Categorization Time Research Articles

Are goats chèvres, chévres, chēvres, and chevres? Unveiling the orthographic code of diacritical vowels.

An often overlooked but fundamental issue for any comprehensive model of visual-word recognition is the representation of diacritical vowels: Do diacritical and nondiacritical vowels share their abstract letter representations? Recent research suggests that the answer is "yes" in languages where diacritics indicate suprasegmental information (e.g., lexical stress, as in cámara ['ka.ma.ɾa] camera; Spanish), but "no" in languages where diacritics indicate segmental information such as a different phoneme (e.g., the German vowels ä /ɛ/ and a /a/). Here we examined this issue in French, a language that contains a complex set of diacritical vowels (e.g., for the letter e: é, è, ê, and ë). In Experiment 1, using a semantic categorization task, we compared the word identification times to intact diacritical words (e.g., chèvre, goat in English) with a condition with omitted diacritics (chevre). Results showed that the two conditions behaved similarly. In Experiments 2-4, we compared the intact diacritical words with a condition containing a mismatching diacritic, either existing in French (e.g., chévre, chêvre) or not (the macron sign, as in chēvre). We only found a reading cost when replacing the diacritic with an existing one. In Experiments 5-6, we compared the semantic categorization times to intact nondiacritical words (e.g., cheval, horse in English) versus a condition with an added diacritic, either existing (chèval) or not (chēval). We found a reading cost for the words with the added diacritical mark in both cases. We discuss how models of visual-word recognition can be modified to represent diacritical vowels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Not lie detection but stereotypes: Response priming reveals a gender bias in facial trustworthiness evaluations

Using an innovative variant of the response-priming paradigm, ten Brinke et al. (2014) seemingly found evidence for unconscious lie detection. In the present study, however, we conducted a reanalysis of this experiment showing that the data can be explained better by the assumption of a gender bias in facial trustworthiness evaluations than by the assumption of unconscious lie detection abilities. To corroborate the hypothesis that female faces are subjectively perceived as more trustworthy than male faces, we conducted two response-priming experiments: Participants (Ns = 39 and 61) had to categorize target words as truth-related or lie-related. These words were preceded by male and female face primes explicitly rated as trustworthy or untrustworthy by an independent sample. First, categorization times showed that trustworthy-appearing faces biased responses towards “truth” and untrustworthy-appearing faces biased responses towards “lie”. Second, within the group of trustworthy-appearing faces, there was a gender effect with female faces biasing responses towards “truth” and male faces biasing responses towards “lie”. These results suggest that (a) trustworthiness evaluations are biased by face gender and that (b) trustworthiness evaluations can be measured with the response-priming paradigm.

Mass Casualty Incident: Do Tactical Tag Bracelets Improve Triage Performance by First Responders? A Randomized Controlled Mass Casualty Incident Simulation and Response of A French Gendarmerie Elite Unit.

Tactical triage replaces primary triage in the exclusion zone in mass murder or terrorist events to prioritize victims requiring life-saving interventions (LSIs) and/or rapid extraction in an environment with a lack of resources and under active threat. French gendarmerie tactical unit medical teams use triage bracelets during mass casualty incidents (MCIs). This study assessed the value of these bracelets in the tactical triage performance of nonhealthcare combat rescue operators in an MCI simulation. To compare triage performance with and without the use of bracelets based on categorization accuracy, LSIs, and time to end triage. Two groups of operators were randomly assigned to participate in an MCI simulation alone (10 simulated patients) with (intervention group) or without (control) bracelets. The primary outcome was triage performance assessed by the mass casualty triage performance assessment tools. The results were measured based on the LSI required, triage category, and time of completion of the task. Secondary outcomes were operator-perceived stress and self-efficacy. Eleven operators (intervention group n = 5, control group n = 6) participated. Triage performance, based on a maximum score of 90, was better for the intervention group [72.200 (SD = 10.330) vs. 57.000 (SD = 12.961), P = .045]. Self-efficacy was increased after the simulation in the intervention group [45.00 47.2 (SD = 4.147) vs. 50.400 (SD = 5.505), P = .034)]. This is the first study to show the best triage performance among nonhealthcare combat rescuers using triage bracelets in an MCI simulation. The small sample size did not allow for external validity of the results. The initially calculated number of participants (N = 12) was not reached for operational reasons. The use of bracelets may have a place in the medico-organizational act of tactical triage during MCIs in exclusion zones. Further studies should be conducted to assess the value of triage bracelets by other first responders, including physician-nurse teams.

Crossing Gender Borders: Bidirectional Dynamic Interaction Between Face-Based and Voice-Based Gender Categorization

The processing of voices and faces is known to interact, for example, when recognizing other persons. However, few studies focus on both directions of this interaction, including the influence of incongruent visual stimulation on voice perception. In the present study, we implemented an interference paradigm involving 1152 videos of faces with either gender-congruent or gender-incongruent voices. Participants were asked to categorize the gender of either the face or the voice via key press. Task (face-based vs. voice-based gender categorization task) was manipulated both block-wise (relatively low executive control demands) and in a mixed block (relatively high executive control demands due to trial-by-trial task switches). We aimed at testing whether and how gender-incongruent stimuli negatively affected gender categorization speed and accuracy. The results indicate significant congruency effects in both directions - gender-incongruent visual information negatively affected voice categorization time and errors, and gender-incongruent voices affected visual face categorization. However, the former effect was stronger, supporting theories postulating visual dominance in face-voice integration. Congruency effects, which were not significantly reduced over the course of the experiment, were larger under high executive control demands (task switches), suggesting the availability of fewer attentional resources for incongruency resolution. Overall, voices generally appear to be processed in conjunction with facial information, which yields enhanced processing for more authentic voices, that is, voices that do not violate face-based expectancies. The data strengthen theories of face-voice processing emphasizing strong interaction between both processing channels.

Topical Vancomycin in Pediatric Spine Surgery Does Not Reduce Surgical Site Infection: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Study DesignRetrospective cohort study. ObjectivesEvaluate the effectiveness of topical vancomycin in reducing surgical site infection (SSI) in pediatric patients undergoing posterior spinal fusion (PSF). Summary of Background DataThere has been increased interest in use of topical vancomycin to reduce SSI in spine surgery with mixed results reported in the literature. In Summer 2012, our institution implemented the use of topical vancomycin in definitive primary and revision PSF as part of our infection control protocol. MethodsAfter IRB approval, a consecutive series of 527 patients (538 procedures) undergoing PSF January 2010-December 2014 were retrospectively reviewed to identify the occurrence of SSI. Based on published results from a similar study, an a priori power analysis determined 190 patients were needed per group to achieve 0.90 power. In 228 procedures, topical vancomycin was used (Vanco) and in 310 procedures it was not (No Vanco). Exclusion criteria were <90 days follow-up, >18 years at time of surgery, and combined anterior and posterior fusion. Two-sample t tests, Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, and Fisher exact tests were used to compare the cohorts. ResultsGroups were similar in age, sex, implant density, fusion length, risk categorization, and surgical time (p > .05). No Vanco had significantly higher blood loss and incidence and amount of intraoperative allogenic transfusion (p < .001). Incidence of SSI was 3% (7/228) in Vanco and 2% (6/310) in No Vanco (p = .4099). Six of the 7 SSIs occurred in high-risk patients in Vanco and 5 of 6 occurred in high-risk patients in No Vanco (p = 1). Reoperation within 90 days was 6% (13/228) in Vanco and 4% (11/310) in No Vanco (p = .2912). Occurrence of other complications was similar between Vanco, 3% (7/228), and No Vanco, 2% (5/310). ConclusionUse of topical vancomycin did not reduce incidence of SSI for pediatric patients undergoing PSF at our institution. Level of EvidenceLevel III.

音韻的親近性が語彙判断を促進する――意味分類との相違――

Homophone effects, which refer to the phenomenon in which lexical decision times are longer for homophones than nonhomophones, have not been consistently observed for Japanese homophones with multiple mates. Mizuno and Matsui (2016) explored this inconsistency, finding that phonological familiarity of homophones—namely, the total frequencies of a homophone and all of its mates—can countervail homophone effects. However, it remains unclear why phonological familiarity has such a great influence on homophone processing by native Japanese readers, who rely very little on phonological information when processing words (Mizuno & Matsui, 2013). We hypothesized that high phonological familiarity influences lexical decision. Accordingly, we conducted lexical decision and semantic categorization experiments using Japanese homophones with high and low phonological familiarity. The results revealed that high phonological familiarity decreased lexical decision time, but not semantic categorization time, indicating that lexical decision tasks are sensitive to the phonological familiarity of stimulus words. Finally, we discuss the need to control the phonological familiarity of homophones in some way in the context of lexical decision tasks.

An Event-Based Neurobiological Recognition System with Orientation Detector for Objects in Multiple Orientations.

A new multiple orientation event-based neurobiological recognition system is proposed by integrating recognition and tracking function in this paper, which is used for asynchronous address-event representation (AER) image sensors. The characteristic of this system has been enriched to recognize the objects in multiple orientations with only training samples moving in a single orientation. The system extracts multi-scale and multi-orientation line features inspired by models of the primate visual cortex. An orientation detector based on modified Gaussian blob tracking algorithm is introduced for object tracking and orientation detection. The orientation detector and feature extraction block work in simultaneous mode, without any increase in categorization time. An addresses lookup table (addresses LUT) is also presented to adjust the feature maps by addresses mapping and reordering, and they are categorized in the trained spiking neural network. This recognition system is evaluated with the MNIST dataset which have played important roles in the development of computer vision, and the accuracy is increased owing to the use of both ON and OFF events. AER data acquired by a dynamic vision senses (DVS) are also tested on the system, such as moving digits, pokers, and vehicles. The experimental results show that the proposed system can realize event-based multi-orientation recognition. The work presented in this paper makes a number of contributions to the event-based vision processing system for multi-orientation object recognition. It develops a new tracking-recognition architecture to feedforward categorization system and an address reorder approach to classify multi-orientation objects using event-based data. It provides a new way to recognize multiple orientation objects with only samples in single orientation.

Visual object processing in rapid-eye-movement sleep behavior disorder: An event-related potential study

Idiopathic rapid-eye-movement sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) is becoming widely considered a prodromal symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD). Visuoperceptual deficits have been described in iRBD with still conflicting results. Since this cognitive domain is often impaired in PD, it appears of great interest to better describe visuoperceptual deficits in iRBD patients. Secondly, defining the neurophysiological correlates of these deficits would bring important data on the pathophysiology of iRBD. This study aimed to study the visual object processing in iRBD patients. High-density electroencephalograms were used to record event-related potential in fourteen iRBD patients and fourteen matched healthy volunteers during a fragmented images categorization task. The task consisted in categorizing “recognizable” images as real objects, and “unrecognizable” images as non-objects. The Ncl component (negativity associated with closure) was recorded and used as a marker of incomplete objects recognition processing. Behavioral results revealed no significant differences between the 2 groups in number of correct categorization and response time. The ERPs in the control group had significantly smaller amplitude for “recognizable” compared to “unrecognizable” images from 240 to 640 ms in the left posterior scalp regions. This relative negativity (Ncl) was absent in the iRBD patients group. This study provides neurophysiological data suggesting changes in the fragmented images processing in iRBD patients.

The effects of bilingualism on conflict resolution: Evidence from an ERP study with Greek-Albanian bilinguals.

The effects of bilingualism on conflict resolution: Evidence from an ERP study with Greek-Albanian bilinguals.

The effect of orthographic and emotional neighbourhood in a colour categorization task.

This study investigated whether and how the strength of reading interference in a colour categorization task can be influenced by lexical competition and the emotional characteristics of words not directly presented. Previous findings showed inhibitory effects of high-frequency orthographic and emotional neighbourhood in the lexical decision task. Here, we examined the effect of orthographic neighbour frequency according to the emotional valence of the higher-frequency neighbour in an emotional orthographic Stroop paradigm. Stimuli were coloured neutral words that had either (1) no orthographic neighbour (e.g. PISTIL [pistil]), (2) one neutral higher-frequency neighbour (e.g. tirade [tirade]/TIRAGE [draw]) or (3) one negative higher-frequency neighbour (e.g. idiome [idiom]/IDIOTE [idiotic]). The results showed that colour categorization times were longer for words with no orthographic neighbour than for words with one neutral neighbour of higher frequency and even longer when the higher-frequency neighbour was neutral rather than negative. Thus, it appears not only that the orthographic neighbourhood of the coloured stimulus words intervenes in a colour categorization task, but also that the emotional content of the neighbour contributes to response times. These findings are discussed in terms of lexical competition between the stimulus word and non-presented orthographic neighbours, which in turn would modify the strength of reading interference on colour categorization times.

Bilingual processing of ASL–English code-blends: The consequences of accessing two lexical representations simultaneously

Bilinguals who are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) and English often produce code-blends – simultaneously articulating a sign and a word while conversing with other ASL–English bilinguals. To investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying code-blend processing, we compared picture-naming times (Experiment 1) and semantic categorization times (Experiment 2) for code-blends versus ASL signs and English words produced alone. In production, code-blending did not slow lexical retrieval for ASL and actually facilitated access to low-frequency signs. However, code-blending delayed speech production because bimodal bilinguals synchronized English and ASL lexical onsets. In comprehension, code-blending speeded access to both languages. Bimodal bilinguals’ ability to produce code-blends without any cost to ASL implies that the language system either has (or can develop) a mechanism for switching off competition to allow simultaneous production of close competitors. Code-blend facilitation effects during comprehension likely reflect cross-linguistic (and cross-modal) integration at the phonological and/or semantic levels. The absence of any consistent processing costs for code-blending illustrates a surprising limitation on dual-task costs and may explain why bimodal bilinguals code-blend more often than they code-switch.

Polarity correspondence in metaphor congruency effects: Structural overlap predicts categorization times for bipolar concepts presented in vertical space.

Previous research has shown that words presented on metaphor congruent locations (e.g., positive words UP on the screen and negative words DOWN on the screen) are categorized faster than words presented on metaphor incongruent locations (e.g., positive words DOWN and negative words UP). These findings have been explained in terms of an interference effect: The meaning associated with UP and DOWN vertical space can automatically interfere with the categorization of words with a metaphorically incongruent meaning. The current studies test an alternative explanation for the interaction between the vertical position of abstract concepts and the speed with which these stimuli are categorized. Research on polarity differences (basic asymmetries in the way dimensions are processed) predicts that +polar endpoints of dimensions (e.g., positive, moral, UP) are categorized faster than -polar endpoints of dimensions (e.g., negative, immoral, DOWN). Furthermore, the polarity correspondence principle predicts that stimuli where polarities correspond (e.g., positive words presented UP) provide an additional processing benefit compared to stimuli where polarities do not correspond (e.g., negative words presented UP). A meta-analysis (Study 1) shows that a polarity account provides a better explanation of reaction time patterns in previous studies than an interference explanation. An experiment (Study 2) reveals that controlling for the polarity benefit of +polar words compared to -polar words did not only remove the main effect of word polarity but also the interaction between word meaning and vertical position due to polarity correspondence. These results reveal that metaphor congruency effects should not be interpreted as automatic associations between vertical locations and word meaning but instead are more parsimoniously explained by their structural overlap in polarities.

Interpersonal cognitive self-focus as a function of neuroticism: Basal tendencies and priming effects

Self-focus is one mechanism that may account for the social-evaluative anxiety of individuals high in neuroticism. The present two studies (total N = 183) sought to cognitively model interpersonal self-focus. The cognitive task was a simple one in which participants simply categorized dyadic interpersonal pronouns, with reaction times as the dependent measure. When others engage us, the pronoun “me” refers to the other and the pronoun “you” refers to the self. Study 1 found a neuroticism by pronoun interaction on categorization time consistent with implicit interpersonal self-focus at high (but not low) levels of neuroticism establishing a basal tendency. Study 2 examined boundary conditions. Individuals high in neuroticism exhibited implicit self-focus particularly to the extent that they had been primed to think of themselves as submissive rather than dominant in their interpersonal interactions. Implications for understanding neuroticism, self-focus, and relationship functioning are discussed.

Telling Things Apart

People use spatial distance to talk and think about differences between concepts, and it has been argued that using space to think about different categories provides a scaffold for the categorization process. In the current study, we investigated the possibility that the distance between response keys can influence categorization times in binary classification tasks. In line with the hypothesis that distance between response keys can facilitate response selection in a key-press version of the Stroop task, our results showed that responses on incongruent Stroop trials were significantly facilitated when participants performed the Stroop task with response keys located far apart, compared with when they performed the task with response keys located close together. These results support the idea that the spatial structuring of response options facilitates categorizations that require cognitive effort, and that people can incorporate environmental structures such as spatial distance in their thought processes. Keeping your hands apart might actually help to keep things apart in your mind.

Emotional categorization: Individual emotional differences and laterality effects in healthy and persons with multiple sclerosis

A study examining affective information processing in persons with Multiple Sclerosis and healthy adults was carried out. It was hypothesized that individual characteristics could modulate participants’ emotional categorization and reaction times for categorization decisions. For example, individuals with negative valenced emotional profile (e.g. anxious) should choose negative emotional alternatives faster and more frequently. Participants consisted of two different populations: 80 right-handed healthy French-speakers, and 40 right-handed French- speakers with multiple sclerosis. The results showed a positive correlation between high- level of negative emotional sensibility and emotional categorization (decision and decision speed) for affective information presented on the right-side of the screen. For all participants there were more frequent emotional choices and faster decisions for left-side presented emotional alternatives. It seems individuals’ emotional differences in general and in MS populations modulate hemispheric asymmetry of processing emotional judgments.

Learning novel phonological representations in developmental dyslexia: associations with basic auditory processing of rise time and phonological awareness

Across languages, children with developmental dyslexia are known to have impaired lexical phonological representations. Here, we explore associations between learning new phonological representations, phonological awareness, and sensitivity to amplitude envelope onsets (rise time). We show that individual differences in learning novel phonological representations are related to individual differences in both rise time categorization and rise time discrimination when non-verbal IQ and short-term memory skills are controlled. This is consistent with the developmental claim that difficulties in the basic auditory processing of rise time cause difficulties in setting up the phonological lexicon from infancy, leading to impairments in phonological awareness.

Serial correlations and 1/f power spectra in visual search reaction times

In a visual search experiment, the subject must find a target item hidden in a display of other items, and their performance is measured by their reaction time (RT). Here I look at how visual search reaction times are correlated with past reaction times. Target-absent RTs (i.e. RTs to displays that have no target) are strongly correlated with past target-absent RTs and, treated as a time series, have a 1/f power spectrum. Target-present RTs, on the other hand, are effectively uncorrelated with past RTs. A model for visual search is presented which generates search RTs with this pattern of correlations and power spectra. In the model, search is conducted by matching search items up with "categorizers," which take a certain time to categorize each item as target or distractor; the RT is the sum of categorization times. The categorizers are drawn at random from a pool of active categorizers. After each search, some of the categorizers in the active pool are replaced with categorizers drawn from a larger population of unused categorizers. The categorizers that are not replaced are responsible for the RT correlations and the 1/f power spectrum.

Identifying differences in biased affective information processing in major depression

This study investigates the extent to which participants with major depression differ from healthy comparison participants in the irregularities in affective information processing, characterized by deficits in facial expression recognition, intensity categorization, and reaction time to identifying emotionally salient and neutral information. Data on diagnoses, symptom severity, and affective information processing using a facial recognition task were collected from 66 participants, male and female between ages 18 and 54 years, grouped by major depressive disorder ( N = 37) or healthy non-psychiatric ( N = 29) status. Findings from MANCOVAs revealed that major depression was associated with a significantly longer reaction time to sad facial expressions compared with healthy status. Also, depressed participants demonstrated a negative bias towards interpreting neutral facial expressions as sad significantly more often than healthy participants. In turn, healthy participants interpreted neutral faces as happy significantly more often than depressed participants. No group differences were observed for facial expression recognition and intensity categorization. The observed effects suggest that depression has significant effects on the perception of the intensity of negative affective stimuli, delayed speed of processing sad affective information, and biases towards interpreting neutral faces as sad.

CT colonography: interpretative performance in a non-academic environment

To investigate interpretative accuracy and reporting time for radiologists performing computed tomography (CT) colonography in day-to-day non-academic clinical practice. Thirteen radiologists from seven centres, who were reporting CT colonography in non-academic daily clinical practice, interpreted a dataset of 15 colonoscopically validated cases in a controlled environment. Ten cases had either a cancer or polyp >10mm; one case had a medium polyp and four were normal. Correct case categorization and interpretation times were compared using analysis of variance to aggregated results obtained from both experienced observers and observers recently trained using 50 cases, working in an academic environment. The effect of experience was determined using Spearman's rank correlation. Individual accuracy was highly variable, range 53% (95% CI 27-79%) to 93% (95% CI 68-100%). Mean accuracy overall was significantly inferior to experienced radiologists (mean 75 versus 88%, p=0.04) but not significantly different from recently trained radiologists (p=0.48). Interpretation time was not significantly different to experienced readers (mean 12.4 min versus 11.7, p=0.74), but shorter than recently trained radiologists (p=0.05). There was a significant, positive, linear correlation between prior experience and accuracy (p<0.001) with no plateau. Accuracy for sub-specialist radiologists working in a non-academic environment is, on average, equivalent to radiologists trained using 50 cases. However, there is wide variability in individual performance, which generally falls short of the average performance suggested by meta-analysis of published data. Experience improves accuracy, but alone is insufficient to determine competence.

A comparison of English versus Spanish voicing perception using natural speech

English versus Spanish voicing perception over the past 30 years has been almost exclusively studied using synthetic VOT continua, and there has been very little research using natural VOT stimuli. This study used a balanced symmetrical design to explore the effects of training English and Spanish listeners to categorize natural tokens of English versus Spanish /b-p/ using four different vowels /i,e,a,u/. Extensive training with feedback was conducted over several months, and percent correct categorization and reaction time were analyzed. Results showed that each language group consistently exhibited enhanced performance for native speech, and this difference persisted with training. For example, reaction times leveled off at approximately 50 ms faster for native versus non-native speech. It was concluded that, while lab training can improve the ability to perceive a non-native voicing contrast, it does not result in native-like perception. Some preliminary results from monkeys using the same stimuli and procedure indicate that, unlike human adults, monkeys are more like human infants and find English and Spanish voicing contrasts equally salient. [Research supported by NIH.]