Processing Of New Information Research Articles

LEARNING DIFFICULTIES: WHAT THE NEUROLOGIST NEEDS TO KNOW

Learning difficulties have a very significant effect on individuals and on society. The affected individual will have difficulties in thinking, acquisition, and processing of new information and knowledge. As a...

Induced processing biases have causal effects on anxiety

After briefly describing the nature of emotional processing biases associated with vulnerability to anxiety, and a model of how they may be produced, we review new data on the experimental induction of attentional and interpretative biases. We show that these biases can be readily induced in the laboratory, in the absence of mood changes. However, induced biases exert effects on the processing of new information and cause congruent changes in state anxiety when they influence how emotionally significant information is encoded. We can therefore conclude that biases have causal effects on vulnerability to anxiety via their influence on how significant events are processed. Finally, we discuss how our model might account for the acquisition of processing bias and for when they can influence anxiety.

On the relation between conceptual priming, neural priming, and novelty assessment.

A consistently reported finding in functional neuroimaging studies which compare processing of new information to processing of old information is a reduction in blood flow, and hence neural activity, associated with the old condition. This deactivation has been labeled neural priming. Some investigators have hypothesized that neural priming is the physiological mechanism underlying conceptual priming--a facilitation in the semantic processing of repeated information. Others, however, have hypothesized that neural priming reflects novelty assessment--a mechanism which minimizes the probability that redundant information will be stored in long-term memory. In this paper, the conceptual priming and novelty assessment hypotheses are compared and contrasted in order to ask, and tentatively answer, the question: Are conceptual priming and novelty assessment cognitively and neurophysiologically distinct? Based on a review of the literature, it is suggested that whereas novelty assessment and conceptual priming are distinct cognitive entities, they cannot be presently separated neurophysiologically. That is, some novelty assessment deactivations may in fact reflect priming, and some priming deactivations may in fact reflect novelty assessment.

Orbitofrontal involvement in the processing of unpleasant auditory information

Although little is known about the contribution of the orbitofrontal cortex to the processing of new information in man, lesion studies in monkeys have suggested that it plays a critical role. The present study investigated changes in cerebral blood flow with positron emission tomography in normal human subjects during exposure to unpleasant auditory stimuli. The results indicated that the caudal orbitofrontal cortex, area 13, which is powerfully linked to the medial temporal limbic region and is involved in the regulation of autonomic responses, is a key part of the frontal cortex responding in the face of unpleasant incoming information.

The effects of neonatal basal forebrain lesions oncognition : towards understanding the developmental roleof the cholinergic basal forebrain

Abnormal development of the cholinergic basal forebrain has been implicated innumerous developmental disabilities such as Rett Syndrome and Down Syndrome. This reviewsummarizes recent data using two rodent animal models that involve interrupting cholinergic basalforebrain projections on postnatal day 1 and postnatal day 7 when basal forebrain fibers arebeginning to innervate their neocortical and hippocampal targets, respectively. In one model,electrolytic lesions in mice aimed at the basal forebrain on postnatal day 1 transiently reducecholinergic markers in neocortex which induce permanent alterations in neocortical anatomy thatcorrelate with impairments on cognitive tasks. Furthermore, the lesion effects are sex dependent.In another model, 192 IgG saporin lesions in rats on postnatal day 7 permanently reducecholinergic markers in neocortex and hippocampus, and result in mild impairments in spatialprocessing, acquisition and exploratory activities. These data suggest that during the firstpostnatal week of development the cholinergic basal forebrain system is critical for normalneocortical differentiation and, possibly synaptogenesis in neural circuits that will be important forspatial memory and acquisition of spatial data. During the second postnatal week of development,the cholinergic basal forebrain system appears to take on a role largely similar to its adult role inselective attention and processing of new information. These studies also suggest strongly thatinterrupting cholinergic basal forebrain innervation of neocortex and hippocampus leads toanatomical and neurochemical abnormalities that may serve as neural substrates for some of thecognitive deficits seen in disorders such as Rett Syndrome and Down Syndrome.

Similarity, Relevance, and the Comparison Process

According to Goodman (1972), two things are similar only if they possess relevant common properties. The relevance of properties, however, can vary with the context and with the goals of the person making the comparison. As a result, similarity is a highly unstable relation, and therefore difficult to use as a base from which to explain other processes, such as analogy, induction, categorization, and metaphor. A recent attempt by Gentner and her colleagues to explain the operations of the comparison process in analogy may run across some of these difficulties. In particular, her structure-mapping theory (Gentner, 1983, 1989; Gentner & Markman, 1997) does not explain how the relevant features are accessed during the early stages of the comparison process. Moreover, progress on this problem will not be made until we have a solution to a more general problem--the problem of explaining how people manage to bring relevant information to bear in the processing of new information.

Working Knowledge, Cognitive Processing, and Attitudes: On the Determinants of Bias

This experiment demonstrated that attitude-relevant knowledge can enable biased or objective systematic processing of new information. Subjects having a high or low knowledge on AIDS risk prevention evaluated a series of scenarios estimating the likelihood of contracting AIDS from sexual behavior. Knowledgeable subjects who reported considerable fear of AIDS engaged in biased processing of the risk estimates. The intense affect apparently motivated these subjects to use their knowledge to bolster and defend their existing attitudes toward AIDS risk: They gave more favorable evaluations of risk estimates that supported their attitudes than estimates that opposed them. In contrast, knowledgeable subjects who reported only moderate AIDS fear did not appear motivated to assume a defensive stance and instead processed the AIDS risk estimates in a critical, objective manner regardless of the congruence with their own attitudes. Less knowledgeable subjects did not demonstrate either a biased or an objectively critical processing orientation.

Generality of a Theory of Collective Induction: Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Interaction, Amount of Potential Information, and Group versus Member Choice of Evidence

In order to assess the generality of a theory of collective induction that has previously been supported for face-to-face interaction (Laughlin and Hollingshead, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1995), three experiments compared face-to-face and computer-mediated interaction for four-person groups for three successive rule induction problems. The predictions of the theory fit the obtained probabilities of group hypotheses for distributions of member hypotheses better than four other plausible models for both face-to-face and computer-mediated groups, over four levels of potential information, and for group versus member choice of evidence. There were comparable numbers of correct hypotheses for face-to-face and computer-mediated interaction, increasing correct hypotheses with increasing potential information, and comparable numbers of correct hypotheses for group versus member choice of evidence. The three experiments indicate the generality of the theory for both traditional face-to-face interaction and computer-mediated interaction, four levels of potential information, and group versus member choice of information. The comparisons of face-to-face and computer-mediated interaction extend the emphasis on social communication processes on decision and idea generation tasks of previous research to social combination processes in the acquisition and processing of new information in cooperative rule learning.

Foundations of problem-based learning: some explanatory notes.

The present article elaborates on cognitive effects of problem-based learning put forward by Schmidt, De Volder, De Grave, Moust & Patel (1989) and Norman & Schmidt (1992). Its purpose is to discuss, in some detail, the theoretical premises of this approach to learning and instruction. It is argued that problem-based learning, above all, promotes the activation of prior knowledge and its elaboration. Evidence is reviewed demonstrating that these processes actually occur in small-group tutorials and that the processing of new information is indeed facilitated by discussion of a relevant problem. These effects must be attributed to a reorganization taking place in the knowledge structures of students as a result of problem-oriented study. In addition, a cognitive process called epistemic curiosity (or intrinsic interest) is enabled. Some directions for further research are outlined. The contribution starts, however, with a discussion of the philosophical and pedagogical roots of problem-based learning.

Assessment of Students' Behavioral Interactions during on-task Classroom Activities

This study was designed to characterize the quality and quantity of interactions between students and significant others in the processing of new information during classroom activities. I wanted to test the hypothesis that black children, from moderate to low income urban environments, tend to have a more socially active cognitive style than their white peers in the performance of classroom tasks. Five different English classes, all 8th graders in a single junior high school (total of 114 black and white boys and girls), were observed in the same environment at different intervals to identify differences in the number of interactions between boys and girls, by racial groups. Classroom lessons and related activities were videotaped. The recorded activity was tabulated and rated by 3 trained observers. Black children more than white, and boys more than girls, initiated interactions with peers in the classroom in performing assigned tasks. This social interaction also showed that (1) 76% of the observed classroom time, subjects as a group were observed on-task and (2) pupils' interactions with their selected targets (classmates and their teacher) were 87% positive, and (3) relatively few interactions could be classified as disruptive.

Economic Forecasts, Rationality, and the Processing of New Information over Time

This study analyzes real GNP and inflation forecasts published in the Blue Chip Economic Indicators. The survey revises annual growth rate estimates every month, thus making it possible to analyze the value of new information and its contribution to the estimates' predictive power of the actual values. If information is used efficiently, updated forecasts should provide more accurate predictions. The empirical results suggest that the revised forecasts of real GNP growth and inflation incorporate new information in a rational manner. In addition, the most recent inflation forecasts are found to be unbiased estimates on the actual rate of inflation. Copyright 1990 by Ohio State University Press.

Rhyme priming of pictures and words: A lexical activation account.

Orthographically/phonologically related primes have typically been found to facilitate processing of target words. This phenomenon is usually explained in terms of spreading activation between nodes for orthographically/phonologically similar words in lexical memory. The phenomenon was explored in a series of studies involving the manipulations of prime and target type (word or picture) and prime and target task (naming or categorization). Generally, the results support the lexical activation explanation. Named primes, which activate lexical memory, facilitate processing in all target tasks involving lexical access (word and picture naming and word categorization), independent of prime type. Categorized primes show the expected Prime Type x Relatedness interaction with word primes, which activate lexical memory, producing much more facilitation than picture primes. Finally, unlike in semantic priming studies, increased depth of processing of a word prime decreased the size of the priming effects. Apparently, initial activation levels in lexical memory are not maintained when semantic processing of the prime is required. One of the major issues being addressed by cognitive psychologists is how context affects the processing of new information. Especially fruitful in this regard has been the priming paradigm first reported by Meyer and Schvaneveldt (1971). In a typical priming task, two stimuli are presented sequentially. The first, or prime, stimulus establishes a particular context. Empirically, the question is whether this context affects processing of the second, or target, stimulus.

Previous experiences with epilepsy and effectiveness of information to change public perception of epilepsy.

Differences with regard to the effectiveness of health information and attitude change are suggested between people with direct, behavioral experiences with a health topic and people with indirect, nonbehavioral experiences. The effects of three different methods of health education about epilepsy, frequently used in health education practice, are assessed in a pretest posttest design with control groups, controlling for experiences with epilepsy. Subjects were 132 students from teacher-training colleges. After all treatments, attitudes, and knowledge about epilepsy were changed in a positive way. Treatments were found to be equally effective. Before treatment, direct behavioral experiences were related to knowledge and a more positive attitude towards epilepsy. After treatment, subjects with direct behavioral experiences with epilepsy showed less change of attitude and knowledge as compared with subjects with indirect experiences. Direct experiences appear to restrain the processing of new information and attitude change.

Prolegomena to discourse-pragmatics

The article covers basic notions of discourse-pragmatics, such as the relationship between multi-propositional discourse and the notion of coherence; a pragmatic definition of ‘information’ in terms of relative compatibility with the knowledge and/or world-view of the hearer; thematic structure and multi-stranded coherence; foreground, background, and shared information; speech acts, propositional modalities, and the speaker-hearer communicative contract; focus and the scope of assertion; processing considerations in modeling discourse functions; the relationship between the generic knowledge pool and processing of new information.

Comparison of postnatal CNS development between male and female rats

Abnormal development of the cholinergic basal forebrain has been implicated innumerous developmental disabilities such as Rett Syndrome and Down Syndrome. This reviewsummarizes recent data using two rodent animal models that involve interrupting cholinergic basalforebrain projections on postnatal day 1 and postnatal day 7 when basal forebrain fibers arebeginning to innervate their neocortical and hippocampal targets, respectively. In one model,electrolytic lesions in mice aimed at the basal forebrain on postnatal day 1 transiently reducecholinergic markers in neocortex which induce permanent alterations in neocortical anatomy thatcorrelate with impairments on cognitive tasks. Furthermore, the lesion effects are sex dependent.In another model, 192 IgG saporin lesions in rats on postnatal day 7 permanently reducecholinergic markers in neocortex and hippocampus, and result in mild impairments in spatialprocessing, acquisition and exploratory activities. These data suggest that during the firstpostnatal week of development the cholinergic basal forebrain system is critical for normalneocortical differentiation and, possibly synaptogenesis in neural circuits that will be important forspatial memory and acquisition of spatial data. During the second postnatal week of development,the cholinergic basal forebrain system appears to take on a role largely similar to its adult role inselective attention and processing of new information. These studies also suggest strongly thatinterrupting cholinergic basal forebrain innervation of neocortex and hippocampus leads toanatomical and neurochemical abnormalities that may serve as neural substrates for some of thecognitive deficits seen in disorders such as Rett Syndrome and Down Syndrome.

Processing the information contained in another's behavior

This study investigates attributions based on behavior congruent with situational demands (in-role) and those based on behavior incongruent with situational demands (out-of-role). By analyzing these processes in terms of a Bayesian inference model, it was possible to determine (a) the diagnostic values observers intially assign to behaviors, (b) the actual informational impact of these behaviors, and (c) the degree of optimality in processing information contained therein. The main results can be summarized as follows: (1) The diagnostic value and actual informational impact of out-of-role behaviors were much higher than those of inrole behaviors. (2) Information about out-of-role behaviors was less optimally processed than information about in-role behaviors. (3) Observers assigned smaller diagnostic values to behaviors which were described in great detail than to behaviors which were described in summary statements. (4) Observers' attitudes influenced their initial beliefs about the actors but not the processing of new information about the actor. (5) The Bayesian inference model predicted observers' inferences reasonably well.