scholarly journals Visual search mimics configural processing in associative learning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar D. Perez ◽  
Sanjay Narasiwodeyar ◽  
Fabian A. Soto
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Causal Learning ◽  
Configural Processing ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Search Process ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Human Experiments ◽  
Salient Stimulus ◽  
Learning Principles

AbstractTheories of generalization distinguish between elemental and configural stimulus processing, depending on whether stimuli in a compound are processed independently or as distinct entities. Evidence for elemental processing comes from findings of summation in animals, where a compound of two stimuli that independently predict an outcome is deemed to be more predictive of the outcome than each stimulus alone. Configural processing, on the other hand, is supported by experiments that fail to find this effect when the compound is comprised of similar stimuli. In humans, by contrast, summation seems to be robust and independent of similarity. We show how these results are best explained by an alternative view in which generalization comes about from a visual search process in which subjects process the most predictive or salient stimulus in a compound. We offer empirical support for this theory in three human experiments on causal learning and formalize a new elemental visual search model based on reinforcement learning principles which can capture the present and previous data on generalization, bridging two different research areas in psychology into a unitary framework.

scholarly journals Public justification and expert disagreement over non-pharmaceutical interventions for the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. medethics-2021-107671
Author(s):  
Marcus Dahlquist ◽  
Henrik D Kugelberg
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Support ◽  
The State ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Public Justification ◽  
Standard View ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Environmental Cleaning ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cleaning And Disinfection ◽  
Pharmaceutical Interventions

A wide range of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) have been introduced to stop or slow down the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples include school closures, environmental cleaning and disinfection, mask mandates, restrictions on freedom of assembly and lockdowns. These NPIs depend on coercion for their effectiveness, either directly or indirectly. A widely held view is that coercive policies need to be publicly justified—justified to each citizen—to be legitimate. Standardly, this is thought to entail that there is a scientific consensus on the factual propositions that are used to support the policies. In this paper, we argue that such a consensus has been lacking on the factual propositions justifying most NPIs. Consequently, they would on the standard view be illegitimate. This is regrettable since there are good reasons for granting the state the legitimate authority to enact NPIs under conditions of uncertainty. The upshot of our argument is that it is impossible to have both the standard interpretation of the permissibility of empirical claims in public justification and an effective pandemic response. We provide an alternative view that allows the state sufficient room for action while precluding the possibility of it acting without empirical support.

When brains expand: mind and the evolution of cortex

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew T. K. Kirkcaldie ◽  
Peter D. Kitchener
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Support ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Body ◽  
Primate Species ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Brain Morphometry ◽  
Self Recognition ◽  
Fresh Perspective ◽  
Functionally Diverse

Objective:To critically examine the relationship between evolutionary and developmental influences on human neocortex and the properties of the conscious mind it creates.Methods:Using PubMed searches and the bibliographies of several monographs, we selected 50 key works, which offer empirical support for a novel understanding of the organization of the neocortex.Results:The cognitive gulf between humans and our closest primate relatives has usually been taken as evidence that our brains evolved crucial new mechanisms somehow conferring advanced capacities, particularly in association areas of the neocortex. In this overview of neocortical development and comparative brain morphometry, we propose an alternative view: that an increase in neocortical size, alone, could account for novel and powerful cognitive capabilities. Other than humans’ very large brain in relation to the body weight, the morphometric relations between neocortex and all other brain regions show remarkably consistent exponential ratios across the range of primate species, including humans. For an increase in neocortical size to produce new abilities, the developmental mechanisms of neocortex would need to be able to generate an interarchy of functionally diverse cortical domains in the absence of explicit specification, and in this respect, the mammalian neocortex is unique: its relationship to the rest of the nervous system is unusually plastic, allowing great changes in cortical organization to occur in relatively short periods of evolution. The fact that even advanced abilities like self-recognition have arisen in species from different mammalian orders suggests that expansion of the neocortex quite naturally generates new levels of cognitive sophistication. Our cognitive and behavioural sophistication may, therefore, be attributable to these intrinsic mechanisms’ ability to generate complex interarchies when the neocortex reaches a sufficient size.Conclusion:Our analysis offers a parsimonious explanation for key properties of the human mind based on evolutionary influences and developmental processes. This view is perhaps surprising in its simplicity, but offers a fresh perspective on the evolutionary basis of mental complexity.

scholarly journals The social basis of referential communication: Speakers construct reference based on listeners' expected visual search.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Jara-Ettinger ◽  
Paula Rubio-Fernandez
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Social Basis ◽  
Quantitative Accuracy ◽  
Referential Expressions ◽  
Acceptability Judgments

A foundational assumption of human communication is that speakers should say as much as necessary, but no more. In referential communication, the pressure to be efficient is typically formalized as an egocentric bias where speakers aim to minimize production costs. While intuitive, this view has failed to explain why people routinely produce redundant adjectives, particularly color words, or why this phenomenon varies cross-linguistically. Here we propose an alternative view of referential efficiency, whereby speakers create referential expressions designed to facilitate the listener's visual search for the referent as they process words in real time. We present a computational model of our account, the Incremental Communicative Efficiency (ICE) model, which generates referential expressions by considering listeners' expected visual search during online language processing. Our model captures a number of known effects in the literature, including cross-linguistic differences in speakers' propensity to over-specify. Moreover, our model predicts graded acceptability judgments with quantitative accuracy, systematically outperforming an alternative, brevity-based model. Our findings suggest that reference production is best understood as driven by a cooperative goal to help the listener identify the intended referent, rather than by an egocentric effort to minimize utterance length.

scholarly journals Control of Visual Selection during Visual Search in the Human Brain

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel C. Olma ◽  
Tobias H. Donner ◽  
Stephan A. Brandt
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Feature Binding ◽  
Conjunction Search ◽  
Search Process ◽  
Intraparietal Sulcus ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Feature Search ◽  
Active Search ◽  
Salient Features

How do we find a target object in a cluttered visual scene? Targets carrying unique salient features can be found in parallel without directing attention, whereas targets defined by feature conjunctions or non-salient features need to be scrutinized in a serial attentional process in order to be identified. In this article, we review a series of experiments in which we used fMRI to probe the neural basis of this active search process in the human brain. In all experiments, we compared the fMRI signal between a difficult and an easy visual search (each performed without eye movements) in order to isolate neural activity reflecting the search process from other components such as stimulus responses and movement-related activity. The difficult search was either a conjunction search or a hard feature search and compared with an easy feature search, matched in visual stimulation and motor requirements. During both, the conjunction search and the hard feature search the frontal eye fields (FEF) and three parietal regions located in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) were differentially activated: the anterior and posterior part of the intraparietal sulcus (AIPS, PIPS) as well as the junction of the intraparietal with the transverse occipital sulcus (IPTO). Only in PIPS, the modulation strength was most indistinguishable between conjunction and hard feature search. In a further experiment we showed that AIPS and IPTO are involved in visual conjunction search even in the absence of distractors; by contrast, the involvement of PIPS seems to depend on the presence of distractors. Taken together, these findings from these experiments demonstrate that all four key nodes of the human ’frontoparietal attention network’ are generally engaged in the covert selection process of visual search. But they also suggest that these areas play differential roles, perhaps reflecting different sub-processes in active search. We conclude by discussing a number of such sub-processes, such as the direction of spatial attention, visual feature binding, and the active suppression of distractors.

scholarly journals Action Planning Mediates Guidance of Visual Attention from Working Memory

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Feldmann-Wüstefeld ◽  
Anna Schubö
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Irrelevant Stimulus ◽  
Memory Content ◽  
Salient Stimulus ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Visual search is impaired when a salient task-irrelevant stimulus is presented together with the target. Recent research has shown that this attentional capture effect is enhanced when the salient stimulus matches working memory (WM) content, arguing in favor of attention guidance from WM. Visual attention was also shown to be closely coupled with action planning. Preparing a movement renders action-relevant perceptual dimensions more salient and thus increases search efficiency for stimuli sharing that dimension. The present study aimed at revealing common underlying mechanisms for selective attention, WM, and action planning. Participants both prepared a specific movement (grasping or pointing) and memorized a color hue. Before the movement was executed towards an object of the memorized color, a visual search task (additional singleton) was performed. Results showed that distraction from target was more pronounced when the additional singleton had a memorized color. This WM-guided attention deployment was more pronounced when participants prepared a grasping movement. We argue that preparing a grasping movement mediates attention guidance from WM content by enhancing representations of memory content that matches the distractor shape (i.e., circles), thus encouraging attentional capture by circle distractors of the memorized color. We conclude that templates for visual search, action planning, and WM compete for resources and thus cause interferences.

Bringing the Generations Together: Support from Learning Theory

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Catterton Allen
Keyword(s):  
Learning Theory ◽  
Situated Learning ◽  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Zone Of Proximal Development ◽  
Proximal Development ◽  
Situated Learning Theory ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Learning Principles ◽  
Basic Learning

In addition to briefly examining biblical and empirical support for intentional intergenerationl ministry, Dr. Allen [the article?] primarily addresses the question: Why might intergenerational Christian experiences contribute significantly to faith and spiritual development? She integrates concepts from situated learning theory [e.g., fully participating with more experienced practitioners] with some of Vygotsaky's sociocultural ideas [e.g., learning in complex, authentic environments, zone of proximal development] to forge a learning macrotheory that explicates the basic learning principles at work in intergenerational Christian community. Dr. Allen also offers practical ideas for those who desire to cultivate a more intergenerational outlook as well as some specific ways to bring the generations together.

Training for Systematic Search Using a Job Aid

1998 ◽  
Vol 42 (20) ◽  
pp. 1457-1461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott C. Koenig ◽  
Guillaume M. Y. Liebhold ◽  
A.K. Gramopadhye
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual Inspection ◽  
Search Strategy ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Systematic Search ◽  
Search Process ◽  
Training Tool ◽  
Dominant Component ◽  
Viewing Screen ◽  
Job Aid

A dominant component of quality control, visual inspection can be broken down into two elements: visual search and decision-making. This study focuses on the search process. The search process has been mathematically described as random, systematic, or somewhere in between. Mathematical models and empirical studies have shown that the best performance in detecting defects during visual inspection results from the use of a systematic search strategy. For this study, a job aid that could potentially be used as an off-line training tool was developed to promote systematic visual search strategy. The job aid, a moving cursor on the viewing screen, was used to determine an optimal search speed or a range of optimal speeds for which the highest inspection accuracy could be achieved.

Optimal Symbol Set Selection: A Semiautomated Procedure

1992 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald L. Fisher ◽  
Nancy S. Tanner
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Search Behavior ◽  
Search Process ◽  
Air Traffic Controllers ◽  
Plant Personnel ◽  
Automate Selection ◽  
Selection Of

A new model of the visual search process is developed which can improve the design of large symbol sets such as those used by nuclear power plant personnel, air traffic controllers, and battlefield troops. An experiment was conducted to determine whether the new, componential model or an already existing, discriminability model better explains visual search behavior. The results were consistent with the componential model. We show how to use the componential model to help automate selection of the optimal symbol set (i.e., the symbol set that minimizes the average time to find a target).

scholarly journals On the Origin of Event-Related Potentials Indexing Covert Attentional Selection During Visual Search

2009 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 2375-2386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremiah Y. Cohen ◽  
Richard P. Heitz ◽  
Jeffrey D. Schall ◽  
Geoffrey F. Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Field Potentials ◽  
Electrophysiological Studies ◽  
Human Experiments ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Eye Field

Despite nearly a century of electrophysiological studies recording extracranially from humans and intracranially from monkeys, the neural generators of nearly all human event-related potentials (ERPs) have not been definitively localized. We recorded an attention-related ERP component, known as the N2pc, simultaneously with intracranial spikes and local field potentials (LFPs) in macaques to test the hypothesis that an attentional-control structure, the frontal eye field (FEF), contributed to the generation of the macaque homologue of the N2pc (m-N2pc). While macaques performed a difficult visual search task, the search target was selected earliest by spikes from single FEF neurons, later by FEF LFPs, and latest by the m-N2pc. This neurochronometric comparison provides an empirical bridge connecting macaque and human experiments and a step toward localizing the neural generator of this important attention-related ERP component.

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