scholarly journals More or less of me and you: self-relevance augments the effects of item probability on stimulus prioritization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saga L. Svensson ◽  
Marius Golubickis ◽  
Hollie Maclean ◽  
Johanna K. Falbén ◽  
Linn M. Persson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Personal Relevance ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Stimulus Enhancement ◽  
Computational Analyses ◽  
Meaningful Stimuli ◽  
Relevant Material

AbstractSelf-relevance exerts a powerful influence on information processing. Compared to material associated with other people, personally meaningful stimuli are prioritized during decision-making. Further exploring the character of this effect, here we considered the extent to which stimulus enhancement is impacted by the frequency of self-relevant versus friend-relevant material. In a matching task, participants reported whether shape-label stimulus pairs corresponded to previously learned associations (e.g., triangle = self, square = friend). Crucially however, before the task commenced, stimulus-based expectancies were provided indicating the probability with which both self- and friend-related shapes would be encountered. The results revealed that task performance was impacted by the frequency of stimulus presentation in combination with the personal relevance of the items. When self- and friend-related shapes appeared with equal frequencies, a self-prioritization effect emerged (Expt. 1). Additionally, in both confirmatory (Expt. 2) and dis-confirmatory (Expt. 3) task contexts, stimuli that were encountered frequently (vs. infrequently) were prioritized, an effect that was most pronounced for self-relevant (vs. friend-relevant) items. Further computational analyses indicated that, in each of the reported experiments, differences in performance were underpinned by variation in the rate of information uptake, with evidence extracted more rapidly from self-relevant compared to friend-relevant stimuli. These findings advance our understanding of the emergence and origin of stimulus-prioritization effects during decisional processing.

Baseball Players’ Eye Movements and Higher Coincident-Timing Task Performance

2020 ◽  
Vol 127 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-586
Author(s):  
Ikumi Tochikura ◽  
Daisuke Sato ◽  
Daiki Imoto ◽  
Atsuo Nuruki ◽  
Koya Yamashiro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Absolute Error ◽  
Visual Information Processing ◽  
Baseball Players ◽  
Mobile Targets ◽  
Timing Task

Previous studies have reported that baseball players have higher than average visual information processing abilities and outstanding motor control. The speed and position of the baseball and the batter are constantly changing, leading skilled players to acquire highly accurate visual information processing and decision-making. This study sought to clarify how movement of the eyes is associated with baseball players’ higher coincident-timing task performance. We recruited 15 right-handed baseball players and 15 age-matched track and field athletes. On a computer-based coincident-timing task, we instructed participants to stop a computer image of a moving target by pressing a button at a designated point. We presented bidirectional moving targets with various velocities, presented in a random order. The targets’ moving angular velocity varied between 100, 83, 71, 63, 56, 50, and 46 deg/s. We conducted 168 repetitions (42 reps × 4 sets) of this coincident-timing task and measured participants’ eye movements during the task using Pupil Centre Corneal Reflection. Mixed-design analysis of variance results revealed participant group effects in favor of baseball players for timing absolute error and low absolute error, as predicted from prior visual processing and decision-making research with baseball players. However, in contrast to prior research, we found significantly shorter smooth-pursuit onset latency in elite baseball players, and there were no significant group differences for saccade onset and offset latencies. This may be explained by the difference in our research paradigm with mobile targets randomly presented at various velocities from the left and right. Our data showed baseball players’ higher than normal simultaneous timing execution for making decisions and movements based on visual information, even under laboratory conditions with randomly moving mobile targets.

Age-Related Differences in Motivational Integration and Cognitive Control

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Marianne Yee ◽  
Sarah L Adams ◽  
Asad Beck ◽  
Todd Samuel Braver
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Monetary Reward ◽  
Potential Candidate ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cognitive Task Performance

Motivational incentives play an influential role in value-based decision-making and cognitive control. A compelling hypothesis in the literature suggests that the brain integrates the motivational value of diverse incentives (e.g., motivational integration) into a common currency value signal that influences decision-making and behavior. To investigate whether motivational integration processes change during healthy aging, we tested older (N=44) and younger (N=54) adults in an innovative incentive integration task paradigm that establishes dissociable and additive effects of liquid (e.g., juice, neutral, saltwater) and monetary incentives on cognitive task performance. The results reveal that motivational incentives improve cognitive task performance in both older and younger adults, providing novel evidence demonstrating that age-related cognitive control deficits can be ameliorated with sufficient incentive motivation. Additional analyses revealed clear age-related differences in motivational integration. Younger adult task performance was modulated by both monetary and liquid incentives, whereas monetary reward effects were more gradual in older adults and more strongly impacted by trial-by-trial performance feedback. A surprising discovery was that older adults shifted attention from liquid valence toward monetary reward throughout task performance, but younger adults shifted attention from monetary reward toward integrating both monetary reward and liquid valence by the end of the task, suggesting differential strategic utilization of incentives. Together these data suggest that older adults may have impairments in incentive integration, and employ different motivational strategies to improve cognitive task performance. The findings suggest potential candidate neural mechanisms that may serve as the locus of age-related change, providing targets for future cognitive neuroscience investigations.

“Little Plants in the Country”: Henry Ford's Village Industries and the Beginning of Decentralized Technology in Modern America

Prospects ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 181-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard P. Segal
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
New York ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physical Proximity ◽  
The World ◽  
Word Processors

“Technology Spurs Decentralization Across the Country.” So reads a 1984 New York Times article on real-estate trends in the United States. The contemporary revolution in information processing and transmittal now allows large businesses and other institutions to disperse their offices and other facilities across the country, even across the world, without loss of the policy- and decision-making abilities formerly requiring regular physical proximity. Thanks to computers, word processors, and the like, decentralization has become a fact of life in America and other highly technological societies.

scholarly journals A new measure of group decision-making efficiency

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng-Ju Hsieh ◽  
Mario Fifić ◽  
Cheng-Ta Yang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Group Decision Making ◽  
Group Decision ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Detection Sensitivity ◽  
System Level ◽  
Workload Capacity ◽  
Individual Decisions ◽  
Collective Benefit

Abstract It has widely been accepted that aggregating group-level decisions is superior to individual decisions. As compared to individuals, groups tend to show a decision advantage in their response accuracy. However, there has been a lack of research exploring whether group decisions are more efficient than individual decisions with a faster information-processing speed. To investigate the relationship between accuracy and response time (RT) in group decision-making, we applied systems’ factorial technology, developed by Townsend and Nozawa (Journal of Mathematical Psychology 39, 321–359, 1995) and regarded as a theory-driven methodology, to study the information-processing properties. More specifically, we measured the workload capacity CAND(t), which only considers the correct responses, and the assessment function of capacity AAND(t), which considers the speed-accuracy trade-off, to make a strong inference about the system-level processing efficiency. A two-interval, forced-choice oddball detection task, where participants had to detect which interval contains an odd target, was conducted in Experiment 1. Then, in Experiment 2, a yes/no Gabor detection task was adopted, where participants had to detect the presence of a Gabor patch. Our results replicated previous findings using the accuracy-based measure: Group detection sensitivity was better than the detection sensitivity of the best individual, especially when the two individuals had similar detection sensitivities. On the other hand, both workload capacity measures, CAND(t) and AAND(t), showed evidence of supercapacity processing, thus suggesting a collective benefit. The ordered relationship between accuracy-based and RT-based collective benefit was limited to the AAND(t) of the correct and fast responses, which may help uncover the processing mechanism behind collective benefits. Our results suggested that AAND(t), which combines both accuracy and RT into inferences, can be regarded as a novel and diagnostic tool for studying the group decision-making process.

Information transformation: Some missing links

2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Ivan P. Vaghely ◽  
Pierre-André Julien ◽  
André Cyr
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Knowledge Creation ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Human Information Processing ◽  
Process Information ◽  
Information Transformation ◽  
Efficient Information

Using grounded theory along with participant observation and interviews the authors explore how individuals in organizations process information. They build a model of human information processing which links the cognitivist-constructionist perspective to an algorithmic-heuristic continuum. They test this model using non-parametric procedures and find interesting results showing links to efficient information processing outcomes such as contributions to decision-making, knowledge-creation and innovation. They also identify some elements of best practice by efficient human information processing individuals whom they call the “information catalysts”.

Current Task Activation Predicts General Effects of Advance Preparation in Task Switching

2006 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 260-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edita Poljac ◽  
Ab de Haan ◽  
Gerard P. van Galen
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Shape Matching ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Task Switch ◽  
Current Task ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
And Task

Two experiments investigated the way that beforehand preparation influences general task execution in reaction-time matching tasks. Response times (RTs) and error rates were measured for switching and nonswitching conditions in a color- and shape-matching task. The task blocks could repeat (task repetition) or alternate (task switch), and the preparation interval (PI) was manipulated within-subjects (Experiment 1) and between-subjects (Experiment 2). The study illustrated a comparable general task performance after a long PI for both experiments, within and between PI manipulations. After a short PI, however, the general task performance increased significantly for the between-subjects manipulation of the PI. Furthermore, both experiments demonstrated an analogous preparation effect for both task switching and task repetitions. Next, a consistent switch cost throughout the whole run of trials and a within-run slowing effect were observed in both experiments. Altogether, the present study implies that the effects of the advance preparation go beyond the first trials and confirms different points of the activation approach ( Altmann, 2002) to task switching.

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