Savoring Interventions Increase Positive Emotions After a Social-Evaluative Hassle.

Achieving a high quality of life is dependent upon how individuals face adversity. Positive psychological interventions are well-suited to support coping efforts; however, experimental research is limited. The purpose of the current research was to examine whether different savoring interventions could increase important coping resources (i.e., positive emotions) in response to a social-evaluative hassle. We completed an experimental mixed subject design study with a university student sample. All participants completed a hassle induction task and were then randomly assigned into different intervention groups. Positive emotion ratings were collected at three points in time (baseline, post-induction task, post-intervention). Results revealed a significant time x intervention interaction effect, such that individuals in the savoring the moment intervention reported higher levels of positive emotions (at post-intervention) compared to individuals assigned to the true control group, guided imagery control group, and savoring through reminiscence intervention. Such findings represent a significant extension to savoring theory and offer support for savoring the moment exercises as a primary prevention strategy to bolster effective responses to social-evaluative hassles.

Testing principal- versus medial-axis accounts of global spatial reorientation.

Determination of a direction of travel is a necessary component of successful navigation, and various species appear to use the geometric shape (global geometric cues) of an environment to determine direction. Yet, debate remains concerning which objective shape parameter is responsible for spatial reorientation via global geometric cues. For example, the principal axis of space, which runs through the centroid and approximate length of the space, and the medial axis of space, a trunk and branch system that fills the shape, have each been suggested as a basis to explain global spatial reorientation. As the principal- and medial-axis accounts appear to have substantial theoretical implications regarding the nature of shape perception, spatial memory, and the underlying psychological representations of space, it appears critical to empirically differentiate between these global geometric accounts. The present experiment explicitly placed predictions from the principal- and medial-axis-based accounts of global spatial reorientation in conflict for theoretical diagnostic purposes. We used a standard reorientation paradigm in which human participants first reoriented in a rectangular environment; subsequent testing in a critical I-shaped enclosure allowed dissociation of the principal- or medial-axis-based accounts. We show that reorientation in the I-shaped enclosure was consistent with the principal-axis account and inconsistent with the medial-axis account. We suggest that the use of the principal axis for spatial reorientation is a relatively simple and efficient way to establish directionality that would be advantageous over a more complex and less efficient medial-axis-based account. (PsycINFO Database Record

Environmental scaling influences the use of local but not global geometric cues during spatial reorientation.

During spatial reorientation, the use of local geometric cues (e.g., corner angles) and global geometric cues (e.g., principal axis) is differentially influenced by enclosure size. Local geometric cues exert more influence in large enclosures compared to small enclosures, whereas the use of global geometric cues is not influenced by changes in enclosure size. Such effects are suggested to occur because of differences in training enclosures sizes or differences in testing enclosure sizes, but investigations of enclosure-size effects on spatial cue use have been confounded by environmental scaling between training and testing. We trained participants in a trapezoid-shaped enclosure to respond to a corner uniquely specified by both local and global geometric cues and tested participants in a rectangle (isolating the use of global geometric cues) and in a parallelogram (placing local and global geometric cues in conflict). Between groups, participants experienced different training environment sizes but identical testing environment sizes or identical training environment sizes but different testing environment sizes, and this allowed categorization with respect to the direction of environmental scaling. We found that environmental scaling between training and testing size (but not training size differences or testing size differences) influenced the relative use of local geometric cues. The use of global geometric cues was not influenced by enclosure size. Results challenge prior explanations of the influence of enclosure size on relative spatial cue use during spatial reorientation. (PsycINFO Database Record

Isolated processing of geometric shapes and their corresponding shape words: Evidence from a delayed match-to-sample task.

Some theorists propose a domain-specific cognitive system dedicated to processing geometric information, but existence of this system remains debatable because of challenges in isolating geometric from linguistic and semantic processing. Recently, Sturz, Edwards, and Boyer (2014) developed a delayed match-to-sample task that presented a sample of a shape, shape word, or bidimensional stimulus composed of a shape and shape word. After a delay, participants identified the sample shape or the sample word by selecting between 2 shapes or 2 shape words. An asymmetrical pattern of interference emerged such that increased response times (RTs) and errors occurred in matching shape targets but not word targets. This was interpreted as shape words activating a semantic and spatial representation of shapes, but shapes only activating a spatial representation. The present experiments attempted to replicate and extend these results by manipulating figure-ground relations to contrast the original condition with an alternative to address an explanation based upon sample shape saliency (Experiment 1), by confirming the effectiveness of the saliency manipulation (Experiment 2), and by explicitly testing the assumption that shapes did not activate a semantic representation by reversing the sample-to-target matching criteria (Experiment 3). Experiment 1 replicated the asymmetrical pattern of results for both conditions, and Experiment 2 confirmed the saliency manipulation, which together undermine a pure saliency explanation. Experiment 3 produced a symmetrical pattern of results and suggests that the reversed matching criteria forced shapes to be processed in both a spatial and semantic fashion. These results provide support for a cognitive system dedicated to processing geometric information isolated from linguistic and semantic processing. (PsycINFO Database Record

Detecting the perception of illusory spatial boundaries: Evidence from distance judgments.

Spatial boundaries demarcate everything from the lanes in our roadways to the borders between our countries. They are fundamental to object perception, spatial navigation, spatial memory, spatial judgments, and the coordination of our actions. Although explicit spatial boundaries formed by physical structures comprise many of the actual boundaries we encounter, implicit and permeable spatial boundaries are pervasive. The prevailing paradigm for detecting implicit spatial boundaries relies on memory-based distance and location judgments. One possibility is that these biases in spatial memory may be attributable to initial biases in spatial perception, but the extent to which implicit spatial boundaries bias spatial perception remains unknown. An approach for detecting the perception of implicit spatial boundaries would be to infer it through known systematic biases in memory-based distance judgments. We harnessed known biases in memory-based distance judgments to infer perception of spatial boundaries by probing the extent to which distances were overestimated across potential spatial boundaries. Results suggest that participants perceived potential spatial boundaries as illusory spatial boundaries leading to biased judgments of distance. A control group eliminated simple two-dimensional distance cues as responsible for this bias. This bias provides a novel method to detect the perception of illusory spatial boundaries.

Evidence consistent with the multiple-bearings hypothesis from human virtual landmark-based navigation.

One approach to explaining the conditions under which additional landmarks will be learned or ignored relates to the nature of the information provided by the landmarks (i.e., distance versus bearings). In the current experiment, we tested the ability of such an approach to explain the search behavior of human participants in a virtual landmark-based navigation task by manipulating whether landmarks provided stable distance, stable direction, or both stable distance and stable direction information. First, we incrementally shaped human participants' search behavior in the presence of two ambiguous landmarks. Next, participants experienced one additional landmark that disambiguated the location of the goal. Finally, we presented three additional landmarks. In a control condition, the additional landmarks maintained stable distances and bearings to the goal across trials. In a stable bearings condition, the additional landmarks varied in their distances but maintained fixed bearings to the goal across trials. In a stable distance condition, the additional landmarks varied in their bearings but maintained fixed distances to the goal across trials. Landmark stability, in particular, the stability of landmark-to-goal bearings, affected learning of the added landmarks. We interpret the results in the context of the theories of spatial learning that incorporate the nature of the information provided by landmarks.

Incidental encoding of enclosure geometry does not require visual input: evidence from blindfolded adults.

Although spatial orientation with respect to the geometric properties of an environment appears to be an ability shared across various species, debate remains concerning potential similarities and differences with respect to the underlying mechanism(s). One prominent theoretical account of orientation with respect to the environment suggests that participants match visual memories to their current visual perception and navigate to reduce the discrepancy between the two. We tested whether visual input was necessary to incidentally encode the geometric properties of an environment, by training disoriented and blindfolded adult participants to search by touch for a target object hidden in one of four locations, marked by distinctive textural cues, located in the corners of a rectangular enclosure. Following training, we removed the distinctive textural cues and probed the extent to which the participants had learned the geometry of the enclosure. Even in the absence of vision and unique textural cues, search behavior was consistent with evidence for the encoding of enclosure geometry. A follow-up experiment in which participants were trained in a rectangular enclosure but were tested in a square enclosure provided converging evidence that search behavior was influenced by the geometric properties of the enclosure. Collectively, these results suggest that even in the absence of vision, participants incidentally encoded the geometric properties of the enclosure, indicating that visual input is not required to encode the geometric properties of an environment.

Asymmetrical interference effects between two-dimensional geometric shapes and their corresponding shape words.

Nativists have postulated fundamental geometric knowledge that predates linguistic and symbolic thought. Central to these claims is the proposal for an isolated cognitive system dedicated to processing geometric information. Testing such hypotheses presents challenges due to difficulties in eliminating the combination of geometric and non-geometric information through language. We present evidence using a modified matching interference paradigm that an incongruent shape word interferes with identifying a two-dimensional geometric shape, but an incongruent two-dimensional geometric shape does not interfere with identifying a shape word. This asymmetry in interference effects between two-dimensional geometric shapes and their corresponding shape words suggests that shape words activate spatial representations of shapes but shapes do not activate linguistic representations of shape words. These results appear consistent with hypotheses concerning a cognitive system dedicated to processing geometric information isolated from linguistic processing and provide evidence consistent with hypotheses concerning knowledge of geometric properties of space that predates linguistic and symbolic thought.

A consistent but non-coincident visual pattern facilitates the learning of spatial relations among locations.

Human participants searched in a dynamic three-dimensional computer-generated virtual-environment open-field search task for four hidden goal locations arranged in a diamond configuration located in a 5 × 5 matrix of raised bins. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: visual pattern or visual random. All participants experienced 30 trials in which four goal locations maintained the same spatial relations to each other (i.e., a diamond pattern), but this diamond pattern moved to random locations within the 5 × 5 matrix from trial to trial. For participants in the visual pattern group, four locations were marked in a distinct color and arranged in a diamond pattern that moved to a random location independent of the hidden spatial pattern from trial to trial throughout the experimental session. For participants in the visual random group, four random locations were marked with a distinct color and moved to random locations independent from the hidden spatial pattern from trial to trial throughout the experimental session. As a result, the visual cues for the visual pattern group were consistent but not coincident with the hidden spatial pattern, whereas the visual cues for the visual random group were neither consistent nor coincident with the hidden spatial pattern. Results indicated that participants in both groups learned the spatial configuration of goal locations and that the presence of consistent but noncoincident visual cues facilitated the learning of spatial relations among locations.

Stroop interference in a delayed match-to-sample task: evidence for semantic competition.

Discussions of the source of the Stroop interference effect continue to pervade the literature. Semantic competition posits that interference results from competing semantic activation of word and color dimensions of the stimulus prior to response selection. Response competition posits that interference results from competing responses for articulating the word dimension vs. the color dimension at the time of response selection. We embedded Stroop stimuli into a delayed match-to-sample (DMTS) task in an attempt to test semantic and response competition accounts of the interference effect. Participants viewed a sample color word in black or colored fonts that were congruent or incongruent with respect to the color word itself. After a 5 s delay, participants were presented with two targets (i.e., a match and a foil) and were instructed to select the correct match. We probed each dimension independently during target presentations via color targets (i.e., two colors) or word targets (i.e., two words) and manipulated whether the semantic content of the foil was related to the semantic content of the irrelevant sample dimension (e.g., word sample "red" in blue font with the word "red" as the match and the word "blue" as the foil). We provide evidence for Stroop interference such that response times (RTs) increased for incongruent trials even in the presence of a response option with semantic content unrelated to the semantic content of the irrelevant sample dimension. Accuracy also deteriorated during the related foil trials. A follow-up experiment with a 10 s delay between sample and targets replicated the results. Results appear to provide converging evidence for Stroop interference in a DMTS task in a manner that is consistent with an explanation based upon semantic competition and inconsistent with an explanation based upon response competition.

Does constraining field of view prevent extraction of geometric cues for humans during virtual-environment reorientation?

Environment size has been shown to influence the reliance on local and global geometric cues during reorientation. Unless changes in environment size are produced by manipulating length and width proportionally, changes in environment size are confounded by the amount of the environment that is visible from a single vantage point. Yet, the influence of the amount of the environment that is visible from any single vantage point on the use of local and global geometric cues remains unknown. We manipulated the amount of an environment that was visually available to participants by manipulating field of view (FOV) in a virtual environment orientation task. Two groups of participants were trained in a trapezoid-shaped enclosure to find a location that was uniquely specified by both local and global geometric cues. One group (FOV 50°) had visually less of the environment available to them from any one perspective compared to another group (FOV 100°). Following training, we presented both groups with a control test along with three novel-shaped environments. Testing assessed the use of global geometry in isolation, in alignment with local geometry, or in conflict with local geometry. Results (confirmed by a follow-up experiment) indicated that constraining FOV prevented extraction of geometric properties and relationships of space and resulted in an inability to use either global or local geometric cues for reorientation.

Environment size and the use of feature and geometric cues for reorientation.

We tested associative-based accounts of orientation by investigating the influence of environment size on the use of feature and geometric cues for reorientation. Two groups of participants were trained in dynamic three-dimensional virtual rectangular environments that differed in size to find a distinctly colored bin located at one of the four corners. Subsequently, we probed the reliance on feature and geometric cues for reorientation during test trials by presenting six trial types: Small Geometry Only, Large Geometry Only, Small Cue Conflict, Large Cue Conflict, Small Distal, and Large Distal. During Geometry Only test trials, all bins were black; thus, all distinctive featural information was removed leaving only geometric cues. For Cue Conflict test trials, all colored bins were shifted counter-clockwise one corner; thus, the geometric cues from the trained corner and the trained color were in direct conflict. During Distal test trials, the bin in the geometrically incorrect corner farthest from the trained corner was colored the same as during training; the remaining three bins were black. Thus, only this distant feature cue could be used to determine the location of the goal bin. Results suggested that geometric cues were used across changes in environment size, featural cues exerted greater influence when in conflict with geometric cues, and the far featural cue was used to disambiguate the correct from the rotationally equivalent location. In short, both feature and geometric cues were used for reorientation, and environment size influenced the relative use of feature and geometric cues. Collectively, our results provide evidence against associative-based accounts of orientation.

Geometric cues, reference frames, and the equivalence of experienced-aligned and novel-aligned views in human spatial memory.

Spatial memories are often organized around reference frames, and environmental shape provides a salient cue to reference frame selection. To date, however, the environmental cues responsible for influencing reference frame selection remain relatively unknown. To connect research on reference frame selection with that on orientation via environmental shape, we explored the extent to which geometric cues were incidentally encoded and represented in memory by evaluating their influence on reference frame selection. Using a virtual environment equipped with a head-mounted-display, we presented participants with to-be-remembered object arrays. We manipulated whether the experienced viewpoint was aligned or misaligned with global (i.e., the principal axis of space) or local (i.e., wall orientations) geometric cues. During subsequent judgments of relative direction (i.e., participants imagined standing at one object, facing a second object, and pointed toward a third object), we show that performance was best when imagining perspectives aligned with these geometric cues; moreover, global geometric cues were sufficient for reference frame selection, global and local geometric cues were capable of exerting differential influence on reference frame selection, and performance from experienced-imagined perspectives was equivalent to novel-imagined perspectives aligned with geometric cues. These results explicitly connect theory regarding spatial reference frame selection and spatial orientation via environmental shape and indicate that spatial memories are organized around fundamental geometric properties of space.

Overtraining and the use of feature and geometric cues for reorientation.

Using a dynamic three-dimensional virtual environment task, we investigated the influence of overtraining of feature and geometric cues on preferential spatial cue use. We trained two groups of human participants to respond to feature and geometric cues in separate enclosures before placing these cues in conflict on a critical test trial. All participants learned to respond to rewarded features located along the principal axis of a rectangular search space and to rewarded geometric cues of a rectangular search space in separate training phases followed by a single test trial. During the test trial, we situated the rewarded features in the unrewarded geometric corners and the unrewarded features in rewarded geometric corners. For one group, participants were overtrained with feature cues compared to geometric cues before experiencing the conflict test; whereas, for another group, participants were overtrained with geometric cues compared to feature cues before experiencing the conflict test. Although both groups learned to respond to both feature and geometric cues at an equivalent rate and to an equivalent level of terminal accuracy, testing results revealed no difference between the groups with respect to their preference for feature or geometric cues. Despite a lack of influence of overtraining on spatial cue preference, participants showed an overall preference for feature cues. We discuss the results with respect to implications for theoretical accounts of spatial learning.

More than a feeling: incidental learning of array geometry by blindfolded adult humans revealed through touch.

View-based matching theories of orientation suggest that mobile organisms encode a visual memory consisting of a visual panorama from a target location and maneuver to reduce discrepancy between current visual perception and this stored visual memory to return to a location. Recent success of such theories to explain the orientation behavior of insects and birds raises questions regarding the extent to which such an explanation generalizes to other species. In the present study, we attempted to determine the extent to which such view-based matching theories may explain the orientation behavior of a mammalian species (in this case adult humans). We modified a traditional enclosure orientation task so that it involved only the use of the haptic sense. The use of a haptic orientation task to investigate the extent to which view-based matching theories may explain the orientation behavior of adult humans appeared ideal because it provided an opportunity for us to explicitly prohibit the use of vision. Specifically, we trained disoriented and blindfolded human participants to search by touch for a target object hidden in one of four locations marked by distinctive textural cues located on top of four discrete landmarks arranged in a rectangular array. Following training, we removed the distinctive textural cues and probed the extent to which participants learned the geometry of the landmark array. In the absence of vision and the trained textural cues, participants showed evidence that they learned the geometry of the landmark array. Such evidence cannot be explained by an appeal to view-based matching strategies and is consistent with explanations of spatial orientation related to the incidental learning of environmental geometry.

Beacons and surface features differentially influence human reliance on global and local geometric cues when reorienting in a virtual environment.

In the reorientation literature, non-geometric cues include discrete objects (e.g., beacons) and surface-based features (e.g., colors, textures, and odors). To date, these types of non-geometric cues have been considered functionally similar, and it remains unknown whether beacons and surface features differentially influence the extent to which organisms reorient via global and local geometric cues. In the present experiment, we trained human participants to approach a location in a trapezoid-shaped enclosure uniquely specified by global and local geometric cues. We explored the role of beacons on the use of geometric cues by training participants in the presence or absence of uniquely-colored beacons. We explored the role of surface features on the use of geometric cues by recoloring two adjacent walls at the correct location and/or adding a line on the floor which corresponded to the major principal axis of the enclosure. All groups were then tested in novel-shaped enclosures in the absence of unique beacons and surface features to assess the relative use of global and local geometric cues. Results suggested that beacons facilitated the use of global geometric cues, whereas surface features either facilitated or hindered the use of geometric cues, depending on the feature.

On Discriminating between Geometric Strategies of Surface-Based Orientation.

Recently, a debate has manifested in the spatial learning literature regarding the shape parameters by which mobile organisms orient with respect to the environment. On one hand are principal-axis-based strategies which suggest that organisms extract the major and minor principal axes of space which pass through the centroid and approximate length and width of the entire space, respectively. On the other hand are medial-axis-based strategies which suggest that organisms extract a trunk-and-branch system similar to the skeleton of a shape. With competing explanations comes the necessity to devise experiments capable of producing divergent predictions. Here, we suggest that a recent experiment (i.e., Sturz and Bodily, 2011a) may be able to shed empirical light on this debate. Specifically, we suggest that a reevaluation of the design reveals that the enclosures used for training and testing appear to produce divergent predictions between these strategies. We suggest that the obtained data appear inconsistent with a medial-axis-based strategy and that the study may provide an example of the types of designs capable of discriminating between these geometric strategies of surface-based orientation. Such an approach appears critical to fundamental issues regarding the nature of space and spatial perception.

No evidence that consistent auditory cues facilitate learning of spatial relations among locations.

Human participants searched in a dynamic three-dimensional computer-generated virtual-environment open-field search task for four hidden goal locations arranged in a diamond configuration located in a 5×5 matrix of raised bins. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: Consistent or Inconsistent. All participants experienced 30 trials in which four goal locations maintained the same spatial relations to each other (i.e., a diamond pattern), but this diamond pattern moved to random locations within the 5×5 matrix from trial-to-trial. For participants in the Consistent group, each goal location within the pattern always provided a unique and consistent auditory cue throughout the experimental session. For participants in the Inconsistent group, the same distinct auditory cues were provided for each goal location; however, the locations of these auditory cues within the pattern itself were randomized from trial-to-trial throughout the experimental session. Results indicated that participants in both groups learned the spatial configuration of goal locations, but the presence of consistent auditory cues did not facilitate the learning of spatial relations among locations.

Enclosure size and the use of local and global geometric cues for reorientation.

Multiple spatial cues are utilized to orient with respect to the environment, but it remains unclear why feature (i.e., objects in the environment) and geometric (i.e., shape of the environment) cues are differentially influenced by enclosure size, and the extent to which local (i.e., wall lengths and corner angles) and global (i.e., principal axis of space) geometric cues are influenced by enclosure size. In the present study, we investigated the extent to which environmental size influenced the use of corner angle (i.e., a local geometric cue) and the principal axis of space (i.e., a global geometric cue) for reorientation. We developed an orientation task that allowed the manipulation of enclosure size during training and the isolation of the use of the principal axis of space during testing. Participants were trained to respond to a location in either a small or a large trapezoid-shaped enclosure uniquely specified by both local (i.e., wall lengths and corner angles) and global (i.e., principal axis of space) geometric cues. During testing, we presented both groups with a small and large rectangle (to assess the use of principal axis of space) and a small and large parallelogram (to asses relative use of corner angles and the principal axis of space when in conflict). Enclosure size influenced the relative use of corner angles but not of the principal axis of space. Results suggest that corner angles function like features and that changes in the use of feature cues are the source of the relative reliance on feature and geometric cues during changes of enclosure size.