Unpriming: The Deactivation of Thoughts Through Expression.

Unpriming is a decrease in the influence of primed knowledge following a behavior expressing that knowledge. The authors investigated strategies for unpriming the knowledge of an answer that is activated when people are asked to consider a simple question. Experiment 1 found that prior correct answering eliminated the bias people normally show toward correct responding when asked to answer yes-no questions randomly. Experiment 2 revealed that prior answering intended to be random did not unprime knowledge on subsequent attempts to answer randomly. Experiment 3 found that exposure to the correct answer did not influence the knowledge bias but that exposure to the incorrect answer increased bias. Experiment 4 revealed that merely expressing the answer for oneself was sufficient to unprime knowledge. Experiment 5 found that each item of activated knowledge needs to be unprimed specifically, in that correctly answering 1 question does not reduce the knowledge bias in randomly answering another. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strategic regulation of grain size memory reporting.

To increase their report accuracy, rememberers may either withhold information that they feel unsure about or provide relatively coarse information that is unlikely to be wrong. In previous work (A. Koriat & A Goldsmith, 1996c), the authors delineated the metacognitive monitoring and control processes underlying the decision to volunteer or withhold particular items of information (report option) and examined how these processes are used in the strategic regulation of memory accuracy. This article adapts that framework to address control over the grain size (precision- coarseness) of the information that people report. Results show that rememberers strategically regulate the grain of their answers to accommodate the competing goals of accuracy and informativeness. The metacognitive processes underlying this regulation are elucidated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eyewitness recall: Regulation of grain size and the role of confidence.

Eyewitness testimony plays a critical role in Western legal systems. Three experiments extended M. Goldsmith, A. Koriat, and A. Weinberg-Eliezer's (2002) framework of the regulation of grain size (precision vs. coarseness) of memory reports to eyewitness memory. In 2 experiments, the grain size of responses had a large impact on memory accuracy. Further, participants achieved a compromise between the accuracy and informativeness of their testimony by volunteering precise answers only when likely to be correct. The level of detail reported was strongly, positively related to confidence in the accuracy of the response. This highlights the importance of considering the level of detail, not just the accuracy, of eyewitness testimony. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasoning the fast and frugal way: Models of bounded rationality.

Humans and animals make inferences about the world under limited time and knowledge. In contrast, many models of rational inference treat the mind as a Laplacean Demon, equipped with unlimited time, knowledge, and computational might. Following H. Simon's notion of satisficing, the authors have proposed a family of algorithms based on a simple psychological mechanism: one-reason decision making. These fast and frugal algorithms violate fundamental tenets of classical rationality: They neither look up nor integrate all information. By computer simulation, the authors held a competition between the satisficing "Take The Best" algorithm and various "rational" inference procedures (e.g., multiple regression). The Take The Best algorithm matched or outperformed all competitors in inferential speed and accuracy. This result is an existence proof that cognitive mechanisms capable of successful performance in the real world do not need to satisfy the classical norms of rational inference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analyzing the factors underlying the structure and computation of the meaning of chipmunk, cherry, chisel, cheese, and cello (and many other such concrete nouns).

Seven trends regarding the categories that tend to be impaired/preserved in category-specific semantic deficits were identified. The authors hypothesized that these trends arise despite the multiple sources of variation in patient testing because numerous factors that structure semantic memory probabilistically converge to make some categories of knowledge more susceptible to damage than others. Analysis of semantic feature norms and corpus data for 541 concepts revealed that differences in the distribution of knowledge types across categories are sufficient to explain 6 of the trends and are necessary to explain loss of knowledge about nonliving things. Feature informativeness, concept confusability, visual complexity, familiarity, and name frequency contributed to this patterning and provide insight into why knowledge about living things is most often impaired. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impaired priming on the general knowledge task in amnesia.

The status of priming on the general knowledge test was examined in amnesia. Twenty amnesic and 20 control participants studied words (e.g., CHEETAH) under semantic and nonsemantic encoding conditions and attempted to answer general knowledge questions (e.g., "What is the fastest animal on earth"?) under implicit and explicit retrieval instructions. The measure of memory was how many more test questions participants answered correctly using studied than nonstudied words. Amnesic patients showed impaired memory under implicit and explicit retrieval instructions. Control participants showed equal memory under implicit and explicit retrieval instructions, a result indicating that they engaged in explicit retrieval in both instruction conditions. General-knowledge priming appears to involve explicit retrieval that depends on medial-temporal and diencephalic regions damaged in amnesia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Graininess of judgment under uncertainty: An accuracy-informativeness trade-off.

This work concerns judgmental estimation of quantities under uncertainty. The authors suggest that the "graininess" or precision of uncertain judgments involves a trade-off between 2 competing objectives: accuracy and informativeness. Coarse (imprecise) judgments are less informative than finely grained judgments; however, they are likely to be more accurate. This trade-off was examined in 3 studies in which participants ranked judgmental estimates in order of preference. The patterns of preference ranking for judgments support an additive trade-off model of accuracy and informativeness. The authors suggest that this trade-off also characterizes other types of uncertain judgments, such as prediction, categorization, and diagnosis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Storage and retrieval of associative clusters: A stages-of-learning analysis of associative memory traces.

In this research, the assumptions underlying the unitary trace theory of item representation and acquisition were tested in two cued-recall experiments in which the degree of preexperimental knowledge (typicality) was manipulated. Subjects learned lists of word triads (each of which consisted of a single cue and two targets) to a stringent acquisition criterion. In Experiment 1, typicality was manipulated in the absence of semantic relationships between members of the associative clusters. In Experiment 2, semantic relationships were present among cluster members, and preexperimental knowledge was manipulated by varying the degree of intracluster category membership as measured by whether cue and target items were typical or atypical category exemplars. In both experiments a mathematical model that embodies stages-of-learning distinctions was used to analyze the acquisition data. The results indicated that (1) cues and targets were represented in a single holistic memory trace, and (2) the manipulation of the degree of preexperimental knowledge affected both trace storage and retrieval learning, but had only a minimal impact on retrieval performance between the time a trace was stored and the time retrieval learning was complete. It was argued that these findings are consistent with a single unitary trace interpretation, namely, the modified storage-retrieval model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"A core knowledge architecture of visual working memory": Correction to Wood (2011).

Reports an error in "A core knowledge architecture of visual working memory" by Justin N. Wood (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2011[Apr], Vol 37[2], 357-381). The supplemental materials DOI is incorrect. The correct DOI for the supplemental materials is provided in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2011-06411-002.) Visual working memory (VWM) is widely thought to contain specialized buffers for retaining spatial and object information: a 'spatial-object architecture.' However, studies of adults, infants, and nonhuman animals show that visual cognition builds on core knowledge systems that retain more specialized representations: (1) spatiotemporal representations for object tracking, (2) object identity representations for object recognition, and (3) view-dependent snapshots for place recognition. In principle, these core knowledge systems may retain information separately from one another. Consistent with this hypothesis, this study provides evidence that these three types of information are subject to independent working memory storage limits. These results, combined with those from previous studies, indicate that VWM contains three specialized buffers for retaining spatiotemporal information, object identity information, and snapshot information. Thus, VWM buffers parallel core knowledge systems. This 'core knowledge architecture' links the study of visual working memory to the study of the biological foundations of visual cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applicability of bond percolation theory to intergranular stress-corrosion cracking of sensitized AlSl 304 stainless steel

A model system (isothermally sensitized 304 stainless steel in the SL-EPR test environment) was examined in order to assess the significance of the percentage of active grain boundaries on intergranular stress-corrosion cracking (IGSCC) susceptibility. The relationship between the primary passivation potential and Cr concentration was exploited in order (1) to determine the population distributions of grain boundary minimum Cr contents and (2) to subsequently control the quantity of active grain boundaries in a constant extension rate (CER) test. A significant decrease in resistance to IGSCC was observed when greater than 23 pct of the grain boundaries were active during the CER test, regardless of the distribution of Cr-depletion levels among the individual grain boundaries. Such an abrupt decrease in IGSCC resistance at greater than 23 pct active grain boundaries has been interpreted within the context of bond percolation theory. This critical value corresponds to a one-dimensional bond percolation threshold for a three-dimensional array of tetrakaidecahedra and confirms the results of Wells and co-workers. The implications of a possible threshold in the case of IGSCC in sensitized 304 stainless steel (304SS) exposed to oxygenated water at 288 °C are examined. Here it is believed that the 23 pct criterion is a necessary but not sufficient criterion for IGSCC. Other considerations are discussed.     

Relative versus absolute measures of explicit attitudes: Implications for predicting diverse attitude-relevant criteria.

The authors report 4 studies exploring a self-report strategy for measuring explicit attitudes that uses "relative" ratings, in which respondents indicate how favorable or unfavorable they are compared with other people. Results consistently showed that attitudes measured with relative scales predicted relevant criterion variables (self-report of behavior, measures of knowledge, peer ratings of attitudes, peer ratings of behavior) better than did attitudes measured with more traditional "absolute" scales. The obtained pattern of differences in prediction by relative versus absolute measures of attitudes did not appear to be attributable to differential variability, social desirability effects, the clarity of scale-point meanings, the number of scale points, or overlap with subjective norms. The final study indicated that relative measures induce respondents to consider social comparison information and behavioral information when making their responses more than do absolute measures, which may explain the higher correlations between relative measures of attitudes and relevant criteria. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response Reversals in Recognition Memory.

Using a dynamic sequential sampling model and a recently proposed model for confidence judgments in recognition memory (T. Van Zandt, 2000b), the authors examine the tendency for rememberers to reverse their responses after a primary decision. In 4 experiments, speeded "old"-"new" decisions were made under bias followed by a 2nd response', either a confidence judgment or another simple choice. The data from these experiments showed that participants know when they have made a mistake and that they respond to this knowledge by reversing their responses. Response reversals are thus shown to be important for constructing models of the response-selection process in recognition memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual search and selection of natural stimuli in the pigeon: The attention threshold hypothesis.

During visual search for samples of varying proportions of familiar, natural food grains displayed against a complex gravel background, 3 Silver King pigeons exhibited "matching selection," a tendency to overselect the more common grain. The matching-selection effect was decreased at low levels of stimulus/background contrast and reversed when the grains were highly conspicuous. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that stimulus detectability should be enhanced by recent experience with a particular grain type, but they showed no convincing indications of a corresponding effect on the response criterion. An explanatory model, the attention threshold hypothesis, argues that the mean latency of discovery can be minimized by selectively attending to 1 stimulus type at a time and switching to a more generally receptive state when the rate of discovery falls below a threshold value. The model appears to account for the fact that the response rate was highest toward samples containing a single grain type and decreased as the relative proportions approached equality. Evidence suggests that the switching threshold might be chosen so as to optimize the rate of food discovery. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determination of spatial grain size with the area-weighted grain area distribution of the planar sections in polycrystalline materials

The electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD) technique has made it quite easy to obtain the grain area distribution in a planar section of the polycrystalline materials. Usually, area-weighted grain area and number-weighted grain area show completely different distribution profiles. Instead of the nominal average grain size calculated from the grain area distribution results, the spatial grain size and its distribution character reflect the real features of the materials and those parameters are expected through a simple measurement on the planar sections. In the present work, the section area distribution model of a randomly sliced truncated octahedron is used to relate the lognormally distributed spatial grain size to the area-weighted grain size distribution features. Based on the truncated octahedron grain shape model, area-weighted grain area distribution is derived by convoluting the lognormal distribution of the area of the section with the maximum section area (SMSA) in each grain and the area-weighted section area distribution of the sliced truncated octahedron. It is found that area-weighted grain area distribution on a planar section shows also the lognormal distribution character when the spatial grain size has the lognormal distribution character. Meanwhile, the variance parameter, τ(ins), and the mean value of grain area, , obtained by fitting the area-weighted grain area distribution, have also been related to the lognormal distribution characters of the spatial grain size, i.e., A and . The simulation results are then experimentally checked on a polygonal grain structure of hot-rolled low-carbon steel by applying the point-sampling method to obtain the spatial grain size distribution features.     

Conflict and criterion setting in recognition memory.

Recognition memory requires both retrieval processes and control processes such as criterion setting. Decision criteria were manipulated by offering different payoffs for correct "old" versus "new" responses. Criterion setting influenced the following late-occurring (1,000+ ms), conflict-sensitive event-related brain potential (ERP) components: the stimulus-locked late posterior negativity (LPN) and the response-locked error-related negativity (ERN). The LPN-ERN were most negative to hits under conservative payoff conditions involving conflict between the correct old response and the payoff for new responses. This same conservative-hit condition was most frequently associated with response reversals when fast initial judgments were followed by slower judgments. Postresponse ERP activity may index conflict-sensitive processes underlying postretrieval cognitive control mechanisms involved with assessing responses to current items and updating response criteria on later trials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Knowledge of results and signal rate in monitoring: A transfer of training approach.

This study investigated the transfer effects of training with 3 signal rates and 3 levels of knowledge of results (KR) in a visual monitoring task. Each S monitored for 48 min. under 1 of 9 signal rate-KR conditions on Day 1. On Day 2 all Ss monitored under the medial signal rate with no KR. Results show: (a) on Day 1 mean probability of detection increased with signal rate and amount of KR, (b) these differences persisted on Day 2 when KR was withdrawn, and (c) commissive errors were higher with partial KR than with either full KR or none. It is concluded that training a monitor with KR and high signal rates may improve performance when he must monitor with low signal rates and no feedback. (28 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Glucocorticoid receptors in bronchial epithelial cells in asthma

The present study examined two contrasting multilevel model structures to describe the developmental (longitudinal) changes in strength and aerobic power in children: 1) an additive polynomial structure and 2) a multiplicative structure with allometric body size components. On the basis of the maximum log-likelihood criterion, the multiplicative "allometric" model was shown to be superior to the additive polynomial model when fitted to the data from two published longitudinal studies and to provide more plausible solutions within and beyond the range of observations. The multilevel regression analysis of study 1 confirmed that aerobic power develops approximately in proportion to body mass, m1/3. The analyses from study 2 identified a significant increase in quadriceps and biceps strength, in proportion to body size, plus an additional contribution from age, centered at about peak height velocity (PHV). The positive "age" term for boys suggested that at PHV the boys were becoming stronger in the quadriceps and biceps in relation to their body size. In contrast, the girls' age term was either negligible (quadriceps) or negative (biceps), indicating that at PHV the girls' strength was developing in proportion to or, in the case of the biceps, was becoming weaker in relation to their body size.     

Coherence formation when learning from text and pictures: What kind of support for whom?

This study examined how 2 kinds of help when learning from text and pictures (mapping support and instructional guidance through prompts) influence the coherence formation process of integrating information into a mental model. It also explored spatial abilities and working memory span as potential moderators. In a computer-based setting, 84 university students learned botanical concepts under 1 of 4 different support conditions: mapping (numerical labels vs. highlighting) and prompting (given vs. not given). Posttests assessed cognitive load, confidence in learning, and knowledge. Results showed a complex interplay between the 2 kinds of help and an effect of metacognitive monitoring. Moreover, spatial abilities moderated the effects of help. Our results indicate the need to complement resource-oriented instructional design models with a conceptualization of the cognitive and metacognitive processes involved in successful learning. The notion of hybrid conceptual knowledge is proposed as a theoretical approach to understanding coherence formation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)