Inhibition of return (IOR) prevents the immediate reorientation to previously attended locations, such that unattended locations are prioritized. In the current study, we were interested in whether saccadic IOR is affected by the storage of visuospatial information in working memory (WM) during a visual search task. To this end, participants searched a display for a target letter once while holding no, two, or four object locations in their spatial WM. During the search, either a previously inspected or an uninspected item was probed, and the participants were instructed to immediately saccade to this probed item before resuming the search. The results showed that saccadic latencies to previously inspected items were longer than to uninspected items, indicating the presence of IOR during the search. However, this effect was observed regardless of the number of item locations held in the spatial WM. This finding suggests that saccadic IOR does not rely on visuospatial WM in visual search.

Theory of mind (ToM) research assumes an idealized ability in adults (Begeer et al., 2010). Links between ToM and social skills are often presupposed and some researchers argue that claims about the relationship between the two are often broad and unjustified (Hughes & Leekam, 2004; Liddle & Nettle, 2006). Perspective-taking (PT) has been heavily implicated in social cognition (Ruby & Decety, 2004) and is commonly placed under the title of ToM (Baron-Cohen, 2000). However, it is suggested that ToM and PT are not the same skills and may in fact be two distinct forms of social cognition (Cutting & Dunn, 1999). The current study explored the relationship between PT and social skills within a typically developed adult population. Eighty participants completed the Social Skills Inventory (SSI, Riggio & Carney, 2003) in addition to a computerised PT task. Greater PT ability was associated with greater social ability. Expressivity and control scores were predicted by PT ability, indicating that greater PT ability is predictive of greater control skills and expressivity skills in individuals and vice versa. Greater emotional intelligence has been associated with superior PT ability and higher expressivity in individuals (Goleman, 1995; Schutte et al., 2001). We suggest that emotional intelligence could be contributing to the relationship between expressivity and PT. Additionally, as both control behaviors and PT abilities place a demand on cognitive resources (Richards & Gross, 2000; Surtees et al., 2016), we argue that the same executive processes are utilized in both abilities.

The present study was designed to investigate the representation of calorie levels in space. Previously an association between numerical magnitude and space has been established, namely, the Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect. The spatial-numerical association reveals representation of smaller and larger numbers by the left and right sides, respectively. In addition, previous studies showed that spatial arrangement of foods in space affects the food selection behavior. In three experiments, the presence of an association between calorie magnitude and space was tested to understand how it could potentially affect food selection behavior. Reaction times were recorded to investigate the speed of information processing. In Experiment 1, locations of low and high calorie food stimuli were (in)congruent in terms of the space-calorie association. In Experiment 2, endogenous spatial cues were used to bias attention to investigate if this bias would lead to formation of the space-calorie association. Finally, Experiment 3 investigated whether green and red colors evoke approach or avoidance behavior and prevent formation of the space-calorie association. In all experiments, results revealed lack of an association between space and calorie, that is, presenting low/high calorie items on the left/right hemispace, respectively, did not modulate the processing speed.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of memory for prior cognitive operations and availability of declarative memory elements in long-term semantic priming. The impetus for this investigation was the role of working memory (WM) in complex cognitive processing. Empirical estimates of WM are too limited to explain complex cognitive processes. Therefore, contemporary models of WM propose access to long-term memory (LTM) to expand these limits. The priming literature provides one theoretical mechanism for access to LTM: long-term semantic priming. However, explanations for long-term semantic priming include both increased availability of LTM elements and the facilitation of prior cognitive operations. Our goal was to examine if the facilitation of prior cognitive operations is dependent on the availability of previously encountered LTM elements. A task used in previous research proposed to capture the facilitation of cognitive operations coupled with a directed forgetting manipulation was used to examine this relationship. Three experiments were conducted to that end. All experiments resulted in facilitation of the procedure of categorization. Experiments 1 and 2 additionally found relatively poor recognition for items that participants were told to forget despite the fact that categorization was facilitated for related items. Experiment 3 resulted in similarly poor recognition for category names that participants were told to forget. Taken together, the experiments in this investigation demonstrate a clear separation between the cognitive operations and declarative elements of the categorization task. Namely, the continued availability of declarative elements is not necessary for the subsequent facilitation of categorization operations.

Even though effects of emotion and motivation on cognition are well documented, the interaction of all three factors is rarely investigated. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to examine the effects of self-determined choice-as an experimental manipulation of intrinsic motivation - and emotional stimulus content on task preparation and engagement in a temporal production task. Behavioral results indicated a modulation of time processing depending on choice and emotional content. Underlying EEG signals revealed differential modulations by choice on the contingent negative variation (CNV) during task and response preparation and by emotional content on the late positive potential (LPP) in response to the onset of an emotional picture during temporal production. Also, we obtained preliminary evidence for interaction effects of choice and emotional content on the LPP. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) in response to information regarding temporal production success was also affected by interactions of choice and emotional content. These findings indicate that besides separate effects of motivation and emotion, there may be time windows during task engagement in which both factors jointly affect cognitive processing. These results are interpreted as dynamic modulations of attentional resource allocation.

Cognitive and physical training have been shown to be effective in improving older adults' cognition. However, it is not yet clear whether combined cognitive and physical training offers an advantage compared to cognitive training alone. Twenty-two older adults performed cognitive or combined cognitive and physical training in order to compare their effects on working memory event-related potentials (ERPs) and on working memory and executive function performance. Before and after eight weeks of training, performance in Plus Minus, Flanker, Updated Span, and Complex Span tasks was measured, and ERPs were registered during performance of an -back task (0-back, 2-back, and 3-back). Post-training behavioural improvement was observed in Updated Span, Complex Span, and n-back tasks. During the n-back task, the N2/P3 complex was modulated by training, with a decrease in N2 amplitude and an increase in P3 amplitude in the posttraining session compared to the pretraining session. These changes in ERP components suggest that both types of training potentially reduce the need for attentional control to perform the tasks correctly and increase working memory capacity. Thus, based on our data, no conclusion can be reached on the direct advantage of combined training, either at behavioural or at neural level. However, the present study might suggest an indirect advantage of such a combined training, because the cognitive benefit was found to be highly similar in both types of training. Using combined cognitive and physical training may produce a potential improvement in general fitness and an increased appeal of training.

The present study explored the intrinsic event-related potential (ERP) features of the effects of acute psychological stress on the processing of motion-in-depth perception using a dual-task paradigm. After a mental arithmetic task was used to induce acute psychological stress, a collision task was used to evaluate motion-in-depth perception. The error value and average amplitude of late slow waves (SW) were significantly larger for the earlier colliding spheres' than for the later colliding spheres. The P1 peak latency in the left occipital region was significantly shorter than that of the right occipital region in the motion-in-depth perception task. Compared to the control condition, the estimated value of residual time-to-collision and error value were significantly reduced, and the N1 peak amplitude and the SW averaged amplitude were significantly increased in the stress condition. Longer motion-in-depth time improved discrimination accuracy and decreased the investment of cognitive resources. Acute psychological stress increased behavioral performance and enhanced attention resources on the motion-in-depth perception task together with greater investment of cognitive resources.

Young adults' ability to recall a story about others, especially of an older adult, may be influenced by culture-based views on aging. In the present study, we extended a perspective-taking paradigm designed by Sullivan et al. (2010) by adding a cultural component to the methodology and testing participants' perspective-taking performance. Participants from the United States and Hong Kong heard two stories about a 25-year-old and a 75-year-old character from either location. Overall, we found that both groups recalled more negative than positive events. However, Hong Kong partici pants, who showed a more negative view of aging than US participants, used more negative words to describe the older adult than the young adult story. These findings suggest an intricate relation ship between culture-based views of aging and the language used in the recall of emotional events.

The goal of the study was to psychologically assess the overall ability to be attentive during the prolonged focus of oriented visual perception during task performance. Attention and oriented visual perception significantly enhance task performance. Forty students in the early stages of military university studies participated in the study. The Vienna Test System examining general attention, continuity of attention, and directed visual tracking was used. The study involved two measurements (before and after 20 attention training sessions using the neurofeedback method). The psychological ability to select stimuli and maintain continuous attention was assessed to determine cognitive readiness for the task and the focus and accuracy of visual recognition. A psychological evaluation of the attention and oriented visual perception showed that the neurofeedback contributed to reducing the task completion time (p < .050), the time of correctly accepted stimuli, the time of incorrect responses, increasing the sum of correct responses, and the median of correct answers determined compared to time limit. An improvement was found in maintaining attention when performing a repetitive task over a long period of time and matching task completion time with maintaining attentiveness.

In recall tasks, pooled individual productivity is generally greater than collaborative productivity, an effect called collaborative inhibition. This effect is believed to be caused by disruption of individual organizational strategies in the collaborative context due to exposure to the memories of others. The present study directly tested the exposure explanation. Three-person groups viewed a slide presentation and later recalled the content first as individuals, and subsequently as groups that were either exposed or not exposed to the memories of others. Results show that shielding participants from the contributions of others did not eliminate collaborative inhibition. The need to give more research attention to social factors is discussed.

Embedding a prospective memory task in an ongoing activity can interfere with performance of that ongoing activity. One explanation of this task interference is that it entails (a) adopting a retrieval mode or readiness to encounter the targets that indicate when to perform the intended action and (b) checking the environment for those targets. An experiment using a new method is reported and provides evidence for these processes. On control trials, participants performed just the ongoing activity (a short-term memory task combined with a 4-choice RT task). On experimental trials, a prospective memory task (press the Enter key if certain words appear in the short-term memory task) was embedded in the ongoing activity. Evidence for adopting a retrieval mode came from finding slower RT task performance on control trials when participants had already been instructed about the prospective memory task than when they had not yet been so instructed. Evidence for target checking came from finding slower RT task performance on experimental trials when a target could appear in any one of five locations than in just one location.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to explore the influence of ego depletion on spontaneous deception under time pressure. The Stroop Color-Word test was used to manipulate the participants' ego depletion in the experiment. A visual perception task was employed to assess the participants' deceptive tendency. The results indicated that the ego-depleted group was more prone to engaging deception and induced a larger P3 amplitude than did the nondepleted group. The no-time pressure group was more likely to deceive and induced a larger P3 amplitude than did the high-time pressure group. These results suggest that individuals with sufficient resources for self-control are more likely to resist temptation and less likely to engage in self-serving deception. Higher time pressure made subjects more likely to cheat. Deception is automatic and spontaneous under certain conditions. Ego depletion and high time pressure promote the occurrence of deception.

Previous research suggests that selective spatial attention is a determining factor for unconscious processing under continuous flash suppression (CFS), and specifically, that inattention toward stimulus location facilitates its unconscious processing by reducing the depth of CFS (Eo et al., 2016). The aim of our study was to further examine this modulation-by-attention model of CFS using a number priming paradigm. Participants ( = 26) performed a number comparison task on a visible target number ("compare target to five"). Prime-target pairs were either congruent (both smaller or larger than five) or incongruent. Spatial attention toward the primes was varied by manipulating the uncertainty of the primes' location. Based on the modulation-by-attention model, we hypothesized the following: In trials with uncertain prime location, RTs for congruent prime-target pairs should be faster than for incongruent ones. In trials with certain prime location, RTs for congruent versus incongruent prime-target pairs should not differ. We analyzed our data with sequential Bayes factors (BFs). Our data showed no effect of location uncertainty on unconscious priming under CFS (BF0+ = 5.16). However, even visible primes only weakly influenced RTs. Possible reasons for the absence of robust number priming effects in our study are discussed. Based on exploratory analyses, we conclude that the numerical order of prime and target resulted in a response conflict and interfered with the predicted priming effect.

Although the number of studies on online reviews is growing, the impact of reviewer photo on consumer purchase decision-making has not yet been examined systematically. In particular, the underlying neural mechanisms have remained underexplored. Thus, the present study investigated whether and how reviewer photos affects consumers to make a purchase decision by using eventrelated potentials (ERPs). At the behavioral level, participants demonstrated a higher purchase rate with a shorter RT in situations with reviewer photos compared to situations without reviewer photos. Meanwhile, at the neural level, compared with situations without reviewer photos, situations with reviewer photos attracted more rapid attention resources at the early automatic processing phase, which induced a greater P2 amplitude, then mobilized more sustained attention allocation at the cognitive monitoring phase due to its evolutionary significance which elicited a more negative N2 amplitude, and finally resulted in a better evaluative categorization with higher motivational and emotional arousal due to its social presence which evoked a larger late positive potential (LPP) amplitude at the late elaborate cognitive processing phase. Those results illuminated the neural pathway of purchase decision-making when consumers were exposed in different conditions of reviewer photo. Moreover, the current study provided evidence for the underlying influence of reviewer photo on purchase decision-making in online shopping.

The present study investigated the impact of task-irrelevant emotional images on the retention of information in spatial working memory (WM). Two experiments employed a delayed matching to-sample task where participants had to maintain the locations of four briefly presented squares. After a short retention interval, a probe item appeared and participants were required to indicate whether the probe position matched one of the previously occupied square positions. During the retention interval, task-irrelevant negative, positive, or neutral emotional pictures were presented. The results revealed a dissociation between negative and positive affect on the participants' ability to hold spatial locations in WM. While negative affective pictures reduced WM capacity, positive pictures increased WM capacity relative to the neutral images. Moreover, the specific valence and arousal of a given emotional picture was also related to WM performance: While higher valence enhanced WM capacity, higher levels of arousal in turn reduced WM capacity. Together, our findings suggest that emotions up- or down-regulate attention to items in WM and thus modulate the short term storage of visual information in memory.

Go is a classical Chinese mind game and a highly popular intellectual pursuit in East Asia. In a survey at two Go tournaments (one of them the largest in Europe), we measured cognitive reflection and decision in strategic games (using the classical "beauty contest" game) ( = 327). We found that Go players in our survey had outstanding average cognitive reflection test (CRT) scores: 2.51 among all participants and 2.80 among players of high master level (dan). This value easily outperforms previous measurements, for example, of undergraduates at top universities. The CRT score was closely related to the playing strength, but not to the frequency of playing. On the other hand, frequent players tended to have higher theory of mind, regardless of their playing strengths. However, selfreported patience was not statistically significantly correlated with Go strength or playing frequency.

There is increasing evidence that timing deficits represent a primary cause of key symptoms in ADHD. However, results in experiments on timing may vary with different methods of assessing timing competencies. The present study directly compared two central paradigms, namely, prospective and retrospective time estimation in children with ( = 30) and without ( = 29) ADHD. In both conditions, durations were estimated considerably longer by children with ADHD. Children with ADHD significantly overestimated the real duration of the task compared to children without ADHD in the retrospective but not in the prospective condition. In general, prospective estimates were more accurate than retrospective ones. The findings corroborate the essential role that timing deficits and a faster internal clock play in ADHD. Furthermore, the results demonstrate the importance of careful differentiation between prospective and retrospective time estimation.

The current study sought to identify groups of navigation students and master mariners (captains) characterized by different constellations of the Big Five personality traits and aggression levels. We hypothesized that master mariners would exhibit the resilient personality type and that navigation students would additionally exhibit personality types other than the resilient (e.g., over- or undercontrolled). A sample of 108 navigation students (men, in their second or third year of naval school, all active athletes) and 76 master mariners took part in the study and completed the Polish version of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992; Zawadzki et al., 1998) and the Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992; Tucholska, 1998). The hypothesis about the resilient personality type among master mariners was confirmed. The second hypothesis about personality types other than the resilient among navigation students was also confirmed: 33% of the students exhibited the overcontrolling personality type. The article also highlights the need to include psychological assessment in naval school enrolment procedures.

Attention modulates numerous stages of audiovisual integration, and studies have shown that audiovisual integration is higher in attended conditions than in unattended conditions. However, attentional resources are limited for each person, and it is not yet clear how audiovisual integration changes under different attentional loads. Here, we explored how auditory attentional load affects audiovisual integration by applying an auditory/visual discrimination task to evaluate audiovisual integration and a rapid serial auditory presentation (RSAP) task to manipulate auditory attentional resources. The results for peak benefit and positive area under the curve of different probability showed that audiovisual integration was highest in the low attentional load condition and lowest in the high attentional load condition (low > no = medium > high). The peak latency and time window revealed that audiovisual integration was delayed as the attentional load increased (no < low < medium < high). Additionally, audiovisual depression was found in the no, medium, and high attentional load conditions but not in the low attentional load condition. These results suggest that mild auditory attentional load increases audiovisual integration, and high auditory attentional load decreases audiovisual integration.

Systematic information processing and decision-making under uncertainty are key constructs of new conceptions explaining the severity of pathological worry. The current study attempted to analyze their usefulness in subclinical and clinical groups. In the first phase of the study ( = 251) participants were examined with the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), a GP consultationrelated survey, and a screening survey for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). In the second phase ( = 220), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the PSWQ, and tasks measuring systematic information processing (SIP) versus heuristic reasoning (HR) were applied. In the third phase ( = 60), GAD ( = 30) and healthy control (n = 30) groups were examined with the above methods and the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). In the low risk group, a relationship between mood and the representativeness heuristic ( = 0.50), as well as anchoring and adjustment heuristic (anxiety-related stimuli) was found ( = -0.53). In the GAD group, significant correlations between the PSWQ score, the IGT loss avoidance score ( = 0.40), and total IGT score ( = 0.48) were found. The results did not confirm a particular usefulness of the systematic/heuristic information processing construct in subclinical and clinical groups. Theory-consistent results were rather found in the nonclinical groups. Nevertheless, the data revealed some interesting findings supporting potential explanatory power of some theoretical models.

Inspecting new visual information in a face can affect the perception of subsequently seen faces. In experimental settings for example, previously seen manipulated versions of a face can lead to a clear bias of the participant's perception of subsequent images: Original images are then perceived as manipulated in the opposite direction of the adaptor while images that are more similar to the adaptor are perceived as normal or natural. These so-called face adaptation effects can be a useful tool to provide information about which facial information is processed and stored in facial memory. Most experiments so far used variants of the second-order relationship configural information (e.g., spatial relations between facial features) when investigating these effects. However, non-configural face information (e.g., color) was mainly neglected when focusing on face adaptation, although this type of information plays an important role in face processing. Therefore, we investigated adaptation effects of non-configural face information by employing brightness alterations. Our results provide clear evidence for brightness adaptation effects (Experiment 1). These effects are face-specific to some extent (Experiments 2 and 3) and robust over time (Experiments 4 and 5). They support the assumption that non-configural face information is not only relevant in face perception but also in face retention. Brightness information seems to be stored in memory and thus is even involved in face recognition.