Randomized controlled trial of a prenatal focused coparenting consultation for unmarried black fathers and mothers: One-year infant and family outcomes.

In the infant mental health field, scant conceptual attention has been given to coparenting and family adaptations of non-white family systems, with no evidence-based, community-informed coparenting interventions responsive to unmarried Black mothers' and fathers' life circumstances. This study examined 1-year post-partum child and family outcomes of a novel, modest dosage (six sessions) prenatal focused coparenting consultation (FCC) using randomized controlled trial methodology. One-hundred-thirty-eight expectant families (one or both parents identified as Black/African American) were randomized to an intervention (N = 70) or treatment-as-usual (TAU; control) condition (N = 68). TAU families received navigational support in accessing existing community services for pregnant families. Intervention families received TAU plus 6 dyadic FCC sessions led by a Black male-female Community Mentor team. When infants were three and 12 months old, parents reported on coparenting, father engagement, interparental aggression, depressive symptoms, and infant social and emotional adjustment. Intent-to-treat analyses focusing on 12-month post-partum data indicated significant intervention effects on coparenting, interparental psychological aggression, and infants' emotional adjustment. Improvement was also seen in depression and father engagement, with gains for both groups. Results suggest FCC delivered by same-race Community Mentors to unmarried Black coparents transitioning to parenthood supports infant and family adaptation during the first year of life.

En el campo de salud mental infantil, se le ha puesto escasa atención conceptual a la compartida crianza y a las adaptaciones familiares en sistemas de familias no blancas, sin intervenciones sobre la compartida crianza basadas en la evidencia o con información comunitaria que sean sensibles a las circunstancias de mamás y papás de raza negra no casados. Este estudio examinó los resultados en el niño y la familia al año después del parto de la novedosa, prenatal Consulta de Enfoque en la Compartida Crianza (FCC) con número modesto de 6 sesiones, usando metodología de ensayo controlado al azar. Se asignó al azar ciento treinta y ocho familias durante el embarazo (uno o ambos progenitores identificados como negro o afroamericano) a una condición de intervención (N = 70) o de Tratamiento Usual (TAU; control) (N = 68). Las familias del grupo TAU recibieron apoyo direccional para lograr acceso a los servicios comunitarios existentes para familias durante el embarazo. Las familias del grupo de Intervención recibieron TAU más 6 sesiones diádicas de FCC dirigidas por un equipo comunitario de mentores compuesto por un hombre y una mujer negros. Cuando los infantes tenían tres y 12 meses de edad, los progenitores reportaron acerca de la compartida crianza, la participación del papá, la agresión entre progenitores, síntomas depresivos, y el ajuste social y emocional del infante. Los análisis con Intención de Tratar enfocados en los datos a 12 meses después del parto indicaron significativos efectos de la intervención en la compartida crianza, la agresión sicológica entre progenitores y el ajuste emocional de los infantes. También se notó mejoría en la depresión y en la participación del papá, con beneficios para ambos grupos. Los resultados indican que la FCC que dirigen mentores comunitarios de la misma raza a parejas negras no casadas en transición a ser padres apoya la adaptación del infante y la familia durante el primer año de vida.

Dans le domaine de la santé mentale du nourrisson peu d'attention conceptuelle a été donnée au co-parentage et aux adaptations de la famille dans des systèmes familiaux non-blancs, avec aucune intervention basée sur l'évidence et informée par la communauté répondant aux circonstances de vie des mères et des pères noirs. Cette étude a examiné les résultats pour l'enfant à un mois post-partum et la famille d'un nouveau dosage modéré (6 session) de la Consultation Ciblée de Co-parentage (en anglais Focused Coparenting Consultation, soit FCC) prénatale en utilisant une méthodologie d'essai contrôlé randomisé. Cent trente-huit familles attendant un enfant (un ou les deux parents identifié(s) comme Américains noirs/africains) ont été randomisés pour une intervention (N = 70) ou une condition Traitement-Comme d'Habitude (TCH; contrôle) (N = 68). Les familles TCH ont reçu du soutien à la navigation pour accéder aux services communautaires pour les familles enceintes. Les familles de l'intervention ont reçu le TCH plus 6 session FCC dyadiques menées par une équipe de Mentor Communautaire noire et formée d'un homme et d'une femme. Quand les bébés ont eu trois et 12 mois, les parents ont fait état du co-parentage, de l'engagement du père, de l'agression inter-parentale, de symptômes dépressifs, et de l'ajustement social et émotionnel du bébé. Des analyses en intention de traiter portant sur les données post-partum à 12 mois ont indiqué des effets importants de l'intervention pour le co-parentage, l'agression psychologique inter-parentale, et l'ajustement émotionnel des bébés. Des améliorations ont également été vues dans la dépression et l'engagement du père, avec des gains pour les deux troupes. Les résultats suggèrent que la FCC faite par des Mentors Communautaires de la même race à des coparents noirs non mariés transitionnant à la parentalité soutient le bébé et l'adaptation de la famille durant la première année de la vie.

ROC measures of memory accessibility.

Laming has recently proposed a way to measure the accessibility (as opposed to availability) of memories via recognition testing. His measure "Accessibility" is calculated by subtracting the hit rate and false alarm rate that fall at the point where the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve's derivative is 1. I prove that, if one works within the framework of Unequal-Variance Signal Detection Theory (UVSDT), as Laming does, the measure "Accessibility" depends on the location of the response criterion (though always with a neutral likelihood ratio). Furthermore, I prove that the measure varies with the underlying variances of UVSDT regardless of which definition of bias (criterion or likelihood ratio) is used and, crucially, this holds even when the accuracy of discrimination performance or "sensitivity" (da) in UVSDT is constant. As such, from the standpoint of (at least) UVSDT, it is questionable whether or to what extent the new measure of "Accessibility" actually measures the accessibility of any memory.

Modeling mean estimation tasks in within-trial and across-trial contexts.

The mean estimation task, which explicitly asks observers to estimate the mean feature value of multiple stimuli, is a fundamental paradigm in research areas such as ensemble coding and cue integration. The current study uses computational models to formalize how observers summarize information in mean estimation tasks. We compare model predictions from our Fidelity-based Integration Model (FIM) and other models on their ability to simulate observed patterns in within-trial weight distribution, across-trial information integration, and set-size effects on mean estimation accuracy. Experiments show non-equal weighting within trials in both sequential and simultaneous mean estimation tasks. Observers implicitly overestimated trial means below the global mean and underestimated trial means above the global mean. Mean estimation performance declined and stabilized with increasing set sizes. FIM successfully simulated all observed patterns, while other models failed. FIM's information sampling structure provides a new way to interpret the capacity limit in visual working memory and sub-sampling strategies. As a model framework, FIM offers task-dependent modeling for various ensemble coding paradigms, facilitating research synthesis across different studies in the literature.

A culturally grounded prenatal coparenting intervention: Results of a randomized controlled trial with unmarried Black parents.

This study examines the efficacy of a prenatal intervention designed to promote healthy coparenting relationships in families where low-income, unmarried mothers and fathers were expecting a first baby together. One hundred thirty-eight Black and mixed-race mother-father dyads participated. Coparent dyads were randomly assigned to either a treatment as usual (TAU) group, receiving referrals and navigation support to existing community services (control), or to TAU plus invitation to a series of six dyadic Focused Coparenting Consultation (FCC) sessions led by a male-female mentor team (intervention). Seventy-one percent of those prenatally assessed were later reassessed at 3 months postpartum. Both mothers and fathers contributed reports of coparenting, father engagement, physical and psychological intimate partner violence (IPV), and depressive symptoms. Intent-to-treat analyses indicated: (a) some evidence that mothers in the intervention group reported more positive coparenting communication at 3 months postpartum than did control group mothers; (b) mothers in the intervention group reported significantly more time spent by fathers with the child than did control group mothers; (c) parents in the intervention group had significant reductions in psychological IPV compared to parents in the control group; and (d) both mothers and fathers showed reductions in self-reported depression over time, with no differential impact of group. Findings suggest that the FCC intervention may produce modest but important benefits for unmarried, low-income Black coparents in the transition to parenthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Frequency-specific network effective connectivity: ERP analysis of recognition memory process by directed connectivity estimators.

Human memory retrieval is one of the brain's most important, and least understood cognitive mechanisms. Traditionally, research on this aspect of memory has focused on the contributions of particular brain regions to recognition responses, but the interaction between regions may be of even greater importance to a full understanding. In this study, we examined patterns of network connectivity during retrieval in a recognition memory task. We estimated connectivity between brain regions from electroencephalographic signals recorded from twenty healthy subjects. A multivariate autoregressive model (MVAR) was used to determine the Granger causality to estimate the effective connectivity in the time-frequency domain. We used GPDC and dDTF methods because they have almost resolved the previous volume conduction and bivariate problems faced by previous estimation methods. Results show enhanced global connectivity in the theta and gamma bands on target trials relative to lure trials. Connectivity within and between the brain's hemispheres may be related to correct rejection. The left frontal signature appears to have a crucial role in recollection. Theta- and gamma-specific connectivity patterns between temporal, parietal, and frontal cortex may disclose the retrieval mechanism. Old/new comparison resulted in different patterns of network connection. These results and other evidence emphasize the role of frequency-specific causal network interactions in the memory retrieval process. Graphical abstract a Schematic of processing workflow which is consists of pre-processing, sliding-window AMVAR modeling, connectivity estimation, and validation and group network analysis. b Co-registration between Geodesic Sensor Net. and 10-20 system, the arrows mention eight regions of interest (Left, Anterior, Inferior (LAI) and Right, Anterior, Inferior (RAI) and Left, Anterior, Superior (LAS) and Right, Anterior, Superior (RAS) and Left, Posterior, Inferior (LPI) and Right, Posterior, Inferior (RPI) and Left, Posterior, Superior (LPS) and Right, Posterior, Superior (RPS)).

A direct comparison of central tendency recall and temporal integration in the successive field iconic memory task.

The ensemble coding literature suggests the existence of a fast, automatic formation of some ensemble codes. Can statistical representations, such as memory for the central tendency along a particular visual feature dimension, be extracted from information held in the sensory register? Furthermore, can knowledge of early, iconic memory processes be used to determine how central tendency is extracted? We focused on the potential role of visible persistence mechanisms that support temporal integration. We tested whether mean orientation could be accurately recalled from brief visual displays using the successive field task. On separate blocks of trials, participants were asked to report the location of a split element (requiring differentiation of frames), a missing element (requiring integration across frames), and the average orientation of elements pooled across both frames (central tendency recall). Results replicate the expected tradeoff between differentiation and integration performance across inter-frame interval (IFI). In contrast, precision of mean estimates was high and invariant across IFIs. A manipulation of within-frame distributional similarity coupled with simulations using 12 models supported 2-item subsampling. The results argue against the "strategic" interpretation of subsampling since 2-item readout was predicted by information theoretic estimates of STM encoding rate: the 2 items were not from a superset in STM. Most crucially, the results argue against the various early "preattentive/parallel/global pooling" accounts and instead suggest that non-selective readout of information from iconic memory supplies a relatively small amount of item information to STM, and it is only at this point that the computation of ensemble averages begins.

What makes a prototype a prototype? Averaging visual features in a sequence.

After viewing a series of sequentially presented visual stimuli, subjects can readily generate mean representations of various visual features. Although these average representations seem to be formed effortlessly and obligatorily, it is unclear how such averages are actually computed. According to conventional prototype models, the computation entails an equally weighted average taken over all the stimuli. To test this hypothesis, we had subjects estimate the running averages of some feature in a series of sequentially presented stimuli. Part way through the series, we perturbed the distribution from which stimuli were drawn, which allowed us to test alternative models of the computations behind subjects' estimates. In both explanatory and predictive tests, a model in which the most recent items had disproportionate high weight outperformed a model in which all items carried equal weight. Such recency-weighted behavior was shown consistently in multiple experiments in which subjects estimated running averages of length of vertical lines. However, the degree to which recent items were prioritized varied with the type of stimulus, such that when estimating the running averages of a series of numerals, subjects showed less recency prioritization. We conclude that previous evaluations of prototype models have made unrealistic assumptions about the nature of a prototype, and that a reassessment of prototype models of visual memory and perceptual categorization may be in order.

Ensemble coding of memory strength in recognition tests.

Recent work by Benjamin and colleagues (Psychological Review, 116 (1), 84-115, 2009; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39(5), 1601-1608, 2013) suggests that recognition memory decisions are corrupted by random variability in decision criteria. This conclusion, which explains several anomalies in the recognition literature, was based on fits of the Noisy Decision Theory of Signal Detection (NDT) to a novel task: ensemble recognition. In the ensemble task, participants make Old/New decisions to ensembles of items rather than single items. The NDT assumption that criteria are fixed across ensembles was criticized by Kellen, Klauer, and Singmann (Psychological Review, 119 (3), 457-479, 2012), and defended by Benjamin (Psychological Review, 120, 720-726, 2013). Little attention, however, has been paid to the assumption of the best-fitting NDT model that participants solve the ensemble task by calculating the average memory strength of items in the probe display. We review evidence of summary statistical representation in visual perception and short-term memory that suggests the aggregation hypothesis is plausible, and hold it up to test in three experiments using the direct ratings procedure. Although we conclude that participants can produce estimates of average probe memory strength at test, in line with the assumptions of NDT, the mechanisms and strategies used to produce such estimates remain unclear.

Central tendency representation and exemplar matching in visual short-term memory.

I address a recent extension of the generalized context model (GCM), a model which excludes prototypes, to the visual short-term memory (VSTM) literature, which is currently deluged with prototype effects. The paper includes a brief review whose aim is to discuss the background and key findings suggesting that prototypes have an obligatory influence on visual short-term memory responses in the same VSTM task that the GCM's random walk extension, EBRW, was extended to account for: Sternberg scanning. I present a new model that incorporates such "central tendency representations" in memory, as well as several other regularities of the literature, and compare its prediction and postdictions to those of the GCM on some unpublished Sternberg scanning data. The GCM cannot account for the pattern in those data without post hoc modifications but the pattern is predicted nicely by the central tendency representation model. Although the new model is certainly wrong, the review and modeling exercise suggest a reconsideration of prototype models may be warranted, at least in the VSTM literature.

Signal Detection Theory (SDT) Is Effective for Modeling User Behavior Toward Phishing and Spear-Phishing Attacks.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the utility of equal-variance signal detection theory (EVSDT) for evaluating and understanding human detection of phishing and spear-phishing e-mail scams. BACKGROUND: Although the majority of cybersecurity breaches are due to erroneous responses to deceptive phishing e-mails, it is unclear how best to quantify performance in this context. In particular, it is unclear whether equal variances can safely be assumed in the SDT model, or, relatedly, whether degree of targeting, or threat level, primarily affects mean separation or evidence variability. METHOD: Through an online inbox simulation, the present research found that differences in susceptibility to phishing and spear-phishing e-mails could be carefully quantified with respect to detection accuracy and response bias through the use of an EVSDT framework. RESULTS: The results indicated that EVSDT-based point metrics are effective for modeling and measuring phishing susceptibility in the inbox task, without the need for parameter estimation or model comparison involving unequal-variance SDT (UVSDT). Threat level modulated mean separation, with no effects on signal variances. CONCLUSION: These findings support the viability of using EVSDT to initially assess and subsequently monitor training effectiveness for phishing susceptibility, thereby providing measures that are superior to more intuitive metrics, which typically confound an individual's bias and accuracy. Effects of threat level mapped clearly onto distribution means with no effect on variances, suggesting phishing susceptibility primarily reflects temporally stable discriminative characteristics of observers. Notably, results indicated that people are particularly poor at identifying spear-phishing e-mail threats (demonstrating only 40% accuracy).

Characterizing belief bias in syllogistic reasoning: A hierarchical Bayesian meta-analysis of ROC data.

The belief-bias effect is one of the most-studied biases in reasoning. A recent study of the phenomenon using the signal detection theory (SDT) model called into question all theoretical accounts of belief bias by demonstrating that belief-based differences in the ability to discriminate between valid and invalid syllogisms may be an artifact stemming from the use of inappropriate linear measurement models such as analysis of variance (Dube et al., Psychological Review, 117(3), 831-863, 2010). The discrepancy between Dube et al.'s, Psychological Review, 117(3), 831-863 (2010) results and the previous three decades of work, together with former's methodological criticisms suggests the need to revisit earlier results, this time collecting confidence-rating responses. Using a hierarchical Bayesian meta-analysis, we reanalyzed a corpus of 22 confidence-rating studies (N = 993). The results indicated that extensive replications using confidence-rating data are unnecessary as the observed receiver operating characteristic functions are not systematically asymmetric. These results were subsequently corroborated by a novel experimental design based on SDT's generalized area theorem. Although the meta-analysis confirms that believability does not influence discriminability unconditionally, it also confirmed previous results that factors such as individual differences mediate the effect. The main point is that data from previous and future studies can be safely analyzed using appropriate hierarchical methods that do not require confidence ratings. More generally, our results set a new standard for analyzing data and evaluating theories in reasoning. Important methodological and theoretical considerations for future work on belief bias and related domains are discussed.

The speed of memory errors shows the influence of misleading information: Testing the diffusion model and discrete-state models.

In this report, we evaluate single-item and forced-choice recognition memory for the same items and use the resulting accuracy and reaction time data to test the predictions of discrete-state and continuous models. For the single-item trials, participants saw a word and indicated whether or not it was studied on a previous list. The forced-choice trials had one studied and one non-studied word that both appeared in the earlier single-item trials and both received the same response. Thus, forced-choice trials always had one word with a previous correct response and one with a previous error. Participants were asked to select the studied word regardless of whether they previously called both words "studied" or "not studied." The diffusion model predicts that forced-choice accuracy should be lower when the word with a previous error had a fast versus a slow single-item RT, because fast errors are associated with more compelling misleading memory retrieval. The two-high-threshold (2HT) model does not share this prediction because all errors are guesses, so error RT is not related to memory strength. A low-threshold version of the discrete state approach predicts an effect similar to the diffusion model, because errors are a mixture of responses based on misleading retrieval and guesses, and the guesses should tend to be slower. Results showed that faster single-trial errors were associated with lower forced-choice accuracy, as predicted by the diffusion and low-threshold models.

Obligatory and adaptive averaging in visual short-term memory.

Visual memory can draw upon averaged perceptual representations, a dependence that could be both adaptive and obligatory. In support of this idea, we review a wide range of evidence, including findings from our own lab. This evidence shows that time- and space-averaged memory representations influence detection and recognition responses, and do so without instruction to compute or report an average. Some of the work reviewed exploits fine-grained measures of retrieval from visual short-term memory to closely track the influence of stored averages on recall and recognition of briefly presented visual textures. Results show that reliance on perceptual averages is greatest when memory resources are taxed or when subjects are uncertain about the fidelity of their memory representation. We relate these findings to models of how summary statistics impact visual short-term memory, and discuss a neural signature for contexts in which perceptual averaging exerts maximal influence.

Social influences on adaptive criterion learning.

People adaptively shift decision criteria when given biased feedback encouraging specific types of errors. Given that work on this topic has been conducted in nonsocial contexts, we extended the literature by examining adaptive criterion learning in both social and nonsocial contexts. Specifically, we compared potential differences in criterion shifting given performance feedback from social sources varying in reliability and from a nonsocial source. Participants became lax when given false positive feedback for false alarms, and became conservative when given false positive feedback for misses, replicating prior work. In terms of a social influence on adaptive criterion learning, people became more lax in response style over time if feedback was provided by a nonsocial source or by a social source meant to be perceived as unreliable and low-achieving. In contrast, people adopted a more conservative response style over time if performance feedback came from a high-achieving and reliable source. Awareness that a reliable and high-achieving person had not provided their feedback reduced the tendency to become more conservative, relative to those unaware of the source manipulation. Because teaching and learning often occur in a social context, these findings may have important implications for many scenarios in which people fine-tune their behaviors, given cues from others.

When more data steer us wrong: replications with the wrong dependent measure perpetuate erroneous conclusions.

There is a replication crisis in science, to which psychological research has not been immune: Many effects have proven uncomfortably difficult to reproduce. Although the reliability of data is a serious concern, we argue that there is a deeper and more insidious problem in the field: the persistent and dramatic misinterpretation of empirical results that replicate easily and consistently. Using a series of four highly studied "textbook" examples from different research domains (eyewitness memory, deductive reasoning, social psychology, and child welfare), we show how simple unrecognized incompatibilities among dependent measures, analysis tools, and the properties of data can lead to fundamental interpretive errors. These errors, which are not reduced by additional data collection, may lead to misguided research efforts and policy recommendations. We conclude with a set of recommended strategies and research tools to reduce the probability of these persistent and largely unrecognized errors. The use of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves is highlighted as one such recommendation.

The Nomological Network of Self-Reported Distress Tolerance.

Distress tolerance (DT), or the ability to withstand psychological distress, is a popular construct in the psychological literature. However, research has not specified the nomological network of DT across self-report measures. The purpose of the current investigation was to understand what personality features, environmental stressors, current affective states, and behaviors contribute to DT in two different samples: college students and those in residential substance use treatment. Correlations revealed that self-reported DT was most strongly associated with trait negative emotionality, state negative affect, impulsivity, and perceived stress. In comparisons across samples, self-harm exhibited a stronger relationship with self-reported DT in the drug treatment than in the student sample, whereas perceived stress had a stronger association in the student sample. Correlations between self-report and behavioral measures of DT were nonsignificant. To understand this lack of associations, associations of outcomes with behavioral measures were assessed. In contrast to self-reported DT, behavioral DT was more closely related to achievement orientation, state negative affect, and state positive affect, but was not significantly related to psychopathology and maladaptive behaviors. It is necessary to continue investigating the construct validity of behavioral DT measures via the use of incremental utility analyses and experimental approaches.

Similarity-based distortion of visual short-term memory is due to perceptual averaging.

A task-irrelevant stimulus can distort recall from visual short-term memory (VSTM). Specifically, reproduction of a task-relevant memory item is biased in the direction of the irrelevant memory item (Huang & Sekuler, 2010a). The present study addresses the hypothesis that such effects reflect the influence of neural averaging under conditions of uncertainty about the contents of VSTM (Alvarez, 2011; Ball & Sekuler, 1980). We manipulated subjects' attention to relevant and irrelevant study items whose similarity relationships were held constant, while varying how similar the study items were to a subsequent recognition probe. On each trial, subjects were shown one or two Gabor patches, followed by the probe; their task was to indicate whether the probe matched one of the study items. A brief cue told subjects which Gabor, first or second, would serve as that trial's target item. Critically, this cue appeared either before, between, or after the study items. A distributional analysis of the resulting mnemometric functions showed an inflation in probability density in the region spanning the spatial frequency of the average of the two memory items. This effect, due to an elevation in false alarms to probes matching the perceptual average, was diminished when cues were presented before both study items. These results suggest that (a) perceptual averages are computed obligatorily and (b) perceptual averages are relied upon to a greater extent when item representations are weakened. Implications of these results for theories of VSTM are discussed.

The statistical accuracy and theoretical status of discrete-state MPT models: reply to Batchelder and Alexander (2013).

In "A Critical Comparison of Discrete-State and Continuous Models of Recognition Memory: Implications for Recognition and Beyond," Pazzaglia, Dube, and Rotello (2013) explored the threshold multinomial processing tree (MPT) framework as applied to several domains of experimental psychology. Pazzaglia et al. concluded that threshold MPT analyses require assumptions at the representation and measurement levels that are contradicted by existing data in several domains. Furthermore, they showed that this flaw in the threshold MPT framework produces systematic errors in data interpretation. Pazzaglia et al. suggested measures derived from the empirically validated unequal-variance signal detection theory framework as a viable alternative and provided a simple tutorial for implementing such measures in an Excel spreadsheet. In their reply, Batchelder and Alexander (2013) disputed the conclusions advanced by Pazzaglia et al. Their arguments consisted of a small number of strong assertions, some of which were accompanied by references and/or data. In this reply, we demonstrate that both types of assertions--those with and without supporting references and/or data--are, at best, contradicted by several existing studies (many of which were already discussed in Pazzaglia et al., 2013) and, at worst, patently false. We conclude that the conclusions of Pazzaglia et al. are valid.

Paying attention to attention in recognition memory: insights from models and electrophysiology.

Reliance on remembered facts or events requires memory for their sources, that is, the contexts in which those facts or events were embedded. Understanding of source retrieval has been stymied by the fact that uncontrolled fluctuations of attention during encoding can cloud results of key importance to theoretical development. To address this issue, we combined electrophysiology (high-density electroencephalogram, EEG, recordings) with computational modeling of behavioral results. We manipulated subjects' attention to an auditory attribute, whether the source of individual study words was a male or female speaker. Posterior alpha-band (8-14 Hz) power in subjects' EEG increased after a cue to ignore the voice of the person who was about to speak. Receiver-operating-characteristic analysis validated our interpretation of oscillatory dynamics as a marker of attention to source information. With attention under experimental control, computational modeling showed unequivocally that memory for source (male or female speaker) reflected a continuous signal detection process rather than a threshold recollection process.

Age-related changes in expectation-based modulation of motion detectability.

Expecting motion in some particular direction biases sensitivity to that direction, which speeds detection of motion. However, the neural processes underlying this effect remain underexplored, especially in the context of normal aging. To address this, we examined younger and older adults' performance in a motion detection task. In separate conditions, the probability was either 50% or 100% that a field of dots would move coherently in the direction a participant expected (either vertically or horizontally). Expectation and aging effects were assessed via response times (RT) to detect motion and electroencephalography (EEG). In both age groups, RTs were fastest when motion was similar to the expected direction of motion. RT tuning curves exhibited a characteristic U-shape such that detection time increased with an increasing deviation from the participant's expected direction. Strikingly, EEG results showed an analogous, hyperbolic curve for N1 amplitude, reflecting neural biasing. Though the form of behavioral and EEG curves did not vary with age, older adults displayed a clear decline in the speed of detection and a corresponding reduction in EEG N1 amplitude when horizontal (but not vertical) motion was expected. Our results suggest that expectation-based detection ability varies with age and, for older adults, also with axis of motion.