Han Hao, John C Williams, Philip N Tubiolo, Kacie Bauer, Eilon Silver-Frankel, Sam R Luceno, Avery J Chan, Zu Jie Zheng, Kelly R Bobchin, Roman Kotov, Greg Perlman, Andrew R A Conway, Jared X Van Snellenberg
{"title":"The latent structure of working memory: A large sample factor model of working memory capacity.","authors":"Han Hao, John C Williams, Philip N Tubiolo, Kacie Bauer, Eilon Silver-Frankel, Sam R Luceno, Avery J Chan, Zu Jie Zheng, Kelly R Bobchin, Roman Kotov, Greg Perlman, Andrew R A Conway, Jared X Van Snellenberg","doi":"10.3758/s13415-025-01310-3","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-025-01310-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Working memory (WM) is an essential system of cognitive processes for a wide range of cognitive activities and is associated with diverse real-world outcomes. Despite extensive research in cognitive psychology, the complex multifaceted nature of WM is often overlooked in applied settings, such as clinical and neuroimaging research. This study investigated the latent structure of WM by examining a comprehensive set of WM tasks commonly used in both theoretical and applied research in cognitive psychology and psychiatric neuroimaging. A large sample of healthy, young adults (N = 608) completed a battery of WM tasks and other cognitive measures. Factor analyses and structural equation models revealed a three-factor structure: Storage, Executive Attention, and Updating. These factors were moderately correlated but contributed uniquely to explaining variance in intelligence measures. Furthermore, when the three factors were considered in a single model, only the Updating and Executive Attention factors had unique shared variance with intelligence. The findings support that WM is a multifaceted construct, with complex span and n-back tasks capturing important and distinct components related to real-world cognitive performance. This highlights the need for precise selection of measurement tools for WM in both theoretical and applied research contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144210144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neural response to social feedback and internalizing dimensions.","authors":"Sarah B Barkley, Brady D Nelson","doi":"10.3758/s13415-025-01317-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-025-01317-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>A growing literature has examined the reward positivity (RewP), an event-related potential indicator of reward sensitivity, to social feedback. Research has indicated that a larger RewP to social rejection is associated with multiple internalizing problems, including anxiety, depression, and borderline personality. However, it is not clear whether the similar relationships are due to higher-order transdiagnostic dimensions of psychopathology.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A total of 222 participants, 18 to 35 years (mean [M] = 23.06, standard deviation [SD] = 3.82; 86% assigned sex female), who were oversampled for psychopathology completed two social feedback tasks while electroencephalography was recorded to measure the RewP to social like (i.e., acceptance) and dislike (i.e., rejection) feedback. Participants also completed a self-report measure of pathological personality traits relevant to internalizing disorders, which was used to estimate a hierarchical model of internalizing psychopathology. We calculated direct, indirect, and total effects of the RewPs to social like and dislike feedback on higher-order (i.e., negative emotionality) and lower-order (i.e., traits) psychopathology.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The results indicated a positive direct effect of the social dislike RewP on higher-order negative emotionality. There were several positive indirect effects of the social dislike RewP on maladaptive traits. The social like RewP did not show any direct or indirect associations with negative emotionality or traits.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The present study suggests that a larger neural response to social rejection is associated with greater higher-order negative emotionality. The RewP to negative social feedback may serve as a transdiagnostic marker of altered social information processing across internalizing disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144210143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evolving object concepts in the adult brain: An electrophysiological investigation.","authors":"Kerstin Unger, Melanie Kacin, Rasha Abdel Rahman","doi":"10.3758/s13415-025-01299-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-025-01299-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study investigated how the gradual acquisition of object meaning influences different phases of object recognition. Using an interleaved learning and testing procedure, participants were repeatedly exposed to unfamiliar, rare objects while learning about their meaning and function. Across multiple test sessions, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded to examine changes in early perceptual processing (P1) and later integrative phases of object recognition (N400, late positive complex/LPC) for initially unfamiliar versus well-known objects. Initially, behavioral and ERP differences between rare and familiar objects were pronounced but gradually diminished with learning. For tasks in which object meaning was irrelevant (familiarity classification and naming), increased object knowledge was reflected in a posterior negativity in the N400 window. When object meaning was directly task-relevant (semantic classification), detailed knowledge acquisition was tracked by a later centroparietal component in the LPC window (late relatedness effect). A follow-up test 6 months later showed that these effects were not only remarkably stable but continued to evolve beyond the training period. In contrast, early perceptual processes (P1) showed limited sensitivity to the accumulation of object-specific semantic knowledge. Overall, the findings demonstrate that repeated visual exposure and incremental learning facilitate the deep integration of novel objects into existing semantic networks.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144210116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Correction: Changes in the level of unitization moderate the impact of unitization on associative memory and its underlying processing.","authors":"Zejun Liu, Yajun Zhu, Xiuping Song","doi":"10.3758/s13415-025-01264-6","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-025-01264-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"886"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143069397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mei Li, DengFang Tang, Wenbin Pan, Yujie Zhang, Jiachen Lu, Hong Li
{"title":"Correction: The influence of social status and promise levels in trust games: An Event-Related Potential (ERP) study.","authors":"Mei Li, DengFang Tang, Wenbin Pan, Yujie Zhang, Jiachen Lu, Hong Li","doi":"10.3758/s13415-025-01274-4","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-025-01274-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"887"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143450645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stochastic decisions support optimal foraging of volatile environments, and are disrupted by anxiety.","authors":"Alex Lloyd, Ryan McKay, Nicholas Furl","doi":"10.3758/s13415-024-01256-y","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-024-01256-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Adolescence is a developmental period of relative volatility, where the individual experiences significant changes to their physical and social environment. The ability to adapt to the volatility of one's surroundings is an important cognitive ability, particularly while foraging, a near-ubiquitous behaviour across the animal kingdom. As adolescents experience more volatility in their surroundings, we predicted that this age group would be more adept than adults at using exploration to adjust to volatility. We employed a foraging task with a well-validated computational model to characterise the mechanisms of exploration in volatile environments, preregistering the hypothesis that adolescents (aged 16-17; N = 91) would exhibit more optimal adaptation of their learning rate to changes in environmental volatility compared with adults (aged 24+; N = 90). However, surprisingly, both adolescents and adults exhibited suboptimal adjustment of their learning rate to environmental volatility. In contrast to the learning rate, it was instead participants' stochasticity (i.e., decision variability) that better resembled the adjustment to volatility made by the optimal RL agent. Although heightened stochasticity in the volatile environment led participants to more often trial different responses that facilitated discovery of changes to the environment, we also found that anxiety impaired this adaptive ability. The finding of heightened stochasticity in volatile environments contradicts expectations that the learning rate is responsible for successful adaptation and motivates future work on the deleterious role that anxiety plays when adolescents manage periods of transition.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"868-885"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12130079/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142958478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tyler Mari, S Hasan Ali, Lucrezia Pacinotti, Sarah Powsey, Nicholas Fallon
{"title":"Machine learning classification of active viewing of pain and non-pain images using EEG does not exceed chance in external validation samples.","authors":"Tyler Mari, S Hasan Ali, Lucrezia Pacinotti, Sarah Powsey, Nicholas Fallon","doi":"10.3758/s13415-025-01268-2","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-025-01268-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous research has demonstrated that machine learning (ML) could not effectively decode passive observation of neutral versus pain photographs by using electroencephalogram (EEG) data. Consequently, the present study explored whether active viewing, i.e., requiring participant engagement in a task, of neutral and pain stimuli improves ML performance. Random forest (RF) models were trained on cortical event-related potentials (ERPs) during a two-alternative forced choice paradigm, whereby participants determined the presence or absence of pain in photographs of facial expressions and action scenes. Sixty-two participants were recruited for the model development sample. Moreover, a within-subject temporal validation sample was collected, consisting of 27 subjects. In line with our previous research, three RF models were developed to classify images into faces and scenes, neutral and pain scenes, and neutral and pain expressions. The results demonstrated that the RF successfully classified discrete categories of visual stimuli (faces and scenes) with accuracies of 78% and 66% on cross-validation and external validation, respectively. However, despite promising cross-validation results of 61% and 67% for the classification of neutral and pain scenes and neutral and pain faces, respectively, the RF models failed to exceed chance performance on the external validation dataset on both empathy classification attempts. These results align with previous research, highlighting the challenges of classifying complex states, such as pain empathy using ERPs. Moreover, the results suggest that active observation fails to enhance ML performance beyond previous passive studies. Future research should prioritise improving model performance to obtain levels exceeding chance, which would demonstrate increased utility.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"814-831"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12130162/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143450838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M Lojowska, J M Gerbracht, J B Engelmann, K Roelofs, M Mulckhuyse
{"title":"A transcranial magnetic stimulation study on the role of the right angular gyrus in orienting and reorienting of attention toward threat.","authors":"M Lojowska, J M Gerbracht, J B Engelmann, K Roelofs, M Mulckhuyse","doi":"10.3758/s13415-025-01275-3","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-025-01275-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Reorientation of attention to threatening stimuli is a fundamental part of human cognition. Such interaction between cognitive and affective processes is often associated with faster response times. In the present study, the role of the right angular gyrus (AG) in reorienting to threat is examined. An exogenous spatial cueing paradigm was adopted with threatening and nonthreatening targets. Threat was induced by means of differential fear conditioning of the target. Single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to the right AG at different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) after target onset (range 30-300 ms). Transcranial magnetic stimulation was predicted to interfere at an earlier SOA with reorienting (during invalidly cued trials) to threatening targets. Even though an overall decrement in performance to targets contralateral to TMS stimulation was found, TMS to right AG did not specifically affect reorienting, neither to safe nor to threatening targets. We suggest that detection of biologically significant stimuli outside the focus of attention may depend more on the ventral frontoparietal rather than dorsal frontoparietal network of attention.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"668-678"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12130136/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143722509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mobilizing effort to reduce lapses of sustained attention: examining the effects of content-free cues, feedback, and points.","authors":"Nash Unsworth, Matthew K Robison, Ashley L Miller","doi":"10.3758/s13415-024-01254-0","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-024-01254-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Three experiments with the psychomotor vigilance task examined whether presenting content-free cues, feedback, and points would reduce lapses of sustained attention. In all three experiments, behavioral lapses of attention (particularly slow reaction times) were reduced with the motivation manipulations compared with control conditions, but self-reports of off-task thinking (e.g., mind-wandering) were unaffected. Pupillary responses (preparatory and phasic) also tended to be larger with the different manipulations compared to control conditions. Collectively, the results are consistent with attentional effort models, suggesting that sustained attention was improved and lapses of attention reduced owing to participants in the motivation conditions mobilizing more attentional effort than participants in the control conditions. These results are consistent with recent research, which suggests that the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system is associated with the mobilization of effort.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"631-649"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142840045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Empathy and moral judgment: Systematic review and meta-analysis of ERP studies.","authors":"Youran Zhang, Zhiqiang Yan, Yiyi Wang, Yanjie Su","doi":"10.3758/s13415-025-01287-z","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-025-01287-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Although the bidirectional relationship between empathy and moral judgment has been extensively investigated, the underlying neural mechanisms remain elusive. The current study examined 19 event-related potential studies to explore the relationship between empathy and moral judgment, including 60 effect sizes. It was found that individuals with higher levels of empathy exhibited a significantly increased amplitude in the N2 component during moral judgment tasks when presented with moral versus immoral scenarios (r<sub>N2</sub> = 0.18, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.04, 0.31], p = 0.010). However, the empathy response toward the target person is also influenced by the moral characteristics of the individual, as evidenced by the enhanced amplitude of P3 and LPP components in the empathic response toward high-moral individuals (r<sub>P3</sub> = 0.30, 95% CI [0.16, 0.42], p < 0.001; r<sub>LPP</sub> = 0.16, 95% CI [0.04, 0.28], p = 0.011). These results suggest that the effect of empathy on moral judgment involves early attention allocation, while the influence of moral judgment on empathy likely involves top-down cognitive regulation. The findings of the present study reveal distinct neural processes between empathy and moral judgment, extending dual-process theories and aiding in developing programs for moral behavior and empathy intervention.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"573-588"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143765693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}