EXPRESS: Task demands moderate the effect of emotion on attentional capture

The current experiment examined the effect of task demands on attention to emotional images. Eighty participants viewed pairs of images, with each pair consisting of an emotional (negative or positive) and a neutral image, or two neutral images. Participants’ eye movements were recorded during picture viewing, and participants were either asked 1) which picture contains more colour? (colour task), 2) are the images equally pleasant? (pleasantness task), 3) which picture do you prefer? (preference task), or 4) were given no task instructions (control task). Although the results did not suggest that emotional images strongly captured attention, emotional images were looked at earlier than neutral images. Importantly, the pattern of results were dependent upon the task instructions; whilst the preference and colour task conditions showed early attentional biases to emotional images, only positive images were looked at earlier in the pleasantness task condition, and no early attentional biases were observed in the control task. Moreover, total fixation duration was increased for positive images in the preference task condition, but not in the other task conditions. It was concluded that attention to emotional stimuli can be modified by the demands of the task during viewing. However, further research should consider additional factors, such as the cognitive load of the viewing tasks, and the content of the images used.

French as a foreign language in the Netherlands

Exposure to English is more extensive in today’s society than to French. In this study we investigated crosslinguistic influences from Dutch and/or English to language performances in French as a foreign language, while controlling for language proficiency in French, English and Dutch, and exposure to English. We tested Dutch learners of French (n = 65) with respect to the acceptability of reduced relative clauses and attachment preferences in full relative clauses. The results showed crosslinguistic influence in the acceptability task and the preference task from English and Dutch respectively. Furthermore, language proficiency in English seems to affect attachment preferences in French. We concluded that these findings support the Linguistic Proximity Model (Westergaard et al. 2017) and that French in Dutch secondary education might be a third language, instead of a second language.

Virtual reality exergaming improves affect during physical activity and reduces subsequent food consumption in inactive adults.

An individual’s affective (i.e., emotional) response to exercise may be key to tackling post-exercise overeating. Taking advantage of advances in fully immersive virtual reality (VR) technology, this study aimed to: a) examine whether VR exergaming can improve the psychological response to exercise in inactive adults, and b) assess the extent to which this improvement reduces post-exercise appetite and eating behaviour. In a cross-over study, 34 adults not meeting the World Health Organisation’s physical activity recommendations completed two exercise sessions on a stationary bike; one while engaging in a VR exergame and one without VR. Monitoring enabled heart rate, energy expenditure, and duration across conditions to be closely matched. The Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale, Feeling Scale, Felt Arousal Scale and Borg’s Ratings of Perceived Exertion were measured to capture the affective responses to exercise. Appetite and eating behaviour were evaluated using visual-analogue scales, a computerised food preference task, and intake at a post-exercise buffet meal. Cycling in VR elicited greater exercise enjoyment (p < 0.001, η2p = 0.62), pleasure (p < 0.001, η2p = 0.47), and activation (p < 0.001, η2p = 0.55). VR exergaming had little impact on perceived physical exertion (p = 0.64), perceived appetite (p = 0.56), and preference for energy dense (p = 0.18) or sweet/savoury foods (p = 0.84). However, it did result in a 12% reduction in post-exercise food intake (mean difference: 105.9kcal; p < 0.05; η2p = 0.20). The integration of VR in a cycling workout improves the affective experience of physical activity for inactive adults and reduces subsequent food intake. Further research is needed to better understand the value of virtual reality technology as an adjunct tool to support weight management.

Neural circuit dynamics of drug-context associative learning in the hippocampus

The environmental context associated with previous drug consumption serves as a potent trigger for relapse to drug use. The mechanism by which existing neural representations of context are modified to incorporate information associated with a given drug however, remains unknown. Using longitudinal calcium imaging in freely behaving mice, we reveal that drug-context associations for psychostimulants and opioids are encoded in a subset of hippocampal neurons. In these neurons, drug context pairing in a conditioned place preference task weakened their spatial coding for the nondrug-paired context, with drug-induced changes to spatial coding predictive of drug-seeking behavior. Furthermore, the dissociative drug ketamine blocked both the drug-induced changes to hippocampal coding and corresponding drug-seeking behavior. Together, this work reveals how drugs of abuse can alter the hippocampal circuit to encode drug-context associations and points to the hippocampus as a key node in the cognitive process of drug addiction and context-induced drug relapse.

Loudness- and preference-equivalent levels of fan sounds at different absolute levels

In daily life, fans are a common and often unwanted noise source. The sound pressure level in dB(A) is often not sufficient to characterize their unpleasantness and level adjustments would be needed to compensate this shortcoming. In this study, listening experiments were conducted to determine loudness- and preference-equivalent levels of 19 different fan noise stimuli. For this purpose, the level of each stimulus was varied with an adaptive procedure until it was equally loud (loudness task), or equally preferred (preference task) as a common reference noise with a fixed level of 75 dB(A). This study repeats an earlier similar study, with a lower reference level of 60 dB(A) and using a larger set of stimuli. The present results are in broad agreement with the results of the prior study, supporting the stability of the matching procedure. Apparently, level adjustments (penalties) derived from such experiments do not change when stimulus levels are increased by 15 dB. Based on the new results, an existing model developed with a 60 dB(A) reference, can be expanded to also predict preferences for sound sources up to 75 dB(A). Further experiments with a reference level of 45 dB(A) will complement the data to lower levels.

Focus at the syntax–discourse interface in L2 Spanish: Optionality and unaccusativity reconsidered

We examine the second language (L2) acquisition of variable Spanish word order by first language (L1) speakers of English via the acquisition of unaccusative and transitive predicates in various focus-related contexts. We employ two bimodal linguistic tasks: (1) acceptability judgment task (B-AJT) and (2) appropriateness preference task (B-APT). Both present contextualized prompts similar to previous studies, followed by response options with accompanying audio to control for intonation and pauses. Results suggest a number of key findings: (1) by the high intermediate level, L2ers acquire the relevant syntactic and syntax information structure interface competencies for both predicate types; (2) native speakers and L2 groups exhibit optionality, and only differ in nuanced ways; and (3) advanced learners show signs of acquiring syntactic and syntax–information structure competencies in numerous contexts, but display minor differences regarding optionality with corrective focus, an interface incorporating multiple interfaces (syntax–prosody pragmatics). Unlike the predictions of the Interface Hypothesis (IH), this subtle, non-native-like divergence is characterized by divergent knowledge of optionality similar to that found among native speakers. Attempting to understand more completely the development of native-speaker optionality, we also conduct a corpus study of child-directed Spanish from CHILDES and find that, although syntactic theory explains much of the data, it cannot account for all of the variability in the data. Results suggest that children are exposed to apparent optionality from the earliest stages.

Maternal Thiamine Supplementation Promotes Infants’ Language Processing at 24 Weeks

Objectives In 2005, researchers observed a link between infants’ access to thiamine (vitamin B1) and their subsequent language functioning: infants fed formula that inadvertently lacked thiamine later displayed significant delays in language and motor development. In the context of a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial, the present research provided the first experimental test of a relationship between early life thiamine exposure and infants’ early language processing. Methods 335 lactating mothers were randomly assigned to receive capsules containing either 0, 1.2, 2.4, or 10 mg of thiamine daily, from 2 weeks postpartum until infants were 24 weeks. We assessed the integrity of 24-week-old infants’ developing system for language processing by measuring the extent to which they displayed attentional enhancement in response to infant-directed speech (IDS) relative to adult-directed speech (ADS). Such IDS-related attentional enhancement implies that infants can differentiate IDS from ADS, which requires underlying skills for analysis of the complex stream of sound that human speech embodies. Of the 335 infants in the study, analyzable data for the IDS preference task were available for 251. Results As predicted, a greater-than-chance percentage of all infants displayed enhanced attention to IDS relative to ADS, replicating prior research (one-sample t(250) = 3.06, P = 0.002). The magnitude of the IDS-elicited attentional-enhancement increased significantly in relation to the thiamine dose that lactating mothers received (beta-weight 0.007, t = 2.57, P = 0.011). Notably, however, when supplementation groups were examined separately, only infants whose mothers received the 10 mg daily supplement displayed a statistically significant IDS-related attentional enhancement (10 mg group: one-sample t(63) = 4.14, P = 0.000; all other groups t’s < 1.41, P’s > 0.16). Conclusions Taken together, these findings confirm a link between infants’ post-natal access to thiamine and their language processing facility at 24 weeks. The findings both showcase the value of the IDS preference task for monitoring the integrity of infants’ language processing, and underscore the importance of adequate thiamine for ensuring infants’ optimal language development. Funding Sources Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences.

Towards Finding the Optimum Position in the Visual Field for a Head Worn Display Used for Task Guidance with Non-registered Graphics

Where should a HWD be placed in a user's visual field? We present two studies that compare comfort, preference, task efficiency and accuracy for various HWD positions. The first study offsets a 9.2° horizontal field-of-view (FOV) display temporally (toward the ear) from 0° to 30° in 10° steps. 30° proves too uncomfortable while 10° is the most preferred position for a simple button-pushing game, corroborating results from previous single-task reading experiments. The second experiment uses a Magic Leap One to compare 10° x 10° FOV interfaces centered at line-of-sight, temporally offset 15° (center-right), inferiorly offset 15° (bottom-center), and offset in both directions (bottom-right) for an order picking task. The bottom-right position proved worst in terms of accuracy and several subjective metrics when compared to the line-of-sight position.

Learning a non-neutral conditioned stimulus: place preference in the crab Neohelice granulata

In the wild, being able to recognize and remember specific locations related to food sources and the associated attributes of landmarks is a cognitive trait important for survival. In the present work we show that the crab Neohelice granulata can be trained to associate a specific environment with an appetitive reward in a conditioned place preference task. After a single training trial, when the crabs were presented with a food pellet in the target quadrant of the training arena, they were able to form a long-term memory related to the event. This memory was evident at least 24 h after training and was protein-synthesis dependent. Importantly, the target area of the arena proved to be a non-neutral environment, given that animals initially avoided the target quadrant. In the present work we introduce for the first time an associative one-trial memory paradigm including a conditioned stimulus with a clear valence performed in a crustacean.