Whereas capture experiments typically repeat a single task many times, real world cognition is
characterized by frequent switching. Lien, Ruthruff, and Johnston (2010) reported that the
attentional control system can rapidly and fully switch between different search settings (e.g., red
to green), with no carryover and no inter-trial priming. The...
Perea, Duñabeitia, and Carreiras (2008) found that LEET stimuli, formed by a mixture of digits and letters (e.g., “T4BL3” instead of “TABLE”), produced similar priming effects as regular words. This finding led them to conclude that LEET stimuli automatically activate lexical information. The present study examined whether semantic activation occurs...
Tipper, Paul, and Hayes (2006) found object-based correspondence effects for door-handle stimuli for shape judgments but not color. They reasoned that a grasping affordance is activated when judging dimensions related to a grasping action (shape), but not for other dimensions (color). Cho and Proctor (2011, 2013), however, found the effect...
The present study extended existing research on alexithymia in men, investigating whether the deficit in processing emotions occurs early in the process, as a result of dissociation or repression, or later, as a result of suppression. We also examined the assumption in Levant’s (2011) normative male alexithymia hypothesis that men...
Several behavioral studies have suggested that rarity is critical for enabling irrelevant, salient
objects to capture attention. We tested this hypothesis using the N2pc, thought to reflect
attentional allocation. A cue display was followed by a target display in which participants
identified the letter in a specific color. Experiment 1...
Objective
Our objective was to use episodic memory and executive function tests to determine whether or not Chiari Malformation Type I (CM) patients experience cognitive dysfunction.
Background
CM is a neurological syndrome in which the cerebellum descends into the cervical spine causing neural compression, severe headaches, neck pain, and number...
The present study examined the effect of training on age differences in performing a highly
practiced task using the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm (Pashler, 1984). Earlier
training studies have concentrated on tasks that are not already overlearned. The present
question of interest is whether task dual-task integration will be...
Visual working memory (VWM) allows us temporarily hold images in our minds and manipulate them. As an example, you can remember a face you just saw, or try to imagine how a room would look with a different arrangement of furniture. Previous studies have shown that individuals with low VWM...
Alexithymia is a trait where individuals have difficulty identifying feeling and finding a word to express emotion. Some studies have suggested that this deficit is due to dissociation (repression), or an inability to perceive emotions, whereas others argued that the deficit is due to suppression of emotional information after it...
Previous studies have suggested that LEET words can automatically activate lexical information because of their physical similarity to real words (e.g., Perea, Duñabeitia, & Carreiras, 2008). Lien, Allen, and Martin (in press) recently used electrophysiological measures (event-related brain potentials; ERPs) to show similar lexical/semantic activation (based on the N400 effect,...
Previous studies have shown that both younger and older adults exhibit similar brain activity while anticipating monetary gain but older adults exhibit less brain activity comparing to younger adults while anticipating monetary loss. In Anderson et al.’s (2011) study, they found that visual search was slower with a salient, task-irrelevant...
Previous studies have suggested that negatively valenced faces (e.g., angry faces) automatically capture attention away from faces with other emotional valences (e.g., happy faces and neutral faces). The present study evaluated two experiments with age-related differences: the first assessed recognition memory for pictures of faces and how it is modulated...
Our responses are faster when the response key location is compatible with target location than when it is incompatible, even when target location was irrelevant to the task (the Simon effect). This effect is observed even when two people shared the task (e.g., one pressing the left key and the...