Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance
-
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform · Apr 2014
Can't touch this: the first-person perspective provides privileged access to predictions of sensory action outcomes.
Previous studies have shown that viewing others in pain activates cortical somatosensory processing areas and facilitates the detection of tactile targets. It has been suggested that such shared representations have evolved to enable us to better understand the actions and intentions of others. If this is the case, the effects of observing others in pain should be obtained from a range of viewing perspectives. ⋯ In the first-person perspective, a participant was faster to detect a tactile target delivered to their own hand when viewing painful grasping actions, compared with all nonpainful actions. However, this effect was not revealed in the third-person perspective. The combination of action and object information to predict the painful consequences of another person's actions when viewed from the first-person perspective, but not the third-person perspective, argues against a mechanism ostensibly evolved to understand the actions of others.
-
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform · Feb 2014
Physio-behavioral coupling in a cooperative team task: contributors and relations.
Research indicates that coactors performing cooperative tasks often exhibit spontaneous and unintended similarities in their physiological and behavioral responses--a phenomenon referred to here as physio-behavioral coupling (PBC). The purpose of this research was to identify contributors to PBC; examine relationships between PBC, team performance, and perceived team attributes (e.g., cohesion, trust); and compare a set of time-series measures(cross-correlation [CC], cross-recurrence quantification analysis [CRQA], and cross-fuzzy entropy [CFEn]) in their characterization of PBC across comparisons. To accomplish this, PBC was examined in human postural sway (PS) and cardiac interbeat intervals (IBIs) from dyadic teams performing a fast-paced puzzle task (Quadra--a variant of the video game Tetris). ⋯ Correlation analysis revealed that PBC exhibited negative relationships with team performance and team attributes, which were interpreted to reflect complementary coordination (as opposed to mimicry) during task performance, potentially due to differentiated team roles. Finally, qualitative comparison of time-series measures used to characterize PBC indicated that CRQA percent recurrence and CFEn (both nonlinear measures) settled on mostly analogous characterizations, whereas linear CC did not. The disparity observed between the linear and nonlinear measures highlights underlying computational and interpretational differences between the two families of statistics and supports the use of multiple metrics for characterizing PBC.
-
Visual search is often controlled by attentional templates that represent specific target items or target features, but can also be directed toward object categories. We studied the relationship between item-based and category-guided attentional control during visual search for one specific item (e.g., the letter C), two or three items (e.g., the letters C, F, and X), or categorically defined targets (e.g., any letter). To assess the efficiency of visual search for single, multiple, or category-defined targets, we measured the N2pc component as an electrophysiological marker of attentional target selection. ⋯ In Experiment 2, where letter targets appeared among letter distractors, target detection could no longer be guided by categorical top-down task sets. Search efficiency decreased as the target set size increased, in line with capacity limitations for item-specific attentional templates. Results demonstrate that category-based attentional guidance can be used rapidly and efficiently during visual search for alphanumeric targets.
-
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform · Oct 2013
Randomized Controlled TrialIsolating the perceptual from the social: tapping in shared space results in improved synchrony.
Current theory suggests that interpersonal synchrony is an important social behavior in that it not only serves as a form of "social glue," but it also arises automatically in a social context. Theorists suggest potential mechanisms for interpersonal synchrony, ranging from a "low-level" social-perceptual system account to a "high-level" social-motivational explanation. Past studies that suggest synchrony can be influenced by social factors do not discriminate between these accounts. ⋯ Participant taps were represented by a box that flashed on the monitor to control visual information across all three conditions. Same-room dyads had increased coordination over different-room dyads, whereas dyads that shared audio but were in different rooms showed an intermediate level of coordination. The present study demonstrates that shared space, independent of perceptual differences in stimuli, can increase unintentional coordinated tapping.
-
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform · Apr 2013
Converging evidence for control of color-word Stroop interference at the item level.
Prior studies have shown that cognitive control is implemented at the list and context levels in the color-word Stroop task. At first blush, the finding that Stroop interference is reduced for mostly incongruent items as compared with mostly congruent items (i.e., the item-specific proportion congruence [ISPC] effect) appears to provide evidence for yet a third level of control, which modulates word reading at the item level. However, evidence to date favors the view that ISPC effects reflect the rapid prediction of high-contingency responses and not item-specific control. ⋯ Evidence for item-specific control, including transfer of the ISPC effect to new stimuli, is apparent when 4-item sets are employed but not when 2-item sets are employed. We attribute this pattern to the absence of high-contingency responses on incongruent trials in the 4-item set. These novel findings provide converging evidence for reactive control of color-word Stroop interference at the item level, reveal theoretically important factors that modulate reliance on item-specific control versus contingency learning, and suggest an update to the item-specific control account (Bugg, Jacoby, & Chanani, 2011).