Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology-Revue Canadienne De Psychologie Experimentale最新文献

We compared the effectiveness of encoding techniques in learning a character-based language. During an encoding phase, participants naive to Korean were shown 40 English-Korean word pairs in Experiment 1 (80 in Experiment 2) and asked to either repeat aloud (produce) the Korean pronunciation or copy the image of the Korean character. Recognition was later assessed in two ways: On an auditory test, participants selected the correct pairing from two audio clips of Korean words, and on a visual test, they selected the correct pairing from among two visually presented Korean characters. In both experiments, copying Korean characters led to higher performance overall. Notably, we also found an interaction such that memory was higher on the auditory test when encoding required production and better on the visual test when encoding required copying. Results suggest that matching the encoding and retrieval test modality maximizes performance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotional information is treated differently than any other type of information and has a powerful impact on many cognitive processes, including attention. The aim of this study was to investigate how valence and arousal impact how we process words in sentences, as well as examine two theories of emotion, categorical negativity theory and the arousal hypothesis. Categorical negativity theory suggests that the valence of a word is what truly influences how emotional information receives attention, while the arousal hypothesis posits that the arousal level of a word determines the amount of attention it receives. In the current work, we used the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task to investigate interactions between valence and arousal. The valence and arousal levels of positive and negative emotion words were manipulated within the context of full-sentence reading. Analyses revealed that all negative words, regardless of arousal level, produced the standard repetition blindness effect; however, positive words appeared to benefit from repetition. This interaction of valence and arousal suggests that a new theory is needed to accommodate evidence that both valence and arousal play a role in the attentional capture of emotion words. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Choosing when to start tasks can be an important aspect of task management in daily life. Do people prefer to start tasks at the beginning of the hour, that is, using clock time as a cue for their scheduling preferences? A first study showed a strong preference to start tasks on the hour, even in scenarios involving a cost to starting on the hour, in scenarios involving no other people, and across several forms of start preference measurement. A second study examined reports of real-life tasks: Participants identified next-day tasks ahead of time and then reported on these exact tasks 2 days later. Starting tasks on the hour was not linked with benefits for individual task progress, but starting a higher percentage of tasks on the hour over the day was linked with judging the day overall as having been spent more efficiently. In sum, these studies identify a preference for scheduling and starting tasks on the hour but show mixed evidence that this preference is beneficial for task achievement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

We introduce the Math4Speed (M4S), a paper-and-pencil measure incorporating the four arithmetic operations with items of varying complexity. M4S consists of 50 addition, 50 subtraction, 50 multiplication, and 50 division problems, limited to 2 min per operation. The psychometric evaluation was conducted by combining convenience samples of young adults (N = 1,165), who were mainly university students (77.2%), from six European countries (the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Greece, and Spain). Reliability and validity were satisfactory. Construct validity was reflected in the largest associations between inverse operations (e.g., multiplication and division). Convergent and divergent validity were reflected in higher associations of the M4S with other arithmetic measures than with a spelling test. As a freely available measure, M4S will be widely accessible and will in this first step allow cross-study comparison for typical experimental samples. In the next step, we invite all researchers to contribute to further development of M4S by providing more culturally diverse, minority, or representative samples to broaden the use cases of this screening of arithmetic fluency and enable more generalizability. Interested contributors can get in contact via email (math4speed@psychologie.uni-tuebingen.de). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Numeracy is the ability to understand, manipulate, and make sense of numerical information. It is crucial for everyday decision making that involves dealing with numbers. In this study, we tested whether we can help people make better choices in monetary lotteries by communicating numerical values (i.e., payoffs and probabilities) using visual aids. We also checked whether presenting this information in a visual form reduces affect negativity. Participants (N = 210) made choices in 10 monetary lotteries accompanied with visual aids (experimental condition) or without visual aids (control condition). After the lottery task, participants completed questionnaires measuring experienced emotions and numerical skills. Despite finding no hypothesized effect of visual aids on performance in a lottery task, the exploratory analysis revealed the interaction effect. In a visual aid condition, participants who were relatively less educated scored significantly higher in a lottery task in comparison to those in the control condition. Additionally, participants in the visual aid condition reported significantly lower intensity of negative emotions after the lottery task than those in the control condition. We discuss possible causes and mechanisms that can explain the results we obtained. We argue that visual aids are a promising tool for future learning, and their friendly format can positively influence people's reactions to decisions involving numerical information. However, we also point out the necessity for further research and exploration of the role of different designs of visual aids and individual differences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Word problem-solving (WPS) in mathematics and reading comprehension (RC) are essential to academic literacy. Previous studies suggest that WPS and RC involve common processes related to number and word processing. However, the nature of these connections is not yet fully understood. In this study, we examined the influence of reading and calculation fluency on the development of WPS and RC by conducting two longitudinal studies (L1 and L2) with children entering first grade in 2019 and 2018, respectively. Significant associations were found between reading fluency and RC, as well as between addition and subtraction fluency and WPS. In general, those correlations were higher (L1: .60-.74; L2: .55-.82) than correlations between reading and mathematics measures (L1: .30-.57; L2: .34-.54) suggesting patterns of overlap between different underlying more specific processes. Hierarchical regressions were computed to test the unique contribution of each predictor to the variance in WPS and RC when the other predictors were controlled. Addition and subtraction fluency significantly explained 6% and 4% of the individual variability in WPS in L1. Addition fluency also explained 20% of the variance in WPS in L2, whereas subtraction fluency did not. Moreover, reading fluency did not show a unique contribution to individual variability in WPS. On the contrary, reading fluency contributed uniquely to variance in RC in L1 (16%) and L2 (17%), while addition and subtraction fluency did not. Considering these findings, the controversy over the specificity of learning disabilities in mathematics and reading is revised, and practical implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Children's early numerical abilities shape their trajectories for math learning throughout schooling, and task quantity representation (e.g., nonsymbolic vs. symbolic) affects their reasoning about numerical concepts. The role of quantity representation in early numerical ability has typically been studied using variable-centered approaches. The present study builds on past work by using latent profile analysis as a person-centered approach to investigate heterogeneity in U.S. preschoolers' (N = 200, M_age = 4 years, 6 months) numerical abilities across nonsymbolic, verbal symbolic, and written symbolic representation types. The aim was to determine whether numerical ability indicators across the three representation types would result in empirically distinct ability profiles and whether preschool ability profile would predict variance on a standardized assessment of math achievement a year later, in kindergarten. We found evidence of four distinct preschool number ability profiles: (a) consistently low; (b) consistently high; (c) intermediate, with an advantage on nonsymbolic items; and (d) intermediate, with an advantage on verbal symbolic items. Although children in the consistently low and consistently high profiles performed reliably lower and higher, respectively, on the assessment of kindergarten math achievement, the two intermediate profiles performed similarly. The results reveal heterogeneity in preschool numerical ability across quantity representations and suggest that proficiency with either nonsymbolic or verbal representations may be a helpful foundation for building future math achievement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

In young children in particular, processing numerical magnitudes is influenced by spatial characteristics of those magnitudes (e.g., extent). Gradually, children will learn to dissociate numerosity from spatial information and understand that objects represent discrete numerical quantities. In the present study, we investigated whether 5-year-old children extract numerosity disregarding spatial stimulus characteristics and in what way numerosity extraction is associated with verbal number skills (counting and initial addition). Five-year-old children were presented with a newly developed task to measure numerosity extraction on two timepoints, several months apart. Each item contained three rows of differently sized rectangles. Children had to identify which two rows contained the same number of rectangles. On congruent items, these two rows were similar in length. On incongruent items, the two rows equal in numerosity varied in length. Analyses indicated that some 5-year-old children showed numerosity extraction, but others had difficulties to disentangle numerosity from spatial characteristics. Numerosity extraction was predicted over time by initial addition but not counting skills, although there was a concurrent association between counting skills and numerosity extraction at timepoint 2. Numerosity extraction did not predict either initial addition or counting over time. These results suggest that the ability to disentangle numerosity from spatial characteristics is still developing around 5 years of age and that verbal number skills foster this development. Verbal number skills probably further refine nonsymbolic magnitude processing (in this study, numerosity extraction), while nonsymbolic magnitude processing does not underlie verbal number skills. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The difficulty of a word problem is influenced by both linguistic and arithmetic processes. However, whether these processes are sequential or interactive is a matter of debate. Little is known about how eye-movement behaviour changes when faced with different linguistic and arithmetic task characteristics, both in relation to the entire problem and to specific components (i.e., numerical and textual elements). To address this gap, we conducted a study monitoring the eye movements of children aged 10-13 years during word problem solving. We manipulated linguistic and arithmetic task characteristics independently, focusing on the mathematical factor operation (addition/subtraction) and the linguistic factors consistency (consistent/inconsistent) and nominalization (verbalized/nominalized). The results revealed that eye movements generally increased as linguistic difficulty (e.g., nominalization) or arithmetic difficulty (e.g., operation) increased. Thereby, specific parts of the text were differentially affected based on the task characteristics. Increasing arithmetic difficulty led to a shift in eye movements towards numerical elements, while increasing linguistic difficulty resulted in a shift towards textual elements. Interestingly, the increase in arithmetic difficulty also influenced processing in the linguistic domain. For example, textual parts of the word problem received more fixations when the arithmetic difficulty increased, but not vice versa. This suggests that text comprehension and calculation processes in word problem solving are not separate and not strictly sequential; instead, they interact and/or do partially rely on shared cognitive resources. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Are there cognitive connections between humans' ability to make music and their understanding of math and numbers? This question has motivated centuries of speculation across the fields of philosophy and education and an increasing number of empirical studies of the topic. We review research at the intersection of numerical and music cognition, and establish its relevance both to the applied sphere (e.g., education) and to core theoretical issues in the cognitive sciences. Next, we identify notable limitations within the literature, and attempt to explain some of the likely causes of-and solutions to-these limitations. Finally, we propose specific themes of focus (spatialization and the mapping between symbolic and nonsymbolic representations) for future research aimed at understanding whether there is shared cognitive architecture for reasoning about number and math. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).