Psychological reviewPub Date : 2025-07-01Epub Date: 2025-02-27DOI: 10.1037/rev0000541
Minyu Chang, Brendan T Johns, Charles J Brainerd
{"title":"True and false recognition in MINERVA2: Integrating fuzzy-trace theory and computational memory modeling.","authors":"Minyu Chang, Brendan T Johns, Charles J Brainerd","doi":"10.1037/rev0000541","DOIUrl":"10.1037/rev0000541","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous research suggests that the MINERVA2 model can capture basic Deese/Roediger/McDermott (DRM) false recognition findings with either randomized representations or distributional semantic representations. In the current article, we extended this line of research by showing that MINERVA2 can accommodate not only basic DRM recognition findings but also the effects of various theory-driven manipulations. Importantly, we incorporated two assumptions of fuzzy-trace theory into MINERVA2: the verbatim-gist distinction and hierarchies of gist. To implement the verbatim-gist distinction, we represented local gist traces with distributional semantic vectors and verbatim traces with holographic word-form vectors. With separate representations incorporated, MINERVA2 successfully simulated a wide range of empirical effects in the DRM illusion, as well as remember/know and source judgments. To incorporate hierarchies of gist into the framework, we added an assumption that an item's storage quality depends on its semantic similarity to the preceding item. This accommodated the effect of global gist beyond that of local gist and solved the problem of storage independence in multitrace models of episodic memory. Our findings provided extensive evidence that MINERVA2 is a viable candidate for scalable modeling of the DRM illusion and strengthened the connection between computational modeling and substantive theories of false memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":21016,"journal":{"name":"Psychological review","volume":" ","pages":"857-894"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143524201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological reviewPub Date : 2025-07-01Epub Date: 2024-09-19DOI: 10.1037/rev0000498
Tyler Malloy, Chris R Sims
{"title":"Efficient visual representations for learning and decision making.","authors":"Tyler Malloy, Chris R Sims","doi":"10.1037/rev0000498","DOIUrl":"10.1037/rev0000498","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The efficient representation of visual information is essential for learning and decision making due to the complexity and uncertainty of the world, as well as inherent constraints on the capacity of cognitive systems. We hypothesize that biological agents learn to efficiently represent visual information in a manner that balances performance across multiple potentially competing objectives. In this article, we examine two such objectives: storing information in a manner that supports accurate recollection (maximizing veridicality) and in a manner that facilitates utility-based decision making (maximizing behavioral utility). That these two objectives may be in conflict is not immediately obvious. Our hypothesis suggests that neither behavior nor representation formation can be fully understood by studying either in isolation, with information processing constraints exerting an overarching influence. Alongside this hypothesis we develop a computational model of representation formation and behavior motivated by recent methods in machine learning and neuroscience. The resulting model explains both the beneficial aspects of human visual learning, such as fast acquisition and high generalization, as well as the biases that result from information constraints. To test this model, we developed two experimental paradigms, in decision making and learning, to evaluate how well the model's predictions match human behavior. A key feature of the proposed model is that it predicts the occurrence of commonly found biases in human decision making, resulting from the desire to form efficient representations of visual information that are useful for behavioral goals in learning and decision making and optimized under an information processing constraint. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":21016,"journal":{"name":"Psychological review","volume":" ","pages":"759-780"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142294109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological reviewPub Date : 2025-07-01Epub Date: 2025-01-06DOI: 10.1037/rev0000533
Casimir J H Ludwig, Erik Stuchlý, Gaurav Malhotra
{"title":"Grounding computational cognitive models.","authors":"Casimir J H Ludwig, Erik Stuchlý, Gaurav Malhotra","doi":"10.1037/rev0000533","DOIUrl":"10.1037/rev0000533","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cognitive scientists and neuroscientists are increasingly deploying computational models to develop testable theories of psychological functions and make quantitative predictions about cognition, brain activity, and behavior. Computational models are used to explain target phenomena such as experimental effects, individual, and/or population differences. They do so by relating these phenomena to the underlying components of the model that map onto distinct cognitive mechanisms. These components make up a \"cognitive state space,\" where different positions correspond to different cognitive states that produce variation in behavior. We examine the rationale and practice of such model-based inferences and argue that model-based explanations typically miss a key ingredient: They fail to explain <i>why</i> and <i>how</i> agents occupy specific positions in this space. A critical insight is that the agent's position in the state space is not fixed, but that the behavior they produce is the result of a <i>trajectory</i>. Therefore, we discuss (a) the constraints that limit movement in the state space; (b) the reasons for moving around at all (i.e., agents' objectives); and (c) the information and cognitive mechanisms that guide these movements. We review existing research practices, from experimental design to the model-based analysis of data, and through simulations we demonstrate some of the inferential pitfalls that arise when we ignore these dynamics. By bringing the agent's perspective into sharp focus, we stand to gain better and more complete explanations of the variation in cognition and behavior over time, between different environmental conditions, and between different populations or individuals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":21016,"journal":{"name":"Psychological review","volume":" ","pages":"973-1001"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142932103","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological reviewPub Date : 2025-07-01Epub Date: 2025-01-09DOI: 10.1037/rev0000535
Peter Ulric Tse
{"title":"The disencapsulated mind: A premotor theory of human imagination.","authors":"Peter Ulric Tse","doi":"10.1037/rev0000535","DOIUrl":"10.1037/rev0000535","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Our premodern ancestors had perceptual, motoric, and cognitive functional domains that were modularly encapsulated. Some of these came to interact through a new type of cross-modular binding in our species. This allowed previously domain-dedicated, encapsulated motoric and sensory operators to operate on operands for which they had not evolved. Such operators could at times operate nonvolitionally, while at other times they could be governed volitionally. In particular, motoric operations that derive from the same circuits that compute hand motions for object manipulation could now be retooled for virtual manipulation in a mental workspace in the absence of any physical hand or other effector movements. I hypothesize that the creativity of human imagination and mental models is rooted in premotor simulation of sequential manipulations of objects and symbols in the mental workspace, in analogy with the premotor theory of attention, which argues that attention evolved from \"internalized\" eye movement circuitry. Overall, operator \"disencapsulation\" led to a bifurcation of consciousness in humans: a concrete form centered on perception of the body in the physical world and an abstract form focused on explanatory mental models. One of the consequences of these new abilities was the advent of psychotic disorders that do not exist in species possessed solely of the concrete type of consciousness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":21016,"journal":{"name":"Psychological review","volume":" ","pages":"895-915"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142954132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological reviewPub Date : 2025-07-01Epub Date: 2024-09-19DOI: 10.1037/rev0000489
Jiaqi Huang, Jerome R Busemeyer, Zo Ebelt, Emmanuel M Pothos
{"title":"Bridging the gap between subjective probability and probability judgments: The quantum sequential sampler.","authors":"Jiaqi Huang, Jerome R Busemeyer, Zo Ebelt, Emmanuel M Pothos","doi":"10.1037/rev0000489","DOIUrl":"10.1037/rev0000489","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>One of the most important challenges in decision theory has been how to reconcile the normative expectations from Bayesian theory with the apparent fallacies that are common in probabilistic reasoning. Recently, Bayesian models have been driven by the insight that apparent fallacies are due to sampling errors or biases in estimating (Bayesian) probabilities. An alternative way to explain apparent fallacies is by invoking different probability rules, specifically the probability rules from quantum theory. Arguably, quantum cognitive models offer a more unified explanation for a large body of findings, problematic from a baseline classical perspective. This work addresses two major corresponding theoretical challenges: first, a framework is needed which incorporates both Bayesian and quantum influences, recognizing the fact that there is evidence for both in human behavior. Second, there is empirical evidence which goes beyond any current Bayesian and quantum model. We develop a model for probabilistic reasoning, seamlessly integrating both Bayesian and quantum models of reasoning and augmented by a sequential sampling process, which maps subjective probabilistic estimates to observable responses. Our model, called the Quantum Sequential Sampler, is compared to the currently leading Bayesian model, the Bayesian Sampler (J. Zhu et al., 2020) using a new experiment, producing one of the largest data sets in probabilistic reasoning to this day. The Quantum Sequential Sampler embodies several new components, which we argue offer a more theoretically accurate approach to probabilistic reasoning. Moreover, our empirical tests revealed a new, surprising systematic overestimation of probabilities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":21016,"journal":{"name":"Psychological review","volume":" ","pages":"916-955"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142294107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological reviewPub Date : 2025-07-01Epub Date: 2025-01-06DOI: 10.1037/rev0000519
Joost de Jong, Aaron R Voelker, Terrence C Stewart, Elkan G Akyürek, Chris Eliasmith, Hedderik van Rijn
{"title":"A unified neurocomputational model of prospective and retrospective timing.","authors":"Joost de Jong, Aaron R Voelker, Terrence C Stewart, Elkan G Akyürek, Chris Eliasmith, Hedderik van Rijn","doi":"10.1037/rev0000519","DOIUrl":"10.1037/rev0000519","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Time is a central dimension against which perception, action, and cognition play out. From anticipating when future events will happen to recalling how long ago previous events occurred, humans and animals are exquisitely sensitive to temporal structure. Empirical evidence seems to suggest that estimating time prospectively (i.e., in passing) is qualitatively different from estimating time in retrospect (i.e., after the event is over). Indeed, computational models that attempt to explain both prospective and retrospective timing assume a fundamental separation of their underlying processes. We, in contrast, propose a new neurocomputational model of timing, the unified temporal coding (UTC) model that unifies prospective and retrospective timing through common principles. The UTC model assumes that both stimulus and timing information are represented inside the same rolling window of input history. As a consequence, the UTC model explains a wide range of phenomena typically covered by specialized models, such as conformity to and violations of the scalar property, one-shot learning of intervals, neural responses underlying timing, timing behavior under normal and distracting conditions, common capacity limits in timing and working memory, and how timing depends on attention. Strikingly, by assuming that prospective and retrospective timing rely on the same principles and are implemented in the same neural network, a simple attentional gain mechanism can resolve the apparently paradoxical effect of cognitive load on prospective and retrospective timing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":21016,"journal":{"name":"Psychological review","volume":" ","pages":"781-827"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142931560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological reviewPub Date : 2025-07-01Epub Date: 2025-02-17DOI: 10.1037/rev0000540
Suaad S Al Hadhrami, Lea M Bartsch, Klaus Oberauer
{"title":"A multinomial model-based analysis of bindings in working memory.","authors":"Suaad S Al Hadhrami, Lea M Bartsch, Klaus Oberauer","doi":"10.1037/rev0000540","DOIUrl":"10.1037/rev0000540","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We examined how elements are integrated into larger units in working memory (WM). Four contrasting conceptual models exist with regard to this question: (a) a unitization model, in which there is a single integrated representation which is retrieved in an all-or-none fashion; (b) a unitization-with-element-failure model, in which a single integrated representation is retrieved as a whole, but access to its elements can still fail individually; (c) a pairwise-binding model, in which elements of a unit are represented separately and are bound together in pairs; (d) a hybrid model that includes an integrated representation as well as pairwise bindings between element representations. We developed four multinomial process tree models to test these theories. In three experiments, participants memorized multiple units which were random combinations of three elements. They were given one element as a cue and prompted to report the other two elements. The model-comparison analysis revealed that the hybrid model provides the best quantitative fit to the data. We conclude that multielement units are represented on two levels, as an integrated unit retrieved in an all-or-none manner, and in addition through pairwise bindings between their elements. Moreover, the assumption that bindings of nonspatial elements are mediated through their shared spatial location-a special case of the pairwise-binding model-was not supported by the data. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":21016,"journal":{"name":"Psychological review","volume":" ","pages":"828-856"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143441922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adapting to loss: A computational model of grief.","authors":"Zack Dulberg, Rachit Dubey, Jonathan D Cohen","doi":"10.1037/rev0000567","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000567","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Grief is a reaction to loss that is observed across human cultures and even in other species. While the particular expressions of grief vary significantly, universal aspects include experiences of emotional pain and frequent remembering of what was lost. Despite its prevalence, and its obvious nature, considering grief from a functional perspective is puzzling: <i>Why</i> do we grieve? Why is it <i>painful</i>? And why is it sometimes prolonged enough to be clinically impairing? Using the framework of reinforcement learning with memory replay, we offer answers to these questions and suggest, counterintuitively, that grief may function to maximize future reward. That is, grieving may help to unlearn old habits so that alternative sources of reward can be found. We additionally perform a set of simulations that identify and explore optimal grieving parameters and use our model to account for empirical phenomena such as individual differences in human grief trajectories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":21016,"journal":{"name":"Psychological review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144161396","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Chance as a (non)explanation: A cross-cultural examination of folk understanding of chance and coincidence.","authors":"Ze Hong","doi":"10.1037/rev0000568","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000568","url":null,"abstract":"Causal explanations are a key component of human cognition. While we possess certain causal models of the world that offer satisfactory explanations for a range of phenomena, our cognitive capacities have their limits when dealing with the complexities of the world, leaving the causes of many events elusive. In this article, I integrate ethnographic and historical evidence to show that, despite our limited understanding of why certain events occur, people throughout human history and across diverse societies have seldom invoked \"chance\"-a concept that has gained significant importance in contemporary, modern societies-as an explanation. Instead, they frequently propose putative causal relationships or posit intermediary entities such as \"luck\" to account for why specific events unfold within their particular spatial-temporal contexts. I discuss the psychological, cognitive, and cultural evolutionary factors that hinder the development of chance-based explanations and argue that the conceptualization of chance as something measurable and its subsequent acceptance as a legitimate explanation emerged relatively late in human history, marking a pivotal intellectual shift with profound implications on how we perceive and manage uncertainty in our daily lives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).","PeriodicalId":21016,"journal":{"name":"Psychological review","volume":"131 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144087851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ensemble-based working memory updating and its computational rules.","authors":"Wei Chen,Wenwen Li,Xiaowei Ding","doi":"10.1037/rev0000569","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000569","url":null,"abstract":"Manipulation plays a critical role in working memory, wherein understanding how items are represented during manipulation is a fundamental question. Previous studies on manipulation have primarily assumed independent representations by default (independent hypothesis). Here, we propose the ensemble hypothesis to challenge this conventional notion, suggesting that items are represented as ensembles undergoing updating during manipulation. To test these hypotheses, we focused on working memory updating in accordance with new information by conducting three delayed-estimation tasks under addition, removal, and replacement scenarios (Study 1). A critical manipulation involved systematically manipulating the mean orientation of all memory stimuli, either increasing (clockwise) or decreasing (counterclockwise) after the updating process. Following the independent hypothesis, memory errors would be similar under both conditions. Conversely, considering the biasing effect of the ensemble on individual representations, the ensemble hypothesis predicts that memories of individual items would be updated, aligning with the ensemble's change direction. Namely, memory errors would be more positive in the increase-mean condition compared to the decrease-mean condition. Our results supported the ensemble hypothesis. Furthermore, to investigate the mechanisms underlying ensemble computations in updating scenarios, we conducted three ensemble tasks (Study 2) with similar designs to Study 1 and developed a computational model to quantify the contributions of each memory item. The results consistently demonstrated that addition involved complete updating, while removal led to incomplete updating. Across these three research parts, we propose that items are represented as dynamic ensembles during working memory updating processes. Furthermore, we elucidate the computational principles underlying ensembles throughout this process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).","PeriodicalId":21016,"journal":{"name":"Psychological review","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144087852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}