Criterion Shift Research Articles

Retrieval dynamics of the strength based mirror effect in recognition memory

Abstract The strength based mirror effect (SBME) refers to an increase in hit rates (HR) and a decrease in false alarm rates (FAR) for the test lists that follow a strongly encoded study list. Earlier investigation of accuracy and reaction time distributions by fitting the diffusion model indicated a mirror effect in the drift rate parameter, which was interpreted as an indication of more conservative responses due to a shift in the drift criterion. Additionally, the starting point for the evidence accumulation was found to be more liberal for the strong test lists. In order to further investigate this paradoxical effect of list strength on these two kinds of bias estimated from the diffusion model, we employed the response-deadline procedure which provided a direct assessment of response bias early in retrieval, prior to evidence accumulation. Results from the retrieval functions indicated more liberal response bias in the list strength paradigm with both pure- and mixed-strength study lists. On the contrary, the SBME was observed at the asymptotic accuracy, suggesting that the conservative response bias might be observed later in retrieval when memory evidence has fully accumulated. In addition, comparison of the SBME across pure and mixed lists revealed that the SBME was most prominent in the pure-list paradigm, suggesting that both the differentiation and criterion shift accounts jointly explain the SBME in recognition memory.

Does time ever fly or slow down? The difficult interpretation of psychophysical data on time perception.

Time perception is studied with subjective or semi-objective psychophysical methods. With subjective methods, observers provide quantitative estimates of duration and data depict the psychophysical function relating subjective duration to objective duration. With semi-objective methods, observers provide categorical or comparative judgments of duration and data depict the psychometric function relating the probability of a certain judgment to objective duration. Both approaches are used to study whether subjective and objective time run at the same pace or whether time flies or slows down under certain conditions. We analyze theoretical aspects affecting the interpretation of data gathered with the most widely used semi-objective methods, including single-presentation and paired-comparison methods. For this purpose, a formal model of psychophysical performance is used in which subjective duration is represented via a psychophysical function and the scalar property. This provides the timing component of the model, which is invariant across methods. A decisional component that varies across methods reflects how observers use subjective durations to make judgments and give the responses requested under each method. Application of the model shows that psychometric functions in single-presentation methods are uninterpretable because the various influences on observed performance are inextricably confounded in the data. In contrast, data gathered with paired-comparison methods permit separating out those influences. Prevalent approaches to fitting psychometric functions to data are also discussed and shown to be inconsistent with widely accepted principles of time perception, implicitly assuming instead that subjective time equals objective time and that observed differences across conditions do not reflect differences in perceived duration but criterion shifts. These analyses prompt evidence-based recommendations for best methodological practice in studies on time perception.

Nonlinear Flutter Analysis for the Scaled F-35 with Horizontal-Tail Free Play

A nonlinear flutter analysis is performed to study the limit-cycle-oscillation characteristics of an F-35 wind-tunnel model with horizontal-tail free-play effects using a direct simulation method. The result of this study is first validated with the wind-tunnel data. Then, a set of free-play design charts is generated to investigate the limit-cycle-oscillation-occurrence domain at various free-play angles and hinge moments of the horizontal tail. It is found that, as long as the horizontal tail is unloaded, the limit-cycle oscillation is inevitable even with a very small free-play angle. Furthermore, the free-play angle cannot be the only significant parameter involved in the free-play criteria. Therefore, it is suggested that an improved military specification for free-play limits of all-movable control surfaces be established. This effort will make a substantial impact on the control-surface design that may lead to a paradigm shift in the design criteria of aircraft structure.

Strength cues and blocking at test promote reliable within-list criterion shifts in recognition memory

In seven experiments, we explored the potential for strength-based, within-list criterion shifts in recognition memory. People studied a mix of target words, some presented four times (strong) and others studied once (weak). In Experiments 1, 2, 4A, and 4B, the test was organized into alternating blocks of 10, 20, or 40 trials. Each block contained lures intermixed with strong targets only or weak targets only. In strength-cued conditions, test probes appeared in a unique font color for strong and weak blocks. In the uncued conditions of Experiments 1 and 2, similar strength blocks were tested, but strength was not cued with font color. False alarms to lures were lower in blocks containing strong target words, as compared with lures in blocks containing weak targets, but only when strength was cued with font color. Providing test feedback in Experiment 2 did not alter these results. In Experiments 3A-3C, test items were presented in a random order (i.e., not blocked by strength). Of these three experiments, only one demonstrated a significant shift even though strength cues were provided. Overall, the criterion shift was larger and more reliable as block size increased, and the shift occurred only when strength was cued with font color. These results clarify the factors that affect participants' willingness to change their response criterion within a test list.

Eyewitness Identification

Approximately 75% of DNA exonerations are cases involving mistaken identification. Lab-based experiments by psychological scientists have informed the legal system about ways to reduce the misidentification problem. One of these ideas, the sequential lineup (which shows the witness one lineup member at a time), increases the ratio of accurate to mistaken identifications compared with the traditional simultaneous lineup (which shows the witness all lineup members at once). Gronlund, Wixted, and Mickes (2014, this issue) noted that the improvement in this ratio from the sequential procedure is the result of a conservative criterion shift rather than of an increase in discriminability. Although data support that interpretation, the data do not negate the fact that probative value is higher for the sequential lineup. The question for policymakers is whether a more conservative decision criterion is desirable. Considerations include the natural asymmetry between the errors of mistaken identification versus nonidentification and the relevance of an accumulated body of archival data that suggest that witnesses in actual cases are using loose decision criteria for making identifications.

Population Based Nationwide Study of Hypospadias in Sweden, 1973 to 2009: Incidence and Risk Factors

We studied the incidence of hypospadias in Sweden during a 40-year period to determine if changes were associated with known risk factors. We analyzed prospective data from nationwide health care and demographic registers collected for all males (1,948,591 total) born in Sweden between 1973 and 2009. The incidence of hypospadias per 1,000 live-born boys was calculated as number of cases divided by total number of births yearly. The association between hypospadias and risk factors was estimated using logistic regression, expressed as odds ratios. The nationwide incidence of boys diagnosed with hypospadias was approximately 4.5 per 1,000 live-born boys until 1990, increasing to 8 per 1,000 boys during the following decade. Mild and severe phenotypes comprised the increase. Boys born small for gestational age (OR 4.34), as a twin (OR 1.8), as a result of in vitro fertilization (OR 1.15), or with parents from Asia (OR 1.45) or continental Europe (OR 1.41) were at increased risk for hypospadias. Multivariate analyses revealed that changes in risk factors did not explain the increased incidence. However, a systematic change in the classification of the diagnosis in registers could not be ruled out. This nationwide study demonstrates an increased incidence of hypospadias diagnoses in Sweden from 1990 to 1999 that is not attributable to previously known risk factors. The increase includes mild and severe phenotypes, suggesting that shifts in the diagnostic criteria are not the underlying cause.

Profiles of Discourse Recognition

A discourse recognition theory derived from more general memory formulations would be broad in its psychological implications. This study compared discourse recognition with some established profiles of item recognition. Participants read 10 stories either once or twice each. They then rated their confidence in recognizing explicit, paraphrased, inference, and false (lure) probes. False alarms were higher for unrepeated than for repeated stories, signifying a recognition criterion shift: Readers can apparently adjust their criterion, item-by-item, according to probe strength. Story repetition reduced people's recognition of story paraphrases and inferences, an outcome labeled recollection-to-reject. Functions (receiver operating characteristics) relating correct (hits) and erroneous (false alarms) acceptances bore the curvilinear, asymmetric shape observed in item memory, an outcome suggestive if not definitively diagnostic of the contributions of recollection and familiarity to discourse retrieval. Such similarities between discourse memory and item memory are consistent with the memory-based text processing framework.

Inhibition of return to emotional faces

Inhibition of Return (IOR) refers to a phenomenon that reaction times are slowed to a target that appears at a previously attended location. To investigate whether the mechanism of IOR is modulated by emotional contents of stimuli, the current study examined IOR to angry, happy and neutral faces. The speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) function was measured to assess IOR in terms of sensitivity and processing time related to targets. Participants were required to discriminate gender of faces presenting on the cued or uncued locations under various response speeds controlled by experimenter. We have three findings: Firstly IOR to neutral faces was associated with shifts in response criterion, in line with our previous findings (Zhao et al. 2011). Secondly, IOR to emotional (angry and happy) faces was evident only at an early stage of target processing. Moreover, it was eliminated at a later stage of target processing and was reversed into a facilitation effect. According to the evolutional view, the arousal state decreased the response criterion to emotional faces which are interesting and important to us. Finally, perceptual sensitivity of gender discrimination was decreased to angry compared to neutral faces and the levels of decrement were significantly correlated to participants’ state-trait anxiety. Negative stimuli may increase the attentional demand as they might threat our chance of survival. This may lead to less attentional resource available for the discrimination task and in turn performance was impaired. In conclusion, the findings extended the evidence of IOR reflecting a criterion shift from low-level signal (e.g. ‘+’ or ‘x’) to high-level socially relevant stimuli such as neutral faces. Furthermore, it suggests that the arousing dimension of emotion interacted IOR in the response level while the valence dimension of emotion affected discrimination in the attentional level. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2013

Null category-length and target–lure relatedness effects in episodic recognition: A constraint on item-noise interference models

There are two main classes of model of interference effects in recognition memory: item-noise and context-noise. Item-noise models predict that a loss of memory discriminability will occur with an increase in the number of studied items from the same taxonomic category (category length, CL) and that forced-choice recognition performance will be higher when the target and lure are related rather than unrelated. Context-noise models, however, predict null effects for both of these manipulations. Although results from some recent experiments suggest that CL and target-lure relatedness have a trivial or no effect on memory discriminability when the related items from the same taxonomic category are "not back to back in the study list but are separated (spaced) by interleaving items from other semantic categories," these experiments have methodological limitations that were eliminated in the present experiment in which exemplars representing category lengths of 2, 8, or 14 were presented spaced apart within the same study list. Recognition was tested using a yes/no recognition test or a two-alternative forced-choice recognition test in which the target and lure were either related or unrelated. In yes/no recognition, d' decreased as CL increased, replicating prior research. However, when the slope of the z-ROC function is less than 1.0, as is typically so and was so in the present results, d' differences can arise due to criterion shifts and are not necessarily due to memory discriminability differences. When the more appropriate measure of memory discriminability, d a , was computed, CL had no effect in yes/no recognition, nor did it have an effect in forced-choice recognition, which also was not affected by target-lure relatedness. Thus, the present results are congruent with context-noise models and pose a challenge for item-noise models.

Lexicographic decomposition of preferences

Abstract The Ordinal Lexicographic Model, based on the lexicographic sum of relations, provides an explanation to intransitivities in preferences as shifts in choice criteria. The lexicographic sum R ⊕ R ′ between two preferences R and R′ on a same finite set X is defined as follows: x is preferred to y with respect to R ⊕ R ′ when x is preferred to y with respect to R, or there is a tie between x and y with respect to R but x is preferred to y with respect to R′. If a preference R can be written as R = R 1 ⊕ R 2 ⊕ … ⊕ R k , ( R 1 , R 2 , … , R k ) is said to be a lexicographic decomposition (LD) of R. It means that a first criterion, expressed by R 1 , explains a part of R, a second criterion, expressed by R 2 , explains a part of R which is not explained by R 1 , and so on. Each relation R i of the LD can be interpreted as a point of view, and the number k is the number of shifts in point of view in the decomposition. It is usually required from the relations of the LD to fulfil some structural properties, for instance to be partial orders. When a LD is possible, the usual question consists in computing, for any preference R, the minimum number d ( R ) , called the lexicographic dimension of R, of relations involves in the LD in order to explain R. The aim of this paper is to provide some properties of the lexicographic sum ⊕.

Histology and Fusion Status in Rhabdomyosarcoma

The International Classification of Rhabdomyosarcoma (ICR) has provided diagnostic criteria for rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) and formed the basis of histologic risk stratification since its publication in 1995. However, the recognition of new variants of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS), shifts in the diagnostic criteria of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS), the increasing use of myogenin immunohistochemistry and recognition of the distinct biologic properties associated with fusion status all raised questions about the continued use of this classification system in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with RMS. Recent Children's Oncology Group Soft Tissue Sarcoma Committee analysis of histology and fusion status in the intermediate risk RMS study D9803 refined the histologic criteria of RMS. We validated the new diagnostic criteria against fusion status, allowing prospective examination of the prognostic value of histology compared with fusion status for risk-stratification of patients with RMS. This article summarizes the evolution of and current practices in the histologic and molecular classification of rhabdomyosarcoma.

Regulation of pesticides: A comparative analysis

This paper compares three internationally representative regulatory frameworks for pesticides. We look first at the USA, which shifted regulatory powers from the US Department of Agriculture to the Environmental Protection Agency in the early 1970s, during a historical transition from a predominantly economic to a predominantly social regulatory model. The second country is Brazil, currently the world's largest consumer of pesticides, followed by the USA in second place. In the early 1990s, Brazil's new regulatory model adopted a troika of decision-making ministries (agriculture, health and environment), with the prevalence of economic over social-environmental interests. The third case is the regulatory framework adopted in 2011 by the EU, where shifts in risk-assessment criteria and corporate financial liability reveal a prevalence of concerns involving social-environmental regulation. Copyright The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.

Public housing in Australia: A case of advanced urban marginality?

AbstractThe decision in the early 1990s to cut back on the building of public housing intensified the already dire shortage of affordable housing and increased the marginalisation of the sector. To be eligible for public housing, new entrants usually have to be in ‘greatest need’. This study argues that the shift in the eligibility criteria for accessing public housing means that public housing estates increasingly reflect what Loïc Wacquant calls ‘advanced urban marginality’. The article assesses whether the features of advanced urban marginality that are identified by Wacquant capture and can be usefully used to analyse the shifts and contemporary characteristics of public housing. The article draws on existing data and in-depth interviews with 33 older (aged more than 65 years) public housing tenants in Sydney, Australia, to analyse the residualisation of public housing using the features of advanced marginality identified by Wacquant – ‘wage labour as a vector of social instability and life insecurity’, ‘functional disconnection from macroeconomic trends’, ‘territorial fixation and stigmatisation’, ‘spatial alienation and the dissolution of place’, ‘loss of hinterland’ and ‘social fragmentation and symbolic splintering’. The study concludes that although Wacquant’s analysis is useful and captures much of what has occurred in public housing estates in Sydney, in many instances, public housing remains a source of pride for its tenants and provides them with the basis for a good life.

Survey of the Philosophic Discipline

The academy is widely reported to be going through a period of transformation: not just changes to what is taught, but threats to tenure and internal funding, perhaps balanced by new possibilities for external funding and interdisciplinary projects. This article discusses a recently conducted survey of US and Canadian Philosophy departments, in an effort to understand one discipline’s perspective on and reaction to these changes. The survey found that, for the majority of departments, Philosophy has largely not changed over the last decade in terms of shifts in subfields, tenure and tenure criteria, internal funding and external grant awards. However, a minority of departments are demonstrating potentially transformative possibilities, especially as related to interdisciplinarity.

The Impact of Target Base Rate on Training and Transfer of Learning in Airline Luggage Screening: An Examination of Three Base Rate Scenarios

SummaryWe examined the extent to which transfer of training is impacted by target probability and physical similarity of training and transfer stimuli. Participants performed a luggage screening task where they trained on three base rates of weapon presence as follows: 100%, 50% and 20%; at transfer, participants detected the same weapons (Study 1) or novel weapons (Studies 2 and 3) at a base rate of 20%. In Study 3, we modified training such that all participants observed the same absolute number of weapons (n = 100) across base rate conditions. In Study 1, different base rates did not significantly impact transfer. In Study 2, 100% base rates helped hit rates at transfer but increased false alarms via liberal shifts in decision criteria and slowed detection times. Study 3 revealed no effect of base rates on transfer hit rates; however, training on 100% base rates still led to liberal responding and inflated false alarms. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Identification of Gustatory-Olfactory Flavor Mixtures: Effects of Linguistic Labeling

Two experiments, using different ranges and numbers of stimuli, examined how linguistic labels affect the identification of flavor mixtures containing different proportions of sucrose (gustatory flavorant) and citral (olfactory flavorant). Both experiments asked subjects to identify each stimulus as having either "mostly sugar" or "mostly citrus." In one condition, no labels preceded the flavor stimuli. In another condition, each flavor stimulus followed a label, either SUGAR or CITRUS, which, the subjects were informed, usually though not always named the stronger flavor component; that is, the labels were probabilistically valid. The results of both experiments showed that the labels systematically modified the identification responses: Subjects responded "sugar" or "citrus" more often when the flavor stimulus followed the corresponding label, SUGAR or CITRUS. But the labels hardly affected overall accuracy of identification. Accuracy was possibly limited, however, by both the confusability of the flavor stimuli per se and the way that confusability could limit the opportunity to discern the probabilistic associations between labels and individual flavor stimuli. We describe the results in terms of a decision-theoretic model, in which labels induce shifts in response criteria governing the identification responses, or possibly effect changes in the sensory representations of the flavorants themselves.

EEG alpha oscillations predict response criterion

Event Abstract Back to Event EEG alpha oscillations predict response criterion Katharina Limbach1, 2* and Paul M. Corballis1, 2 1 The University of Auckland, School of Psychology, New Zealand 2 Centre for Brain Research, New Zealand i. Background: Detection of near-threshold stimuli is highly variable. Several recent studies have linked variability in performance to fluctuations in the peristimulus alpha power (~ 10 Hz) derived from the electroencephalogram (EEG). Typically, these studies rely on hit-rate as the dependent variable and claim that detection is more likely for stimuli presented during intervals of low posterior alpha-power. However, hit rates are determined by both sensitivity to the stimulus and response criterion. We investigated the relationships between fluctuations in alpha power and variability in these two parameters. ii.Methods: We recorded EEG during a backward-masking task requiring the detection of near-threshold stimuli in 19 participants. Single trials were sorted into high and low power bins, based on alpha power (8 – 12 Hz) in the 200ms before stimulus presentation. We compared hit rate, sensitivity and criterion between the bins. iii. Results: Our data confirm earlier reports of a relationship between alpha-power in the interval directly preceding stimulus presentation and hit rate. However, our results show that this relationship is most likely due to a shift in criterion. We found that alpha power preceding stimulus presentation is related to criterion placement but not to sensitivity. Higher power was related to more conservative criteria (i.e., a preponderance of “no” responses), and lower power related to more balanced criteria. Results of a follow-up experiment suggest that this relationship to response criteria relies on the immediate responses. When we tried to manipulate response criterion by asking people to rate the detectability of the stimulus on a 6-point scale, we no longer observed a relationship between alpha power and criterion placement. iv. Discussion: These findings hint at a more complex relationship between alpha power and detection performance than suggested by earlier reports. Alpha power is often understood as an index of cortical excitability. In the excited state indexed by low alpha power the visual system might accept stimuli as present more willingly than in less excited states. A stricter criterion for high-alpha states might be protective against false positives when the system is relatively disengaged from the world. Interestingly this relationship might only hold for immediate responses, suggesting that the role of alpha in visual processing is more about making the response than about sensitivity or cognitive processing. Acknowledgements Katharina Limbach is supported by a University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarship Keywords: detection, Response Criterion, Alpha oscillations, EEG, cortical excitability Conference: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Sensation and Perception Citation: Limbach K and Corballis PM (2013). EEG alpha oscillations predict response criterion. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00068 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 15 Oct 2013; Published Online: 25 Nov 2013. * Correspondence: Mrs. Katharina Limbach, The University of Auckland, School of Psychology, Auckland, New Zealand, klim366@aucklanduni.ac.nz Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Katharina Limbach Paul M Corballis Google Katharina Limbach Paul M Corballis Google Scholar Katharina Limbach Paul M Corballis PubMed Katharina Limbach Paul M Corballis Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Anticipation and the control of voluntary action

Anticipation and the control of voluntary action

THE ONSET OF CONVECTION IN A GRAVITY-MODULATED VISCOELASTIC FLUID-SATURATED ANISOTROPIC POROUS LAYER

This study presents a linear stability analysis of thermal convection in a porous layer saturated with viscoelastic fluid subjected to harmonic vertical vibrations so that the gravity varies periodically with time. The fluid obeys an Oldroyd-B constitutive relationship. The porous layer is considered to be densely packed and to possess vertical anisotropy in both mechanical and thermal properties. The onset threshold in terms of correction to a critical Rayleigh number is computed using the regular perturbation method based on small amplitude of modulation. Due to the imposed gravity modulation, there is a shift in the onset criteria. It is found that the low-frequency gravity modulation advances the convection, while for moderate and large frequencies stabilization occurs. The thermal anisotropy, normalized porosity, Darcy-Prandtl number, and relaxation parameter reinforce-while the mechanical anisotropy and retardation parameters suppress-the stabilizing effect of g-jitter. © 2013 by Begell House, Inc.

Histology and Fusion Status in Rhabdomyosarcoma

The International Classification of Rhabdomyosarcoma (ICR) has provided diagnostic criteria for rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) and formed the basis of histologic risk stratification since its publication in 1995. However, the recognition of new variants of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS), shifts in the diagnostic criteria of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS), the increasing use of myogenin immunohistochemistry and recognition of the distinct biologic properties associated with fusion status all raised questions about the continued use of this classification system in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with RMS. Recent Children's Oncology Group Soft Tissue Sarcoma Committee analysis of histology and fusion status in the intermediate risk RMS study D9803 refined the histologic criteria of RMS. We validated the new diagnostic criteria against fusion status, allowing prospective examination of the prognostic value of histology compared with fusion status for risk-stratification of patients with RMS. This article summarizes the evolution of and current practices in the histologic and molecular classification of rhabdomyosarcoma.