Arrangement Of Stimuli Research Articles

Adaptation patterns and their associations with mismatch negativity: An electroencephalogram (EEG) study with controlled expectations.

Adaptation refers to the decreased neural response that occurs after repeated exposure to a stimulus. While many electroencephalogram (EEG) studies have investigated adaptation by using either single or multiple repetitions, the adaptation patterns under controlled expectations manifested in the two main auditory components, N1 and P2, are still largely unknown. Additionally, although multiple repetitions are commonly used in mismatch negativity (MMN) experiments, it is unclear how adaptation at different time windows contributes to this phenomenon. In this study, we conducted an EEG experiment with 37 healthy adults using a random stimulus arrangement and extended tone sequences to control expectations. We tracked the amplitudes of the N1 and P2 components across the first 10 tones to examine adaptation patterns. Our findings revealed an L-shaped adaptation pattern characterised by a significant decrease in N1 amplitude after the first repetition (N1 initial adaptation), followed by a continuous, linear increase in P2 amplitude after the first repetition (P2 subsequent adaptation), possibly indicating model adjustment. Regression analysis demonstrated that the peak amplitudes of both the N1 initial adaptation and the P2 subsequent adaptation significantly accounted for variance in MMN amplitude. These results suggest distinct adaptation patterns for multiple repetitions across different components and indicate that the MMN reflects a combination of two processes: the initial adaptation in the N1 and a continuous model adjustment effect in the P2. Understanding these processes separately could have implications for models of cognitive processing and clinical disorders.

An evaluation of convergent intraverbal instruction on tacts of features, function, or class

AbstractEducators and parents are encouraged to arrange language‐rich environments, which provide children with exposure to language that is diverse in form and function and with repeated opportunities to emit verbal responses under a variety of conditions. Intraverbal relations constitute a large portion of these verbal interactions and may include compound antecedent verbal stimuli. Prior research has shown that responding may come under the control of limited features of compound antecedent stimuli, which may be evident when responding does not occur in the presence of individual elements or emergent performances (e.g., symmetrical relations) are absent. The current study evaluated the effects of alternating convergent intraverbal (CIV) and tact by feature, function, or class sessions on emergent tact performances in a game‐like arrangement. Participants included four children exhibiting expressive language deficits. The results revealed that correct responding on CIV trials did not consistently predict tact performances for the same targets. These findings highlight the need for additional research on the effective arrangement of compound stimuli in early educational interventions.

Opposing influences of global and local stimulus-hand proximity on crosstalk interference in dual tasks.

In contrast to traditional dualistic views of cognition, visual stimulus processing appears not independent of bodily factors such as hand positioning. For example, reduced crosstalk between two temporally overlapping tasks has been observed when the hands are moved into the attentional window alongside their respective stimuli (i.e., establishing global stimulus-hand proximity). This result indicates that hand-specific attentional processing enhancements support a more serial rather than parallel processing of the two tasks. To further elucidate the nature of these processing modulations and their effect on multitasking performance, the present study consisted of three interrelated crosstalk experiments. Experiment 1 manipulated global stimulus-hand proximity and stimulus-effect proximity orthogonally, with results demonstrating that hand proximity rather than effect proximity drives the crosstalk reduction. Experiment 2 manipulated the physical distance between both hands (i.e., varying local stimulus-hand proximity), with results showing weak evidence of increased crosstalk when both hands are close to each other. Experiment 3 tested opposing influences of global and local stimulus-hand proximity as observed in Experiment 1 and 2 rigorously within one experiment, by employing an orthogonal manipulation of these two proximity measures. Again, we observed slightly increased crosstalk for hands close to each other (replicating Experiment 2); however, in contrast to Experiment 1, the effect of global stimulus-hand proximity on the observed crosstalk was not significant this time. Taken together, the experiments support the notion of hand-specific modulations of perception-action coupling, which can either lead to more or less interference in multitasking, depending on the exact arrangement of hands and stimuli.

Computational design for 4D printing of topology optimized multi-material active composites

Recent efforts on design for four-dimensional (4D) printing have considered the spatial arrangement of smart materials and energy stimuli. The development of multifunctional structures and their desired mechanical/actuation performances require tackling 4D printing from a multi-material design perspective. With the materials distributions there is an opportunity to increase the spectrum of design concepts with computational approaches. The main goal being to achieve the “best” distribution of material properties in a voxelized structure, a computational framework that consists of a finite element analysis-based evolutionary algorithm is presented. It fuses the advantages of optimizing both the materials distribution and material layout within a design space via topology optimization to solve the inverse design problem of finding an optimal design to achieve a target shape change by integrating void voxels. The results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method in providing a highly capable tool for the design of 4D-printed active composites.

Image Presentation Method for Human Machine Interface Using Deep Learning Object Recognition and P300 Brain Wave

Welfare robots, as a category of robotics, seeks to improve the quality of life of the elderly and patients by availing a control mechanism to enable the participants to be self-dependent. This is achieved by using man-machine interfaces that manipulate certain external processes like feeding or communicating. This research aims to realize a man-machine interface using brainwave combined with object recognition applicable to patients with locked-in syndrome. The system utilizes a camera with pretrained object-detection system that recognizes the environment and displays the contents in an interface to solicit a choice using P300 signals. Being a camera-based system, field of view and luminance level were identified as possible influences. We designed six experiments by adapting the arrangement of stimuli (triangular or horizontal) and brightness/colour levels. The results showed that the horizontal arrangement had better accuracy than the triangular method. Further, colour was identified as a key parameter for the successful discrimination of target stimuli. From the paper, the precision of discrimination can be improved by adopting a harmonized arrangement and selecting the appropriate saturation/brightness of the interface.

Dual stimuli interface with logical division using local move stimuli.

Improving information transfer rate is a key to prompt the speed of outputting instructions of the event-related potential-based brain-computer interface. Our previous study designed a dual-stimuli interface that simultaneously presents two types of different stimuli to improve the speed. While, adding more stimuli into this interface makes subject easily affected by "flanker effect" that decreases the accuracy of recognizing intention. To achieve high recognition accuracy with many stimuli, this study proposes a dual stimuli interface based on whole flash and local move (DS-WL) and two rules of stimulus arrangement to induce the brain signals. Twenty subjects participated in the experiment, and their signals are recognized by a back propagation neural network classifier. The local move induces larger and later signals of targets to help discriminate the two kinds of stimuli; the rules reduce the N200 and P300 amplitudes of non-target, which improves accuracy. This study demonstrates that the DS-WL is a useful way to shorten the instruction output cycle and speed up the instructions outputting by local move and rules.

On the Efficacy of and Preference for Signaling Extinction in a Multiple Schedule.

Previous basic research has shown that signaling the extinction component of a compound schedule can be aversive and nonpreferred. However, such discriminative stimuli are common when thinning schedules of reinforcement in practice, and they provide several advantages to clinicians. A limitation of previous applied studies on different arrangements of discriminative stimuli is that researchers have used identical stimuli to signal the availability of reinforcement across conditions that do and do not signal extinction, often doubling exposure to the stimulus signaling the availability of reinforcement. The present experiments corrected this limitation by comparing multiple-schedule arrangements that do and do not signal extinction when unique stimuli signal each component across conditions. Results from three participants indicated that both multiple-schedule arrangements were similarly efficacious when teaching the successive discrimination. However, response patterns differed when testing under a concurrent-operants arrangement, suggesting different patterns of preference across various multiple-schedule arrangements.

Pre-saccadic attention spreads to stimuli forming a perceptual group with the saccade target

The pre-saccadic attention shift—a rapid increase in visual sensitivity at the target—is an inevitable precursor of saccadic eye movements. Saccade targets are often parts of the objects that are of interest to the active observer. Although the link between saccades and covert attention shifts is well established, it remains unclear if pre-saccadic attention selects the location of the eye movement target or rather the entire object that occupies this location. Indeed, several neurophysiological studies suggest that attentional modulations of neural activity in visual cortex spreads across parts of objects (e.g., elements grouped by Gestalt principles) that contain the target location of a saccade. To understand the nature of pre-saccadic attentional selection, we examined how visual sensitivity, measured in a challenging orientation discrimination task, changes during saccade preparation at locations that are perceptually grouped with the saccade target. In Experiment 1, using grouping by color in a delayed-saccade task, we found no consistent spread of attention to locations that formed a perceptual group with the saccade target. However, performance depended on the side of the stimulus arrangement relative to the saccade target location, an effect we discuss with respect to attentional momentum. In Experiment 2, employing stronger perceptual grouping cues (color and motion) and an immediate-saccade task, we obtained a reliable grouping effect: Attention spread to locations that were perceptually grouped with the saccade target while saccade preparation was underway. We also replicated the side effect observed in Experiment 1. These results provide evidence that the pre-saccadic attention spreads beyond the target location along the saccade direction, and selects scene elements that—based on Gestalt criteria—are likely to belong to the same object as the saccade target.

Stimulus Equivalence Using a Respondent Matching-to-Sample Procedure with Verification Trials

Despite systematic demonstrations of the effectiveness of the respondent-type procedure in producing relational responding, matching-to-sample continues to be the predominant approach for studying equivalence class formation. The length of exposure to stimulus pairings during respondent-type training, and repeated alternation of blocks of training and testing are factors that seem to undermine the practicality and the perceived effectiveness of the procedure. Further, the presentation of stimulus pairs without the simultaneous presence of nonclass members may be said to lack the complexity of the matching-to-sample stimulus arrangement. The present study evaluates the efficiency of a respondent matching-to-sample arrangement after exposing participants to a reduced number of training trials per baseline relation. Probes were added at the end of each block of training trials to verify the strength of S–S relations while keeping the number of acquisition trials to a minimum. At least half of the participants responded correctly to all probe trials per baseline relation after only one exposure, and all participants performed accurately in tests of derived relations. Procedural components of S–S training such as intermixing probes during training and arranging an environment-elicited orientation response towards the relevant stimuli, are discussed as key elements of efficient respondent equivalence training procedures.

Simon Says-On the influence of stimulus arrangement, stimulus material and inner speech habits on the Simon effect.

In Simon-type interference tasks, participants are asked to perform a 2-choice reaction on a stimulus dimension while ignoring the stimulus position. Commonly, robust congruency effects are found; that is, reactions are faster when the relevant stimulus attribute and the assigned response match the location of the stimulus. Simon congruency effects are regularly attributed to a fast, nonverbal processing route. In 3 experiments, we tested the importance of verbal representations in the Simon effect by manipulating the format of representations (verbal vs. nonverbal) with stimulus material (i.e., words vs. gratings) and stimulus arrangement (i.e., horizontally vs. vertically). Results of the first experiment point to a modulation of the Simon effects by both factors when they were manipulated between subjects, up to an inversion of the Simon effect for words presented in vertical arrangement. We replicated the inverse congruency effect for verbal material in vertical arrangement when a within-participant design was used (Experiment 2) and when the impact of reading processes was ruled out (Experiment 3). One cause for this inversion might be the construction of language-based representations that counteract automatic processing given the stimulus arrangement. To investigate this, we assessed individual differences in the use of inner speech for self-instruction. Using hierarchical linear modeling analysis, we found that self-rated evaluative and motivational inner speech processes accounted for a significant portion of the Simon effect. This supports claims that individual differences predict performance even in simple cognitive tasks such as the Simon task and highlights the flexibility of basic cognitive processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

On the Characteristics of Sustained Attention Test Performance

Abstract. Most psychometric tests assessing sustained attention are characterized by a specific presentation mode: Many items are presented simultaneously and the test takers are required to constantly process and react to them until the testing time is up. The aim of the present study was to look into two mechanisms that potentially underlie performance in these tests: The ability to focus on the currently relevant item and the ability to preprocess upcoming items to prepare for upcoming actions. In order to assess both abilities, the d2-R test of sustained attention was modified and its stimulus arrangement (single, blocks vs. rows of stimuli) was manipulated. The measure of focusing was unreliable and unrelated to performance in standard sustained attention tests. However, the data indicated a strong preview benefit. That is, the test takers preprocessed upcoming items when they got a valid preview of them, which considerably enhanced performance. Moreover, interindividual differences in the preview benefit proved to be internally reliable as well as reliable in retest and were substantially related to performance in three conventional sustained attention tests. We conclude that preprocessing constitutes an important component of performance in sustained attention tests and most likely represents a stable cognitive ability rather than a strategy.

시각자극의 배열 방향과 순서에 따른 인간의 자극 인지 특성

Objective: The purpose of this study is to find out how the arrangement of visual stimuli affects human perception.BRBRBackground: The correct perception of visual information in the design of human-machine systems is one of the most important factors to consider for improving the usability and safety of systems. In particular, the arrangement direction and order of visual stimuli are design elements that should be considered important in the design of visual information or in the design of the user interface.BRBRMethod: Three black circles were used as an experimental stimulus. The reference stimulus was a 30mm diameter circle and the signal stimulus was a 30.8mm diameter circle. The signal stimulus was the size that 90% of the subjects correctly determined in the JND measurement experiment. The experimental equipment was a tachistoscope and 20 college students participated as subjects. The subjects judged whether the three circles presented in the horizontal or vertical direction were the same size. They pressed the left button if they were the same and pressed the right button for the other.BRBRResults: Although the difference was not statistically significant, the accuracy of men

Visual acuity and color discrimination in patients with cataracts.

Color vision tests can give information about pathological changes in eye structures. The purpose of our research was to study the color vision sensitivity and visual acuity changes before and after cataract surgery. We used a saturated Farnsworth D15 color vision arrangement test to check color sensitivity changes in confusion line directions. The test is easily perceptible (essential to eldery patients), and it is possible to check color sensitivity changes in tritan, protan, and deutan confusion line directions. The results were analyzed in several ways: by summing the color differences between adjacent caps according to Bowman and averaging the color difference vectors according to Vingrys and King-Smith. Color difference vectors determine the severity (or confusion), selectivity (or scatter), and type of color deficiency to the presented cap arrangements. In the least squares regression method, the error type is determined by the angular proximity of the best-fit line to known confusion axes representing protan, deutan, tritan, or unspecified color defects. All three tests showed that cataract-induced lens opacity significantly decreases a patient's chromatic resolution in the visible light region. Before the cataract surgery, the D15 test stimulus arrangement sequence showed similarities with tritan color deficiency.

Similarity, Attraction, and Compromise Effects: Original Findings, Recent Empirical Observations, and Computational Cognitive Process Models

Abstract Preference reversals—a decision maker prefers A over B in one situation but B over A in another—demonstrate that human behavior violates invariance assumptions of (utility-based) rational choice theories. In the field of multi-alternative multi-attribute decision-making research, 3 preference reversals received special attention: similarity, attraction, and compromise effects. The 3 so-called context effects are changes in (relative) choice probabilities for 2 choice alternatives after a third “decoy” option is added to the set. Despite their simplicity, the effects demonstrate that choice probabilities in multi-alternative decision making are contingent on the local context, that is, on the choice set under consideration. Because of their simplicity, on the other hand, similarity, attraction, and compromise effects have been successfully examined in numerous studies to date, and they have become of increasing interest for differentiating between computational cognitive process models of multi-alternative multi-attribute decision making. However, the stimulus arrangement for producing the effects seems to vary between studies, which becomes challenging when model accounts are compared. The purpose of this review is to present various paradigms in a coherent way and describe various model accounts based on a common structure.

Linear numerosity illusions in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella), rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), and humans (Homo sapiens).

Numerosity illusions emerge when the stimuli in one set are overestimated or underestimated relative to the number (or quantity) of stimuli in another set. In the case of multi-item arrays, individual items that form a better Gestalt are more readily grouped, leading to overestimation by human adults and children. As an example, the Solitaire illusion emerges when dots forming a central cluster (cross-pattern) are overestimated relative to the same number of dots on the periphery of the array. Although this illusion is robustly experienced by human adults, previous studies have produced weaker illusory results for young children, chimpanzees, rhesus macaques, capuchin monkeys, and guppies. In the current study, we presented nonhuman primates with other linear arrangements of stimuli from Frith and Frith's (Percept Psychoph 11:409-410, 1972) original paper with human participants that included the Solitaire illusion. Capuchin monkeys, rhesus macaques, and human adults learned to quantify black and white dots that were presented within intermingled arrays, responding on the basis of the more numerous dot colors. Humans perceived the various illusions similar to the original findings of Frith and Frith (1972), validating the current comparative design; however, there was no evidence of illusory susceptibility in either species of monkey. These results are considered in light of illusion susceptibility among primates as well as considering the role of numerical discrimination abilities and perceptual processing mode on illusion emergence.

True contextuality in a psychophysical experiment

Recent crowdsourcing experiments have shown that true contextuality of the kind found in quantum mechanics can also be present in human behavior. In these experiments simple human choices were aggregated over large numbers of respondents, with each respondent dealing with a single context (set of questions asked). In this paper we present experimental evidence of contextuality in individual human behavior, in a psychophysical experiment with repeated presentations of visual stimuli in randomly varying conteXts (arrangements of stimuli). The analysis is based on the Contextuality-by-Default (CbD) theory whose relevant aspects are reviewed in the paper. CbD allows one to detect contextuality in the presence of direct influences, i.e., when responses to the same stimuli have different distributions in different contexts. The experiment presented is also the first one in which contextuality is demonstrated for responses that are not dichotomous, with five options to choose among. CbD requires that random variables representing such responses be dichotomized before they are subjected to contextuality analysis. A theorem says that a system consisting of all possible dichotomizations of responses has to be contextual if these responses violate a certain condition, called nominal dominance. In our experiment nominal dominance was violated in all data sets, with very high statistical reliability established by bootstrapping.

Phonological span in children and adults: Does response format matter?

In contrast to classical phonological span tasks, which require verbal recall, those used in self-reliant, group-administrable working memory measurement contain a visuospatial response format. As a consequence, these tasks involve recoding, executive, and visual search requirements in addition to encoding and storage processes. To examine age-dependent effects of these special requirements, tablet-based word and digit span tasks with a visuospatial response format were compared to corresponding tasks with a verbal response format in first and second graders, third and fourth graders, and adults (N = 105). Whereas children’s performance was impaired by the visuospatial response format, adults’ performance was not. Whether the arrangement of stimuli in the visuospatial response format—either variable or fixed—has differential effects on performance in children and adults (N = 434) was examined in a second experiment. No substantial differences between variable and fixed response format were found in any of the age groups. Possible underlying mechanisms for age-dependent effects of response format and the role of executive functions and visual search in automatized phonological span tasks are discussed.

On the Relationship Between Sensory Eye Dominance and Stereopsis in the Normal-Sighted Adult Population: Normative Data.

The extent of sensory eye dominance, a reflection of the interocular suppression in binocular visual processing, can be quantitatively measured using the binocular phase combination task. In this study, we aimed to provide a normative dataset for sensory eye dominance using this task. Based on that, we also assessed the relationship between perceptual eye dominance and stereopsis. One-hundred and forty-two adults (average age: 24.00 ± 1.74 years old) with normal or corrected to normal monocular visual acuity (logMAR < 0.00) participated. Observer’s sensory eye dominance was quantified in two complementary ways: the interocular contrast ratio when the two eyes were balanced (i.e., the balance point) and the absolute value of the binocular perceived phase when each eye viewed maximum contrast stimuli in binocular phase combination task. Stereo acuities were measured with maximum contrast stimuli using an identical spatial frequency (0.30 cycles/degree) and stimulus arrangement to that used in the eye dominance assessment. The averaged balance point was 0.93 ± 0.06 (Mean ± SD), the averaged absolute value of the binocular perceived phase when both eyes viewed maximum contrast stimuli was 7.62 ± 5.91°, and the averaged stereo acuity was 2.19 ± 0.34 log arc seconds. Neither of these two sensory eye dominance measures were significantly correlated with stereo acuity (Balance point: ρ = 0.14, P = 0.10; Phase: ρ = −0.13, P = 0.13). The sensory eye dominance, as reflected using a phase combination task, and stereopsis are not significantly correlated in the normal-sighted population at low spatial frequencies.

Linking crowding, visual span, and reading.

The visual span is hypothesized to be a sensory bottleneck on reading speed with crowding thought to be the major sensory factor limiting the size of the visual span. This proposed linkage between crowding, visual span, and reading speed is challenged by the finding that training to read crowded letters reduced crowding but did not improve reading speed (Chung, 2007). Here, we examined two properties of letter-recognition training that may influence the transfer to improved reading: the spatial arrangement of training stimuli and the presence of flankers. Three groups of nine young adults were trained with different configurations of letter stimuli at 10° in the lower visual field: a flanked-local group (flanked letters localized at one position), a flanked-distributed group (flanked letters distributed across different horizontal locations), and an isolated-distributed group (isolated and distributed letters). We found that distributed training, but not the presence of flankers, appears to be necessary for the training benefit to transfer to increased reading speed. Localized training may have biased attention to one specific, small area in the visual field, thereby failing to improve reading. We conclude that the visual span represents a sensory bottleneck on reading, but there may also be an attentional bottleneck. Reducing the impact of crowding can enlarge the visual span and can potentially facilitate reading, but not when adverse attentional bias is present. Our results clarify the association between crowding, visual span, and reading.

Lateralization of Executive Function: Working Memory Advantage for Same Hemifield Stimuli in the Monkey.

Working memory capacity, the amount of information that may be maintained in mind over a period of seconds, is extremely limited, to a handful of items. Some evidence exists that the number of visual items that may be maintained in working memory is independent for the two hemifields. To test this idea, we trained monkeys to perform visual working memory tasks that required maintenance in memory of the locations and/or shapes of 3–5 visual stimuli. We then tested whether systematic performance differences were present for stimuli concentrated in the same hemifield, vs. distributed across hemifields. We found little evidence to support the expectation that working memory capacity is independent in the two hemifields. Instead, when an advantage of stimulus arrangement was present, it involved multiple stimuli presented in the same hemifield. This conclusion was consistent across variations of the task, performance levels, and apparent strategies adopted by individual subjects. This result suggests that factors such as grouping that favor processing of stimuli in relative proximity may counteract the benefits of independent processing in the two hemispheres. Our results reveal an important property of working memory and place constraints on models of working memory capacity.