Age-related differences in processing of emotions in speech disappear with babble noise in the background.

Older adults process emotional speech differently than young adults, relying less on prosody (tone) relative to semantics (words). This study aimed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying these age-related differences via an emotional speech-in-noise test. A sample of 51 young and 47 older adults rated spoken sentences with emotional content on both prosody and semantics, presented on the background of wideband speech-spectrum noise (sensory interference) or on the background of multi-talker babble (sensory/cognitive interference). The presence of wideband noise eliminated age-related differences in semantics but not in prosody when processing emotional speech. Conversely, the presence of babble resulted in the elimination of age-related differences across all measures. The results suggest that both sensory and cognitive-linguistic factors contribute to age-related changes in emotional speech processing. Because real world conditions typically involve noisy background, our results highlight the importance of testing under such conditions.

Can the Stroop effect serve as the gold standard of conflict monitoring and control? A conceptual critique.

The Stroop effect has been a key to the assay of selective attention since the time of the epoch-making study by J.R. Stroop almost a century ago. However, recent work based on computational modeling and recording of brain activations ignored the primary meaning of the Stroop effect as a measure of selectivity-with the Stroop test losing its raison d'être. Espousing the new framework, numerous studies in the past 20 years conceived performance in the Stroop task in terms of conflict-induced adjustments governed by central control on a trial-to-trial basis. In the face of this tsunami, we try to convince the reader that the Stroop effect cannot serve as a testing ground for conflict-monitoring and control, because these constructs are fundamentally unsuited to serve as a candidate theory of Stroop processes. A range of problems are discussed that singly and collectively pose grave doubts regarding the validity of a control and conflict monitoring account in the Stroop domain. We show how the key notion of conflict is misconstrued in conflict-monitoring models. Due to space limitations and for sake of wider accessibility, our treatment here cannot be technical.

On the linear representation of numbers: evidence from a new two-numbers-to-two positions task.

In the number-to-position methodology, a number is presented on each trial and the observer places it on a straight line in a position that corresponds to its felt subjective magnitude. In the novel modification introduced in this study, the two-numbers-to-two-positions method, a pair of numbers rather than a single number is presented on each trial and the observer places them in appropriate positions on the same line. Responses in this method indicate not only the subjective magnitude of each single number but, simultaneously, provide a direct estimation of their subjective numerical distance. The results of four experiments provide strong evidence for a linear representation of numbers and, commensurately, for the linear representation of numerical distances. We attribute earlier results that indicate a logarithmic representation to the ordered nature of numbers and to the task used and not to a truly non-linear underlying representation.

The quest for psychological symmetry through figural goodness, randomness, and complexity: A selective review.

Of the four interrelated concepts in the title, only symmetry has an exact mathematical definition. In mathematical development, symmetry is a graded variable-in marked contrast with the popular binary conception of symmetry in and out of the laboratory (i.e. an object is either symmetrical or nonsymmetrical). Because the notion does not have a direct graded perceptual counterpart (experimental participants are not asked about the amount of symmetry of an object), students of symmetry have taken various detours to characterize the perceptual effects of symmetry. Current approaches have been informed by information theory, mathematical group theory, randomness research, and complexity. Apart from reviewing the development of the main approaches, for the first time we calculated associations between figural goodness as measured in the Garner tradition and measures of algorithmic complexity and randomness developed in recent research. We offer novel ideas and analyses by way of integrating the various approaches.

Walking to a number: is there affective involvement in generating the SNARC effect in numerical cognition?

The effect known as the spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) documents fast reaction to small numbers with a response at the left and to large numbers with a response at the right. The common explanation appeals to a hypothetical mental number line of a left-to-right orientation with the numerical magnitudes on the line activated in an automatic fashion. To explore the possibility of emotional involvement in processing, we employed prototypical affective behaviors for responses in lieu of the usual spatial-numerical ones (i.e., of pressing lateralized keys). In the present series of experiments, the participants walked toward a number or walked away from a number (in a physical approach-avoidance setup) or said "good" or "bad" in response to a number. We recorded strong SNARC effects with affective responding. For example, it took participants longer to say "good" than "bad" to small numbers, but it took them longer to say "bad" than "good" to larger numbers. Although each particular outcome can still be accounted for by a spatial interpretation, the cumulative results are suggestive of the possibly of affective involvement in generating the effect.

When emotion does and does not impair performance: a Garner theory of the emotional Stroop effect.

It takes people longer to name the ink colour of emotion or threat words than that of neutral words, the emotional Stroop effect (ESE). In three experiments with normal and patient populations, we show that the ESE is a special case of a generic attention model and effect entailed in Garner's speeded classification paradigm. Guided by the Garner model we demonstrate that task-irrelevant dimensions that differ in salience can produce the ESE and mimic it with neutral stimuli. When each word appears in a constant colour, as mandated in the correlation condition of the Garner design, the ESE is eliminated. This important result is consistent with the attention account of the ESE. We conclude that when emotion stimuli appear in a random fashion they interfere with task performance. However, when emotion stimuli are correlated with features of the ongoing task they help task performance not least due to their extreme salience.

The nature of Garner interference: The role of uncertainty, information, and variation in the breakdown in selective attention.

The popular measure of Garner Interference specifies the detriment to performance with the task-relevant attribute in the presence of a randomly varying distractor. But is irrelevant variation per se responsible for this breakdown of selective attention as the traditional account suggests? In this study we identified an overlooked alternative account - increased irrelevant information - which threatens the validity of the variation interpretation. We designed a new condition within the Garner paradigm, Roving Baseline, which allowed for dissociating the separate and combined contributions of information and variation at both macro and micro levels of analysis. A third account, increased number of stimuli or stimulus uncertainty, was also considered as well as the rival interpretations of configural processing and change detection. Our conceptual assay was complemented by a pair of dedicated experiments that included the novel Roving Baseline condition. The results of the theoretical analysis and of the experiments converged on supporting variability as the source of Garner interference. We found no evidence for an influence of information or of stimulus uncertainty. Our study thus adds further support for W. R. Garner's original intuition when designing the paradigm and the interference bearing his name.

Age-Related Changes in the Perception of Emotions in Speech: Assessing Thresholds of Prosody and Semantics Recognition in Noise for Young and Older Adults.

Older adults process emotions in speech differently than do young adults. However, it is unclear whether these age-related changes impact all speech channels to the same extent, and whether they originate from a sensory or a cognitive source. The current study adopted a psychophysical approach to directly compare young and older adults' sensory thresholds for emotion recognition in two channels of spoken-emotions: prosody (tone) and semantics (words). A total of 29 young adults and 26 older adults listened to 50 spoken sentences presenting different combinations of emotions across prosody and semantics. They were asked to recognize the prosodic or semantic emotion, in separate tasks. Sentences were presented on the background of speech-spectrum noise ranging from SNR of -15 dB (difficult) to +5 dB (easy). Individual recognition thresholds were calculated (by fitting psychometric functions) separately for prosodic and semantic recognition. Results indicated that: (1). recognition thresholds were better for young over older adults, suggesting an age-related general decrease across channels; (2). recognition thresholds were better for prosody over semantics, suggesting a prosodic advantage; (3). importantly, the prosodic advantage in thresholds did not differ between age groups (thus a sensory source for age-related differences in spoken-emotions processing was not supported); and (4). larger failures of selective attention were found for older adults than for young adults, indicating that older adults experienced larger difficulties in inhibiting irrelevant information. Taken together, results do not support a sole sensory source, but rather an interplay of cognitive and sensory sources for age-related differences in spoken-emotions processing.

The Weber-Fechner law: A misnomer that persists but that should go away.

The term "Weber-Fechner law" is arguably the most widely used misnomer in psychological science. The unification reflects a failure to appreciate the logical independence and disparate implications of Weber's law and Fechner's law as well as some closely aligned ones. The present statement, long overdue, is meant to rectify this situation. I discuss the roots and derivations of the relevant laws, eschewing formalism to bare essentials for sake of wider accessibility. Three of the most important conclusions are (a) Weber's law is not indispensable for deriving Fechner's law; (b) arguably, Fechner himself did not use Weber's law in his original derivations; and (c) many investigators mistake the principle that subjective distance is determined by physical ratio for Weber's law. In truth, the principle, here called the Weber principle, and Weber's law, are different and independent. I stress the importance of drawing the distinction and illustrate confusions in the literature coming from misapplications of Weber's law and the use of misnomer. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

A model for two-digit number processing based on a joint Garner and system factorial technology analysis.

As a vital part of our daily lives, number processing has received much attention in current cognitive research. Most adults perceive with ease the numerical magnitude of a two-digit number and also the individual magnitudes of the component digits, yet the relation between the 2 is poorly understood. Application to two-digit numbers of Garner's speeded classification paradigm (Experiment 1) and of system factorial technology (Experiment 2) jointly reveals phases of independent and of coactive processing within a well-defined time-course. A new model, the interactive race coactive model, explains various facets of two-digit number processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Rodin has it! The role of hands in improving the selectivity of attention.

We report a new discovery on the role of hands in guiding attention, using the classic Stroop effect as our assay. We show that the Stroop effect diminishes, hence selective attention improves, when observers hold their chin, emulating Rodin's famous sculpture, "The Thinker." In two experiments we show that the Rodin posture improves the selectivity of attention as efficiently as holding the hands nearby the visual stimulus (the near-hands effect). Because spatial proximity to the displayed stimulus is neither present nor intended, the presence of the Rodin effect implies that attentional prioritization by the hands is not limited to the space between the hands.

Distance-dependent processing of pictures and words.

A series of 8 experiments investigated the association between pictorial and verbal representations and the psychological distance of the referent objects from the observer. The results showed that people better process pictures that represent proximal objects and words that represent distal objects than pictures that represent distal objects and words that represent proximal objects. These results were obtained with various psychological distance dimensions (spatial, temporal, and social), different tasks (classification and categorization), and different measures (speed of processing and selective attention). The authors argue that differences in the processing of pictures and words emanate from the physical similarity of pictures, but not words, to the referents. Consequently, perceptual analysis is commonly applied to pictures but not to words. Pictures thus impart a sense of closeness to the referent objects and are preferably used to represent such objects, whereas words do not convey proximity and are preferably used to represent distal objects in space, time, and social perspective.

Species of redundancy in visual target detection.

We report a series of investigations into the effects of common names, physical identity, and physical similarity on visual detection time. The effect of these factors on the capacity of the system processing the signals was also examined. We used a redundant targets design with separate testing of the target-distractor (single target), target-target (redundant targets), and distractor-distractor (no targets) displays. When a target and a distractor share names, detection of the target is slower than it is in a situation in which the two do not go by a common name. Nevertheless, the gain reaped by redundant targets in this situation is larger and signal processing is of increased capacity compared with those in a situation in which the target and the distractor are coded by different names. The results also highlight the role of physical identity of targets: Detection is disproportionately efficient when reproductions of a given signal are presented. Together, the results provide guiding principles for a model of visual detection by a context-sensitive human detector.

Numbers and space: associations and dissociations.

A cornerstone of contemporary research in numerical cognition is the surprising link found between numbers and space. In particular, people react faster and more accurately to small numbers with a left-hand key and to large numbers with a right-hand key. Because this contingency is found in a variety of tasks, it has been taken to support the automatic activation of magnitude as well as the notion of a mental number line arranged from left to right. The present study challenges the presence of a link between left-right location, on the one hand, and small-large number, on the other hand. We show that a link exists between space and relative magnitude, a relationship that might or might not be unique to numbers.

Associations and dissociations between psychoacoustic abilities and speech perception in adolescents with severe-to-profound hearing loss.

PURPOSE: To clarify the relationship between psychoacoustic capabilities and speech perception in adolescents with severe-to-profound hearing loss (SPHL). METHOD: Twenty-four adolescents with SPHL and young adults with normal hearing were assessed with psychoacoustic and speech perception tests. The psychoacoustic tests included gap detection (GD), difference limen for frequency, and psychoacoustic-tuning curves. To assess the perception of words that differ in spectral and temporal cues, the speech tests included the Hebrew Early Speech Perception test and the Hebrew Speech Pattern Contrast test (L. Kishon-Rabin et al., 2002). All tests were conducted for the listeners with normal hearing at low and high presentation levels and for the participants with SPHL at 20 dB SL. RESULTS: Only GD thresholds were comparable across the 2 groups at similar presentation levels. Psychoacoustic performance was poorer in the group with SPHL, but only selected tests were correlated with speech perception. Poor GD was associated with pattern perception, 1-syllable word identification, and final voicing subtests. CONCLUSIONS: Speech perception performance in adolescents with SPHL could not be predicted solely on the basis of spectral and temporal capabilities of the auditory system. However, when the GD threshold was greater than 40 ms, speech perception skills were predictable by psychoacoustic abilities.

Reclaiming the Stroop Effect Back From Control to Input-Driven Attention and Perception.

According to a growing consensus, the Stroop effect is understood as a phenomenon of conflict and cognitive control. A tidal wave of recent research alleges that incongruent Stroop stimuli generate conflict, which is then managed and resolved by top-down cognitive control. We argue otherwise: control studies fail to account for major Stroop results obtained over a century-long history of research. We list some of the most compelling developments and show that no control account can serve as a viable explanation for major Stroop phenomena and that there exist more parsimonious explanations for other Stroop related phenomena. Against a wealth of studies and emerging consensus, we posit that data-driven selective attention best accounts for the gamut of existing Stroop results. The case for data-driven attention is not new: a mere twenty-five years ago, the Stroop effect was considered "the gold standard" of attention (MacLeod, 1992). We identify four pitfalls plaguing conflict monitoring and control studies of the Stroop effect and show that the notion of top-down control is gratuitous. Looking at the Stroop effect from a historical perspective, we argue that the recent paradigm change from stimulus-driven selective attention to control is unwarranted. Applying Occam's razor, the effects marshaled in support of the control view are better explained by a selectivity of attention account. Moreover, many Stroop results, ignored in the control literature, are inconsistent with any control account of the effect.

The many faces of music: Attending to music and delight in the same music are governed by different rules of processing.

Music generates manifold experiences in humans, some perceptual and some hedonic. Are these qualia governed by the same principles in processing? In particular, do the loudness and timbre of melodies combine to produce perception and likeability by the same rules of integration? In Experiment 1, we tested selective attention to loudness and timbre by applying Garner's speeded classification paradigm and found both to be perceptually integral dimensions. In Experiment 2, we tested liking for the same music by applying Norman Anderson's functional measurement model and found loudness and timbre to combine by an adding-type rule. In Experiment 3, we applied functional measurement for perception and found loudness and timbre to interact as in Experiment 1. These results show that people cannot or do not attend selectively or perceive separately any one music component, but that they nonetheless can isolate the components when they enjoy (or disenjoy) listening to music. We conclude that perception of the constituent components of a musical piece and the processing of the same components for liking are governed by different rules.

The Size Congruity Effect Vanishes in Grasping: Implications for the Processing of Numerical Information.

Judgments of the physical size in which a numeral is presented are often affected by the task-irrelevant attribute of its numerical magnitude, the Size Congruity Effect (SCE). The SCE is typically interpreted as a marker of the automatic activation of numerical magnitude. However, a growing literature shows that the SCE is not robust, a possible indication that numerical information is not always activated in an automatic fashion. In the present study, we tested the SCE via grasping by way of resolving the automaticity debate. We found results that challenge the robustness of the SCE and, consequently, the validity of the automaticity assumption. The SCE was absent when participants grasped the physically larger object of a pair of 3D wooden numerals. An SCE was still recorded when the participants perceptually indicated the general location of the larger object, but not when they grasped that object. These results highlight the importance of the sensory domain when considering the generality of a perceptual effect.

Dissociable effects of stimulus range on perception and action.

We have recently reported the discovery that the ability to detect a minimum increment to a stimulus depends on the spread of the other stimuli for which this just noticeable difference (JND) is being measured (Namdar, Ganel, & Algom, 2016). In particular, the JND around a standard stimulus was larger when the other standards tested within the same experimental session spread a larger range. In this study we show that this range of standards effect (RSE) is limited to perceptual estimations and does not extend to action. The JND remained invariant when the participants grasped the objects rather than perceptually estimated their size. This difference supports the hypothesis that visual perception, on the one hand, and visually controlled action, on the other hand, are governed by separate rules and mediated by different mechanisms.