Code-Switching patterns differentially shape cognitive control: Testing the predictions of the adaptive control hypothesis

Bilinguals engage in qualitatively different code-switching patterns (alternation, insertion, and congruent lexicalization) to different degrees, according to their engagement in different types of interactional contexts (single-language context, dual-language context, and dense code-switching context). Drawing on the adaptive control hypothesis, we examined whether bilinguals’ code-switching patterns would differentially shape multiple aspects of cognitive control (interference control, salient cue detection, and opportunistic planning). We found that a dense code-switching context, which predominantly involves insertion and congruent lexicalization, was positively associated with verbal opportunistic planning but negatively associated with interference control and salient cue detection. In contrast, a dual-language context, which predominantly involves alternation, was not associated with interference control or salient cue detection, but with significantly reduced response times for opportunistic planning. Our findings partially corroborate the theoretical predictions of the adaptive control hypothesis. Altogether, our study illustrates the importance of bilinguals’ disparate code-switching practices in shaping cognitive control outcomes.

The Invisible Fraud: The Impact of Inattentional Blindness on Auditor Fraud Detection

Evidence from major fraud investigations has revealed that auditors often fail to attend to visual fraud cues (i.e., red flags) within substantive testing evidence. Research in psychology on inattentional blindness (IB) provides a theoretical framework to explain why this occurs. Although most forensic research has focused on audit planning, we focus on the detection of visual fraud cues embedded in substantive testing evidence. We examine the impact of two interventions, priming and strategic reasoning, on senior audit associates to determine the extent to which these interventions mitigate IB effects. The results indicate that IB effects hinder auditor visual fraud cue detection during the performance of substantive testing procedures and that priming significantly reduced IB effects. The findings provide important implications for practice by drawing the auditor’s attention to these effects and by suggesting priming as an efficient and cost-effective intervention to assist in mitigating IB effects in the auditing environment.

Pathogen disgust sensitivity: More sensitive cue detection or stronger cue avoidance?

Humans differ in their tendency to experience disgust and avoid contact with potential sources of pathogens. Pathogen disgust sensitivity has been used to explain a wide range of social phenomena, such as prejudice, conformity, and trust. Yet, its exact role in the motivational system that regulates avoidance of pathogens, the so-called behavioral immune system, remains unclear. Here, we test how individual differences in pathogen disgust sensitivity relates to the information processing structure underlying pathogen avoidance. Participants (n = 998) rated the perceived health of individuals with or without facial blemishes and indicated how comfortable they would feel about having physical contact with them. Participants with high disgust sensitivity viewed facial blemishes as more indicative of poor health. Moreover, for participants with high disgust sensitivity, perceived health was a stronger determinant of comfort with physical contact. These findings suggest that increased pathogen disgust sensitivity captures tendencies to more readily interpret stimuli as a pathogen threat and be more strongly guided by estimated infection risk when deciding who should be approached or avoided. This supports the notion that pathogen disgust sensitivity is a summary of investment in pathogen avoidance, rather than just an increased sensitivity to pathogen cues.

Changes in chemical cues of Melissococcus plutonius infected honey bee larvae

European foulbrood (EFB), caused by Melissococcus plutonius, is a globally distributed bacterial brood disease affecting Apis mellifera larvae. There is some evidence, even if under debate, that spreading of the disease within the colony is prevented by worker bees performing hygienic behaviour, including detection and removal of infected larvae. Olfactory cues (brood pheromones, signature mixtures, diagnostic substances) emitted by infected individuals may play a central role for hygienic bees to initiate the disease-specific behaviour. However, the mechanisms of cue detection and brood removal, causing hygienic behaviour in EFB affected colonies, are poorly understood. Here, coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was used to detect disease-specific substances, changes in cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profiles, and brood ester pheromones (BEPs) of honey bee larvae artificially infected with M. plutonius. Although no diagnostic substances were found in significant quantities, discriminant analysis revealed specific differences in CHC and BEP profiles of infected and healthy larvae. β-Ocimene, a volatile brood pheromone related to starvation and hygienic behaviour, was present in all larvae with highest quantities in healthy young larvae; whereas oleic acid, a non-volatile necromone, was present only in old infected larvae. Furthermore, γ-octalactone (newly discovered in A. mellifera in this study) was detectable in trace amounts only in infected larvae. We propose that the deviation from the olfactory profile of healthy brood is supposed to trigger hygienic behaviour in worker bees. To confirm the relevance of change in the chemical bouquet (CHCs, BEPs, γ-octalactone, etc.), a field colony bioassay is needed, using healthy brood and hygienic bees to determine if bouquet changes elicit hygienic behaviour.

Genomic architecture of a genetically assimilated seasonal color pattern

Developmental plasticity allows genomes to encode multiple distinct phenotypes that can be differentially manifested in response to environmental cues. Alternative plastic phenotypes can be selected through a process called genetic assimilation, although the mechanisms are still poorly understood. We assimilated a seasonal wing color phenotype in a naturally plastic population of butterflies (Junonia coenia) and characterized three responsible genes. Endocrine assays and chromatin accessibility and conformation analyses showed that the transition of wing coloration from an environmentally determined trait to a predominantly genetic trait occurred through selection for regulatory alleles of downstream wing-patterning genes. This mode of genetic evolution is likely favored by selection because it allows tissue- and trait-specific tuning of reaction norms without affecting core cue detection or transduction mechanisms.

Negation detection for sentiment analysis: A case study in Spanish

Accurate negation identification is one of the most important tasks in the context of sentiment analysis. In order to correctly interpret the sentiment value of a particular expression, we need to identify whether it is in the scope of negation. While much of the work on negation detection has focused on English, we have seen recent developments that provide accurate identification of negation in other languages. In this paper, we provide an overview of negation detection systems and describe an implementation of a Spanish system for negation cue detection and scope identification. We apply this system to the sentiment analysis task, confirming also for Spanish that improvements can be gained from accurate negation detection. The paper contributes an implementation of negation detection for sentiment analysis in Spanish and a detailed error analysis. This is the first work in Spanish in which a machine learning negation processing system is applied to the sentiment analysis task. Existing methods have used negation rules that have not been assessed, perhaps because the first Spanish corpus annotated with negation for sentiment analysis has only recently become available.

Production, comprehension and repetition of accusative case by monolingual Russian and bilingual Russian-Dutch and Russian-Hebrew-speaking children

The present study explores the acquisition of the Russian accusative [acc] case inflections in two groups of bilingual children (Russian-Dutch and Russian-Hebrew) who acquire Russian as their Heritage Language (HL) and two groups of monolingual Russian-speaking children within the Unified Competition Model (MacWhinney, 2008, 2012). Seventy-two typically developing children participated in the study. Children’s performance on three tasks was compared: elicited production, forced-choice comprehension and sentence repetition. The current study confirmed the predictions of the Unified Competition Model: monolingual children view the [acc] case inflection as a reliable cue. Conversely, bilingual children showed lower accuracy on nouns which require the use of a dedicated [acc] marker. Similarly, the percentage of children manifesting sensitivity to [acc] case cue was low in bilinguals. The findings of the study extend the Unified Competition Model to patterns of HL acquisition in bilinguals. Cue detection in HL for bilinguals is challenged when exposure is limited.

No Evidence for Enhancing Prospective Memory with Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation across Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex

A standard finding in the event-based prospective memory literature is that focal cues are more often detected than nonfocal cues. The multiprocess view of prospective memory accounts for this result by suggesting that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) mediated executive processes are necessary for nonfocal cue detection while hippocampally mediated spontaneous retrieval processes support detection of focal cues. In agreement with the multiprocess view, previous studies have found that working memory capacity is predictive of prospective memory performance through detection of nonfocal cues, but non-predictive for focal cues. Because the DLPFC is known to support working memory maintenance, we predicted that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the DLPFC would increase prospective memory cue detection for nonfocal cues when compared with a sham condition. Critically, we also expected an interaction between prospective memory cue type and stimulation such that anodal stimulation would not influence focal cue detection. Our results replicated the standard effect of improved focal compared to nonfocal cue detection. However, there was no significant effect between the sham and active tDCS conditions. Furthermore, we did not find the expected interaction between cue type and stimulation. Not only do our findings add onto the growing literature of tDCS experiments that failed to find stimulation effects to DLPFC, but it is also one of the first studies to incorporate prospective memory with tDCS.