322,943 research outputs found
Simon effect and handness: Evidence for a dominant-hand attentional bias in spatial coding.
No full textIndagine sulla percezione dei giovani italiani del nuovo regime previdenziale.
No full textNegli ultimi anni il tema della previdenza è particolarmente dibattuto in tutto il mondo. Proprio per provare a risolvere i problemi del sistema previdenziale nazionale il governo italiano ha attuato una riforma delle pensioni (legge 252/2005) che mira a rafforzare l’uso delle forme di pensione complementare ed introduce il meccanismo del silenzio/assenso per quanto riguarda l’adesione alle pensioni complementari (scelta tacita). Si tratta di una legge che raccoglie alcuni dei suggerimenti forniti dalla finanza comportamentale in tema di risparmio e pensioni. Nel presente contributo descriviamo i risultati proposti dalla finanza comportamentale mettendoli in relazione con i risultati di un’indagine sulla previdenza condotta con un campione di giovani italiani. Il principale risultato dell’indagine è che i giovani italiani hanno un atteggiamento favorevole nei confronti della pensione complementare, anche se al contempo mostrano una propensione a commettere i classici errori comportamentali descritti in letteratura. Nonostante la nuova legge previdenziale sia un passo avanti nell’aiutare gli italiani a risparmiare meglio, dall’indagine emerge che il nuovo sistema potrebbe contrastare con le intenzioni delle persone ed impedire loro di raggiungere risultati soddisfacenti
Co-occurrence of sequential and practice effects in the Simon task: Evidence for two independent mechanisms affecting response selection
No full textThe Simon effect refers to the observation that responses to a relevant stimulus dimension are faster and moreaccurate when the stimulus and response spatially correspond than when they do not, even though stimulusposition is irrelevant. Recent findings have suggested that the Simon effect can be strongly modulated by priorpractice with a spatially incompatible mapping and by correspondence sequence. Although practice is thought toinfluence conditional stimulus–response (S–R) processing, leaving response priming through the unconditionalroute unaffected, sequential effects are thought to represent trial-by-trial adaptations that selectively involveunconditional S–R processing. In the present study, we tested this assumption by assessing the effects of correspondencesequence both when the Simon task alone was performed and when it was preceded by a spatialcompatibility task with either incompatible (Experiments 1–2) or compatible (Experiment 2) instructions. Theobservation that practice and correspondence sequence co-occur and exert additive effects strongly demonstratesthat the two factors affect different processing routes
Does the Activation of Motor Information Affect Semantic Processing?
No full textSeveral behavioral studies show that semantic content influences reach-to-grasp movement responses. However, not much is known about the influence of motor activation on semantic processing. The present study aimed at filling this gap by examining the influence of pre-activated motor information on a subsequent lexical decision task. Participants were instructed to observe a prime object (e.g., the image of a frying pan) and then judge whether the following target was a known word in the lexicon or not. They were required to make a keypress response to target words describing properties either relevant (e.g., handle) or irrelevant (e.g., ceramic) for action or unrelated to the prime object (e.g., eyelash). Response key could be located on the same side as the depicted action-relevant property of the prime object (i.e., spatially compatible key) or on the opposite side (i.e., spatially incompatible key). Results showed a facilitation in terms of lower percentage errors when the target word was action-relevant (e.g., handle) and there was spatial compatibility between the orientation of the action-relevant component of the prime object and the response. This preliminary finding suggests that the activation of motor information may affect semantic processing. We discuss implications of these results for current theories of action knowledge representation
The influence of prime identity on the emergence of affordance effects
No full textThe present study used a visuomotor priming task to investigate whether classification responses to pairs of graspable objects are influenced by prior presentation of pictures of two human or robotic hands. Participants had to press one of two keys to discriminate whether pairs of graspable objects could be usually found in the kitchen or in the garage. The objects could be used together or not. In each pair there was an active object (i.e., the object that is actively manipulated during a specific action), presented to the right or left of the screen center. Only when the objects were preceded by two robotic hands and could be used together, responses were faster when the position of the active object and the position of the response were spatially corresponding, that is when objects appeared in standard co-locations for right-handed actions. This result demonstrates that affordance effects evoked by object pairs are influenced by the nature of motor cues present in the scene
Right-left prevalence with task-irrelevant spatial codes.
No full textAbstract
In two experiments the relation between handedness and the size of the Simon effect in each visual hemifield has been investigated. Experiment 1 showed that the Simon effect was larger in the right visual hemifield in right-handers and in the left visual hemifield in left-handers, whereas ambidextrous showed a symmetric Simon effect. In Experiment 2, subjects performed the same Simon task as in Experiment 1, but with crossed hands. The right- and left-handers group showed a reversed pattern of results with respect to Experiment 1. We explained this phenomenon as a part of a more general account where perception and action are embedded in a perception-for-action system. In it, an attentional bias originating from the field of operation of the dominant hand would be at the base of the relationship between the asymmetry of the Simon effect and handedness
Age-related slowing of control processes: Evidence from a response coordination task
No full textNormal aging is associated with slowing of performance mostly due to a slowed functioning of central response-related processes. In this paper we set out to discover whether slowing occurs also when the process controlling the coordination of responses is engaged by the task. To this end, we compared the mean-reaction time performance of two groups of subjects (young vs. elderly) in single- and dual-task experimental paradigm. The response coordination process is required only by the dual-task paradigm. The results indicate that, in the dual-task situation, the elderly are markedly slower than young subjects. The eventual relevance of information-processing speed in determining the cognitive performance of the elderly is considered in the discussion of the results
Relationship Between Arousal and Technical Performance in the Oil and Gas Sector: An Investigation Using a Simulated Well Control Scenario.
No full textThe present paper summarizes the results of a study investigating the relationship between arousal, as reflected by cardiovascular responses, and technical performance in a simulated well control task. As part of a certification exam at the end of a training session, pairs of rig operators (drillers) and supervisors were involved in a role-play exercise using a simulation equipment, while the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal was recorded from rig supervisors with the Polar H10 device. During the scenario an anomaly in well operations occurred and supervisors were required to adopt specific procedures to restore pressure containment. Our results showed that heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) measures differently reflected the changes in the demands imposed by the different phases of the simulated task and highlighted the need to integrate the assessment of technical skills with workload and arousal assessment to increase the effectiveness of training procedures
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