Memory shapes judgments: Tracing how memory biases judgments by inducing the retrieval of exemplars

When making judgments (e.g., about the quality of job candidates) decision makers should ignore salient, but unrepresentative information (e.g., the person’s name). However, research suggests that salient information influences judgments, possibly because memories of past encounters with similar information are integrated into the judgment. We studied eye movements to trace the link between the retrieval of past instances and their influence on judgments. Participants were more likely to look at screen locations where exemplars matching items on a name attribute had appeared, suggesting the retrieval of exemplars. Eye movements to exemplar locations predicted judgments, explaining why names influenced judgments. The results provide insights into how exemplars are integrated into the judgment process when assessing memory retrieval online

More Than Storage of Information: What Working Memory Contributes to Visual Abductive Reasoning

Abductive reasoning is the process of finding the best explanation for a set of observations. As the number of possible observations and corresponding explanations may be very high, it is commonly accepted that working memory capacity is closely related to successful abductive reasoning. However, the precise relationship between abductive reasoning and working memory capacity remains largely opaque. In a reanalysis of two experiments (N = 59), we first investigated whether reasoning performance is associated with differences in working memory capacity. Second, using eye tracking, we explored the relationship between the facets of working memory and the process of visuospatial reasoning. We used working memory tests of both components (verbal-numerical/spatial) as well as an intelligence measure. Results showed a clear relationship between reasoning accuracy and spatial components as well as intelligence. Process measures suggested that working memory seems to be a limiting factor to reasoning and that looking-back to previously relevant areas is compensating for poor mental models rather than being a sign of a particularly elaborate one. Following, high working memory ability might lead to the use of strategies to optimize the content and complexity of the mental representation on which abductive reasoning is based

Advancing Knowledge on Situation Comprehension in Dynamic Traffic Situations by Studying Eye Movements to Empty Spatial Locations

Objective: This study used the looking-at-nothing phenomenon to explore situation awareness (SA) and the effects of working memory (WM) load in driving situations. Background: While driving, people develop a mental representation of the environment. Since errors in retrieving information from this representation can have fatal consequences, it is essential for road safety to investigate this process. During retrieval, people tend to fixate spatial positions of visually encoded information, even if it is no longer available at that location. Previous research has shown that this "looking-at-nothing" behavior can be used to trace retrieval processes. Method: In a video-based laboratory experiment with 2 (WM) x 3 (SA level) within-subjects design, participants (N = 33) viewed a reduced screen and evaluated auditory statements relating to different SA levels on previously seen dynamic traffic scenarios while eye movements were recorded. Results: When retrieving information, subjects more frequently fixated emptied spatial locations associated with the information relevant for the probed SA level. The retrieval of anticipations (SA level 3) in contrast to the other SA level information resulted in more frequent gaze transitions that corresponded to the spatial dynamics of future driving behavior. Conclusion: The results support the idea that people build a visual-spatial mental image of a driving situation. Different gaze patterns when retrieving level-specific information indicate divergent retrieval processes. Application: Potential applications include developing new methodologies to assess the mental representation and SA of drivers objectively

A new way to guide consumer's choice: Retro-cueing alters the availability of product information in memory

When choosing between products, consumers can consider several attributes describing the alternatives. Recent research has shown that the attributes' impact on the choice depends on their availability in memory. More precisely, retrieving information about an attribute gives the attribute a higher impact on the choice. These recent findings on the importance of memory availability for the decision-making process offer a new, and so far, unexplored opportunity to guide consumers' decision making. In the present study, we used eye tracking to explore how the availability of information drives consumers' information search and choice behavior. We found that making attribute information available in memory with a so-called retro-cue increased the probability of choosing the product recommended by the attribute and led to increased information search and subsequent choices in line with a compensatory decision strategy. In conclusion, the results of this study offer a new way to guide consumers' information search behavior and consumer choice

Tracing Current Explanations in Memory: A Process Analysis Based on Eye-Tracking

Sequential abductive reasoning is the process of finding the best explanation for a set of observations. Explanations can be multicausal and require the retrieval of previously found ones from memory. The theory of abductive reasoning (TAR) allows detailed predictions on what information is stored and retrieved from memory during reasoning. In the research to date, however, these predictions have never been directly tested. In the present study, we tested process assumptions such as the construction of a mental representation from TAR using memory indexing, an eye-tracking method that makes it possible to trace the retrieval of explanations currently held in working memory. Gaze analysis revealed that participants encode the presented evidence (i.e., observations) together with possible explanations into memory. When new observations are presented, the previously presented evidence and explanations are retrieved. Observations that are not explained immediately are encoded as abstractly explained. Abstract explanations enter a refinement process in which they become concrete before they enter the situation model. With the memory indexing method, we were able to assess the process of information retrieval in abductive reasoning, which was previously believed to be unobservable. We discuss the results in the light of TAR and other current theories on the diagnostic reasoning process

When the eyes have it and when not: How multiple sources of activation combine to guide eye movements during multiattribute decision making

Memory plays a major but underexplored role in judgment and decision making (JDM). Studying eye movements—especially how people look at empty spatial locations when retrieving from memory information previously associated with those locations—provides useful information about how memory influences JDM. This so-called looking-at-nothing behavior is thought to reflect memory-driven allocation of attention. However, eye movements are also guided toward salient visual stimuli, such as test items presented on a screen. It is unclear how these multiple sources of activation combine to guide looking-at-nothing in JDM. We investigated this question in two experiments in which participants solved multiattribute categorization tasks using an exemplar-based decision strategy. In the first experiment, we tested how the occurrence and the strength of looking-at-nothing vary with the presentation format and the amount of training participants received. Looking-at-nothing occurred during categorizations when test-item information was presented auditorily and visually, but for the latter only after visual information was removed from the screen. It occurred both when training items were learned by heart and when they were presented 10 times on the screen. A second experiment revealed that an explicit instruction to imagine retrieval-relevant information during categorizations increased looking-at-nothing but did not change the decision-making process. The results shed light on the interaction between eye movements and attention to information in memory during JDM that can be explained in light of a shared priority map in memory. A detailed understanding of this interaction forms the basis for using eye movements to study memory processes in JDM

Zur Wirksamkeit von psychotherapeutischen Interventionen bei jungen Flüchtlingen und Binnenvertriebenen mit posttraumatischen Symptomen

Trotz hoher Zahlen junger Flüchtlinge und der häufig hohen Belastung mit Symptomen einer Posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung (PTBS) gibt es Unsicherheiten über Therapiemöglichkeiten und deren Effektivität in dieser Patientengruppe. Zur Untersuchung der Wirksamkeit unterschiedlicher Interventionen wurde ein systematischer Review durchgeführt. Nach einer Literaturrecherche mit 798 Treffern erfüllten zehn Studien die Einschlusskriterien. Acht Studien konnten signifikante Reduktionen der PTBS-Symptomatik feststellen. Vielversprechend erscheinen dabei folgende Therapien: Narrative Expositionstherapie für Kinder, „Meditation-Relaxation”, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing und „Rapid-Ed-Therapie”. Aufgrund der dürftigen Studienlage und methodischer Mängel ist eine genauere Empfehlung allerdings schwierig

Eye Movements in Vehicle Control

Measuring gaze behaviour is useful to understand the cognitive processes involved in vehicle control and to test new assistance technology. Most of the research on eye movements in vehicle control was conducted in the context of road traffic and will therefore be focused on in this chapter. In the following, we will first introduce the driving task and outline how the eye-tracking methodology can be used to get insights into the cognitive processes that guide driving behaviour. Furthermore, we will highlight important classical findings and recent developments in the field of eye movements in driving. These include eye movements during basic vehicle control tasks like steering, driving manoeuvres and detecting hazards in the road environment. Additionally, factors influencing task performance (e.g., effects of visual distraction, workload, fatigue, driving experience, and aging) that can be observed by applying the eye-tracking method will be introduced. Conducting an eye-tracking study in the driving context often takes place in complex and highly dynamic environments. Therefore, in the last part of this chapter, we will give a practical guideline of what is important in order to study eye movements in the context of vehicle control including an overview of the most commonly used parameters to describe gaze behaviour in the context of driving. We will sum up this introductory chapter with an outline for future research on the topic of eye movements in vehicle control