Compound cue retrieval is a computational model of a mediated route for response selection in task-switching situations. In previous studies, the model has been shown to account for response congruency effects when switching between two tasks, where response congruency reflects the degree of match between relevant and irrelevant task responses associated with a target stimulus. In the present s...

OBJECTIVE To assess changes in people's knowledge and beliefs about cancer between 1964 and 2001. DESIGN Questions in a 1964 survey of beliefs about cancer (randomly selected households) were replicated in a 2001 telephone survey (random-digit dialing). SETTING Perth, Western Australia. PARTICIPANTS 984 and 491 participants aged 20 years or older in the 1964 and 2001 surveys, respectively...

A basic but unresolved issue in the study of memory retrieval is whether multiple independent cues can be used concurrently (i.e., in parallel) to recall a single, common response. A number of empirical results, as well as potentially applicable theories, suggest that retrieval can proceed in parallel, though set forth a model that denies that possibility. In this paper, five quantitative model...

In three experiments we studied human ability to use statistical contingencies between visual stimuli (flankers and targets) to improve performance in a letter-digit classification task. We compared the performance of explicitly informed subjects with that of subjects who were told nothing of the contingencies. Simultaneous presentation of flankers and targets (Experiment 1) produced evidence o...

As an extension of previous studies (Urbanczyk, Angel, & Kennelly, Brain and Cognition, 8, 206-226) examining the effects of unimanual tapping on lateralized cognitive tasks, lateral body orienting was added to an established dual task paradigm to generate differential hemispheric activation and shifts of attention. One hundred twenty right-handed university students retained sequences of digit...

BACKGROUND Cigarette per day (CPD) use is a key smoking behaviour indicator. It reflects smoking intensity which is directly proportional to the occurrence of tobacco induced cancers. Self reported CPD assessment in surveys may suffer from digit bias and under reporting. Estimates from such surveys could influence the policy decision for tobacco control efforts. In this context, this study aime...

Three experiments examined the effects of task switching and response correspondence in a psychological refractory period paradigm. A letter task (vowel-consonant) and a digit task (odd-even) were combined to form 4 possible dual-task pairs in each trial: letter-letter, letter-digit, digit-digit, and digit-letter. Foreknowledge of task transition (repeat or switch) and task identity (letter or ...

Contrary to the common belief that sensory memory remains unchanged across development in childhood, there have been several previous reports suggesting that the persistence of sensory memory, at least for sounds, increases with age in childhood. Because those previous studies all used isolated sounds as stimuli, it is not yet clear how this developmental difference influences the recall of sou...

A question that has been fought over for at least 80 years is whether memory traces decay with time or interfere with one another (McGeoch, 1932). This question is central to interpretations of forgetting and memory capacity and to understanding the design of the human cognitive architecture. There are two camps, which take turns declaring victory (e.g., there is " no temporal decay in verbal s...