Pupillary Stroop effects

We recorded the pupil diameters of participants performing the words’ color-naming Stroop task (i.e., naming the color of a word that names a color). Non-color words were used as baseline to firmly establish the effects of semantic relatedness induced by color word distractors. We replicated the classic Stroop effects of color congruency and color incongruency with pupillary diameter recordings: relative to non-color words, pupil diameters increased for color distractors that differed from color responses, while they reduced for color distractors that were identical to color responses. Analyses of the time courses of pupil responses revealed further differences between color-congruent and color-incongruent distractors, with the latter inducing a steep increase of pupil size and the former a relatively lower increase. Consistent with previous findings that have demonstrated that pupil size increases as task demands rise, the present results indicate that pupillometry is a robust measure of Stroop interference, and it represents a valuable addition to the cognitive scientist’s toolbox

Assessing stimulus–stimulus (semantic) conflict in the Stroop task using saccadic two-to-one color response mapping and preresponse pupillary measures

© 2015, The Psychonomic Society, Inc. Conflict in the Stroop task is thought to come from various stages of processing, including semantics. Two-to-one response mappings, in which two response-set colors share a common response location, have been used to isolate stimulus–stimulus (semantic) from stimulus–response conflict in the Stroop task. However, the use of congruent trials as a baseline means that the measured effects could be exaggerated by facilitation, and recent research using neutral, non-color-word trials as a baseline has supported this notion. In the present study, we sought to provide evidence for stimulus–stimulus conflict using an oculomotor Stroop task and an early, preresponse pupillometric measure of effort. The results provided strong (Bayesian) evidence for no statistical difference between two-to-one response-mapping trials and neutral trials in both saccadic response latencies and preresponse pupillometric measures, supporting the notion that the difference between same-response and congruent trials indexes facilitation in congruent trials, and not stimulus–stimulus conflict, thus providing evidence against the presence of semantic conflict in the Stroop task. We also demonstrated the utility of preresponse pupillometry in measuring Stroop interference, supporting the idea that pupillary effects are not simply a residue of making a response

Estudo experimental do comportamento ocular em trabalhadores administrativos como um indicador de conforto visual em situação de risco de encadeamento

The daylight impact on the visual environment is fundamental on visual display terminal work (VDT). Visual performance and visual comfort should be considered for equal. The study (n=16) was performed at the experimental lighting laboratory. Office work with VDT was evaluated using STROOP task in two orientations: (with/without solar presence in the visual field). Our hypothesis states the existence of a relationship between ocular behavior and visual comfort of workers. An eye-tracker was employed in order to record the ocular gestural parameters: blinks, direction of gaze, eye aperture (Degree of eye?s openness) and pupil size, which were correlated with the vertical illuminance at the eye. Visual comfort was assessed with Glare Sensation Vote. Results indicate a strong negative linear correlation between eye illuminance and the degree of eye?s openness in the direct sunlight scenario (p=-0.636; s=0.008) and in diffuse light scenario (p=-0.661; s=0.005), that could be the main predictor of visual discomfort. This experiment allowed us to explore eye behavior patterns that could be visual comfort indices under glare risk situations.O impacto a luz do dia no ambiente visual é fundamental para o trabalho no Ecrã de Visualização de Dados (EDV). Desempenho visual e conforto visual devem ser considerados em igual. O estudo (n = 16) foi realizado no laboratório experimental de iluminação. O trabalho de escritório com EDV foi avaliado utilizando a tarefa de Stroop em duas orientações: (com / sem presença solar no campo visual). A nossa hipótese afirma a existência de uma relação entre o comportamento ocular e conforto visual dos trabalhadores. Um “eye-tracker” foi desenvolvido para gravar os parâmetros gestuais oculares: pestanejar, direção do olhar, abertura dos olhos (Grau de abertura do olho) e tamanho da pupila, que foram correlacionados com a iluminância vertical no olho. Conforto visual foi avaliado com a escala de sensação de encadeamento. Os resultados indicam uma correlação linear negativa forte entre a luminosidade dos olhos e do grau de abertura de olho no cenário de luz solar direta (p = -0,636; s = 0,008) e no cenário de luz difusa (p = -0,661; s = 0,005), que poderia ser o principal preditor de desconforto visual. Esta experiência permitiu-nos explorar padrões de comportamento do olho que poderiam ser os índices de conforto visual em situação de risco de encadeamento.Fil: Yamin Garretón, Julieta Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales; ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez, Roberto Germán. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales; ArgentinaFil: Pattini, Andrea Elvira. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales; Argentin

The expectancy bias: Expectancy-violating faces evoke earlier pupillary dilation than neutral or negative faces

Humans maintain a negativity bias, whereby they perceive threatening stimuli to be more salient than rewarding or neutral stimuli. Across 6 within-subject experimental comparisons, we tested the hypothesis that humans maintain an even stronger expectancy bias, preferentially processing stimuli that violate mental representations of expected associations. To assess this bias, we measured variations in pupillary dilation as a means of determin- ing attentional arousal in response to neutral, negative and expectancy-violating versions of the same social stimuli: human faces. We conducted three baseline manipulation checks that directly compared neutral faces with threatening (angry) and expectancy-violating (upside-down and Thatcherized) faces, and three bias comparisons that directly compared threatening and expectancy-violating faces with one another. Across these experiments, we found evidence for a dominant expectancy bias in pupillary arousal for social stimuli, whereby expectancy-violating faces produced pupillary dilation earlier than neutral and threatening faces, with Thatcherized faces producing the greatest magnitude of dilation

Pupillary responses to affective words in bilinguals’ first versus second language

Late bilinguals often report less emotional involvement in their second language, a phenomenon called reduced emotional resonance in L2. The present study measured pupil dilation in response to high- versus low-arousing words (e.g., riot vs. swamp) in German-English and Finnish-English late bilinguals, both in their first and in their second language. A third sample of English monolingual speakers (tested only in English) served as a control group. To improve on previous research, we controlled for lexical confounds such as length, frequency, emotional valence, and abstractness–both within and across languages. Results showed no appreciable differences in post-trial word recognition judgements (98% recognition on average), but reliably stronger pupillary effects of the arousal manipulation when stimuli were presented in participants’ first rather than second language. This supports the notion of reduced emotional resonance in L2. Our findings are unlikely to be due to differences in stimulus-specific control variables or to potential word-recognition difficulties in participants’ second language. Linguistic relatedness between first and second language (German-English vs. Finnish-English) was also not found to have a modulating influence

Monitoring Cognitive and Emotional Processes Through Pupil and Cardiac Response During Dynamic Versus Logical Task

The paper deals with the links between physiological measurements and cognitive and emotional functioning. As long as the operator is a key agent in charge of complex systems, the definition of metrics able to predict his performance is a great challenge. The measurement of the physiological state is a very promising way but a very acute comprehension is required; in particular few studies compare autonomous nervous system reactivity according to specific cognitive processes during task performance and task related psychological stress is often ignored. We compared physiological parameters recorded on 24 healthy subjects facing two neuropsychological tasks: a dynamic task that require problem solving in a world that continually evolves over time and a logical task representative of cognitive processes performed by operators facing everyday problem solving. Results showed that the mean pupil diameter change was higher during the dynamic task; conversely, the heart rate was more elevated during the logical task. Finally, the systolic blood pressure seemed to be strongly sensitive to psychological stress. A better taking into account of the precise influence of a given cognitive activity and both workload and related task-induced psychological stress during task performance is a promising way to better monitor operators in complex working situations to detect mental overload or pejorative stress factor of error

The role of anterior cingulate cortex in the affective evaluation of conflict

An influential theory of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) function argues that this brain region plays a crucial role in the affective evaluation of performance monitoring and control demands. Specifically, control-demanding processes such as response conflict are thought to be registered as aversive signals by ACC, which in turn triggers processing adjustments to support avoidance learning. In support of conflict being treated as an aversive event, recent behavioral studies demonstrated that incongruent (i.e., conflict inducing), relative to congruent, stimuli can speed up subsequent negative, relative to positive, affective picture processing. Here, we used fMRI to investigate directly whether ACC activity in response to negative versus positive pictures is modulated by preceding control demands, consisting of conflict and task-switching conditions. The results show that negative, relative to positive, pictures elicited higher ACC activation after congruent, relative to incongruent, trials, suggesting that ACC's response to negative (positive) pictures was indeed affectively primed by incongruent (congruent) trials. Interestingly, this pattern of results was observed on task repetitions but disappeared on task alternations. This study supports the proposal that conflict induces negative affect and is the first to show that this affective signal is reflected in ACC activation

Reduced emotional resonance in bilinguals’ L2: Potential causes, methods of measurement, and behavioural implications

Bilinguals often report feeling “less” in their second language (L2). While a speaker might be fully proficient in their L2, it may not feel the same as one’s L1 does; in some cases bilinguals feel like their L2 is more emotionally distant, or even fake. This phenomenon, called reduced emotional resonance of L2, has been studied using a number of different methodologies ranging from questionnaire-based approaches to physiological measurement of emotion. The field, while truly interdisciplinary, lacks consensus on measurement practices. This thesis aims to address some of the most prevalent methodological issues in studying reduced emotional resonance of L2, namely how the word stimuli should be selected and normed, and provide guidance to conducting studies with word stimuli. This thesis presents six studies, which investigate the causes, measurement methods and implications of reduced emotional resonance in bilinguals’ L2. Chapter 2 focuses on the causes of reduced emotional resonance, and measures it with pupillometry. The potential causes of reduced emotional resonance are examined by trying to predict bilinguals’ physiological responses to emotional language from their language background information. Chapters 3-5 focus on the methodological aspects of reduced emotional resonance. Chapter 3 attempts to contrast different physiological measurement techniques of emotion. Comparing pupillometry and skin-conductance measurement, the chapter points out differences in paradigm design and sensitivity of these two techniques. Chapter 4 investigates the reliability of cognitive paradigms as measures of bilingual emotion, points out the importance of including stimulus item covariates in both stimulus selection, as well as analysis stage, and discusses why the use of translation equivalents is problematic. In this chapter, we compare a Lexical Decision Task to a pupillometry task in bilinguals’ L1 vs. L2, and in bilinguals vs. monolinguals. Chapter 5 looks into metacognitive measurement and compares affective word ratings with a pupillometry task to establish whether physiological responses to, and conscious evaluations of emotional words are related. Chapter 6 focuses on the behavioural implications of reduced emotional resonance of L2. Behavioural implications have typically been studied in the context of moral decision-making. Here, we expand this literature to attributions. Through two experiments, this chapter investigates whether Optimality bias (assigning more blame to actors who make suboptimal choices) will be mediated by the Foreign Language Effect. In other words, whether doing the experiment in one’s L2 will mitigate the Optimality bias. Finally, chapter 7 discusses the key findings and common themes to stem from the experiments, as well as the limitations and potential future directions for the field. The main contribution of this thesis is to provide systematic, methodology-focused work on reduced emotional resonance in bilinguals’ L2, to point out methodological inconsistencies, and to provide more robust alternatives for stimulus selection processes and statistical analyses of bilingual data

Measuring cognitive load and cognition: metrics for technology-enhanced learning

This critical and reflective literature review examines international research published over the last decade to summarise the different kinds of measures that have been used to explore cognitive load and critiques the strengths and limitations of those focussed on the development of direct empirical approaches. Over the last 40 years, cognitive load theory has become established as one of the most successful and influential theoretical explanations of cognitive processing during learning. Despite this success, attempts to obtain direct objective measures of the theory's central theoretical construct – cognitive load – have proved elusive. This obstacle represents the most significant outstanding challenge for successfully embedding the theoretical and experimental work on cognitive load in empirical data from authentic learning situations. Progress to date on the theoretical and practical approaches to cognitive load are discussed along with the influences of individual differences on cognitive load in order to assess the prospects for the development and application of direct empirical measures of cognitive load especially in technology-rich contexts