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Conference Abstracts

Event integration: Action binding effects on perception, memory, and awareness.

 Martes | 9:30h - 10:15 h | 30 minute talk
 Bruce Milliken; Chris Fiacconi; Juan Lupiáñez; 
 McMaster University
 Milliken, Bruce  |  millike@mcmaster.ca

Kahneman, Treisman and Gibbs (1992) introduced the idea that perception and action can involve the integration of current perceptual information with episodic memory representations of recent prior events. A key result reported by Kahneman et al. (1992; see also Hommel, 1998; 2004) is that response times to target events hinge on the overlap in episodic bindings between present and past events. In particular, performance is typically slower on trials in which there is a partial match in episodic bindings than on trials in which there is either a perfect match or perfect mismatch in episodic bindings. We describe a research program that has extended the study of these event integration processes from the domain of perception to that of memory and awareness. In particular, the results suggest that binding an action to a perceptual event can have a profound impact on event integration, and that this impact can be measured in tasks that assess memory and awareness.

Relational Learning and Inference in Aging and Amnesia

 Martes | 11:00h - 11:15 h | 15 minute talk
 D’Angelo, Maria C.; Kamino, Daphne; Ostreicher, Melanie; Moses, Sandra N.; Rosenbaum, R. Shayna; Ryan, Jennifer D.
 Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest
 D’Angelo, Maria C.  |  mdangelo@research.baycrest.org

Both aging and amnesia are associated with impairments in relational memory, which is critically supported by the hippocampus. By adapting the transitivity task, we examined the extent to which aging and amnesia are accompanied by deficits in relational learning and inference. The contrast in performance between older adults and two amnesic cases allows us to understand the critical contributions of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) in relational learning and inference. Participants completed four conditions that varied in terms of the degree to which the stimuli and relations among them were known pre-experimentally. In the context of novel to-be-learned relations, both older adults and amnesic cases had impaired relational learning and inference relative to younger adults. The impairments in older adults were mitigated when pairwise relations among items were known pre-experimentally, even on inference trials where the novel relations were not directly supported by prior knowledge. In contrast, although prior knowledge supported relational learning in the amnesic cases, inference remained impaired. Although prior work has pointed to a critical role for the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in inference, the present results suggest that the MTL may also play a critical role in inference, beyond learning of pairwise relations.

A single-system account of selective memory impairment: Reconsolidating implicit and explicit memory

 Martes | 11:15h -11:30 h | 15 minute talk
 Curtis, Evan; Jamieson, Randall
 University of Manitoba
 Curtis, Evan  |  curtise@cc.umanitoba.ca

Individuals with amnesia have great difficulty recognizing items they have studied. However, they can classify novel items as consistent or inconsistent with the studied list. To explain the discrepancy, theorists have proposed that memory is organized into subsystems with studied items stored in explicit memory and abstracted category-level representations stored separately in implicit memory. Accordingly, the dissociation between recognition and classification is explained as a selective impairment of the explicit memory store. We propose an alternate single-system account of the discrepancy. In the account, participants only encode studied items and amnesic patients’ memory of the exemplars is impoverished relative to that of controls. We show by simulation that the theory predicts the dissociation between recognition and classification. We then extend the demonstration to another dissociation between amnesic patients’ performance in recognition and tachistoscopic identification. We conclude that the discrepancy between classification and recognition in anterograde amnesia might reflect poor memory of studied exemplars, not a selective impairment to one of multiple memory systems.

A repetition suppression effect in recognition memory

 Martes | 11:30h - 11:45 h | 15 minute talk
 Rosner, Tamara ; Raul Lopez Benitez; Bruce Milliken
 McMaster University
 Rosner, Tamara  |  trosner@uwaterloo.ca

A recent study demonstrated that a manipulation of congruency at the time of study can influence remembering at the time of test (Rosner, D’Angelo, MacLellan, & Milliken, 2014). Specifically, participants read aloud a red word in a pair of red and green spatially interleaved words at study. In a following surprise recognition test performance was better for incongruent items (i.e., the two words were different) than congruent items (i.e., the two words were the same). We set out to examine if the same effect would be observed in a priming study, with participants reading a probe word that was preceded by either the same or different prime word. Interestingly, better recognition memory was observed for the not-repeated probes than repeated probes. In other words, recognition memory was actually better for an item presented once than for an item presented twice. This effect was found in several experiments, and eliminated only when participants named rather than ignored the prime words. Some implications of this novel finding for learning, memory and attention are discussed.

Intellectual crowdfunding: False memories and reconsolidation.

 Martes | 11:45h - 12:00 h | 15 minute talk
 Ortiz-Tudela, Javier; Ferreira, Catarina
 University of Granada
 Ortiz-Tudela, Javier  |  fjavierotiz@correo.ugr.es

How accurate are our memories? Do we remember things exactly the way they happened? Recent research seems to have a straightforward answer: we do not. On the one hand, false memories studies have taught us that information presented at the time of retrieval may interfere with our actual memories and on the other hand, reconsolidation studies have taught us that retrieving a given memory usually returns it to a labile state in which it can be modified or even erased. In spite of the similarities between these two fields there is a lack of studies trying to link them. Here we want to present some ideas we have developed to approach this issue. Do false memories affect our daily lives? What is the impact that new technologies have on them? Is there any way to avoid them or to, at least, diminish their impact? Might reconsolidation be the key? We would like to hear your ideas for our future project and to discuss the possible implications of this combined approach. Feedback needed!

Are attention networks damaged in confabulating patients? A comparison between confabulators, frontal patients and normal population

 Martes | 12:00h - 12:15 h | 15 minute talk
 Colás, Itsaso; Chica, Ana; Triviño, Mónica
 University of Granada, CIMCYC
 Colás, Itsaso  |  itsaso.colas@opendeusto.es

Confabulations, or the production of statements that are unintentionally incongruent to subject’s history, back-ground, present and future situation (Dalla Barba, 1993), were first posited to be a deficit on information-recall. Recently, some studies have shown that patients who confabulate have also difficulties at information encoding stage (Attali, De Anna, Dubois & Dalla Barba, 2009; Ciaramelli, Ghetti & Borsotti, 2007). These findings could indicate that other processes, aside from memory, will be responsible for confabulations. We explored the performance of patients with this syndrome at behavioral tasks assessing the three attention networks from Posner & Petersen model of attention (1990; Petersen & Posner, 2012): alerting, orienting and control. As some frontal brain areas are thought to be crucial for the functioning of those attention networks, we compared data from a group of confabulating patients, a group of non-confabulating frontal patients and a matched group of controls.

THE EFFECT OF A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT ON CONFABULATIONS: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY WITH DIFFUSION TENSOR IMAGING

 Martes | 12:15h - 12:30 h | 15 minute talk
 Estrella Ródenas, Mónica Triviño, Julián Marino, Juan Lupiañez
 Neuropsychologist. Hospital Universitario San Rafael
 Triviño, Mónica  |  mtrivino@ugr.es

Confabulations are a neuropsychological impairment after brain damage consisting on the generation of false memories and false recognitions. Cognitive models propose that they are produced by deficits in the early mechanisms of correct selection of relevant representations in memory, as well as by deficits in the subsequent monitoring processes. The neural basis has been linked to damage to the orbitofrontal cortex and other limbic structures. The aim of this (pilot) study is to explore different bundles in confabulators patients, before and after performing a neuropsychological treatment for the reduction of confabulations. On the one hand, we are interested in tracts related to recovery processes in memory and whose common target is the orbitofrontal cortex. On the other hand, we are also interested in the dorsolateral fronto-parietal bundles related to monitoring and executive functions.

Neural mechanisms of error detection in 16 - 18 months babies and its modulation by socioeconomical environment.

 Martes | 12:30h - 12:35 h | 5 minute data-blitz
 Angela Conejero; Sonia Guerra; Alicia Abundis; M. Rosario Rueda
 University of Granada
 Conejero, Ángela  |  angelaconejero@gmail.com

At the end of the first year of post-natal life babies start to exhibit certain abilities that signal the emergence of the executive attention system. Although, error detection has been characterized as an executive attention function, few studies have analysed the ability to detect errors in children under preschool age. In a previous study, Berger, Tzur y Posner (2009) found that babies as young as 7 months were able to detect errors, a capacity that was associated with the appearance of a fronto-central negativity similar to the error related negativity (ERN) showed by adults. Furthermore, several studies have shown that the development of executive functions and the brain structures that support it are modulated by the socioeconomic status (SES) of the family (Hackman y Farah, 2009). In our study, we aimed to replicate the results reported by Berger and collaborators in a sample of 16 months-old babies using a different experimental paradigm. Additionally, we aimed to explore whether the development of executive attention skills is sensitive to SES at that age. Results in the present study replicate those reported before as babies showed a frontal negativity similar to the ERN when an error condition was presented. Moreover, the amplitude of the ERN was associated to the SES. Together, our results suggest that as early as 16 months of age it is possible to observe the modulation of environmental factors in the development of the neural mechanisms underlying executive attention.

The Fluency Heuristic in Repetition Priming

 Martes | 12:35h - 12:40 h | 5 minute data-blitz
 Collins, R., Rosner, T., Milliken, B.
 McMaster University
 Collins, Robert  |  collinrn@mcmaster.ca

Desirable difficulty is a well studied but seemingly counter-intuitive phenomena that increased difficulty of encoding strategies leads to improved retention and episodic retrieval (Bjork, 1994). An emerging body of evidence indicates this effect can extend to perceptually degraded items- a perceptual desirable difficulty effect- using a number of fluency manipulations. One interesting possibility is that repetition priming may not always be beneficial for encoding and retrieval. Indeed, Rosner, López-Benítez, and Milliken (2014, BBCS) reported recognition memory can be more sensitive for study items presented once (not-repeated) than for study items presented twice (repeated). To further examine the processes driving the effect, we first replicated the results, and investigated a number of other encoding demands. Participants completed an incidental study phase involving presentations of prime and target words, encoding the prime under varying conditions: (1) Ignoring; (2) Divided Attention; (3) Count the Vowels; (4) Naming; and (5) Semantic Categorization. Results indicate better recognition for not-repeated items when encoding for the prime was impoverished, and better recognition for repeated items when attention to the prime was high. We believe this indicates processing fluency may act as a heuristic to guide attention and encoding.

ARE CONFABULATIONS A MEMORY OR A SELECTIVE ATTENTION DEFICIT?

 Martes | 13:15h - 14:00 h | 30 minute talk
 Triviño, Mónica; Estrella Rodenas; Juan Lupiañez; Marisa Arnedo
 Neuropsychologist. Hospital Universitario San Rafael
 Triviño, Mónica  |  mtrivino@ugr.es

Confabulations are usually considered a deficit either in early filtering or later monitoring processes on memory recall. This study aims to investigate the role of selective attention in confabulations as an early process involved in the competition of interconnected memory schemas (Gosh & Gilboa, 2014). Six confabulators patients performed a selective attention task both before and after a specific treatment to reduce the confabulations. The task was to point to a specific object presented among distractors. The similarity between the objects was manipulated as follows: 1) semantic relation; 2) physical similarity. Moreover, 50% of the trials were target-absent trials where the target did not appear. The types of errors (commissions in target-present trials and false positives in target-absent trials) were registered for both type of similarity. An ANOVA was performed with type of similarity and pre-post as within participants factors. The interaction was significant, F(1,5)=51,459, p=0,000, showing a significantly larger number of errors in the target-absent trials (false positives) in the physical similarity condition compared to the semantic similarity condition (p<0,000). After the treatment, false positives significantly decreased in both similarity conditions (semantic: p=0,016; physical: p=0,000. The execution in target-present trials did not show significant differences after treatment. The present study suggests that confabulations may also be related to an early deficit on selective attention. According to this hypothesis, when objects share many physical characteristics, a competition between interconnected memory schemas is inevitable. Therefore, selective searching of relevant information is necessary in order to choose the correct schema in memory and reject the competitors.

Reading and writing direction effects on the aesthetic perception of photographs

 Miercoles | 9:30h - 9:45 h | 15 minute talk
 Sobh Chahboun; Andrea Flumini; Carmen Pérez González; I. Chris McManus; Julio Santiago
 Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center
 Flumini, Andrea  |  flumini@ugr.es

Does the habitual reading and writing direction (RWD) affect the aesthetic appreciation of visual art? Pérez González (2012) showed that 19th century Iranian and Spanish professional photographers manifest lateral biases linked to RWD in their compositions. The present study aimed to test whether the general public shows similar biases, and under what conditions. Photographies with left-to-right (L-R) and right-to-left (R-L) directionality were selected from Pérez González’s collections and presented in both the original and mirror reversed forms to Spanish (L-R readers) and Moroccan (R-L readers) participants. In Experiment 1, participants rated each picture as to how aesthetically pleasing it was. The results showed no interactions with RWD. In Experiment 2, we presented each picture and its mirror version and asked the participants to choose which one they liked better. Now, clear biases linked to RWD arose. RWD does affect aesthetic impressions of photography in the general public, but only when people are paying attention to the lateral spatial dimension of the pictures.

Sex differences in preference: a comparison of implicit and explicit beliefs

 Miercoles | 9:45h - 10:00 h | 15 minute talk
 Victor Kuperman; David I. Shore
 McMaster University
 Shore, David I.  |  dshore@mcmaster.ca

The belief that men like sports and women like to shop pervades North American society. This stereotype presents a biased perspective on the differences, and similarities, between men and women. To measure the prevalence of this stereotype, we asked people what do men like more than women?, and what do women like more than men? Categorizing these responses yielded sports and shopping as the number one categories for men and women, respectively. However, explicit responses capture only one perspective of male–female differences in preference. Here we report an implicit measure of sex-biases in attitudes. Valance ratings of the 13,915 most common words in the English language yield only 458 that are preferred more by one or the other sex (there does seem to be more similarity than difference). When considering the categories of these words, the number one category for men was sex; for women it was family. Discriminative analysis of these implicit and explicit categories highlights striking differences between the sexes, and how we perceive those differences.

Implicit learning of structure in natural language

 Miercoles | 10:00h - 10:15 h | 15 minute talk
 Chubala, Chrissy M.; Johns, Brendan T.; Jamieson, R. K.; Mewhort, D. J. K.
 University of Manitoba
 Chubala, Chrissy M.  |  umchubal@myumanitoba.ca

Studies of implicit learning have traditionally focused on peoples’ sensitivity to sequences in stimulus sets (e.g., sequences of letters, tones, spatial locations, etc.). Computational accounts have evolved to reflect this bias, often making little contact with the day-to-day development of sensitivities to non-sequential regularities in the real world. We discuss one experiment that casts doubt upon the standard sequential approach (Neil & Higham, 2012). In the experiment, participants studied words selected according to a conjunctive rule (e.g., a study list may include rare-concrete and common-abstract words, but exclude rare-abstract and common-concrete words). At test, participants reliably discriminated rule-consistent from rule-violating words in a two-alternative forced choice task, but could not verbalize the rule. As in sequence learning tasks, participants exhibited rule-based discrimination without rule knowledge. However, the data elude explanation by sequential models. In contrast, we simulate the full pattern of results by incorporating vector representations derived from a large-scale semantic space model, Latent Semantic Analysis (Landauer & Dumais, 1997), into an exemplar model of memory, MINERVA 2 (Hintzman, 1986). We show that basic memory processes codified in a classic model for memory are sufficient to capture this new example of complex implicit learning, provided that stimuli are meaningfully represented.

Reflection and Utilitarianism: Higher scores on CRT after receiving feedback lead to more utilitarian decisions

 Miercoles | 10:15h - 10:20 h | 5 minute data-blitz
 Spears, Daniel F.; Yasmina Okan; María Ruz; Felisa González   
 University of Granada
 Spears, Daniel F.  |  daniel.sprs@gmail.com

This study was aimed at testing the ability of the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) to induce reflectiveness leading to utilitarian decisions in moral dilemmas. Utilitarian decisions have been associated with rationality and reflectiveness. Previous studies showed that responding correctly to at least one CRT item induces more utilitarian responses, while others stated that the CRT is predictive of a participant’s natural utilitarianism. To explore the CRT’s ability to induce reflection, we compared participants’ responses to moral dilemmas after completing either the CRT or the Berlin Numeracy Test (BNT); additionally, some participants received feedback (FB) on their test performance. Participants in Feedback conditions (CRT/BNT) were given help and another opportunity to reflect on their incorrect responses and change them. Feedback was especially important in CRT_FB, because it encouraged participants to reconsider and inhibit intuitive false responses. We found that when participants answered more questions correctly in the CRT_FB condition, they made more utilitarian decisions in a subsequent moral dilemmas task. Such pattern was not found in the BNT, which does not have intuitive incorrect responses. This suggests that, while the CRT may be predictive of utilitarian decisions, it also can induce them by inhibiting intuitive non-utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas.

Executive attentional modulations of conscious perception

 Miercoles | 10:20h - 10:25 h | 5 minute data-blitz
 Colás, Itsaso; Chica, Ana
 University of Granada, CIMCYC
 Colás, Itsaso  |  itsaso.colas@opendeusto.es

The relation between attention and consciousness has been a controversial topic over the last decade. Although there seems to be an agreement on their distinction at the functional level, no consensus has been reached about attentional processes being or not necessary for conscious perception. Recent studies concerning this issue have shown that alerting and exogenous orienting networks modulate conscious perception (Kusnir et al., 2011; Chica et al., 2010; 2011). We tested the behavioral relation between executive attention -the third component of Posner’s theory of attention networks- and conscious perception through a classical Stroop task, and analyzed the effect of congruency and error commitment on the conscious perception of near-threshold stimuli. Results showed that while Stroop conflict influenced participants’ decision criterion, error commission impaired both perceptual sensitivity and decision criterion to detect near-threshold information. This evidence can be interpreted as supporting the interactions between the executive control network of attention and conscious perception. Although further research on the topic is needed, our data seems to support the idea that both executive attention and conscious perception mechanisms of decision making would be implemented in partially overlapping brain regions, likely implemented in the frontal lobes.

Retrieval difficulties during proper name retrieval in aging

 Miercoles | 10:30 - 11:00, 12:45 - 13:15 | Poster
 Daniela Paolieri; Luis Morales;Teresa Bajo;Alejandra Marful
 Universidad de Jaén
 Marful, Alejandra  |  mmarful@ujaen.es

Aging has traditionally been related to a deficit in inhibitory mechanisms. This study analyzed the possible role of the inhibitory deficit hypothesis (Hasher & Zacks, 1988) in explaining face naming difficulties during aging. Sixteen older adults with low educational level (Mean age = 68.6; Mean years of education = 4.3), 16 older adults with high educational level (Mean age = 66.4; Mean years of education = 15.6) and 16 young adults with high educational level (Mean age = 19.3; Mean years of education = 17.3) were asked to repeatedly name objects or famous people in a homogeneous or in a heterogeneous context using the semantic blocking paradigm. Results showed a significant slowing for both face- and object-naming in the homogeneous context (interference effect), with a stronger effect for face naming. Older adults with low educational level showed an increased semantic interference effect during face naming when compared to older adults with high educational level. These results would support the possible role of the inhibitory deficit hypothesis in proper name retrieval.

Effects of practice during preparation of verbal instructions

 Miercoles | 10:30 - 11:00, 12:45 - 13:15 | Poster
 Ana F. Palenciano, Carlos González-García, Julio Santiago & María Ruz
 University of Granada
 Palenciano, Ana F.  |  anapaqi@correo.ugr.es

Humans have the ability to use instructions to guide our actions, which allows us to execute new tasks with success at first try. This kind of task preparation has been associated with the activity of frontal and parietal brain areas, as well as subcortical structures. There is also evidence of two neural systems that control our behavior at different time scales during learned tasks: a fronto-parietal network, involved in the trial-by-trial adjustment of performance, and a cingulo-opercular system, which maintains the task context and strategies active. Our aim was to study whether both systems were recruited in a similar sustained/transient mode during novel task preparation, using an fMRI mixed-design. In our task, participants had to implement different verbal instructions. We manipulated the experience with the trials (new/practiced) and the category of the target (faces/letter), while exploring different stages of processing of the verbal instruction: encoding, preparation and execution. Our results show that the same fronto-parietal control areas were recruited for both the execution of new instructions and the preparation of practiced trials. There were also different areas with sustained activity through new and practiced blocks (posterior parietal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, respectively). Overall, the dynamics of the fronto-parietal network seems to vary depending on the novelty of the situation, but the role of the cingulo-opercuar system is not yet clear.

Desirable difficulty: The benefit of perceptual disfluency on remembering

 Miercoles | 10:30 - 11:00, 12:45 - 13:15 | Poster
 Rosner, Tamara; Hanae Davis; Zahra Khalesi; Bruce Milliken
 McMaster University
 Rosner, Tamara  |  trosner@uwaterloo.ca

Perceptual disfluencies produce dissociations between word naming time and memory performance. These disfluency manipulations include congruency in selective attention tasks and blurring of single words in perceptual degradation experiments, which reliably yield slower naming times but better remembering compared to non-disfluent items (Rosner et al., in press). The present study addressed the question of whether processing fluency differences between trial types affect later recognition memory performance. The possible role of attentional orienting on encoding processes is discussed.

The Attentional Blink is Modulated by Attentional Set

 Miercoles | 10:30 - 11:00, 12:45 - 13:15 | Poster
 MacLellan, Ellen; David Shore; Bruce Milliken
 McMaster University
 MacLellan, Ellen  |  maclele@mcmaster.ca

Attentional selection is critical to attentional blink (AB). Selectively attending to a first target (T1) requires limited capacity encoding resources that are then unavailable for consolidation of a second target (T2), if the two targets appear in close temporal proximity. Here we examine how prior experience controls the T1 encoding process. We present a pre-T1 target stimulus that is either similar or dissimilar to T1, and examine how pre-T1 target similarity affects T1 encoding and the AB. The results suggest that such similarity effects exist, but that they are modulated strongly by attentional set.

Reflection and Utilitarianism: Higher scores on CRT after receiving feedback lead to more utilitarian decisions

 Miercoles | 10:30 - 11:00, 12:45 - 13:15 | Poster
 Spears, Daniel F.; Yasmina Okan; María Ruz; Felisa González   
 University of Granada
 Spears, Daniel F.  |  daniel.sprs@gmail.com

Do we mentally simulate the content of language? The role of the motor cortex in sentence comprehension

 Miercoles | 10:30 - 11:00, 12:45 - 13:15 | Poster
 Omar David Escámez Moreno a, Andrea Flumini a, Daniel Casasanto b, Gabriella Vigliocco c, & Julio Santiago a
 a Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada
 b Dept. of Psychology, University of Chicago
 c Dept. of Experimental Psychology, University College London
 Santiago, Julio |  santiago@ugr.es

Embodiment theories propose that comprehension of action sentences activates motor areas that take part in the actual performance of those areas. This mental simulation of action is proposed to be an integral part of language comprehension. As with any concept, action concepts can be represented at different levels, from a low level (specifying the perceptual and motor details of the action) to a high level (focusing on the distant goals of the action). We hypothesized that motor areas of the brain are involved in the representation of low levels of actions, and that higher levels are processed in integration areas. If motor areas are satiated (e.g., by the continuous performance of a rhythmic tapping pattern), the comprehension of a sentence should be biased toward high level aspects. In the present study, participants performed a rhythm with either the hands or the feet while read to sentences describing actions that are carried out either with the hands or the feet. They then chose one of two interpretations of the sentence, either a low level or a high level interpretation. Hand tapping increased the proportion of high level choices for hand sentences, and foot tapping did the same for foot sentences. These results proof the implication of motor areas in the language comprehension process and clarify their role: they are involved in simulating the low level aspects of the action.

Item-level analysis of implicit learning

 Miercoles | 11:00h - 11:45 h | 30 minute talk
 Jamieson, Randy
 University of Manitoba
 Jamieson, Randy  |  randy.jamieson@umanitoba.ca

Most theories of implicit learning were designed to explain how people learn categorical properties of studied materials (e.g., grammaticality, associative chunk strength, sequential redundancy). Although the strategy has proven useful, it accepts a degree of imprecision and invites inferential error. It also fails to discriminate theories. I will explain the logical problem using the artificial grammar task. Then, I will demonstrate a solution using a memorial and computational account of implicit learning. I conclude that research on implicit learning will benefit by shifting away from the prevailing strategy of category-level analysis toward the more precise and certain strategy of fitting item-level performance.

Learning, Memory, And The Control Of Serial Action

 Miercoles | 11:45h - 12:30 h | 30 minute talk
 Matthew Crump; Lawrence Behmer
 Brooklyn College of CUNY
 Crump, Matthew  |  mcrump@brooklyn.cuny.edu

People have the extraordinary ability to control the order of their actions. How people accomplish action sequencing and become skilled at sequencing with practice are long-standing problems (Lashley, 1951; Rosenbaum, Cohen, Jax, Weiss, & van der Wel, 2007). We used the online crowd-sourcing service, Amazon Mechanical Turk (Crump, McDonnell, & Gureckis, 2013) to measure typing performance from hundreds of typists who naturally varied in skill level. The large data set allowed us to test competing predictions about the acquisition of serial-ordering ability that we derived from computational models of learning and memory (Elman, 1990; Logan, 1988).These models suggest that the time to execute actions in sequences will correlate with the statistical structure of actions in the sequence, and that the pattern of correlation changes in particular ways with practice.

Activites of daily living and executive functions in dementia, mild cognitive impairment and frontal lobe patients

 Miercoles | 13:15h - 14:00 h | 30 minute talk
 María J. Funes, María Rodríguez Bailón, Tamara García Morán, Nuria Montoro Membila, Mónica Triviño, Estrella Ródenas, Marisa Arnedo
 University of Granada
 Funes Molina, María Jesús  |  

Is the Vigilance Decrement Obligatory?

 Jueves | 9:30h - 9:45 h | 15 minute talk
 David R Thomson; Derek Besner; Daniel Smilek
 University of Waterloo
 Thomson, David R  |  thomsodr@gmail.com

It is well known that when human observers must monitor for rare but critical events, the proportion of events correctly detected declines over time, a phenomenon known as the ‘vigilance decrement’. Over 60 years of empirical study on this topic has culminated in the general consensus that performance suffers due to a loss in observers’ ability to distinguish Signal from Noise (a loss in sensitivity) provided that the task loads memory and stimuli are presented at a relatively high rate. This conclusion has spawned theoretical accounts of vigilant attention that posit a loss in information processing resources over time. In this talk, I will contend on a theoretical level that the metrics employed to measure observer sensitivity in modern vigilance tasks (derived from Signal Detection Theory) are inappropriate and largely un-interpretable. This contention is supported by an evaluation of recent empirical work in the vigilance domain. Second, I will present the results of an experiment that demonstrates that shifts in response bias (the observer’s ‘willingness to respond’) over time can masquerade as a loss in sensitivity. Consequently, I will argue that there is insufficient empirical evidence to ascribe the vigilance decrement to a loss in sensitivity. The theoretical, as well as practical implications of these conclusions are discussed with respect to a recently forwarded ‘Resource Control’ account of sustained attention.

Individual differences in vigilance capacity as a function of the practice of aerobic exercise.

 Jueves | 9:45h - 10:00 h | 15 minute talk
 Sanabria, Daniel; Antonio Luque-Casado; Pandelis Perakakis
 Mind Brain and Behavior Research Center
 Sanabria, Daniel  |  daniel@ugr.es

The present paper reports on an ERP study investing individual differences in vigilance capacities as a function of practice of aerobic exercise. Participants were assigned to an athletes group and to a non-athletes group as a function of their self-reported regular practice of aerobic exercise. An incremental effort test confirmed the between-groups difference in terms of aerobic fitness. Vigilance performance was measured by a 60’ version of the Psychomotor Vigilance Task, whereby participants have to respond to a target stimulus that appears in a random interval between 2 and 10 seconds after the presentation of a cue stimulus. The results revealed faster RT in the athletes than in the non-athletes group in the first 30’ of the task. This was accompanied by larger CNV for athletes than for non-athletes, also in the first half of the task. Crucially, athletes showed larger P300 activity than non-athletes during the whole task. All in all, the results of this study are in accordance with previous research from our laboratory, pointing to a better vigilance capacity in young people who regularly practice aerobic exercise. We discuss our results in terms of the hypotheses regarding the relationship between aerobic exercise, cognitive performance and brain functioning.

Relationship between cognitive control, warning signal intensity and temporal preparation.

 Jueves | 10:00h - 10:15 h | 15 minute talk
 Cappucci, Paola; Correa, Angel; Lupiáñez, Juan
 Departamento de Psicología Experimental, Universidad de Granada, Granada
 Cappucci, Paola  |  paolacappucci@ugr.es

The increase of acoustic warning signal (WS) intensity is often accompanied by reaction times (RT) shortening. From previous literature we know that mechanisms underlying the alerting and cognitive control functions may interact, but how irrelevant characteristics of WS intervene in their relationship is still unclear. Our aim was to analyze the influence of cognitive control demand on the behavioral expression of task-irrelevant characteristic of WS. As the preparation in time is modulated by the cognitive control demand, in two experiments we manipulate the temporal preparation, in terms of WS-target interval (400 versus 1400 ms conditions), and the acoustic intensity effect (53 versus 83 dB conditions). In Experiment 1 and 2 the manipulation was identical, with exception of the task: in Experiment 1 the participants performed a spatial interference task (Simon or spatial Stroop); in Experiment 2 they did a simple detection task. The results showed an influence of control mechanisms in order to observe both WS intensity effect and foreperiod effect (shorter RT in 1400 ms condition). However, in Experiment 1 the consequences of WS irrelevant characteristics manipulation were reflected in a different way depending on the kind of interference involved. A final debate about the possible explanations is proposed.

Relationship between Cognitive control and emotional Regulation and its modulation by state anxiety

 Jueves | 10:15h - 10:30 h | 15 minute talk
 María A. Leyva, Joaquín M. M. Vaquero, José Luis Mata, Alberto Acosta & María J. Funes
 University of Granada
 Funes Molina, María Jesús  |  

Studying unconscious processing using emotional faces in interpersonal decisions

 Jueves | 10:30 - 11:00, 12:45 - 13:15 | Poster
 Díaz, Paloma; Ruz, María
 University of Granada
 Díaz, Paloma  |  palomadg@correo.ugr.es

Over the last decades, there has been a revival in the study of unconsciousness and its effects on behavior. An interesting approach to this topic is the use of emotional faces, due to their richness and complexity. Recently, subliminal priming research in non-social contexts have shown how unconscious information can influence our decisions. Therefore, the aim of the present work was to investigate the influence of unconscious emotional faces in interpersonal decisions. To this end, we designed a version of the Trust Game where participants had to decide whether to cooperate or not with unfamiliar partners, who were represented by their masked emotional facial expressions. These were presented at the Subjective and Objective levels of unawareness, and also in a conscious manner. In Experiment 1, we established the temporal parameters needed to obtain unconscious processing. In Experiment 2, we improved several aspects of the design. Our preliminary results show that, although we managed to present the emotional faces at unawareness levels, emotional information only influenced decisions in the conscious condition. Here, participants decided to cooperate more with happy than with angry partners. We also observed an interpersonal emotional conflict effect in reaction times. Overall, with our current preliminary data we cannot conclude that unconscious emotional facial information biases interpersonal decisions.

Memory, aging and the executive déficit hypothesis

 Jueves | 10:30 - 11:00, 12:45 - 13:15 | Poster
 Ortega, Almudena; Aguirre, Carmen; Gómez-Ariza, Carlos J.; Bajo, M.Teresa
 University of Granada
 Almudena, Ortega  |  Almudena Ortega@ugr.es

An influential view on cognitive development suggests that aging brings a decline in inhibitory efficiency (Hasher & Zacks, 1988). Because of this inhibitory deficit the elderly are less able to control interference from irrelevant (external or internal) or to withdraw dominant but inappropriate responses. Evidence supporting this inhibitory account of cognitive aging comes from a variety of experimental tasks thought to draw on inhibitory control (for a review see Lustig, Hasher, & Zacks, 2007). Unfortunately, however, the evidence for reduced inhibitory effects for older adults has not been entirely consistent, with some authors reporting clear age equivalence in some inhibitory tasks (e.g., Aslan, Baüml, & Pastötter, 2007). Based on these contrasting results, some have proposed that there might be a fundamental difference between intentional/controlled and automatic/unintentional inhibition with the latest being intact in older people (Andrés, Guerrini, Phillips, & Perfect, 2008) or even that mechanism other than inhibition may be responsible for the greater susceptibility to interference of older people. Here, we report data suggesting that, in contrast to these views, the critical factor to find age differences may be the overall challenge posed by the inhibition task. Thus, we show age differences in both intentional (directed forgetting) and non-intentional tasks (Retrieval practice) when the demands for executive control are increased. In addition, we extend these findings to face and name retrieval where alternative mechanisms have been proposed to explain age differences.

The Complex Interplay of Encoding Demands, Repetition, and Recognition

 Jueves | 10:30 - 11:00, 12:45 - 13:15 | Poster
 Collins, R.; Rosner, T.; Milliken, B.
 McMaster University
 Collins, Robert  |  collinrn@mcmaster.ca

Rosner, López-Benítez, and Milliken (2014, BBCS) reported that recognition memory can be more sensitive for study items presented once (not-repeated) than for study items presented twice (repeated). We examined this ironic effect further by varying encoding demands. Participants completed an incidental study phase involving presentations of a prime and target word, and encoded the prime under varying conditions: (1) Ignoring; (2) Divided Attention; (3) Count the Vowels; (4) Naming; and (5) Semantic Categorization. Across these conditions, performance varied from better recognition for not-repeated items to better recognition for repeated items, implying a complex interplay between encoding demands, repetition, and recognition.

Control Deprivation and Cognitive Control: Three Types of Attentional Conflict

 Jueves | 10:30 - 11:00, 12:45 - 13:15 | Poster
 Julian Hernandez-Pumarejo-Marcin; Bukowski-Alberto Acosta-Juan Lupiáñez
 University of Granada
 Hernández-Pumarejo, Julian  |  julianmhpumarejo@gmail.com

Control deprivation has been associated to a series of cognitive performance deficits. These arrive as a result of prolonged cognitive engagement, and failure to produce successful performance outcomes. A study by Bukowsky, Asanowicz, Marzecova & Lupiáñez (2014), provides evidence that these deficits can also have detrimental effects on cognitive control. This study seeks to further disentangle the domain-general or domain-specific characteristics of these deficits by implementing an attentional control task conformed of three different types of conflicts. Seventy participants were divided into two groups, one would be control deprived and the other would not. We induced control deprivation through informational helplessness training, a task developed by Kofta & Sedek (1990), where a series of discrimination problems were either solvable or unsolvable. Consequently, both groups would execute an attentional control task where they confronted three different types of conflict interference: a) irrelevant distractor interference, b) Simon interference, c) spatial Stroop interference. Results showed that control deprivation deficits, may not be domain-general, but rather domain-specific, generating greater Simon interference and less to none interference in the spatial Stroop for control deprived participants, while both groups performance was similar in the irrelevant distractors inhibition task.

Conflicting effects of context in change detection and visual search: A dual process account

 Jueves | 10:30 - 11:00, 12:45 - 13:15 | Poster
 LaPointe, Mitch; Milliken, Bruce
 McMaster University
 LaPointe, Mitch  |  lapoimrp@mcmaster.ca

Much research has shown a benefit of contextual congruity in visual search and categorization tasks using natural scenes. A congruent context is thought to contain predictive information pertaining to the types of objects likely to be encountered, as well as their location. However, in change detection tasks, a congruent context often impairs performance compared with changes embedded in incongruent contexts. Using a stimulus set controlled for object salience, we compare performance in change detection and visual search. We offer a dual process account including detection and identification, each of which is differentially emphasized across tasks, producing conflicting results.

Do we associate the bad with the side of the disfluent hand?

 Jueves | 10:30 - 11:00, 12:45 - 13:15 | Poster
 Mónica Povedano, Juan Manuel de la Fuente, & Julio Santiago
 Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada
 Santiago, Julio |  santiago@ugr.es

The body specificity hypothesis suggests that we associate “good” with one side of the body or the other depending of the fluidity with which we carry out manual actions for that side of the body. Right-handed people tend to associate “good” with the right side whereas left-handed people do so with the left side. Previous studies have shown that both carrying out fine motor tasks simultaneously with a fluent and a disfluent hand, as well as observing another person doing them, can change the emotional valence associated with each side of the space. The goal of this study was to test whether the force driving this effect is dysfluency (as in which hand is disfluent), independently of the side of space used by the hand. It also tested whether observers are affected like actors. In the experiment the subject carried out a fine motor task using only one hand, while wearing a ski glove, which makes her highly disfluent. At the same time, an observer is located in front of the actor looking the execution. Data showed that neither carrying out the task nor observing it changed the lateral associations of good-bad with left-right in actors nor observers. We conclude that it may be necessary the presence of a fluency contrast in order to induce a change in the associations of emotional valence with lateral space.

Action effects on the perception of multisensory events

 Jueves | 11:00h - 11:45 h | 30 minute talk
 Finkelshtein, A.; Vallet, G.; Shore, D.I.
 McMaster University
 Shore, David I.  |  dshore@mcmaster.ca

Perception and action are intimately intertwined. The traditional model of human performance posits that perception leads to action, but more recent evidence highlights the effect that action can have on perception. Indeed, the perceived onset of an auditory tone can be moved forward in time when it is preceded by a voluntary action—a phenomenon termed intentional binding (Haggard, Clark & Kalogeras, 2002, Nat. Neuro.). The present research examines the relative strength of binding across the three spatiotemporal modalities—vision, audition, and touch. Using a temporal order judgment task following a voluntary action, the relative timing of each modality pair was examined. Additionally, each stimulus could appear close to the preceding action or on the opposite hand. For visuotactile and audiotactile pairings, the relative spatial location mattered, whereas for the audiovisual pairing space was irrelevant. The results are discussed in terms of differential perception–action linkages for each modality.

Attentional modulations of conscious perception

 Jueves | 11:45h - 12:30 h | 30 minute talk
 Chica, Ana B.
 University of Granada
 Chica, Ana B.  |  anachica@ugr.es

The relationships between attention and conscious perception are currently the object of intense debate. Recent evidence of double dissociations between attention and consciousness cast doubt on the time-honored concept of attention as a gateway to consciousness. Here we review evidence from behavioral, neurophysiologic, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging experiments, showing that distinct sorts of attention can have different effects on visual conscious perception.

Holistic Processing From Learned Attention to Parts

 Jueves | 13:15h - 14:00 h | 30 minute talk
 Jennifer J. Richler; Kao-Wei Chua; Isabel Gauthier
 Vanderbilt University
 Richler, Jennifer  |  jennifer.j.richler@vanderbilt.edu

Unlike objects, faces are processed as unified wholes rather than a collection of parts. One popular operational definitions characterizes holistic processing as a failure of selective attention: participants are unable to attend to a single face part despite instructions to do so because faces are processed as wholes. Here, I present evidence that holistic processing is an expression of learned attention to diagnostic parts. In Experiment 1, participants individuated faces from a novel race (Lunaris) wherein the top, bottom, or both face halves contained diagnostic information. Participants who learned to attend to face parts (top or bottom diagnostic) exhibited no holistic processing. This suggests that individuation only leads to holistic processing when the whole face is attended. In Experiment 2, participants were trained to identify faces from two novel races, Lunaris and Taiyos, where diagnostic information was in complementary halves (e.g., top diagnostic for Lunaris, bottom diagnostic for Taiyos). Holistic processing was only observed for Lunari-Taiyo composites made from parts that were diagnostic during training (e.g., Lunari top half paired with Taiyo bottom half). This was replicated with novel objects (Greebles) in Experiment 3. These studies demonstrate a novel link between learned attentional control and the acquisition of holistic processing.

Conscious expectations determine non-conscious biases in task setting

 Viernes | 9:30h - 9:45 h | 15 minute talk
 González-García, Carlos; Tudela, Pío; Ruz, María
 Universidad de Granada
 González-García, Carlos  |  cgonzalez@ugr.es

Although recent studies highlight the influence of non-conscious information on task-set selection, it is still unknown whether it depends on conscious settings, as some theoretical models propose. In three experiments, we explored this idea by assessing whether non-conscious abstract cues could bias choices between two tasks. In Experiment 1, we observed a non-conscious influence on task-set selection using a paradigm that avoided previous confounds. Crucially, Experiments 2 and 3 showed that under an objective state of unawareness, cues only biased task selection when the conscious expectations made participants seek information during the time period of the cue. However, this conscious setting did not have an effect when participants were subjectively unaware of the cue. Our results reveal that the configuration of the conscious mindset determines the potential bias of non-conscious information on task-set selection.

The Impact of Imagination on Priming of Popout

 Viernes | 9:45h - 10:00 h | 15 minute talk
 Cochrane, Brett; Nwabuike, Andrea; Thomson, Dave; Milliken, Bruce
 McMaster
 Cochrane, Brett  |  cochraba@mcmaster.ca

This study explored the influence of explicit strategies on repetition effects in colour pop-out search. In a seminal study, Malkjovic and Nakayama (1994) found that target colour repetition effects were unaffected by explicit verbal predictions of the upcoming target colour. In the present study, we instructed participants to imagine the opposite target colour in between trials under conditions where “switch” trials were more likely than “repeat” trials. Participants responded faster to “switch” targets than to “repeat” targets, reversing the usual repetition effect. The results suggest that repetition effects in pop-out search are sensitive to some forms of explicit strategy.

DRD4 gene variations influence behavioural and neural aspects of inhibitory control in preschoolers

 Viernes | 10:00h - 10:15 h | 15 minute talk
 Lina Marcela Cómbita; Joan Paul Pozueloz; Alicia Abundis-Gutierrez, María del Rosario Rueda
 Dpto. Psicología Experimental, Universidad de Granada
 Cómbita, Lina Marcela  |  lmcombita@ugr.es

Development of the executive attention network (EAN) in the brain has been related to children’s ability to exert mechanisms of control at the cognitive, behavioural and emotional level in a goal-directed manner. Such capacity, known as self-regulation, has been linked to children’s social adjustment and school achievement in childhood and adolescence. Neural activity within the structures that comprise the EAN is modulated by the action of dopaminergic neurotransmitters. Studies have shown that genetic variations associated to an increased efficiency of the dopaminergic system within the EAN may underlie individual differences in self-regulation at the level of behaviour and brain activity. In the present study, we aimed to assess the influence of variations of the DRD4 gene in children’s self-regulatory mechanisms. A total of 95 preschoolers performed an inhibitory control (Go-NoGo) task while electroencephalographic activation was being recorded. Results show that presence of the 7r allele, which has been associated to a diminished dopaminergic signalling in the prefrontal cortex, is related to children’s poorer performance on the inhibitory control task. Moreover, children who do not carry the 7r allele show a more mature pattern of brain activation, which is characterized by a smaller area and shorter latency of the N2 component.

Perceptual Similarity Induces Overinvestement in an Attentional Blink Task

 Viernes | 10:15h - 10:30 h | 15 minute talk
 MacLellan, Ellen; David Shore; Bruce Milliken
 McMaster University
 MacLellan, Ellen  |  maclele@mcmaster.ca

Devoting fewer attentional resources to T1 encoding results in an attenuation of the attentional blink (AB) effect (Olivers et al 2005;2006). Using a modified two target procedure, across two experiments we found evidence of an AB for T1 items that generally would not produce an AB, when they are presented in a context that requires selective attention on some proportion of trials. The results support the claim that experimental context can influence the extent to which overinvestment occurs in an AB task.

The many faces of familiarity: From attributions to affect

 Viernes | 11:00h - 11:45 h | 30 minute talk
 Chris M. Fiacconi; Stefan Köhler
 The University of Western Ontario
 Fiacconi, Chris  |  cfiacco@uwo.ca

Many theoretical models of recognition memory posit that stimulus recognition can occur in the absence of explicitly retrieved contextual information surrounding the event in question (e.g., “butcher-on-the-bus” phenomenon). Typically referred to as familiarity-based recognition memory, this phenomenon is thought to be accompanied by a compelling subjective ‘feeling’ that an item or event has been previously encountered. However, it is at present unclear as to whether ‘feelings’ of familiarity share the same biological basis as other feeling states more traditionally defined. Guided by the framework that feelings result from the conscious perception of visceral bodily signals, we examined the extent to which ‘feelings’ of familiarity are shaped by feedback from the autonomic nervous system. Consistent with these ideas, we found that naturally occurring afferent cardiovascular feedback can enhance the subjective ‘feeling’ of familiarity, and that this enhancement may depend on inter-individual differences in perceptual sensitivity to this feedback. We discuss these results in relation to attribution processes, outlining the potential role for such processes in the construction of subjective experience.

Do semantically incongruent objects attract attention?

 Viernes | 11:45h - 12:30 h | 30 minute talk
 LaPointe, Mitch; Milliken, Bruce
 McMaster University
 LaPointe, Mitch  |  lapoimrp@mcmaster.ca

Past research has shown that objects that are semantically incongruent with a surrounding scene are detected faster than objects that are semantically congruent. One account of these findings is that attention is attracted to objects whose identity conflicts with the meaning of the scene, perhaps as a violation of expectancies created by earlier recruitment of scene gist information. An alternative account of the performance benefit for incongruent objects is that attention is more apt to linger on incongruent objects, as perhaps identifying these objects is more difficult due to conflicting information from the scene context. In the current experiment, we present natural scenes in a change detection task while monitoring eye-movements. Although we do uncover some evidence that the eyes revisit and linger on objects that are semantically incongruent, we also find eye-gaze is attracted to these objects relative early and accurately during scene processing.

From Inhibition of Return to object detection and object identification

 Viernes | 13:15h - 14:00 h | 30 minute talk
 Juan Lupiáñez
 Universidad de Granada
 Lupiáñez, Juan  |  jlupiane@ugr.es

From my first studies I interpreted the “yes but later” of IOR on discrimination tasks as evidence that spatial cueing might have different effects on detection and discrimination processes. Later on, after more than a decade performing IOR experiments in detection and discrimination tasks with many collaborators (Bruce Milliken, Paolo Bartolomeo, María Jesús Funes, Ana Chica, Elisa Martín-Arévalo…), we confirmed that this naïve first interpretation might be true: the cueing effect that is measured on spatial cueing effects can be independent of spatial orienting, and in fact be the net result of the contribution of detection and discrimination processes to target processing. More recently, we observed that not only incidental, non-predictive, spatial expectancies (as can spatial cueing be interpreted), but also implicit semantic expectancies can facilitate object identification at the same time they hinder object detection (LaPointe, Lupiáñez & Milliken, 2013). All this empirical evidence can be interpreted as if it is difficult for the system to realize that something is there (i.e., detection cost) precisely because it knows (i.e., has an implicit expectancy) that that thing is there (i.e., identification benefit). I will interpret this pattern of results and the original hypothesis in neural terms, on the basis or recent findings showing that object-specific neural preparation in V1 hinders object processing (i.e., better preparation in V1 leads to slower and less accurate object detection), whereas object-specific neural preparation in higher brain areas as Object Selective Cortex facilitates object processing (i.e., better preparation in OSC leads to faster and more accurate object detection)(Peelen & Kastner, 2011).