Familiar Information Research Articles

More familiar, more credible? Distinguishing two types of familiarity on the truth effect using the drift-diffusion model

ABSTRACT Familiar information is more likely to be accepted as true. This illusory truth effect has a tremendous negative impact on misinformation intervention. Previous studies focused on the familiarity from repeated exposure in the laboratory, ignoring preexisting familiarity with real-world misinformation. Over three studies (total N = 337), we investigated the cognitive mechanisms behind the truth biases from these two familiarity sources, and whether fact-checking can curb such biased truth perceptions. Studies 1 and 2 found robust truth effects induced by two sources of familiarity but with different cognitive processes. According to the cognitive process model, repetition-induced familiarity reduced decision prudence. Preexisting familiarity instead enhanced truth-congruent evidence accumulation. Study 3 showed that pre-exposing statements with warning flags eliminated the bias to truth induced by repetition but not that from preexisting familiarity. These repeated statements with warning labels also reduced decision caution. These findings furthered the understanding of how different sources of familiarity affect truth perceptions and undermine the intervention through different cognitive processes.

Data Efficiency, Dimensionality Reduction, and the Generalized Symmetric Information Bottleneck.

The symmetric information bottleneck (SIB), an extension of the more familiar information bottleneck, is a dimensionality-reduction technique that simultaneously compresses two random variables to preserve information between their compressed versions. We introduce the generalized symmetric information bottleneck (GSIB), which explores different functional forms of the cost of such simultaneous reduction. We then explore the data set size requirements of such simultaneous compression. We do this by deriving bounds and root-mean-squared estimates of statistical fluctuations of the involved loss functions. We show that in typical situations, the simultaneous GSIB compression requires qualitatively less data to achieve the same errors compared to compressing variables one at a time. We suggest that this is an example of a more general principle that simultaneous compression is more data efficient than independent compression of each of the input variables.

Encoding-related Brain Activity Predicts Subsequent Trial-level Control of Proactive Interference in Working Memory.

Proactive interference (PI) appears when familiar information interferes with newly acquired information and is a major cause of forgetting in working memory. It has been proposed that encoding of item-context associations might help mitigate familiarity-based PI. Here, we investigate whether encoding-related brain activation could predict subsequent level of PI at retrieval using trial-specific parametric modulation. Participants were scanned with event-related fMRI while performing a 2-back working memory task with embedded 3-back lures designed to induce PI. We found that the ability to control interference in working memory was modulated by level of activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus, left hippocampus, and bilateral caudate nucleus during encoding. These results provide insight to the processes underlying control of PI in working memory and suggest that encoding of temporal context details support subsequent interference control.

MULTIMODALITY AND NEUROCOPYWRITING AS DIGITAL COMMERCIAL NARRATIVE STRATEGIES

The article discusses the strategies and tactics of the commercial narrative, which enable a pragmatic influence on the cognitive, emotional, and volitional sphere of the addressee-potential consumer. In a commercial narrative, verbal and non-verbal components form one visual, structural, meaningful, and functional whole. The purpose of our research is to analyze the techniques and tactics of implementing multimodality and neurocopywriting strategies in the English-language digital commercial narrative. In accordance with the set goal, the tasks of the article are: - Present the types of commercial narrative; - Determine the main tactics of neurocopywriting and multimodality in sales texts in the conditions of digital commerce transformation; - Analyze lingual and paralingual means of implementing commercial narrative tactics. We consider the commercial narrative as a combination of modes in the stereoscopy of semiotic and cognitive approaches. The development of Svitlana Zhabotynska was chosen as an appropriate methodology for the analysis of multimodality, and the definition of storytelling tactics is based on the main positions of David Herman. The elements of the method of quantitative calculations made it possible to generalize the obtained results. The success of the commercial narrative in its two types (branding and sales storytelling) is achieved through the interaction of different modes of sensorics, which change states of consciousness and participate in the receiver’s decision-making. The simultaneous combination of the codes of different sign systems to construct the recipient’s emotions and decisions is the essence of the multimodality strategy in the commercial narrative. The article analyzes the tactics of creating a commercial narrative with a certain construction of meaning through the interference of a complex of lingual and paralingual means. The cognitive dominance of the commercial narrative (conveying familiar information in an unusual way or from a new perspective, focusing on the advantages of the object of the offer: “Elaboration, Extending, Questioning, Combining” according to S. Zhabotynska) should cause a certain emotional reaction (surprise, expectation, trust) in the consumer, constructing a certain image. The purpose of creating such an image is to set the consumer in a positive mood and create motivational incentives. It is for the purpose of stimulating neurotransmitters that there is a need for the design of sales storytelling using specific linguistic means: allusions, emotionally-tinged vocabulary, unusual combinations of words, various resources of intertextuality that stimulate sensory sensations, and, in turn, is the task of the neurocopywriting strategy in commercial narrative. Table Landscape of responses made it possible to determine the digital reputation of the commercial narrative (concentration of meanings, general awareness, and recognition (authority), and the analysis of sales reports on the official companies’ websites and reviews in social networks visualized the result of the audit of the success of the commercial narrative. The study of the pragmatics of multimodality strategies and neurocopywriting in the modern digital space of commercial communication is an actual and promising research field in linguistics.

60 Neural Correlates of the Self-Reference Effect: Neuronal Mechanisms Supporting Self-Referential Encoding

Objective:Self-concept is a mental representation of the self—an internal sense of personal identity. This complex representation is unique to the human mind. Behavioral studies on self-concept have demonstrated that self-relevant information is remembered better than other types of information, a phenomenon commonly known as the “self-reference effect” (SRE). However, the underlying neural mechanisms of SRE remain largely unknown.Participants and Methods:Here, we recorded neural activity from ∼600 neurons from 15 neurosurgical epilepsy patients, who were implanted with depth electrodes for seizure monitoring. The SRE paradigm consisted of an incidental learning (encoding) task and subsequent memory recognition test. During the incidental learning task, participants were asked to rate various personality traits in three distinct encoding conditions: the self, a friend, and a celebrity. In the recognition part of the task, participants were asked to distinguish between traits that were presented during the encoding phase (old) and traits that were not presented (new).Results:Our behavioral findings showed the highest memory accuracy on the recognition test for traits that were associated with the “self” condition, which is consistent with previous studies on SRE. Additionally, we found that traits associated with the “friend” category were more accurately recognized than those associated with a celebrity, indicating that personally familiar information—even if not self-related— improves memory recognition. Through single-unit analyses from target brain regions, including the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), we identified unique patterns of neural activity during the memory encoding phase, specifically increased responses during self-referential encoding in a subset of the neuronal population.Conclusions:Future analyses will explore the relationship between increased MTL activity during self-referential encoding and improved memory recognition of traits rated in relation to the self, and network interactions between MTL and mPFC in self-oriented memory processes.

Your place or mine? The neural dynamics of personally familiar scene recognition suggests category independent familiarity encoding.

Recognizing a stimulus as familiar is an important capacity in our everyday life. Recent investigation of visual processes has led to important insights into the nature of the neural representations of familiarity for human faces. Still, little is known about how familiarity affects the neural dynamics of non-face stimulus processing. Here we report the results of an EEG study, examining the representational dynamics of personally familiar scenes. Participants viewed highly variable images of their own apartments and unfamiliar ones, as well as personally familiar and unfamiliar faces. Multivariate pattern analyses were used to examine the time course of differential processing of familiar and unfamiliar stimuli. Time-resolved classification revealed that familiarity is decodable from the EEG data similarly for scenes and faces. The temporal dynamics showed delayed onsets and peaks for scenes as compared to faces. Familiarity information, starting at 200ms, generalized across stimulus categories and led to a robust familiarity effect. In addition, familiarity enhanced category representations in early (250-300ms) and later (>400ms) processing stages. Our results extend previous face familiarity results to another stimulus category and suggest that familiarity as a construct can be understood as a general, stimulus-independent processing step during recognition.

When familiarity not novelty motivates information-seeking behaviour

Research has established that novelty motivates information-seeking behaviour in many situations. While novelty preferences have been well-studied, an understanding of conditions under which familiarity trumps novelty remains limited. Recent work has revealed that when a metacognitive experience indicates that unsuccessfully recalled information may still be available, a subsequent tendency to seek out unrecalled familiar information can emerge. We conducted three experiments to identify critical factors that determine when familiarity preferences can be observed. Experiment 1 demonstrated the critical role of a recent unsuccessful recall attempt in inducing such a preference. Experiment 2 revealed that the impact of recall attempts is not limited to situations that follow unsuccessful recall, as a familiarity preference was observed even when information was successfully generated. Experiment 3 showed that the level of confidence in the accuracy of any recalled information is a key factor, with moderate levels of confidence leading to the strongest subsequent familiarity preference. Together, our results suggest that novelty preferences in information-seeking are not ubiquitous, as specific situational demands including recent attempted memory retrieval, as well as metacognitive retrieval experiences, can induce familiarity preferences. Our findings can be interpreted within theoretical frameworks that emphasize the role of knowledge gaps as driving factors of information-seeking.

Does working memory activate the hippocampus during the late delay period?

ABSTRACT The aim of the present discussion paper was to identify whether any fMRI studies have provided convincing evidence that the hippocampus is associated with working memory. The key outcome variable was the phase in which hippocampal activity was observed: study, early delay, late delay, and/or test. During working memory tasks, long-term memory processes can operate during the study phase, early delay phase (due to extended encoding), or test phase. Thus, working memory processes can be isolated from long-term memory processes during only the late delay period. Twenty-six working memory studies that reported hippocampal activity were systematically analyzed. Many experimental protocol and analysis parameters were considered including number of participants, stimulus type(s), number of items during the study phase, delay duration, task during the test phase, behavioral accuracy, relevant fMRI contrast(s), whether the information was novel or familiar, number of phases modeled, and whether activation timecourses were extracted. For studies that were able to identify activity in different phases, familiar information sometimes produced activity during the study phase and/or test phase, but never produced activity during the delay period. When early-delay phase and late-delay phase activity could be distinguished via modeling these phases separately or inspecting activation timecourses, novel information could additionally produce activity during the early delay phase. There was no convincing evidence of hippocampal activity during the late delay period. These results indicate that working memory does not activate the hippocampus and suggest a model of working memory where maintenance of novel information can foster long-term memory encoding.

Referential accessibility as an index of the discourse functions of predicative and specificational clauses

Abstract This paper studies referential accessibility marking in predicative and specificational clauses, in particular the ones in which the roles of ‘description’ and ‘variable’ are realised by an indefinite NP (e.g. He is a baker vs. One of his talents is pastry). While the indefinite NP in the two clause types has been studied in detail, little is known about how the other two roles – of ‘describee’ and ‘value’ – are typically realised. This study, therefore, examines the choice of referring expressions for the items filling these roles, as an index of their retrievability and degree of accessibility. The analysis is based on 750 corpus examples from spoken and written British English. Moreover, since specificational clauses allow for the value to be either complement or subject, this study also provides insight into what may motivate the choice for one pattern or the other. Significant differences were found between describees and values, as well as between value-subjects and value-complements. These findings are interpreted as indicative of different discourse functions of the three constructions. While predicative clauses typically elaborate familiar information, specificational clauses serve a broader discourse-organising function: starting a new discourse-topic, pivoting from one topic to another, or summarising prior propositions as concluding a topic.

Translating heritage: a study of visitors’ experiences mediated through multilingual audio guides in Edinburgh Castle

ABSTRACT Heritage tourism is a vital part of the global economy. To attract more international tourists, many heritage sites provide multilingual interpretation. Previous research suggests that cultural adaptations in translations are essential to international visitors having a positive experience. This article challenges this view based on two theoretical premises: visitors are active participants in engaging with heritage interpretation, and their experience, mediated through verbal interpretation, interacts with other semiotics in the heritage site. This project used the Chinese and English audio guides to Edinburgh Castle as a case study. The methods adopted in this study include textual analysis, post-visit interviews, and the use of a custom smartphone application to track the participants’ locations and use of the guide. The findings suggest that users of audio guides in different languages used different learning strategies to process unknown and familiar information, and foreign visitors, in particular, drew from different semiotic resources to construct their visiting experience. This research suggests that the key to engaging with international visitors is a well-prepared source text, which interacts with a range of multisensory semiotic resources, and facilitates visitor engagement with the physical setting.

Decoding category and familiarity information during visual imagery

Visual imagery relies on a widespread network of brain regions, partly engaged during the perception of external stimuli. Beyond the recruitment of category-selective areas (FFA, PPA), perception of familiar faces and places has been reported to engage brain areas associated with semantic information, comprising the precuneus, temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). Here we used multivariate pattern analyzes (MVPA) to examine to which degree areas of the visual imagery network, category-selective and semantic areas contain information regarding the category and familiarity of imagined stimuli. Participants were instructed via auditory cues to imagine personally familiar and unfamiliar stimuli (i.e. faces and places). Using region-of-interest (ROI)-based MVPA, we were able to distinguish between imagined faces and places within nodes of the visual imagery network (V1, SPL, aIPS), within category-selective inferotemporal regions (FFA, PPA) and across all brain regions of the extended semantic network (i.e. precuneus, mPFC, IFG and TPJ). Moreover, we were able to decode familiarity of imagined stimuli in the SPL and aIPS, and in some regions of the extended semantic network (in particular, right precuneus, right TPJ), but not in V1. Our results suggest that posterior visual areas - including V1 - host categorical representations about imagined stimuli, and that stimulus familiarity might be an additional aspect that is shared between perception and visual imagery.

Socially Shared Feelings of Imminent Recall: More Tip-of-the-Tongue States Are Experienced in Small Groups.

Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states are typically defined as feelings of imminent recall for known, but temporarily inaccessible target words. However, TOTs are not merely instances of retrieval failures. Clues that increase the subjective likelihood of retrieval success, such as cue familiarity and target-related information, also have been shown to elicit feelings of imminent recall, supporting a metacognitive, inferential etiology of the TOT phenomenon. A survey conducted on our university campus provided anecdotal evidence that TOTs are occasionally shared among people in small groups. Although shared TOTs may suggest the influence of social contagion, we hypothesized that metacognitive appraisal of group recall efficiency could be involved. There should be more instances of remembering in several heads than in one. From this, we conjectured that people remembering together entertain the inference that successful retrieval is more likely in group recall than in a single-person recall situation. Such a metacognitive appraisal may drive a stronger feeling of closeness with the target word and of recall imminence, precipitating one (or more people) into a TOT state. We used general knowledge questions to elicit TOTs. We found that participants reported more TOTs when remembering in small groups than participants remembering alone. Critically, the experimental manipulation selectively increased TOTs without affecting correct recall, suggesting that additional TOTs observed in small groups were triggered independently from the retrieval process. Near one third (31%) of the TOTs in small groups were reported by two or more participants for the same items. However, removing common TOTs from the analyses did not change the basic pattern of results, suggesting that social contagion was not the main factor involved in the observed effect. We argue that beyond social contagion, group recall magnifies the inference that target words will be successfully retrieved, prompting the metacognitive monitoring system to launch more near-retrieval success “warning” (TOT) signals than in a single-person recall situation.

Frequency of Fabry disease in a juvenile idiopathic arthritis cohort

BackgroundFabry disease (FD) is a rare, X-linked, multisystemic lysosomal storage disorder (LSD) that results from a deficiency in the hydrolase alpha-galactosidase A (⍺-GalA). During childhood, classic FD symptomatology is rare. The majority of children may show non-specific symptoms, including in the musculoskeletal system. The prevalence of FD among juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients is unknown.ObjectiveThis study aimed to identify the frequency of FD in a JIA cohort, characterizing early clinical symptoms, enzyme titers, and GLA genotyping.MethodsChildren with JIA followed in a tertiary Children Hospital cohort were selected. Clinical, laboratory and familiar information were recorded. Molecular genetic testing to detect GLA gene mutations was performed in girls and enzymatic analysis in boys.ResultsIn 89 patients (56.2% female, age at disease onset: 8.93 ± 4.35 years), one male (1.12%) patient presented pathogenic mutation in GLA gene, c.1244 T > C p.L415P, one female patient had a variant of uncertain significance c.38C > T (p.Ala13Val). Three additional (3.4%) patients had the enzymatic activity of alpha-galactosidase slightly decreased. We observed the presence of intronic variants in 44.44% of patients in our cohort: c.1000-22C > T; c.370-81_-77del; c.640-16A > G; c.10C > T; c.548-125C > G and c.-12G > A. These variants and their combination were associated with clinical symptoms in our cohort.ConclusionsThe incidence of FD in our cohort was 1.12%. Intronic variants were associated with symptoms previously described in the literature. Screening for FD in JIA may be a reasonable strategy for those with an atypical pattern of pain.

Evidence for an Early Novelty Orientation in Bilingual Learners

AbstractBilingual environments are more complex than monolingual environments. To adapt to this complexity, bilingual infants may navigate their environment in fundamentally different ways than monolingual infants. Drawing from visual, social, and linguistic processing, in this article, I present evidence to suggest that bilingual and monolingual learners demonstrate basic differences in the distribution of attention. Across these areas, bilingual learners appear to orient to novel information over familiar information, more so than monolingual learners. Attending more broadly within one’s environment may support flexibility of learning within a complex environment, where underlying structure is harder to detect. However, broad exploration may also protract the process by which underlying structure is detected and learned. This may introduce developmental costs, such as delayed specialization in the native language observed in bilingual infants. In this way, bilingual infants may explore their surroundings in a manner distinct from monolingual infants that is both responsive to and adaptive for a relatively complex environment.

From face-to-face to flipped: strategic adaptation of library instruction during a pandemic

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced universities in China to abruptly transition to virtual instruction, library services adapted quickly to provide research services, instruction, and access to collections. The library at NYU Shanghai was about to begin its sixth year of providing library research workshops to Freshmen enrolled in foundational courses, and was challenged to quickly revise a familiar and successful information literacy program to meet the demands of this new fully-online environment. This paper details how the library used a SWOT Analysis to guide the decision-making process behind this transition. It then describes the resulting instruction program, which adopts a flipped classroom approach that incorporates online video modules, assessment tools, and a variety of synchronous and asynchronous instructional followup sessions.

Automation of the procedure for assessing the quality of transport service for the population in the conditions of digitalization of the railway transportation system

The Strategic Program for the Development of Railway Transport until 2030 focuses on the development of a customer-oriented approach as one of the conditions for the company’s competitiveness. The customer focus is one of the elements of anti-crisis management of transport systems, it provides additional opportunities, especially when the volume of traffic decreases, when it is necessary to fight for attracting customers. A customer-oriented approach is closely related to the quality of the organization of transport services for passengers, which is certainly impossible without the use of modern automated technologies. Thus, a modern passenger is characterized by mobility and the habit of being online, in connection with which the passenger infrastructure and rolling stock must be provided with equipment and software that allows the passenger to remain in the familiar information environment.

Развитие критического мышления студентов языкового вуза в процессе обучения аудированию на английском языке

Critical thinking is a special type of mental activity aimed at interpreting the world around us and evaluating the expected results. In this work, we consider the critical thinking development of linguistic university students in the process of teaching listening in English, analyze the terminology on the subject under study, develop and describe a three-stage model for the critical thinking development of linguistic university students through listening. A foreign language has a huge educational potential for the development of a student’s personality, and the development of critical thinking is most actively carried out in foreign language communication. It is believed that students form a new world view, close to native speakers’. Thus, critical thinking allows us to consider objects, phenomena and processes from different sides, to find non-standard solutions, to comprehend familiar information in a different way. We give definition of the concept of “critical thinking”. The proposed algorithm is based on the technology of developing critical thinking, which is used in synthesis with the model of teaching listening. Since the technology of developing critical thinking of linguistic university students is represented by three stages: chal-lenge, content comprehension and reflection. It is easily projected onto the above-mentioned model of three-phase listening teaching, which is mandatory for students of a linguistic university. The standard tasks presented in the work on the critical thinking development through listening form a system of exercises aimed at achieving a certain result at each stage of teaching.

A cross-sectional survey of knowledge, attitude, and practices toward dengue fever among health workers in a tertiary health institution in Sokoto state, Nigeria.

Introduction:Dengue fever (DF) has become a disease of public health concern. It is a mosquito-borne virus infection caused by one of the four serotypes of the dengue virus, and the disease is prevalent in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, with a global burden in the Americas. Yearly, about 390 million cases of new infection are estimated to occur.Aims of the Study:This study was aimed atdetermining the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding dengue fever amongst health workers in a tertiary health institution in Sokoto state , Nigeria.Methods:A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, among 367 health-care workers who had worked in the hospital for at least 1 year before the study were selected using a systematic sampling method. Data were collected by trained resident doctors using a standardized, pretested questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 20 with a significance set at P > 0.05.Results:There was high awareness (95.1%) among the respondents, with seminars and lectures in school as the most familiar information sources. A more significant proportion, 87.8%, 93.2%, and 76.6%, of the respondents had adequate knowledge, positive attitude, and appropriate DF practice, respectively. Nurses and laboratory scientists had higher practice scores compared to other health-care workers (P = 0.016).Conclusion:Capacity building of health-care workers, especially the primary care physicians on surveillance, proper diagnosis, and treatment, is needed to avoid missing cases or misdiagnosis of cases, especially in developing and underdeveloped countries with limited health resources care service delivery.

New Patient Education Video on Colonoscopy Preparation: Development and Evaluation Study

BackgroundAlthough several patient education materials on colonoscopy preparation exist, few studies have evaluated or compared them; hence, there is no professional consensus on recommended content or media to use.ObjectiveThis study aims to address this need by developing and evaluating a new video on colonoscopy preparation.MethodsWe developed a new video explaining split-dose bowel preparation for colonoscopy. Of similar content videos on the internet (n=20), the most favorably reviewed video among patient and physician advisers was used as the comparator for the study. A total of 232 individuals attending gastroenterology or urology clinics reviewed the new and comparator videos. The order of administration of the new and comparator videos was randomly counterbalanced to assess the impact of presentation order. Respondents rated each video on the following dimensions: information amount, clarity, trustworthiness, understandability, new or familiar information, reassurance, information learned, understanding from the patient’s point of view, appeal, and the likelihood of recommending the video to others.ResultsOverall, 71.6% (166/232) of the participants preferred the new video, 25.0% (58/232) preferred the comparator video, and 3.4% (8/232) were not sure. Furthermore, 64.0% (71/111) of those who viewed the new video first preferred it, whereas 77.7% (94/121) of the participants who viewed the new video second preferred it. Multivariable logistic regression analysis also demonstrated that participants were more likely to prefer the new video if they had viewed it second. Participants who preferred the new video rated it as clearer and more trustworthy than those who preferred the comparator video.ConclusionsThis study developed and assessed the strengths of a newly developed colonoscopy educational video.

Multiple Structural Microform Defects Suggest Role of Modifier Genes

One of the biggest challenges in clinical genetics is establishing associations between specific germline mutations and the resulting spectrum of phenotypes. The careful characterization of clinical presentations continues to be a tool for establishing these genotype phenotype correlations. The authors intend, by presenting a case study, proposing that the concomitant occurrence of a combinations of mild structural anomalies in the same individual may be due to changes in genes that can be linked by related pathways. A new born with cleft lip and palate was referred at the Cleft Lip and Palate Center. The anamnese was performed and collected data of familiar history, parental consanguinity, and information about pregnancy period. The careful characterization of clinical presentations and the genetic pathways was studied. It is possible that there is no single mutation that can be clearly identified as the etiology of the combination of the defects displayed in the present case.