Cognitive Science

We report a replication of Boutonnet and Lupyan’s (2015) study of the effects of linguistic labelling on perceptual performance. In addition to a response time advantage of linguistic labels over non-linguistic auditory cues in judging visual objects, Boutonnet and Lupyan found that the two types of cues produced different patterns in the early perceptual ERP components P1 and P2 but not the later, semantics-relevant N4. This study thus adds an important piece of evidence supporting the claim of genuine top-down effects on perception. Given the controversy over this claim and the need for replication of key findings, we attempted to replicate Boutonnet and Lupyan (2015). We replicated their behavioral findings that response times to indicate whether an auditory cue matches a visual image of an object were faster for match than mismatch trials and faster for linguistic than non-linguistic cues. We did not replicate the main ERP effects supporting a positive effect of linguistic label...

The evidence concerning the level at which learned CP effects occur is complex. The goal of this study was to use a different approach to this question by manipulating the abstractness of the information available for distinguishing pairs of items in an XAB task, and the presence or absence of a short task-filled delay between X and AB. Participants engaged in XAB trials containing a mixture of trials with and without the delay task before and after standard training to classify visual texture stimuli into two categories. Training improved discrimination of pairs differing on the category-relevant dimension whether withinor betweencategory, but not on pairs differing only on non-category relevant low level features. In addition, only successful learners in the post-training trials avoided decreased discrimination accuracy due to the delay task, suggesting that they formed more stable representations. However, this effect was not limited to pairs varying in category-relevant ways.

We report a replication of Boutonnet and Lupyan’s (2015) study of the effects of linguistic labelling on perceptual performance. In addition to a response time advantage of linguistic labels over non-linguistic auditory cues in judging visual objects, Boutonnet and Lupyan found that the two types of cues produced different patterns in the early perceptual ERP components P1 and P2 but not the later, semantics-relevant N4. This study thus adds an important piece of evidence supporting the claim of genuine top-down effects on perception. Given the controversy over this claim and the need for replication of key findings, we attempted to replicate Boutonnet and Lupyan (2015). We replicated their behavioral findings that response times to indicate whether an auditory cue matches a visual image of an object were faster for match than mismatch trials and faster for linguistic than non-linguistic cues. We did not replicate the main ERP effects supporting a positive effect of linguistic label...

The evidence concerning the level at which learned CP effects occur is complex. The goal of this study was to use a different approach to this question by manipulating the abstractness of the information available for distinguishing pairs of items in an XAB task, and the presence or absence of a short task-filled delay between X and AB. Participants engaged in XAB trials containing a mixture of trials with and without the delay task before and after standard training to classify visual texture stimuli into two categories. Training improved discrimination of pairs differing on the category-relevant dimension whether within-or betweencategory, but not on pairs differing only on non-category relevant low level features. In addition, only successful learners in the post-training trials avoided decreased discrimination accuracy due to the delay task, suggesting that they formed more stable representations. However, this effect was not limited to pairs varying in category-relevant ways.

Category Learning in Second Life: Effects of Learning Context on Mechanisms of Categorization Joshua Sturm Vassar College Peter Nachbaur Vassar College Alex Goldberg Vassar College Julianne Herts Vassar College Jan Andrews Vassar College Ken Livingston Vassar College Abstract: A major challenge in category learning research is designing novel stimuli that are functionally meaningful, then presenting them in an environment that is sufficiently controlled while remaining true to the dynamic nature of the real world. The interactive online environment Second Life represents an interesting methodological setting for such work, offering sophisticated stimulus design software, a powerful scripting language, and a fully editable physics engine. Two well-documented phenomena of category learning are ”compression” (where objects classified together appear more similar) and ”expansion” (where objects classified differently appear more different). Our studies using Second Life have thus far de...

Kristian Georgiev "Only in the dance do I know how to tell the parable of the highest things...." --Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra What do we see when we see dance? What do we feel when we dance? Who are we when we are part of an enactment of dance? The phenomenon of dance brings to the fore key ideas about the nature of human meaning--making, the role of our fundamentally corporeal actions in the world, and the foundational aspects of our experiences. Dance, I contend, holds immense promise as an object for study as well as a subject of study -that is, a source of insight in itself, shedding light on life, movement, and meaning. In investigating dance thusly, I hope to show the importance of perspective. One way to understand dance is as a study of perspective -the perspectives of the dancers, of the audience, and of the choreographer; the perspectives of an engaged party and of a detached observer; the perspectives from under the skin and from outside, from within and from without. Specifically, I try to place the insights given in scientific physiological accounts (typically third--person) as well as those of the phenomenological and experiential sort (first--and second-person) in the context of one another, integrating them into a framework based upon the themes of movement, experience, and mind.

We report a replication of Boutonnet and Lupyan’s (2015) study of the effects of linguistic labelling on perceptual performance. In addition to a response time advantage of linguistic labels over non-linguistic auditory cues in judging visual objects, Boutonnet and Lupyan found that the two types of cues produced different patterns in the early perceptual ERP components P1 and P2 but not the later, semantics-relevant N4. This study thus adds an important piece of evidence supporting the claim of genuine top-down effects on perception. Given the controversy over this claim and the need for replication of key findings, we attempted to replicate Boutonnet and Lupyan (2015). We replicated their behavioral findings that response times to indicate whether an auditory cue matches a visual image of an object were faster for match than mismatch trials and faster for linguistic than non-linguistic cues. We did not replicate the main ERP effects supporting a positive effect of linguistic label...

In light of the 2018 Hanford Presumption Law, this qualitative study aims to understand how workers exposed to chemical vapors at the Hanford Nuclear Site are navigating health care and compensation, adding a longitudinal component to Turk et al's 2016 multiple case study design. We assessed whether these workers’ experiences have changed since the passing of this legislation. Our analysis produced five themes: 1) the Presumption Law sounded good to participants, but varied in effect, 2) the compensation and health care systems do not prioritize workers, 3) quality, unbiased health care for Hanford workers is limited, 4) there are gaps in onsite safety protocols, 5) participants proposed solutions relating to health care and workers supporting one another. This study is intended to inform policy recommendations to improve these systems to protect the health and safety of Hanford workers.

We report a replication of Boutonnet and Lupyan’s (2015) study of the effects of linguistic labelling on perceptual performance. In addition to a response time advantage of linguistic labels over non-linguistic auditory cues in judging visual objects, Boutonnet and Lupyan found that the two types of cues produced different patterns in the early perceptual ERP components P1 and P2 but not the later, semantics-relevant N4. This study thus adds an important piece of evidence supporting the claim of genuine top-down effects on perception. Given the controversy over this claim and the need for replication of key findings, we attempted to replicate Boutonnet and Lupyan (2015). We replicated their behavioral findings that response times to indicate whether an auditory cue matches a visual image of an object were faster for match than mismatch trials and faster for linguistic than non-linguistic cues. We did not replicate the main ERP effects supporting a positive effect of linguistic label...

A direct comparison was made between the intact anesthetized hippocampal preparation and the hippocampal slice preparation of rats in relation to the features of long-term potentiation. Both preparations were exposed to the same experimental paradigm. The properties of response to a repeated lowfrequency tetanus that were examined included: evoked waveform, development of a plastic alteration over successive tetani, intertetanus responsivity to test stimuli, magnitude of change, and longevity of effect. Since the two preparations exhibited similar response properties, the results support the use of the hippocampal slice preparation as a model system for the study of neural mechanisms of plasticity.

Simulated mobile robots running a standard Q-learning algorithm learned basic naviga- tional behavior in two dierent environments varying in complexity. Sensor resolution was manipulated to examine the eects of dier- ent levels of information on the learning task. In the simpler of the two environments the lowest sensor resolution resulted in the most ecient learning. In the more complex envi-

Random recombination in evolutionary algorithms can be counterproductive in systems that evolve increasing modularity, because such operators do not preserve community structures during their development. Partly because of this, methods have been proposed that derandomize recombination by placing potential crossover locations under evolutionary control. Since crossover is likely to be particularly useful when genetic material that generates incipient phenotype modules is recombined, there may be an advantage to seeking such modularity directly in the phenotype and probabilistically focusing recombination at such "hotspot" locations. Here we show that such phenotypically-aware crossover operators can outcompete random or evolved crossover points as the size of the system being evolved grows. As this crossover operator can be viewed as epigenetic, and as epigenetic processes seem to be common in biological systems, other such epigenetic mechanisms may further improve future evolutionary algorithms.

Simulated mobile robots running a standard Q-learning algorithm learned basic navigational behavior in two different environments varying in complexity. Sensor resolution was manipulated to examine the effects of different levels of information on the learning task. In the simpler of the two environments the lowest sensor resolution resulted in the most efficient learning. In the more complex environment higher resolution sensors resulted in better learning. This is the first of a series of studies designed to explore the joint effects of environmental complexity, task complexity, and sensory resolution on autonomous learning. 1.