Auditory Pattern Representations Under Conditions of Uncertainty—An ERP Study

The auditory system is able to recognize auditory objects and is thought to form predictive models of them even though the acoustic information arriving at our ears is often imperfect, intermixed, or distorted. We investigated implicit regularity extraction for acoustically intact versus disrupted six-tone sound patterns via event-related potentials (ERPs). In an exact-repetition condition, identical patterns were repeated; in two distorted-repetition conditions, one randomly chosen segment in each sound pattern was replaced either by white noise or by a wrong pitch. In a roving-standard paradigm, sound patterns were repeated 1–12 times (standards) in a row before a new pattern (deviant) occurred. The participants were not informed about the roving rule and had to detect rarely occurring loudness changes. Behavioral detectability of pattern changes was assessed in a subsequent behavioral task. Pattern changes (standard vs. deviant) elicited mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a, and were behaviorally detected above the chance level in all conditions, suggesting that the auditory system extracts regularities despite distortions in the acoustic input. However, MMN and P3a amplitude were decreased by distortions. At the level of MMN, both types of distortions caused similar impairments, suggesting that auditory regularity extraction is largely determined by the stimulus statistics of matching information. At the level of P3a, wrong-pitch distortions caused larger decreases than white-noise distortions. Wrong-pitch distortions likely prevented the engagement of restoration mechanisms and the segregation of disrupted from true pattern segments, causing stronger informational interference with the relevant pattern information.

Reproducibility as a Tool of Cognition (Epistemological Analysis)

One of the most advanced areas of modern science is polydisciplinary research, which is based on experimental practices with special technical parameters. From the point of view of the philosophy of science, their specificity is directly related to the problem of results’ reproducibility because the cooperating discip­lines have different levels of sensitivity to technical details and side effects. Moreover, the details and accuracy of the actual reproducibility are discussed in various languages. Epistemologists focus on, first of all, the question of whether it is possible to replicate (i.e., absolutely exact repetition) the experiment results in a polydisciplinary space. And if not, then what is considered essential in the process of such experimentation with a particular subject field, and what is sec­ondary, what treat as a background, and what is a reproducibility result? In addi­tion, the methodological understanding of the reproducibility acquires unique heuristic significance in connection with the analysis of “deviations” arising from its replication. This means that the actual repetition of an experiment can be considered a normative criterion for its results’ scientific status and as a cog­nitive tool that opens up new research prospects. As a tool for expanding re­search horizons, the requirement of reproducibility in polydisciplinary experi­mental practices is at the center of attention of modern philosophical and methodological reflection on science.

A shared fractal aesthetic across development

Fractal patterns that repeat at varying size scales comprise natural environments and are also present in artistic works deemed to be highly aesthetic. Observers’ aesthetic preferences vary in relation to fractal complexity. Previous work demonstrated that fractal preference consistently peaks at low-to-moderate complexity for patterns that repeat in a statistical manner across scale, whereas preference for exact repetition fractals peaks at a higher complexity due to the presence of order introduced by symmetry and exact recursion of features. However, these highly consistent preference trends have been demonstrated only in adult populations, and the extent to which exposure, development, or individual differences in perceptual strategies may impact preference has not yet been established. Here, we show differences in preference between fractal-type, but no differences between child and adult preferences, and no relationship between systemizing tendencies (demonstrated by the Systemizing Quotient and Ponzo task) and complexity preferences, further supporting the universality of fractal preference. Consistent preferences across development point toward shared general aesthetic experience of these complexities arising from a fluency of fractal processing established relatively early in development. This in part determines how humans experience natural patterns and interact with natural and built environments.

Repetition

Literary, aesthetic, and theoretical negotiations of repetition tend to focus on the category of repetition as a feature of spoken or written discourse, or visual or audible patterning, instantiated so as to produce a specific effect, such as of monotony or interruption. This effect is based upon a normative assumption that discourse will be structured according to a decorous balance between same and difference; when this decorum is not observed, a marked effect is realized. However, is repetition merely an aesthetic category deployed for local or ephemeral emotional or sematic emphasis? Given that exact repetition is perforce an impossibility, since no two moments are ever the same, nor is one moment the same as itself, what are the implications of this tension between an effect of sameness and an awareness of its impossibility? Are these implications ontological or metaphysical in character?

Introduction

The Introduction contextualizes the study in terms of existing scholarship on Tacitus, cultural memory theory, and the study of Roman religion. Roman paganism, with its emphasis on exact repetition of rituals as they have been performed for centuries, is particularly fruitful when analyzed using cultural memory theory as developed by scholars such as Jan Assmann, Maurice Halbwachs, and Pierre Nora: religious ritual is viewed as a key component in any society’s efforts to create a lived version of the past that helps define cultural identity in the present. Tacitus’ own background as a quindecimvir, one of the most important priestly colleges in the Roman state cult, as well as the conventions surrounding the treatment of religion in Roman historiography, are likely to have informed his interest in religious material.

The cognitive neuroscience of constructive memory: remembering the past and imagining the future

Episodic memory is widely conceived as a fundamentally constructive, rather than reproductive, process that is prone to various kinds of errors and illusions. With a view towards examining the functions served by a constructive episodic memory system, we consider recent neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies indicating that some types of memory distortions reflect the operation of adaptive processes. An important function of a constructive episodic memory is to allow individuals to simulate or imagine future episodes, happenings and scenarios. Since the future is not an exact repetition of the past, simulation of future episodes requires a system that can draw on the past in a manner that flexibly extracts and recombines elements of previous experiences. Consistent with this constructive episodic simulation hypothesis, we consider cognitive, neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence showing that there is considerable overlap in the psychological and neural processes involved in remembering the past and imagining the future.