Psychological Research-Psychologische Forschung最新文献

Computational estimation requires a breadth of strategies and selection of the relevant strategy given a problem's features. We used the new Test of Estimation Strategies (TES), composed of 20 arithmetic problems (e.g., 144 x 0.38), to investigate variability in strategy use in young adults. The TES targets the five estimation strategies that adults use most frequently, which fall into two Classes. The three Class One strategies are general-purpose and taught in schools. Proceed Algorithmically entails applying an algorithm (e.g., shifting a decimal place). Round One and Round Two are defined as rounding one or both operands, respectively. The two Class Two strategies are more advanced, requiring application of conceptual knowledge of mathematics. Known-and-Nice is used when a participant relies on a well-known mathematical fact (e.g., 25 × 4 = 100) to form an estimate. Fractions uses a fraction or percentage in the estimation process (e.g., 943 x 0.48 is about 50% or half of 900). We divided our sample of adult participants into two groups (i.e., high, average) based on their estimation performance on the TES. The high-performance group used a broader range of strategies and more frequently applied the most relevant strategy given a problem's features. Overall estimation accuracy was correlated with mathematical achievement, as were strategy breadth and strategy relevance. However, none of these associations survived first controlling for verbal achievement. Participants' strategy reports suggested that the TES problems were generally successful in eliciting the five target strategies and provided evidence for a new strategy, Partitioning. These findings provide a basis for future instructional studies to improve students' computational estimation.

Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) is characterised by persistent difficulties in learning mathematical skills, which usually becomes apparent in the early years of schooling. Traditionally, DD is known to affect children's arithmetic processing, whilst other domains of mathematics receive much less research attention. Nevertheless, contemporary diagnostic guidelines suggest that DD is linked to widespread and diverse difficulties, both within and outside of the domain of numbers. This study examined the performance (i.e., accuracy and number of questions attempted) of children on a curriculum-based mathematics assessment, considering the effect of content domains, question format (i.e., multiple-choice questions vs. constructed response questions) and test half. Participants were forty children aged 8 to 11 years old with DD (n = 20) and a carefully matched control group of typically developing children (n = 20) from primary schools in Northern Ireland. Results revealed that the DD group achieved significantly lower scores than the control group across all areas of the curriculum, and the magnitude of group differences was similar across all content domains. These findings indicate that performance in content domains other than in arithmetic may be equally informative in supporting the identification of children with DD. In addition, we found that using multiple-choice questions may support learners with DD in achieving the best outcome, and, thus, could be useful for assessing mathematics skills in dyscalculic children in classroom contexts. Nevertheless, constructed response questions may show the greatest sensitivity to identifying learners at risk, and could be the most useful in diagnostic settings.

Recent multiple action control studies have demonstrated difficulties with single-action (vs. dual-action) execution when accompanied by the requirement to inhibit a prepotent additional response (e.g., a highly automatic eye movement). Such a dual-action performance benefit is typically characterized by frequent false-positive executions of the currently unwarranted response. Here, we investigated whether the frequency of false-positive saccades is affected by the ease of translating a stimulus into a spatial oculomotor response (S-R translation ease): Is it harder to inhibit a saccade that is more automatically triggered via the stimulus? Participants switched on a trial-by-trial basis between executing a single saccade, a single manual button press, and a saccadic-manual dual action in response to a single visual stimulus. Importantly, we employed three different stimulus modes that varied in oculomotor S-R translation ease (peripheral square > central arrow > central shape). The hierarchy of S-R translation ease was reflected by increasing saccade and manual reaction times. Critically, however, the frequency of false-positive saccades in single manual trials was not substantially affected by the stimulus mode. Our results rule out explanations related to limited capacity sharing (between inhibitory control and S-R translation demands) as well as accounts related to the time available for the completion of saccade inhibition. Instead, the findings suggest that the erroneous co-activation of the oculomotor system was elicited by the mere execution of a (frequently associated) manual response (action-based co-activation).

In an increasingly multilingual and multicultural world, understanding the interactions between language and mathematics is critical, especially when individuals must acquire and exercise their mathematical competencies in multiple languages. Indeed, research shows that, overall, L2 language learners are at an academic disadvantage compared to their L1 peers. The current article briefly overviews how multilingualism influences basic and advanced mathematical skills and interacts with mathematical learning difficulties. We first outline the traditional cognitive models of number learning and language processing. We then discuss the particularities of multilingualism and how it impacts numerical skills such as counting and building lexical-semantic associations, transcoding and arithmetic, mathematical word problems and mathematical performance tests, and dyscalculia diagnosis. We end this review by outlining challenges, recommendations, and solutions for multilingual educational settings. The article is intended as a guide for numerical cognition researchers who work with diverse populations and for mathematics educators and educational policy-makers facing the challenges of a multilingual classroom.

Arithmetic fluency is considered considers highly rely on language processing, encompassing essential skills. However, the independent predictive power of phonetic, semantic, or orthographic skills in relation to arithmetic fluency remains an unresolved query. This study introduces the common component hypothesis to elucidate the inconsistent findings in previous research. The hypothesis posits that significant correlations between language and mathematics hinge on whether the language and mathematics utilized in a given task share a common component. According to this hypothesis, processing skills for each of the three fundamental language elements (i.e., phonetic, semantic, orthographic) should correlate with arithmetic fluency, as these elements are also integral to simple arithmetic processing. A cohort of one hundred and ninety-eight primary school students participated in the study, undertaking a battery of tests assessing general cognitive abilities, psycholinguistic elements, and arithmetic fluency. The results showed that orthographic, phonetic, and semantic abilities independently predicted arithmetic fluency, even after accounting for all other cognitive predictors. These findings substantiate the common component hypothesis, providing empirical support for explaining the association between language and mathematics. This evidence contributes to addressing the interplay between language and mathematics in educational contexts.

Social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic had profound effects on human well-being. A handful of studies have focused on how time perception was altered during the COVID-19 pandemic, while no study has tested whether temporal metacognition is also affected by the lockdown. We examined the impact of long-term social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic on the ability to monitor errors in timing performance. We recruited 1232 participants from 12 countries during lockdown, 211 of which were retested "post-pandemic" for within-group comparisons. We also tested a new group of 331 participants during the "post-pandemic" period and compared their data to those of 1232 participants tested during the lockdown (between-group comparison). Participants produced a 3600 ms target interval and assessed the magnitude and direction of their time production error. Both within and between-group comparisons showed reduced metric error monitoring performance during the lockdown, even after controlling for government-imposed stringency indices. A higher level of reported social isolation also predicted reduced temporal error monitoring ability. Participants produced longer duration during lockdown compared to post-lockdown (again controlling for government stringency indices). We reason that these effects may be underlain by altered biological and behavioral rhythms during social isolation experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding these effects is crucial for a more complete characterization of the cognitive consequences of long-term social isolation.

Emotions powerfully, predictably, and pervasively influence decision making. The risk-as-feelings hypothesis states that two kinds of emotions are important in decision-making, anticipatory emotions and anticipated emotions. We empirically investigated whether and how anticipatory and anticipated emotions may change as a function of outcome values and whether anticipatory or anticipated emotions may explain the influence of outcome values on risky choice. To study the effects of value on emotions and choice, we offered people hypothetical large amounts ($100, $200, $300, $400) and incentivized moderate amounts ($10, $20, $30, $40) as prospects in gambles over two consecutive studies. Using a representative sample from the US to ensure the generalizability of the findings, each participant in our two studies made choices in gain and loss domains. Overall, anticipatory and anticipated emotions responded very similarly to changes in value for the sure gains in both studies. The findings also indicated that both anticipatory and anticipated emotions explained the effects of the value on choice for the sure gain and sure losses, while both mediated the effect of framing on choice towards the sure and the gamble option. Although anticipatory emotions mediated a larger portion of the effect, anticipated emotions also show some mediation.

The integration of numerical information with motor processes has emerged as a fascinating area of investigation in both animal and human cognition. The interest in a sensorimotor number system has recently generated neurophysiological and psychophysical evidence which combine to highlight the importance of motor functions in the encoding of numerical information. Nevertheless, several key questions remain, such as the influence of non-numerical motor parameters over numerical perception. Here we tested the role of physical effort, a parameter positively correlated with the number of actions, in modulating the link between hand-actions and visual numerosity perception. Effort was manipulated during sensorimotor adaptation as well as during a new actions-estimation paradigm. The results of Experiment 1 shows that physical effort in the absence of actions (passive effort) is not sufficient to activate the sensorimotor number system, indicating that self-produced actions are instead necessary. Further experiments demonstrated that effort is marginally integrated during motor adaptation (Experiment 2) but discarded when estimating the number of self-produced hand actions (Experiment 3). Overall, the results indicate that the sensorimotor number system is largely fed by the number of discrete actions rather than the amount of effort but also indicates that effort (under specific circumstances) might be integrated. These findings provide novel insights into the sensorimotor numerical integration, paving the way for future investigations, such as on its functional role.

In social life, people spontaneously form stable trustworthiness impressions from faces. However, the precise role of extracting trustworthiness information remains unclear. This study aims to elucidate whether discerning facial trustworthiness influences social interactions. Specifically, it explores the gaze cueing effect (GCE), wherein individuals exhibit quicker responses to targets appearing in the direction of gaze compared to other locations. Given conflicting perspectives in existing literature regarding the potential modulation of trustworthiness on the GCE, two plausible hypotheses are proposed to explain divergent result patterns. The reflexive hypothesis posits that the GCE operates automatically. In contrast, the flexible hypothesis underscores the potential modulatory role of trustworthiness in the GCE. To provide a comprehensive understanding of whether trustworthiness modulates the GCE, we employed face stimuli incorporating trustworthiness information within Posner' s cue-target task. The findings of Experiment 1 revealed that the perception of trustworthiness indeed influenced the GCE. Specifically, when facial stimuli were perceived as trustworthy, they elicited a more pronounced GCE compared to untrustworthy stimuli. This modulation effect was replicated using a different stimulus set in Experiment 2. In Experiment 3, we employed the same stimuli as in Experiment 2, setting the trustworthiness information to baseline as a control experiment. The results demonstrated that the trustworthiness modulation effect disappeared, indicating its specificity to the trustworthiness attribute of the stimuli rather than other characteristics. Collectively, these findings lend support to the flexible hypothesis, highlighting that the extraction of trustworthiness information plays a pivotal role in modulating the GCE, consequently influencing social interactions.

This study investigated the temporal dynamics of task performance and voluntary task choice within a multitasking paradigm in which the task-related processing outcomes themselves determined the to-be-performed task. In the novel forced-no-go trials, the stimulus for one task required an overt response, but the stimulus for the other task was associated with a no-go response. Task performance results showed that participants often processed the no-go task's stimulus before switching to the go-task. Dual-task interference effects and switch costs indicated various forms of multitasking interference, with their underlying causes appearing to overlap, as engagement in parallel processing seemed to be limited by switch-related reconfiguration processes. Intermixing free-choice trials, where both stimuli were associated with overt responses, revealed costs associated with switching between processing modes, providing new evidence that the distinctions between free and forced task goals stem from differences in their internal representations rather than alterations in processing due to different presentations in the environment. Task choice results align with this perspective, demonstrating a preference for repeating a free- over a forced-choice task. Furthermore, these free-choice results illuminate the interplay of cognitive (task-repetition bias) and environmental constraints (first-task bias) in shaping task choices: It appears that task-specific information increases goal activations for both task goals concurrently, with participants favoring central processing of the second- over the first-presented task to optimize their behavior when shorter central processing is required (task repetition). Overall, this study offers new insights into the dynamics of task processing and choice in environments requiring the balance of multiple tasks.