Physical effort modulates perceptual awareness judgment independent of level of processing.

Recent studies have emphasized the association between action and perceptual awareness, suggesting that action-related information can contribute to perceptual awareness. Given that the Level of Processing (LoP) hypothesis proposes that the emergence of awareness depends on the level of stimulus processing, the current study examines whether action impacts perceptual awareness across different processing levels. In Experiment 1, participants identified target stimuli's color (low-level task) or category (high-level task) via mouse clicks, followed by visual awareness ratings. Experiment 2 replicated the tasks using hand-grip dynamometers. Results from Experiment 1 support the LoP theory, showing a more gradual emergence of awareness for low-level features and a more dichotomous emergence for high-level features. In Experiment 2, higher reported visual awareness ratings were observed at greater physical effort, regardless of task type. These results suggest that action-related information influences reported awareness of stimuli in the same way at low- and high-level stimulus processing.

Estimation of bed shear stress and analysis of sediment resuspension in Lake Chaohu, China.

Resuspended sediment is an important carrier of underwater material circulation, and bed shear stress is usually considered to be closely related to sediment resuspension. To analyze the resuspension dynamics in severely eutrophic Lake Chaohu, China, three fixed stations were set up to collect wave, current, and suspended sediment concentrate (SSC) data under windy weather, and two significant sediment resuspension events were recorded. Based on the Gaussian-shaped spectrum characteristics of waves in Lake Chaohu, the wave orbital velocity was estimated by using the wave parameter method. The selection of the general wave spectrum is important for the accurate estimation of wave orbital velocity. The results of the simple linear wave method were very similar to those of the wave parameter method with a Gaussian-shaped spectrum in Lake Chaohu. The total bed shear stress combining waves and currents during the observation period was calculated, and most of it was contributed by wind-driven waves. The bed material of Lake Chaohu has silt-enriched and weak cohesive features, and an examination of critical shear stress showed that the modified Shields curve method was still applicable to Lake Chaohu. When a sediment resuspension event occurred, the vertical gradient of SSC increased significantly, and the peak SSC value depended on the peak value of bed shear stress. As a predictor, bed shear stress only showed a good linear relationship during sediment resuspension events. At other times, the prediction of SSC using bed shear stress may be biased, especially at the time after a significant sediment resuspension event.