A multistage retrieval account of associative recognition ROC curves

Despite its name, associative recognition is a paradigm thought to rely on memory recall. However, it remains unclear how associative information may be represented and retrieved from memory and what its relationship to other information, such as item memory, is. Here, we propose a computational model of associative recognition, where relational information is accessed in a generic, multistage retrieval process. The model explains the relative difficulty of associative recognition compared with item recognition, the difference in experimental outcomes when different types of lures are used, as well as the conditions leading to the emergence of associative ROC curves with different shapes.

Adoptive Parenting Is More Complex Than Evolutionary Theory Would Predict

This chapter focuses on adoptive parenting. At face value, adoption does not fulfill one of the primary goals of evolution: survival and eventual reproduction of one’s genes. Why, then, given our evolutionary history, and the relative difficulty of adoption, is adoption so widespread and usually successful? The chapter is devoted to examining adoption from an evolutionary perspective. It traces the history of adoption and reviews many reasons why adoption has been, and still is, widespread. The human history of adoption reflects many of our evolutionary goals and biological drives. However, one of the unique capacities of humanity is the ability to rise above our baser biology to use logic and reason to overcome gut reactions rooted in animal biology. Modern adoption theory and practice seek to recognize patterns rooted in biology, history, and culture, while encouraging more equitable practices that respect each individual involved in adoption.

Metacognitive judgements of change detection predict change blindness

People tend to think they are not susceptible to change blindness and overestimate their ability to detect salient changes in scenes. Here, we investigated whether participants’ metacognitive judgements of change detection ability predict change blindness. In Experiment 1, participants completed a change blindness task in which participants viewed alternating versions of a scene until they detected what changed between them and 6-7 months later, provided their metacognitive judgements. We found that changes rated as more likely to be spotted were detected faster than changes rated as more unlikely to be spotted. Metacognitive judgements continued to predict change blindness when accounting for low-level image properties (i.e., change size and eccentricity). In Experiment 2, metacognitive judgements from a new group of participants were compared to those collected in Experiment 1 to determine whether people are better predicting their own change blindness or if the predictions from others are equally effective. There was no effect of participant group on the relationship between metacognitive judgements and change blindness. Finally, in Experiment 3, we investigated whether metacognitive judgements are based on a high-level image property – semantic similarity. An independent group of participants provided descriptions of the two versions of the scenes and another group rated the similarity between the descriptions. We found that changes rated as more similar were judged as being more difficult to detect than changes rated as less similar; however, semantic similarity was not predictive of change blindness. These findings reveal that (1) people can accurately rate the relative difficulty of different changes and predict change blindness for different images and (2) metacognitive judgements of change detection likelihood are not fully explained by low-level and semantic image properties.

Applications and challenges of CRISPR-Cas gene-editing to disease treatment in clinics

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR associated systems (Cas) are efficient tools for targeting specific genes for laboratory research, agricultural engineering, biotechnology, and human disease treatment. Cas9, by far the most extensively used gene-editing nuclease, has shown great promise for the treatment of hereditary diseases, viral infection, cancers and so on. Recent reports have revealed that some other types of CRISPR-Cas systems may also have surprising potential to join the fray as gene-editing tools for various applications. Despite the fast progress in basic researches and clinical tests, some underlying problems present continuous, significant challenges, such as editing efficiency, relative difficulty in delivery, off-target effects, immunogenicity, etc. This article summarizes the applications of CRISPR-Cas from bench to bedside and highlights the current obstacles that may limit the usage of CRISPR-Cas systems as gene-editing tool-kits in precision medicine and offer some viewpoints that may help to tackle these challenges and facilitate technical development. CRISPR-Cas systems, as a powerful gene-editing approach, will offer great hopes in clinical treatments for many individuals with currently incurable diseases.

What Is the Shape of Geographical Time-Space? A Three-Dimensional Model Made of Curves and Cones

Geographical time-spaces exhibit a series of properties, including space inversion, that turns any representation effort into a complex task. In order to improve the legibility of the representation and leveraging the advances of three-dimensional computer graphics, the aim of the study is to propose a new method extending time-space relief cartography introduced by Mathis and L’Hostis. The novelty of the model resides in the use of cones to describing the terrestrial surface instead of graph faces, and in the use of curves instead of broken segments for edges. We implement the model on the Chinese space. The Chinese geographical time-space of reference year 2006 is produced by the combination and the confrontation of the fast air transport system and of the 7.5-times slower road transport system. Slower, short range flights are represented as curved lines above the earth surface with longer length than the geodesic, in order to account for a slower speed. The very steep slope of cones expresses the relative difficulty of crossing terrestrial time-space, as well as the comparably extreme efficiency of long-range flights for moving between cities. Finally, the whole image proposes a coherent representation of the geographical time-space where fast city-to-city transport is combined with slow terrestrial systems that allow one to reach any location.

An Item Response Modeling Approach to Cognitive Load Measurement

The accurate measurement of the cognitive load a learner encounters in a given task is critical to the understanding and application of Cognitive Load Theory (CLT). However, as a covert psychological construct, cognitive load represents a challenging measurement issue. To date, this challenge has been met mostly by subjective self-reports of cognitive load experienced in a learning situation. In this paper, we find that a valid and reliable index of cognitive load can be obtained through item response modeling of student performance. Specifically, estimates derived from item response modeling of relative difficulty (i.e., the difference between item difficulty and person ability locations) can function as a linear measure that combines the key components of cognitive load (i.e., mental load, mental effort, and performance). This index of cognitive load (relative difficulty) was tested for criterion (concurrent) validity in Year 2 learners (N = 91) performance on standardized educational numeracy and literacy assessments. Learners’ working memory (WM) capacity significantly predicted our proposed cognitive load (relative difficulty) index across both numeracy and literacy domains. That is, higher levels of WM were related to lower levels of cognitive load (relative difficulty), in line with fundamental predictions of CLT. These results illustrate the validity, utility and potential of this objective item response modeling approach to capturing individual differences in cognitive load across discrete learning tasks.

What is the Shape of Geographical Time-Space? A Three Dimensional Model made of Curves and Cones

We propose a geographical time-space model extending time-space relief cartography introduced by Mathis and L’Hostis [,,,]. The novelty of the model resides in the use of cones to describe the terrestrial surface instead of graph faces, and in the use of curves instead of broken segments for edges. The approach lies a the intersection of two domains involving graphic representation: cartography, and three dimensional computer graphics. We implement the model on the Chinese space. The Chinese geographical time-space of the reference year 2006 is produced by the combination and the confrontation of the fast air transport system and of the 7.5 times slower road transport system. Slower, short range flights are represented as curved lines above the earth surface with longer length than the geodesic, in order to account for a slower speed. The very steep slope of cones expresses the relative difficulty of crossing terrestrial time-space, as well as the comparably extreme efficiency of long-range flights for moving between cities. Finally, the whole image proposes a coherent representation of the geographical time-space where fast city to city transport is combined with slow terrestrial systems that allow to reach any location.

Perceptual difficulty differences predict asymmetry in redundant modification with color and material adjectives

When referring to objects, speakers are often more specific than necessary for the purpose of establishing unique reference, e.g., by producing redundant modifiers. A computational model of referring expression production that accounts for many of the key patterns in redundant adjectival modification assumes that adjectives differ in how noisy (reliable), and consequently, how useful they are for reference. Here we investigate one hypothesis about the source of the assumed adjectival noise: that it reflects the perceptual difficulty of establishing whether the property denoted by the adjective holds of the contextually relevant objects. In Exp.1, we collect perceptual difficulty norms for items that vary in color and material. In Exp. 2, we test the highest (material) and lowest (color) perceptual difficulty items in a reference game and find that material is indeed less likely to be mentioned redundantly, replicating previous work. In Exp. 3, we obtain norms for the tested items in a second perceptual difficulty measure with the aim of testing the effect of perceptual difficulty within property type. The overall results provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that the propensity to redundantly use color over material adjectives may be driven by the relative ease of assessing an object’s color, compared to the relative difficulty of assessing its material.