Signal detection theory and generalized linear models.

Generalized linear models are a general class of regressionlike models for continuous and categorical response variables. Signal detection models can be formulated as a subclass of generalized linear models, and the result is a rich class of signal detection models based on different underlying distributions. An example is a signal detection model based on the extreme value distribution. The extreme value model is shown to yield unit slope receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for several classic data sets that are commonly given as examples of normal or logistic ROC curves with slopes that differ from unity. The result is an additive model with a simple interpretation in terms of a shift in the location of an underlying distribution. The models can also be extended in several ways, such as to recognize response dependencies, to include random coefficients, or to allow for more general underlying probability distributions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Primed numbers: Exploring the modularity of numerical representations with masked and unmasked semantic priming.

In Experiment 1, participants classified a 1st number (prime) as smaller or larger than 5 and then performed the same task again on a 2nd number (target). In Experiment 2, participants classified a target number as smaller or larger than 5, while unknown to them a masked number was displayed for 66 ms prior to the target. Primes and targets appeared in Arabic notation, in verbal notation, or as random dot patterns. Two forms of priming were analyzed: quantity priming (a decrease in response times with the numerical distance between prime and target) and response priming (faster responses when the prime and target were on the same side of 5 than when they were not). Response priming transferred across notations, whereas quantity priming generally did not. Under conditions of speeded processing, the internal representation of numerical quantities seems to dissociate into multiple notation-specific subsystems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New limits to automaticity: Context modulates semantic priming.

It is widely assumed that semantic priming in visual word recognition is automatic when the task requires word-level analysis. The present experiments show that this conclusion is too strong. Whether brief-duration primes facilitated the processing of related targets in lexical decision depended on the context in which the primes were seen. Semantic priming occurred if Ss saw only brief primes (blocked condition) but was minimal if longer primes were presented as well (mixed condition). Converging operations indicate that this modulation of semantic priming reflects operations beyond the lexical level rather than early encoding deficits. Rather than being automatic, semantic priming depends on the context in which a word is read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment theory and intergroup bias: Evidence that priming the secure base schema attenuates negative reactions to out-groups.

Five studies examined the effects of priming the secure base schema on intergroup bias. In addition, Studies 1–2 examined the effects of dispositional attachment style, Studies 2–5 examined a mood interpretation, Study 3 examined the mediating role of threat appraisal, and Studies 4–5 examined the effects of secure base priming while inducing a threat to self-esteem or cultural worldview. Secure base priming led to less negative evaluative reactions toward out-groups than positive affect and neutral control conditions. In addition, whereas the effects of secure base priming did not depend on attachment style and were not explained by mood induction, they were mediated by threat appraisal and occurred even when self-esteem or cultural worldview was threatened. The discussion emphasizes the relevance of attachment theory for understanding intergroup attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Signal detection theory: Considerations for general application.

Notes that while there exist a number of papers describing the theory of signal detection, it appears that many psychologists are not aware of the ease with which signal detection theory can be applied, the range of applications possible, or the limitations of signal detection theory. This paper briefly summarizes the assumptions of signal detection theory and describes the procedures, the limitations, and practical considerations relevant to its application. A worked example of an application of signal detection theory to the study of cognitive processes is included. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Processing phonological and semantic ambiguity: Evidence from semantic priming at different SOAs.

Disambiguation of heterophonic and homophonic homographs was investigated in Hebrew using semantic priming. Ambiguous primes were followed by unambiguous targets at 100 msec, 250 msec, and 750 msec stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). Lexical decision for targets related to the dominant phonological alternatives of heterophonic homographs was facilitated at all SOAs. Targets related to subordinate alternatives were facilitated only at SOAs of 250 msec or longer. When the primes were homophonic homographs, semantic relationship facilitated lexical decision to targets at all SOAs regardless of the dominance of the meaning to which the targets were related. These data can be accounted for by assuming multiple lexical entries for heterophonic homographs, single lexical entries for homophonic homographs, and phonological mediation of accessing meanings. Language-specific factors probably account for the long-lasting activation of subordinate meanings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repetition of semantic comparisons: Temporary and persistent priming effects.

Two experiments tested the involvement of both abstract semantic memory representations and instance-specific memory for feature encoding in repetition effects for a semantic processing task. Experiment 1 showed that a relatively small amount of facilitation (10%–25%) was attributable to memory for instance-specific features (typography) of repeated trials. Although small, this effect showed no decay over repetition lags investigated, suggesting persistent memory for encoded features or encoding processes. Experiment 2 showed that facilitation for semantically related repetitions was short-lived compared with facilitation for lexically exact repetitions. This suggested that priming of abstract semantic memory may be involved in temporary but not persistent repetition effects. Individual differences analyses supported the conclusion that despite the increased semantic complexity of this repetition priming task over those previously used, abstract semantic memory representations were not involved in persistent repetition effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term semantic priming: A computational account and empirical evidence.

Semantic priming is traditionally viewed as an effect that rapidly decays. A new view of long-term word priming in attractor neural networks is proposed. The model predicts long-term semantic priming under certain conditions. That is, the task must engage semantic-level processing to a sufficient degree. The predictions were confirmed in computer simulations and in 3 experiments. Experiment 1 showed that when target words are each preceded by multiple semantically related primes, there is long-lag priming on a semantic decision task but not on a lexical-decision task. Experiment 2 replicated the long-term semantic priming effect for semantic decisions with only one prime per target. Experiment 3 demonstrated semantic priming with much longer word lists at lags of 0, 4, and 8 items. These are the first experiments to demonstrate a semantic priming effect spanning many intervening items and lasting much longer than a few seconds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electrophysiological responses to evaluative priming: The LPP is sensitive to incongruity.

Previous studies examining event-related potentials and evaluative priming have been mixed; some find evidence that evaluative priming influences the N400, whereas others find evidence that it affects the late positive potential (LPP). Three experiments were conducted using either affective pictures (Experiments 1 and 2) or words (Experiment 3) in a sequential evaluative priming paradigm. In line with previous behavioral findings, participants responded slower to targets that were evaluatively incongruent with the preceding prime (e.g., negative preceded by positive) compared to evaluatively congruent targets (e.g., negative preceded by negative). In all three studies, the LPP was larger to evaluatively incongruent targets compared to evaluatively congruent ones, and there was no evidence that evaluative incongruity influenced the N400 component. Thus, the present results provide additional support for the notion that evaluative priming influences the LPP and not the N400. We discuss possible reasons for the inconsistent findings in prior research and the theoretical implications of the findings for both evaluative and semantic priming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Constraints on the additive relationship between semantic priming and word repetition and on the interactive relationship between semantic priming and stimulus clarity.

Describes 2 experiments that manipulated priming condition, repetition, and stimulus clarity. Exp 1 with 87 undergraduates confirmed the additive relationship between semantic priming and word repetition when the time between repetitions was relatively long. Exp 2 with 82 undergraduates limited the number of intervening trials between repetitions (0, 1, 3, 7 trials). Results are interpreted as support for the position that there are 3 components to the repetition effect: sensory, lexical, and episodic. Degradation increased the repetition effect in both experiments without affecting the semantic priming effect. This was interpreted to mean that degradation had its effect late in the information processing sequence. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response bias: Characteristics of detection theory, threshold theory, and "nonparametric" indexes.

Models of discrimination based on statistical decision theory distinguish sensitivity (the ability of an observer to reflect a stimulus–response correspondence defined by the experimenter) from response bias (the tendency to favor 1 response over others). Measures of response bias have received less attention than those of sensitivity. Bias measures are classified here according to 2 characteristics. First, the distributions assumed or implied to underlie the observer's decision may be normal, logistic, or rectangular. Second, the bias index may measure criterion location, criterion location relative to sensitivity, or likelihood ratio. Both parametric and "nonparametric" indexes are classified in this manner. The various bias statistics are compared on pragmatic and theoretical grounds, and it is concluded that criterion measures have many advantages in empirical work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attentional control and the relatedness proportion effect in semantic priming.

In 2 experiments, participants completed both an attentional control battery (OSPAN, antisaccade, and Stroop tasks) and a modified semantic priming task. The priming task measured relatedness proportion (RP) effects within subjects, with the color of the prime indicating the probability that the to-be-named target would be related. In Experiment 2, participants were cued before each trial with the probability of a related target. Stimulus onset asynchronies traditionally thought to tap automatic processing (267 ms) versus controlled processing (1,240 ms) were used. Across experiments, principal component analysis on the battery revealed a general attentional control component. Moreover, the RP effect increased linearly with attentional control in both experiments. It is concluded that RP effects produced in this paradigm depend purely upon the effortful process of expectancy generation, which renders them sensitive to individual differences in attentional control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Nature of priming effects in semantic matching": Correction to Whitlow.

Reports an error in "Nature of priming effects in semantic matching" by J. W. Whitlow (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1986[Jul], Vol 12[3], 353-360). The Appendix table was constructed incorrectly. The correct table appears in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1986-29114-001.) Studied priming effects in a semantic matching task that distinguished visually based matching processes from nominally and semantically based matching processes, using 24 undergraduates. Ss judged semantic matches for 3 types of word pairs: identical (e.g., robin-robin), same category (e.g., robin-sparrow), and different category (e.g., robin-truck). Visual matching was isolated by comparing performance between physical identity (e.g., robin-robin) and nominal identity (e.g., robin-ROBIN) pairs. Physical identity pairs, which allowed visually based matching, exhibited an interaction between priming and the typicality of category exemplars that was absent in nominal identity and same-category pairs. Priming had no effect on nominal identity pairs. For same-category pairs, which required semantically based matching, priming produced facilitation at all levels of typicality. The results bring the semantic matching paradigm into agreement with other procedures that show that priming facilitates processing for all related targets. Categories and exemplars used as stimulus materials are appended. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental alcoholism and the effects of alcohol on mediated semantic priming.

In this study, researchers tested the effects of a moderate dose of alcohol on the spread of activation of associated information in memory using a mediated semantic priming task in which target words are preceded by primes that are either unrelated or indirectly related to the target. Male and female participants with or without a parental history (PH+ and PH-, respectively) of alcoholism were administered the priming task after consuming alcohol or a placebo beverage. Among PH- individuals, alcohol constrained the spread of activation of associated information, as manifested by a reduced priming effect. In contrast, alcohol enhanced priming effects among PH+ participants, though this latter effect appears to be due to a particularly slow response among these individuals to unprimed words. Results are discussed with regard to theories of alcohol's effects on cognitive processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Signal detection theory with finite mixture distributions: Theoretical developments with applications to recognition memory.

An extension of signal detection theory (SDT) that incorporates mixtures of the underlying distributions is presented. The mixtures can be motivated by the idea that a presentation of a signal shifts the location of an underlying distribution only if the observer is attending to the signal; otherwise, the distribution is not shifted or is only partially shifted. Thus, trials with a signal presentation consist of a mixture of 2 (or more) latent classes of trials. Mixture SDT provides a general theoretical framework that offers a new perspective on a number of findings. For example, mixture SDT offers an alternative to the unequal variance signal detection model; it can also account for nonlinear normal receiver operating characteristic curves, as found in recent research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial and semantic priming effects in tests of spatial knowledge.

In eight experiments we investigated spatial and semantic priming effects. In Experiments 1 and 2, subjects made judgments about the locations of buildings on their campus and locations of states in the United States. We found that location judgments were faster when preceded by judgments about geographically near locations than by judgments about relatively far locations. In Experiments 3a, 3b, and 3c, subjects judged words as names of states of the United States or as nonstate words. No spatial priming effect was found in any experiment, nor was a priming effect found for nonstate words preceded by semantically related words. Experiment 4 compared spatial priming in a state–nonstate classification with a state-plus-location classification task. Spatial priming was found in the latter but not the former. These results are interpreted with an account that treats spatial and nonspatial knowledge as separate structures. Using the nonstate words of Experiment 3c, Experiments 5a and 5b together demonstrated semantic priming in a lexical decision task. The semantic priming results are interpreted with a postlexical checking-strategy account of semantic priming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic semantic priming: Effect of category exemplar level and word association level.

Evaluated semantic priming when the prime was masked below naming threshold and the target was named in 4 experiments with 263 undergraduates. Exp I showed that when word primes were masked and word targets were named, prior knowledge of the related pairs did not alter semantic priming. Semantic priming within categories occurred only when the prime stimulus was the 1st category exemplar. Findings of Exp II indicate that when masked pictures were used as primes, semantic priming for word targets was sensitive to the category exemplar level of the prime but not to the category exemplar level of the target. Word association norms collected in Exp III did not support the hypothesis that the effect of category exemplar level was mediated by the strength of word association. Exp IV revealed significant semantic priming for masked picture primes and within-category word targets, regardless of the level of word association between prime and target. Exp IV also demonstrated semantic priming for high word association targets that were not members of the same semantic category. For all experiments, Ss with the longest average reaction times (RTs) also showed the largest semantic priming effect for naming word targets. It is suggested that viewing one of the highest ranking category exemplars activates the memory representation of the category, perhaps because such prototypic exemplars are contained within the category concept itself. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of extraversion and self-report arousal on semantic priming: A connectionist approach.

Simulation and experimental data were used to test the hypothesis that extraversion and self-report arousal affect the spread of activation in a connectionist semantic network, assessed by priming of lexical decision. A simulation of network activation processes showed that individual differences in different network parameters predict different patterns of observable individual differences in response time. Two experiments using undergraduate Ss showed that extraversion and arousal interactively affect priming magnitude, irrespective of the time lag between prime and target word and of prime stimulus quality. The simulation data suggest that the personality effects obtained experimentally may be governed by a specific network parameter: individual differences in the level of random noise. Connectionist models may provide a general framework for explaining arousal-dependent effects of extraversion on cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)