Journal of CognitionPub Date : 2026-01-12eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.5334/joc.484
Daniele Gatti, Davide Crepaldi, Serena Lecce, Luca Rinaldi, Sara Mascheretti
{"title":"On the Relationship between Reading Abilities and Word Properties Involved in Word Recognition.","authors":"Daniele Gatti, Davide Crepaldi, Serena Lecce, Luca Rinaldi, Sara Mascheretti","doi":"10.5334/joc.484","DOIUrl":"10.5334/joc.484","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Word recognition is a complex cognitive process that has been often investigated via lexical decision task (LDT). LDT can indeed provide insight into how individuals access and process linguistic information, and how (and if) specific word- and/or individual-level characteristics affect participants' behavior. Here, we aimed to provide a systematic investigation of the interaction between individual-level reading skills and word-level factors (e.g., frequency, length). Participants were asked to perform a LDT and complete neuropsychological tests assessing their reading-related skills. By using completely data-driven approaches, participants' performance in the LDT was predicted by word- and individual-level predictors, and the best-fitting model was selected. The best-fitting model dropped all the interactions among deeper-level predictors (e.g., density of the semantic neighborhood) and reading-related skills. The interactions involving word length or word frequency indicated that more expert readers are less sensitive to this kind of factors. These results underscore the importance of considering both lexical properties and individual reading proficiency when investigating the cognitive mechanisms underlying word recognition.</p>","PeriodicalId":32728,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognition","volume":"9 1","pages":"11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12802098/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145991131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CognitionPub Date : 2026-01-09eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.5334/joc.483
Maximilian Marschner, Günther Knoblich, David Dignath
{"title":"Do Individual and Joint Action Goals Modulate Imitative Response Tendencies?","authors":"Maximilian Marschner, Günther Knoblich, David Dignath","doi":"10.5334/joc.483","DOIUrl":"10.5334/joc.483","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Coordinated social interaction requires people to control their tendencies to imitate each other's actions. Previous research suggests that imitative response tendencies become modulated by the goals to which one's own and others' actions are individually or jointly directed. However, an open question is how different levels of goal representation (ranging from higher-level goals that specify joint or individual action outcomes to lower-level goals encoding own and others' movement features) interact and shape imitative congruency effects during social interactions. To address this gap, we conducted two online experiments, in which participants selected one of two action targets in turn with a virtual co-actor to achieve either individual or joint task goals. We manipulated imitative congruency between both task partners' task contributions regarding their individual action goals as well as their lower-level movement goals. Our results showed that participants' task performance was driven by imitative congruency between their own and their partner's individual action goals, which modulated effects of imitative congruency between their own and their partner's low-level movement goals. Interestingly, these imitation effects were found to be present regardless of instructing participants to work towards individual or joint task goals. While supporting goal-directed theories of imitation, our findings suggest that modulations of imitative response tendencies may stem from domain-general action planning and control processes that operate across social and non-social task settings, and that instructions to pursue joint rather than individual task goals exert only limited influence on imitative action tendencies in interactive task contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":32728,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognition","volume":"9 1","pages":"10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12785670/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145953279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CognitionPub Date : 2026-01-08eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.5334/joc.482
Javier Conde, Gonzalo Martínez, María Grandury, Carlos Arriaga, Juan Haro, Sascha Schroeder, Florian Hintz, Pedro Reviriego, Marc Brysbaert
{"title":"Updating the German Psycholinguistic Word Toolbox with AI-Generated Estimates of Concreteness, Valence, Arousal, Age of Acquisition, and Familiarity.","authors":"Javier Conde, Gonzalo Martínez, María Grandury, Carlos Arriaga, Juan Haro, Sascha Schroeder, Florian Hintz, Pedro Reviriego, Marc Brysbaert","doi":"10.5334/joc.482","DOIUrl":"10.5334/joc.482","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article presents AI-generated estimates for five characteristics of German words: concreteness, valence, arousal, age of acquisition (AoA), and word familiarity. The estimates were generated using GPT-4o-mini, which was selected due to its good performance in previous studies. Validation studies were conducted comparing the AI-generated estimates with both human ratings and previously generated AI data to ensure their usefulness for research applications. The main results are as follows. The GPT estimates of word concreteness, valence, and arousal show a strong correlation with human ratings but are not better than the best available AI-generated estimates based on semantic vectors. The GPT estimates of AoA are good approximations of human ratings and outperform other available alternatives (except for human ratings), especially after the model was fine-tuned based on 2,000 human ratings. Fine-tuned AI-generated estimates of word familiarity have better predictive value than word frequency for word recognition in lexical decision tasks and vocabulary tests. Estimates for concreteness, valence, arousal, and AoA are available for 167,000 words, which are likely to be known to more than 90% of participants in typical adult studies. Word familiarity estimates are presented for 928,000 word forms. All data and codes, including newly collected human familiarity ratings for 11,000 words, are publicly available at https://osf.io/ghjd2/. The data may be freely used for research purposes, but not for commercial purposes.</p>","PeriodicalId":32728,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognition","volume":"9 1","pages":"9"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12785658/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145953065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CognitionPub Date : 2026-01-08eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.5334/joc.480
Febe Demeyer, Sarah De Pue, Bart Aben, Kirsten A Verhaegen, Anne-Merel Meijer, Céline R Gillebert, Eva Van den Bussche
{"title":"Miyake Revisited: Validating the Factor Structure of an Open-Source Cognitive Control Test Battery.","authors":"Febe Demeyer, Sarah De Pue, Bart Aben, Kirsten A Verhaegen, Anne-Merel Meijer, Céline R Gillebert, Eva Van den Bussche","doi":"10.5334/joc.480","DOIUrl":"10.5334/joc.480","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cognitive control is a prerequisite for achieving goals in daily life. Miyake et al. (2000) distinguished three separable but correlated cognitive control functions in young adults: inhibition, shifting, and updating. This three-factor model was later adapted to a bi-factor model with a common factor and separate updating and shifting factors. Over the years, these models have been replicated in various young adult samples. However, other studies have failed to confirm these models. Furthermore, the variety of tasks used in these studies hampers replication of the underlying factor structure of cognitive control. The primary goal of this study was to address this issue of replicability by validating the factor structure of cognitive control functions using a new test battery based on often-used tasks, while offering full transparency about each step in the analysis process. This test battery comprises nine behavioral tasks measuring inhibition, shifting and updating. The factor structure was assessed in 247 young adults (84.21% female). Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to test the one-factor model with a common cognitive control function, the three-factor model with separate but correlated cognitive control functions, and the bi-factor model. Our findings supported the three-factor model with correlated cognitive control functions as the best-fitting model, despite some fit indices yielding mixed evidence. Additionally, the test battery in this study is offered as an open-source and easily accessible resource. Finally, we offer a critical look on the field and provide recommendations for future use and adaptations of this test battery to increase its broad applicability.</p>","PeriodicalId":32728,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognition","volume":"9 1","pages":"8"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12785704/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145953044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CognitionPub Date : 2026-01-07eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.5334/joc.476
Lars-Michael Schöpper, Paula Soballa, Simon Merz, Christian Frings
{"title":"The Touching Difference: Evidence for Stimulus-Response Binding Effects in Tactile Detection and Localization Performance but Not in Their Visual Counterparts.","authors":"Lars-Michael Schöpper, Paula Soballa, Simon Merz, Christian Frings","doi":"10.5334/joc.476","DOIUrl":"10.5334/joc.476","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>According to action control theories, responding to stimuli leads to a binding of stimulus and response features into a common representation referred to as an event file. If any component of this event file repeats, information is retrieved and affects performance: While full repetition is beneficial, partial repetition leads to cost. These stimulus-response (S-R) binding effects have been found in very many experimental designs; yet, these effects are typically completely absent in visual detection and localization tasks. Recently, however, it has been found that contrary to vision, auditory detection and localization leads to binding effects, thus suggesting modality dependence. In the current study we aimed to extend this debate by comparing the visual with the tactile domain. Participants detected (Experiment 1) or localized (Experiment 2) visual targets of different color and tactile targets of different intensity and rhythm. In both detection and localization, we observed evidence of binding and retrieval in the tactile domain which was completely absent in the visual domain. The results highlight the previously suggested modality dependence for binding approaches in action control.</p>","PeriodicalId":32728,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognition","volume":"9 1","pages":"5"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12785716/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145953112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CognitionPub Date : 2026-01-07eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.5334/joc.477
Phyllis Margaret Windsor, Benjamin R Dering, David I Donaldson
{"title":"Does the Experience of Remembering Differentially Influence the Factual Accuracy of Recognition, and Confidence in Its Accuracy?","authors":"Phyllis Margaret Windsor, Benjamin R Dering, David I Donaldson","doi":"10.5334/joc.477","DOIUrl":"10.5334/joc.477","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Remembering is typically viewed as unreliable and prone to errors, whereas highly confident recognition memory is often believed to be highly reliable and associated with high recognition accuracy. We evaluated these beliefs using memory for photographs of natural scenes in two studies: recognition memory to examine picture similarity effects in a 2-alternative forced-choice measure, and source memory to examine picture-location associations with a continuous retrieval accuracy measure. Additionally, we assessed the experience of remembering and its influence on judgments of confidence and memory accuracy. High confidence remembering was associated with high accuracy when perceptually or mnemonically similar lures were presented in the item recognition task. However, an association between high confidence and high accuracy was also seen in the absence of remembering for mnemonically similar lures. The confidence-accuracy inversion in the picture similarity task is speculated due to confidently (mis)remembering a similar picture stored in memory. Based on analyses of participant and trial level data, in both studies memory quality was strongly associated with confidence. Importantly, remembering moderated the association between recognition accuracy and confidence judgments, differentially influencing confidence more than it influenced accuracy. Memory quality moderated the association between source accuracy and confidence, the relationship being stronger for images remembered vividly. Our findings have implications for accounts of vividness, confidence, episodic memory, and eyewitness testimony. High confidence recognition may not in all cases reliably imply high accuracy. Highly vivid memories, confidently recollected, may not always be factually accurate.</p>","PeriodicalId":32728,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognition","volume":"9 1","pages":"6"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12785665/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145953281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Language Comprehension in Background Noise - Effects of Noise Type and Task Modality.","authors":"Michaela Socher, Isabella Ström, Josefine Andin, Åsa Elwér, Åsa Wengelin, Elisabeth Ingo","doi":"10.5334/joc.478","DOIUrl":"10.5334/joc.478","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In school, children often have to read or listen to spoken language while background noise is present. However, previous studies show a negative influence of background noise on reading and listening comprehension, especially in children. These background noise effects are not solely due to masking effects. Two accounts used to explain background noise effects are the interference-by-process account and the renewed view of age-related distraction. The interference-by-process assumes that the overlap of the processes needed for the background noise and the focal task are of importance, while the renewed view of age-related distraction argues that the modality of the focal task needs to be taken into consideration. In this study a total of 125 fifth grade students completed both listening and reading comprehension tasks under three listening conditions: silence, semantic noise and non-semantic noise. We found significantly lower performance for the semantic background noise condition compared to the silent condition. There was no significant interaction between task modality and background noise. These results are broadly consistent with the interference-by-process account but provide no support for the specific modality-based prediction derived from the renewed view of age-related distraction.</p>","PeriodicalId":32728,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognition","volume":"9 1","pages":"7"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12785741/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145952766","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CognitionPub Date : 2026-01-07eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.5334/joc.475
Ronen Hershman, Eldad Keha, Lisa Beckmann, Avishai Henik, Ayelet Sapir
{"title":"Irrelevant Task Difficulty Modulates the Emergence of Task Conflict.","authors":"Ronen Hershman, Eldad Keha, Lisa Beckmann, Avishai Henik, Ayelet Sapir","doi":"10.5334/joc.475","DOIUrl":"10.5334/joc.475","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In cognitive control tasks, participants are typically instructed to respond to a task-relevant dimension of a stimulus while ignoring the task-irrelevant one(s). In such experiments, task conflict reflects the additional effort associated with performing two tasks, such as identifying the color while reading the word in the color-word Stroop task. Task conflict is commonly inferred by comparing conditions that consist of two tasks (e.g., congruent and incongruent trials) with conditions that only consist of one task (meaningless non-word neutral trials). In three experiments, we used a color-digit Stroop task that varied in the difficulty of the irrelevant dimension of the stimuli, with these differences explicitly examined in a separate control experiment. While information conflict was evident across all experiments, we found differences in task conflict, so the harder it was to perceive the task-irrelevant dimension, the stronger the task conflict became. These findings demonstrate for the first time that task conflict emerges on a continuum, scaling with the level of engagement or processing demands associated with the irrelevant task. Moreover, these results suggest that our ability to inhibit the involuntary activation of an unwanted process is restricted. Therefore, despite the resource-intensive demands of completing the irrelevant task, it still takes place.</p>","PeriodicalId":32728,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognition","volume":"9 1","pages":"4"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12785743/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145952756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CognitionPub Date : 2026-01-07eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.5334/joc.474
Aurélie Grandjean, Roxane S Hoyer, Anne Mathieu, Anne Caclin, Annie Moulin, Aurélie Bidet-Caulet
{"title":"Global and Selective Effects of Auditory Attention on Arousal: Insights From Pupil Dilation.","authors":"Aurélie Grandjean, Roxane S Hoyer, Anne Mathieu, Anne Caclin, Annie Moulin, Aurélie Bidet-Caulet","doi":"10.5334/joc.474","DOIUrl":"10.5334/joc.474","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Theoretical models of attention propose that norepinephrine (NE) can induce both a global boost of arousal and selective amplification of high-priority stimuli, yet few tasks have tested these dual effects in humans. Here, we used pupillometry in an auditory detection task, the Competitive Attention Test (CAT), previously performed in large cohort studies, to examine how task engagement (active vs. passive) and stimulus relevance (informative vs. uninformative cues) modulate arousal. Results showed that both relevant and irrelevant sounds elicited larger pupil dilation under active conditions, indicating a global arousal effect. Crucially, only relevant sounds benefited from an additional dilation when preceded by an informative cue, demonstrating a selective arousal mechanism associated to top-down attention. These findings illustrate the NE's dual role in boosting overall alertness while selectively enhancing high-priority stimuli. Beyond theoretical implications, this work highlights that the CAT captures measurable arousal components, reinforcing its utility for clinical assessments of attention-arousal clinical disruptions.</p>","PeriodicalId":32728,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognition","volume":"9 1","pages":"3"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12785711/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145952182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CognitionPub Date : 2026-01-07eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.5334/joc.471
Herbert Heuer, Peter Wühr
{"title":"Response Preparation and the Simon Effect: Experimental and Model-Based Analyses.","authors":"Herbert Heuer, Peter Wühr","doi":"10.5334/joc.471","DOIUrl":"10.5334/joc.471","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In choice between frequent and infrequent responses the Simon effect is larger for the frequent than for the infrequent response. We arbitrate between three hypotheses to account for this finding. The first hypothesis holds that it is a straightforward consequence of biased response preparation. The second hypothesis posits a facilitation of the shift of visual attention to the side of the prepared response in addition, and the third one an effect of the different frequencies of congruent and incongruent trials associated with the task-irrelevant stimulus locations. In three experiments we show the modulation of the Simon effect by relative response frequency, its independence from the distance between hands and monitor, and its almost complete elimination by valid response cues. These findings are in line with a primary role of biased response preparation. Consistent with this conclusion, in a model-based analysis, using extensions of the Leaky, Competing Accumulator model, differences between the probabilities of preparing the frequent and infrequent response were sufficient to produce the modulation of the Simon effect, though only poorly its dynamics as assessed by delta plots. However, these dynamics were produced by a model which implemented the hypothesis that response preparation implicates shielding against distraction in addition to anticipatory response activation. According to simulation results, the modulation of congruency effects by relative response frequency might depend on the particular type of congruency effect, specifically the temporal offset between the impacts of relevant and irrelevant stimuli.</p>","PeriodicalId":32728,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cognition","volume":"9 1","pages":"1"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12785706/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145953083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}