Assessing the time course under which underlying memory representations can be formed is an important question for understanding memory. Several studies assessing item memory have shown that gist representations of items are laid out more rapidly than verbatim representations. However, for associations among items/components, which form the core…

Metacognitive responsiveness is an individual's sensitivity to metacognitive experiences, awareness, and importance of metacognition, and thus can be helpful in terms of finding out the different levels of metacognitive competencies. This study aims to investigate whether and how different components of metacognition predict metacognitive…

This study reports the results of 4 experiments that addressed whether the domains of deictic time and number exert a cross-domain link. Such a link would be consistent with A Theory of Magnitude (i.e., ATOM). In contrast, no link between the two domains would support the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), which assumes that each domain is only…

A large body of research has outlined how mental models are formed by comprehending texts, yet relatively less work has been conducted in the field of comprehending artworks. Trans-symbolic comprehension (TSC) processes have been theorized to partially account for how mental models are formed across media. The current study tested whether…

In the Stroop task, color words are presented in colored fonts and the task of the subject is to either name the word or name the color. If the word and font color are in agreement, then the stimulus is said to be congruent (e.g., RED in red font color); however, if the word and font color are not in agreement, the stimulus is said to be…

Delay-induced forgetting refers to the finding that memory for studied material typically decreases as the delay between study and test is increased. The results of 3 experiments are reported designed to examine whether this form of forgetting is primarily caused by interference effects or contextual drift effects when people engage in neutral…

In experiments with univalent target stimuli, task-switching costs can be eliminated if participants are unaware of the task rules and apply cue-target-response associations. However, in experiments with bivalent target stimuli, participants show task-switching costs. Participants may exhibit switch costs even when no task rules are provided in…

Unlike other animals, humans have the unique ability to share and use verbal instructions to prepare for upcoming tasks. Recent research showed that instructions are sufficient for the automatic, reflex-like activation of responses. However, systematic studies into the limits of these automatic effects of task instructions remain relatively…

The metronome is a frequently used time-keeping tool in music instrument practice. However, if its speed is set beyond a comfortable level for the performer, their eye movement (EM) patterns can betray pressure that might have been placed on the visual processing system. The patterns of the eyes moving forward or back, (saccades); when the eye…

When people read questions like "How many animals of each kind did Moses take on the ark?", many mistakenly answer "2" despite knowing that Noah sailed the ark. This "Moses illusion" occurs when names share semantic features. Two experiments examined whether shared "visual" concepts (facial features)…

Adaptation to change is not an easy process and sometimes does not happen at all. When people perceive that their freedom is going to be altered due to an unwanted change, they outwardly exhibit some symptomatic reactive behaviors such as inertia, resistance, skepticism, and aggression. No matter how intense people's reactance is, only a few of…

Information seeking (IS) has become a critical activity in video-based environments. Up to now, the effects of support on information seeking (i.e., scaffolding) have seldom been assessed. The twofold aim of the current study was to (a) assess the effects of scaffolding on IS in videos and (b) determine the characteristics of the users' mental…

The goal of the present study was to examine if and how arousal can modulate response inhibition. Two competing hypotheses can be drawn from previous literature. One holds that alerting cues that elevate arousal should result in an impulsive response and therefore impair response inhibition. The other suggests that alerting enhances processing of…

Event-based prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to perform an intention in response to an environmental cue. Recent microstructure models postulate four distinguishable stages of successful event-based PM fulfillment. That is, (a) the event must be noticed, (b) the intention must be retrieved, (c) the context must be verified, and…

How does responding to an object affect explicit memory for visual information? The close theoretical relationship between action and perception suggests that items that require a response should be better remembered than items that require no response. However, conclusive evidence for this claim is lacking, as semantic coherence, category size,…