Transformations of hand movements by tools such as levers or electronic input devices can invoke performance costs compared to untransformed movements. This study investigated by means of the Psychological Refractory Period (PRP) paradigm at which stage of information processing such tool-transformation costs arise. We used an inversion…

The ability to ignore task-irrelevant information and overcome distraction is central to our ability to efficiently carry out a number of tasks. One factor shown to strongly influence distraction is the perceptual load of the task being performed; as the perceptual load of task-relevant information processing increases, the likelihood that…

Cognitive control is responsible for adapting information processing in order to carry out tasks more efficiently. Contrasting global versus local control accounts, it has recently been proposed that control operates in an associative fashion, that is, by binding stimulus-response associations after detection of conflict (Verguts & Notebaert,…

In a crowded dynamic world, temporal expectations guide our attention in time. Prior investigations have consistently demonstrated that temporal expectations speed motor behavior. We explore effects of temporal expectation on "perceptual" speed in three nonspeeded, cued recognition paradigms. Different hazard rate functions for the…

In four experiments we assessed whether visual working memory (VWM) maintains a record of previously processed visual information, allowing old information to be inhibited, and new information to be prioritized. Specifically, we evaluated whether VWM contributes to the inhibition (i.e., visual marking) of previewed distractors in a preview search.…

The authors examined face perception models with regard to the functional and temporal organization of facial identity and expression analysis. Participants performed a manual 2-choice go/no-go task to classify faces, where response hand depended on facial familiarity (famous vs. unfamiliar) and response execution depended on facial expression…

Six experiments investigated how changes in stimulus speed influence subjective duration. Participants saw rotating or translating shapes in three conditions: constant speed, accelerating motion, and decelerating motion. The distance moved and average speed were the same in all three conditions. In temporal judgment tasks, the constant-speed…

The memory system that supports implicit perceptual-motor sequence learning relies on brain regions that operate separately from the explicit, medial temporal lobe memory system. The implicit learning system therefore likely has distinct operating characteristics and information processing constraints. To attempt to identify the limits of the…

To make sense out of a continuously changing visual world, people need to integrate features across space and time. Despite more than a century of research, the mechanisms of features integration are still a matter of debate. To examine how temporal and spatial integration interact, the authors measured the amount of temporal fusion (a measure of…

Vibrotactile intensity-discrimination thresholds for sinusoidal stimuli applied to the thenar eminence of the hand declined as a function of practice. However, improvement was confined to the tactile information-processing channel in which learning had occurred. Specifically, improvements in performance with training within the Pacinian-corpuscle…

A growing methodology, known as the systems factorial technology (SFT), is being developed to diagnose the types of information-processing architectures (serial, parallel, or coactive) and stopping rules (exhaustive or self-terminating) that operate in tasks of multidimensional perception. Whereas most previous applications of SFT have been in…

Many studies of cognition and perception use a visual mask to explore the dynamics of information processing of a target. Especially important in these applications is the time between the target and mask stimuli. A plot of some measure of target visibility against stimulus onset asynchrony is called a masking function, which can sometimes be…

Three problem-solving strategies--working backward from the unknown, forward from the given, and mixed--were applied to interrelated algebra equations. The mixed strategy was most popular and most efficient with grouped variables. Memory load or information-processing load differences among the strategies were evident. (CP)

Authors examines the limits of selective attention during early stages of information processing. (Author/RK)

Two experiments tested the limiting case of a multiple resources approach to resource allocation in information processing. Results contradict a single-capacity model, supporting the idea that the hemispheres' resource supplies are independent and have implications for both cerebral specialization and divided attention issues. (Author/PN)