Malte R Henningsen-Schomers, Friedemann Pulvermüller
{"title":"Modelling concrete and abstract concepts using brain-constrained deep neural networks.","authors":"Malte R Henningsen-Schomers, Friedemann Pulvermüller","doi":"10.1007/s00426-021-01591-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01591-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A neurobiologically constrained deep neural network mimicking cortical area function relevant for sensorimotor, linguistic and conceptual processing was used to investigate the putative biological mechanisms underlying conceptual category formation and semantic feature extraction. Networks were trained to learn neural patterns representing specific objects and actions relevant to semantically 'ground' concrete and abstract concepts. Grounding sets consisted of three grounding patterns with neurons representing specific perceptual or action-related features; neurons were either unique to one pattern or shared between patterns of the same set. Concrete categories were modelled as pattern triplets overlapping in their 'shared neurons', thus implementing semantic feature sharing of all instances of a category. In contrast, abstract concepts had partially shared feature neurons common to only pairs of category instances, thus, exhibiting family resemblance, but lacking full feature overlap. Stimulation with concrete and abstract conceptual patterns and biologically realistic unsupervised learning caused formation of strongly connected cell assemblies (CAs) specific to individual grounding patterns, whose neurons were spread out across all areas of the deep network. After learning, the shared neurons of the instances of concrete concepts were more prominent in central areas when compared with peripheral sensorimotor ones, whereas for abstract concepts the converse pattern of results was observed, with central areas exhibiting relatively fewer neurons shared between pairs of category members. We interpret these results in light of the current knowledge about the relative difficulty children show when learning abstract words. Implications for future neurocomputational modelling experiments as well as neurobiological theories of semantic representation are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":501681,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research","volume":" ","pages":"2533-2559"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9674741/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39610901","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":"Embodiment and learning of abstract concepts (such as algebraic topology and regression to the mean).","authors":"Arthur M Glenberg","doi":"10.1007/s00426-021-01576-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01576-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This video is a proof of concept that ideas from embodied cognition can be used to understand how the brain and cognitive systems deal with very abstract concepts. The video teaches regression to the mean using three ideas. The first idea is directly related to embodied cognition: abstract concepts are grounded in perceptual, motor, and emotional systems by using successive levels of grounding within an extended procedure. The second idea is that this sort of grounding often requires formal instruction: a teacher needs to develop the sequence in which the concepts are grounded and the methods of grounding. That is, at least some abstract concepts are unlikely to be learned through an individual's unstructured interactions with the world. The third idea is that humans are hyper-social, thus making formal instruction possible. To the extent that the viewer learns the abstract concept of regression to the mean, then the video demonstrates how an embodied theory of abstract concepts could work.</p>","PeriodicalId":501681,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research","volume":" ","pages":"2398"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39373735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological ResearchPub Date : 2022-11-01Epub Date: 2020-11-01DOI: 10.1007/s00426-020-01428-8
Leszek Pecyna, Angelo Cangelosi, Alessandro Di Nuovo
{"title":"A robot that counts like a child: a developmental model of counting and pointing.","authors":"Leszek Pecyna, Angelo Cangelosi, Alessandro Di Nuovo","doi":"10.1007/s00426-020-01428-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-020-01428-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this paper, a novel neuro-robotics model capable of counting real items is introduced. The model allows us to investigate the interaction between embodiment and numerical cognition. This is composed of a deep neural network capable of image processing and sequential tasks performance, and a robotic platform providing the embodiment-the iCub humanoid robot. The network is trained using images from the robot's cameras and proprioceptive signals from its joints. The trained model is able to count a set of items and at the same time points to them. We investigate the influence of pointing on the counting process and compare our results with those from studies with children. Several training approaches are presented in this paper, all of them use pre-training routine allowing the network to gain the ability of pointing and number recitation (from 1 to 10) prior to counting training. The impact of the counted set size and distance to the objects are investigated. The obtained results on counting performance show similarities with those from human studies.</p>","PeriodicalId":501681,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research","volume":" ","pages":"2495-2511"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00426-020-01428-8","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38558482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological ResearchPub Date : 2022-09-01Epub Date: 2021-10-27DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01606-2
Stefanie Aufschnaiter, Fang Zhao, Robert Gaschler, Andrea Kiesel, Roland Thomaschke
{"title":"Investigating time-based expectancy beyond binary timing scenarios: evidence from a paradigm employing three predictive pre-target intervals.","authors":"Stefanie Aufschnaiter, Fang Zhao, Robert Gaschler, Andrea Kiesel, Roland Thomaschke","doi":"10.1007/s00426-021-01606-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01606-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When the duration of a pre-target interval probabilistically predicts the identity of the target, participants typically form time-based expectancies: they respond faster to frequent interval-target combinations than to infrequent ones. Yet, previous research investigating the cognitive time-processing mechanisms underlying time-based expectancy assessed time-based expectancy always in situations with a binary set of intervals (i.e. short vs. long). Here we aim to test whether time-based expectancy transfers to more complex settings with three different predictive time intervals (short, medium, long) in which each predicts one of three different target stimuli with 80% probability. In three experiments we varied how the medium interval was computed (arithmetic mean, geometric mean, or in between both). Our results showed that participants were able to learn the time-event contingencies for the short and the long as well as for the medium interval, and were, thus able to flexibly redirect their target expectancy two times during the course of a trial. The evidence concerning the impact of the manipulation of the medium intervals' absolute duration on time-based expectancy was, however, mixed, as time-based expectancy for the medium interval could only be observed in one of three reported experiments. In sum, the findings of the present study suggest a previously unknown cognitive flexibility underlying time-based expectancy and offer important theoretical implications, challenging future research on the timing mechanisms involved in time-based expectancy.</p>","PeriodicalId":501681,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research","volume":" ","pages":"2007-2020"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9363376/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39570166","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}
Psychological ResearchPub Date : 2022-09-01Epub Date: 2021-12-14DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01624-0
Tonghe Zhuang, Angelika Lingnau
{"title":"The characterization of actions at the superordinate, basic and subordinate level.","authors":"Tonghe Zhuang, Angelika Lingnau","doi":"10.1007/s00426-021-01624-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01624-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Objects can be categorized at different levels of abstraction, ranging from the superordinate (e.g., fruit) and the basic (e.g., apple) to the subordinate level (e.g., golden delicious). The basic level is assumed to play a key role in categorization, e.g., in terms of the number of features used to describe these actions and the speed of processing. To which degree do these principles also apply to the categorization of observed actions? To address this question, we first selected a range of actions at the superordinate (e.g., locomotion), basic (e.g., to swim) and subordinate level (e.g., to swim breaststroke), using verbal material (Experiments 1-3). Experiments 4-6 aimed to determine the characteristics of these actions across the three taxonomic levels. Using a feature listing paradigm (Experiment 4), we determined the number of features that were provided by at least six out of twenty participants (common features), separately for the three different levels. In addition, we examined the number of shared (i.e., provided for more than one category) and distinct (i.e., provided for one category only) features. Participants produced the highest number of common features for actions at the basic level. Actions at the subordinate level shared more features with other actions at the same level than those at the superordinate level. Actions at the superordinate and basic level were described with more distinct features compared to those provided at the subordinate level. Using an auditory priming paradigm (Experiment 5), we observed that participants responded faster to action images preceded by a matching auditory cue corresponding to the basic and subordinate level, but not for superordinate level cues, suggesting that the basic level is the most abstract level at which verbal cues facilitate the processing of an upcoming action. Using a category verification task (Experiment 6), we found that participants were faster and more accurate to verify action categories (depicted as images) at the basic and subordinate level in comparison to the superordinate level. Together, in line with the object categorization literature, our results suggest that information about action categories is maximized at the basic level.</p>","PeriodicalId":501681,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research","volume":" ","pages":"1871-1891"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9363348/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39725969","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}
Psychological ResearchPub Date : 2022-09-01Epub Date: 2022-01-06DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01619-x
Yan Li, Zhiwei Liu, Xiping Liu
{"title":"Who did I lie to that day? Deception impairs memory in daily life.","authors":"Yan Li, Zhiwei Liu, Xiping Liu","doi":"10.1007/s00426-021-01619-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01619-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research has demonstrated that deceptive responses can undermine item and source memories. However, previous studies have often randomly assigned participants to an honest or deception group and asked them to respond in specific ways in an interview, rather than providing them a choice of what response to give. Moreover, little attention has been given to destination memory in previous research. Using a daily life paradigm, we investigated the effects of deception on memory. After completing a mock shopping task, participants were told that someone would ask them questions about their shopping lists. The participants voluntarily chose to tell the truth or lie in the interview and were encouraged to respond as they would in their daily lives. An item memory test, source memory test and destination memory test were given 48 h after the interview. Source and destination memories but not item memories were impaired for participants who chose to lie. Specifically, liars forgot the things about which they lied and mistakenly believed that they lied about many things that they did not, and they also did not remember to whom they lied. We conclude that deception can disrupt memory in daily life.</p>","PeriodicalId":501681,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research","volume":" ","pages":"1763-1773"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39877998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological ResearchPub Date : 2022-09-01Epub Date: 2021-09-25DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01600-8
L Vainio, K Tiippana, T Peromaa, C Kuuramo, I Kurki
{"title":"Negative affordance effect: automatic response inhibition triggered by handle orientation of non-target object.","authors":"L Vainio, K Tiippana, T Peromaa, C Kuuramo, I Kurki","doi":"10.1007/s00426-021-01600-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01600-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Habituated response tendency associated with affordance of an object is automatically inhibited if this affordance cue is extracted from a non-target object. This study presents two go/no-go experiments investigating whether this response control operates in response selection processes and whether it is linked to conflict-monitoring mechanisms. In the first experiment, the participants performed responses with one hand, and in the second experiment, with two hands. In addition, both experiments consisted of two blocks with varying frequency of go conditions (25%-go vs. 75%-go). The non-target-related response inhibition effect was only observed in Experiment 2 when the task required selecting between two hands. Additionally, the results did not reveal patterns typically related to conflict monitoring when go-frequency is manipulated and when a stimulus-response compatibility effect is examined relative to congruency condition of the previous trial. The study shows that the non-target-related response inhibition assists hand selection and is relatively resistant to conflict-monitoring processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":501681,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research","volume":" ","pages":"1737-1750"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8475350/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39470368","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}
Psychological ResearchPub Date : 2022-09-01Epub Date: 2021-11-21DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01617-z
Jérémy Decroix, Laurent Ott, Nicolas Morgado, Solène Kalénine
{"title":"Can the early visual processing of others' actions be related to social power and dominance?","authors":"Jérémy Decroix, Laurent Ott, Nicolas Morgado, Solène Kalénine","doi":"10.1007/s00426-021-01617-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01617-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Although goals often drive action understanding, this ability is also prone to important variability among individuals, which may have its origin in individual social characteristics. The present study aimed at evaluating the relationship between the tendency to prioritize goal information over grip information during early visual processing of action and several social dimensions. Visual processing of grip and goal information during action recognition was evaluated in 64 participants using the priming protocol developed by Decroix and Kalénine (Exp Brain Res 236(8):2411-2426, 2018). Object-directed action photographs were primed by photographs sharing the same goal and/or the same grip. The effects of goal and grip priming on action recognition were evaluated for different prime durations. The same participants further fulfilled questionnaires characterizing the way individuals deal with their social environment, namely their sense of social power, dominance, perspective taking, and construal level. At the group level, results confirmed greater goal than grip priming effects on action recognition for the shortest prime duration. Regression analyses between the pattern of response times in the action priming protocol and scores at the questionnaires further showed that the advantage of goal over grip priming was associated with higher sense of social power, and possibly to lower dominance. Overall, data confirm that observers tend to prioritize goal-related information when processing visual actions but further indicate that this tendency is sensitive to individual social characteristics. Results suggest that goal information may not always drive action understanding and point out the connection between low-level processing of observed actions and more general individual characteristics.</p>","PeriodicalId":501681,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research","volume":" ","pages":"1858-1870"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39641725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological ResearchPub Date : 2022-09-01Epub Date: 2021-12-01DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01620-4
Fritz Günther, Sophia Antonia Press, Carolin Dudschig, Barbara Kaup
{"title":"The limits of automatic sensorimotor processing during word processing: investigations with repeated linguistic experience, memory consolidation during sleep, and rich linguistic learning contexts.","authors":"Fritz Günther, Sophia Antonia Press, Carolin Dudschig, Barbara Kaup","doi":"10.1007/s00426-021-01620-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01620-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>While a number of studies have repeatedly demonstrated an automatic activation of sensorimotor experience during language processing in the form of action-congruency effects, as predicted by theories of grounded cognition, more recent research has not found these effects for words that were just learned from linguistic input alone, without sensorimotor experience with their referents. In the present study, we investigate whether this absence of effects can be attributed to a lack of repeated experience and consolidation of the associations between words and sensorimotor experience in memory. To address these issues, we conducted four experiments in which (1 and 2) participants engaged in two separate learning phases in which they learned novel words from language alone, with an intervening period of memory-consolidating sleep, and (3 and 4) we employed familiar words whose referents speakers have no direct experience with (such as plankton). However, we again did not observe action-congruency effects in subsequent test phases in any of the experiments. This indicates that direct sensorimotor experience with word referents is a necessary requirement for automatic sensorimotor activation during word processing.</p>","PeriodicalId":501681,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research","volume":" ","pages":"1792-1803"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9363289/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39683353","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}
Psychological ResearchPub Date : 2022-09-01Epub Date: 2021-09-30DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01601-7
Benjamin C Storm, Julia S Soares
{"title":"Relearning can eliminate the effect of retrieval-induced forgetting.","authors":"Benjamin C Storm, Julia S Soares","doi":"10.1007/s00426-021-01601-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01601-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The retrieval of a subset of items can cause the forgetting of other, non-retrieved items, a phenomenon known as retrieval-induced forgetting. Initial work suggested that giving people the opportunity to restudy non-retrieved items following retrieval practice is sufficient to eliminate the effect of retrieval-induced forgetting, but more recent work has suggested otherwise. If retrieval-induced forgetting is not eliminated by restudy, then such a finding would have important implications for understanding the theoretical nature of retrieval-induced forgetting. It would suggest, for example, that retrieval-induced forgetting reflects more than the temporary reduction in the accessibility of non-retrieved items in memory. The two experiments reported here sought to clarify this issue, with the results suggesting that retrieval-induced forgetting can be eliminated by restudy. Indeed, retrieval-induced forgetting was eliminated by restudy even when the forgetting effect was produced by three rounds of retrieval practice instead of one round of retrieval practice. These findings are consistent with the idea that retrieval-induced forgetting, at least under the conditions of the current experiments, reflects a temporary reduction in the accessibility of non-retrieved items in memory.</p>","PeriodicalId":501681,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Research","volume":" ","pages":"1725-1736"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39473715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}