The existence of a conceptual link between numbers and space is a fundamental question in numerical cognition and has been highly debated in recent years. Although Spatial-Numerical Associations (SNAs) have traditionally been investigated using bimanual response settings, recent studies have moved towards unimanual paradigms to avoid potential measurement artifacts. For instance, an influential line of research adopted a modified Implicit Association Test (IAT) in which numbers and arrows were presented sequentially. However, SNAs consistently emerged only when spatial and magnitude codes were explicitly contrasted, questioning the idea that numbers are inherently represented in a spatial format. To further investigate this issue, we designed a modified flanker task in which spatial and numerical stimuli were presented simultaneously. When arrows were task irrelevant (Experiment 1), no significant SNA emerged. By contrast, when participants judged arrow direction and numerical magnitude conjunctively (Experiment 2), the paradigm revealed extremely large SNAs compared to existing literature. Overall, our results provide no evidence for a purely conceptual spatial–numerical link, suggesting that robust SNAs require explicit spatial codes combined with semantic number processing. Finally, the large effect size of group-level SNAs, together with remarkable mixed-model-derived psychometric properties, indicates the modified flanker task as an ideal paradigm for studying individual differences and effect modulations. We suggest that this paradigm has the potential to further advance the research on SNAs by overcoming limitations of previous bimanual and unimanual paradigms and, consequently, by helping to disambiguate mixed results in the literature.

A predictive coding (PC) framework assumes that the visual cortex generates and tests hypotheses about the likely causes of retinal stimulation. In doing so, it requires computation of the error between the predicted model and the sensory data. By contrast, a representational framework assumes that the visual cortex builds a surface representation by engaging horizontal and feedback connections that form excitatory feedback loops between cortical areas, without requiring error computation. I review studies on contour integration, illusory contours (ICs), figure-ground segregation, temporal and spatial predictability, and attentional modulation that involve single- and multi-unit recordings of neural activity in the early stages of visual processing, specifically to search for evidence of error computation. In agreement with the representational framework, many studies revealed that the V1-V4 complex forms an excitatory feedback loop that enhances the representation of the global contour or figure and suppresses the background across multiple levels of the visual hierarchy. By contrast, several studies on ICs and figure-ground segregation revealed evidence for error computation as hypothesized by PC. Taken together, the available neuronal data associated with visual processing and attentional modulation do not unequivocally support either of the proposed frameworks.

In two experiments we tested the contribution of linguistic markedness and affective evaluation (i.e., body specificity) to the representation of abstract numerical concepts, such as parity. To this end, we employed speeded parity judgments of digits (Exp 1) or number words (Exp 2) in a go/no-go task. Fifty right-handed participants completed four blocks of trials in each experiment. In two blocks, they responded to even numbers (2, 4, 6, or 8) and in the other two blocks they responded to odd numbers (1, 3, 7, or 9). In each pair of blocks, they responded once with their right hand and once with their left hand. Results revealed faster right-hand responses to even than to odd digits (Exp 1), and faster left-hand response to odd than to even number words (Exp 2). In addition, in both experiments, we found faster responses to small-odd than large-odd digits and number words. The results support the conclusion that the affective evaluation of parity and linguistic markedness makes independent contributions to the representation of parity.

Aims and Objectives: This study aims to investigate lexical access to unadapted English loanwords in Croatian speakers with different levels of English proficiency by exploring the effects of associative-semantic priming. It is expected that associative-semantic relatedness will have a facilitating effect on word recognition in all proficiency groups and in both language directions. Contrary to previous research on unadapted English loanwords, we expect that the effect of proficiency will also be significant.Methodology: To find appropriate stimuli for the main study, three preparatory studies were conducted. The main study consisted of a proficiency test, a questionnaire on language use and exposure, and two cross-language (first language [L1] and second language [L2]) priming experiments (L2-L1/L1-L2).Data and Analysis: Reaction times were analyzed by fitting linear mixed-effects model in R 3.6.1 environment for statistical computing.Findings: The results showed that associative-semantic relatedness significantly facilitates lexical access to unadapted English loanwords in both language directions and all proficiency groups. The effect of proficiency on reaction times was also significant in both experiments.Originality: Unadapted English loanwords provide a unique opportunity for the study of bilingual lexical access because of their specific nature-they occur in L1 and L2 in the same orthographic form, they often do not have adequate native equivalents, and are used by all proficiency groups. However, very little research has been done in that field.Implications: While unadapted English loanwords are common in many languages, the cognitive processing of this specific group of loanwords is still relatively understudied. Thus, the results of this study not only add to the existing knowledge on bilingual lexical access, but also provide new insight into loanword processing.

Do customers convert values to a familiar currency (rescaling hypothesis) or do they learn item-price pairs (relearning hypothesis) when they estimate the prices of consumer goods and services in a currency they are unfamiliar with? We addressed this question by replicating the study conducted in Portugal and Austria in 2001 and 2002, around the time when these countries switched to the euro (Marques & Dehaene, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 2004, 10, 148-155). The study was made in Croatia where university students (N = 181) were asked to estimate the typical price of a set of 60 items from November 2022 to June 2023, around the time at which changeover to the euro took place. The results support the rescaling hypothesis by showing concurrent improvements in the precision of price estimates for frequently and rarely bought items. The reliance on rescaling is probably caused by a high inflation that accompanied a changeover to the euro in Croatia.

We developed an interactive cortical circuit for visual segmentation that integrates bottom-up and top-down processing to segregate or group visual elements. A bottom-up pathway incorporates stimulus-driven saliency computation, top-down feature-based weighting by relevance and winner-take-all selection. A top-down pathway encompasses multiscale feedback projections, an object-based attention network and a visual segmentation network. Computer simulations have shown that a salient element in the stimulus guides spatial attention and further influences the decomposition of the nearby object into its parts, as postulated by the principle of accentuation. By contrast, when no single salient element is present, top-down feature-based attention highlights all locations occupied by the attended feature and the model forms a Boolean map, i.e., a spatial representation that makes the feature-based grouping explicit. The same distinction between bottom-up and top-down influences in perceptual organization can also be applied to texture perception. The model suggests that the principle of accentuation and feature-based similarity grouping are two manifestations of the same cortical circuit designed to detect similarities and dissimilarities of visual elements in a stimulus.

Accentuation has been proposed as a general principle of perceptual organization. Here, we have developed a neurodynamic architecture to explain how accentuation affects boundary segmentation and shape perception. The model consists of bottom-up and top-down pathways. Bottom-up processing involves a set of feature maps that compute bottom-up salience of surfaces, boundaries, boundary completions, and junctions. Then, a feature-based winner-take-all network selects the most salient locations. Top-down processing includes an object-based attention stage that allows enhanced neural activity to propagate from the most salient locations to all connected locations, and a visual segmentation stage that employs inhibitory connections to segregate boundaries into distinct maps. The model was tested on a series of computer simulations showing how the position of the accent affects boundary segregation in the square-diamond and the pointing illusion. The model was also tested on a variety of texture segregation tasks, showing that its performance was comparable to that of human observers. The model suggests that there is an intermediate stage of visual processing between perceptual grouping and object recognition that helps the visual system choose between competing percepts of the ambiguous stimulus.

Athletic skills acquired through deliberate practice are essential for expert sports performance. Some authors even suggest that practice circumvents the limits of working memory capacity (WMC) in skill acquisition. However, this circumvention hypothesis has been challenged recently by the evidence that WMC plays an important role in expert performance in complex domains such as arts and sports. Here, we have used two dynamic soccer tactical tasks to explore the effect of WMC on tactical performance at different levels of expertise. As expected, professional soccer players exhibited better tactical performance than amateur and recreational players. Furthermore, WMC predicted faster and more accurate tactical decisions in the task under auditory distraction and faster tactical decisions in the task without distraction. Importantly, lack of expertise × WMC interaction suggests that the WMC effect exists at all levels of expertise. Our results speak against the circumvention hypothesis and support a model of independent contributions of WMC and deliberate practice on expert performance in sports.

Lightness of a surface depends not only on its physical characteristics, but also on the properties of the surrounding context. As a result, varying the context can significantly alter surface lightness, an effect exploited in many lightness illusions. Computational models can produce outcomes similar to human illusory percepts, allowing for demonstrable assessment of the applied mechanisms and principles. We tested 8 computational models on 13 typical displays used in lightness research (11 Illusions and 2 Mondrians), and compared them with results from human participants (N=85). Results show that HighPass and MIR models predict empirical results for simultaneous lightness contrast (SLC) and its close variations. ODOG and its newer variants (ODOG-2 and L-ODOG) in addition to SLC displays were able to predict effect of White's illusion. RETINEX was able to predict effects of both SLC displays and Dungeon illusion. Dynamic decorrelation model was able to predict obtained effects for all tested stimuli except two SLC variations. Finally, FL-ODOG model was best at simulating human data, as it was able to predict empirical results for all displays, bar the Reversed contrast illusion. Finally, most models underperform on the Mondrian displays that represent most natural stimuli for the human visual system.

Recent findings on emotion comparison show a typical pattern of motor reactivity rising from attentional capture. When pairs of emotional faces are presented simultaneously, the most intense emotional face is recognized faster (Emotional Semantic Congruency-ESC effect). Furthermore, a global response speed advantage for emotional pairs with positive rather than negative average emotion intensity is observed (i.e., emotional size effect), with the choice for the happiest face resulting in a faster response than the choice for the angriest face within the pair (i.e., the happiness advantage). In two experiments, we asked whether these effects are orientation dependent, and thus linked to whether face processing is holistic or part-based. Participants were asked to choose the angriest/happiest face in emotional pairs displayed either in upright or inverted orientation and including (Experiment 1) or not including (Experiment 2) a neutral face. Beyond an overall facilitation for upright relative to inverted pairs, results showed orientation independent ESC and emotional size effects. Furthermore, the happiness advantage was present in emotional pairs of Experiment 2 but not in emotional pairs of Experiment 1, independently from face orientation. Together, results suggest that attentional capture in emotion comparison is immaterial on the type of face processing, being orientation invariant.

According to a predictive coding framework, visual processing involves the computation of prediction errors between sensory data and a generative model that is supplied via feedback projections. This implies that vision is cognitively penetrable by all sorts of top-down influences. In this paper, we review anatomical and functional data which suggest that feedforward and feedback projections are organized into two parallel processing streams: the supragranular and the infragranular counterstreams. The supragranular counterstream computes surface and motion representation in depth. It represents the best interpretation of what is given in the input image based on physical regularities that are built into this network. By contrast, the infragranular counterstream integrates vision with cognition, because it represents what is likely to be found in the environment based on the predictions derived from learned statistical regularities. The two counterstreams work in parallel, but independently of each other. They compete for dominance, and only one is allowed to deliver its output to higher-order areas at any instance of time. Such an arrangement allows the supragranular counterstream to remain cognitively impenetrable to top-down influences.

Incremental grouping is a process entailing serial binding of distal image elements into a unified object representation. At the neural level, incremental grouping involves propagation of the enhanced firing rate among feature-tuned neurons in the early visual cortex. Here, we developed a multi-resolution neural model of incremental grouping. In the model, propagation of the enhanced firing rate is achieved by computing the activity difference between two sets of units: attentional or A-units, whose firing rate is modulated by their horizontal collaterals, and non-attentional or N-units that receive only feedforward input. The activity difference is computed on dendrites that act as independent computational subunits. The proposed model employs multiple spatial scales to account for a variable speed of incremental grouping. In addition, the model incorporates the L-junction detection network that enables incremental grouping over L-junctions. Computer simulations show that the timing of attentional modulations in the model is comparable with neurophysiological measurements in monkey primary visual cortex.

Restricted accessAbstractFirst published online December 21, 2022The 44th European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP) 2022, Nijmegen, The NetherlandsVolume 51, Issue 1_supplhttps://doi.org/10.1177/03010066221141167

Razumijevanje apstraktnih pojmova predstavlja važan izazov za teorijski okvir utemeljene kognicije. Jedna je mogućnost da se apstraktni pojmovi utemeljuju u afektivnim stanjima. U ovome smo radu ispitali hipotezu povezuje li se apstraktni matematički pojam parnosti broja (par – nepar) s pozitivnim i negativnim afektivnim tonom koji je indirektno naznačen predznakom plus i minus. U prvome su eksperimentu ispitanici odgovarali na pitanje je li prezentirani broj paran ili neparan. Kao podražaji prezentirani su cijeli brojevi u rasponu od -9 do 9 bez -5, 0 i 5. Rezultati su pokazali dvosmjernu interakciju između predznaka i parnosti jer su ispitanici bili efikasniji u obradi pozitivnih nego u obradi negativnih parnih brojeva. Također, bili su efikasniji u obradi negativnih nego u obradi pozitivnih neparnih brojeva. U drugome su eksperimentu ispitanici odgovarali na pitanje je li prezentirani broj numerički veći ili manji od 5, pri čemu su trebali ignorirati predznak. Prezentirani su isti podražaji kao i u prvome eksperimentu. Dobivena je složenija trosmjerna interakcija u kojoj su ispitanici bili efikasniji u obradi pozitivnih nego u obradi negativnih parnih brojeva, kao i u prvome eksperimentu, ali taj se efekt pojavio samo za brojeve veće od 5. Rezultati su interpretirani u okviru teorije o korespondenciji polariteta i teorije centralnoga afektivnog utemeljenja.

The extent to which processing of abstract numerical concepts depends on perceptual representations is still an open question. In four experiments, we examined the association between contrast polarity and mental arithmetic, as well as its possible source. Undergraduate psychology students verified the correctness of single-digit arithmetic problems such as 2 + 5 = 7 or 9 − 6 = 5. Problems appeared either in white or black on a grey background, thus creating positive or negative contrast polarity, respectively. When the correct response was Yes (No), participants were faster (slower) in verifying positive than negative addition problems and in verifying negative than positive subtraction problems. Experiment 2 confirmed that the same result also held for written word problems (e.g., SEVEN + SIX = THIRTEEN). However, Experiment 3 found that the effect of contrast polarity observed in Experiments 1 and 2 disappeared in a blocked design where arithmetic operation was a between-participant factor. In addition, Experiment 4 revealed that the effect of contrast polarity does not generalise to multiplication and division. Overall, available evidence suggests that participants spontaneously associate the abstract relation between addition and subtraction (more-less) with a similar relation between contrast polarities (bright-dark).

Comprehension of abstract concepts presents an important challenge for a theoretical framework of grounded cognition. One possibility is that abstract concepts are grounded in affective states. In this work, we examined the hypothesis that abstract mathematical concept of parity (even-odd) is associated with positive and negative hedonic tone. In the first experiment, participants performed parity judgment task. Stimuli were whole numbers in the range between -9 to 9 excluding -5, 0 and 5. Results showed two-way interaction between sign and parity because participants were more efficient with positive than negative even numbers. They were also more efficient with negative than positive odd numbers. In the second experiment, participants were asked to judge whether the presented number is numerically greater or smaller than 5 while they should ignore the sign. The stimuli were the same as in the first experiment. Results showed more complex three-way interaction where participants were more efficient with positive than negative even numbers, as in the first experiment, but this result was restricted to numbers greater than 5. Results are discussed in the context of the theory of polarity correspondence and the theory of affective grounding.

In previous studies investigating the space–time compatibility effect, the experimental task always invites explicit spatial or temporal processing or both. In this study, we kept space and time irrelevant to the task. In a go/no-go task, participants (N = 50) were asked to either press a single button when they found the target or refrain from responding when there was no target in a search array. We manipulated the duration of the target-alone presentation that preceded a 7 × 7 search array consisting of either target plus distractors or distractors alone. The results revealed faster responses to shorter durations when the target appeared in the upper relative to the lower space. A similar effect also appeared along the diagonal axis with faster responses to shorter durations in upper-left relative to lower-right space. In contrast, no such difference was found along the horizontal axis. We hypothesize that vertical and diagonal space–time associations arise from the grounding of mental representation of time in physical experiences.

U ovome su radu prikazane norme za semantičke kategorije koje se pojavljuju u svakodnevnome jeziku. Popis 64 kategorije preuzet je iz normi na engleskome jeziku (Van Overschelde i sur., 2004), a dodane su još dvije kategorije. U istraživanju su sudjelovala 194 ispitanika (M = 38, Ž = 156), većinom studenti Sveučilišta u Rijeci (92.3 %). Zadatak ispitanika bio je navesti četiri tipična pripadnika za svaku kategoriju, a odgovori su bilježeni pomoću računala. U radu su prikazane mjere koje opisuju status kategorije, a to su ukupan broj navedenih entiteta (pripadnika kategorije), broj entiteta s frekvencijom jednakom ili većom od deset, broj visokofrekventnih entiteta čija je proporcija pojavljivanja jednaka ili veća od .80 te indeks konzistentnosti odgovaranja. Naveden je i rang kategorija prema indeksu konzistentnosti odgovaranja. Osim toga, za svaku su kategoriju prikazani odgovori s frekvencijom pojavljivanja jednakom ili većom od deset, a za svaki je navedeni entitet prikazana proporcija pojavljivanja, zatim proporcija pojavljivanja na prvome mjestu te prosječni rang položaja odgovora unutar pojedine kategorije. Izrađene norme za semantičke kategorije predstavljaju metodološki alat za ujednačavanje i sistematizaciju jezičnih podražaja koji će biti od koristi u budućim istraživanjima iz kognitivne psihologije, psiholingvistike i srodnih područja na hrvatskome jeziku.