improved cognitive self-assessment (e.g., reduced overconfidence on comprehension judgments). Results indicate that more numerate people may generally be less likely to confuse correlation and causation in regular science reporting. Results also suggest that numerate people are more likely to have acquired scientific reasoning skills that more generally support risk literacy and knowledge acquisition, consistent with Skilled Decision Theory. Discussion focuses on implications for risk literacy research, and includes a Risk Literacy Difficulty Analysis indicating that more than half of the USA adult population may be likely to misunderstand common types of regular science reports.

Cross-dimensional interference between spatial and temporal processing provides valuable insights into the neuronal representation of space and time. Previous research has frequently found asymmetric interference patterns, with temporal judgments being more affected by spatial information than vice versa. However, this asymmetry has been attributed to the predominant use of visual paradigms (e.g., participants judge the size or duration of visual stimuli), which might facilitate spatial over temporal processing. It has been suggested that the asymmetry vanishes or even reverses when auditory stimuli are used. To test this assumption, we took advantage of the fact that acoustic reverberation carries information about the physical size of rooms. Participants judged either room size or duration, with stimuli being presented either in the visual (rooms presented in virtual reality) or the auditory modality (reverberation-based sounds). For both modalities, we found that judgments about room size were influenced by irrelevant temporal information, while judgments about duration remained unaffected by irrelevant spatial information. As time judgments were consistently rated as more difficult relative to space judgments, this pattern of interference cannot be explained on the basis of task difficulty. These results demonstrate the flexibility of space-time interference and challenge the assumption that the representation of time is necessarily based on spatial representations.

As automation becomes increasingly integrated into complex military tasks, its role in supporting human performance under fatigue warrants careful evaluation. A specific military use case in which automatic target cuing (ATC) is integrated is undersea threat detection (UTD). These types of tasks demand sustained vigilance, accurate classification, and reliable metacognitive judgements. Fatigue, especially due to increased time awake, presents a significant challenge to sustaining high performance. This study investigated whether ATC enhances UTD performance under low fatigue conditions and protects against errors when operators are fatigued, as is common during fleet operations. Thirty-six active-duty service members completed four sessions of a simulated UTD task, with and without an imperfect ATC system, over a ~24-hour wakeful period. Results showed that ATC did not enhance performance when participants were alert, though detection accuracy maintained despite increased fatigue. However, fatigue led to decreased metacognitive sensitivity, reflected in greater confidence for false alarms and reduced trust in the ATC system. These findings suggest that while automation assistance can potentially protect basic task performance under fatigue, it does not prevent the degradation of higher-level cognitive processes, such as metacognitive accuracy and trust in the automation. This study highlights the importance of understanding how automation interacts with cognitive states, especially under fatigue, to optimize its role in critical military operations.

In face processing, an own-age recognition advantage has frequently been reported whereby observers are better at recognizing faces of their own compared to other age groups. We wanted to know whether own-age effects exist in voice recognition. Two listener groups, younger adults (n = 42, 19-35 years, 21 males) and older adults (n = 32, 65-83 years, 14 males), completed a speaker discrimination task (same/different speakers), which included younger and older adult speakers of both sexes. Results revealed no interaction of the factors speaker and listener age and speaker and listener sex on listeners' sensitivity (d'). Main effects were significant for listener age (young adult listeners exhibited higher sensitivity than the older adult listeners) and speaker sex (listeners' sensitivity was higher for male compared to female voices). Crucially, response bias (c) revealed that listeners had a significantly higher 'same' bias when hearing younger speakers and female speakers. Our findings have implications for theories of voice identity processing and forensic contexts requiring discrimination of speakers' identity, e.g. earwitnesses telling apart younger and female speakers.

Even though successful navigation is vital for survival, individuals vary widely in their navigation skills. Researchers have examined the correlates of such variation using a wide variety of paradigms. However, we know little about the relation among the paradigms used, and their validity for real-world behaviors. In this study, we assessed 94 young adult participants' encoding of environmental features in one real-world and two virtual environments (or paradigms), using a within-subjects design. Each paradigm involved building a map from memory and pointing to the location of objects while standing at different locations in the environment. Two of the paradigms also used a route efficiency task in which participants aimed to take the shortest possible path to a target object. Factor analysis showed shared and unique variance in individual's performance associated with each paradigm. Mental rotation and perspective taking tasks correlated with navigation performance differently for different paradigms. The data suggest that (1) virtual measures correlate with real-world ones, (2) the specific tasks used (pointing, map building, shortest route finding) are less important than the paradigm, and (3) there is common variance (i.e., shared individual differences) across paradigms. However, there is also unique paradigm-specific variation. Future research should use multiple paradigms to achieve reliable and valid assessments, ideally with shorter tasks for each.

Multitasking abilities are vital for conducting flight missions. Traditional theories of multitasking suggest that cognitive resources represent a determining factor of said performance. The current study takes a different approach by investigating how the stability-flexibility-dilemma of cognitive control influences multitasking performance in a simulated flight environment. Besides, we investigate how this dilemma interacts with performance and workload when an additional partner is present. For this purpose, 42 participants were recruited to perform the open-source version of the Multi-Attribute Task Battery (openMATB) in two different experimental conditions. Initially, participants performed the openMATB alone either in a stable or flexible control mode, which was manipulated via a gamification method (assessment 1). Afterward, two participants performed the openMATB together as a team - again in a stable and flexible control mode (assessment 2). Results indicate that the stability-flexibility-dilemma affected the participants' individual task performance. Furthermore, the participants' performance improved in teams. However, this effect depended on subtask characteristics and the operated cognitive control mode. Implications for the design of adaptive assistance systems and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Whether or not it is possible to predict military performance using laboratory measures constitutes an important question. There are indications that humans possess a common multitasking ability enabling them to perform complex behaviors irrespective of task requirements. Working memory processing abilities likely illustrate cognitive substrates thereof. Thus, it should be possible to predict military performance by means of laboratory multitasking via working memory processing abilities. To investigate this, we recruited 40 officer cadets and assessed their laboratory multitasking proficiency using the Multi-Attribute Task Battery and their performance in a simulated military operation. We then tested if the laboratory measure predicted their military performance and if this relationship was mediated by working memory processing abilities using Bayesian procedures. We also controlled if demographics, military characteristics, media preferences, or social/personality traits affected any of these measures. In contrast to our expectations, the associations between laboratory and military multitasking and working memory were weak. Furthermore, the participants did not display multitasking decrements but improvements as a function of time on task in the military setting. Moreover, we found a positive association between the time officer cadets had already served in the military and military performance. We discuss the role of learned task representations in this regard and conclude that it might be more reasonable to investigate cognitive functions as co-variates of associations between military characteristics (e.g., military service duration) and military performance in future research than to focus on laboratory measures as predictors of military performance.