Cognitive Science最新文献

{"title":"U.S. English-Speaking Children and Adults Exhibit a \"Gleam-Glum\" Sound Symbolic Effect Linking Phonemic Vowel Sounds With Emotional Valence.","authors":"Ye Li, Christine S-P Yu, Michael K McBeath, Viridiana L Benitez","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70215","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70215","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We tested a recently-found sound symbolic effect, the gleam-glum effect, in which words with the [i]-phoneme (like \"gleam\") are perceived as emotionally more positive than matched words with the [Ʌ]-phoneme (like \"glum\"). We extend prior work and verify this effect using a novel online pseudoword-to-scene matching task, testing U.S. English-speaking adults (n = 105) and 5- to 7-year-old children (n = 52). Participants heard pairs of matched [i]- versus [Ʌ]-monosyllabic pseudowords (e.g., \"zeem\" versus \"zum\") and assigned them to cartoon scenes exhibiting contrasting emotional valence (positive versus negative). These results provide the first empirical evidence that the gleam-glum effect is robust across both young children and adults, with the effect magnitude somewhat less in children of this age compared to adults. Our findings confirm that the gleam-glum effect is already strong at an early age and holds promise of being an important mechanism for language comprehension, language use, and language learning.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 4","pages":"e70215"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13128154/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147785951","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":"A Computational Model of Basic Addition Solving.","authors":"Stéphanie Chouteau, Karine Mazens, Catherine Thevenot, Benoît Lemaire","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70207","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.70207","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article presents a computational learning model in which procedural execution and memory retrieval codevelop, using simple arithmetic, which provides a particularly well-controlled domain for investigating this issue. In single-digit addition learning, strategies employed initially rely on counting due to the lack of stored answers in memory. Over time, associations between problems and their solutions are strengthened. The model accounts for this learning process by dynamically selecting between counting and memory retrieval, based on their expected duration. It also introduces a mechanism for accelerating counting throuSUPPLEMgh repeated practice along the mental sequence. The model was first tested on data collected from adults learning to solve alphabet arithmetic problems over a 3-week experiment. It successfully replicated the empirical finding that larger problems are memorized earlier than smaller ones. A second simulation was conducted using data from an experiment manipulating problem structure: participants were trained on either contiguous (A+…, B+…, C+…) or noncontiguous (A+…, C+…, E+…) sequences. This variation affected the transition between strategies: participants in the noncontiguous condition showed a greater tendency to rely on retrieval, as the practice of moving from one letter to the next differed. The model also reproduced this pattern. Overall, the results suggest that no single strategy dominates at the end of learning; rather, counting and retrieval coexist, depending on problem size and structure. This model is, to our knowledge, the only one to incorporate a counting acceleration mechanism in line with the automated counting theory and memory retrieval.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 4","pages":"e70207"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147785890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"It's Probably Mine: Self-Prioritization Can Be a Decisional Strategy","authors":"Marius Golubickis,&nbsp;Esther S. Selvaraj,&nbsp;Siobhan Caughey,&nbsp;Parnian Jalalian,&nbsp;Yadvi Sharma,&nbsp;C. Neil Macrae","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70190","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70190","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Personal possession exerts a significant influence on decision-making, such that stimulus classification is speeded when objects belong to the self (vs. other persons). Exactly when and how this self-prioritization effect arises, however, remains a matter of speculation and debate. Accordingly, adopting a psychophysical approach in combination with computational modeling, here we hypothesized that self-prioritization could derive from the application of an egocentric strategy (i.e., default-to-self response) during decisional processing. Using a modified object-classification task in which participants judged blended images comprising varying amounts of self-owned and friend-owned objects (i.e., pencils and pens), the results of two experiments supported this viewpoint. Participants perceptually prioritized their possessions only when a self-centric decisional strategy was applicable (Experiment 1), an effect that was amplified when the demands of decision-making increased (Experiment 2). Additional computational analyses traced the origin of self-prioritization to a prestimulus preference for self-related responses, a strategic component of decision-making. Collectively, these findings inform understanding of how ownership influences decisional processing, with wider implications for theoretical accounts of self-bias.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13021247/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147522410","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":"A Scale-Invariant Learning Model for Distributed Practice Effects","authors":"Martin Riopel,&nbsp;Patrice Potvin","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70200","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70200","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Despite their potential to significantly improve the durability of learning and their proven predictive power on many occasions, theories of distributed practice have not yet been widely adopted by educators. The reluctance may be attributed to the enormous strain they impose on learners or the fragmented nature of the evidence, as well as the generality of available prescriptions. The aim of this study is twofold: (1) to propose a unified theoretical model for the effects of practice, forgetting and spacing, which to this day unfortunately still does not exist; and (2) to put this new model to the test in multiple realistic situations. To achieve the first objective, scale invariance was used as a unifying principle and applied to three distinct scales. This approach resulted in a parsimonious equation for the general case of scale-invariant learning (SIL). For the second objective, the model was tested on a large dataset obtained during a locally conducted experiment. In addition, it was applied to five other datasets extracted from reputable and well-known distributed practice experiments. Overall, the goodness of fit of the SIL was acceptable in all cases. It is argued that the SIL model, to the best of our knowledge, appears to be a very robust model. The model allows the same general function to be used for any sequence of tasks—be they simple, complex, short, long, unique, repeated or elaborate. Therefore, it enables strict and real-world application in authentic situations, while proposing an invariant unit of measurement for learning.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/cogs.70200","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147515851","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":"Chinese Readers Process Word Class of Parafoveal Words During Sentence Reading","authors":"Zijun Qi,&nbsp;Yue Xi,&nbsp;Jinger Pan","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70197","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70197","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The present study aimed to investigate the parafoveal processing of word class in Chinese reading, focusing on how grammatical category consistency affects word recognition. The gaze-contingent boundary paradigm was adopted in an eye-tracking study. In each sentence, a parafoveal target word was replaced with three types of previews: identical to the target word, consistent in word class, or inconsistent in word class. The nonidentical previews were designed to be neither semantically nor contextually related to the target words or the surrounding sentence context. The findings revealed that consistent word class previews significantly facilitated the processing of target words when they were subsequently fixated on, compared to inconsistent word class previews, resulting in a word class preview benefit. This effect was observed across both early and late eye movement indices, regardless of the target word's grammatical category. Our findings provide compelling evidence for the early processing of word class information in the parafovea, independently of semantics or word class predictability, highlighting a word class preview benefit. These findings emphasize the early integration of syntactic properties in Chinese, offering insights into character-based language reading.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13010129/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147505216","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":"Exploring the Guessing-Game Experimental Paradigm: Inferences From Closed- Versus Open-Ended Semantic Space","authors":"Svetlana Kuleshova,&nbsp;Aleksandra Ćwiek,&nbsp;Stefan Hartmann,&nbsp;Michael Pleyer,&nbsp;Marta Sibierska,&nbsp;Marek Placiński,&nbsp;Johan Blomberg,&nbsp;Przemysław Żywiczyński,&nbsp;Sławomir Wacewicz","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70199","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70199","url":null,"abstract":"<p>How we measure success in signal comprehension experiments fundamentally shapes our conclusions. Two recent studies have demonstrated that humans can guess the meanings of novel vocalizations and ape gestures above chance when selecting from limited alternatives. We replicated both experiments using open-ended responses instead of multiple choice. For the vocalization data, where participants provided single-word or short-phrase responses, we systematically compared three evaluation methods applied to the same responses: exact matching, graded similarity ratings, and computational semantic similarity. For the gesture data, we applied graded similarity ratings. Each evaluation method revealed a different semantic landscape. Participants’ success was very low when measured by exact matching, moderate by similarity ratings, and substantially greater by computational measures, which capture broader thematic connections. Despite these differences, a consistent pattern emerged across both datasets and all evaluation methods: success was determined primarily by properties of the signals (their semantic category and degree of transparency) rather than individual participant abilities. Participants often reliably distinguished broad categories (actions vs. objects, animals vs. artifacts) but rarely identified specific concepts—and these distinct patterns only became visible through a combination of evaluation methods. In sum, our results partly align with the original studies yet also diverge in ways conducive to different conclusions about naïve humans’ ability to understand novel vocalizations or ape gestures. We show that closed- versus open-ended response formats, and different evaluation scales, function as complementary research tools rather than competing approaches. Each reveals different aspects of how humans navigate semantic space when interpreting novel signals. Experimental and evaluation designs are, therefore, not a technical detail but a theoretical choice about which semantic relationships we seek to expose.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13007489/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147500332","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":"Efficient Communication in Word Formation: How Syntactic and Lexical Surprisal Jointly Shape English Conversion Over the Past Century","authors":"Gui Wang,&nbsp;Mengyang Yu,&nbsp;Bin Shao","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70202","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70202","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Conversion degree, defined as the proportion of converted-form use out of total lemma use, has notably increased in English over the past century. For instance, <i>track</i> had a conversion degree of only 5% in the 1920s (95% noun, 5% verb) but rose to 35% by the 2010s (65% noun, 35% verb). This historical trend presents a communicative paradox: it favors speaker economy (articulatory ease via form reuse) seemingly at the expense of listener economy (increased ambiguity). The present study investigates this paradox through the framework of efficient communication, which predicts that ambiguous forms like conversion should be licensed in predictable contexts. We tested this prediction by analyzing 639 noun-to-verb and 443 verb-to-noun conversion words from the 1920s to the 2010s. Generalized linear mixed models were fitted with surprisal estimates from three architectures: local 5-grams, syntactic POS-grams, and broad-context GPT-2. Results indicate that the historical rise in conversion degree is accompanied by increasingly predictable contexts, suggesting that contextual predictability compensates for the absence of explicit morphological marking. We further demonstrate that syntactic and lexical surprisal exert independent inhibitory effects on conversion degree. Crucially, their positive interaction indicates that the constraining effect of lexical surprisal is stronger when syntactic surprisal is low and attenuated when syntactic surprisal is high, consistent with a resource competition account. These findings portray the evolution of English conversion not as random drift, but as a dynamic optimization reflecting a negotiation between communicative efficiency and cognitive resource limitations, offering a novel information-theoretic perspective on language change.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147500338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spatial Demonstratives and Perspective Taking in English and Japanese","authors":"Harmen B. Gudde,&nbsp;Jacqueline Collier,&nbsp;Kenny R. Coventry","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70183","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70183","url":null,"abstract":"<p>There is much debate regarding the extent to which languages express the same spatial parameters or whether spatial communication is essentially diverse. In this paper, we explore “perspective taking” in spatial demonstrative systems as a means of exploring between and within language variation. We test the effects of egocentric distance and addressee position on demonstrative production in speakers of two languages with two purportedly different demonstrative systems: English and Japanese. We find that speakers of both languages show perspective taking in their demonstrative use, with an overall increase in perspective taking in both languages when there was greater interaction between participants during the experimental task. We propose a framework unifying different theoretical accounts of demonstrative systems in which speakers of both languages choose a spatial reference frame prior to selecting from the available demonstrative terms in their language. Such an approach accounts for diversity while maintaining the same underlying processes between languages.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13007274/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147500273","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":"The Association Between Space and Valence in Chinese Sighted and Blind Left-Handers","authors":"Heng Li,&nbsp;Yu Cao","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70198","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70198","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The body-specificity hypothesis posits that individuals implicitly associate positive attributes more strongly with the space corresponding to their dominant hand and negative attributes with the nondominant side. However, the body-specificity effect is more pronounced in left-handers than in right-handers. A proposed mechanism is rooted in observational realities: left-handers observe predominantly right-handed others interacting more fluently with the right side (the observer's left side), potentially enhancing their own fluency with the left side and strengthening the association between “good” and the left. To test this account, we examined a large sample of Chinese sighted left-handers (<i>N</i> = 152; 57.89% female; mean age = 39.31) and blind left-handers (<i>N</i> = 144; 59.02% female; mean age = 37.50). Consistent with the observation-based account, the strength of the body-specificity effect was significantly weaker among blind participants than among sighted counterparts. We then pooled our data with available data on blind right-handers and found no reliable interaction effect between handedness and visual experience. However, this null finding is inconclusive given potential imbalances across cells and limited statistical power. Together, our results highlight a possible interaction between handedness and visual experience in shaping implicit space-valence mappings and motivate further, tightly controlled and well-powered cross-group research.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147475282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How Novices Interpret Generalizations and How Experts Use Them","authors":"Jeff Coon,&nbsp;Alexander Etz,&nbsp;Gregory Scontras,&nbsp;Barbara W. Sarnecka","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70196","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70196","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Generalizations, such as “ducks are birds” and “ducks carry avian flu,” are a common way of conveying information about the world, yet their implied prevalence—how broadly they should be applied—can vary widely. To interpret how broadly a generalization should be applied, listeners rely on prior knowledge. Listeners who have considerable experience (“experts”) with the subject being discussed may thus interpret a generalization differently than those without such experience (“novices”). In the present study, we investigated the ways in which experts and novices differ in how they interpret generalizations, using the esport <i>League of Legends</i> as a cultural microcosm. In the process, we investigated the extent to which expert listeners discount generalizations with which they disagree. We found that novices tended to interpret generalizations more broadly than experts, with only experts adjusting their interpretations based on the context. We also investigated whether expert speakers, when addressing novices, avoid generalizations that novices are likely to interpret differently. In line with research investigating the curse of knowledge and the challenge of designing utterances for specific audiences, we found that speakers did not adjust their use of generalizations when explicitly told that their audience was inexperienced. Taken together, these results point to novice listeners interpreting generalizations as applying more broadly than expert speakers intend. Future research can help clarify the practical impact of such a mismatch by examining how generalizations are used in relation to speakers' and listeners' goals.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147475337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}