{"title":"Reflexive priority of biological motion in attentional orienting: evidence from conflict resistance in complex visual settings.","authors":"Xinyi Huang, Shujia Zhang, Li Wang, Yi Jiang","doi":"10.1186/s41235-026-00721-1","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s41235-026-00721-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Humans involuntarily orient their attention to walking direction of biological motion (BM), a crucial skill for adaptive survival and social interaction. While previous studies have been limited to isolated BM displays, real-world scenarios typically include BM alongside multiple competing stimuli, hampering the translation of laboratory insights into practical applications. Here, we introduced simultaneously presented BM cues and other social (eye gaze) or nonsocial (arrow) cues into a modified central cueing paradigm, reassessing the reflexive nature of BM-induced attention from the perspective of conflict resistance. Results showed that the attentional orienting elicited by BM was robust enough to resist interference from peripheral arrows throughout the task yet interfered with central arrow processing. This unique asymmetric interference effect highlights the reflexive priority of BM over nonsocial cues. Additionally, mutual interference between BM and eye gaze suggests that different types of social cues trigger attentional shifts with a considerable degree of reflexivity. Based on an interference-resilient criterion, these findings together imply that social attention is supported by a specialized mechanism shared across various social but not nonsocial cues. This mechanism potentially enables us to instinctively prioritize and orient toward social signals amid competing nonsocial cues in complex real-world settings, with direct implications for designing signaling systems in safety-critical contexts and developing early diagnostic tools for sociocognitive disorders such as autism.</p>","PeriodicalId":46827,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Research-Principles and Implications","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13006485/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147500251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Roslyn Wong, Lili Yu, Aaron Veldre, Erik D Reichle
{"title":"Real-time processing of misinformation and its correction: Insights from eye movements during reading.","authors":"Roslyn Wong, Lili Yu, Aaron Veldre, Erik D Reichle","doi":"10.1186/s41235-026-00723-z","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s41235-026-00723-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>People often continue to rely on information even after it has been retracted-a phenomenon known as the continued-influence effect (CIE) of misinformation. This study investigated real-time indicators of misinformation susceptibility by recording the eye movements of 74 participants as they read pairs of newspaper-style articles containing critical information about the cause of an event that was either retracted or not. A post-reading questionnaire assessed memory for the passages and inferential judgements related to the retracted information. The roles of individual differences in language proficiency and working memory on the CIE were also tested. Questionnaire data replicated prior findings that repetition of the original information improved recall memory for the event. Eye-tracking data revealed that retractions were associated with increased processing effort during encoding of corrective information and reduced re-reading of non-causal details. Reminders of the original misinformation were linked to faster overall reading speeds. Higher reading proficiency predicted greater reductions in misinformation susceptibility, and both reading proficiency and verbal working memory capacity facilitated real-time processing of causal information. Finally, longer reading times and slower reading speeds were tentatively associated with reduced misinformation susceptibility but only when retractions were presented without explicit reminders. Together, these findings suggest that misinformation susceptibility reflects both individual differences in cognitive abilities and the effectiveness of reminder-based corrections.</p>","PeriodicalId":46827,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Research-Principles and Implications","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13006481/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147500097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can unreliable auditory hazard warnings help the driver? The effect of timing errors and false alarms on road hazard detection in dynamic road scenes.","authors":"Jiali Song, Benjamin Wolfe","doi":"10.1186/s41235-026-00718-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s41235-026-00718-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Vehicle-based warnings that speed road hazard detection can reduce collision incidence and severity. However, no technology is perfect, and it is critical to understand the impact of incorrect cues on hazard detection. This study, conducted between September 2022 and September 2023, examined the impact of non-spatial hazard warning auditory cues on licensed drivers' ability to localize hazards (situations requiring immediate response to avoid a collision) in real road footage when cues are mistimed (Experiment 1) and when cues include false alarms (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we varied the duration between cue and hazard onset and found that earlier cues speeded responses more than later cues, and warning cues reduced response time regardless of timing. However, each trial included a hazard, whereas hazards are rare on the road. In Experiment 2, we added false alarm warnings and hazard-absent trials in two cue reliability conditions (80% and 50%), and these cues did not significantly affect hazard localization performance regardless of reliability. Although earlier auditory temporal warnings can speed hazard localization, these benefits disappear in the presence of false alarms in attentive drivers and suggest that classic cueing results may not necessarily translate to dynamic natural scenes with ambiguous targets onsets.</p>","PeriodicalId":46827,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Research-Principles and Implications","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12996480/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147475743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Validating a multinomial processing tree model for measuring confidence in lineups using a post-response feedback manipulation.","authors":"Raoul Bell, Nicola Marie Menne, Axel Buchner","doi":"10.1186/s41235-026-00719-9","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s41235-026-00719-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Confidence in lineup responses is important in research and practice. Here we introduce the lineup confidence model, an extension of the well-validated two-high threshold eyewitness identification model. The two-high threshold eyewitness identification model serves to measure four cognitive processes underlying lineup responses: culprit-presence detection, culprit-absence detection, biased suspect selection and guessing-based selection. The lineup confidence model additionally incorporates the measurement of confidence. To validate the lineup confidence model, we conducted an experiment with a large sample size (N = 1565) using post-response feedback as a manipulation of confidence. Confidence followed a predictable and psychologically plausible pattern: responses based on detection were more likely to result in high confidence than responses based on guessing, and responses based on biased suspect selection were also more likely to result in high confidence than responses based on guessing. Importantly, post-response feedback selectively influenced confidence while leaving the parameters for culprit-presence detection, culprit-absence detection, biased suspect selection and guessing-based selection unaffected. Confidence can thus be measured with the model without compromising the measurement of the other processes specified by the model. This successful validation indicates that the lineup confidence model may be useful for examining how lineup characteristics and external factors influence confidence as a function of the processes underlying lineup responses.</p>","PeriodicalId":46827,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Research-Principles and Implications","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12992753/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147469599","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Metacognition and diagnostic decision-making: short \"blips\" of knowledge and the consequences of overconfidence.","authors":"Seok-Sung Hong, Lisa K Son, Kyungil Kim","doi":"10.1186/s41235-026-00717-x","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s41235-026-00717-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When making decisions under uncertainty, we rely on the information we currently have. Presumably, the more information we have, the better our decisions turn out to be. What, though, drives our motivation to seek more information? The current research investigated people's confidence judgments in one's current information and their relationship to seeking more information when making diagnoses when presented with a sequence of medical symptoms. In Experiment 1, we explored people's confidence judgments in relation to the accumulation of information they received. In Experiment 2, we tested whether a participant's confidence levels would guide the decision to seek more information. The results showed that (1) people had the most overconfidence with a short period of exposure to medical knowledge (as opposed to a long period or none at all) and (2) that overconfidence was associated with choosing not to seek more information. In short, a \"blip of knowledge\" can lead to an illusion of knowing, which, in turn, could lead to a sub-optimal decision when it comes to medical diagnosing.</p>","PeriodicalId":46827,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Research-Principles and Implications","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12988131/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147460524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Metacognitive training facilitates optimal cognitive offloading.","authors":"Ceri Ngai, Sam J Gilbert","doi":"10.1186/s41235-026-00714-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s41235-026-00714-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cognitive offloading refers to the use of physical actions and the external environment to reduce cognitive demand. Offloading strategies such as creating external reminders instead of relying on internal memory are highly effective and play a key role in supporting real-world cognition. Previous work has shown that people have systematic biases in their offloading strategies, which are related to biased metacognitive evaluations of cognitive ability. While metacognitive interventions could potentially mitigate these biases, research investigating their effects has produced mixed results. Here, we examined the influence of a brief metacognitive intervention comprising just five trials during an initial practice session. After the intervention, participants performed a memory task where they decided between using internal memory (for maximum reward) or external reminders (for reduced reward), allowing us to determine the optimality of offloading strategies. Experiment 1 (N = 164) showed that making metacognitive predictions and subsequently receiving feedback led to improved metacognitive calibration and more optimal reminder-setting strategies. Experiment 2 (N = 416) replicated this pattern and found that making predictions alone was ineffective. These findings suggest that a metacognitive intervention combining prediction with feedback could potentially optimise cognitive offloading in everyday life.</p>","PeriodicalId":46827,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Research-Principles and Implications","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12982714/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147445341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Duolingo-inspired pretesting with words and pictures improves vocabulary learning.","authors":"Tabitha J E Chua, Steven C Pan","doi":"10.1186/s41235-026-00708-y","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s41235-026-00708-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Contemporary language learning applications such as Duolingo and Rosetta Stone often introduce vocabulary through guessing-with-feedback exercises in which learners match words and pictures. We investigated whether that process might yield a pretesting effect-that is, the phenomenon where guessing with correct answer feedback (pretesting) enhances memory. Across four experiments, adult online learners engaged in multiple-choice pretesting to learn Spanish word translations shown in word-image (Experiments 1-2) or image-word (Experiments 3-4) format. Relative to a read-only condition, pretesting yielded statistically significant performance improvements on subsequent cued recall (Cohen's d = 0.18-0.40) and, in most cases, multiple-choice tests (d = 0.25-0.67), regardless of whether test formats were separately presented or intermixed. Participants also reported preferring pretesting over reading for learning second-language vocabulary, especially for word-image learning. Together, these findings extend the pretesting effect to visual and verbal materials, offering theoretical insights and substantiating word-image and image-word guessing-based approaches of language learning.</p>","PeriodicalId":46827,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Research-Principles and Implications","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12965936/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147366914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is there a \"mind\" behind the music? Attributing music to AI can suppress narrative meaning-making.","authors":"Sarah H Wu, Kevin J Holmes","doi":"10.1186/s41235-026-00715-z","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s41235-026-00715-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The rise of AI-generated music has implications for how people derive meaning from the listening experience, including the propensity to imagine a story as music unfolds. Previous research suggests that such narrative listening requires some form of common ground between composer and listener. Therefore, people may be less likely to engage in narrative listening when they believe music is the product of an AI system rather than a human mind. We tested this possibility across two preregistered studies in which US participants (N = 399) listened to several pieces of instrumental music and reported their experience of narrative listening-whether they imagined a story and how engaging it was. When presented with unlabeled, human-composed music, participants reported imagining fewer and less engaging narratives in response to pieces they regarded as more likely computer generated than human composed (Study 1). When we experimentally manipulated the purported composer by labeling human- and AI-composed music clips as either \"Human\" or \"AI\" composed, the \"AI\"-labeled pieces elicited fewer and less engaging narratives than their \"Human\"-labeled counterparts, regardless of the actual composer (Study 2). Together, these findings suggest that ascribing music to AI is associated with-and can engender-an impoverished listening experience, devoid of the mental narratives that unfold as the composer's musical choices guide the listener's imagination. Our findings contribute to an emerging literature on perceptions of artificial creators, with practical implications for listeners, musicians, and policymakers.</p>","PeriodicalId":46827,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Research-Principles and Implications","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12953833/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147327658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ingvi Örnólfsson, Axel Ahrens, Tobias May, Torsten Dau
{"title":"Investigating the impact of background noise on collaborative decision-making using an individual-weighted voting model.","authors":"Ingvi Örnólfsson, Axel Ahrens, Tobias May, Torsten Dau","doi":"10.1186/s41235-026-00710-4","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s41235-026-00710-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The development and evaluation of hearing rehabilitation strategies would greatly benefit from quantification of theoretical constructs related to communication success. Motivated by this, we present a model-based approach to analyze information exchange in a collaborative general knowledge decision-making task. Through a combination of experiments and simulations, we investigate how this model can be used to quantify the exchange of information between interlocutors. Experiments were conducted with ten triads (N = 30) to examine the impact of loud background noise on decision-making in collaborating triads. The group discussions took place in two different levels of background noise, 48dB and 78dB. An existing model of joint decision-making was extended to fit cases where decisions are made individually after engaging in a collaborative discussion. A maximum likelihood estimator for the model was derived and validated in terms of parameter recovery and sensitivity to participant response bias and was used to quantify the relative influence of group members on each other's post-discussion decisions, formalized as a set of model weights. Four statistics were used to summarize the results: overall weight change, self-weighting, weight equality, and weight similarity. Background noise was found to significantly alter how participants influenced each other's decisions, but the direction of change remained unclear. These findings demonstrate how group members' influence on each other's decisions can be quantified and suggest that loud background noise can have a tangible impact on how group decisions are formed.</p>","PeriodicalId":46827,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Research-Principles and Implications","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12946328/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147311198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lukas W Mayer, Sheer Karny, Jackie Ayoub, Miao Song, Danyang Tian, Ehsan Moradi-Pari, Mark Steyvers
{"title":"Human-AI collaboration: trade-offs between performance and preferences.","authors":"Lukas W Mayer, Sheer Karny, Jackie Ayoub, Miao Song, Danyang Tian, Ehsan Moradi-Pari, Mark Steyvers","doi":"10.1186/s41235-026-00713-1","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s41235-026-00713-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Despite the growing interest in collaborative AI, designing systems that seamlessly integrate human input remains a major challenge. In this study, we developed a task to systematically examine human preferences for collaborative agents. We created and evaluated five collaborative AI agents with strategies that differ in the manner and degree they adapt to human actions. Participants interacted with a subset of these agents, evaluated their perceived traits, and selected their preferred agent. We used a Bayesian model to understand how agents' strategies influence the human-AI team performance, AI's perceived traits, and the factors shaping human preferences in pairwise agent comparisons. Our results show that agents who are more considerate of human actions are preferred over purely performance-maximizing agents. Moreover, we show that such human-centric design can improve the likability of AI collaborators without reducing performance. We find evidence for inequality-aversion effects being a driver of human choices, suggesting that people prefer collaborative agents which allow them to meaningfully contribute to the team. Taken together, these findings demonstrate how collaboration with AI can benefit from development efforts, which include both subjective and objective metrics.</p>","PeriodicalId":46827,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Research-Principles and Implications","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12949212/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147311129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}