Go with the flow: How to master a nonlinear multiple-cue judgment task.

The authors examined the cognitive processes that participants use in linear and nonlinear multiple-cue judgment tasks, hypothesizing that people are unable to use explicit cue abstraction in a nonlinear task, instead turning to exemplar memory. Experiment 1 confirmed that people are unable to use cue abstraction in nonlinear tasks but failed to confirm the hypothesized, spontaneous shift to exemplar memory. Instead, the participants appeared to be trapped in persistent and futile attempts to abstract the cue-criterion relations. Only after being instructed to rely on exemplar memory in Experiment 2 did they master the nonlinear task. The results suggest that adaptive shifts of representation need not occur spontaneously and that analytical thought may sometimes harm performance in nonlinear tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the role of causal intervention in multiple-cue judgment: Positive and negative effects on learning.

Previous studies have suggested better learning when people actively intervene rather than when they passively observe the stimuli in a judgment task. In 4 experiments, the authors investigated the hypothesis that this improvement is associated with a shift from exemplar memory to cue abstraction. In a multiple-cue judgment task with continuous cues, the data replicated the improvement with intervention and participants who experimented more actively produced more accurate judgments. In a multiple-cue judgment task with binary cues, intervention produced poorer accuracy and participants who experimented more actively produced poorer judgments. These results provide no support for a representational shift but suggest that the improvement with active intervention may be limited to certain tasks and environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do children profit from looking beyond looks? From similarity-based to cue abstraction processes in multiple-cue judgment.

The authors investigated the ability of 9- to 11-year-olds and of adults to use similarity-based and rule-based processes as a function of task characteristics in a task that can be considered either a categorization task or a multiple-cue judgment task, depending on the nature of the criterion (binary vs. continuous). Both children and adults relied on similarity-based processes in the categorization task. However, adults relied on cue abstraction in the multiple-cue judgment task, whereas the majority of children continued to rely on similarity-based processes. Reliance on cue abstraction resulted in better judgments for adults but not for children in the multiple-cue judgment task. This suggests that 9- to 11-year-olds may have defaulted to similarity-based processes because they were not able to employ a cue abstraction process efficiently. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Cognitive Substrate of Subjective Probability.

The prominent cognitive theories of probability judgment were primarily developed to explain cognitive biases rather than to account for the cognitive processes in probability judgment. In this article the authors compare 3 major theories of the processes and representations in probability judgment: the representativeness heuristic, implemented as prototype similarity, relative likelihood, or evidential support accumulation (ESAM; D. J. Koehler, C. M. White, & R. Grondin, 2003); cue-based relative frequency; and exemplar memory, implemented by probabilities from exemplars (PROBEX; P. Juslin & M. Persson, 2002). Three experiments with different task structures consistently demonstrate that exemplar memory is the best account of the data whereas the results are inconsistent with extant formulations of the representativeness heuristic and cue-based relative frequency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Wanted: A New Psychology of Exemplars.

Present-day exemplar theory faces difficult challenges, and important questions have arisen about the kinds of exemplar effects and processes that are empirically supported, and about the kind of exemplar theory that could still be constructive. One question concerns whether exemplar generalization in memory and categorization is broad and collective - extending to many related exemplars stored in memory - or whether it is focused and singular - extending only to highly similar (nearly identical) exemplars. The present article considers this continuum from broad to narrow generalization. I demonstrate that in prominent memory and category tasks - tasks in which exemplar theory predicts broad generalization - generalization i.s in psychological reality very tightly focused. These demonstrations could ground a new, productive exemplar theory that is true to psychological process as humans conduct themselves in memory and category tasks. This new psychology may actually reprise the traditional exemplar theory that predated our sophisticated, mathematical exemplar models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and Conditional Probability Judgments: A Global Matching Approach.

Age differences in bias in conditional probability judgments were investigated based on predictions derived from the Minerva-Decision Making model (M. R. P. Dougherty, C. F. Gettys, & E. E. Ogden, 1999), a global matching model of likelihood judgment. In this study, 248 younger and older adults completed frequency judgment and conditional probability judgment tasks. Age differences in the frequency judgment task are interpreted as an age-related deficit in memory encoding. Older adults' stronger biases in the probability judgment task point to age differences in criterion setting. Age-related biases were eliminated when age groups were equated on memory encoding by means of study time manipulation. The authors conclude that older adults' stronger judgment biases are a function of memory impairment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory storage and retrieval processes in category learning.

Studied the detailed course of learning for categorization tasks defined by independent or contingent probability distributions over the features of category exemplars in 2 experiments with 72 college-age Ss. Ss viewed sequences of bar charts that simulated symptom patterns and responded to each chart with a recognition and a categorization judgment. Fuzzy, probabilistically defined categories were learned relatively rapidly when individual features were correlated with category assignment, more slowly when only patterns carried category information. Limits of performance were suboptimal, evidently because of capacity limitations on judgmental processes as well as limitations on memory. Categorization proved systematically related to feature and exemplar probabilities, under different circumstances, and to similarity among exemplars of categories. Unique retrieval cues for exemplar patterns facilitated recognition but entered into categorization only at retention intervals within the range of short-term memory. Findings are interpreted within the framework of a general array model that yields both exemplar-similarity and feature-frequency models as special cases and provides quantitative accounts of the course of learning in each of the categorization tasks studied. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Insight and strategy in multiple-cue learning.

In multiple-cue learning (also known as probabilistic category learning) people acquire information about cue-outcome relations and combine these into predictions or judgments. Previous researchers claimed that people can achieve high levels of performance without explicit knowledge of the task structure or insight into their own judgment policies. It has also been argued that people use a variety of suboptimal strategies to solve such tasks. In three experiments the authors reexamined these conclusions by introducing novel measures of task knowledge and self-insight and using "rolling regression" methods to analyze individual learning. Participants successfully learned a four-cue probabilistic environment and showed accurate knowledge of both the task structure and their own judgment processes. Learning analyses suggested that the apparent use of suboptimal strategies emerges from the incremental tracking of statistical contingencies in the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Level-of-processing effects in conceptually driven implicit tasks.

Level of processing (LOP) has often been shown to affect performance on explicit memory tasks, but not on implicit memory tasks. These findings have been explained by the processing framework (H. J. Roediger et al, 1989): Study–test transfer depends on the overlap between the type of processing at study and at test. This framework predicts that conceptually driven implicit (CDI) memory tasks should be affected by an LOP manipulation because the study and test tasks share common conceptual processes. This prediction was investigated with 2 CDI tasks: general knowledge retrieval and category exemplar generation. LOP effects were found in both tasks, thus supporting the processing framework. Category exemplar priming declined rapidly over a 90-min interval, and elaborative study conditions enhanced the duration of priming relative to physical conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research on human judgment and its application to clinical practice.

Discusses what the author considers to be unsatisfactory performance levels typical on clinical judgment tasks. Two underlying causes are identified: (1) problematic judgment habits such as underuse of base rates, assessment of covariation, and confirmatory strategies; and (2) human cognitive limitations such as the capacity to use additional information and performance on multiple-cue tasks. It is suggested that problematic habits and judgment limitations may be of central relevance to longstanding puzzles and difficulties within psychology, which include low diagnostic reliability and validity, the comparative success of psychometric instruments and diagnostic strategies, problems in uncovering specific treatment effects, and the minimal gains accrued through experience. The application of judgment findings to diagnosis, treatment, and the interpretation of feedback is considered. Corrective measures that are likely to improve judgment accuracy are discussed, particularly testing for diagnostic signs, use of disconfirmatory strategies, and recognition of predictive uncertainty. (79 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between memory and judgment depends on whether the judgment task is memory-based or on-line.

Five alternative information processing models that relate memory for evidence to judgments based on the evidence are identified in the current social cognition literature: independent processing, availability, biased retrieval, biased encoding, and incongruity-biased encoding. A distinction between 2 types of judgment tasks, memory-based vs online, is introduced and is related to the 5 process models. In 3 experiments, using memory-based tasks where the availability model described Ss' thinking, direct correlations between memory and judgment measures were obtained. In a 4th experiment, using online tasks where any of the remaining 4 process models may apply, prediction of the memory–judgment relationship was equivocal but usually followed the independence model prediction of zero correlation. It is concluded that memory and judgment will be directly related when the judgment was based directly on the retrieval of evidence information in memory-based judgment tasks. (61 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exemplar-based model of social judgment.

As an alternative to algebraic and schematic models of social judgment, a new exemplar-based model holds that representations of specific individuals influence judgments about persons and groups. (1) As the perceiver encounters or thinks about an individual, a representation of that exemplar as interpreted by the perceiver is stored in memory. (2) When a target person is encountered later, known attributes of similar exemplars from memory influence judgments about the target. Similarity is modulated by the perceiver's attention to stimulus dimensions. (3) Social and motivational factors, including perceiver self-schemata, social context, and in-group/out-group dynamics, influence social judgment by affecting perceivers' attention to dimensions. Computer simulations show how the model accounts for social influences on exemplar access and use, and therefore, on the content of social judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cue abstraction and exemplar memory in categorization.

In this article, the authors compare 3 generic models of the cognitive processes in a categorization task. The cue abstraction model implies abstraction in training of explicit cue-criterion relations that are mentally integrated to form a judgment, the lexicographic heuristic uses only the most valid cue, and the exemplar-based model relies on retrieval of exemplars. The results from 2 experiments showed that, in lieu of the lexicographic heuristic, most participants spontaneously integrate cues. In contrast to single-system views, exemplar memory appeared to dominate when the feedback was poor, but when the feedback was rich enough to allow the participants to discern the task structure, it was exploited for abstraction of explicit cue-criterion relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Erroneous knowledge of results affects decision and memory processes on timing tasks.

On mental timing tasks, erroneous knowledge of results (KR) leads to incorrect performance accompanied by the subjective judgment of accurate performance. Using the start-stop technique (an analogue of the peak interval procedure) with both reproduction and production timing tasks, the authors analyze what processes erroneous KR alters. KR provides guidance (performance error information) that lowers decision thresholds. Erroneous KR also provides targeting information that alters response durations proportionately to the magnitude of the feedback error. On the production task, this shift results from changes in the reference memory, whereas on the reproduction task this shift results from changes in the decision threshold for responding. The idea that erroneous KR can alter different cognitive processes on related tasks is supported by the authors' demonstration that the learned strategies can transfer from the reproduction task to the production task but not visa versa. Thus effects of KR are both task and context dependent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Direct and indirect tests of memory for category exemplars in young and older adults.

Young and older adults were compared on direct (cued recall) and indirect (exemplar generation) tests of memory for category members. Because category names served as cues in both tasks, amount of retrieval support was constant across tasks. Although older adults produced fewer category members in cued recall, priming of category exemplars in the generation task did not vary with age. These results suggest that age constancy in priming tasks does not depend on physical similarity between study materials and retrieval cues provided at test and point to the importance of deliberate recollection as a factor in determining the extent of age differences in memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coordinating information from perception and working memory.

Individuals must often coordinate information in working memory with information from perception. The demands of coordination have been analyzed in terms of the cost to switch attention. Coordination is considered in terms of the organization of control processes. Ss in 4 experiments performed list-processing tasks that sometimes required alternation between sets of items that were held in working memory or were currently displayed. Exp 1 demonstrated that performance was slower and more error-prone when alternating between sets than when reporting a single set. On alternation tasks, latency varied with serial position, indicating that Ss paused between pairs of responses. In Exp 2, this serial position function was observed for tasks requiring alternation between sets of information in the same modality (memory or perception). Exps 3 and 4 demonstrate that this effect depends on the requirement to generate a new sequence of responses. A model of control processes for coordination is developed and tested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age Differences in Implicit Memory: Conceptual, Perceptual, or Methodological?

The authors examined age differences in conceptual and perceptual implicit memory via word-fragment completion, word-stem completion, category exemplar generation, picture-fragment identification, and picture naming. Young, middle-aged, and older participants (N=60) named pictures and words at study. Limited test exposure minimized explicit memory contamination, yielding no reliable age differences and equivalent cross-format effects. In contrast, explicit memory and neuropsychological measures produced significant age differences. In a follow-up experiment, 24 young adults were informed a priori about implicit testing. Their priming was equivalent to the main experiment, showing that test trial time restrictions limit explicit memory strategies. The authors concluded that most implicit memory processes remain stable across adulthood and suggest that explicit contamination be rigorously monitored in aging studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory and aging: The role of retrieval processes.

A review of the literature demonstrates that production deficiency hypotheses are unable to account fully for the fact that older adults perform more poorly on memory tasks than young adults. The possibility is explored that age-related differences are due to changes in fundamental processes involved in retrieval of information from memory, namely, (a) utilization of contextual information and (b) activation processes occurring in semantic memory. Automatic as well as intentional processes are examined. (5? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in working memory: Introduction to the special section.

This special section includes a set of 5 articles that examine the nature of inter- and intraindividual differences in working memory, using working memory span tasks as the main research tools. These span tasks are different from traditional short-term memory spans (e.g., digit or word span) in that they require participants to maintain some target memory items (e.g., words) while simultaneously performing some other tasks (e.g., reading sentences). In this introduction, a brief discussion of these working memory span tasks and their characteristics is provided first. This is followed by an overview of 2 major theoretic issues that are addressed by the subsequent articles—(a) the factors influencing the inter- and intraindividual differences in working memory performance and (b) the domain generality versus domain specificity of working memory—and also of some important issues that must be kept in mind when readers try to evaluate the claims regarding these 2 theoretical issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Binding of multidimensional context information as a distinctive characteristic of remember judgments.

This research investigated the cognitive processes underlying remember-know judgments in terms of contextual binding in multidimensional source memory. Stochastic dependence between the retrieval of different context attributes, which formed the empirical criterion of binding, was observed for remembered items but not for known items. Experiment 1 showed that the qualitative difference in the stochastic relation holds even if quantitative source-memory performance is equated for items with remember and know judgments. Experiment 2 generalized the findings to context information from different modalities, and Experiment 3 ruled out a spurious stochastic dependence due to interindividual differences. Supporting recent dual-process models of remember-know judgments, the findings show that remember and know judgments differ with respect to binding processes that correspond to episodic recollection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)