Abstract

Abstract

A recent study employing the color-word Stroop task found that object-spatial-verbal cognitive style is closely associated with individual differences in cognitive control processes. Based on these findings, the current study sought to examine whether the same cognitive style is involved in task switching processes between two tasks. Further, we sought to investigate whether it is involved in task-set reconfiguration or task-set inhibition during switching. In doing so, a task switching paradigm including object and verbal tasks was constructed and cognitive style preference scores of the Korean version of the object-spatial imagery and verbal questionnaire were obtained from the participants. The results of the relationship between the switch cost for each task and preference scores for the cognitive style showed that greater verbal style preference was closely related with the lower verbal switch cost whereas the relationship between object style preference and the switch cost was absent. These results were discussed based on task-set reconfiguration.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the difference of performance depending on the type of stress imposed on the task. To do so, we divided the stress imposed on the task into cognitive stress and emotional stress and investigated the impact of these stresses on the performance of cognitive task. Participants were asked to solve arithmetic problems. The cognitive stress was aroused by manipulating task difficulty, and the emotional stress was aroused by manipulating the existence of timer and the possibility of self-paced task performance. The results of behavioral experiment showed that emotional stress has negative impact on solving cognitively more demanding problems, but the emotional stress has positive affect on solving less demanding problems. The results of the ERP study showed such that the effect of emotional stress is observed in P1, P2, N400 (left occipital lobe) and the effect of cognitive stress is observed in N400 (right anterior and central lobe). Interestingly, the interaction between emotional processing and cognitive processing was observed in P2 and N400 components. These findings provide experimental evidence that psychological stress is an umbrella concept including two distinct cognitive and emotional stresses and suggest that emotional processing and cognitive processing interact with each other.

Abstract

A moving object is temporarily invisible as it passes behind an occluding surface, but people perceive it as moving continuously behind the occluder, suggesting that the representation of the moving object is amodally maintained during its disappearance. The current study investigated whether the display where object invisibility is interpreted as amodal completion of a hidden object moving behind an occluder results in greater time dilation than in comparable displays that lack the interpretation of amodal completion, by manipulating the binocular disparity depth of the surface which can potentially work as an occluder in 3D displays. The result shows that the display involving amodally completed motion is perceived as longer in duration than the display where object invisibility does not entail amodal completion. This result runs counter to the prediction based on psychophysical factors previously implicated in time perception, such as overall stimulus salency, motion energy, attention and predictability. It suggests that time dilation for moving objects is mediated by higher level motion processing based on surface representation.

Abstract

Emotional information can easily capture our attention compared to neutral information. Evidences suggest that the amount of induced attentional capture is correlated with arousal levels of processed information. On the other hand, the speed (onset latency) of attentional capture seems to be determined by the valence of the emotional information. In this study, the speed of attentional capture between equally high arousing positive and negative stimuli was compared by using the emotion-induced blindness (EIB) procedure, which is suited for measuring temporal changes in attentional effects. In Experiment 1, either a positive or negative word distractor was presented among a rapid stream of neutral words, and a to-be-reported target animal word followed 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 8 lags after distractor presentation. In Experiment 2, either a positive or negative distractor was presented among a rapid stream of opposite valence words. The overall results indicate that negative distractors induced a rapid attentional capture response occurring at lags 2 to 4, while positive distractors induced a late attentional capture response, which gradually increased and peaked at lag 5. In conclusion, the emotional valence of distractors determines the speed of attentional capture when compared emotional distractors have similar arousal levels.

Abstract

Understanding the relationship between individuals’ cognitive abilities and selective attention has implications for both general cognitive mechanisms and characteristics of special populations. Bleckley et al. (2003, 2015) suggested that individuals with high cognitive control ability allocate attention effectively based on an object (i.e., object-based facilitation effect), whereas individuals with low cognitive control ability allocate attention broadly based on the location of the object. If those with high cognitive control ability use object-based attention for effective information processing, they should not allocate attention to an object, if selection based on the object is not effective. The present study examined how individuals with high cognitive ability and with low cognitive ability allocate their attention when the selection based on an object is not effective. We also attempted to measure location and object effects more accurately by moving a cued object to another location. The results revealed that when participants were informed that a target was more likely to occur at the cued location, only those with high cognitive ability showed an inhibition effect at the opposite end of the cued object (separated from its original location). In contrast, the magnitude of location effect (separated from the object) did not differ between the high and low control groups. Our findings not only support the view that object effect is related with cognitive control but also suggest that the direction of object effect varies across tasks.

Abstract

Emotional arousal influences sensory information processing in various ways. Observers’ memories of a crime-related stimulus capable of evoking emotional arousal, for example, are much more accurate than memories of a neutral stimulus that does not induce emotional arousal because the crime-related stimulus captures observers’ attention. This study explored whether this crime-related stimuli superiority can be also found in visual feature binding. For this experiment, after a brief presentation of a crime-related and two neutral words written in different colors on a memory display, one test word appeared on the test display. Participants were asked to perform a change detection task for the color of the test word. In experiment 1, participants showed more accurate memory in response to the color of the crime-related words than the neutral words in the New condition, wherein the test word appeared in a new color that had not been employed in any words of the memory display. In contrast, the superiority of the crime-related words was not observed in the Switch condition in which the test word was presented in a color that had been employed for another word of the memory display. Failure in finding the superiority of the crime-related words in the Switch condition might result from enhanced perceptual organization among words of the memory display because participants tried to remember three words as one group. In experiment 2, to test this hypothesis, we manipulated the level of perceptual organization among words by adding lines to the memory display: sometimes the lines connected three words and sometimes they did not. Although the superiority of crime-related words was not observed when connecting lines were added, the addition of unconnected lines resulted in better accuracy for crime-related words. These results suggested that emotional arousal had an effect on early visual information processing, and that the direction of the effect may be different according to various properties of the scene.

Abstract

In our real-world visual searches, a target object is present with varied probability rather than with even probability. Recent studies have reported that the proportion of target presentation affects visual search performance via a shift of decision criteria. The present study investigated the transferability of this target prevalence effects across two dissociable-prevalence search tasks concurrently performed within a period. We examined this by conducting two separate visual searches where one emerge a varied-prevalence (10, 50, or 90%; prevalence task) whereas the other has a fixed-prevalence at 50% (neutral task). Each task was presented at the unihemifield in a random-order in whole trials. In addition, we assumed that the transferability of prevalence effect may depend on the perceptual similarity across the tasks. The results showed that search performance for the neutral task followed that for the prevalence task when the search stimuli set was perceptually identical across the tasks (Experiment 1B), whereas was independent from the prevalence task when the stimuli were perceptually distinct across the tasks (Experiment 1A). These results indicate that observers could fail to adaptively separate their decision criteria when they engaged in multiple-visual searches each has different probability of target presentation, at least under circumstances in which interferences on perceptual separation across the tasks exist.

Abstract

This study is conducted to confirm the influence of quantitative and qualitative characteristics, difficulty and relatedness between memory materials, on memory enhancement effect of unsuccessful retrieval. For this purpose, memory materials, the word pairs, are classified into four categories according to difficulty(2) and relatedness(2). The words of pairs have similar frequency of use. Then, participants learned the materials attempting unsuccessful retrieval and the results are measured as Recollection rates. The experiment is designed as between participants for difficulty(2) and relatedness(2), so two-way ANOVA between groups is performed. As a result, main effects of difficulty and relatedness are significant in both immediate and delayed recall test. Specifically, recollection rates of low difficulty group are better than high group and the rates of high relatedness group are better than low group. In addition, aspects of the rates for difficulty and relatedness are similar both in the immediate and delayed test. It means both quantitative and qualitative characteristics of memory materials, difficulty and relatedness, influence on memory enhancement effect of unsuccessful retrieval, even in delayed test condition.

Abstract

The current study investigated whether the display of a repeatedly blinking object in place can give rise to a percept of apparent motion, when it is accompanied by a large occluder object. The result shows that apparent motion of an object behind the occluder can be observed when image cues for occlusion are given and the temporal interval between stimulus onsets is large enough. This result suggests that apparent motion can generate the perception of occlusion so that a physical sequence of objects coming into and going out of existence turns to be perceived as coming into and going out of sight.

Abstract

The current study investigated whether the display of a repeatedly blinking object in place can give rise to a percept of apparent motion, when it is accompanied by a large occluder object. The result shows that apparent motion of an object behind the occluder can be observed when image cues for occlusion are given and the temporal interval between stimulus onsets is large enough. This result suggests that apparent motion can generate the perception of occlusion so that a physical sequence of objects coming into and going out of existence turns to be perceived as coming into and going out of sight.