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In the present study, we showed evidence of an integration between two unconscious semantic representations. In experiment 1, two masked Chinese words of the same or different categories ("orange apple" or "grape hammer") were simultaneously presented in the prime, followed by two Chinese words also of same or different categories in the target. We examined possible prime/target visual feature priming, semantic category priming and motor response priming effects. Moreover, two ISI intervals (53, 163 ms) between the prime and the target words were used to examine the positive and negative priming. The results revealed a "negative" motor response priming and a "positive" semantic category priming effect independent of the ISI when the target words were of the same category. Experiment 2 eliminated an alternative interpretation of the effect based on different number of category words changed across the prime and the target. Experiment 3 eliminated a potential confound of unequal numbers of trials for motor congruent and incongruent conditions in Experiment 1. Overall, these results indicated an integration between the meanings of the two subliminally perceived words in the prime. The difference between simultaneous and sequential presentations, and the reason why positive priming was not observed when the interval between the prime and the target was short were discussed in the context of unconscious semantic integration.

At present there is little knowledge on whether and how multiple pieces of unconscious information can simultaneously affect a single conscious response. In the present study, we manipulated the congruency relation between a masked prime arrow and the target arrow, as well as that between masked flankers and the target arrow. The results demonstrated that the masked prime and flankers produced independent unconscious priming effects on the response to the target. In the process of studying the above phenomenon, two secondary findings were made. First, although the prime congruency effect was obtained, the flanker congruency effect was smaller when the flankers were displayed simultaneously with the target than when they were displayed sequentially before the target. This suggested that priming stimulation required enough time to be processed to a sufficient extent to produce an unconscious priming effect. Second, when the prime stimulus was removed, leaving only the flankers, the flanker priming effect increased, suggesting that the attention attracted to the prime and its conscious mask could also reduce the flanker congruency effect. These results observed across several experiments were replicated in one within-subjects experiment. We proposed an "independent unconscious influence hypothesis" for the phenomenon. This hypothesis was further integrated into a more comprehensive unconscious information processing model. The possible causes of the observed phenomena were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have shown that the brain can process subliminal numerals, i.e., participants can categorize a subliminal number into two categories: greater than 5 or less than 5. In the context of many studies on the unconscious integration of multiple subliminal stimuli, the issue of whether multiple subliminal numbers can be integrated is contentious. The same-different task is regarded as a perfect tool to explore unconscious integration. In the two experiments reported, we used a same-different task in which a pair of masked prime numbers was followed by a pair of target numbers, and participants were asked to decide whether the two target numbers were on the same (both smaller or larger than 5) or different sides (one smaller, the other larger than 5) of 5 in magnitude. The results indicated that the prime numbers could be categorized unconsciously, which was reflected by the category priming effect, and that the unconscious category relationship of the two prime numbers could affect the judgment on the category relationship of the two target numbers, as reflected by the response priming effect. The duration of the prime-to-target interstimulus interval (ISI) was also manipulated, showing a positive compatibility effect (PCE) of category priming and a negative compatibility effect (NCE) of response priming no matter whether the ISI was short (50 ms) or long (150 ms). The NCE, which occurred when the prime-to-target ISI was relatively short in this study, contradicted the conventional view but was consistent with previous results of unconscious integration based on an attention modulation mechanism. Importantly, this study provided evidence for the still-under-debate issue of numerical information integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recall latency, recall accuracy rate, and recall confidence were examined in free recall as a function of recall output serial position using a modified Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm to test a strength-based theory against the dual-retrieval process theory of recall output sequence. The strength theory predicts the item output sequence to be in the descending order of memory strength. The dual-retrieval process theory postulates two phases in a free recall, a first direct access phase in which items are output verbatim in the weakest-to-strongest order (cognitive triage) and a second reconstructive phase in which reconstructed items are output in the strongest-to-weakest order. In four experiments, all three indicators of memory strength (latency, accuracy, and confidence) consistently showed a descending-strength order of recall both for true and false memories. Additionally, false memory was found to be output in two phases and subjects' confidence judgment of their own memory to be unaccountable by retrieval fluency (recall latency).

This study tested the hypothesis that the serial position function in serial order memory derives from a gradient of activation strength, with the end anchor point having the highest strength and accessibility. Subjects memorized an ordered series of names and were tested on their memory of the order with a comparative judgment task. In Experiment 1, a traditional comparative judgment task was used in which they chose the one member in a pair that was either higher or lower in the ranking on the attribute dimension. The 3 typical effects from comparative judgment for serial items--the bowed serial position function, the distance effect, and the congruity effect--were obtained. In Experiment 2, subjects were instructed to choose the item either closer to or farther from the middle reference point of the series. Remarkably different forms of the 3 effects were obtained. Most notable was a deep drop in the middle of the RT function, supporting the activation gradient hypothesis but further separating the role of the reference point from that of the endpoints in the assumption of the activation strength gradient theories. The findings also generalized the concept of each of these 3 effects.

This study tested the hypothesis that the serial position function in serial order memory derives from a gradient of activation strength, with the end anchor point having the highest strength and accessibility. Subjects memorized an ordered series of names and were tested on their memory of the order with a comparative judgment task. In Experiment I, a traditional comparative judgment task was used in which they chose the one member in a pair that was either higher or lower in the ranking on the attribute dimension. The 3 typical effects from comparative judgment for serial items--the bowed serial position function, the distance effect, and the congruity effect--were obtained. In Experiment 2, subjects were instructed to choose the item either closer to or farther from the middle reference point of the series. Remarkably different forms of the 3 effects were obtained. Most notable was a deep drop in the middle of the RT function, supporting the activation gradient hypothesis but further separating the role of the reference point from that of the endpoints in the assumption of the activation strength gradient theories. The findings also generalized the concept of each of these 3 effects., The three hallmark effects of comparative judgment in serial order memory are serial position effects, distance effects, and congruity effects (Banks, 1977; for a theory modeling all three effects at [...]

Participants learned semantic associates and were tested in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. A multiple-trial learning procedure with warning, feedback, and monetary incentive was employed to reduce false memory. Results showed that there was a progressive reduction of false memory over the trials as well as a generalization of learning to new lists of words in avoiding the critical nonpresented words attributable to explicit warning, feedback, and incentive, respectively. Both the feedback and the monetary incentive had an effect beyond what an explicit warning could obtain. In addition, participants were found to achieve false-memory reduction by enhancing the activation of the critical words and the monitoring process, rather than by strengthening the verbatim processing of the list words. It was concluded that false memory may not be as impervious to correction as was believed insofar as an effective training method is applied.

In 3 experiments, participants identified target letters in multiletter strings of different interletter steps. Results show that the alphabetically extreme targets in the arrays (A or C in BCA) were consistently identified faster than were the interior letters, with the alphabetically middle target (B in BCA) identified most slowly. Distance effects were not consistent across different targets. The findings are not consistent with the ends-inward serial search, comparison, and serial search plus comparison models. The data suggest that an interior target was identified by first identifying the terminal letter and then mentally constructing the linear order inward by probabilistically using either a comparison or an interitem serial search process to achieve maximal efficacy. This suggestion is consistent with the ends-inward construction theory of linear-order learning.

Ss reading articles and then answered true-false reading comprehension questions containing some inflectional errors. Experiment 1 showed that when 20% of the questions had errors, the errors slowed the reading speed without affecting the accuracy of comprehension, supporting the view of reading as basically a stimulus-driven process. Experiment 2 showed that when all of the questions contained errors, the sentences could be read as fast and comprehended as accurately as correct sentences, suggesting that the normally automatic processing of inflections could be altered by strategic processes induced by the predictable repetition of errors. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the strategic processes could be developed quickly. Readers can switch between bottom-up and top-down processes to meet the task demands.

Tested the comprehension of children aged 4-12 of double negation in Chinese. Young children interpreted double negation as simple negation. Only the oldest children consistently interpreted double negatives as equivalent to affirmative sentences. (SKC)

Cowan's concept of a pure short-term memory (STM) capacity limit is equivalent to that of memory subitizing. However, a robust phenomenon well known in the Sternberg paradigm, that is, the linear increase of BT as a function of memory set size is not consistent with this concept. Cowan's STM capacity theory will remain incomplete until it can account for this phenomenon.

The finding of a correlation between normative responses to judgment and reasoning questions and cognitive capacity measures (SAT score) suggests that the cause of the non-normative responses is computational in nature. This actually is consistent with the rational competence view. The implications of this finding for the adaptation view of cognition are discussed.