Neurophysiological evidence that perceptions of fluency produce mere exposure effects

Context familiarity is a third kind of episodic memory distinct from item familiarity and recollection

Episodic memory is accounted for with two processes: "familiarity" when generally recognizing an item and "recollection" when retrieving the full contextual details bound with the item. We tested a combination of item recognition confidence and source memory, focusing upon three conditions: "item-only hits with source unknown" ('item familiarity'), "low-confidence hits with correct source memory" ('context familiarity'), and "high-confidence hits with correct source memory" ('recollection'). Behaviorally, context familiarity was slower than the others during item recognition, but faster during source memory. Electrophysiologically, a triple dissociation was evident in event-related potentials (ERPs), which was independently replicated. Context familiarity exhibited a negative effect from 800 to 1200 ms, differentiated from positive ERPs for item-familiarity (400-600 ms) and recollection (600-900 ms). These three conditions thus reflect mutually exclusive, fundamentally different processes of episodic memory, and we offer a new, tri-component model of memory. Context familiarity is a third distinct process of episodic memory.

Light wavelength and pulsing frequency affect avoidance responses of Canada geese

Collisions between birds and aircraft cause bird mortality, economic damage, and aviation safety hazards. One proposed solution to increasing the distance at which birds detect and move away from an approaching aircraft, ultimately mitigating the probability of collision, is through onboard lighting systems. Lights in vehicles have been shown to lead to earlier reactions in some bird species but they could also generate attraction, potentially increasing the probability of collision. Using information on the visual system of the Canada goose (Branta canadensis), we developed light stimuli of high chromatic contrast to their eyes. We then conducted a controlled behavioral experiment (i.e., single-choice test) to assess the avoidance or attraction responses of Canada geese to LED lights of different wavelengths (blue, 483 nm; red, 631 nm) and pulsing frequencies (steady, pulsing at 2 Hz). Overall, Canada geese tended to avoid the blue light and move towards the red light; however, these responses depended heavily on light exposure order. At the beginning of the experiment, geese tended to avoid the red light. After further exposure the birds developed an attraction to the red light, consistent with the mere exposure effect. The response to the blue light generally followed a U-shape relationship (avoidance, attraction, avoidance) with increasing number of exposures, again consistent with the mere exposure effect, but followed by the satiation effect. Lights pulsing at 2 Hz enhanced avoidance responses under high ambient light conditions; whereas steady lights enhanced avoidance responses under dim ambient light conditions. Our results have implications for the design of lighting systems aimed at mitigating collisions between birds and human objects. LED lights in the blue portion of the spectrum are good candidates for deterrents and lights in the red portion of the spectrum may be counterproductive given the attraction effects with increasing exposure. Additionally, consideration should be given to systems that automatically modify pulsing of the light depending on ambient light intensity to enhance avoidance.

Nomen est omen? How and when company name fluency affects return expectations

Investors perceive stocks of companies with fluent names as more profitable. This perception may result from two different channels: a direct, non-deliberate affect toward fluent names or a deliberate interpretation of fluent names as a signal for company quality. We use preregistered experiments to disentangle these channels and test their limitations. Our results indicate the existence of a significant non-deliberate fluency effect, while the deliberate fluency effect can be activated and deactivated in boundary cases. Both effects are consistent across different groups of participants. However, whereas the fluency effect is strong in isolation, it has limitations when investors are confronted with additional information about the stock.

Mere Exposure Effect Is Sometimes Insensitive to Mood Inductions

The mere exposure effect (MEE) is defined as repeated exposures to a stimulus enhancing affective evaluations of that stimulus (Zajonc, 1968). The three prominent explanations of the MEE are Zajonc's "neophobia" account, the uncertainty reduction account, and the perceptual fluency approach. Zajonc's "neophobia" account posits that people have an inherent low level of fear of novel objects and exposure to the objects partially extinguishes this novelty-based fear. The uncertainty reduction account asserts that people find uncertainty aversive and habituation reduces uncertainty. The fluency account postulates that people "like" representations of things with which they are fluent. In four experiments, we induced positive and negative moods before or after target exposures. In addition to assessing the MEE in each condition, we assessed the mood induction. The central hypothesis assessed in this series was that there would be an interaction between mood and the MEE. Although the three accounts of the MEE generated divergent predictions, none of the accounts were well supported by the data. Tests for mood induction demonstrated the efficacy of the induction procedures and the MEE was consistently observed, but Bayesian analysis indicated that at least in the present preparation mood had no effect on the MEE.

Recallable but not recognizable: The influence of semantic priming in recall paradigms

When people can successfully recall a studied word, they should be able to recognize it as having been studied. In cued-recall paradigms, however, participants sometimes correctly recall words in the presence of strong semantic cues but then fail to recognize those words as actually having been studied. Although the conditions necessary to produce this unusual effect are known, the underlying neural correlates have not been investigated. Across five experiments, involving both behavioral and electrophysiological methods (EEG), we investigated the cognitive and neural processes that underlie recognition failures. Experiments 1 and 2 showed behaviorally that assuming that recalled items can be recognized in cued-recall paradigms is a flawed assumption, because recognition failures occur in the presence of cues, regardless of whether those failures are measured. With event-related potentials (ERPs), Experiments 3 and 4 revealed that successfully recalled words that are recognized are driven by recollection at recall and then by a combination of recollection and familiarity at ensuing recognition. In contrast, recognition failures did not show that memory signature and may instead be driven by semantic priming at recall and followed at recognition stages by negative-going ERP effects consistent with implicit processes, such as repetition fluency. These results demonstrate that recall - long-characterized as predominantly reflecting recollection-based processing in episodic memory - may at times also be served by a confluence of implicit cognitive processes.

Context influences the FN400 recognition event-related potential

Recognition of studied items often elicit more positive event-related potentials (ERPs) than unstudied items at mid-frontal electrodes about 300-500 ms (i.e., the FN400). The debate over the psychological processes associated with the FN400 has led to two competing hypotheses. One hypothesis is that the FN400 reflects familiarity, whereas another hypothesis is that it reflects conceptual implicit memory (i.e., conceptual fluency). The present experiment tested these hypotheses by presenting meaningless images that lack familiarity and conceptual fluency, off-brand products that lack pre-experimental familiarity, and name-brand products that have both pre-experimental familiarity and conceptual fluency. ERPs were recorded during judgments of lifetime and recent recognition. During both forms of recognition, ERPs in the FN400 window were greater for meaningless images than name- or off-brand products. Because this evidence is difficult to reconcile with either the familiarity or conceptual fluency hypotheses, the results are interpreted within a broader theoretical framework that includes top-down psychological (i.e., context) influences on the FN400.

Electrophysiological correlates of the perceptual fluency effect on recognition memory in different fluency contexts

The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the contribution of perceptual fluency to recognition memory in different fluency contexts. In a recognition memory test with a modified remember-know paradigm, we employed conceptually impoverished items (kaleidoscope images) as stimuli and manipulated the perceptual fluency of recognition test cues through masked repetition priming. There were two fluency context conditions. In the random fluency context (RC) condition, primed and unprimed trials were randomly inter-mixed. In the blocked fluency context (BC) condition, primed and unprimed trials were grouped into blocks. Behavioral results showed that priming elevated the incidence of remember hits and the accuracy of remember judgements in the RC condition; no such effects were evident in the BC condition. In addition, priming effects on reaction times were found only for remember hit responses in the RC condition. The ERP results revealed an early100-200 ms effect related to masked repetition priming, which took the form of greater positivity for primed than unprimed trials. This effect was modulated neither by fluency context or response type. The present findings suggest that perceptual fluency induced by masked repetition priming affects recollection-related memory judgments in a specific fluency context and indicate that relative, rather absolute, fluency plays a critical role in influencing recognition memory judgments.

Neural correlates of the Dunning-Kruger effect

The Dunning-Kruger effect (DKE) is a metacognitive phenomenon of illusory superiority in which individuals who perform poorly on a task believe they performed better than others, yet individuals who performed very well believe they under-performed compared to others. This phenomenon has yet to be directly explored in episodic memory, nor explored for physiological correlates or reaction times. We designed a novel method to elicit the DKE via a test of item recognition while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. Throughout the task, participants were asked to estimate the percentile in which they performed compared to others. Results revealed participants in the bottom 25th percentile over-estimated their percentile, while participants in the top 75th percentile under-estimated their percentile, exhibiting the classic DKE. Reaction time measures revealed a condition-by-group interaction whereby over-estimators responded faster than under-estimators when estimating being in the top percentile and responded slower when estimating being in the bottom percentile. Between-group EEG differences were evident between over-estimators and under-estimators during Dunning-Kruger responses, which revealed FN400-like effects of familiarity supporting differences for over-estimators, whereas "old-new" memory event-related potential effects revealed a late parietal component associated with recollection-based processing for under-estimators that was not evident for over-estimators. Findings suggest over- and under-estimators use differing cognitive processes when assessing their performance, such that under-estimators may rely on recollection during memory while over-estimators may draw upon excess familiarity when over-estimating their performance. Episodic memory thus appears to play a contributory role in metacognitive judgements of illusory superiority.

Differences in early and late pattern-onset visual-evoked potentials between self- reported migraineurs and controls

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Migraineurs had an enhanced N2 evoked by gratings with a spatial frequency of 13 cpd.

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Migraineurs had an attenuated occipital late negativity (LN) for viewing all gratings.

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Hyperexcitable controls showed similar VEP pattern compared to migraineurs.

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Enhanced N2 deflection could be driven by cortical hyperexcitation.

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LN reduction could reflect inhibitory control during processing of aversive stimuli.

Striped patterns have been shown to induce strong visual illusions and discomforts to migraineurs in previous literature. Previous research has suggested that these unusual visual symptoms to be linked with the hyperactivity on the visual cortex of migraine sufferers. The present study searched for evidence supporting this hypothesis by comparing the visual evoked potentials (VEPs) elicited by striped patterns of specific spatial frequencies (0.5, 3, and 13 cycles-per-degree) between a group of 29 migraineurs (17 with aura/12 without) and 31 non-migraineurs. In addition, VEPs to the same stripped patterns were compared between non-migraineurs who were classified as hyperexcitable versus non-hyperexcitable using a previously established behavioural pattern glare task. We found that the migraineurs had a significantly increased N2 amplitude for stimuli with 13 cpd gratings but an attenuated late negativity (LN: 400 – 500 ms after the stimuli onset) for all the spatial frequencies. Interestingly, non-migraineurs who scored as hyperexcitable appeared to have similar response patterns to the migraineurs, albeit in an attenuated form. We propose that the enhanced N2 could reflect disruption of the balance between parvocellular and magnocellular pathway, which is in support of the cortical hyperexcitation hypothesis in migraineurs. In addition, the attenuation of the late negativity could reflect a top-down feedback mechanism to suppress visual processing of an aversive stimulus.

Real-Time Neural Signals of Disorder and Order Perception

Order and disorder are prevalent in everyday life, yet little is known about the neural real-time processing that occurs during the perception of disorder relative to order. In the present study, from a cognitive perspective, by adopting the ERP method, we aimed to examine the elicited real-time neural signals of disorder and order perception when participants processed physical environmental and basic visual disorder and order pictures in an irrelevant red or green rectangle detection task, and we attempted to test the hypothesis of cognitive disfluency in disorder perception. Generally, we observed that at each measured time interval, the ERPs elicited by order stimuli were more positive (less negative) in amplitude than those elicited by disorder stimuli at the frontal electrodes (represented by F7/F8, FT7/FT8, Fz, and FCz), whereas at the posterior electrodes (represented by P7/P8, PO7/PO8, Pz, and POz), the opposite was true. These data reveal for the first time the neural underpinnings of disorder and order perception, extending our understanding of the nature of disorder and order. This study also contributes to the cognitive fluency literature and indirectly expands the research on disorder and order stimuli in cognitive fluency.

The temporal dynamics of perceptual and conceptual fluency on recognition memory

Recognition memory can be driven by both perceptual and conceptual fluency, but when and to what extent they contribute to recognition memory remains an open question. The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the neural correlates of perceptual and conceptual fluency, when they gave rise to recognition. We manipulated the perceptual and conceptual fluency of retrieval cues in the recognition test independently to obtain the effects of different types of fluency. Behavioral results showed that perceptual fluency selectively affected K hits, while conceptual fluency affected R hits and K false alarms. In addition, conceptual fluency facilitated the response times of R hits. The ERP results showed that perceptual fluency effect appeared at 100-200 ms and conceptual fluency effect appeared at 300-500 ms. The parietal LPC peaked earlier for conceptually primed trials compared to unprimed trials. These results suggest that perceptual and conceptual fluency had different effects on recognition judgments, and these two types of fluency can be delineated by distinct ERP correlates. The current finding indicates that unconscious memory processes can support recognition and have provided insights into the underlying mechanism involved in recognition memory.