Time-Perception Deficits in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

The present meta-analysis quantified the deficit in time perception in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) throughout the lifespan and examined potential moderators of this deficit. Our sample of 824 effect sizes showed a mean g of 0.688 that was moderated by the age of the sample and working memory. Separate moderator analyses for samples below or above the age of 18 showed that the link with working memory only applied to the samples below the age of 18, whereas an effect of ADHD subtype only applied to samples 18 and above. The discussion highlights the implications for remediation and avenues for future research.

Sex differences in curve tracing and the Mental Rotations Test.

The present study aimed to extend the work on the curve tracing task from Voyer and MacPherson (2020) in two experiments replacing the chronometric task they used with a psychometric mental rotation task. Both experiments also manipulated separation between the target and distractor curve to confirm that a zoom lens strategy is used in curve tracing and that this strategy preference is more common for men than women. Experiment 1 also aimed to replicate the correlation between curve tracing and Navon task performance, whereas Experiment 2 determined whether the correlation between curve tracing and mental rotation remained when the attention component was partialed out. In Experiment 1, 49 men and 67 women completed the curve tracing task, the Navon task, and the Mental Rotations Test (MRT). In Experiment 2, 69 men and 66 women completed the curve tracing task, the MRT, and the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). Results in both experiments replicated the effect of distance between dots on the curve and the performance advantage for men in curve tracing. All tasks correlated significantly with each other at least on accuracy. Findings for the distractor curve manipulation replicated support for the use of a zoom lens strategy. However, findings for women and men produced contradictory findings. Finally, partialing out SART performance did not affect the correlation between curve tracing and MRT performance. The discussion emphasizes the common piecemeal processing component in curve tracing and mental rotation. More work is required to examine further potential sex differences in strategy use. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Accident proneness, laterality, and time estimation.

Cerebral laterality has been linked to accident proneness and time perception, but the possible role of time estimation abilities has received little attention. Accordingly, the present study focused on this under-explored question while also aiming to replicate past work examining the relationship between measures of laterality and injury proneness. Participants reported on the number of accidents they have had in their lifetime requiring medical care and the number of minor accidents they had in the past month as outcome variables. They also completed the Waterloo Handedness Questionnaire, a left bias visual task (Greyscales task), a right bias auditory verbal task (Fused Dichotic Words Task), and an objective measure of time perception. Extensive examination of statistical model fit showed that a model assuming a Poisson distribution provided the best fit for minor injuries and an additional negative binomial provided the best fit to the lifetime accidents. Results showed a negative relation between the degree of verbal laterality (absolute right bias) and injuries requiring medical care. Furthermore, the number of accidents requiring medical care was positively related to the precision of time estimation and the direction of verbal laterality on response time (raw right bias). Interpretations of these findings emphasize their implications for interhemispheric communication and motor control in the context of time estimation and auditory verbal laterality. These aspects seem to provide promising avenues for future research.

Identifying spatial effects in a lateralized duration estimation task.

Spatial influences may be introduced to an experimental task by manipulations performed on the stimulus or the response or by virtue of the type of stimuli under study. Identification of spatial influences is especially pertinent in investigations of laterality, as isolation of processing to one hemisphere may inadvertently introduce spatial confounds. Because, however, space is not a relevant task feature, it may not always be obvious that it should be taken into consideration. Failure to anticipate these spatial influences can affect the conclusions drawn from results. The current work examines potential spatial influences in an experimental paradigm previously used to investigate perceptual asymmetries for duration estimation in which both stimulus presentation and response selection were lateralized. Potential spatial influences (including the spatial-temporal association of response codes - STEARC, spatial attention, and the Simon effect) are identified and systematically tested over 5 experiments. Results suggest that previously observed perceptual asymmetries in this experimental paradigm may be the result of a spatial confound, specifically, that of the Simon effect. Using vertical response options with the lateral stimulus presentation, however, mitigated the spatial influence. Altogether, the current work demonstrates the importance of carefully considering potential spatial confounds prior to commencement of laterality studies.

Picking up the pieces: Sex differences in mechanisms of curve tracing.

This study examined potential sex differences in the application of models of curve tracing, namely the pixel-by-pixel model, the bipartite model, and the zoom lens model. The purpose of this study was therefore to determine whether sex differences existed in terms of reliance on a particular model or whether the results of each sex could be best explained by one model. This was done by examining the combined data obtained by Voyer and MacPherson (2020), consisting of 420 participants, with 194 men and 226 women. We examined only the curve-tracing task data from that study and compared the fit of the different models as well as a possible interaction with sex of participants on the proportion of correct responses and response time. Overall, sex was a significant factor, with men showing better average accuracy and faster performance than women. On accuracy, we found that the pixel-by-pixel model provided the best fit for women, whereas the zoom lens model produced the best fit for men. On response time, the zoom model was the best predictor of response time for both sexes. The discussion elaborates on an account of these findings and on how our results might generalize to other visual-spatial tasks where a performance advantage for men is found. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Sex differences in verbal working memory: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

The present meta-analysis aimed to quantify sex differences in verbal working memory and to examine potential moderators of these differences. We examined 802 effect sizes from 478 samples in 284 studies in a multilevel meta-analysis. Results revealed a small overall female advantage (g = .028, 95% CI [.006, .050]). In the overall sample, results showed that sex differences differed across tasks. Specifically, the female advantage was significant for cued tasks (g = .079, 95% CI [.030, .128]) and Free Recall tasks (g = .145, 95% CI [.102, .188]) whereas there was a male advantage on Complex Span (g = -.042, 95% CI [-.083, -.002]), and no sex differences on Serial Recall (g = .003, 95% CI [-.055, .050]), and Simple Span tasks (g < .001, 95% CI [-.034, .033]). Within each task, we found that recall direction, stimulus type, presentation format, response format, and age accounted for significant variance in at least 1 of the tasks. Analyses provided no evidence of a publication bias, although the female advantage varied as a function of sample source, whether the title made reference to sex, and whether authors had to be contacted to obtain relevant data. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for sex differences in episodic memory and in the context of clinical applications and theory building. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Look to the future but remember the past: A commentary on Ocklenburg, Berretz, Packheiser, and Friedrich (2020).

This is a commentary on a paper by Ocklenburg et al. ([2020]. Laterality 2020: entering the next decade. Laterality). I discuss measurement and task selection issues that should not be neglected as we make our way through the next decade. I also comment further on a few pointed issues relevant to open science and meta-analysis.

Sex differences in tests of mental rotation: Direct manipulation of strategies with eye-tracking.

We conducted what is likely the first large-scale comprehensive eye tracking investigation of the cognitive processes involved in the psychometric mental rotation task with three experiments comparing the performance of men and women on tests of mental rotation with blocks and human figures as stimuli. In all 3 experiments, men achieved higher mean accuracy than women on both tests and all participants showed improved performance on the human figures compared with the blocks. Experiment 1 used a moving window paradigm to elicit a piecemeal processing strategy, whereas Experiment 2 utilized that approach to encourage a holistic processing strategy. In these 2 experiments the pattern of eye fixations suggested that differences in processing between blocks and human figures can be accounted for by the greater difficulty of rotating block compared with human figures. Results also produced little support for the hypothesis that men favor a holistic strategy whereas women favor a piecemeal approach. In addition, these experiments did not support the notion that using human figures as stimuli promotes a holistic strategy whereas block figures invoke a piecemeal strategy. As a follow up, in Experiment 3 we used a free viewing procedure and examined 4 possible explanations of sex differences in mental rotation predicting different patterns of eye tracking (cognitive processing style, leaping, ocular efficiency) or offline processing (working memory). Results provided partial support for variations of the cognitive processing style hypotheses. The implications for common explanations of sex differences in mental rotation are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Sex differences in curve tracing.

The present study reports on 4 experiments aimed at investigating potential sex differences on a curve tracing task. Furthermore, curve tracing was used as an indirect approach to explore the holistic versus piecemeal strategy hypothesis used to account for sex differences in mental rotation. In Experiment 1, participants only completed a curve tracing task. The Navon (1977) local/global task was added in Experiment 2, whereas mental rotation was included in Experiment 3. Experiment 4 corrected issues encountered with the mental rotation task in Experiment 3. All 4 experiments showed a performance advantage for men on accuracy in curve tracing, although the Sex × Distance interaction required to support preference for a holistic strategy in men was not found. The Navon task findings supported the notion that men show a reduced global precedence effect when compared with women. The performance advantage for men in mental rotation only emerged in Experiment 4. Finally, the tasks showed a pattern of correlations suggestive of common components aside from attention. The General Discussion focuses on alternative explanations of the findings and further research required to elucidate them. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Expectation expands subjective duration for repeated stimuli by altering perception.

Repeated stimuli are generally perceived to be shorter in duration than novel stimuli. Matthews (2015), however, demonstrated that when repetition is predictable, expectations of repetition may expand subjective duration for repeated stimuli. Although this effect is hypothesised to be perceptual, this has yet to be empirically established. The present study, therefore, examined perceptual and decisional factors in the repetition effect by using psychophysical methods while varying probabilities of repetition, in addition to replicating Matthews' original paradigm. Using faces with neutral expressions, 60 participants completed 2 judgment tasks, indicating whether a comparison stimulus was longer or shorter in duration than a standard stimulus preceding it. Comparison stimuli were presented for the same duration as the 500-ms standard in the replication task and for 1 of 7 durations (from 200-1,250 ms) in the crucial extension task, allowing for examination of sensitivity and bias. No evidence of bias was observed, but modulating participants' expectations of repetition affected perception, such that discrimination was more difficult under high than low repetition conditions. Overall, participants were more likely to judge stimuli that met expectations as longer, regardless of whether the expectation was repetition or novelty. Implications for models of repetition, context effects, and time estimation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

A meta-analysis of sex differences in human navigation skills.

There are inconsistent reports regarding behavioral sex differences in the human navigation literature. This meta-analysis quantifies the overall magnitude of sex differences in large-scale navigation skills in a variety of paradigms and populations, and examines potential moderators, using 694 effect sizes from 266 studies and a multilevel analytic approach. Overall, male participants outperform female participants, with a small to medium effect size (d = 0.34 to 0.38). The type of task, the type of dependent variable and the testing environment significantly contribute to variability in effect sizes, although there are only a few situations in which differences are either nonexistent or very large. Pointing and recall tasks (and the deviation scores associated with them) show larger sex differences than distance estimation tasks or learning to criterion. Studies with children younger than 13 years showed much smaller effect sizes (d = .15) than older age groups. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding sex differences in human spatial navigation and identify avenues for future navigation research.

Auditory semantic priming and the dichotic right ear advantage.

The current study presents two experiments that aimed to explore the effects of auditory semantic priming on the dichotic right ear advantage. In Experiment 1, a classic fused dichotic words task was modified with the addition of auditory associative primes with three levels of relatedness (right, left, or neither ear). In Experiment 2, a new dichotic listening task was developed based on a binaural task used in a published auditory priming study. In both experiments, we expected that priming would produce a large right ear advantage when related to the right ear target but that the magnitude of this advantage would decrease for left ear related targets. Although evidence of priming (faster responses for related than unrelated primes) was found in both experiments, only Experiment 2 confirmed our prediction of an ear by prime relatedness interaction. Results are interpreted in the context of models concerned with the role of each cerebral hemisphere in semantic processing as well as models of perceptual asymmetries.

Implications for school achievement and causality: A commentary.

This article is a commentary on a study published in this issue by Levine et al. (2019). They reported that the relation they observed between sex-related discrepancies in success on standardized tests and health outcomes is significant only in males. We suggest that this finding has important implications for educators and future research and we examine possibilities related to sex differences in school achievement. We also offer arguments suggesting that it is premature to propose a causal explanation for the results presented by Levine and colleagues, given that crucial conditions to establish such causality are not met in their studies. We conclude with a proposal for a study that could potentially determine whether the temporal ordering required to establish causality arises in the relation between health outcomes and the sex-related discrepancies.

Photographs of real human figures: Item types and persistent sex differences in mental rotation.

The goal of the current study was to provide a better understanding of the role of image familiarity, embodied cognition, and cognitive strategies on sex differences in performance when rotating blocks and photographs of real human bodies. Two new Mental Rotation Tests (MRTs) were created: one using photographs of real human models positioned as closely as possible to computer drawn figures from the human figures MRT used in Doyle and Voyer's 2013 study, and one using analogous block figures. It was hypothesised that, when compared to the analogous block figures, the real human figures would lead to improved accuracy among both men and women, a reduced magnitude of sex differences in accuracy, and a reduced effect of occlusion on women's performance when compared to analogous block figures. The three-way interaction between test, sex, and occlusion reported in Doyle and Voyer's 2013 study was not replicated in the current study. However, women's scores on the real human figures improved significantly more than men's scores on the real human figures test compared to gender differences in improvement on the block figures test. This finding points to a greater strategy shift among women than men when rotating human figures.

The effect of unimodal affective priming on dichotic emotion recognition.

The present report concerns two experiments extending to unimodal priming the cross-modal priming effects observed with auditory emotions by Harding and Voyer [(2016). Laterality effects in cross-modal affective priming. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 21, 585-605]. Experiment 1 used binaural targets to establish the presence of the priming effect and Experiment 2 used dichotically presented targets to examine auditory asymmetries. In Experiment 1, 82 university students completed a task in which binaural targets consisting of one of 4 English words inflected in one of 4 emotional tones were preceded by binaural primes consisting of one of 4 Mandarin words pronounced in the same (congruent) or different (incongruent) emotional tones. Trials where the prime emotion was congruent with the target emotion showed faster responses and higher accuracy in identifying the target emotion. In Experiment 2, 60 undergraduate students participated and the target was presented dichotically instead of binaurally. Primes congruent with the left ear produced a large left ear advantage, whereas right congruent primes produced a right ear advantage. These results indicate that unimodal priming produces stronger effects than those observed under cross-modal priming. The findings suggest that priming should likely be considered a strong top-down influence on laterality effects.

Motor expertise and performance in spatial tasks: A meta-analysis.

The present study aimed to provide a summary of findings relevant to the influence of motor expertise on performance in spatial tasks and to examine potential moderators of this effect. Studies of relevance were those in which individuals involved in activities presumed to require motor expertise were compared to non-experts in such activities. A final set of 62 effect sizes from 33 samples was included in a multilevel meta-analysis. The results showed an overall advantage in favor of motor experts in spatial tasks (d=0.38). However, the magnitude of that effect was moderated by expert type (athlete, open skills/ball sports, runner/cyclist, gymnast/dancers, musicians), stimulus type (2D, blocks, bodies, others), test category (mental rotation, spatial perception, spatial visualization), specific test (Mental Rotations Test, generic mental rotation, disembedding, rod-and-frame test, other), and publication status. These findings are discussed in the context of embodied cognition and the potential role of activities requiring motor expertise in promoting good spatial performance.

Sex differences in visual-spatial working memory: A meta-analysis.

Visual-spatial working memory measures are widely used in clinical and experimental settings. Furthermore, it has been argued that the male advantage in spatial abilities can be explained by a sex difference in visual-spatial working memory. Therefore, sex differences in visual-spatial working memory have important implication for research, theory, and practice, but they have yet to be quantified. The present meta-analysis quantified the magnitude of sex differences in visual-spatial working memory and examined variables that might moderate them. The analysis used a set of 180 effect sizes from healthy males and females drawn from 98 samples ranging in mean age from 3 to 86 years. Multilevel meta-analysis was used on the overall data set to account for non-independent effect sizes. The data also were analyzed in separate task subgroups by means of multilevel and mixed-effects models. Results showed a small but significant male advantage (mean d = 0.155, 95 % confidence interval = 0.087-0.223). All the tasks produced a male advantage, except for memory for location, where a female advantage emerged. Age of the participants was a significant moderator, indicating that sex differences in visual-spatial working memory appeared first in the 13-17 years age group. Removing memory for location tasks from the sample affected the pattern of significant moderators. The present results indicate a male advantage in visual-spatial working memory, although age and specific task modulate the magnitude and direction of the effects. Implications for clinical applications, cognitive model building, and experimental research are discussed.

Mental rotation with egocentric and object-based transformations.

Two experiments were conducted to address methodological issues with past studies investigating the influence of egocentric and object-based transformations on performance and sex differences in mental rotation. In previous work, the egocentric and object-based mental rotation tasks confounded the stimulus type (embodied vs. non-embodied) and transformation task (egocentric vs. object-based). In both experiments presented here, the same stimuli were used regardless of the type of transformation but task instructions were modified to induce either egocentric (left-right judgment) or object-based (same-different judgment) processing. Experiment 1 used pairs of letters whereas Experiment 2 presented pairs of line-drawings of human hands. For both experiments, it was hypothesized that the mental rotation slope for response time would be steeper for object-based than for egocentric transformations. This hypothesis was verified in both experiments. Furthermore, Experiment 2 showed a reduced male advantage for egocentric compared to object-based rotations, whereas this pattern was reversed for Experiment 1. In conclusion, the present study showed that the influence of the type of transformation involved in mental rotation can be examined with the same set of stimuli simply by modifying task instructions.

Detection of sarcastic speech: The role of the right hemisphere in ambiguity resolution.

Two experiments were conducted to determine if the right hemisphere (RH) plays a central role in understanding sarcasm. In Experiment 1, 48 participants completed a target detection task using dichotically presented phrases that were sincere (message compatible), sarcastic (conflicting semantic and prosodic message), or neutral (no emotional prosody). Sarcastic phrases presented to the left ear (LE)/RH produced faster response times than sarcastic phrases presented to the right ear/left hemisphere. Accuracy results indicated an overall LE/RH advantage for detecting both sarcastic and sincere phrases. Experiment 2 utilized the same task with the addition of event-related potential recording. There was a reliable N400 seen in response to the sarcastic phrases, but only with LE/RH presentation. These results suggest that the RH is particularly sensitive to the mismatch between semantic and prosodic information characterized by sarcasm.