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This study was to investigate how phonological processing and visual-spatial abilities contributed differently to arithmetic operations including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Eighty-eight Chinese fifth graders completed a rapid digit naming task, a character rhyming task, a figure matching task, a 3D mental rotation task, and arithmetic calculation tasks. Results showed that when controlling for age, visual acuity, and nonverbal intelligence, phonological processing accounted for unique variance in both addition and multiplication, whereas visual-spatial processing explained unique variance in subtraction and division. In particular, rapid automatized naming (hereafter, RAN) explained more of the variance in addition than mental rotation did, although both were significantly associated with addition. Mental rotation explained more of the variance in subtraction than phonological awareness and RAN did, although the three skills were all related to subtraction. Importantly, RAN was a unique correlate of multiplication, while mental rotation was a unique correlate of division. These findings highlight different contribution of the phonological processing and visual-spatial skills underlying four arithmetic operations., Author(s): Xiao Yu [sup.1] , Kaichun Liu [sup.2] , Yuhan Wang [sup.2] , Xiujie Yang [sup.2] , Jingyuan Yang [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/04xv2pc41, grid.66741.32, 0000 0001 1456 856X, Department [...]

Whether multiple representations in visual working memory (VWM) can simultaneously guide attention is controversial. The multiple-item-template (MIT) hypothesis holds that multiple VWM representations can be active to guide visual attention simultaneously, whereas the single-item-template (SIT) hypothesis argues that only one VWM representation can interact with attention at a time. Recent study form (Fan et al., Acta Psychologica 192:126-137, 2019) provided strong evidence on MIT through the method of comparing the patterns of guidance effects in different experimental conditions. In the present study, we aimed to reexamine SIT and MIT by sharing a new condition wherein two search distractors match the single memory representation, using the original Fan et al. tilted-line search task. The guidance effect when two colored-shapes were held in VWM and both were present as distractors in the search array were observed and equal to that when the single colored-shape in VWM matched two of the distractors, which is consistent with the hypothesis of MIT. Moreover, the comparison on the degree of linear fitting between the actual data and two hypothesized models according to SIT and MIT showed that the Model of MIT fits the data best with a higher R.sup.2 of 0.125., Author(s): Lingxia Fan [sup.1] [sup.2] , Liuting Diao [sup.3] , Mengsi Xu [sup.4] , Xuemin Zhang [sup.5] [sup.6] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.203507.3, 0000 0000 8950 5267, Department of Psychology, Ningbo [...]

While ample evidence supports an association between power and dominance, little is still known about how temporary experiences of power influence the way people come to see themselves and others. The present research investigates the effect of social power on self- and other-face recognition, and examines whether gender modulates the direction of this effect. Male and female participants were induced to feel either powerful or powerless and had to recognize their own face and those of same-sex strangers from a series of images ranging from a dominant to a submissive version of the original. Results showed that males more frequently chose a dominant self-image under high power, whereas females selected a submissive self-image under low power. When presented with faces of same-sex targets female participants relied on low-power features (i.e., submissiveness) of the self in the perception of others (assimilation effect), whereas male participants more often selected a dominant image of strangers when feeling powerless (constrast effect). The effects of power did not extend to more deliberate judgments of dominance and likability, suggesting that respective biases in face recollection operated at an implicit level. This research underscores the cognitive and motivational underpinnings of power and related gender gaps in power attainment., Author(s): Eva G. Krumhuber [sup.1] , Xijing Wang [sup.1] [sup.2] , Ana Guinote [sup.1] [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.83440.3b, 0000000121901201, Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, , 26 Bedford [...]

In this longitudinal study, 64 kindergartners (mean age at T1 = 4.69 ± 0.33 years; 34 girls) were tested on visual perception skills (T2 and T3) and mathematics performance (T1 to T3) with 6-month intervals between the three testing waves. Cross-lagged path analysis showed a bidirectional relationship between visual perception and mathematics performance from T2 to T3. Specifically, children's visual perception at T2 significantly predicted their mathematics performance at T3 (B = 0.30, SE = 0.14, p = 0.03, [beta] = 0.19). Children's mathematics performance at T1 accounted for unique variance in visual perception at T2 (B = 0.79, SE = 0.11, p < 0.001, [beta] = 0.68) and visual perception at T3 (B = 0.27, SE = 0.12, p = 0.02, [beta] = 0.32). Their mathematics performance at T2 also significantly predicted visual perception at T3 (B = 0.21, SE = 0.10, p = 0.04, [beta] = 0.28). Totally, they explained 61% of the variance in mathematics performance and 39% of the variance in visual perception at T3. The results highlight the developmental courses as well as the reciprocal facilitations between visual perception and mathematics performance in the kindergarten period., Author(s): Xiao Yu [sup.1] , Yinghe Chen [sup.2] , Weiyi Xie [sup.3] , Xiujie Yang [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.66741.32, 0000 0001 1456 856X, Department of Psychology, School of Humanities [...]

Language development is intertwined with motor development. This study examined how visual processing might mediate the relation between language development and motor skills in preterm (PT, n = 34, Mean gestational age = 30 weeks) and full-term infants (FT, n = 35, Mean gestational age = 38.9 weeks) at 13 months of age. Infants' visual processing, fine and gross motor skills were tested using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning. Parents reported on infants' language skills (word comprehension and early communicative behavior), using the Turkish version of CDI (TCDI). Results showed that PT infants performed worse than their FT peers on gross motor skills and visual processing, but not on language. When controlling for age and neonatal condition (being preterm or not), visual processing mediated the relation between gross motor skills and word comprehension as well as early communicative behavior. However, for fine motor skills, visual processing mediated the relation between fine motor skills and early communicative behavior but not word comprehension. The relations between motor skills and visual processing were more robust for the PT group than the FT group. Following developmental cascades, these findings suggest that motor skills contribute to language development through visual processing. These relations are prominent for preterm infants who have delays in motor skills. PT children's limited interactions with their environment due to problems in motor skills can be connected to delays in visual processing., Author(s): Mert Kobas [sup.1] , Erim Kizildere [sup.1] , Isil Dogan [sup.1] , Asli Aktan-Erciyes [sup.2] , Ö. Ece Demir-Lira [sup.3] , Ipek Akman [sup.4] , Tilbe Göksun [sup.1] Author [...]

For more than a century, psychologists have been interested in how visual information can arouse emotions. Several studies have shown that rounded shapes evoke positive feelings due to their link with happy/baby-like expressions, compared with sharp angular shapes, usually associated with anger and threatening objects having negative valence. However, to date, no-one has investigated the preference to associate simple geometric shapes to personal identities, including one's own, that of a close acquainted, or that of a stranger. Through 2 online surveys we asked participants to associate a geometric shape, chosen among a circle, a square and a triangle, to each of three identities, namely 'you' (the self), 'your best friend' or 'a stranger'. We hypothesized that the circle would be more associated with the self, the square with the friend and the triangle with the stranger. Moreover, we investigated whether these associations are modulated by 3 personality traits: aggressivity, social fear and empathy. As predicted, we found that participants associate more often the circle with the self, both the circle and the square with the best friend, whereas they matched angular shapes (both the triangle and the square) to the stranger. On the other hand, the possibility that personality traits can modulate such associations was not confirmed. The study of how people associate geometric figures with the self or with other identities giving them an implicit socio-affective connotation, is interesting for all the disciplines interested in the automatic affective processes activated by visual stimuli., Author(s): Valerio Manippa [sup.1] , Luca Tommasi [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.412451.7, 0000 0001 2181 4941, Department of Psychological, Health and Territorial Sciences, University 'G. d'Annunzio' of Chieti-Pescara, , 66100, [...]

Tetris is not only a widely used entertaining computer game, but has been used as a component in emerging psychological interventions targeting dysfunctional mental imagery, e.g., intrusive memories and imagery-based cravings. However, little is known about the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these interventions. Tetris gameplay has been hypothesized to disrupt dysfunctional mental imagery (e.g., imagery-based intrusive memories of adverse events) and cravings (e.g., substance use) by taxing visuospatial working memory. In line with this, the present study aimed to characterize brain areas involved in the visuospatial aspects of Tetris gameplay, by controlling for motor activity (button presses) and using gameplay instructions emphasizing mental rotation. Participants (N = 28) received mental rotation instructions and thereafter either played Tetris, or only pressed buttons as if playing Tetris (motor activity), while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Tetris gameplay (when using mental rotation instructions and controlling for motor activity) robustly activated brain areas located in the ventral and dorsal stream, with maximum peak activation in the inferior and mid temporal gyrus. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to characterize brain areas specifically associated with the visuospatial aspects of Tetris gameplay, by controlling for motor activity and when using mental rotation instructions. Results demonstrate that engaging in Tetris gameplay recruits an extensive brain circuitry previously tied to visuospatial processing. Thus, findings are consistent with the use of Tetris as an imagery-competing task as one of several components of emerging interventions targeting dysfunctional mental imagery., Author(s): Thomas Agren [sup.1] , Johanna M. Hoppe [sup.1] , Laura Singh [sup.1] , Emily A. Holmes [sup.1] [sup.2] , Jörgen Rosén [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.8993.b, 0000 0004 1936 [...]

Most past research has focused on the role played by social context information in emotion classification, such as whether a display is perceived as belonging to one emotion category or another. The current study aims to investigate whether the effect of context extends to the interpretation of emotion displays, i.e. smiles that could be judged either as posed or spontaneous readouts of underlying positive emotion. A between-subjects design (N = 93) was used to investigate the perception and recall of posed smiles, presented together with a happy or polite social context scenario. Results showed that smiles seen in a happy context were judged as more spontaneous than the same smiles presented in a polite context. Also, smiles were misremembered as having more of the physical attributes (i.e., Duchenne marker) associated with spontaneous enjoyment when they appeared in the happy than polite context condition. Together, these findings indicate that social context information is routinely encoded during emotion perception, thereby shaping the interpretation and recognition memory of facial expressions., Author(s): Eva G. Krumhuber [sup.1] , Sylwia Hyniewska [sup.1] , Anna Orlowska [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.83440.3b, 0000000121901201, Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, , London, UK (2) [...]

This study was conducted to investigate intelligence and visual-perceptual and motor functions in relation to hand dominance and the moderating role of gender and in young adults. The participants included 120 left-handed and right-handed individuals. A demographic questionnaire, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised(WAIS-R) and the Bender-Gestalt II (BGT-II) were used for data gathering in this study. Analysis did not show any significant differences between left-handed and right-handed individuals in intelligence, performance and both recall and motor subscales of BGT-II in the present study. Findings showed significant group differences for the copy and the perceptual subscales of BGT-II in these samples. Left-handed individuals had significantly higher scores than right-handed individuals in the copy and the perceptual subscales of BGT-II. Also, there were no significant differences between males and females on the WAIS-R and all subscales of the BGT-II in this study. This study indicated the different effect of hand preference in intelligence and visual-perceptual and motor functions among young adults with the moderating role of age., Author(s): Siamak Khodarahimi [sup.1] , Amir Karami [sup.2] , Nasrollah Mazraeh [sup.3] , Ezatolah Ghadampour [sup.2] , Maria Mercedes Ovejero Bruna [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.411463.5, 0000 0001 0706 2472, [...]

The present study investigated the detection of expected and unexpected changes in visual stimuli. Two stimuli for which individuals have schemas about their expected movements were chosen. Stimulus 1 was a ball placed at the upper part of an inclined plane; Stimulus 2 was a clock with visible hour and minute hands. The original stimuli were either followed by its changed version in the expected direction, with the ball sliding down, and the minute hand of the clock moving clockwise, or in the unexpected direction. Results showed that expected changes were detected faster than unexpected ones for the ball stimulus, but not for the clock stimulus. Due to individual differences in response times, the data were more closely inspected by applying median and quartile splits. Results showed that for both stimuli, fastest responders do not show response time differences in the detection of the unexpected and the expected changes. This difference reaches significance in slower responders for both stimuli. We discuss which individual differences may differentiate slow responders from the fast ones. We also discuss the differences between the two stimuli we used with regard to the types of schemas they are likely to form. These results also suggest that changes that are consistent with schemas do not require further controlled processing and are detected faster., Author(s): Meltem Coskunçay [sup.1] , Simay Ikier [sup.2] , Serkan Sener [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.32140.34, 0000 0001 0744 4075, Cognitive Science Program Yeditepe University, , Istanbul, Turkey (2) grid.10359.3e, [...]

Purpose: It is well recognized that adding the visual to the acoustic speech signal improves recognition when the acoustic signal is degraded, but how that visual signal affects postrecognition processes is not so well understood. This study was designed to further elucidate the relationships among auditory and visual codes in working memory, a postrecognition process. Design: In a main experiment, 80 young adults with normal hearing were tested using an immediate serial recall paradigm. Three types of signals were presented (unprocessed speech, vocoded speech, and environmental sounds) in three conditions (audio-only, audio-video with dynamic visual signals, and audio-picture with static visual signals). Three dependent measures were analyzed: (a) magnitude of the recency effect, (b) overall recall accuracy, and (c) response times, to assess cognitive effort. In a follow-up experiment, 30 young adults with normal hearing were tested largely using the same procedures, but with a slight change in order of stimulus presentation. Results: The main experiment produced three major findings: (a) unprocessed speech evoked a recency effect of consistent magnitude across conditions; vocoded speech evoked a recency effect of similar magnitude to unprocessed speech only with dynamic visual (lipread) signals; environmental sounds never showed a recency effect. (b) Dynamic and static visual signals enhanced overall recall accuracy to a similar extent, and this enhancement was greater for vocoded speech and environmental sounds than for unprocessed speech. (c) All visual signals reduced cognitive load, except for dynamic visual signals with environmental sounds. The follow-up experiment revealed that dynamic visual (lipread) signals exerted their effect on the vocoded stimuli by enhancing phonological quality. Conclusions: Acoustic and visual signals can combine to enhance working memory operations, but the source of these effects differs for phonological and nonphonological signals. Nonetheless, visual information can support better postrecognition processes for patients with hearing loss., By now, it is quite apparent that the visual speech signal can support the detection of acoustic speech signals at poorer signal-to-noise levels than is possible when it is not [...]

Long-lasting internal arousal states motivate and pattern ongoing behaviour, enabling the temporary emergence of innate behavioural programs that serve the needs of an animal, such as fighting, feeding, and mating. However, how internal states shape sensory processing or behaviour remains unclear. In Drosophila, male flies perform a lengthy and elaborate courtship ritual that is triggered by the activation of sexually dimorphic P1 neurons.sup.1-5, during which they faithfully follow and sing to a female.sup.6,7. Here, by recording from males as they court a virtual 'female', we gain insight into how the salience of visual cues is transformed by a male's internal arousal state to give rise to persistent courtship pursuit. The gain of LC10a visual projection neurons is selectively increased during courtship, enhancing their sensitivity to moving targets. A concise network model indicates that visual signalling through the LC10a circuit, once amplified by P1-mediated arousal, almost fully specifies a male's tracking of a female. Furthermore, P1 neuron activity correlates with ongoing fluctuations in the intensity of a male's pursuit to continuously tune the gain of the LC10a pathway. Together, these results reveal how a male's internal state can dynamically modulate the propagation of visual signals through a high-fidelity visuomotor circuit to guide his moment-to-moment performance of courtship. Specific neurons in the fly brain that are activated when males are aroused modulate visual processing to underlie courtship., Author(s): Tom Hindmarsh Sten [sup.1] , Rufei Li [sup.1] , Adriane Otopalik [sup.1] , Vanessa Ruta [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, New York, [...]

This study examined the effect of increasing visual perceptual load on auditory awareness for social and non-social stimuli in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD, n = 63) and typically developing (TD, n = 62) adolescents. Using an inattentional deafness paradigm, a socially meaningful ('Hi') or a non-social (neutral tone) critical stimulus (CS) was unexpectedly presented under high and low load. For the social CS both groups continued to show high awareness rates as load increased. Awareness rates for the non-social stimulus were reduced when load increased for the TD, but not the ASD group. The findings indicate enhanced capacity for non-social stimuli in ASD compared to TD, and a special attentional status for social stimuli in the TD group., Author(s): Julian Tillmann [sup.1] [sup.2] , Jyrki Tuomainen [sup.3] , John Swettenham [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.13097.3c, 0000 0001 2322 6764, Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, [...]

The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a successive matching-to-sample (S-MTS) procedure with a go/no-go preparation to establish three 3-member classes of visual stimuli with 24 undergraduate college students. At the start of each trial, participants touched a sample stimulus after which a comparison immediately appeared in the same location on the screen. Then, depending on the relation between sample and comparison, participants were required to either touch the comparison (i.e., go) or to refrain from touching it (i.e., no-go). The comparison remained on the screen for 8 s independent of participants' responses. Following training of baseline relations (AB/BC), responses to untrained relations (i.e., BA/CB and AC/CA) were assessed. Overall, 22 out of 24 participants met emergence criterion on AC/CA tests, with reaction times to comparisons below 5 s indicating that S-MTS may be a viable alternative to traditional MTS to establish equivalence classes. Keywords Derived stimulus relations * Discrimination ? Equivalence * Go/No-Go * Matching-to-sample, Matching-to-sample (MTS) procedures are commonly used to teach conditional discriminations and test for emergent relations consistent with the properties of symmetry, transitivity, and equivalence (Green & Saunders, 1998; Sidman, 1994). [...]

Although researchers have found that emotions affect unethical behavior, few studies have uncovered the mechanism between anxiety and unethical behavior. The present study investigated how anxiety might influence unethical behavior based on the dual-process theory. In Experiment 1, a recall writing task was used to induce anxiety, and unethical behavior was assessed during an Interaction Task. Results showed that compared with participants who felt neutral emotions, those who felt anxiety were more likely to act unethically. In Experiment 2, we induced emotions by having participants watch videos and measured unethical behavior through a visual perception task. The results replicated findings in Experiment 1 and found that intuitive and automatic processing mediated the relationship between anxiety and unethical behavior. Collectively, our work reveals that anxiety might increase unethical behavior because individuals who feel anxious are more likely to engage in intuitive automatic processing that shifts attention from moral standards to self-interest, and thus to behave unethically. Both theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed., Author(s): Hui Zhang [sup.1] [sup.2], Yanwei Shi [sup.1] [sup.2], Zhiqing E. Zhou [sup.3], Hongyu Ma [sup.1] [sup.2], Hanying Tang [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.411407.7, 0000 0004 1760 2614, School [...]