Interacting Timescales in Perspective-Taking.

Through theoretical discussion, literature review, and a computational model, this paper poses a challenge to the notion that perspective-taking involves a fixed architecture in which particular processes have priority. For example, some research suggests that egocentric perspectives can arise more quickly, with other perspectives (such as of task partners) emerging only secondarily. This theoretical dichotomy-between fast egocentric and slow other-centric processes-is challenged here.

Implied motion language can influence visual spatial memory.

How do language and vision interact? Specifically, what impact can language have on visual processing, especially related to spatial memory? What are typically considered errors in visual processing, such as remembering the location of an object to be farther along its motion trajectory than it actually is, can be explained as perceptual achievements that are driven by our ability to anticipate future events. In two experiments, we tested whether the prior presentation of motion language influences visual spatial memory in ways that afford greater perceptual prediction. Experiment 1 showed that motion language influenced judgments for the spatial memory of an object beyond the known effects of implied motion present in the image itself.

Efficient n-gram analysis in R with cmscu.

We present a new R package, cmscu, which implements a Count-Min-Sketch with conservative updating (Cormode and Muthukrishnan Journal of Algorithms, 55(1), 58-75, 2005), and its application to n-gram analyses (Goyal et al. 2012). By writing the core implementation in C++ and exposing it to R via Rcpp, we are able to provide a memory-efficient, high-throughput, and easy-to-use library.

Perception, as you make it.

The main question that Firestone & Scholl (F&S) pose is whether "what and how we see is functionally independent from what and how we think, know, desire, act, and so forth" (sect. 2, para. 1).

Conflicts everywhere! Perceptions, actions, and cognition all entail memory and reflect conflict.

Morsella et al. assert that the function of consciousness is to determine which of many competing action options is expressed through the skeletomuscular system at any given moment. The present commentary addresses this issue from the first-person perspective and agrees with Morsella and colleagues, yet further proposes that the option-selection function of consciousness plays out in cognition as well.

Perceptually walking in another's shoes: goals and memories constrain spatial perception.

Perceptual variables such as perceived distance contain information about future actions. Often our goals involve the integration of another's goals, such as lifting heavy objects together. The purpose of this study was to investigate how another's actions might influence one's own goal-oriented perceptions (i.

Extending Gurwitsch's field theory of consciousness.

Aron Gurwitsch's theory of the structure and dynamics of consciousness has much to offer contemporary theorizing about consciousness and its basis in the embodied brain. On Gurwitsch's account, as we develop it, the field of consciousness has a variable sized focus or "theme" of attention surrounded by a structured periphery of inattentional contents. As the field evolves, its contents change their status, sometimes smoothly, sometimes abruptly.

Response dynamics in prospective memory.

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to execute a delayed behavior. Most theoretical and empirical work on PM has focused on the attentional resources that might facilitate successfully executing a delayed behavior. In the present study, we enhance the current understanding of attention allocation and also introduce novel evidence for the dynamics of PM retrieval.

High-level context effects on spatial displacement: the effects of body orientation and language on memory.

Three decades of research suggests that cognitive simulation of motion is involved in the comprehension of object location, bodily configuration, and linguistic meaning. For example, the remembered location of an object associated with actual or implied motion is typically displaced in the direction of motion. In this paper, two experiments explore context effects in spatial displacement.

Virtual and drawing structures for the Müller-Lyer illusions.

This research assessed the relative contribution of 3-D virtual structure that generated the stimulus drawings (scene-based and picture-based theories) and 2-D structure of the drawings (object-based theories). Virtual structures were right-angle convex and concave corners in front of and behind the picture plane, respectively. Virtual corner size was manipulated directly (Experiment 1) and indirectly by manipulating drawing station point distance (Experiments 2 and 3), corner depth (Experiment 4), and corner distance from the picture plane (Experiments 5 and 6).