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PubMed2002

Fear, disgust, and information processing in specific phobia: the application of signal detection theory.

A growing body of research suggests that individuals with small animal and blood-injection-injury (BII) phobias respond to phobia-relevant stimuli with a combination of fear and disgust. Despite the recognition that disgust may serve a functional role in phobic avoidance behavior, little is known about biased information processing for disgust-related material. Two studies examined recognition memory, using signal detection analyses, for phobia-relevant and general disgust pictures. Study I failed to find differences between spider phobics, BII phobics, and nonphobics in discrimination ability (d') and response bias (c) for spider, surgical, and two categories of general disgust pictures. Results indicated that all participants responded in a liberal manner toward surgical and disgust pictures, whereas they responded more conservatively when judging spider pictures. Study 2 also failed to find differences between BII phobics and nonphobics in discrimination ability and response bias for surgical and disgust pictures presented at 500 and 50 ms exposure durations. All participants again adopted a liberal response bias toward surgical and disgust pictures, although only under the 500 ms stimulus presentation condition. These results do not suggest the presence of preferential information processing of phobia-relevant or general disgust elicitors among phobic participants. The functional value of disgust-mediated information processing biases is questioned given the available literature. Implications and suggestions for continued information processing research for fearful and disgusting stimuli in specific phobia are outlined.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Positive and negative schizophrenic symptoms, attention, and information processing.

This study was concerned with the relationship between attentional and information-processing deficits and positive vs. negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Sixteen schizophrenic patients, rated for extent of positive and negative symptomatology, 17 depressed patients, and 31 normal control subjects were tested on a measure of distractibility and ability to process under information overload. To establish the validity of our measures, schizophrenic patients were compared with depressed patients and with normal control subjects. Lowered processing capacity appeared to be specific to schizophrenia, although the specificity of differential distractibility was less clear. For schizophrenic patients, positive symptoms were related to distractibility, whereas negative symptoms were associated with lowered processing capacity. These findings were interpreted as supporting Crow's (1981) hypothesis that the two clinical syndromes reflect independent pathological processes.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The genetic correlation between intelligence and speed of information processing.

This study examined the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to the observed correlation between intelligence test scores and speed of information processing, based on data for same-sex adult twin pairs (age, 15-57). Verbal and performance IQ scores from the Multidimensional Abilities Battery, as well as 11 reaction-time measures derived from a battery of information-processing tasks, were available for 50 monozygotic and 32 dizygotic pairs of twins. Multivariate biometrical analyses were used to estimate genetic and environmental parameters underlying observed variances and covariances among intelligence test scores and a general speed of information-processing factor (based on a linear composite of the 11 reaction-time scores). A common-factor model with loadings on general speed of processing, verbal IQ, and performance IQ fit the data well. The common factor was influenced primarily by additive genetic effects, such that the observed relationships among the speed and IQ measures are mediated entirely by hereditary factors. There was additional specific genetic variance for Verbal IQ and specific shared-twin environmental variance for Performance IQ. However, twin similarity for general speed of processing was explained entirely by genetic factors related to intelligence. The results emphasize the importance of common, heritable, biological mechanisms underlying the speed-IQ association.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Improved prediction of success in surgical clerkship through measures of information processing.

A new system for predicting success of surgical student performance has been developed. A test of surgical knowledge, with questions given in the form of analogies, was administered to 16 students in their fourth week of clerkship. While solving test items, students' eye movements and fixations were tracked. By analysis of the recordings, eight scores of information-processing capabilities were derived. The processing scores and conventional predictors of medical school clinical performance were analyzed to determine their power to predict success, defined by ratings given on a 1 to 10 scale by 21 faculty members based on three tests of cognitive knowledge, two performance-based examinations, and faculty reports. The ratings were reliable (generalizability coefficient = 0.72; p less than 0.001). Stepwise regression analysis of all variables selected one MCAT score (science problems) and two information-processing scores to the statistical model that maximally predicted success. Regression coefficient for the science problem subset of the MCAT was 0.42. This was augmented to R2 = 0.77 when information processing variables were included. The increment was significant, F (2, 11) = 9.25; p less than 0.01. A newly developed test, coupled with techniques that made possible the derivation of components of information processing, nearly doubled the power of conventional tests to predict success in surgical clerkship.

Aptitude Tests↗
PubMed1984

Information processing and benzodiazepines.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of two selected benzodiazepines on aspects of information processing. The theoretical framework chosen was the 'levels of processing' model by Craik and Lockhart [J. verbal Learn. verbal Behav. 11: 671-684, 1972] modified so as to permit storage strategies to be assessed directly as dependent variables. A double-blind study with 72 healthy male volunteers was used to investigate the effects of clobazam and lorazepam in comparison to placebo on storage strategies, different variables of retrieval and the extent to which storage and retrieval strategies agreed. Concentration and changes in mood were also determined. Neither clobazam nor lorazepam affected the storage strategies, but various aspects of retrieval were significantly impaired by both drugs. Thus the psychotropic agents selected do not influence the information process until after the first storage processes. One possible explanation for this retrieval deficit could be a decreased ability to develop or use a retrieval strategy which complies with the storage strategy developed. Furthermore, both substances affected mood. In addition, lorazepam led to significant impairment of concentration. This impairment of concentration is perhaps the reason why lorazepam impairs the information process to a greater extent than clobazam.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Componential analysis as a way to investigate age-related changes in information processing.

The purpose of this paper is to alert researchers to the methods and utility of componential analysis as a means to examine age-related changes within information processing models of cognition. This analysis allows the researcher to determine which hypothesized information processing components are significant and the amount of variance shared with the dependent variable(s). Individual differences are investigated by modeling data at the individual subject level. Unstandardized regression weights are correlated with performance on a number of standardized ability tests to determine which components contribute to which abilities. The procedure combines complementary aspects of information processing analysis and psychometric analysis. Componential analysis is illustrated in this study with data from 60 individuals, aged 20 to 79, who solved verbal forced-choice analogies of the form A:B::C: (D1 or D2). Solution time and error rate data were modeled using a regression model developed by Sternberg (1977).

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Adaptive automation of human-machine system information-processing functions.

The goal of this research was to describe the ability of human operators to interact with adaptive automation (AA) applied to various stages of complex systems information processing, defined in a model of human-automation interaction. Forty participants operated a simulation of an air traffic control task. Automated assistance was adaptively applied to information acquisition, information analysis, decision making, and action implementation aspects of the task based on operator workload states, which were measured using a secondary task. The differential effects of the forms of automation were determined and compared with a manual control condition. Results of two 20-min trials of AA or manual control revealed a significant effect of the type of automation on performance, particularly during manual control periods as part of the adaptive conditions. Humans appear to better adapt to AA applied to sensory and psychomotor information-processing functions (action implementation) than to AA applied to cognitive functions (information analysis and decision making), and AA is superior to completely manual control. Potential applications of this research include the design of automation to support air traffic controller information processing.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Differential influences of exercise intensity on information processing in the central nervous system.

The influence of exercise intensity on information processing in the central nervous system was investigated using P300 and no-go P300 event-related potentials. Twelve subjects (22-33 years) performed a go/no-go reaction time task in a control condition, and again after high-, medium-, and low-intensity pedaling exercises. Compared to the control condition, P300 amplitude decreased after high-intensity pedaling exercise and increased after medium-intensity pedaling exercise. There was no change after low-intensity pedaling exercise. These results suggested that the amount of attentional resources devoted to a given task decreased after high-intensity exercise and increased after medium-intensity exercise. The findings also suggest that changes in P300 amplitude are an inverted U-shaped behavior of differences in exercise intensity. In addition, no-go P300 amplitude showed the same changes as P300 amplitude at different exercise intensities. This indicates that differences in exercise intensity influenced not only the intensity of processing the requirement for a go response, but also processing of the need for a no-go response. It is concluded that differences in exercise intensity influenced information processing in the CNS.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Implementation of a two-dimensional electrophoresis-related laboratory information processing system: database aspects.

A laboratory information processing system (LIPS) has been developed to provide support for various laboratory activities related to two-dimensional electrophoresis. In this paper we present the relational schema for each level of activity and the application development of LIPS, in terms of the relational database management system being used. We also discuss our experience with the current system.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1988

Slowed information processing in multiple sclerosis.

Sixteen patients with a definitive diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) and an equal number of matched controls were administered tests of memory and information processing speed. Results indicated a significant long-term verbal memory impairment in patients with MS, with spared short-term memory and memory scanning. Speed of information processing was evaluated with the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test. The results for the two highest rates of presentation revealed significantly impaired processing in the MS group. Performance at the higher rates and retrieval of information from long-term memory were significantly correlated. These results suggest that slowed information processing is a deficit that contributes to long-term memory impairment in patients with MS.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Visual information processing in infancy.

The author examined the construct validity of visual information processing in infancy (preference for novel visual targets) as a predictor of later neurological outcome. 104 infants with definite (N = 25), questionable (N = 27) or no evidence of neurological dysfunction (N = 52) were tested at three to seven months (corrected age). The mean novelty preference scores differed significantly between the three groups. These differences were not related to demographic data and still existed when the data were corrected for preterm birth and birthweight. These results support the hypothesis that visual information processing at three to seven months (corrected age) is a reflection of neurological intactness and may be useful in the clinical assessment of cortical function in infants.

Central Nervous System Diseases↗
PubMed1999

Cortical activation, signal-to-noise ratio and stochastic resonance during information processing in man.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to determine the relation between EEG, event-related potentials and information processing as measured by an acoustical choice reaction time task. In particular, we wanted to find out to what extent reaction-time performance is related to the pre-stimulus EEG activity (frequency domain) and the magnitude of signal power as well as noise power (stimulus-uncorrelated activity) after the tones (time domain). MATERIALS AND METHODS: For parametrization, EEG-activity was factorized across pre-defined frequency bands and 19 electrode positions, applying spectral power and coherence analysis. Signal power was estimated by calculating the mean power of the evoked single sweeps. Noise power was computed by subtracting the latter minus the power of the average evoked potential. We investigated 254 healthy subjects who had to perform an acoustical choice reaction task during running EEG. RESULTS: In the frequency domain, it was found that high frontally pronounced delta-power in the pre-stimulus EEG correlates with fast reaction-time performance, which was regarded as the expression of a readiness potential in the frequency domain, reflecting increased cortical activation. In the time domain, fast reaction times were found to be correlated with the amplitude of the event-related potential N100 as well as with the signal power and signal-to-noise ratio of the evoked activity. This result pointed to the frequently described relation between evoked signals and information processing. In accordance with the theory of stochastic resonance, we also found a positive correlation between the magnitude of noise power after the stimulus and reaction-time performance. Besides, noise power was found to be positively correlated with pre-stimulus cortical activation (mainly in the delta and alphal frequency band), whereas no relation was found between pre-stimulus EEG and the signal power of the event-related activity, except for a weak relation to the alpha2 power. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the notion that information processing is not only dependent on signal strength but also on a certain amount of basic noise, reflecting the overall energy state of the brain.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

[Change in the event-related skin conductivity: an indicator of the immediate importance of elaborate information processing?].

In recent psychophysiological conceptualizations of the orienting response (OR) within the framework of information processing, the OR is increasingly considered a "call for processing resources", something which is especially inferred from variations in the event-related skin conductance response (SCR). The present study, therefore, was concerned with certain implications arising from this framework or perspective, particularly in regard to the question of whether stimuli eliciting skin conductance responses obligatorily receive/evoke processing priority or not. In order to examine whether these electrodermal responses denote a capturing of attention or merely a call for processing resources, short (1 s) pure sine tones of 65 dB with sudden onset (commonly used as orienting stimuli) were inserted in a reaction time paradigm with an additional memory load. This demand was primarily given because memory processes play a key role in theories of orienting and habituation. The task was run under two different conditions of complexity, factorially combined with a novelty variation of the added auditory stimuli. The results revealed a substantial deterioration of task performance subsequent to the occurrence of the tones, which, however, was dependent on task complexity and on novelty of the tones. The task impairment is particularly remarkable as subjects were asked to avoid distractions by paying attention to the task and as the tones were introduced as subsidiary and task-irrelevant. Together with the missing effects of task complexity on phasic and tonic electrodermal activity, results suggest that information-processing conceptualizations of the OR can only be a meaningful heuristic contribution to theoretical developments about human orienting and its habituation if the setting of processing priority, its conditions, as well as its implications are adequately taken into account. In addition, it seems to be promising to consider the strength of the SCR as an index of urgency of elaborate, attention-demanding processing and not as a peripheral physiological manifestation of the OR, or, respectively, of a call for unspecific processing resources. Such a view would also do justice to the aspect of prioritization. The sufficient conditions for an OR's occurrence could, in this context, be equated with, among others, some of those which activate a mechanism subserving selective attention and, as a possible result, which lead to further and more elaborate processing of potentially important information.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

When the same is different. A comparison of the information processing strategies of deaf and hearing people.

In this study, the information processing strategies of Gallaudet University students who are profoundly and prelingually deaf were evaluated. The subjects demonstrated the highest levels of recognition to the left and right of the fixation point, often referred to as a reading strategy when found in hearing people. Additionally, they demonstrated higher levels of recognition at positions in the top right quadrant of the display, a pattern not found in hearing people. A main effect was found: subjects whose primary and secondary school backgrounds were oral and manual combined had significantly higher levels of recognition overall than did subjects from oral-only educational backgrounds. Differences in background did not interact with strategy use in this study. These findings lead to the conclusion that the information processing strategies of deaf people need to be evaluated closely before general conclusions can be made. Alternative means for evaluating these types of findings are suggested.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Temporal information processing in ADHD: findings to date and new methods.

The ability to perceive and represent time is a fundamental but complex cognitive skill that allows us to perceive and organize sequences of events and actions, and to anticipate or predict when future events will occur. It is a multidimensional construct, and a variety of methods have been used to understand timing performance in ADHD samples, which makes it difficult to integrate findings across studies. While further replication is needed, growing evidence links ADHD to problems in several aspects of temporal information processing, including duration discrimination, duration reproduction, and finger tapping. Neuroimaging studies of ADHD have also implicated cerebellar, basal ganglia, and prefrontal regions of the brain, which are believed to subserve temporal information processing. This line of research implicates more basic cognitive mechanisms than previously linked with ADHD and challenges researchers to develop and utilize innovative, multidisciplinary, scientific methods to dissect the various components of temporal information processing. Recent advances in neuroimaging, such as magnetoencephalography in collaboration with structural magnetic resonance imaging, can discriminate temporal processing at the level of a millisecond. This approach can lay the groundwork to provide a more precise understanding of neural network activity during different aspects and stages of temporal information processing in ADHD.

Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorder↗
PubMed2002

Brain monoamines and early visual information-processing speed.

Visual inspection time (IT) is a measure of information-processing speed, which correlates reliably with psychometric intelligence. Pharmacological research into IT indicates that manipulation of the cholinergic system modulates performance on the IT task, however the contribution of other neurotransmitters to this modality remains unclear. This study was designed to examine the effects of low brain serotonin and catecholamine availability on IT using the established method of amino-acid precursor depletion. Female participants (n=13) completed three experimental sessions; tryptophan depletion (TD); tyrosine/phenylalanine depletion (TPD); and a balanced control condition (B) in a randomized, double-blind cross-over design. IT assessments were performed at baseline and approx. 5 h post-mixture administration. IT scores were unaffected by either of the treatment conditions. These findings suggest that monoamines, whilst implicated in various forms of cognition are not central to IT, which measures the efficiency of perceptual intake and information-processing speed.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Development and evaluation of an attentional test for head injured children--1. Information processing capacity in a normal sample.

The Children's Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (CHIPASAT) was developed to assess the capacity and rate of information processing in children. This basic aspect of attention underlies many abilities, and is impaired following head injury in adults. Similar impairment may occur in children after head injury or other CNS dysfunction. A sample (N = 315) of normal school children was assessed with the CHIPASAT to establish normative data, and relationships between age, arithmetic ability, general intellectual (g) ability and information processing capacity. The results suggest that the age and, to a lesser extent, the arithmetic ability of a child have a significant influence on information processing capacity. The children's general intellectual ability (g) and sex were unrelated to CHIPASAT performance.

Adolescent↗