Social combination processes and individual learning for six-person cooperative groups on an intellective task.

Tested a hypothesized truth-supported wins process, in which 2 correct group members are necessary and sufficient for a correct group response. 318 undergraduates first individually responded to 30 verbal analogies and then, in assigned 6-person cooperative groups or as control individuals, completed the test again. All Ss individually responded to the test a 3rd time. Both a model-fitting and a model-testing approach indicated the hypothesized truth-supported wins social combination process. Groups performed considerably better than individuals on the 2nd test. There was also considerable evidence of individual learning during the group interaction as indicated by a correct 3rd-test individual response for members of correct groups who had initially been incorrect as individuals. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Errors committed with high confidence are hypercorrected.

The relation between people's confidence in the accuracy of an erroneous response and their later performance was investigated. Most models of human memory suggest that the higher a person's confidence, the stronger the item (in the context of the eliciting cue) that is retrieved from memory. In recall, stronger associates to a cue interfere with competing associates more than do weaker associates. This state of affairs implies that errors endorsed with high, rather than low, confidence should be more difficult to correct by learning the correct response feedback. In contrast to the authors' expectations, highly confident errors were the most likely to be corrected in a subsequent retest. Participants nearly always endorsed the correct response in cases in which both the correct response and the original erroneous response were generated at retest, suggesting that people possess a refined metacognitive ability to know what is correct and incorrect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A psychophysiological investigation of the continuous flow model of human information processing.

12 male college students responded to target letters H or S by squeezing dynamometers with the left and right hand. Targets could be surrounded by compatible (e.g., HHHHH) or incompatible noise (SSHSS) letters. Measures of the P300 component of the event-related brain potential and of correct and incorrect electromyographic (EMG) and squeeze activity were used to study stimulus evaluation and response-related processes. When incorrect squeeze activity was present, execution of the correct response was prolonged, indicating a process of response competition. This process occurred more often under incompatible noise conditions, which were also associated with a delayed P300. Thus, the noise/compatability manipulation influenced both stimulus evaluation and response competition processes. In contrast, a warning tone that preceded array presentation on half the trials increased response speed without influencing evaluation time. Data suggest that the latency and accuracy of overt behavioral responses are a function of (a) a response activation process controlled by an evaluation process that accumulates evidence gradually, (b) a response priming process that is independent of stimulus evaluation, and (c) a response competition process. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using standards to improve middle school students’ accuracy at evaluating the quality of their recall.

When recalling key term definitions from class materials, students may recall entirely incorrect definitions, yet will often claim that these commission errors are entirely correct; that is, they are overconfident in the quality of their recall responses. We investigated whether this overconfidence could be reduced by providing various standards to middle school students as they evaluated their recall responses. Students studied key term definitions, attempted to recall each one, and then were asked to score the quality of their recall. In Experiment 1, they evaluated their recall responses by rating each response as fully correct, partially correct, or incorrect. Most important, as they evaluated a particular response, it was presented either alone (i.e., without a standard) or with the correct definition present. Providing this full-definition standard reduced overconfidence in commission errors: Students assigned full or partial credit to 73% of their commission errors when they received no standard, whereas they assigned credit to only 44% of these errors when receiving the full-definition standard. In Experiment 2, a new standard was introduced: Idea units from each definition were presented, and students indicated whether each idea unit was in their response. After making these idea-unit judgments, the students then evaluated the quality of their entire response. Idea-unit standards further reduced overconfidence. Thus, although middle school students are overconfident in evaluating the quality of their recall responses, using standards substantially reduces this overconfidence and promises to improve the efficacy of their self-regulated learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The repulsion hypothesis revisited: Similarity irrelevance or dissimilarity bias?

Rosenbaum (1986b) proposed a reinterpretation of attraction research and theory in which similar attitudes constitute irrelevant stimuli; only dissimilar attitudes affect either attraction or performance in a learning task. He presented data seemingly consistent with these propositions, but Byrne, Clore, and Smeaton (1986) criticized the adequacy of his designs and suggested appropriate empirical tests of the competing hypotheses. This article reports two experiments in which the results are clearly inconsistent with the repulsion hypothesis. With number of dissimilar attitudes held constant, attraction toward a stranger increased as the number of similar attitudes increased. In a discrimination learning task, response acquisition occurred when correct responses were followed by similar attitude statements and incorrect responses by nonsense syllables, or when correct responses were followed by nonsense syllables and incorrect responses by dissimilar attitude statements. Despite the inadequacy of the repulsion hypothesis, Rosenbaum's analysis has raised several new and interesting possibilities for attraction research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An accrual model for primed digit classification.

This article describes a chronometric experiment of digit classification with masked primes. EEG experiments have shown that the subliminal prime activates the cortex prior to the target signal, thusly modifying the response: Congruent primes lead to faster correct answers, while incongruent primes result in slower response. It is noticed that incorrect answers show an inverted effect: A congruent prime inhibits incorrect answers, and the reverse for incongruent primes. Within the evidence accrual paradigm, it is suggested that the prime activity in the motor cortex effectively behaves as a shift in the decision threshold. This model assumption is consistent with our experimental findings. The correct and incorrect answers and the error percentage are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Linear Transformations of the Payoff Matrix and Decision Criterion Learning in Perceptual Categorization.

The effects of payoff-matrix multiplication, payoff-matrix addition, the presence of long-run gains versus long-run losses, category discriminability, and base rate on decision criterion learning were examined in 2 perceptual categorization experiments. Observers were found to be sensitive to the effects of payoff-matrix multiplication (and category discriminability) on the steepness of the objective reward function in line with predictions from the flat-maxima hypothesis and contrary to the predictions from the payoff-variance hypothesis. Decision criterion learning was best in base-rate conditions, was worst when losses were associated with incorrect responding, and was intermediate when no losses were associated with incorrect responding. This performance profile was well captured by the competition between reward and accuracy (COBRA) hypothesis. A hybrid model framework that instantiates both the flat-maxima and COBRA hypotheses was necessary to account for the data from both experiments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model of response time effects in symbolic comparison.

A cognitive process model is developed that predicts the 3 major symbolic comparison response time effects (distance, end, and semantic congruity) found in the results of the linear syllogistic reasoning task. The model includes a simple connectionist learning component and dual evidence accumulation decision-making components. It assumes that responses can be based either on information concerning the positional difference between the presented stimulus items or on information concerning the endpoint status of each of these items. The model provides an excellent quantitative account of the mean correct response times obtained from 16 participants who performed paired comparisons of 6 ordered symbolic stimuli (3-letter names). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marking in pigeons: The role of memory in delayed reinforcement.

A previous study by the 1st author and colleagues (see record 1980-27237-001) showed that if reinforcement is delayed, rats find it difficult to learn the correct path through a maze, but learning improves dramatically if a brief tone or light is presented after every choice response. The marking hypothesis suggests that the unexpected stimulus directs attention to the preceding response, thereby marking it in memory. To explore the generality of this phenomenon, in the present 4 experiments 102 pigeons were reinforced after a delay for pecking half of a split key. A change in key color following a choice response produced significantly greater learning than did no marker or one following a response during the intertrial interval (Exp I), though an immediate marker was only slightly more effective than one delayed 3 sec (Exp II). In Exps III and IV, the marker followed either a correct or an incorrect response on food trials, and whichever response was marked increased substantially. Marking thus appears to be a robust and powerful phenomenon, capable of substantially modifying behavior in a variety of species and settings. Reasons why markers may sometimes interfere with learning rather than enhance it are suggested. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of "suspicious" versus 'trusting" training schedules.

The structure of child training was translated into the paradigm of learning in a human engineering situation. The parent is conceived as having a role for the trainee (the child) to learn and employs a schedule of reinforcement. The "suspicious" training schedule involved the trainer always assuming an incorrect response has been given, and uses punitive action (electric shock); "trusting" schedule assumes a correct response, reward being a green light to proceed. Ss were college students; the task involved deciding which of 2 statements reflected greater psychopathology. S had the choice of revealing his selection or not. The hypothesis was that the S exposed to the "suspicious" routine would be more inclined to bring his response to the attention of the evaluater to correct the impression of being wrong, and to more readily learn to adopt trainers' frame of reference. In general, the results support the hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The devil rides again: Correlation as an index of fit.

Shows that correlations between theoretical predictions and data can be higher for incorrect than for correct models by analyses of 2 sets of hypothetical data. This fact raises questions about the conclusions of recent studies that use correlation as an index of fit. It is proposed that functional measurement provides a sounder basis for model evaluation by placing scaling in the context of model fitting and by testing deviations from prediction rather than concentrating on overall goodness of fit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When Does Feedback Facilitate Learning of Words?

Some researchers have suggested that although feedback may enhance performance during associative learning, it does so at the expense of later retention. To examine this issue, subjects (N = 258) learned Luganda-English word pairs. After 2 initial exposures to the materials, subjects were tested on each item several times, with the presence and type of feedback varying between subjects. A final test followed after 1 week. Supplying the correct answer after an incorrect response not only improved performance during the initial learning session--it also increased final retention by 494%. On the other hand, feedback after correct responses made little difference either immediately or at a delay, regardless of whether the subject was confident in the response. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Errors and mistakes: Evaluating the accuracy of social judgment.

Laboratory research on "error" in social judgment has largely supplanted research that addresses accuracy issues more directly. Moreover, this research attracts a great deal of attention because of what many take to be its dismal implications for the accuracy of human social reasoning. These implications are illusory, however, because an error is not the same thing as a "mistake." An error is a judgment of an experimental stimulus that departs from a model of the judgment process. If this model is normative, then the error can be said to represent an incorrect judgment. A mistake, by contrast, is an incorrect judgment of a real-world stimulus and therefore more difficult to determine. Although errors can be highly informative about the process of judgment in general, they are not necessarily relevant to the content or accuracy of particular judgments, because errors in a laboratory may not be mistakes with respect to a broader, more realistic frame of reference and the processes that produce such errors might lead to correct decisions and adaptive outcomes in real life. Several examples are described in this article. Accuracy issues cannot be addressed by research that concentrates on demonstrating error in relation to artificial stimuli, but only by research that uses external, realistic criteria for accuracy. These criteria might include the degree to which judgments agree with each other and yield valid predictions of behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Premonitions of insight predict impending error.

Five experiments with approximately 266 college students explored the dynamic metacognitions that accompany the problem- and anagram-solving processes. Ss repeatedly rated how warm or close they were to solution. High feelings of warmth before an answer indicated that the answer would be incorrect. Moderately low warmth ratings characterized correct responses. The data suggest that the high warmth ratings may result from a process wherein Ss convince themselves that an inelegant but plausible (wrong) answer is correct. No gradual rationalization process precedes the correct response to insight problems. The warmth-rating data also indicate that when the correct answer was given to the problems and anagrams used in this study, there was usually a subjectively catastrophic insight process. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model of probabilistic category learning.

A new connectionist model (named RASHNL) accounts for many "irrational" phenomena found in nonmetric multiple-cue probability learning, wherein people learn to utilize a number of discrete-valued cues that are partially valid indicators of categorical outcomes. Phenomena accounted for include cue competition, effects of cue salience, utilization of configural information, decreased learning when information is introduced after a delay, and effects of base rates. Exps 1 and 2 replicate previous experiments on cue competition and cue salience, and fits of the model provide parameter values for making qualitatively correct predictions for many other situations. The model also makes 2 new predictions, confirmed in Exps 3 and 4. The model formalizes 3 explanatory principles: rapidly shifting attention with learned shifts, decreasing learning rates, and graded similarity in exemplar representation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impairment of reversal learning in the rat: A mediational explanation.

Examined the finding that reversal learning is impaired when rats are both punished and rewarded for incorrect responses. In Exp. I with 40 male Holtzman rats, it was found that (a) it was necessary for punishment and reward to be administered during both original and reversal learning for such impairment to occur; (b) similar but weaker impairment occurred when nonreward was administered during both original and reversal learning; and (c) reversal learning occurred most rapidly when the consequence of an error (punishment or nonreward) was switched between training and reversal. It is suggested that reversal learning reinstated the emotional state present during original learning and that impairment occurred because the associations formed to that state in training interfered with the behavior required during reversal. Exp. II with 22 Ss confirmed predictions from this hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

“Neurally Constrained Modeling of Perceptual Decision Making": Erratum.

Reports an error in "Neurally constrained modeling of perceptual decision making" by Braden A. Purcell, Richard P. Heitz, Jeremiah Y. Cohen, Jeffrey D. Schall, Gordon D. Logan and Thomas J. Palmeri (Psychological Review, 2010[Oct], Vol 117[4], 1113-1143). The presentation of the colors in Figure 3, Panel A was incorrect due to an error in the production process. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-18180-001.) [Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 118(1) of Psychological Review (see record 2010-23057-001). Two grant numbers were incorrectly cited in the author note, and one correct grant number was omitted. The author note incorrectly indicated that research was supported by grants RO1-MH55806 and RO1-EY13358. In addition, grant R01-EY08890 should have been listed.] Stochastic accumulator models account for response time in perceptual decision-making tasks by assuming that perceptual evidence accumulates to a threshold. The present investigation mapped the firing rate of frontal eye field (FEF) visual neurons onto perceptual evidence and the firing rate of FEF movement neurons onto evidence accumulation to test alternative models of how evidence is combined in the accumulation process. The models were evaluated on their ability to predict both response time distributions and movement neuron activity observed in monkeys performing a visual search task. Models that assume gating of perceptual evidence to the accumulating units provide the best account of both behavioral and neural data. These results identify discrete stages of processing with anatomically distinct neural populations and rule out several alternative architectures. The results also illustrate the use of neurophysiological data as a model selection tool and establish a novel framework to bridge computational and neural levels of explanation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

L'influence d'indices subliminaux perceptifs et symboliques sur la formation d'un concept.

Examined the learning of a simple concept represented by geometric figures as a function of subliminal stimuli of either a perceptual or a symbolic nature. Ss were 75 male students. Preceding each instance of a concept, a subliminal stimulus, indicating either the correct or incorrect solution, was presented by the technique of backward masking. Results show that only symbolic subliminal stimuli were effective in influencing the learning of a concept, and this particularly in the case where the correct solution was indicated. It is concluded that the effect of a subliminal stimulus depends on the degree of correspondence between the level of complexity of the stimulus and that of the task. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieval of item and category information: Evidence for an interactive model.

When more than one retrieval cue is available, the cues may combine their effects independently or interactively and facilitate the retrieval process. The predictions of 2 versions of an independent model and 1 interactive model were tested in a situation that required the retrieval of item and category information. Ss were 72 undergraduates. In Exp I, the 2 sources of information were redundant in that the retrieval of either item or category information was sufficient to determine the correct response. In Exp II, item and category information were not redundant, and the evaluation of both types of information was necessary. Results favor the interactive model of retrieval. When presented with a test item, Ss attempted to retrieve both semantic category and item information, and partial information about either was used to aid retrieval of the other. (French abstract) (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivating autistic children.

A major problem encountered in the field of autism is the children's characteristic lack of motivation. This problem is especially apparent when autistic children attempt to complete learning tasks. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of correct vs incorrect task completion on children's motivation to respond to such tasks. Ss were 3 autistic children aged 6 yrs 1 mo, 11 yrs 11 mo, and 12 yrs 3 mo. Results demonstrate that when Ss worked on tasks at which they were typically incorrect, their motivation for those tasks decreased to extremely low levels. However, designing treatment procedures to prompt Ss to keep responding until they completed the tasks correctly served to increase Ss' motivation to respond to those tasks. The implications of these findings are that (a) autistic children's learning handicaps (which typically lead to low levels of correct responding) may result in few or inconsistent rewards for attempting to respond at all, thus decreasing the children's motivation; and (b) treatment procedures designed to keep the children responding until they complete a task correctly may result in coincidental reinforcement for perseverance, increasing the children's motivation to respond to those tasks. Results are discussed in relation to the literature on learned helplessness. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)