Effectiveness of different requirements checklists for novice designers

Working under constrained conditions can boost or kill creativity, depending on the nature of the constraints (organizational, personal or task-related). However, a design process without clearly identified constraints, which set the project objectives, could lead to inefficiencies and unfruitful iterations. Some of the most acknowledged procedures to support requirement definition are focused on the use of specific checklists. However, notwithstanding the importance of the task, little attention was dedicated to the verification of the effectiveness of these tools. In such a context, the paper presents an investigation aimed at assessing the performance of three checklists that exploit different strategies to elicit requirements. To that purpose, a sample of fifty engineering students was asked to use the checklists to define the requirements for a specific design case. The outcomes of the experiment were assessed according to well-acknowledged effectiveness metrics, i.e. quantity, operationality, validity, non-redundancy, and completeness. The result of the assessment highlights that checklists based on more general questions or abstract stimuli can better support novice designers in making explicit internally felt design constraints that can potentially lead to more innovative design.

Effects of Limited Hold on Equivalence Class Formation

In an attempt to limit the opportunity to engage in mediating behavior, two groups of adult participants received preliminary training in identity matching with limited hold levels (LH) for responding of 0.7 s for the sample and 1.2 s for the comparisons. The two groups were subsequently trained to form three 5-member classes, using the same LH levels, where the A, B, D, and E stimuli were abstract stimuli, and the C stimuli were meaningful pictures. In two tests for emergent relations, the LH for Group Short was unchanged, whereas 5 s were added to the LH for the comparisons for Group Long. None of the participants in Group Short responded in accordance with stimulus equivalence in either of the two tests. In Group Long, one participant responded in accordance with stimulus equivalence in the first test, and an additional eight participants formed equivalence classes in the second test.

Development of synaesthetic consistency: repeated autonomous engagement with graphemes and colours leads to consistent associations

Synaesthetic consistency is the hallmark of synaesthesia and plays an important role in the definition and validation of synaesthesia. It has been hypothesised that the acquisition of initially unspecified synaesthetic associations is based on consolidation processes. Thus, we investigated in non-synaesthetes whether repeatedly engaging with grapheme-colour associations mimics the developmental trajectory of synaesthetic consistency in genuine grapheme-colour synaesthesia. This was the case for the two tested experimental groups, irrespective of whether they were instructed to memorize their chosen associations, but not for the passive control group. Moreover, consolidated associations of the experimental groups resembled those frequently found in genuine synaesthesia. Furthermore, the acquisition of consistent grapheme-colour associations resulted in a transfer of benefits to performance in recognition memory for abstract stimuli, as also found in genuine synaesthesia. Our findings suggest that consistent synaesthetic associations are based on consolidation processes due to repeated engagement with graphemes and colours.

Semantic knowledge influences visual working memory in adults and children

We can retain only a portion of the visual information that we encounter within our visual working memory. Which factors influence how much information we can remember? Recent studies have demonstrated that the capacity of visual working memory is influenced by the type of information to be remembered and is greater for real-world objects than for abstract stimuli. One explanation for this effect is that the semantic knowledge associated with real-world objects makes them easier to maintain in working memory. Previous studies have indirectly tested this proposal and led to inconsistent conclusions. Here, we directly tested whether semantic knowledge confers a benefit for visual working memory by using familiar and unfamiliar real-world objects. We found a mnemonic benefit for familiar objects in adults and children between the ages of 4 and 9 years. Control conditions ruled out alternative explanations, namely the possibility that the familiar objects could be more easily labeled or that there were differences in low-level visual features between the two types of objects. Together, these findings demonstrate that semantic knowledge influences visual working memory, which suggests that the capacity of visual working memory is not fixed but instead fluctuates depending on what has to be remembered.

Standardized database of 400 complex abstract fractals

In experimental settings, cognitive processes are influenced by characteristics of presented stimuli. Knowledge about stimulus features is important to manipulate or control the influence of stimuli. To date, there is a lack of standardized data incorporating such information for complex abstract stimuli. Thus, we provide norms for a database of 400 abstract and complex stimuli. Grey-scaled fractals were rated by 512 participants on the stimulus features of abstractness, animacy, verbalizability, complexity, familiarity, favorableness, and memorability. To establish external validation, we evaluated objective measures for selected stimulus features, including a) classification-confidence of a deep neuronal network labeling the fractals was negatively correlated with subjective ratings of abstractness and positively with verbalizability, b) data compression rate of fractal image files was positively correlated with the subjective rating of complexity, and c) performance in a recognition-memory task with a subset of 60 fractals was positively correlated with the subjective rating of memorability. The present work fills the gap of a standardized database for abstract stimuli and provides a database with valid norms for abstract and complex stimuli based on subjective ratings and objective measures. This database can be used to control and manipulate these stimulus features in experimental settings using abstract stimuli. Such a database is essential in experimental research using abstract stimuli for instance to control for verbal influence and strategy or to control for novelty and familiarity.

Synesthesia does not help to recover perceptual dominance following flash suppression

Grapheme-color synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when letters or numbers elicit an abnormal color sensation (e.g., printed black letters are perceived as colored graphemes). Grapheme-color synesthesia is typically reported following explicit presentation of graphemes. Very few studies have investigated color sensations in synesthesia in the absence of visual awareness. To address this issue, we took advantage of the dichoptic flash suppression paradigm to temporarily render a stimulus presented to one eye invisible. Synesthesic alphanumeric and non-synesthetic abstract stimuli were presented to 11 synesthete and 11 matched control participants in achromatic and chromatic experimental conditions. The test stimulus was first displayed to one eye and then masked following the sudden presentation of visual noise in the other eye. The time for an image to be perceived following the onset of the suppressive noise was calculated in each condition. Trials free of flash suppression but mimicking the perceptual suppression of the flash were also tested. Results showed that target detection by synesthetes was significantly better than by controls in the absence of flash suppression. However, no statistically significant difference was found between the groups when the test stimulus was interocularly suppressed, either for synesthetic or non-synesthetic stimuli. This study suggests that synesthesia can be associated with enhanced perception for overt recognition, but does not occur in the absence of visual awareness.

Toward a speech-motor account of the effect of Age of Pacifier Withdrawal

Overusing the pacifier in infancy affects abstract word processing later in life. In previous studies, we showed that using the pacifier for more than 3 years of age affects the conceptual relations used to define the meaning of words at age 6. Similarly, in semantically categorizing a set of abstract, concrete and emotional words, 8-years old children who used the pacifier for a longer period were slower in processing abstract stimuli, but not concrete and emotional ones. Children of both studies have a typical development and no diagnosis of cognitive or linguistic disorders. Here, we propose an account of the effect of Age of Pacifier Withdrawal (APW) within the DIVA neurocomputational model of speech development and production (Guenther, F.H., & Vladusich, T. (2013). A Neural Theory of speech acquisition and production. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 25 (5), 408-422.). Using the pacifier for a longer period during social interaction might hinder proprioceptive information and speech-motor program (limiting the co-articulation of speech) as well as auditory input (as the child receives an inaccurate input of his/her own speech). We suggest that auditory speech representation might be worth exploring in children using the pacifier for more than three years of age.