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PubMed2005

[Emotional dysfunction, psychopathy and cognitive neuroscience. What is new and what are the consequences].

This article provides a review of recent findings in the cognitive neurosciences on antisocial personality disorders. There is accumulating evidence that the subtype of psychopathy is characterized by emotional dysfunction not only on the behavioral level but also by structural and functional abnormalities of the brain. Although the findings are not yet conclusive, they are already being discussed controversially with respect to the question of accountability of persons with psychopathy. False conclusions dominating these considerations are discussed and corrected. The findings open a new discussion of the relevance of emotional function and dysfunction for accountability.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed2002

Representing task context: proposals based on a connectionist model of action.

Representations of task context play a crucial role in shaping human behavior. While the nature of these representations remains poorly understood, existing theories share a number of basic assumptions. One of these is that task representations are discrete, independent, and non-overlapping. We present here an alternative view, according to which task representations are instead viewed as graded, distributed patterns occupying a shared, continuous representational space. In recent work, we have implemented this view in a computational model of routine sequential action. In the present article, we focus specifically on this model's implications for understanding task representation, considering the implications of the account for two influential concepts: (1) cognitive underspecification, the idea that task representations may be imprecise or vague, especially in contexts where errors occur, and (2) information-sharing, the idea that closely related operations rely on common sets of internal representations.

Behavior↗
PubMed1999

Serial attention mechanisms in visual search: a critical look at the evidence.

Until a few years ago, visual search tasks were of exclusive pertinence to psychophysicists and cognitive psychologists trying to understand the operating principles and computational constraints of visual perception and visual selective attention. In recent years, cognitive neuroscience, with its powerful tools, has started to explore more directly the neuronal mechanisms underlying search performance in humans and macaques, aiming at the same general goals. New observations from a number of cognitive neuroscience approaches are promising a near future of great excitement in this field of research. This article offers a critical review of some of these recent contributions and highlights some of the interpretational problems that they pose.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Visual-spatial working memory, attention, and scene representation: a neuro-cognitive theory.

This paper addresses the issue of how visual-spatial working memory, attention, and scene representation are related. The first section introduces a modified two-stage conception of visual-spatial processing. "Stage one" refers to low-level visual-spatial processing and computes in parallel for the currently available retinal information "object candidates," here called "visual-spatial units." An attentional process called "unit selection" allows access to stage two for one of these units at a time. Stage two contains high-level visual-spatial information that can be used for goal-directions (e.g., verbal report, grasping). It consists of three parallel processing streams. First, the currently selected unit is recognized; second, a spatial-motor program for the selected unit is computed; and third, an "object file" is set up for the selected unit. An object file contains temporary episodic representations of detailed high-level visual-spatial attributes of an "object" plus an "index." An index acts as a pointer and is bound via temporary connections to the attributes of the file. Section two of this paper specifies one part of stage two in more detail, namely visual-spatial working memory (VSWM). It can contain up to four object files. A first central claim is that during sensory-based processing for working memory ("access"), one object file is always "on-line," and up to three other object files are "off-line". A second central claim is that the process of setting up an object file depends on the number and the activation level of already stored files. Based on the concept of activation-based competition between object files, it is postulated that the more files that are stored and the higher their activation is, the longer it takes for a newly set up object file to reach a sufficient level of activation. Activation-based competition is also used to explain "short-term forgetting" by "interference." A third central claim about VSWM is that a "refreshment" process exists that increases the activation level of an index of an object file in order to prevent forgetting or in order to bring the file back to the state of controlling the current action. Finally, section three gives a selective look at a number of experimental data such as the attentional blink, backward masking, dwell time effects, transsaccadic memory, and change blindness. New explanations are offered and new predictions made.

Attention↗
PubMed2005

The biogenic approach to cognition.

After half a century of cognitive revolution we remain far from agreement about what cognition is and what cognition does. It was once thought that these questions could wait until the data were in. Today there is a mountain of data, but no way of making sense of it. The time for tackling the fundamental issues has arrived. The biogenic approach to cognition is introduced not as a solution but as a means of approaching the issues. The traditional, and still predominant, methodological stance in cognitive inquiry is what I call the anthropogenic approach: assume human cognition as the paradigm and work 'down' to a more general explanatory concept. The biogenic approach, on the other hand, starts with the facts of biology as the basis for theorizing and works 'up' to the human case by asking psychological questions as if they were biological questions. Biogenic explanations of cognition are currently clustered around two main frameworks for understanding biology: self-organizing complex systems and autopoiesis. The paper describes the frameworks and infers from them ten empirical principles--the biogenic 'family traits'--that constitute constraints on biogenic theorizing. Because the anthropogenic approach to cognition is not constrained empirically to the same degree, I argue that the biogenic approach is superior for approaching a general theory of cognition as a natural phenomenon.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed2006

The role of the feedforward paradigm in cognitive psychology.

Feedforward control is a process adjusting behaviour in a continuative way. Feedforward takes place when an equilibrium state is disrupted and the system has to automatically retrieve the homeostatic stable state. It also occurs when a perturbation is previewed and must be eliminated in order to achieve a desired goal. According to the most general definition, a feedforward process operates by fixing the future representation of the desired state, the achieving of which stops the process. Then, feedforward works by means of the refinement determined by successive comparisons between the actual and target products. In its applications, a feedforward process is thought to be modulated by the subject's purpose and the environmental state. Over the years, the feedforward process has assumed different connotations in several contests of cognitive psychology. An overview of the research fields in psychology that significantly progressed with the introduction of a feedforward paradigm is provided by: (a) reviewing models in which the feedforward concept plays a fundamental role in the system control; (b) examining critical experiments related to the interaction of feedforward and feedback processes; (c) evidencing practical applications for some of the presented feedforward-based architectures.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Operational Noology as a new methodology for the study of thought and language: theoretical aspects and possible practical applications.

In this article, the author presents a new methodology for the study of two fundamental components of consciousness, that is thought and language. The fundamental presupposition that forms the basis of this methodology is that thought is not simply a passive "reflection" of an external "reality", but also (and especially) something active, i.e. that the fundamental components of thought are sequences of operations, amongst which the ones of attention play a key role. These sequences of elementary mental operations are called mental categories, and are the meanings of all the words that do not seem to indicate something physical (first of all, all the "grammatical" words, that is conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns, fundamental verbs like "to be", "to have" etc., the main adverbs, and, in the large number of languages that have a more or less rich morphology, all morphemes (the ones which indicate cases, in languages that have cases, the number and the gender of nouns and adjectives, moods and tenses of the verb etc.). The author proposes a list of these elementary mental operations and he shows how it is possible, basing ourselves on them, to identify the meanings of these words, which are indispensable for any linguistic expression. The author also mentions a possible short-term practical application of these theories, i.e. a device in order to improve the quality of machine translation. He also formulates the hypothesis that these theories could allow us to look in a new way at the problem of the (partial) artificial reproduction of the human activity of thought and language.

Attention↗
PubMed1996

On the equivalence of superordinate concepts.

Psychological studies of superordinates have generally treated them as equivalent. However, many languages distinguish mass superordinates (e.g., clothing) from count superordinates (e.g., vehicle). In the present paper, experimental evidence is presented which suggests that the two types of superordinates are conceptually distinct as well. One study showed that the members of mass superordinates more often co-occur. A second study showed that people more often interact with the members of mass superordinates in temporal proximity whereas people primarily interact with single members of count superordinates on a specific occasion. Also, properties that characterize an individual are a more salient aspect of count superordinates. These findings imply that mass superordinates refer to unindividuated groups of objects, united by spatial and functional contiguity. Two other studies supported this hypothesis by showing that the class inclusion relation between a single object and a category is stronger for count superordinates. Taken together, the findings suggest that mass superordinates are not true taxonomic categories. We relate the findings to previous views of superordinates and to the count/mass distinction in general.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Mental models and temporal reasoning.

We report five experiments investigating reasoning based on temporal relations, such as: "John takes a shower before he drinks coffee". How individuals make temporal inferences has not been studied hitherto, but we conjectured that they construct mental models of events, and we developed a computer program that reasons in this way. As the program shows, a problem of the form: a before b b before c d while b e while c What is the relation between d and e? where a, b, c, etc. refer to everyday events, calls for just one model, whereas a problem in which the second premise is modified to c before b calls for multiple models because a may occur before c, after c, or at the same time as c. Experiments 1-3 showed that problems requiring one mental model elicited more correct responses than problems requiring multiple models, which in turn elicited more correct answers than multiple model problems with no valid answers. Experiment 4 contrasted the predictions of the model theory with those based on formal rules of inference; its results corroborated the model theory. Experiment 5 confirmed that a premise leading to multiple models took longer to read than the corresponding premise in one-model problems, and that latency to respond correctly was greater for multiple-model problems than for one-model problems. We conclude that the experiments corroborate the mental model theory.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Integrated human-machine intelligence in space systems.

This paper presents an artificial intelligence approach to integrated human-machine intelligence in space systems. It discusses the motivations for Intelligent Assistant Systems in both nominal and abnormal situations. The problem of constructing procedures is shown to be a very critical issue. In particular, keeping procedural experience in both design and operation is critical. We suggest what artificial intelligence can offer in this direction. Some crucial problems induced by this approach are discussed in detail. Finally, we analyze the various roles that would be shared by both astronauts, ground operators, and the intelligent assistant system.

Artificial Intelligence↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cognitive neurotoxicology: a luxury or necessity?

Impaired psychological test performance is often observed at concentrations of a neurotoxicant below those producing harmful effects on other organ systems. The importance of this distinctive susceptibility lies in the opportunity it provides for the early detection of dysfunction. From this perspective, it is essential to evolve sensitive psychological methods for studying these states of marginal toxicity. It is argued that a cognitive approach provides the necessary degree of sensitivity and specificity for characterizing these states. Given the growing interest in using cognitive models to assess minor dysfunction in areas outside neurotoxicology, it is further argued that theoretically motivated methods can no longer be considered a luxury for neurotoxicological work. It is concluded that there are at least two advantages to this approach. First, it provides a theoretical framework for organising data. Second, establishing and developing links to substantive areas of cognitive investigation outside neurotoxicology will allow cross-fertilization to occur on a scientific level and provide a more convincing basis for action on a regulatory level.

Behavior↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The Automated Cognitive Test (ACT) system.

The ACT system is a key-press, menu-driven system for selecting, administering, and storing raw data from a series of specially designed psychological tasks. Associated task analysis programs process the raw data and store the resulting summary data for later statistical analysis. The system utilizes a cognitive approach to assessments of marginal toxicity by employing multiple performance parameters to specify a profile of deficits that, on the basis of a task's internal structure, can be related to functionally discrete cognitive systems. The tasks have been developed from a consideration of current cognitive theory and the areas of cognition include those of learning, memory, attention, reasoning, verbal, and spatial abilities. The ACT system is described in terms of its four major components: the cognitive tasks, the stimulus materials, the analysis methods, and the process of saving and combining summary data into files suitable for transfer to statistical analysis programs. The system thus automates the data collection to statistical analysis process.

Cognition↗
PubMed2005

Grounding abstract object characteristics in embodied interactions.

Recent studies in cognitive linguistics have demonstrated that objects are conceptualised in terms of the actions they afford, i.e., in terms of their spatial-functional meaning. Since our interactions are constrained by the structure of our body, these studies view conceptualisation as essentially embodied. In this paper we argue that an object's abstract/figurative meaning is also embodied in that it is grounded in patterns of recurrent interactions with our environment, referred to as image schemas. On the basis of the spatial, relational structure of three such image schemas, two everyday products, a jug and an alarm clock, were systematically varied on form dimensions. Experiment 1 showed that participants with a background in design relate abstract characteristics to the form changes in the way predicted. To rule out the possibility that the relations uncovered are due to learned associations, a replication of the experiment was conducted with nai ve participants (experiment 2), leading to highly similar results. In experiment 3, we tested the cross-cultural consistency of our findings by performing a second replication with Brazilian participants. The results of this experiment were only partly in line with our predictions, suggesting that cultural differences in interacting with the environment to some degree affect our understanding of the abstract meaning of objects.

Brazil↗
PubMed2006

Introduction to Michotte's heritage in perception and cognition research.

Several decades after Michotte's work was published, it continues to inspire current research in perception, cognition, and beyond. In this special issue we pay tribute to this heritage with a collection of empirical and theoretical papers on amodal completion and the perception of causality, two areas of research within which Michotte's work and ideas have had a lasting influence. As a background to better understand the remaining papers, we briefly sketch Michotte's life and work and the scope (in breadth and in depth) of his impact. We then review Michotte's seminal contributions to the areas covered in this special issue, some of the major research discoveries and themes in the intervening decades, and the major open questions and challenges we are still facing. We also include a sneak preview of the papers in this special issue, noting how they relate to Michotte's work and to each other. This review shows both how much influence Michotte has had on contemporary perception and cognition research, and how much important work remains to be done. We hope that the papers in this special issue will serve both to celebrate Michotte's heritage in this respect, and to inspire other investigators to continue the projects he began.

Belgium↗
PubMed2006

Cultural variability in the effects of question design features on respondent comprehension of health surveys.

PURPOSE: The aim is to identify the characteristics of common health survey questions that may be associated with cross-cultural variability in question comprehension. METHODS: Interviews with respondents representing four cultural subgroups in the United States were analyzed through behavior coding to identify survey question characteristics that may be associated with cross-cultural variability in comprehension. Using survey responses as the unit of analysis, nested within survey respondents and survey questions, hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the effects of four questionnaire design features on cultural variations in comprehension difficulties. RESULTS: Respondent culture was found to moderate the effects of response format, question length, and reading levels. CONCLUSIONS: Several question design strategies that reduce overall comprehension difficulty appear to also increase cross-cultural disparities.

Cognitive Science↗