Do item-dependent context representations underlie serial order in cognition?:Commentary on Logan (2021)

Logan (2021) presented an impressive unification of serial order tasks including whole report, typing, and serial recall in the form of the context retrieval and updating (CRU) model. Despite the wide breadth of the model's coverage, its reliance on encoding and retrieving context representations that consist of the previous items may prevent it from being able to address a number of critical benchmark findings in the serial order literature that have shaped and constrained existing theories. In this commentary, we highlight three major challenges that motivated the development of a rival class of models of serial order, namely positional models. These challenges include the mixed-list phonological similarity effect, the protrusion effect, and interposition errors in temporal grouping. Simulations indicated that CRU can address the mixed-list phonological similarity effect if phonological confusions can occur during its output stage, suggesting that the serial position curves from this paradigm do not rule out models that rely on interitem associations, as has been previously been suggested. The other two challenges are more consequential for the model's representations, and simulations indicated the model was not able to provide a complete account of them. We highlight and discuss how revisions to CRU's representations or retrieval mechanisms can address these phenomena and emphasize that a fruitful direction forward would be to either incorporate positional representations or approximate them with its existing representations

Design of a Customized Neck Orthosis for FDM Manufacturing with a New Sustainable Bio-composite

The interest in developing customized external orthopaedic devices, thanks to the advent of Additive Manufacturing (AM), has grown in recent years. Greater attention was focused on upper limb casts, while applications to other body’s parts, such as the neck, were less investigated. In this paper the computer aided design (CAD) modelling, assessment and 3D printing with fused deposition modelling (FDM) of a customized neck orthosis are reported. The modelling, based on anatomic data of a volunteer subject, was aimed to obtain a lightweight, ventilated, hygienic and comfortable orthosis compared to the produced medical devices generally used for neck injuries. CAD models with different geometrical patterns, introduced for lightening and improving breathability, were considered, specifically, a honeycomb pattern and an elliptical holes pattern. These models were structurally assessed by means of finite elements analysis (FEA). Furthermore, an innovative composite material was considered for 3D printing. The material, Hemp Bio-Plastic® (HBP), composed by polylactic acid (PLA) and hemp shives, offers different advantages including lightweight, improved superficial finish and antibacterial properties. The results obtained in terms of design methodology and manufacturing by 3D printing of a prototype have shown the feasibility to develop customized cervical orthoses, with potentially improved performance with respect to cervical collars available on the market also thanks to the use of the innovative composite material

Assessing Theoretical Conclusions With Blinded Inference to Investigate a Potential Inference Crisis

Scientific advances across a range of disciplines hinge on the ability to make inferences about unobservable theoretical entities on the basis of empirical data patterns. Accurate inferences rely on both discovering valid, replicable data patterns and accurately interpreting those patterns in terms of their implications for theoretical constructs. The replication crisis in science has led to widespread efforts to improve the reliability of research findings, but comparatively little attention has been devoted to the validity of inferences based on those findings. Using an example from cognitive psychology, we demonstrate a blinded-inference paradigm for assessing the quality of theoretical inferences from data. Our results reveal substantial variability in experts’ judgments on the very same data, hinting at a possible inference crisis

Do item-dependent context representations underlie serial order in cognition? Commentary on Logan (2021)

Logan (2021) presented an impressive unification of serial order tasks including whole report, typing, and serial recall in the form of the context retrieval and updating (CRU) model. Despite the wide breadth of the model’s coverage, its reliance on encoding and retrieving context representations that consist of the previous items may prevent it from being able to address a number of critical benchmark findings in the serial order literature that have shaped and constrained existing theories. In this commentary, we highlight three major challenges that motivated the development of a rival class of models of serial order, namely positional models. These challenges include the mixed-list phonological similarity effect, the protrusion effect, and interposition errors in temporal grouping. Simulations indicated that CRU can address the mixed list phonological similarity effect if phonological confusions can occur during its output stage, suggesting that the serial position curves from this paradigm do not rule out models that rely on inter-item associations, as has been previously been suggested. The other two challenges are more consequential for the model’s representations, and simulations indicated the model was not able to provide a complete account of them. We highlight and discuss how revisions to CRU’s representations or retrieval mechanisms can address these phenomena and emphasize that a fruitful direction forward would be to either incorporate positional representations or approximate them with its existing representations

A Dynamic Model of Deciding Not to Choose

We propose a dynamic theory of decisions not to choose which of 2 options is correct. Such "do not-know" judgments are of theoretical and practical importance in domains ranging from comparative psychology, psychophysics, episodic memory, and metacognition to applied areas including educational testing and eyewitness testimony. However, no previous theory has provided a detailed quantitative account of the time it takes to make both definitive and do not-know responses and their relative frequencies. We tested our theory, the multiple threshold race (MTR), in 1 recognition memory experiment where participants had to pick a previously studied target out of 2 similar faces and another where targets and lures were tested 1 at a time. In both experiments we manipulated similarity through face morphing. High similarity made decisions difficult, encouraging do not-know responses. We also tested the MTR's ability to account for other manipulations that aimed to affect the speed and probability of do not-know responses, including increasing penalties for making an error (with no penalty for a do not-know response) and emphasizing either response speed or accuracy. We found that there were marked individual differences in do not-know use, and that the MTR was able to account for the intricate pattern of effects associated with our manipulations, both on average and in terms of individual differences. We discuss how estimates of MTR's parameters illuminate the psychological mechanisms that govern the interplay between definitive and do not-know responding. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

A method to model anticipatory postural control in driver braking events

Human body models (HBMs) for vehicle occupant simulations have recently been extended with active muscles and postural control strategies. Feedback control has been used to model occupant responses to autonomous braking interventions. However, driver postural responses during driver initiated braking differ greatly from autonomous braking. In the present study, an anticipatory postural response was hypothesized, modelled in a whole-body HBM with feedback controlled muscles, and validated using existing volunteer data. The anticipatory response was modelled as a time dependent change in the reference value for the feedback controllers, which generates correcting moments to counteract the braking deceleration. The results showed that, in 11 m/s2 driver braking simulations, including the anticipatory postural response reduced the peak forward displacement of the head by 100 mm, of the shoulder by 30 mm, while the peak head flexion rotation was reduced by 18°. The HBM kinematic response was within a one standard deviation corridor of corresponding test data from volunteers performing maximum braking. It was concluded that the hypothesized anticipatory responses can be modelled by changing the reference positions of the individual joint feedback controllers that regulate muscle activation levels. The addition of anticipatory postural control muscle activations appears to explain the difference in occupant kinematics between driver and autonomous braking. This method of modelling postural reactions can be applied to the simulation of other driver voluntary actions, such as emergency avoidance by steering.Biomechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin

Cumulative Exposure to Disadvantage and the Intergenerational Transmission of Neighbourhood Effects (discussion paper)

Studies of neighbourhood effects typically investigate the instantaneous effect of point-in-time measures of neighbourhood poverty on individual outcomes. It has been suggested that it is not solely the current neighbourhood, but also the neighbourhood history of an individual that is important in determining an individual’s outcomes. The effect of long-term exposure to poverty neighbourhoods on adults has largely been ignored in the empirical literature, partly due to a lack of suitable data. Using a population of parental home-leavers in Stockholm, Sweden, this study is innovative in investigating the effects of two temporal dimensions of exposure to neighbourhood environments on personal income later in life: the parental neighbourhood at the time of leaving the home and the cumulative exposure to poverty neighbourhoods in the subsequent 17 years. Using unique longitudinal Swedish register data and bespoke individual neighbourhoods, we are the first to employ a hybrid model, which combines both random and fixed effects approaches, in a study of neighbourhood effects. We find independent and non-trivial effects on income of the parental neighbourhood and cumulative exposure to poverty concentration neighbourhoods. The intergenerational transmission and exposure effects suggest the need for a more dynamic formulation of the neighbourhood effects hypothesis which explicitly takes temporal dimensions into account.OTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen