1,720,958 research outputs found

    Cognitive control during scene categorization: The role of identity repetition and timing in congruence sequence effects

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    Cognitive control abilities include maintaining goal-directed behaviors in spite of the incongruence between habitual and desired responses. In interference paradigms, slower responses to incongruent compared to congruent trials are observed; this interference is reduced after incongruent trials (congruence sequential effect, CSE), suggesting that the control exerted to counteract interference in the previous trial also propagates into the following trial. Moreover, a larger CSE is observed when trial features are repeated. Binding–retrieval accounts suggest that trial features that occur in the same time frame are bound together in an episodic representation; if a feature is repeated in the next trial, the control state that was active in the previous trial is also reactivated, resulting in a modulation of congruence effects. However, previous studies that used stimulus sets characterized by intracategory variability (e.g., faces and scenes) observed CSE modulation by the repetition of response categories but were inconclusive concerning whether repeating the identity of a stimulus may modulate CSE. The present study investigates whether episodic stimulus representations include both stimulus identity and response category information, by comparing the impact of the repetition of novel pictures (no identity repetition) and of frequent pictures (in which identity is repeated over trials) in a picture–word interference task. Results indicated that stimulus identity was not critical in the modulation of CSE, and that CSE was little affected by response–stimulus interval. Altogether, the present results contribute to the understanding and theoretical specification of sequential effects

    Subjective Affective Responses to Natural Scenes Require Understanding, Not Spatial Frequency Bands

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    It is debated whether emotional processing and response depend on semantic identification or are preferentially tied to specific information in natural scenes, such as global features or local details. The present study aimed to further examine the relationship between scene understanding and affective response while manipulating visual content. To this end, we presented affective and neutral natural scenes which were progressively band-filtered to contain global features (low spatial frequencies) or local details (high spatial frequencies) and assessed both affective response and scene understanding. We observed that, if scene content was correctly reported, subjective ratings of arousal and valence were modulated by the affective content of the scene, and this modulation was similar across spatial frequency bands. On the other hand, no affective modulation of subjective ratings was observed if picture content was not correctly reported. The present results indicate that subjective affective response requires content understanding, and it is not tied to a specific spatial frequency range

    Behavioral Interference by Emotional Stimuli: Sequential Modulation by Perceptual Conditions but Not by Emotional Primes

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    Previous studies observed that emotional scenes, presented as distractors, capture attention and interfere with an ongoing task. This behavioral interference has been shown to be elicited by the semantic rather than by the perceptual properties of a scene, as it resisted the application of low-pass spatial frequency filters. Some studies observed that the visual system can adapt to perceptual conditions; however, little is known concerning whether attentional capture by emotional stimuli can also be modulated by the sequential repetition of viewing conditions or of emotional content. In the present study, we asked participants to perform a parity task while viewing irrelevant natural scenes, which could be either emotional or neutral. These scenes could be either blurred (low-pass filter) or perceptually intact, and the order of presentation was balanced to study the effects of sequential repetition of perceptual conditions. The results indicate that affective modulation was most pronounced when the same viewing condition (either intact or blurred) was repeated, with faster responses when perceptual conditions were repeated for neutral distractors, but to a lesser extent for emotional ones. These data suggest that emotional interference in an attentional task can be modulated by serial sensitization in the processing of spatial frequencies

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

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    Age differences in sustained attention: a meta-analysis of the SART

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    Many aspects of attention decline with cognitive aging. There is a current debate on how aging also affects sustained attention. We tried to contribute to this debate, starting from meta-analytically comparing performance on the go-nogo Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) in younger and older adults. A literature search was carried out using Pubmed, PsycINFO and Scopus databases, using the conjunction of the following terms: (“older adults” OR elderly OR aging OR “cognitive aging” OR “normal aging”) AND (SART OR “Sustained Attention to Response Task”). Studies were included only if a SART with 5-30% nogo trials, and a random or quasi-random presentation of stimuli, was administered to both healthy older and younger adults. A total of 13 studies were suitable involving 854 younger adults (18-39 years old) and 715 older ones (55-95 years old). Results showed that older adults were slower than younger controls on go trials (g= 1.00, 95% CI: 0.72–1.27) but more accurate than younger adults on nogo trials (g= 0.55, 95% CI: 0.30–0.81). Moreover, older adults were slower after a nogo error than younger adults (g= 0.81, 95% CI: 0.47–1.16). These results are compatible with an age-related processing speed deficit, mostly suggested by slower go-RTs, but also with an increased preference for a prudent strategy, as demonstrated by fewer nogo errors and greater post-error slowing in older adults. An inhibitory deficit account could not fit these findings, as older adults actually outperformed younger adults in the nogo condition by producing fewer false alarms
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