A pupillometric study of developmental and individual differences in cognitive effort in visual word recognition

Overcoming resistance to belief revision and correction of misinformation beliefs: psychophysiological and behavioral effects of a counterfactual mindset

In a series of experiments involving beliefs and misinformation beliefs, we find that individuals who are prompted with a counterfactual mindset are significantly more likely to change their existing beliefs when presented with evidence that contradicts their beliefs. While research finds that beliefs that are considered part of one's identity are highly resistant to change in the face of evidence that challenges these beliefs, four experiments provide evidence that counterfactual generation causes individuals to adjust beliefs and correct misinformation beliefs in response to contradicting evidence. Indeed, we find that a counterfactual mindset was effective in promoting incorporation of accurate facts and causing individuals to revise misinformation beliefs about COVID vaccination safety for a large sample of individuals who have rejected COVID vaccinations. Finally, the results of the psychophysiological experiment reveal that counterfactual generation alters decision makers' search strategies, increases their cognitive arousal in response to evidence that challenges their beliefs, and increases their desire to seek out disconfirming evidence. Overall, the four experiments indicate that counterfactual generation can effectively activate mindsets that increase individuals' willingness to evaluate evidence that contradicts their beliefs and adjust their beliefs in response to evidence.

Applicability and usefulness of pupillometry in the study of lexical access. A scoping review of primary research

Pupil dilation has been associated with the effort required to perform various cognitive tasks. At the lexical level, some studies suggest that this neurophysiological measure would provide objective, real-time information during word processing and lexical access. However, due to the scarcity and incipient advancement of this line of research, its applicability, use, and sensitivity are not entirely clear. This scoping review aims to determine the applicability and usefulness of pupillometry in the study of lexical access by providing an up-to-date overview of research in this area. Following the PRISMA protocol, 16 articles were included in this review. The results show that pupillometry is a highly applicable, useful, and sensitive method for assessing lexical skills of word recognition, word retrieval, and semantic activation. Moreover, it easily fits into traditional research paradigms and methods in the field. Because it is a non-invasive, objective, and automated procedure, it can be applied to any population or age group. However, the emerging development of this specific area of research and the methodological diversity observed in the included studies do not yet allow for definitive conclusions in this area, which in turn does not allow for meta-analyses or fully conclusive statements about what the pupil response actually reflects when processing words. Standardized pupillary recording and analysis methods need to be defined to generate more accurate, replicable research designs with more reliable results to strengthen this line of research.

Visual word processing engages a hierarchical, distributed, and bilateral cortical network

Although the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) in left temporal cortex is considered the pre-eminent region in visual word processing, other regions are also implicated. We examined the entire text-selective circuit, using functional MRI. Ten regions of interest (ROIs) per hemisphere were defined, which, based on clustering, grouped into early vision, high-level vision, and language clusters. We analyzed the responses of the ROIs and clusters to words, inverted words, and consonant strings using univariate, multivariate, and functional connectivity measures. Bilateral modulation by stimulus condition was evident, with a stronger effect in left hemisphere regions. Last, using graph theory, we observed that the VWFA was equivalently connected with early visual and language clusters in both hemispheres, reflecting its role as a mediator in the circuit. Although the individual ROIs and clusters bilaterally were flexibly altered by the nature of the input, stability held at the level of global circuit connectivity, reflecting the complex hierarchical distributed system serving visual text perception.

A developmental study of eye movements in Hebrew word reading: the effects of word familiarity, word length, and reading proficiency

Previous studies examining the link between visual word recognition and eye movements have shown that eye movements reflect the time-course of cognitive processes involved in reading. Whereas most studies have been undertaken in Western European languages written in the Roman alphabet, the present developmental study investigates a non-European language-Hebrew, which is written in a non-alphabetic (abjadic) script. We compared the eye-movements of children in Grades 4 to 6 (N = 30) and university students (N = 30) reading familiar real words and unfamiliar (pseudo)words of 3 letters and 5 letters in length. Using linear mixed models, we focused on the effects of word familiarity, word length, and age group. Our results highlight both universal aspects of word reading (developmental and familiarity (lexicality) effects) as well as language-specific word length effect which appears to be related to the unique morphological and orthographic features of the Semitic abjad.

Examining the role of attentional allocation in working memory precision with pupillometry in children and adults

Working memory (WM) precision, or the fidelity with which items can be remembered, is an important aspect of WM capacity that increases over childhood. Why individuals are more or less precise from moment to moment and why WM becomes more stable with age are not yet fully understood. Here, we examined the role of attentional allocation in visual WM precision in children aged 8 to 13 years and young adults aged 18 to 27 years, as measured by fluctuations in pupil dilation during stimulus encoding and maintenance. Using mixed models, we examined intraindividual links between change in pupil diameter and WM precision across trials and the role of developmental differences in these associations. Through probabilistic modeling of error distributions and the inclusion of a visuomotor control task, we isolated mnemonic precision from other cognitive processes. We found an age-related increase in mnemonic precision that was independent of guessing behavior, serial position effects, fatigue or loss of motivation across the experiment, and visuomotor processes. Trial-by-trial analyses showed that trials with smaller changes in pupil diameter during encoding and maintenance predicted more precise responses than trials with larger changes in pupil diameter within individuals. At encoding, this relationship was stronger for older participants. Furthermore, the pupil-performance coupling grew across the delay period-particularly or exclusively for adults. These results suggest a functional link between pupil fluctuations and WM precision that grows over development; visual details may be stored more faithfully when attention is allocated efficiently to a sequence of objects at encoding and throughout a delay period.