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Davies JR, Garcia-Pelegrin E, Clayton NS. Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) show episodic-like memory through the incidental encoding of information. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0301298. [PMID: 38748646 PMCID: PMC11095760 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301298] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2023] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 05/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Episodic memory describes the conscious reimagining of our memories and is often considered to be a uniquely human ability. As these phenomenological components are embedded within its definition, major issues arise when investigating the presence of episodic memory in non-human animals. Importantly, however, when we as humans recall a specific experience, we may remember details from that experience that were inconsequential to our needs, thoughts, or desires at that time. This 'incidental' information is nevertheless encoded automatically as part of the memory and is subsequently recalled within a holistic representation of the event. The incidental encoding and unexpected question paradigm represents this characteristic feature of human episodic memory and can be employed to investigate memory recall in non-human animals. However, without evidence for the associated phenomenology during recall, this type of memory is termed 'episodic-like memory'. Using this approach, we tested seven Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) on their ability to use incidental visual information (associated with observed experimenter made 'caches') to solve an unexpected memory test. The birds performed above chance levels, suggesting that Eurasian jays can encode, retain, recall, and access incidental visual information within a remembered event, which is an ability indicative of episodic memory in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- James R Davies
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | | | - Nicola S Clayton
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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Tsuchiya N, Saigo H, Phillips S. An adjunction hypothesis between qualia and reports. Front Psychol 2023; 13:1053977. [PMID: 37077507 PMCID: PMC10107370 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1053977] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
What are the nature of the relationship among qualia, contents of consciousness, and behavioral reports? Traditionally, this type of question has been only addressed via a qualitative and philosophical approach. Some theorists emphasize an incomplete and inaccurate nature of reports of one's own qualia to discourage formal research programs on qualia. Other empirical researchers, however, have made substantial progress in understanding the structure of qualia from such limited reports. What is the precise relationship between the two? To answer this question, we introduce the concept of “adjoint” or “adjunction” from the category theory in mathematics. We claim that the adjunction captures some aspects of the nuanced relationships between qualia and reports. The concept of adjunction allows us to clarify the conceptual issues with a precise mathematical formulation. In particular, adjunction establishes coherence between two categories that cannot be considered equivalent, yet has an important relationship. This rises in empirical experimental situations between qualia and reports. More importantly, an idea of adjunction naturally leads to various proposals of new empirical experiments to test the predictions about the nature of their relationship as well as other issues in consciousness research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naotsugu Tsuchiya
- School of Psychological Sciences and Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Suita, Japan
- Advanced Telecommunications Research Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, Kyoto, Japan
- *Correspondence: Naotsugu Tsuchiya ✉
| | - Hayato Saigo
- Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology, Nagahama, Japan
| | - Steven Phillips
- National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Japan
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Zher-Wen, Yu R. Unconscious integration: Current evidence for integrative processing under subliminal conditions. Br J Psychol 2023; 114:430-456. [PMID: 36689339 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12631] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Integrative processing is traditionally believed to be dependent on consciousness. While earlier studies within the last decade reported many types of integration under subliminal conditions (i.e. without perceptual awareness), these findings are widely challenged recently. This review evaluates the current evidence for 10 types of subliminal integration that are widely studied: arithmetic processing, object-context integration, multi-word processing, same-different processing, multisensory integration and 5 different types of associative learning. Potential methodological issues concerning awareness measures are also taken into account. It is concluded that while there is currently no reliable evidence for subliminal integration, this does not necessarily refute 'unconscious' integration defined through non-subliminal (e.g. implicit) approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zher-Wen
- Department of Management, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.,Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore City, Singapore
| | - Rongjun Yu
- Department of Management, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China
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Chuyin Z, Koh ZH, Gallagher R, Nishimoto S, Tsuchiya N. What can we experience and report on a rapidly presented image? Intersubjective measures of specificity of freely reported contents of consciousness. F1000Res 2022; 11:69. [PMID: 36176545 PMCID: PMC9493396 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.75364.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: A majority of previous studies appear to support a view that human observers can only perceive coarse information from a natural scene image when it is presented rapidly (<100ms, masked). In these studies, participants were often forced to choose an answer from options that experimenters preselected. These options can underestimate what participants experience and can report on it. The current study aims to introduce a novel methodology to investigate how detailed information participants can report after briefly seeing a natural scene image. Methods: We used a novel free-report paradigm to examine what people can freely report following a rapidly presented natural scene image (67/133/267ms, masked). N = 600 online participants typed up to five words to report what they saw in the image together with confidence of the respective responses. We developed a novel index, Intersubjective Agreement (IA). IA quantifies how specifically the response words were used to describe the target image, with a high value meaning the word is not often reported for other images. Importantly, IA eliminates the need for experimenters to preselect response options. Results: The words with high IA values are often something detailed (e.g., a small object) in a particular image. With IA, unlike commonly believed, we demonstrated that participants reported highly specific and detailed aspects of the briefly (even at 67ms, masked) shown image. Further, IA is positively correlated with confidence, indicating metacognitive conscious access to the reported aspects of the image. Conclusion: These new findings challenge the dominant view that the content of rapid scene experience is limited to global and coarse gist. Our novel paradigm opens a door to investigate various contents of consciousness with a free-report paradigm.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhang Chuyin
- Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health & School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3168, Australia
| | - Zhao Hui Koh
- Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health & School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3168, Australia
| | - Regan Gallagher
- Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health & School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3168, Australia
| | - Shinji Nishimoto
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Suita, Osaka, Japan
- Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
| | - Naotsugu Tsuchiya
- Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health & School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3168, Australia
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Suita, Osaka, Japan
- Advanced Telecommunications Research Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, Hikaridai, Kyoto, Japan
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Qianchen L, Gallagher RM, Tsuchiya N. How much can we differentiate at a brief glance: revealing the truer limit in conscious contents through the massive report paradigm (MRP). ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2022; 9:210394. [PMID: 35619998 PMCID: PMC9128849 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.210394] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2021] [Accepted: 04/27/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Upon a brief glance, how well can we differentiate what we see from what we do not? Previous studies answered this question as 'poorly'. This is in stark contrast with our everyday experience. Here, we consider the possibility that previous restriction in stimulus variability and response alternatives reduced what participants could express from what they consciously experienced. We introduce a novel massive report paradigm that probes the ability to differentiate what we see from what we do not. In each trial, participants viewed a natural scene image and judged whether a small image patch was a part of the original image. To examine the limit of discriminability, we also included subtler changes in the image as modification of objects. Neither the images nor patches were repeated per participant. Our results showed that participants were highly accurate (accuracy greater than 80%) in differentiating patches from the viewed images from patches that are not present. Additionally, the differentiation between original and modified objects was influenced by object sizes and/or the congruence between objects and the scene gists. Our massive report paradigm opens a door to quantitatively measure the limit of immense informativeness of a moment of consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liang Qianchen
- School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
- Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Regan M. Gallagher
- School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
- Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Naotsugu Tsuchiya
- School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
- Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), Osaka, Japan
- Advanced Telecommunications Research Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, Kyoto, Japan
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