Two very different types of models are consistent with most of the available facts in the fields of cognitive psychology and human information processing. One type of model characterizes mental processing as a series of sequential operations with discrete outputs, and the other characterizes mental processing as a series of cascading operations with continuous outputs. It is important to be able to discriminate between these two types of models, because they have very different implications about how researchers should design experiments to study mental processes. The goal of this research is to develop methods for discriminating between the two types of models. Several different experimental paradigms will be considered as possible means for distinguishing the models, and these paradigms will be applied across a wide range of stimuli and tasks. The main empirical question addressed by these experiments is whether preliminary information available to one mental process can be used by a succeeding mental process before the earlier one has finished. For example, can information about a partially recognized stimulus be used to start preparing responses before recognition of the entire stimulus is complete? Continuous models predict an affirmative answer, whereas discrete models predict a negative answer. While the answer need not be the same in all tasks, it is important to have methods capable of determining the answer for any particular task used in studies of mental processes.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH040733-02
Application #
3379069
Study Section
Cognition, Emotion, and Personality Research Review Committee (CEP)
Project Start
1985-09-01
Project End
1987-08-31
Budget Start
1986-09-01
Budget End
1987-08-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1986
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California San Diego
Department
Type
Organized Research Units
DUNS #
077758407
City
La Jolla
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
92093
Kunimoto, C; Miller, J; Pashler, H (2001) Confidence and accuracy of near-threshold discrimination responses. Conscious Cogn 10:294-340
Miller, J; Franz, V; Ulrich, R (1999) Effects of auditory stimulus intensity on response force in simple, go/no-go, and choice RT tasks. Percept Psychophys 61:107-19
Ilan, A B; Miller, J (1998) On the temporal relations between memory scanning and response preparation. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 24:1501-20
Band, G P; Miller, J (1997) Mental rotation interferes with response preparation. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 23:319-38
Mordkoff, J T; Miller, J; Roch, A C (1996) Absence of coactivation in the motor component: evidence from psychophysiological measures of target detection. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 22:25-41
Ruthruff, E; Miller, J (1995) Can mental rotation begin before perception finishes? Mem Cognit 23:408-24
Hackley, S A; Miller, J (1995) Response complexity and precue interval effects on the lateralized readiness potential. Psychophysiology 32:230-41
Ilan, A B; Miller, J (1994) A violation of pure insertion: mental rotation and choice reaction time. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 20:520-36
Mordkoff, J T; Miller, J (1993) Redundancy gains and coactivation with two different targets: the problem of target preferences and the effects of display frequency. Percept Psychophys 53:527-35
Miller, J (1991) Threshold variability in subliminal perception experiments: fixed threshold estimates reduce power to detect subliminal effects. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 17:841-51

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