IF 3.1 1区心理学

Cognition Pub Date : 2026-10-29 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106746

Elena Pagliarini, Jin Yan, Anna Gavarró

{"title":"Universal patterns in the acquisition of negation and disjunction: Parallels between L1 and L2.","authors":"Elena Pagliarini, Jin Yan, Anna Gavarró","doi":"10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106746","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106746","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A fundamental question in language acquisition is how learners balance input and prior knowledge to infer meaning. Here, we present novel evidence about the mechanisms guiding adults' second language learning. We examined their interpretation of disjunction (\"or\") in negative sentences (e.g., \"John didn't eat the cucumber or the pepper\") as a test case. Languages vary in the assignment of scope to logical operators such as negation and disjunction, depending on their syntactic relationship. When multiple interpretations are possible, how do learners assign meaning? Does the native language of L2 learners influence this process? We report three key findings. First, native speakers of Mandarin and Spanish prefer an interpretation where \"or\" scopes over negation, meaning \"John ate either the cucumber or the pepper, but not both\" (the \"not both\" superset interpretation), whereas L2 learners from both backgrounds favor the opposite, subset (stronger) interpretation, where \"John ate neither vegetable\" (the \"neither\" subset interpretation). This pattern resembles child first language acquisition. Second, this preference persists even when the surface order of negation and disjunction does not match the native speaker's preferred interpretation, indicating that learners reconstruct underlying structure during interpretation, rather than rely on surface cues. Third, this tendency is stronger in less proficient learners and shifts with increasing proficiency. These findings suggest that L2 learners employ strategies similar to those of children acquiring their first language, initially favoring the stronger possible interpretation. These results shed new light on universal mechanisms guiding both first and second language acquisition.</p>","PeriodicalId":48455,"journal":{"name":"Cognition","volume":"279 ","pages":"106746"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149301275","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}

引用次数: 0

The emergence of language-specific biases in visual attention in pre-reading toddlers from two cultures. 两种文化学龄前儿童视觉注意中语言特异性偏差的出现。

IF 3.1 1区心理学

Cognition Pub Date : 2026-10-29 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106750

Christine E Potter, Nadeen Kherbawy, Christopher R Sepulveda, Sagi Jaffe-Dax

引用次数: 0

General versus specific: Investigating the structure of individual differences in post-error slowing across time. 一般与特定：调查个体在错误后慢化的结构差异。

IF 3.1 1区心理学

Cognition Pub Date : 2026-10-29 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106769

Clifford E Hauenstein, Eunbee Kim, Alexis Phillips, Alana M Montanez, Barry Gordon, Derek M Smith

引用次数: 0

Working- and long-term memory target templates converge to produce coactive guidance of attention during visual search. 在视觉搜索过程中，工作记忆和长期记忆目标模板汇聚在一起，产生共同的注意力引导。

IF 3.1 1区心理学

Cognition Pub Date : 2026-10-28 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106747

Brett Bahle, Zexuan Niu, Jeremy Strueder, Andrew Hollingworth

{"title":"Working- and long-term memory target templates converge to produce coactive guidance of attention during visual search.","authors":"Brett Bahle, Zexuan Niu, Jeremy Strueder, Andrew Hollingworth","doi":"10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106747","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106747","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Templates that guide attention during visual search can be maintained in visual working memory (VWM) or in long-term memory (LTM). A central challenge for theories of attention is explaining how these sources of bias combine to determine selection. Here, we tested whether they converge on a common priority signal. Specifically, we contrasted a coactive model of guidance, assuming convergence, with three non-coactive alternatives, each holding that guidance from VWM and LTM operate independently. Participants searched for the presence of a target defined by either of two cued colors. One cued color changed on each trial (dynamic, engaging VWM), whereas the other remained constant (static, engaging LTM). The target could match either one of the cued colors (single-target trials) or both (redundant-target trials). Through distributional analysis, we tested for the presence of redundant-target RTs that were faster than could have been generated by the two individual guidance processes operating independently in parallel. Such \"violations\" of the race model inequality (RMI) are observed only within a coactive system. For single-target trials, searches were substantially more efficient for dynamic-match targets than for static-match targets. Nevertheless, we observed robust violations of the RMI on redundant-target trials. Together, these results demonstrate that target templates can be maintained in qualitatively different states yet ultimately converge to jointly influence a common attentional priority signal.</p>","PeriodicalId":48455,"journal":{"name":"Cognition","volume":"279 ","pages":"106747"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149289228","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}

引用次数: 0

Mentalization as a mechanism for constructing meaning under ambiguity. 心理化是歧义下意义建构的机制。

IF 3.1 1区心理学

Cognition Pub Date : 2026-10-28 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106767

Serena Maria Stagnitto, Celia Martínez-Tomás, Serena Lecce, José A Hinojosa, Daniele Gatti

{"title":"Mentalization as a mechanism for constructing meaning under ambiguity.","authors":"Serena Maria Stagnitto, Celia Martínez-Tomás, Serena Lecce, José A Hinojosa, Daniele Gatti","doi":"10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106767","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106767","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pseudowords lack conventional lexical meanings, but growing evidence suggests that they can nevertheless elicit structured (semantic) interpretations. The present study (N = 103) tested whether individual differences in mentalization are related to how people construct meanings for novel verbal stimuli. Participants generated definitions for real words and pseudowords and completed three mentalization-related measures: the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), and the Triangles task. Using representational similarity analysis (RSA), we examined whether participants who were similar in mentalization-related profiles were also similar in their definition profiles. IRI and RMET response-profile similarity showed no evidence of an association with definition similarity, while similarity in open-ended descriptions of Triangles Theory-of-Mind animations predicted similarity in pseudoword definitions, but not real-word definitions. This association remained significant after controlling for similarity in Triangles control Action-clip descriptions, suggesting that it was not reducible to shared verbal-response format or general description style. Additional reconstruction analyses showed that pseudoword-definition embeddings can partially recover the participant-level representational geometry of Theory-of-Mind descriptions. These findings suggest that novel meaning construction is not only a lexical-semantic process but is also aligned with broader interpretive tendencies involved in assigning coherent social meaning to ambiguous experience, with implications for understanding the links between semantic cognition, mentalization, and developmental word learning.</p>","PeriodicalId":48455,"journal":{"name":"Cognition","volume":"279 ","pages":"106767"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149289243","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}

引用次数: 0

Unpacking the dynamics of cross-situational word learning strategies through trial-by-trial analysis: effects of word frequency distribution and learning context. 通过逐次分析揭示跨情境词汇学习策略的动态：词频分布和学习情境的影响。

IF 3.1 1区心理学

Cognition Pub Date : 2026-10-27 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106754

Zihan Yin, Yujing Shi, Yanli Huang, Jiushu Xie

{"title":"Unpacking the dynamics of cross-situational word learning strategies through trial-by-trial analysis: effects of word frequency distribution and learning context.","authors":"Zihan Yin, Yujing Shi, Yanli Huang, Jiushu Xie","doi":"10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106754","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106754","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Word learning in natural environments often relies on cross-situational word learning (CSWL), whereby learners acquire word meanings from word-referent co-occurrences across different situations. Natural language follows Zipfian distributions where a few words occur very frequently while most occur rarely. However, how Zipfian distributions affect CSWL and how learning mechanisms vary across different contexts remain unclear. We addressed these questions in four CSWL experiments with adults. Experiments 1 (N = 36) and 2 (N = 38) found that Zipfian distributions may promote CSWL performance through prospective mutual exclusivity, whereby established mappings support the incremental disambiguation of new words, suggesting that the effectiveness of mutual exclusivity depends on contextual knowledge. Experiments 3 (N = 32) and 4 (N = 42) used trial-by-trial analyses to examine learning mechanisms under Zipfian and uniform distributions across varying levels of within-trial situational ambiguity, randomization, and contextual diversity. The Zipfian advantage emerged under high within-trial ambiguity, while its facilitative effect on associative learning required high contextual diversity. Moreover, hypothesis testing reduced reliance on associative learning under low within-trial ambiguity but enhanced it under high ambiguity. Together, these findings informed the Contextually Modulated Integrative Model of CSWL, in which the effects of Zipfian distributions and the interplay among learning mechanisms depend on learning context. The present study further advances the integrative model of CSWL and clarifies the sources of the Zipfian advantage.</p>","PeriodicalId":48455,"journal":{"name":"Cognition","volume":"279 ","pages":"106754"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149289220","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}

引用次数: 0

Finding our ROLE: How and why to reframe essentialist approaches to language 寻找我们的角色：如何以及为什么重新构建语言的本质主义方法

IF 2.8 1区心理学

Cognition Pub Date : 2026-06-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-14 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106444

Savithry Namboodiripad , Ethan Kutlu , Anna Babel , Molly Babel , Melissa Baese-Berk , Paras B. Bassuk , Adeli Block , Reinaldo Cabrera Pérez , Matthew T. Carlson , Sita Carraturo , Andrew Cheng , Lauretta S.P. Cheng , Philip Combiths , Ruthe Foushee , Anne Therese Frederiksen , Devin Grammon , Rachel Hayes-Harb , Eve Higby , Kelly Kendro , Elena Koulidobrova , Kelly Elizabeth Wright

{"title":"Finding our ROLE: How and why to reframe essentialist approaches to language","authors":"Savithry Namboodiripad , Ethan Kutlu , Anna Babel , Molly Babel , Melissa Baese-Berk , Paras B. Bassuk , Adeli Block , Reinaldo Cabrera Pérez , Matthew T. Carlson , Sita Carraturo , Andrew Cheng , Lauretta S.P. Cheng , Philip Combiths , Ruthe Foushee , Anne Therese Frederiksen , Devin Grammon , Rachel Hayes-Harb , Eve Higby , Kelly Kendro , Elena Koulidobrova , Kelly Elizabeth Wright","doi":"10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106444","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106444","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Essentialist categorizations of language users, such as <span>native speaker</span>, are widely used but lack empirical validity and reinforce social inequities. This article focuses on the <span>nativeness</span> construct, critically examining how its centrality in social-scientific research distorts scholarly inquiry, introduces bias in educational and clinical assessments, and perpetuates exclusion in academia. We argue that such labels impose artificial homogeneity, devalue linguistic diversity, and contribute to systemic biases in society. By reifying social divisions, essentialist categorizations can exclude marginalized groups, perpetuate linguistic discrimination, and hinder scientific progress. We advocate for a shift away from essentialist proxies and toward more contextually grounded and empirically driven characterizations of language use. A reflexive and interdisciplinary approach is necessary to dismantle these harmful frameworks and promote more accurate, inclusive, and equitable research. Our argument is relevant not just to the cognitive sciences, but to any scholarship which involves describing or understanding language. Ultimately, rejecting essentialist assumptions will lead to more nuanced understandings of language, identity, and social belonging, fostering both scientific and societal transformation by promoting justice and accuracy across social-scientific disciplines.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48455,"journal":{"name":"Cognition","volume":"271 ","pages":"Article 106444"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145979902","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}

引用次数: 0

Representation of event boundedness in English and Mandarin speakers 事件有界性在英语和普通话使用者中的表征

IF 2.8 1区心理学

Cognition Pub Date : 2026-06-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-09 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106443

Yue Ji , Anna Papafragou

引用次数: 0

Beyond phonemic awareness: The alphabetic principle predicts reading acquisition in a nationwide longitudinal study 超越音位意识：在一项全国性的纵向研究中，字母原则预测阅读习得

IF 2.8 1区心理学

Cognition Pub Date : 2026-06-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-28 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106457

Paul Gioia , Johannes C. Ziegler , Jerome Deauvieau

{"title":"Beyond phonemic awareness: The alphabetic principle predicts reading acquisition in a nationwide longitudinal study","authors":"Paul Gioia , Johannes C. Ziegler , Jerome Deauvieau","doi":"10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106457","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106457","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Phoneme awareness (PA) is undoubtably the most important and well-studied predictor of reading development. Yet, 20 years ago, Castles and Coltheart made the provocative claim that there was no convincing evidence for the causal role of PA in learning-to-read because previous studies typically failed to control for pre-reading skills. In the present study, we leveraged a unique opportunity to analyze data from a large-scale longitudinal investigation of reading development conducted nation-wide among all first graders in France (i.e., <em>N</em> = 810,328 children). We estimated not only the direct effect of PA on reading fluency measured one year later, but also its interaction effects with letter-knowledge (LK), knowledge of the alphabetic principle (KAP), and oral comprehension (OC). Our results show that the direct effects of PA on later reading fluency are moderated by OC, LK and KAP. Specifically, PA contributes to later reading outcomes only among children with strong KAP, and good LK and OC. We highlight the central role of KAP as a key predictor that has often been acknowledged in theory but rarely measured in empirical research. These findings indicate that phoneme awareness supports reading development only in the context of sufficient alphabetic knowledge, challenging strong causal accounts of PA in early reading acquisition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48455,"journal":{"name":"Cognition","volume":"271 ","pages":"Article 106457"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146078453","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}

引用次数: 0

Frequency effects in decision-making involving loss minimization 涉及损失最小化的决策中的频率效应。

IF 2.8 1区心理学

Cognition Pub Date : 2026-06-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-24 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106449

Darrell A. Worthy, Mianzhi Hu

{"title":"Frequency effects in decision-making involving loss minimization","authors":"Darrell A. Worthy, Mianzhi Hu","doi":"10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106449","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cognition.2026.106449","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recent work provides evidence for frequency effects during decision-making, where less-rewarding options that are presented more frequently are selected more often than more-rewarding options presented less frequently. This is predicted by the Decay but not the Delta reinforcement-learning (RL) model. The Decay model assumes that higher-frequency options are preferred because their past outcomes are more available in memory than those of lower-frequency options. However, most of this research has involved decision-making with gains, rather than losses. In loss-minimization scenarios, the Decay model predicts a <em>reversed</em> frequency effect because it assumes greater memory for losses, for the more frequently encountered alternatives. We tested this prediction in three experiments and found that the Decay model provides a very poor fit to data in loss-minimization scenarios. In Experiment 2, where participants tried to minimize their expenditures in a hypothetical shopping scenario, we observed a modest frequency effect. In Experiments 1 and 3, where participants were asked to minimize losses as points, without the hypothetical shopping scenario context, frequency effects were attenuated, but not reversed. These effects were best-accounted for by two novel models, the Prospect-Valence Prediction-Error Decay model (PVPE-Decay), which assumes <em>relative</em> rather than absolute processing of rewards, and the Delta-Uncertainty model which assumes aversiveness to less frequent options that are higher in uncertainty. These results dovetail with recent work showing that people process reward outcomes in a context-dependent manner, and they suggest smaller losses can be perceived as relative gains if framed in familiar scenarios involving cost-minimization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48455,"journal":{"name":"Cognition","volume":"271 ","pages":"Article 106449"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146047273","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}

引用次数: 0

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