Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2024-04-28
Abstract： This study used event related potential (ERP) technology to investigate the effects of different types of unitization on item recognition in both younger and older adults through two experiments. A total of two theoretical accounts concern the role of unitization in both item and associative recognition: “benefits and costs” and “benefits-only” accounts. This study hypothesized that because young adults have more cognitive resources, either type of unitization with different demands on cognitive resources does not impair their item memory. However, older adults have fewer cognitive resources, and whether different types of unitization impair their item memory depends on how these demand cognitive resources. Experiment 1 manipulated the level of bottom-up unitization by using compound words and unrelated words. Experiment 2 manipulated the level of top-down unitization using definition and sentence.
In experiment 1, a total of 19 community-dwelling older and 23 younger adults were asked to learn compound and unrelated word pairs, and during tests, they were asked to perform item recognition and associative recognition tasks. In experiment 2, a total of 19 community-dwelling older adults and 20 younger adults were asked to learn word pairs under definition and sentence conditions, and during the test they were required to perform item recognition and associative recognition tasks. In our sample of two experiments, all Older adults completed the mini mental state examination and scored at least 26 points
For younger adults, two types of unitization condition had no effect on their associative and item recognition. The ERP results of Experiment 1 revealed a comparable frontal old/new effect in both compound wordsand unrelated words condition, and the compound words condition reduced the parietal old/new effect. The ERP results of Experiment 2 indicated that the frontal old/new effect was absent in the definition condition, and both unitization conditions revealed a comparable the parietal old/new effect. For older adults, two types of unitization enhanced their associative recognition, however, have different influence on the item recognition. The behavioral results of Experiment 1 showed that older adults’ item recognition performance under the compound words condition was superior to that under the unrelated words condition. The ERP results indicated that the frontal old/new effect was only present in the compound words condition, and both encoding conditions revealed a comparable the parietal old/new effect. The behavioral results of Experiment 2 showed that older adults’ item recognition performance under the definition condition was inferior to that under the sentence condition. The ERP results revealed that the frontal old/new effect was absent in definition condition and only present in the sentence condition, and both encoding conditions were found to have comparable parietal old/new effect.
The influence of unitization on the item recognition depends on the encoding types. For younger adults, the item recognition in both unitized encoding conditions were comparable to that in the non-unitized encoding. Equivalent levels of memory retrieval were achieved through “less” overall neural processing on familiarity or recollection, which supports the “benefits-only” account. For older adults, the bottom-up unitized encoding condition promotes item recognition relying on the frontal old/new effects, which supports the “benefits-only” account. The top-down unitized encoding condition impaired older adults’ item recognition relying on the absent of the frontal old/new effects, which supports the “benefits and costs” account.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： As a fundamental mathematical skill, approximate arithmetic is one of the critical abilities in daily life to represent and operate on the numerosity of objects approximately. Investigating how arithmetic bias is formed and developed is important to understand the underlying mechanism of arithmetic operation. When performing arithmetic operations, individuals tend to overestimate outcomes in addition and underestimate outcomes in subtraction, such estimation bias is called the Operational Momentum (OM) effect. Currently there were three mainstream theoretical accounts (i.e., attentional shift account, heuristic account, compression account). The main differences among these three accounts are whether the spatial-numerical association is invoked and how deeply the numerical elements are processed. The attentional shift account, as the most recognized explanation mechanism, argues that the OM effect is due to spatial shifts of attention along the mental number line. When calculating and estimating numerosities, individuals first map the first operand onto the mental number line, then, according to the kind of the operation sign, the attentional focus was shifted to a new location on the mental number line with the distance of the representation of second operand on the mental number line. When performing mental arithmetic, the mental representation usually shifts positively on the mental number line along the direction of operation sign, therefore, the outcome is represented larger in addition and multiplication and smaller in subtraction and division (Katz & Knops, 2014; McCrink et al., 2007). The heuristic account is firstly used to explain the findings of the OM effect in infants, which assumes that individuals use intuitive operational logic and adopt a simple heuristic to solve the mathematical problems: addition indicates larger outcomes and subtraction indicates smaller outcomes. The compression account assumes that the OM effect is the result of the necessary compression and decompression process on the logarithmic compression of the mental number line. This account is still in the theoretical stage and needs more empirical work to verify. Furthermore, the three accounts are not mutually exclusive - some findings suggested the OM effect can be explained by multiple accounts.Early arithmetic is fundamental to the acquisition of complex mathematical concepts and advanced arithmetic operations. By reviewing recent findings of the OM effect in early development, we found many studies have demonstrated the OM effect in infants (Cassia et al., 2016, 2017; McCrink & Wynn, 2009), but it remained puzzled in later development as work in children have shown inconsistent findings. As age increases, research work with 6- to 7-year-old children observed an inverse OM effect (Knops et al., 2013), however, adult-consistent OM effect has been found in 7- to 12-year-old children and the OM effect monotonically increased with age (Jang & Cho, 2022; Pinheiro-Chagas et al., 2018). Together these show a U-shaped developmental trend in OM effect between preschoolers and school-age children. This trend may be related to the improvement of the mathematical ability and the maturation of the spatial attention. Specially, with the acquisition of the mathematical knowledge, preschool children’s mathematical ability would improve, the knowledge of the counting principle and other related mathematical concepts appear to influence the performance of the arithmetic computations. Meanwhile, the maturation of the spatial attention may influence the mapping of numerical representations onto the mental number line therefore influences the OM effect.Given the importance of the underlying mechanism of the OM effect on understanding the arithmetic operation in development, future research in developmental field should investigate: 1) the developmental trajectory of the OM effect with multiple paradigms and techniques; 2) the role of the Approximate Number System in the origin and development of the OM effect; 3) generalizability of the OM effect in complex arithmetic or even algebraic operations; 4) the joint effect of various factors (e.g., mathematical abilities and spatial attention) on the OM effect; and 5) the intervention for arithmetic bias.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2022-06-13
Abstract：
Investigating how operational momentum effect is formed and moderated by developmental factors is critical in understanding the underlying mechanism of arithmetic computation. Early arithmetic is fundamental to acquisition of complex mathematical concepts and advanced arithmetic operations. When performing arithmetic operations, individuals tend to overestimate outcomes in addition and underestimate outcomes in subtraction, such estimation bias is called operational momentum (OM) effect, which includes three main theoretical accounts (i.e., attentional shift account, heuristic account, compression account). Though many studies using various experimental designs have demonstrated the OM effect in adults, it remained puzzled in development as findings in children have shown inconsistent findings. The present review discussed the trajectories and influencing factors of OM effect in early development. Future directions in the developmental field should investigate: 1) the developmental trajectory of OM through integrating multiple paradigms; 2) the role of Approximate Number System plays in the onset and development of OM; 3) generalizability of OM in complex arithmetic or even algebraic operations; 4) the joint effect of various factors (e.g., mathematical abilities and spatial attention) on OM; and 5) intervention for operational bias.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
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