Cognitive Processing最新文献

Spatial ability, essential for navigating and interacting with the environment, comprises small-scale (e.g., mental rotation) and large-scale (e.g., spatial navigation) skills. Previous research underscores the influence of motor expertise on these abilities, yet comparative studies among different types of movement experts are limited, especially regarding the impact of gross motor skills on large-scale spatial abilities. This case-control study compared small-scale and large-scale spatial abilities among fine movement experts, gross movement experts, and non-movement experts. Ninety participants (30 per group) were assessed through computer-based spatial ability tests, including the Revised Purdue Spatial Visualization Test (PSVT: R), Mental Rotation Test, a navigation task developed in Unity 3D, and Triangle Completion Test (TCT). Fine movement experts excelled in small-scale spatial tasks compared to non-movement experts. Gross movement experts demonstrated superior large-scale spatial abilities, evidenced by lower errors in TCT and higher navigation scores, distinguishing their performance in spatial navigation and orientation from both fine movement experts and non-movement experts. The study highlights the distinct impacts of fine and gross motor expertise on spatial abilities, with gross motor skills particularly benefiting large-scale spatial navigation. These findings suggest potential clinical applications of gross motor training for improving spatial abilities in neurological populations, advocating for further research in immersive virtual environments and exploring lateral dominance effects on spatial performance.

A dataset of specificity ratings for English words is hereby presented, analyzed and discussed in relation with other collections of speaker-generated ratings, including concreteness. Both, specificity and concreteness are analyzed in their ability to explain decision latencies in lexical and semantic tasks, showing important individual contributions. Specificity ratings are collected through best-worst scaling method on the words included in the ANEW dataset (Bradley and Lang in Affective norms for English words (ANEW): instruction manual and affective ratings (Tech. Rep.). Technical report C-1, the center for research in psychophysiology, 1999), chosen for its compatibility with many other collections of rating resources, and for its comparability with Italian specificity data (Bolognesi and Caselli in Behav Res Methods 55(7):3531-3548, 2023), allowing for cross-linguistic comparisons. Results suggest that specificity plays an important role in word processing and the importance of taking specificity into consideration when investigating concreteness effects.

Metaverse virtual reality (VR) technology offers an environment that provides a sense of presence that cannot be achieved through traditional online interactions. Although this technology is used in education and industry, challenges remain to be overcome for further penetration into society. In this study, we conducted an experiment using a risk preference task in blue and red spaces to verify color impressions and their effects in VR environments. Consistent with previous studies, high calmness was observed in the blue space. However, contrary to expectations, the risk preference task results showed risk-averse behavior in red space but not in blue space. Therefore, conventional color psychology may not be applicable to constructing the same space in a virtual environment. Previous studies have shown consistent experimental results regarding emotional responses to color stimuli; however, no consistent outcomes have been reported regarding cognitive performance. This is because the effect of color impressions is thought to depend not only on the color itself but also on what is recalled. The results of this study suggest that red in a VR environment may be interpreted as a warning color, preventing people from losing focus.

Mindfulness and cognitive reappraisal have been recognized as two useful ways to regulate emotions. The former tends to cultivate an attitude of being open and accepting of emotional events; whereas the latter involves a top-down process of re-interpreting emotional events. However, it is unclear how mindfulness influences cognitive reappraisal. Hence, the current study mainly addressed this research issue by exploring the mediating role of emotional and interoceptive awareness. 372 participants were asked to report dispositional mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal, emotional awareness, and interoceptive awareness by means of corresponding questionnaires. First, we performed the Pearson Correlations among the four factors, then assessed the mediating role of emotional awareness and interoceptive awareness in the link between mindfulness and cognitive reappraisal in separated models. Last, we used structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the link when both emotional and interoceptive awareness acted as the mediating variables. Results showed that mindfulness was negatively correlated with cognitive reappraisal, emotional awareness, and interoceptive awareness; whereas emotional awareness, interoceptive awareness, and cognitive reappraisal were positively correlated with each other. Moreover, increased mindfulness had a significantly negative effect on cognitive reappraisal, by reducing emotional and interoceptive awareness separately or successively. Except for the No-worrying factor, the remaining seven factors of interoceptive awareness were significantly loaded onto the latent variable. The result reveals the negative relationship between mindfulness and cognitive reappraisal. This link is mediated by one's emotional awareness and interoceptive awareness independently or successively, which may reflect the intensity of externally-emotional reactivity that signify the need to regulate emotions by means of cognitive reappraisal.

Face masks can impact processing a narrative in sign language, affecting several metacognitive dimensions of understanding (i.e., perceived effort, confidence and feeling of understanding). However, to what extent this is modulated by sign language proficiency remains an open question. Thirty deaf adults were administered a narrative in Italian Sign Language (LIS), signed in three different visual conditions: no mask, transparent mask, opaque mask. In addition, they completed a Sentence Reproduction Task in LIS (LIS-SRT) to measure their sign language proficiency. Results showed that some of the error types in the LIS-SRT have significant correlations with performance in the comprehension task, revealing external validity for this sentence repetition test. Crucially, while sign language proficiency did not modulate the impact of face-masks on narrative comprehension, the metacognitive outcomes were clearly influenced by the interaction between LIS proficiency and visual conditions. Skilled signers experienced less effort and higher levels of confidence and feeling of understanding, whereas these subjective experiences were greatly impacted by visual conditions in less proficient signers. We discuss these findings in reference to cognitive load, thus also extending the construct of "listening effort" to sign languages. In addition, we relate differences in cognitive load in skilled vs. less proficient signers to the ability to extract and process at the same time multiple types of linguistic elements from the flow of signs (multilinear processing of sign language).

Operant keypress tasks in a reinforcement-reward framework where behavior is shaped by its consequence, show lawful relationships in human preference behavior (i.e., approach/avoidance) and have been analogized to "wanting". However, they take 20-40 min as opposed to short non-operant rating tasks, which can be as short as 3 min and unsupervised, thus more readily applied to internet research. It is unknown if non-operant rating tasks where each action does not have a consequence, analogous to "liking", show similar lawful relationships. We studied non-operant, picture-rating data from three independent population cohorts (N = 501, 506, and 4019 participants) using the same 7-point Likert scale for negative to positive preferences, and the same categories of images from the International Affective Picture System. Non-operant picture ratings were used to compute location, dispersion, and pattern (entropy) variables, that in turn produced similar value, limit, and trade-off functions to those reported for operant keypress tasks, all with individual R² > 0.80. For all three datasets, the individual functions were discrete in mathematical formulation. They were also recurrent or consistent across the cohorts and scaled between individual and group curves. Behavioral features such as risk aversion and other interpretable features of the graphs were also consistent across cohorts. Together, these observations argue for lawfulness in the modeling of the ratings. This picture rating task demonstrates a simple, quick, and low-cost framework for quantitatively assessing human preference without forced choice decisions, games of chance, or operant keypressing. This framework can be easily deployed on any digital device worldwide.

Although the effects of emotionality on word processing might be modulated by lexical category, a body of extant literature has tended to obviate the need of considering this factor. In this study, we attempted to address how lexical category modulates the effects of emotionality on L2 word processing. To this end, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from a group of late proficient Chinese-English bilinguals while they performed a lexical decision task with a set of tightly matched negative, positive, and neutral words across three lexical categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives). The results revealed a P2 effect, an N400 effect, as well as an LPC effect for word emotionality. Moreover, an interaction between word emotionality and lexical category occurred within the N400 and LPC time windows over fronto-central electrodes, reflecting that the N400 displayed a smaller amplitude for positive nouns and verbs than for their neutral counterparts, as well as for negative as opposed to neutral adjectives, and that the LPC showed a larger amplitude for positive relative to neutral nouns, as well as for positive and negative adjectives than for their neutral counterparts. These results provide initial electrophysiological evidence for the modulation of lexical category to the emotionality effects on L2 word processing at the different stages and highlight the importance of lexical category in research on L2 emotional word processing.

It is known that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit impairments in shifting attention. However, previous studies have primarily focused on school-aged children and adults with ASD. It remains unclear whether attentional shifting impairments emerge at an early age. Additionally, it is uncertain which specific process-engagement or disengagement-is affected in individuals with ASD. This study investigated the time course of attentional shifting in preschool-aged children with ASD using a Posner cue-target paradigm. The cue-target onset asynchrony was systematically manipulated to reveal both the early facilitation effect of attentional capture (i.e., engagement) and the later inhibitory aftereffect, commonly referred to as inhibition of return (IOR). Results showed an early facilitation effect in both ASD and typically developing (TD) children, indicating that ASD children engaged attention to salient spatial locations. In contrast to TD children, no reliable IOR effect was observed in ASD children, suggesting difficulties in disengaging attention. These findings indicate a selective impairment in attentional disengagement among preschool-aged children with ASD and support the need for early intervention programs focusing on attentional shifting.

Hypermnesia, the increase in recall over trials without relearning or re-exposure to the studied items, has intrigued researchers since Ballard first reported the effect in 1913. In the typical hypermnesia study, additional retrieval trials are unexpected, and when announced, may induce context changes that re-focuses attention and effort on retrieving unrecalled items. The present studies examined the effects of context change on retrieval by telling some participants prior to study (trials-known condition) that three trials will be given to recall line drawings (Experiment 1) or words (Experiment 2) whereas others were not so informed (hypermnesia condition). Results of Experiment 1 revealed hypermnesia but no between-group differences on the sub-processes of item gains, losses, or intrusions. In Experiment 2, hypermnesia and between-group differences were found for item gains and intrusions, results that were marginally significant when data were aggregated across both experiments. Results are discussed in terms of the change in cue set hypothesis (Raaijmakers & Shiffrin, 1980) and the effects of internal and external context changes on hypermnesia. Suggestions for future studies are also presented.

The study compared two simulation environments for training of Swedish naval Command and Control teams by using indirect measures, including workload, combat readiness, and situation awareness. The literature explains simulation-based training as providing a safe avenue to practice relevant scenarios. Fidelity, the degree of realism in the simulation, and workload, the equilibrium between demands and assigned tasks, are crucial factors examined in this study of low- and high-fidelity naval simulations. This study was conducted to better understand the effects of various training methods. An experimental design with repeated measures was used with three consecutive escalating parts. The subjective, multidimensional assessment tool, NASA-Task Load Index was used to rate perceived workload. Combat readiness of the ship and mental demand yielded significant results. For combat readiness of the ship, there was a difference between the low and the high-fidelity setting, for the initial part of the scenario p = 0.037 and for the second part p = 0.028. Mental demand was experienced as higher in the low-fidelity setting, p = 0.036. Notably, the simulated internal battle training for onboard command teams in a low-fidelity setting was found to induce a level of stress comparable with that experienced in a high-fidelity setting. The results indicate that low-fidelity training results in a workload not distinguishable from high-fidelity training and has practical implications for increased use of low-fidelity training as part of (naval) command team training programmes.