Cognitive Psychology最新文献

Easy as ABC. Functional-pragmatic factors explain “binding-principle” constraints on pronoun interpretation: Evidence from nine pre-registered rating studies

IF 3 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Psychology

Pub Date : 2025-04-15 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2025.101733

Liam Blything , Anna Theakston , Silke Brandt , Ben Ambridge

How do English-speakers interpret pronouns (e.g., himself, him and he) in sentences such as Samuel told Oliver about himself, Samuel told Oliver about the picture of him, and He was driving home, when Yusuf started coughing? Since the 1980s, patterns of (im)possible pronoun interpretation have been taken as some of the strongest evidence for highly abstract (and possibly innate) grammatical principles. The present set of nine preregistered studies tested an alternative possibility: that listeners’ interpretations are based instead on their functional-pragmatic understanding of what the speaker most likely intended to convey, given both the speaker’s choice of words and the listener’s knowledge about the world. Across all studies, participants’ judgments varied according to the relative real-world event-likelihood of the possible interpretations, to the speaker’s choice of the particular words used to refer to the characters given considerations of topicality (who is the “central character” in the unfolding narrative), and to whether or not other characters had been previously mentioned. Crucially, these factors did not merely nudge participants’ judgments a few percentage points in either direction. In all studies, these functional-pragmatic factors conspired to explain a range of judgments from around 85% SUBJECT (e.g., himself=Samuel for Samuel told Oliver about himself) to 85% OBJECT (e.g., himself= Oliver for Samuel asked Oliver about himself). Thus, while the present findings cannot disprove the existence of formal binding principles, they do suggest that, once discourse-pragmatic factors have been taken into consideration, there may be little remaining for other factors to explain.

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引用次数: 0

Word order effects in sentence reading

IF 3 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Psychology

Pub Date : 2025-02-16 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2025.101715

Petar Atanasov , Simon P. Liversedge , Federica Degno

The SEAM model (Rabe et al., 2024) and the OB1-Reader model (Snell, van Leipsig, et al., 2018) suggest that readers lexically process words in parallel, with the OB1 model further specifying that those words are formed into a sentence-level representation irrespective of their order of presentation. The serial model, E-Z Reader (Reichle, 2011), in contrast, stipulates that words are identified serially and sequentially. The current eye tracking experiment investigated whether, how frequently, and how rapidly readers detect sentential anomalies arising from word transpositions and ungrammatical sentence final words. We also assessed the consequences in the eye movement record of processing such transpositions and ungrammaticalities to evaluate theoretical claims extrapolated from different eye movement models. This was done via target word pair (transposed vs. non-transposed) and a final word grammaticality (grammatical vs. ungrammatical) experimental manipulations. Readers were better at judging the grammaticality of sentences containing both a word transposition and an ungrammatical final word than those with solely a word transposition. Critically, transposed words caused significant disruption to reading, but not prior to readers fixating the first word of the transposed word pair. Furthermore, an ungrammatical sentence-final word attracted readers’ fixations and caused increased re-reading in the absence of a word transposition compared to when it was preceded by a transposed word pair. Together the results show the importance of canonical word order for natural undisrupted reading and question claims for parallel lexical identification in relation to eye movement control during reading.

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引用次数: 0

Optimal allocation of time in risky choices under opportunity costs

IF 3 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Psychology

Pub Date : 2025-01-30 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2025.101716

Sebastian Olschewski , Timothy L. Mullett , Neil Stewart

In economic decision-making there is a trade-off between deliberation time to make a good decision and opportunity costs of other rewarding activities. Recent theories describe how the optimal strategy of evidence accumulation for this problem depends on the environment. If the utility difference between two options is known a priori, but not the identity of the better option, decision-makers should accumulate evidence according to a drift diffusion model with constant decision boundaries. If this difference is unknown beforehand, collapsing boundaries should be used. The exact position of the boundaries depends on the opportunity costs. In two experiments, we examined whether people can adaptively adjust their decision bounds. Participants rated and chose between risky lotteries, while we varied prior information about the utility difference. We also varied opportunity costs, by imposing time limits on task blocks. We found that participants used collapsing boundaries in all examined conditions, even in those where constant boundaries would have been optimal. This means they reduced their target strength of evidence during the choice process, even when they should not. In contrast, participants were sensitive to opportunity costs, deciding faster when choice time was more costly. In sum, people adapted to opportunity costs but not to prior information about utility differences.

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引用次数: 0

Updating of information in working memory: Time course and consequences 工作记忆中的信息更新：时间过程和后果。

IF 3 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Psychology

Pub Date : 2025-01-01 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2024.101702

Chenyu Li, Gidon T. Frischkorn, Klaus Oberauer

Working memory updating is the process that replaces outdated content in working memory by new content. This requires removing outdated information and encoding new information. It is still unclear whether removal and encoding run sequentially or simultaneously. We explored this question in two experiments investigating the time course of removal and encoding and their consequences for the functioning of working memory. The updating task we used involved three phases: the initial encoding, the processing, and the retrieval phase. Across four conditions, we manipulated whether the processing phase involved encoding, removal, neither, or both (i.e., updating). In Experiment 1, processing time was self-paced, and we measured processing times in each condition. In Experiment 2, we measured accuracy as a function of available processing time. After the processing, participants were asked to recall the final item for each position in the retrieval phase. In combination, the results of the two experiments show that the time required for updating was shorter than the sum of encoding and removal time. Moreover, it was nearly the same as the time taken for either the encoding or removal process, indicating that encoding and removal are concurrent processes during updating. Additionally, we analyzed the proportion of correct responses and of different error types with a memory measurement model to investigate the effects of encoding and removal for information held in working memory. The analysis revealed that removal involves unbinding the outdated information from its context. However, despite the weakened bindings of information to its initial context, the outdated information still remains activated in working memory. Other information held in working memory benefitted little from removal of outdated information.

工作记忆更新是用新内容取代工作记忆中过时内容的过程。这需要删除过时的信息并对新信息进行编码。目前还不清楚删除和编码是顺序运行还是同时运行。我们在两个实验中探讨了这个问题，研究了去除和编码的时间过程及其对工作记忆功能的影响。我们使用的更新任务包括三个阶段：初始编码、处理和检索阶段。在四种情况下，我们操纵处理阶段是否涉及编码、删除、不涉及或两者都涉及（即更新）。在实验1中，加工时间是自定的，我们测量了每种情况下的加工时间。在实验2中，我们测量了准确度作为可用处理时间的函数。处理后，参与者被要求回忆每个位置在检索阶段的最后一个项目。综合两个实验的结果表明，更新所需的时间小于编码和去除时间之和。此外，它与编码或删除过程所花费的时间几乎相同，这表明编码和删除是更新过程中的并发过程。此外，我们还利用记忆测量模型分析了正确反应比例和不同错误类型的比例，以探讨编码和去除对工作记忆信息的影响。分析显示，删除涉及将过时信息从其上下文中解除绑定。然而，尽管信息与初始上下文的绑定减弱了，过时的信息仍然在工作记忆中被激活。删除过时信息对工作记忆中的其他信息几乎没有好处。

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引用次数: 0

In the United States, children are more likely than adults to condone discrimination 在美国，儿童比成年人更容易容忍歧视。

IF 3 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Psychology

Pub Date : 2025-01-01 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2024.101703

Vivian Liu, Andrei Cimpian

Discriminatory acts (i.e., harmful acts motivated by the victim’s group membership) have outsized consequences for the victim and for society relative to similar harms committed for other reasons. Here, we investigated the development of children’s evaluations of discrimination. Specifically, we asked whether children in the U.S., like adults, perceive discriminatory acts as distinctly harmful—that is, more harmful than identical acts that are not motivated by the victim’s membership in a particular group. Across 4 studies, we examined children’s (N = 588; ages 4–9 years) and adults’ (N = 623) perceptions of discriminatory acts versus identical acts motivated by other, personal reasons (Studies 1 and 2). In contrast to adults, children—particularly younger ones—rated the discriminatory acts as least harmful. In addition, whereas adults rated discrimination motivated by the victim’s membership in an unfamiliar social category (similar to gender or race) as more harmful than discrimination motivated by membership in an unfamiliar task-based group (a sports team), children did not (Study 3). Finally, both adults and older (but not younger) children rated discrimination against a member of a lower-status (vs. equal-status) group as more harmful (Study 4). These findings advance theory on the development of sociomoral cognition and provide new insight into how children perceive instances of discrimination and bias in their everyday lives.

歧视性行为（即因受害者的群体成员身份而产生的有害行为）对受害者和社会造成的后果比因其他原因造成的类似伤害要严重得多。在这里，我们调查了儿童对歧视的评价的发展。具体来说，我们询问了美国的儿童是否像成年人一样，认为歧视行为是明显有害的——也就是说，比不是因为受害者是某个特定群体的成员而导致的相同行为更有害。在4项研究中，我们检查了儿童(N = 588；年龄4-9岁)和成年人（N = 623）对歧视行为与由其他个人原因引起的相同行为的看法（研究1和2）。与成年人相比，儿童——尤其是年幼的儿童——认为歧视行为的危害最小。此外，尽管成年人认为受害者在一个不熟悉的社会类别（类似于性别或种族）中的成员身份所引发的歧视比在一个不熟悉的基于任务的群体（一个运动队）中的成员身份所引发的歧视更有害，但儿童却没有（研究3）。成年人和年龄较大（但不包括年龄较小）的儿童都认为对地位较低（与地位平等）群体成员的歧视更有害（研究4）。这些发现推进了社会道德认知发展的理论，并为儿童如何感知日常生活中的歧视和偏见提供了新的见解。

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引用次数: 0

A position coding model that accounts for the effects of event boundaries on temporal order memory 一个考虑事件边界对时间顺序记忆影响的位置编码模型。

IF 3 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Psychology

Pub Date : 2025-01-01 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2025.101714

Xiaojing Peng , Yifei Cao , Jintao Sheng , Yu Zhou , Huinan Hu , Gui Xue

Episodic memories, particularly temporal order memory, are influenced by event boundaries. Although numerous theoretical and computational models have been developed to explain this phenomenon, creating a model that can explain a wide range of behavioral data and is supported by neural evidence remains a significant challenge. This study presented a new model, grounded in ample evidence of position coding, to account for the impact of event boundaries on temporal order memory. The proposed model successfully simulated various behavioral effects in previous experiments measuring temporal order memory. Our model outperformed the context-resetting model in fitting all the data and capturing the full set of effects in previous and newly conducted experiments, including the boundary effect, the distance effect, the local primacy effect, and the absence of boundary number effect. These findings underscore a novel mechanism in which event boundaries affect temporal order memory by resetting the local position coding of events.

情景记忆，尤其是时间顺序记忆，受到事件边界的影响。尽管已经开发了许多理论和计算模型来解释这一现象，但创建一个可以解释广泛的行为数据并由神经证据支持的模型仍然是一个重大挑战。本研究提出了一个基于位置编码的新模型，以解释事件边界对时间顺序记忆的影响。该模型成功地模拟了以往时间顺序记忆实验中的各种行为效应。我们的模型在拟合所有数据和捕获之前和新进行的实验的全部效应方面优于上下文重置模型，包括边界效应、距离效应、局部首因效应和边界数缺失效应。这些发现强调了一种新的机制，即事件边界通过重置事件的局部位置编码来影响时间顺序记忆。

引用次数: 0

Exploring the bounded rationality in human decision anomalies through an assemblable computational framework 通过可组装计算框架探索人类决策异常中的有限理性。

IF 3 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Psychology

Pub Date : 2025-01-01 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2025.101713

Yi-Long Lu , Yang-Fan Lu , Xiangjuan Ren , Hang Zhang

Some seemingly irrational decision behaviors (anomalies), once seen as flaws in human cognition, have recently received explanations from a rational perspective. The basic idea is that the brain has limited cognitive resources to process the quantities (e.g., value, probability, time, etc.) required for decision making, with specific biases arising as byproducts of the resource allocation that is optimized for the environment. While appealing for providing normative accounts, the existing resource-rational models have limitations such as inconsistent assumptions across models, a focus on optimization for one specific aspect of the environment, and limited coverage of decision anomalies. One challenging anomaly is the peanuts effect, a pervasive phenomenon in decision-making under risk that implies an interdependence between the processing of value and probability. To extend the resource rationality approach to explain the peanuts effect, here we develop a computational framework—the Assemblable Resource-Rational Modules (ARRM)—that integrates ideas from different lines of boundedly-rational decision models as freely assembled modules. The framework can accommodate the joint functioning of multiple environmental factors, and allow new models to be built and tested along with the existing ones, potentially opening a wider range of decision phenomena to bounded rationality modeling. For one new and three published datasets that cover two different task paradigms and both the gain and loss domains, our boundedly-rational models reproduce two characteristic features of the peanuts effect and outperform previous models in fitting human decision behaviors.

一些看似非理性的决策行为（异常），曾经被视为人类认知的缺陷，最近从理性的角度得到了解释。其基本思想是，大脑在处理决策所需的数量（如价值、概率、时间等）方面的认知资源是有限的，而在针对环境进行优化的资源分配过程中，会产生特定的偏见。虽然呼吁提供规范的解释，但现有的资源理性模型存在局限性，例如模型之间的假设不一致，关注环境的一个特定方面的优化，以及对决策异常的有限覆盖。一个具有挑战性的异常现象是花生效应，这是一种在风险决策中普遍存在的现象，意味着价值处理和概率之间的相互依赖。为了扩展资源合理性方法来解释花生效应，我们在这里开发了一个计算框架——可组装资源理性模块（ARRM）——它将来自不同的有界理性决策模型的思想集成为自由组装的模块。该框架可以适应多种环境因素的共同作用，并允许与现有模型一起构建和测试新模型，从而有可能为有限理性建模开辟更广泛的决策现象。对于一个新的和三个已发表的数据集，涵盖了两个不同的任务范式和增益和损失域，我们的有界理性模型再现了花生效应的两个特征，并且在拟合人类决策行为方面优于先前的模型。

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引用次数: 0

Free time, sharper mind: A computational dive into working memory improvement 自由的时间，更敏锐的头脑：工作记忆改进的计算研究

IF 3 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Psychology

Pub Date : 2024-11-20 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2024.101701

Benjamin Kowialiewski , Steve Majerus

Extra free time improves working memory (WM) performance. This free-time benefit becomes larger across successive serial positions, a phenomenon recently labeled the “fanning-out effect”. Different mechanisms can account for this phenomenon. In this study, we implemented these mechanisms computationally and tested them experimentally. We ran three experiments that varied the time people were allowed to encode items, as well as the order in which they recalled them. Experiment 1 manipulated the free-time benefit in a paradigm in which people recalled items either in forward or backward order. Experiment 2 used the same forward–backward recall paradigm coupled with a distractor task at the end of encoding. Experiment 3 used a cued recall paradigm in which items were tested in random order. In all three experiments, the best-fitting model of the free-time benefit included (1) a consolidation mechanism whereby a just-encoded item continues to be re-encoded as a function of the total free-time available and (2) a stabilization mechanism whereby items become more resistant to output interference with extra free time. Mechanisms such as decay and refreshing, as well as models based on the replenishment of encoding-resources, were not supported by our data.

额外的自由时间能提高工作记忆（WM）的表现。这种自由时间的益处在连续位置上会变得更大，这种现象最近被称为 "褪色效应"。不同的机制可以解释这种现象。在本研究中，我们通过计算实现了这些机制，并进行了实验测试。我们进行了三项实验，改变了人们编码项目的时间以及回忆项目的顺序。实验一在一个范例中操纵了自由时间的益处，在这个范例中，人们按照向前或向后的顺序回忆项目。实验 2 采用了同样的正向-逆向回忆范式，并在编码结束时进行了一项分散注意力的任务。实验 3 采用的是一种提示回忆范式，其中的项目以随机顺序进行测试。在所有三个实验中，自由时间效益的最佳拟合模型包括：（1）巩固机制，即刚编码的项目继续重新编码，这是可用自由时间总量的函数；（2）稳定机制，即随着自由时间的增加，项目对输出干扰的抵抗力增强。我们的数据并不支持衰减和刷新等机制以及基于编码资源补充的模型。

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引用次数: 0

Building compressed causal models of the world 建立世界的压缩因果模型

IF 3 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Psychology

Pub Date : 2024-10-19 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2024.101682

David Kinney , Tania Lombrozo

A given causal system can be represented in a variety of ways. How do agents determine which variables to include in their causal representations, and at what level of granularity? Using techniques from Bayesian networks, information theory, and decision theory, we develop a formal theory according to which causal representations reflect a trade-off between compression and informativeness, where the optimal trade-off depends on the decision-theoretic value of information for a given agent in a given context. This theory predicts that, all else being equal, agents prefer causal models that are as compressed as possible. When compression is associated with information loss, however, all else is not equal, and our theory predicts that agents will favor compressed models only when the information they sacrifice is not informative with respect to the agent’s anticipated decisions. We then show, across six studies reported here (N=2,364) and one study reported in the supplemental materials (N=182), that participants’ preferences over causal models are in keeping with the predictions of our theory. Our theory offers a unification of different dimensions of causal evaluation identified within the philosophy of science (proportionality and stability), and contributes to a more general picture of human cognition according to which the capacity to create compressed (causal) representations plays a central role.

一个给定的因果系统可以用多种方式表示。行为主体如何决定在其因果表征中包含哪些变量，以及在何种粒度水平上包含这些变量？利用贝叶斯网络、信息论和决策论的技术，我们提出了一个正式理论，根据该理论，因果关系表征反映了压缩与信息量之间的权衡，而最佳权衡取决于特定代理人在特定情境下的决策论信息价值。这一理论预测，在其他条件相同的情况下，代理人更喜欢尽可能压缩的因果模型。然而，当压缩与信息损失相关联时，其他条件就不一样了。我们的理论预测，只有当压缩模型所牺牲的信息对代理人的预期决策没有参考价值时，代理人才会青睐压缩模型。然后，我们通过本文报告的六项研究（N=2,364）和补充材料中报告的一项研究（N=182）表明，参与者对因果模型的偏好符合我们理论的预测。我们的理论统一了科学哲学中确定的因果评价的不同维度（比例性和稳定性），并有助于更全面地描述人类认知，根据这一认知，创建压缩（因果）表征的能力起着核心作用。

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引用次数: 0

Doing things efficiently: Testing an account of why simple explanations are satisfying 高效做事：测试简单解释令人满意的原因。

IF 3 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Psychology

Pub Date : 2024-10-07 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2024.101692

Claudia G. Sehl, Stephanie Denison, Ori Friedman

People often find simple explanations more satisfying than complex ones. Across seven preregistered experiments, we provide evidence that this simplicity preference is not specific to explanations and may instead arises from a broader tendency to prefer completing goals in efficient ways. In each experiment, participants (total N=2820) learned of simple and complex methods for producing an outcome, and judged which was more appealing—either as an explanation why the outcome happened, or as a process for producing it. Participants showed similar preferences across judgments. They preferred simple methods as explanations and processes in tasks with no statistical information about the reliability or pervasiveness of causal elements. But when this statistical information was provided, preferences for simple causes often diminished and reversed in both kinds of judgments. Together, these findings suggest that people may assess explanations much in the same ways they assess methods for completing goals, and that both kinds of judgments depend on the same cognitive mechanisms.

人们通常认为简单的解释比复杂的解释更令人满意。通过七项预先登记的实验，我们提供的证据表明，这种简单性偏好并不是解释所特有的，相反，它可能源于一种更广泛的倾向，即人们更倾向于以高效的方式完成目标。在每个实验中，参与者（总人数=2820）都了解了产生一个结果的简单方法和复杂方法，并判断哪种方法更有吸引力--无论是作为解释结果发生的原因，还是作为产生结果的过程。在不同的判断中，参与者表现出相似的偏好。在没有关于因果要素的可靠性或普遍性的统计信息的任务中，他们更喜欢简单的方法作为解释和过程。但当提供了这种统计信息时，在两种判断中，对简单原因的偏好往往会减弱或逆转。这些发现共同表明，人们评估解释的方式可能与评估完成目标的方法的方式大致相同，而且这两种判断都依赖于相同的认知机制。

引用次数: 0