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Psicol?gica JournalNumber of Followers: 0
 Open Access journal ISSN (Print) 0211-2159 - ISSN (Online) 1576-8597
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- Emotion and concreteness effects when learning novel concepts in the
native language
Abstract: The aim of the present study was to test the proposal of Kousta et al. (2011), according to which abstract words are more affectively loaded than concrete words. To this end, we focused on the acquisition of novel concepts by means of an intentional learning experiment in which participants had to learn a set of 40 novel concepts in Spanish (definitions) associated with novel word forms (pseudowords). Concreteness (concrete vs. abstract concepts) and emotionality (neutral vs. negative concepts) were orthogonally manipulated. Acquisition was assessed through a recognition task in which participants were asked to match the novel word forms with their definitions. Results showed that concrete concepts were acquired better than abstract concepts. Importantly, the concreteness advantage disappeared when the content of the concept was negative. Hence, emotional (negative) content facilitated the acquisition of abstract concepts, but not of concrete concepts, giving support to the proposal of Kousta et al. (2011).
PubDate: Tue, 20 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT
- Ambiguous Sentence Processing in Translation
Abstract: The goal of our research was to explore the possible online co-activation of both the target language (TL) syntactic structure representation and TL attachment strategies in translation, and to look over a possible interaction between both syntactic properties. To this purpose, Spanish (L1) – English (L2) bilinguals were instructed to read complex noun phrases with an ambiguous relative clause in Spanish to either repeat them in Spanish or translate them into English. The final word of the sentences and the syntactic congruency between the source language (SL) and TL syntactic structure were manipulated. The results revealed co-activation of both TL syntactic properties: participants interpreted sentences more accordingly to the TL preferred strategy (low attachment) in the reading for translation task, read congruent sentences faster, and used the TL preferred interpretation strategy in the congruent condition of the sentences more. These results indicated TL activation at different syntactic levels during comprehension of the SL in translation.
PubDate: Tue, 20 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT
- Spatial interference triggered by gaze and arrows. The role of target
background on spatial interference
Abstract: Recent evidence with a spatial interference paradigm has shown that arrows and eye gaze yield opposite congruency effects, arrow target eliciting faster responses when their direction is congruent with their position (standard congruency effect), and gaze producing faster reaction times for incongruent conditions (reversed congruency effect). But in ecological contexts eye gaze tend to be more perceptually complex (i.e., embedded in the whole face) than simple arrows. The present study aimed to replicate this dissociation using whole faces and a comparable non-social target, formed by arrows embedded in a colored geometric background. Whereas the reversed congruency effect with gaze was replicated, the standard spatial interference with arrows was surprisingly absent. A similar outcome appeared when the contrast between the arrows and the task-irrelevant background increased. The results confirm the robustness of the reversed congruency effect with eyes, regardless of whether they are presented alone or within a face. In addition, and importantly, the unexpected absence of the spatial conflict with complex arrow targets seems to be a consequence of higher figure-ground segregation demands, which extend the processing of the task-relevant spatial dimension and, in turn, cause the decay of the location code. This pattern of results, and the provided interpretation, can explain previous unexplained findings in the spatial interference literature.
PubDate: Tue, 20 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT
- Interfering Embodiment Effects on Chinese “Transfer Verbs”
Abstract: This research aims to explore the processing of embodied meaning during the comprehension of Chinese transfer verbs which is different from the typical structure of transfer verbs in English and other Indo-European languages. An Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE) paradigm was used, in which participants were asked to read sentences describing a transfer verb either away from (At the court, a player throws tennis ball to opposite side) or toward themselves (At the court, a player throws tennis ball to my side). Following the transfer verb, a visual motion cue appeared on the screen after one of the three stimulus onset asychrony (SOA), prompting participants to move their hand either away from or toward themselves by pressing a button. The results showed that under short SOAs (cue presented 100 ms or 200 ms after the verb onset), interference occurred in the matching conditions. After larger delaying of the cue (350 ms), facilitation emerged in matching conditions. The results reflect special features in describing motion events by using Chinese transfer verbs, providing evidence that the comprehension of transfer-verb sentences in Mandarin activates the sensory-motor systems of our body, either interfering or facilitating a motor response performed in parallel.
PubDate: Tue, 20 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT
- Learning new words’ emotional meanings in the contexts of faces and
sentences
Abstract: Language is a powerful vehicle for expressing emotions, although the process by which words acquire their emotional meaning remains poorly understood. This study investigates how words acquire emotional meanings using two types of associative contexts: faces and sentences. To this end, participants were exposed to pseudowords repeatedly paired either with faces or with sentences expressing the emotions of disgust, sadness, or neutrality. We examined participants’ acquisition of meanings by testing them in both within-modality (e.g., learning pseudowords with faces and testing them with a new set of faces with the target expressions) and cross-modality generalization tasks (e.g. learning pseudowords with faces and testing them with sentences). Results in the generalization tests showed that the participants in the Face Group acquired disgust and neutral meanings better than participants in the Sentence Group. In turn, participants in the Sentence Group acquired the meaning of sadness better than their counterparts in the Face Group, but this advantage was only manifested in the cross-modality test with faces. We conclude that both contexts are effective for acquiring the emotional meaning of words, although acquisition with faces is more versatile or generalizable.
PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT
- Effects of acoustic warning signal intensity in the control of
visuospatial interference
Abstract: Previous studies have reported increased interference when a task-irrelevant acoustic warning signal preceded the target presentation in cognitive tasks. However, the alerting-congruence interaction was mostly observed for tasks measuring Flanker and Simon interferences but not for Stroop conflict. These findings led to the assumption that warning signals widen the attentional focus and facilitate the processing of irrelevant spatial characteristics. However, it is not clear whether these effects are because of the temporal information provided by the warning signal or because of their alerting effects. Based on these findings, and on the open question about the nature of the warning signal intervention on visuospatial interferences, we decided to test the impact of the warning signal on the processing of irrelevant spatial features, by using a procedure suitable for measuring both Simon and spatial Stroop interferences. We also manipulated the intensity of the warning signal to study the effect of the task-irrelevant characteristics of warning signals in visuospatial interferences. For the Simon conflict, results demonstrated an increased interference provoked by the presence (Experiment 1) and intensity (Experiment 2) of warning signals. In contrast, neither the presence nor the intensity of warning signals affected the spatial Stroop interference. Overall, these findings suggest that the impact of warning signals primarily depends on the processing of irrelevant spatial attributes and on the type of conflict (e.g., spatial stimulus-response interference in Simon vs. stimulus-stimulus interference in spatial Stroop). In general, acoustic warning signals facilitate the automatic response activation, but their modulatory effect depends on the task setting involved.
PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT
- Partial reinforcement in rat autoshaping with a long CS: Effects of
pramipexole and chlordiazepoxide on sign and goal tracking
Abstract: In Pavlovian autoshaping, sign-tracking responses (lever pressing) to a conditioned stimulus (CS) are usually invigorated under partial reinforcement (PR) compared to continuous reinforcement (CR). This effect, called the PR acquisition effect (PRAE), can be interpreted in terms of increased incentive hope or frustration-induced drive derived from PR training. Incentive hope and frustration have been related to dopaminergic and GABAergic activity, respectively. We examined the within-trial dynamics of sign and goal tracking in rats exposed to 20-s-long lever presentations during autoshaping acquisition under PR vs. CR conditions under the effects of drugs tapping on dopamine and GABA activity. There was no evidence of the PRAE in these results, both groups showing high, stable sign-tracking response rates. However, the pharmacological treatments affected behavior as revealed in within-trial changes. The dopamine D2 receptor agonist pramipexole (0.4 mg/kg) suppressed lever pressing and magazine entries relative to saline controls in a within-subject design, but only in PR animals. The allosteric benzodiazepine chlordiazepoxide (5 mg/kg) failed to affect either sign or goal tracking in either CR or PR animals. These results emphasize the roles of dopamine and GABA receptors in autoshaping performance, but remain inconclusive with respect to incentive hope and frustration theories. Some aspects of within-trial changes in sign and goal tracking are consistent with a mixture of reward timing and response competition.
PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT
- A critical assessment of the goal replacement hypothesis for habitual
behaviour
PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT
- The ANTI-Vea task: analyzing the executive and arousal vigilance
decrements while measuring the three attentional networks
Abstract: The vigilance decrement phenomenon has been traditionally studied by simple and monotonous behavioral tasks. Nowadays, however, there is considerable interest in measuring vigilance with more complex tasks, including independent measures of other attentional functions. In the present study, we provide evidence supporting the suitability of the Attentional Networks Test for Interactions and Vigilance – executive and arousal components (ANTI-Vea) as an appropriate method to simultaneously assess multiple attentional and vigilance components. Vigilance was examined as two dissociated components: executive vigilance –as the detection of infrequent signals– and arousal vigilance –as the sustenance of a fast reaction to stimuli without response selection–. Importantly, the executive vigilance decrement was analyzed with a novel methodological approach to particularly determine whether the sensitivity loss effect is influenced by a floor level on the false alarms. As expected, the ANTI-Vea proved to be a task suitable to assess: (a) the main effects and interactions of phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control; (b) the executive vigilance decrement as a progressive change in the response bias; and (c) the arousal vigilance decrement as a progressive slowness and variability in reaction time. We discuss some critical theoretical and empirical implications of measuring vigilance components with the ANTI-Vea task. We expect the present study to provide a suitable method to analyze the vigilance decrement phenomenon when measuring multiple attentional and vigilance functions.
PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT
- The thousand-question Spanish general knowledge database
Abstract: General knowledge questionnaires have been ubiquitously used to study a wide variety of phenomena, such as illusory truth, error correction and tip-ofthe-tongue situations. However, their normings are highly restricted to the territory and the time period they in which they were obtained. This requires that new normings are obtained for each new territory in which they be used. Here, we present a new set of 1364 general knowledge questions normed for a Spanish population. The questions span a total of 37 different fields of knowledge and an extensive range of difficulty levels. They are formulated in a multiple-choice format, and pick rates for the correct answer as well as for the three incorrect response options are provided. We hope that a database of such size and flexibility will prove to be a useful research tool for the Spanish community.
PubDate: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT
- The effect of how to perform movement sequences on absolute and relative
timing transfer
Abstract: Depending on the difficulty of the task in terms of movement duration and the number of elements forming the sequence, recent research has shown that movement sequences are coded in visual-spatial coordinates or motor coordinates. An interesting question that arises is how a specific manner of performance without a change in such functional difficulties affects the representation of movement sequences. Accordingly, the present study investigated how the way in which a movement sequence is performed affects the transfer of timing properties (absolute and relative timing) from the practised to unpractised hand under mirror (same motor commands as those used in practice) and non-mirror (the same visual-spatial coordinates as those present during practice) conditions in two experiments each with segment movement time goals that were arranged differently. The study showed that after a limited amount of practice, the pattern of results obtained for relative timing differed between the two experiments. In the first experiment, there was no difference between retention and non-mirror transfer, but performance on these tasks was significantly better than that for mirror transfer, whereas in the second experiment, there was no difference between the mirror and non-mirror transfer. For total errors, no significant difference was found between the retention and transfer tests in both experiments. It was concluded that the way in which a sequence is performed could affect the representation of the task and the transfer of relative timing, while absolute timing could purposefully be maintained if necessary.
PubDate: Thu, 14 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT
- Is there a cost at encoding words with joined letters during visual word
recognition'
Abstract: For simplicity, models of visual-word recognition have focused on printed words composed of separated letters, thus overlooking the processing of cursive words. Manso de Zuniga, Humphreys, and Evett (1991) claimed that there is an early “cursive normalization” encoding stage when processing written words with joined letters. To test this claim, we conducted a lexical decision experiment in which words were presented either with separated or joined letters. To examine if the cost of letter segmentation occurs early in processing, we also manipulated a factor (i.e., word-frequency) that is posited to affect subsequent lexical processing. Results showed faster response times for the words composed of separated letters than for the words composed of joined letters. This effect occurred similarly for low- and high-frequency words. Thus, the present data offer some empirical support to Manso de Zuniga et al.’s (1991) idea of an early “cursive normalization” stage when processing joined-letters words. This pattern of data can be used to constrain the mapping of the visual input into letter and word units in future versions of models of visual word recognition.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT
- Lexico-syntactic interactions in the resolution of relative clause
ambiguities in a second language (L2): The role of cognate status and L2
proficiency
Abstract: There is extensive evidence showing that bilinguals activate lexical representations in a non-selective way both when words are presented in isolation and in sentence contexts. Recent research has shown the existence of cross-language activation at the syntactic level as well. However, the extent to which the lexical and syntactic levels of representation interact during second language (L2) sentence processing, and how these interactions are modulated by L2 proficiency remain unclear. In this paper, we explore how native speakers of European-Portuguese (L1) who are learning English as an L2 at different levels of proficiency (intermediate vs. advanced) resolve relative clause (RC) syntactic ambiguities in their L2. European Portuguese and English native speakers were used as controls. Participants were asked to perform a sentence completion task, with cognates and noncognates critically embedded in the complex noun phrase (NP) preceding the RC, and which contained its antecedent. Results revealed that L2 learners, like English controls, preferred to attach the RC to the last host of the complex NP, regardless of L2 proficiency. Importantly, the cognate status of the complex NP modulated the results, although, contrary to our expectation, the presence of cognates induced less L1 syntax interference compared to noncognates.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT
- Two strategies used to solve a navigation task: A different use of the
hippocampus by males and females' A preliminary study in rats
Abstract: There is abundant research (both in rodents and in humans) showing that males and females often use different types of information in spatial navigation. Males prefer geometry as a source of information, whereas females tend to focus on landmarks (which are often near to a goal objects). However, when considering the role of the hippocampus, the research focuses primarily on males only. In the present study, based on Rodríguez, Torres, Mackintosh, and Chamizo’s (2010, Experiment 2) navigation protocol, we conducted two experiments, one with males and another with females, in order to tentatively evaluate the role of the dorsal hippocampus in the acquisition of two tasks: one based on landmark learning and the alternate one on local pool-geometry learning. Both when landmark learning and when geometry learning, Sham male rats learned significantly faster than Lesion male animals. This was not the case with female rats in geometry learning. These results suggest that the dorsal hippocampus could play an important role in males only.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT
- The (limited) effect of emotional arousal in the regulation of accuracy in
eyewitness memory
Abstract: Witnesses encoding a crime are likely to feel negative emotions with high arousal, e.g., anxiety or fear. Negative emotions improve memory for central information and impair memory for peripheral information. In this study we explored the effects of emotional arousal and type of information in the regulation of accuracy. The regulation of accuracy allows participants to maximize accuracy, for example, by deciding on the number of alternatives in their response (the plurality option). Participants were induced with high-and low-arousal negative emotions and then shown a slideshow of a crime. Afterwards, they answered questions about central and peripheral contents of the event. Questions followed the basic plurality option procedure. First, participants selected one alternative (single answer); second, they selected three alternatives (plural answer); and, finally, they decided on reporting either the single or the plural answer. Results showed successful manipulation of arousal, and that the regulation of accuracy led to a greater increase in accuracy for peripheral than for central information, but no differences depending on the level of arousal. We also identified two factors that increased accuracy in the plurality option: the ability to discard answers with low chances of being correct and the addition of answers with higher chances of being correct. Either one, or both, can increase witness accuracy.
PubDate: Fri, 19 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT
- Disfluent fonts lead to more utilitarian decisions in moral dilemmas
Abstract: Previous research suggests that utilitarian decisions to moral dilemmas often stem from analytic, controlled cognitive processes. Furthermore, processing disfluency can trigger analytic thinking and improve performance on tasks that require logic and cognitive reflection. In the present study we investigated how processing fluency affects the readiness with which people give utilitarian responses to both personal and impersonal dilemmas. Participants were presented in two different experimental blocks with dilemmas written in both easy- (fluent) and hard-to-read (disfluent) fonts. We expected that dilemmas written in a disfluent font would be associated with more utilitarian responses. Results supported this prediction, albeit only when the disfluent dilemmas appeared first, showing that participants endorsed more utilitarian actions in the disfluent condition than in the fluent condition across dilemma types. These data suggest that increasing processing disfluency by manipulating the font affects decisions in the moral domain.
PubDate: Fri, 19 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT
- Discrimination Reversal Facilitates Contextual Conditioning in Rats’
Appetitive conditioning
Abstract: Two experiments were conducted with the goal of exploring the effect of experiencing associative interference upon concurrent learning about conditioned stimuli and contexts in rats’ appetitive conditioning. During the first training phase, two groups of rats received a conditioned stimulus (CS1) followed by food, whereas another conditioned stimulus (CS2) was presented alone. During a second training phase, discrimination was reversed in group R, while it remained the same in group D. A new conditioned stimulus (CS3) was concurrently trained followed by food during this second Phase (Experiment 1). Reversal discrimination did not facilitate concurrent conditioning of the new stimulus, but there was a trend towards facilitation of contextual conditioning, measured by magazine entries in the absence of stimuli, that was confirmed in Experiment 2. These results suggest that the interference treatment may facilitate context conditioning under circumstances and with boundaries that are yet to be established.
PubDate: Fri, 19 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT
- The influence of television stories on narrative abilities in children
Abstract: This research explores the narrative abilities demonstrated by children aged between 8 and 12 in the production of television stories. The results reveal that not all television stories viewed by children foster the informal education process. One type of story, termed narrativizing, enables children to produce coherent stories which clearly articulate the causal, temporal and motivational relations, as well as the means-end structures, the proximal relations of the intrigue and the distal relations of the plot. Other television stories, denarrativizing stories, tend to induce disarrangements and incoherence at all structural levels of the stories produced by children. This in turn hampers the development of their narrative abilities, which are necessary to the correct development of narrative thought. These results indicate the need to exercise social control over this latter type of fictional television narrative, to which children are exposed throughout their development within the framework of informal education.
PubDate: Fri, 19 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT
- Recursive Partitioning Methods for Data Imputation in the Context of Item
Response Theory: A Monte Carlo Simulation
Abstract: Missing data is a common problem faced by psychometricians and measurement professionals. To address this issue, there are a number of techniques that have been proposed to handle missing data regarding Item Response Theory. These methods include several types of data imputation methods - corrected item mean substitution imputation, response function imputation, multiple imputation, and the EM algorithm, as well as approaches that do not rely on the imputation of missing values - treating the item as not presented, coding missing responses as incorrect, or as fractionally correct. Of these methods, even though multiple imputation has demonstrated the best performance in prior research, higher MAE was still present. Given this higher model parameter estimation MAE for even the best performing missing data methods, this simulation study’s goal was to explore the performance of a set of potentially promising data imputation methods based on recursive partitioning. Results of this study demonstrated that approaches that combine multivariate imputation by chained equations and recursive partitioning algorithms yield data with relatively low estimation MAE for both item difficulty and item discrimination. Implications of these findings are discussed.
PubDate: Fri, 19 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT
- Extinction of the initial within-compound association established in a
blocked preexposure to two compound flavours
Abstract: Extinction of the A↔X association after blocked preexposure to AX-BX was studied in two experiments. In Experiment 1, two groups of rats received long (14 trials) or short (4 trials) blocked preexposure to AX-BX and subsequent conditioning of X. The results showed that the AX association was equally preserved after long and short preexposure. Experiment 2 studied the effect of blocked preexposure to 0, 1 or 2 ruptures of the AX association on extinction. In this experiment a “rupture” is produced when, in subsequent blocks, one element of the original compound is presented in compound with a different element. A significant extinction was observed only when the AX association was broken twice
PubDate: Fri, 19 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT
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