Journal of Experimental Psychology-Human Perception and Performance最新文献

Recent research on duration perception suggests that duration encoding is not a single general process but involves several separate processes, some of which are specific to visual modality. Moreover, different functional aspects of visual processing can influence duration perception in distinct ways. One of the most important functions of the visual system is to identify and recognize features, shapes, and objects. However, it is still unclear whether and how computations related to these processes affect duration perception. To clarify this issue, we used a spatial crowding phenomenon, which allows the dissociation of low-level feature extraction from high-level processes such as object recognition. We created letter and vernier stimuli matched for their low-level properties but different in their discriminability due to spatial crowding. Here, we show that stimuli that became more difficult to discriminate appeared shorter in duration (data collected in 2019-2023). This difference in perceived duration could not be explained by low-level stimulus properties, cognitive bias due to discriminability, or perceived stimulus onsets or offsets. These results suggest the existence of time-sensitive structures specific to visual processing of features, shapes, and objects that is affected by crowding. These findings support the notion of distributed timing mechanisms in the visual system. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

People prioritize diagnostic features in classification tasks. However, it is not clear whether this priority is fixed or is flexibly applied depending on the specific classification decision, or how feature use behavior contributes to individual differences in performance. Here we examined whether flexibility in features used in a face identification task supports face recognition ability. In Experiment 1, we show that the facial features most useful for identification vary-to a surprising degree-depending on the specific face identity comparison at hand. While the ears and eyes were the most diagnostic for face identification in general, they were the most diagnostic feature for just 22% and 14% of identity decisions, respectively. In three subsequent experiments, we find that flexibility in feature use contributes to an individual's face identity matching ability. Higher face identification accuracy was associated with being aware of (Experiments 2 and 4) and attending to (Experiments 3 and 4) the most diagnostic features for a specific facial comparison. This conferred an enhanced benefit relative to focusing on features that were diagnostic of face identity decisions in general (Experiment 4). We conclude that adaptability in information sampling supports face recognition ability and discuss theoretical and applied implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

In the literature on human action control, the binding and retrieval of responses are assumed to shape the coordination of more complex actions. Specifically, the consecutive execution of two responses is assumed to result in their integration into cognitive representations (so-called event files) and can be retrieved from that upon later response repetition, thereby influencing behavior. Against the background of ideomotor theory and more recent theorizing in the binding and retrieval in action control framework (Frings et al., 2020), we investigated whether response execution is necessary for binding and retrieval of responses. We manipulated whether the retrieving response (Experiment 1), as well as the to-be-bound response (Experiment 2), is executed or omitted. The results showed that responses do not need to be executed to retrieve other responses or to be bound to other responses. Apparently, activating the cognitive representation of a response sufficed for this response to trigger event file binding and retrieval. Our results are the first to show that response-response binding is not dependent on executing responses. Together, the results support the core assumptions of ideomotor theory and the binding and retrieval in action control framework, namely a common coding of action and perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Subsecond temporal perception is critical for understanding time-varying events. Many studies suggest that subsecond timing is an intrinsic property of neural dynamics, distributed across sensory modalities and brain areas. However, our recent finding of the transfer of temporal interval discrimination (TID) learning across sensory modalities supports the existence of a more abstract and conceptual representation of subsecond time that guides the temporal processing of distributed mechanisms. One major challenge to this hypothesis is that TID learning consistently fails to transfer from trained intervals to untrained intervals. To address this issue, here, we examined whether this interval specificity can be removed with double training, a procedure originally developed to eliminate various specificities in visual perceptual learning. Specifically, participants practiced the primary TID task, the learning of which per se was specific to the trained interval (e.g., 100 ms). In addition, they also received exposure to a new interval (e.g., 200 ms) through a secondary and functionally independent tone-frequency discrimination task. This double training successfully enabled complete transfer of TID learning to the new interval, indicating that training improved an interval-invariant component of temporal interval perception, which supports our proposal of an abstract and conceptual representation of subsecond time in the brain. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Spatial attention enhances processing of information, but how does unattended and task-irrelevant information influence visual processing within the spatial focus of attention? We tested this by asking participants to extract the average emotional expression of a set of sequentially presented faces while simultaneously presenting task-irrelevant faces at a spatially unattended and task-irrelevant location. Across several experiments, we found that participants' reports of the emotional expression of faces at the attended location were biased toward the task-irrelevant faces. For example, when happier faces were presented at the unattended location, participants were biased to perceive the attended faces as happier. A control experiment in which participants were asked to also detect probes at cued and uncued locations showed that spatial attention was directed towards the cued location as instructed. Together, these results reveal that unattended and task-irrelevant inputs do not only affect the efficiency of target processing, for example by slowing responses or lowering accuracies, but that they can systematically bias ensemble representations within the spatial focus of attention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The present study examined the role of polarity correspondence (Proctor & Cho, 2006) in the approach/avoidance task. It was hypothesized that the typically found approach/avoidance effect could (at least in part) be explained by matching polarities of the stimuli and the response alternatives. To test this hypothesis, polarity of the stimuli was manipulated in three experiments. Experiment 1 showed that two neutral categories elicited an approach/avoidance asymmetry similar to that typically found for positive and negative stimuli when the categorization of stimuli was framed as "yes (Category A)" versus "no (not Category A)." This pattern is explained by assuming a polarity match between the "yes" category and the approach response. Experiment 2 used positive (flowers) versus negative (insects) categories. In a control condition, a typical compatibility effect was found (i.e., positive [negative] items relatively facilitated approach [avoidance]). However, when the task consisted of categorizing insects as the + polarity ("yes, insect" vs. "no, no insect"), the compatibility effect reversed; it was significantly increased when flowers were the "yes" category. In Experiment 3, polarity of positive/negative stimuli (flowers/insects) was manipulated prior to completion of a standard approach/avoidance task with flowers and insects as stimuli. Approximately the same pattern of results (albeit less pronounced) was found as in Experiment 2. The results suggest that results with the approach/avoidance task interpreted in terms of valence or motivational relevance may be (partly) due to polarity differences. This should be taken into account if these effects are routinely interpreted in terms of valence or motivational relevance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Establishing causal beliefs by observing regularities between actions and events in the environment is a crucial part of goal-directed behavior. Sense of agency (SoA) describes the corresponding experience of generating and controlling actions and subsequent events. Investigating how SoA adapts to situational changes in action-effect contingency, we observed even singular disturbances of perfect action-effect contingencies to yield a striking impact on SoA formation. Moreover, we additionally included disturbances of regularity that are not directly linked to one's own actions. Doing so allowed us to investigate how SoA might be a concept that goes beyond own actions toward a more generalized, subjective representation of control regarding environmental events. Indeed, the present experiments establish that, while SoA is highly tuned toward action-effect relations, it is also sensitive to events that occur without one's own action contribution. SoA thus appears to be exceptionally sensitive to singular breakpoints of perfect control with agents disproportionally incorporating such events during SoA formation while at the same time building on a rich situation model. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The slope of the function relating response times to the number of stimuli in a visual-search display is commonly considered a measure of search speed and is extensively used to test theories of visual cognition. Unfortunately, this important measure is confounded in multiple ways so that many classical findings in the literature must be called into question. As a way out of this predicament, we here develop a new technique to measure search speed (data collected in 2022 and 2023): Instead of manipulating the number of stimuli that need to be searched via a set-size manipulation, we achieve the intended purpose by placing the search target at different spatial positions with respect to an a-priori-known search order. Reliably inducing such a search order is the main achievement of the present study, but we also report several additional data patterns that might turn out instrumental for future research on visual attention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Recent work has shown that the idiosyncrasies of the observer can contribute more to the variance of social judgments of faces than the features of the faces. However, it is unclear what conditions determine the relative contributions of shared and idiosyncratic variance. Here, we examine two conditions: type of judgment and diversity of face stimuli. First, we show that for simpler, directly observable judgments that are consistent across observers (e.g., masculinity) shared exceeds idiosyncratic variance, whereas for more complex and less directly observable judgments (e.g., trustworthiness), idiosyncratic exceeds shared variance. Second, we show that judgments of more diverse face images increase the amount of shared variance. Finally, using machine-learning methods, we examine how stimulus (e.g., incidental emotion resemblance, skin luminosity) and observer variables (e.g., race, age) contribute to shared and idiosyncratic variance of judgments. Overall, our results indicate that an observer's age is the most consistent and best predictor of idiosyncratic variance contributions to face judgments measured in the current research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The tendency for our minds to wander is a pervasive and disruptive influence on continued task performance. Models of sustained attention have implicated mind wandering, moments when attention has turned inwards toward task-unrelated thought, in characteristic patterns of worsening performance with greater time-on-task, known as the vigilance decrement. Despite their theoretical connection, associations between mind wandering and the vigilance decrement have not been investigated systematically. Across two studies (N = 730), we evaluated covariance between within-task change in rates of probe-caught mind wandering and patterns of worsening behavioral task performance that characterize the vigilance decrement. Bivariate growth curve models characterized patterns of intraindividual linear change in mind wandering alongside concomitant changes in task accuracy, response time (RT), and RT variability. Importantly, models assessing the covariance between intraindividual change in mind wandering and behavioral outcome measures confirmed that increases in mind wandering are associated with patterns of worsening behavioral performance with greater time-on-task. In addition, we investigated the role of several moderating factors associated with patterns of within-task change: self-reported task interest and motivation, and individuals' propensity for mind wandering, and mindfulness in their daily lives. These factors moderated either the overall level or rate of within-task change in mind wandering. Our results provide support for models of sustained attention that directly implicate mind wandering in worsening behavioral performance with greater time-on-task in continuous performance tasks requiring sustained attention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).