The Effect of Confronted Animals in Size Comparison Task

Previous research suggests a relationship between neuroticism (N) and the speed-accuracy tradeoff in speeded performance: High-N individuals were observed performing less efficiently than low-N individuals and compensatorily overemphasizing response speed at the expense of accuracy. This study examined N-related performance differences in the serial mental addition and comparison task (SMACT) in 99 individuals, comparing several performance measures (i.e., response speed, accuracy, and variability), retest reliability, and practice effects. N was negatively correlated with mean reaction time but positively correlated with error percentage, indicating that high-N individuals tended to be faster but less accurate in their performance than low-N individuals. The strengthening of the relationship after practice demonstrated the reliability of the findings. There was, however, no relationship between N and distractibility (assessed via measures of reaction time variability). Our main findings are in line with the processing efficiency theory, extending the relationship between N and working style to sustained self-paced speeded mental addition.

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Exploring the Boundaries of the Number–Temporal Order Association

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000285 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 62 (3) ◽

pp. 198-205 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Dana Ganor-Stern

Keyword(s):

Embodied Cognition ◽

Mental Representation ◽

Temporal Order ◽

Past Research ◽

Numerical Comparison ◽

Negative Number ◽

Comparison Task ◽

Negative Numbers ◽

The Past

Past research has shown that numbers are associated with order in time such that performance in a numerical comparison task is enhanced when number pairs appear in ascending order, when the larger number follows the smaller one. This was found in the past for the integers 1–9 ( Ben-Meir, Ganor-Stern, & Tzelgov, 2013 ; Müller & Schwarz, 2008 ). In the present study we explored whether the advantage for processing numbers in ascending order exists also for fractions and negative numbers. The results demonstrate this advantage for fraction pairs and for integer-fraction pairs. However, the opposite advantage for descending order was found for negative numbers and for positive-negative number pairs. These findings are interpreted in the context of embodied cognition approaches and current theories on the mental representation of fractions and negative numbers.

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Effects of stimulus and task structure on temporal perceptual learning

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-80192-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Rannie Xu ◽

Russell M. Church ◽

Yuka Sasaki ◽

Takeo Watanabe

Keyword(s):

Temporal Discrimination ◽

Discrimination Performance ◽

Task Structure ◽

Comparison Task ◽

Interval Representation ◽

Before And After ◽

Temporal Intervals ◽

Context Specific ◽

Temporal Learning ◽

And Task

AbstractOur ability to discriminate temporal intervals can be improved with practice. This learning is generally thought to reflect an enhancement in the representation of a trained interval, which leads to interval-specific improvements in temporal discrimination. In the present study, we asked whether temporal learning is further constrained by context-specific factors dictated through the trained stimulus and task structure. Two groups of participants were trained using a single-interval auditory discrimination task over 5 days. Training intervals were either one of eight predetermined values (FI group), or random from trial to trial (RI group). Before and after the training period, we measured discrimination performance using an untrained two-interval temporal comparison task. Our results revealed a selective improvement in the FI group, but not the RI group. However, this learning did not generalize between the trained and untrained tasks. These results highlight the sensitivity of TPL to stimulus and task structure, suggesting that mechanisms of temporal learning rely on processes beyond changes in interval representation.

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Magnitude integration in the Archerfish

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-94956-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Tali Leibovich-Raveh ◽

Ashael Raveh ◽

Dana Vilker ◽

Shai Gabay

Keyword(s):

Animal Model ◽

Grocery Store ◽

The Body ◽

Water Tank ◽

Comparison Task ◽

Magnitude Comparison ◽

Mathematical Abilities ◽

In The Wild ◽

Numerical Magnitudes ◽

Shortest Queue

AbstractWe make magnitude-related decisions every day, for example, to choose the shortest queue at the grocery store. When making such decisions, which magnitudes do we consider? The dominant theory suggests that our focus is on numerical quantity, i.e., the number of items in a set. This theory leads to quantity-focused research suggesting that discriminating quantities is automatic, innate, and is the basis for mathematical abilities in humans. Another theory suggests, instead, that non-numerical magnitudes, such as the total area of the compared items, are usually what humans rely on, and numerical quantity is used only when required. Since wild animals must make quick magnitude-related decisions to eat, seek shelter, survive, and procreate, studying which magnitudes animals spontaneously use in magnitude-related decisions is a good way to study the relative primacy of numerical quantity versus non-numerical magnitudes. We asked whether, in an animal model, the influence of non-numerical magnitudes on performance in a spontaneous magnitude comparison task is modulated by the number of non-numerical magnitudes that positively correlate with numerical quantity. Our animal model was the Archerfish, a fish that, in the wild, hunts insects by shooting a jet of water at them. These fish were trained to shoot water at artificial targets presented on a computer screen above the water tank. We tested the Archerfish's performance in spontaneous, untrained two-choice magnitude decisions. We found that the fish tended to select the group containing larger non-numerical magnitudes and smaller quantities of dots. The fish selected the group containing more dots mostly when the quantity of the dots was positively correlated with all five different non-numerical magnitudes. The current study adds to the body of studies providing direct evidence that in some cases animals’ magnitude-related decisions are more affected by non-numerical magnitudes than by numerical quantity, putting doubt on the claims that numerical quantity perception is the most basic building block of mathematical abilities.

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Comparison Task

Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning ◽

10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_2073 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 665-665

Keyword(s):

Comparison Task

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A psychoacoustical study to investigate the perceived unpleasantness of infrasound combined with audio-frequency sound

Acta Acustica ◽

10.1051/aacus/2020019 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (5) ◽

pp. 20

Author(s):

Elisa Burke ◽

Stefan Uppenkamp ◽

Christian Koch

Keyword(s):

Auditory Perception ◽

Detection Threshold ◽

Pairwise Comparison ◽

Audio Frequency ◽

Frequency Range ◽

Comparison Task ◽

Simultaneous Exposure ◽

Large Variability ◽

Numerical Scale ◽

The Common

At many immission sites of infrasound (frequency f < 20 Hz), humans are exposed to a mixture of infrasound and sound in the common audio-frequency range (audio sound, 20 Hz < f < 20 kHz). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the auditory perception of infrasound and audio sound not only in isolation but also in combination. This laboratory study aims to investigate the perceived unpleasantness of infrasound (sinusoid at 12 Hz) and audio sound (sinusoid at 1000 Hz, pink-noise 250–4000 Hz), presented alone or in combination with each other. A pairwise comparison task and a rating task using a numerical scale were conducted with 19 normal hearing listeners. In addition, individual detection thresholds were determined for the infrasound stimulus. Combinations of infrasound and audio sound were rated as equally or more unpleasant than either sound presented alone. Inter-individual differences in unpleasantness ratings using the numerical scale were particularly high for stimuli containing infrasound. This can only in part be related to the large variability in infrasound thresholds. These findings suggest that simultaneous exposure to infrasound and audio sound can increase the perceived unpleasantness when both are presented at a sufficient level above the detection threshold.

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Forensic Feature-Comparison Expertise: Statistical Learning Facilitates Visual Comparison Performance

10.31234/osf.io/pzfjb ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Bethany Growns ◽

Kristy Martire

Keyword(s):

Statistical Learning ◽

High Performance ◽

Comparison Task ◽

Domain Specific ◽

Visual Evidence ◽

Visual Comparison ◽

Distributional Information ◽

Distributional Learning ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

Forensic feature-comparison examiners in select disciplines are more accurate than novices when comparing visual evidence samples. This paper examines a key cognitive mechanism that may contribute to this superior visual comparison performance: the ability to learn how often stimuli occur in the environment (distributional statistical learning). We examined the relation-ship between distributional learning and visual comparison performance, and the impact of training about the diagnosticity of distributional information in visual comparison tasks. We compared performance between novices given no training (uninformed novices; n = 32), accu-rate training (informed novices; n = 32) or inaccurate training (misinformed novices; n = 32) in Experiment 1; and between forensic examiners (n = 26), informed novices (n = 29) and unin-formed novices (n = 27) in Experiment 2. Across both experiments, forensic examiners and nov-ices performed significantly above chance in a visual comparison task where distributional learning was required for high performance. However, informed novices outperformed all par-ticipants and only their visual comparison performance was significantly associated with their distributional learning. It is likely that forensic examiners’ expertise is domain-specific and doesn’t generalise to novel visual comparison tasks. Nevertheless, diagnosticity training could be critical to the relationship between distributional learning and visual comparison performance.

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Evidence of SQUARC and distance effects in a weight comparison task

Cognitive Processing ◽

10.1007/s10339-019-00905-2 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 163-173 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Mario Dalmaso ◽

Michele Vicovaro

Keyword(s):

Comparison Task ◽

Distance Effects

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Improving L2 pronunciation inside and outside the classroom

Ilha do Desterro A Journal of English Language Literatures in English and Cultural Studies ◽

10.5007/2175-8026.2018v71n3p99 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 71 (3) ◽

pp. 99-124

Author(s):

Angélica Carlet ◽

Hanna Kivistö-de Souza

Keyword(s):

Target Language ◽

Self Awareness ◽

Classroom Context ◽

Comparison Task ◽

Efl Learners ◽

Perceptual Skills ◽

Pronunciation Instruction ◽

Before And After ◽

First Languages ◽

L2 Pronunciation

Spanish/Catalan learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) attended a formal instruction (FI) period combined with explicit pronunciation instruction, which consisted of theoretical and practical approaches to English segmental phonetics as well as a contrastive analysis between the participants’ first languages and the target language, English. The EFL learners’ ability to perceive and produce L2 vowels was assessed before and after the 8-week instructional treatment. Results show that the EFL learners significantly improved their perception of vowel sounds embedded in real and non-words. However, no improvement in production was found as a result of the instruction received. While these results suggest that learners’ perceptual skills can be improved with teacher-led instruction, the quantity and availability of explicit pronunciation instruction is not sufficient to modify learners’ speech production. Thus, optimal results require learners to continue learning outside the classroom context. With this aim, this paper presents two autonomous activities developed to increase learners’ awareness about phonology: L1-L2 Pronunciation Comparison Task and a Phonological Self-awareness Questionnaire.

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