Perceptual Consciousness and Cognitive Access from the Perspective of Capacity-Unlimited Working Memory

Theories of consciousness divide over whether perceptual consciousness is rich or sparse in specific representational content and whether it requires cognitive access. These two issues are often treated in tandem because of a shared assumption that the representational capacity of cognitive access is fairly limited. Recent research on working memory challenges this shared assumption. This paper argues that abandoning the assumption undermines post-cue-based “overflow” arguments, according to which perceptual conscious is rich and does not require cognitive access. Abandoning it also dissociates the rich/sparse debate from the access question. The paper then explores attempts to reformulate overflow theses in ways that don’t require the assumption of limited capacity. Finally, it discusses the problem of relating seemingly non-probabilistic perceptual consciousness to the probabilistic representations posited by the models that challenge conceptions of cognitive access as capacity-limited

Evaluation of an eBook for Oral Health Literacy© to Promote Child Health: Readability, Suitability, Understandability, Actionability, and Gist-Based Message

The purpose of the study was to evaluate an oral health curriculum called an eBook for Oral Health Literacy© to determine its effectiveness for promoting child health. A secondary purpose was to describe and explain the design characteristics of readability, suitability, understandability, and actionability of the 17 chapters of the eBook. A third purpose was to conduct evaluations on verbatim representations (or literal facts) that are presented in the eBook chapters, including the gist representations that are not explicitly presented but inferred by the reader from the chapter information. Results found that the eBook for Oral Health Literacy© had acceptable, and in many cases, favorable scores, for the five design elements of readability, suitability, understandability, actionability, and gist comprehension. Ongoing dissemination of the eBook for Oral Health Literacy© curriculum has the potential to boost children who are “learning to read” and “reading to learn” about oral health hygiene and nutrition. Future studies should use one or more chapters from the curriculum as an intervention to test this educational premise as an explanatory basis for functional health literacy

Framing a Consent Form to Improve Consent Understanding and Determine How This Affects Willingness to Participate in HIV Cure Research: An Experimental Survey Study

HIV cure research carries serious risks and negligible benefits. We investigated how participants understand these risks and what influences their willingness to participate. Through internet-based and in-person convenience sampling, 86 HIV+ participants completed an experimental survey. Participants were randomized to read a standard consent form describing a hypothetical HIV cure study or one adapted using Fuzzy Trace Theory—a decision-making model to facilitate complex information processing. We measured consent understanding and cognitive (e.g., safe/harmful) and affective (e.g., concerning, satisfying) evaluations of HIV cure research. Participants who read the adapted consent form had improved consent understanding, but only positive affective evaluations were associated with a willingness to participate. Consent processes can use decision-making theories to facilitate comprehension of study information

Reflection of self-serving biases on memory representations : the unconscious effects of hedonic and utilitarian consumption

The literature on consumer behavior already revealed that hedonic consumption suffers from the stigma of being considered as wasteful and unnecessary due to underlying cultural and religious beliefs. Therefore, consumers indulging in hedonic consumption commonly experience feelings of guilt and need for justification. Additionally, people act according to the sacrosanct belief that the self is a moral, lovable, and capable individual. When they are threatened by potential evidence that is in contrast with that belief, consumers unconsciously adapt their behavior to restore a flattering self-image. This study tackles the implications of hedonic and utilitarian consumption by investigating the reflection of self-serving biases on memory, which is subject to distortions through a process called belief-harmonization. The feeling of guilt related to hedonic consumption is expected to activate compensatory mechanisms and lead to the occurrence of memory distortions. An online survey was distributed, dividing participants into two manipulation conditions: self threat and self-affirmation. Respondents were presented with a situation in which they theoretically purchased a product that featured both hedonic and utilitarian attributes, which they had to recall a few minutes later, after a distraction task. The results exhibited a strong impact of hedonism and utilitarianism on memory distortions, which have been amplified by the manipulation. Participants exposed to self-threat recalled more utilitarian features then hedonic, whereas those exposed to self-affirmation were more inclined to remember a greater number of hedonic attributes.A literatura sobre comportamento do consumidor já revelou que o consumo hedónico sofre do estigma de ser considerado um desperdício e desnecessário devido às crenças culturais e religiosas subjacentes. Portanto, os consumidores que incorrem em consumo hedónico comumente experimentam sentimentos de culpa e necessidade de justificação. Além disso, as pessoas agem de acordo com a crença sacrossanta de que o eu é um indivíduo moral, amável e capaz. Quando são ameaçados por potenciais evidências que contrastam com essa crença, os consumidores subconscientemente adaptam o seu comportamento para restaurar uma autoimagem positiva. Este estudo aborda as implicações do consumo hedónico e utilitário investigando o reflexo de enviesamentos egoístas na memória, que está sujeita a distorções por meio de um processo denominado harmonização de crenças. Espera-se que o sentimento de culpa associado ao consumo hedónico ative mecanismos compensatórios e leve à ocorrência de distorções de memória. Um inquérito online foi distribuído, dividindo os participantes em duas condições de manipulação: auto-ameaça e autoafirmação. Os entrevistados foram apresentados a uma situação em que, teoricamente, compraram um produto que apresentava atributos hedónicos e utilitários, dos quais eles se deveriam lembrar alguns minutos depois, após uma tarefa de distração. Os resultados exibiram um forte impacto do hedonismo e do utilitarismo nas distorções da memória, ampliadas pela manipulação. Os participantes expostos à auto-ameaça relembraram mais características utilitárias do que hedónicas, enquanto aqueles expostos à autoafirmação estavam mais inclinados a lembrar um número maior de atributos hedónico

The influence of prior knowledge on memory: A developmental cognitive neuroscience perspective

Across ontogenetic development, individuals gather manifold experiences during which they detect regularities in their environment and thereby accumulate knowledge. This knowledge is used to guide behavior, make predictions, and acquire further new knowledge. In this review, we discuss the influence of prior knowledge on memory from both the psychology and the emerging cognitive neuroscience literature and provide a developmental perspective on this topic. Recent neuroscience findings point to a prominent role of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and of the hippocampus (HC) in the emergence of prior knowledge and in its application during the processes of successful memory encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. We take the lateral PFC into consideration as well and discuss changes in both medial and lateral PFC and HC across development and postulate how these may be related to the development of the use of prior knowledge for remembering. For future direction, we argue that, to measure age differential effects of prior knowledge on memory, it is necessary to distinguish the availability of prior knowledge from its accessibility and use

Reading during an academic reading-into-writing task: an eye-tracking study

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of Philosophy.The study aimed to establish the types of reading university students engaged on an academic reading-into-writing task through a mixed-methods approach. To achieve this, eye-tracking technology was used to record 30 students’ eye-movements as they engaged in a one-hour computer-based academic reading into writing test task. After the test events, stimulated recall interviews and a cognitive process questionnaire were used to collect more comprehensive data on these students' academic reading processes. The study also investigated whether there were differences in the reading patterns of students with more experience of performing academic reading into writing tasks and those students with less experience. Differences in the way high and low scoring students tackled the task were also investigated. 30 participants (15 first year undergraduates and 15 third year undergraduates or postgraduates) were recruited from a range of UK universities. The participants were observed and their eye movements were recorded whilst they completed the reading into writing task. After the task, participants watched a replay of their reading and writing activity and were prompted to recollect their thought processes during the task. Finally, participants completed a short cognitive processing questionnaire. This research made five key findings relating to university students' academic reading processes in the context of a reading into writing task. Participants spent almost half their time (47 per cent) fixating on their own emerging text and about a third of their time reading the source texts. The task instructions were relatively poorly attended to. The fixations on the written source text were more homogeneous than fixations on the participant emerging work. Fixations on the written source texts reported a shorter mean v fixation duration and contained much higher rates of regression than for reading reported in the literature. Careful reading accounted for less than 30 per cent of reading of the written source texts. Other forms of selective reading accounted for the remaining 70 per cent of reading. The predominance of selective reading appears to result from participants targeting their reading to spend more time on the more relevant sentences, although several factors seem to interact to determine total time on each sentence. When differences between the Year 1 (Y1) and Year 3+ (Y3+) groups were examined, it emerged that the Y3+ group spent much more time fixating on their own work than the Y1 group. It also emerged that the Y3+ group engaged in more selective reading than the Y1 .The increased levels of selective reading may have contributed to the greater attention that the Y3+ group devoted to the more relevant sentences. When the results for the five highest and five lowest scoring participants were compared it emerged that the low scoring participants were much less effective at focusing their attention on the most relevant sentences. In short, these findings suggest that reading during an academic reading into writing task is different to the careful reading described in the literature. It demands a wide range of selective reading skills and strategies in addition to careful reading skills. Task representation can influence the way the writer interacts with the source text(s). The findings imply that development of selective reading skills, in conjunction with developing task representation skills, could help inexperienced students produce better written work earlier in their courses

Making good quality care habitual : an exploration of the concept habit in relation to healthcare professional behaviour

PhD ThesisTranslating evidence-based guidance into practice involves healthcare professionals (HCPs) adopting new, and changing existing behaviours. Implementation research typically focuses on the reflective process that underlies HCPs’ behaviour, however there is a growing interest in the role that impulsive processes such as habit have on behaviour. Habit can be defined as a learned tendency to perform a behaviour automatically in response to a specific cue. This thesis presents four studies investigating how a habit perspective can contribute to understanding HCPs’ behaviour. Chapter 1 describes how a greater consideration of habit in the implementation literature could contribute to the field. Chapter 2 presents theory-based interviews conducted with HCPs who piloted a new self-management tool for diabetes. The study showed how HCPs formed a new habit of using the tool and how electronic reminders facilitated this process by promoting behavioural repetition. Chapter 3 describes a randomised controlled trial that aimed to test whether a planning intervention (using action- and coping planning) would be effective in supporting HCPs with habit change. While the study did not reach recruitment targets, it provided some first insights regarding the feasibility of using a planning intervention to support HCP behaviour change. Chapter 4 presents a secondary analysis of a large national data set, which found that the relationship between planning (action and coping planning) and six guideline-recommended behaviours operated indirectly on HCP behaviour via habit. Finally, Chapter 5 describes a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies investigating the association between habit and HCPs’ behaviour and showed that habit plays a significant role in predicting clinical behaviours. This thesis supports the consideration of habit when predicting HCPs’ behaviour and suggests that the use of conditional planning interventions may offer a feasible approach to support HCPs with creating and breaking habit.Health Foundatio

The social amplification of bias

The area of judgment and decision-making became very influential under the heuristics-andbiases research program by revealing that the prevailing economic theories lacked realism: The human being is not, as these theories had assumed, perfectly rational. Instead, people frequently rely on simplified, mostly automatic and unconscious strategies (i.e., heuristics) that enable the human mind, with its limitations, to provide acceptable judgments and decisions, but that can also lead to systematic errors (i.e., biases) under certain conditions. Yet, the judgment and decision-making research itself still neglects essential aspects of reality that can have an important influence on the way people judge and make decisions. Among these aspects is the fact that, as people live in societies, they receive information from, and transmit it to, other people. The main hypothesis explored in the current dissertation is that this social dynamic will lead to a social amplification of bias: As information travels from one person to the next, the message will aggregate individual biases leading to messages that are progressively more biased the further they travel from their source. In four experimental chapters, the social amplification of bias hypothesis was tested using the serial reproduction paradigm. In this paradigm, communication chains are formed using the responses of one participant (e.g., the recall of a text) as the stimuli to be presented to the next participant, thus recreating the social dynamic of receiving and transmitting information in the laboratory. These studies supported the social amplification of bias hypothesis, and did so covering different judgment and decision-making domains (risk perception, illusory correlations, denominator neglect, and cognitive reflection), using different types of response formats (frequency estimates, forced recognition, free recall), andincluding samples from Europe and the US, online and in the lab. The dissertation ends by discussing implications, future research, and potential modelling and debiasing techniques