Ben Dyson
University of Alberta, Psychology, Faculty Member
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When making decisions as to whether or not to bind auditory and visual information, temporal, spatial and congruency factors all contribute to the acceptance or rejection of multi-modal unity. While many of these factors have been studied... more
When making decisions as to whether or not to bind auditory and visual information, temporal, spatial and congruency factors all contribute to the acceptance or rejection of multi-modal unity. While many of these factors have been studied in isolation, it is important to examine how they interact in a dynamic setting, in addition to evaluating ideas about the intrinsic relation between audition and the processing of time, and vision and the processing of space. Four experiments are presented, placing auditory and visual stimuli in a competitive binding scenario, to compare the effects of temporal and spatial factors both within and between modalities. Results support the dominance of auditory factors in temporal decision-making, and visual factors in spatial decision-making, with additional evidence for the presence of visual looming. With respect to audio-visual binding, the findings indicate precedence for temporal factors, with reliance on congruency factors only when the stimulu...
A presumption in previous work has been that sub-optimality in competitive performance following loss is the result of a reduction in decision-making time (i.e., post-error speeding). Decision-making time can also be modulated via the use... more
A presumption in previous work has been that sub-optimality in competitive performance following loss is the result of a reduction in decision-making time (i.e., post-error speeding). Decision-making time can also be modulated via the use of a credit system, where sufficient credit must be present for the participant to continue playing. Across three experiments, the speed and quality of competitive decision-making was examined in a zero-sum game as a function of the nature of the opponent (unexploitable, Experiment 1; exploiting, Experiment 2; exploitable, Experiment 3) and the nature of the credit system (no credit, fixed credit, variable credit). The data a) identify the use of a variable credit system as enhancing the perceived control participants have against exploitable opponents, b) reinforce the inflexibility of lose-shift as a decision-making heuristic in competitive contexts, and, c) confirm that self-imposed reductions in processing time following losses (post-error spee...
Predictability is a hallmark of poor-quality decision-making during competition. One source of predictability is the strong association between current outcome and future action, as dictated by the reinforcement learning principles of... more
Predictability is a hallmark of poor-quality decision-making during competition. One source of predictability is the strong association between current outcome and future action, as dictated by the reinforcement learning principles of win-stay and lose-shift. We tested the idea that predictability could be reduced during competition by weakening the associations between outcome and action. To do this, participants completed a competitive zero-sum game in which the opponent from the current trial was either replayed (opponent repeat) thereby strengthening the association, or, replaced (opponent change) by a different competitor thereby weakening the association. We observed that win-stay behaviour was reduced during opponent change trials but lose-shift behaviour remained reliably predictable. Consistent with the group data, the number of individuals who exhibited predictable behaviour following wins decreased for opponent change relative to opponent repeat trials. Our data show that...
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To understand the boundaries we set for ourselves in terms of environmental responsibility during competition, we examined a neural index of outcome valence (feedback related negativity; FRN) in relation to earlier indices of visual... more
To understand the boundaries we set for ourselves in terms of environmental responsibility during competition, we examined a neural index of outcome valence (feedback related negativity; FRN) in relation to earlier indices of visual attention (N1), later indices of motivational significance (P3), and, eventual behaviour. In Experiment 1 (n=36), participants either were (play) or were not (observe) responsible for action selection. In Experiment 2 (n=36), opponents additionally either could (exploitable) or could not (unexploitable) be beaten. Various failures in reinforcement learning expression were revealed including large-scale approximations of random behaviour. Against unexploitable opponents, N1 determined the extent to which negative and positive outcomes were perceived as distinct categories by FRN. Against exploitable opponents, FRN determined the extent to which P3 generated neural gain for future events. Differential activation of the N1 / FRN / P3 processing chain provid...
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One way to increase art appreciation is to create congruency between the actions performed by the artist and the actions performed by the viewer. Leder, Bar, and Topolinski (2012) successfully created such a link by asking participants to... more
One way to increase art appreciation is to create congruency between the actions performed by the artist and the actions performed by the viewer. Leder, Bar, and Topolinski (2012) successfully created such a link by asking participants to make either stroking or stippling motions while viewing stroke-style and pointillist-style paintings. We carried out a direct replication of Leder et al. (2012) in Experiment 1 but failed to reproduce their results. In Experiment 2, we achieved the desired cross-over interaction between image and action but only when the relationship was made more transparent. Experiment 3 demonstrated that this effect requires a motor component and cannot be reproduced by simply hearing the sounds associated with drawing production. Experiment 4 investigated whether either an external manipulation or a self-report measure of awareness of the image-action match modulated the liking ratings, in addition to artwork familiarity and participants' own hypotheses reg...
Research Interests: Cognitive Psychology, Aesthetics, Cognition, Embodied Cognition, Visual perception, and 13 moreFace recognition (Psychology), Adolescent, Emotions, Humans, Female, Male, Young Adult, Paintings, Language Culture and Communication, Awareness, Adult, Psychomotor Performance, and Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
Sensitivity to acoustic invariance is critical for establishing stable representations in a shifting world of sound. By recording early auditory cortical responses to complex sounds in human listeners and categorising these responses... more
Sensitivity to acoustic invariance is critical for establishing stable representations in a shifting world of sound. By recording early auditory cortical responses to complex sounds in human listeners and categorising these responses according to the maintenance or change of stimulus attributes across consecutive presentations, we show that repetition within a constantly varying acoustic context produces enhanced neural responding in auditory cortices.
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While there are pointers relating to the consequences of repetition, a general framework regarding the cognitive implications of processing multidimensional stimuli as a function of previous stimulus history is currently lacking. Three... more
While there are pointers relating to the consequences of repetition, a general framework regarding the cognitive implications of processing multidimensional stimuli as a function of previous stimulus history is currently lacking. Three experiments using sounds varying in location and pitch were carried out, in which the immediate consequences of repeating or changing task-relevant and task-irrelevant attributes were orthogonally examined. A consistent pattern of data was shown, in that the magnitude of selective attention failure was larger when the task-relevant value repeated across trials, while differences between dimensions were larger when the task-relevant value changed across trials. These effects of irrelevance and dimension as a function of intertrial contingency are summarized in a model depicting the dynamic allocation of processing resource.
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Research Interests: Auditory Perception, Magnetoencephalography, Aging, Brain Mapping, Brain, and 15 moreHumans, Female, Neuroimage, Male, Aged, Middle Aged, Adult, Older Adult, Age Groups, Normal Aging, Acoustic Stimulation, neural code, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Medical and Health Sciences, and Source analysis
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Research Interests: Auditory Perception, Mental Representation, Attention, Multidisciplinary, Brain Mapping, and 13 moreTemporal Lobe, Humans, Auditory Scene Analysis, Fundamental Frequency, Female, Male, Reaction Time, Pitch Perception, Adult, Parietal Lobe, Auditory evoked Potentials, Auditory Cortex, and Frontal Lobe
In 3 experiments, the authors tested performance in simple tone matching and classification tasks. Each tone was defined on location and frequency dimensions. In the first 2 experiments, participants completed a same-different matching... more
In 3 experiments, the authors tested performance in simple tone matching and classification tasks. Each tone was defined on location and frequency dimensions. In the first 2 experiments, participants completed a same-different matching task on the basis of one of these dimensions while attempting to ignore irrelevant variation in the other dimension. In Experiment 3, in which the tones were classified either by frequency or location, the authors explored intertrial repetition effects. The patterns of performance across these different tasks were remarkably similar and were taken to reveal basic characteristics of stimulus encoding processes. The data suggest a processing sequence in audition that reveals an early stage in which location and frequency are treated as being integral and a latter stage in which location and frequency are separable.
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Participants made speeded target-nontarget responses to singly presented auditory stimuli in 2 tasks. In within-dimension conditions, participants listened for either of 2 target features taken from the same dimension; in... more
Participants made speeded target-nontarget responses to singly presented auditory stimuli in 2 tasks. In within-dimension conditions, participants listened for either of 2 target features taken from the same dimension; in between-dimensions conditions, the target features were taken from different dimensions. Judgments were based on the presence or absence of either target feature. Speech sounds, defined relative to sound identity and locale, were used in Experiment 1, whereas tones, comprising pitch and locale components, were used in Experiments 2 and 3. In all cases, participants performed better when the target features were taken from the same dimension than when they were taken from different dimensions. Data suggest that the auditory and visual systems exhibit the same higher level processing constraints.
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Artwork can often pique the interest of the viewer or listener as a result of the ambiguity or instability contained within it. Our engagement with uncertain sensory experiences might have its origins in early cortical responses, in that... more
Artwork can often pique the interest of the viewer or listener as a result of the ambiguity or instability contained within it. Our engagement with uncertain sensory experiences might have its origins in early cortical responses, in that perceptually unstable stimuli might preclude neural habituation and maintain activity in early sensory areas. To assess this idea, participants engaged with an ambiguous visual stimulus wherein two squares alternated with one another, in terms of simultaneously opposing vertical and horizontal locations relative to fixation (i.e., stroboscopic alternating motion; von Schiller, 1933). At each trial, participants were invited to interpret the movement of the squares in one of five ways: traditional vertical or horizontal motion, novel clockwise or counter-clockwise motion, and, a free-view condition in which participants were encouraged to switch the direction of motion as often as possible. Behavioral reports of perceptual stability showed clockwise ...
Research Interests: Cognition, Visual perception, Symbolism, Reading, Electroencephalography, and 15 moreLanguage, Visual Processing, Brain Mapping, Evoked Potentials, Humans, Reaction Time, Adult, Parietal Lobe, Time Factors, Top Down, Neuropsychological Tests, photic stimulation, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Medical and Health Sciences, and Language tests
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Research Interests: Psychology, Auditory Perception, Attention, Electroencephalography, Humans, and 15 moreAuditory Scene Analysis, Female, Male, Reaction Time, Task Difficulty, Mismatch Negativity, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Time Factors, Neurosciences, Contingent Negative Variation, Sound Localization, Acoustic Stimulation, photic stimulation, and Object Relational
Abstract In apparent conflict with the synchronicity model, we consider three types of evidence from the auditory literature (negative priming, perceptual learning, sensory gating) that reveal stimulus repetition can be associated with... more
Abstract In apparent conflict with the synchronicity model, we consider three types of evidence from the auditory literature (negative priming, perceptual learning, sensory gating) that reveal stimulus repetition can be associated with decreased rather than increased early evoked responses. The difficulty with consolidating a wide range of tasks in adjudicating between theories of repetition priming might be because the potentially critical roles of task, time and context are neglected.
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The effects of local and global context on concurrent sound segregation were examined using a mistuned harmonic paradigm. Presented with the same sounds over three conditions, participants were asked to either categorise the incoming... more
The effects of local and global context on concurrent sound segregation were examined using a mistuned harmonic paradigm. Presented with the same sounds over three conditions, participants were asked to either categorise the incoming complex according to pitch or harmonicity (active listening) or watch a muted subtitled movie of their choice (passive listening). Global context was defined according to task instruction, while local context was defined relative to the repetition or change of harmonicity across trials. An interaction between global and local context in both behavioural and event-related potential measures was found, with participants showing sensitivity to change and repetition in harmonicity when it was task-relevant, in addition to enhanced P3 amplitude for cases where a tuned stimulus changed into a mistuned stimulus over consecutive trials. The data are discussed in terms of current models of concurrent sound perception and how top-down processes might influence these mechanisms.
Research Interests: Cognitive Science, Selective Attention, Auditory Perception, Attention, Brain, and 15 moreEvoked Potentials, Humans, Cerebral Cortex, Female, Male, Reaction Time, Event Related Potentials, Pitch Perception, Observer Variation, Adult, Top Down Processing, Time Factors, Neurosciences, Acoustic Stimulation, and Neuropsychological Tests
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Investigations of concurrent task and modality switching effects have to date been studied under conditions of uni-modal stimulus presentation. As such, it is difficult to directly compare resultant task and modality switching effects, as... more
Investigations of concurrent task and modality switching effects have to date been studied under conditions of uni-modal stimulus presentation. As such, it is difficult to directly compare resultant task and modality switching effects, as the stimuli afford both tasks on each trial, but only one modality. The current study investigated task and modality switching using bi-modal and bivalent stimulus presentation under various cue conditions: no cue, either task or modality (single cue) or task and modality (double cue), with participants responding to either the identity or the position of an audio-visual stimulus at each trial. In line with previous research, task and modality switching effects showed sub-additive patterns, with switching costs decreasing as pre-stimulus cue information increased. The current data also showed that modality switching costs were more malleable than task switching costs as the former were eliminated when full and single cue information was provided, as well as when participants responded to the more efficiently processed task (position relative to identity). Conversely, task switching costs were only eliminated in the full cue condition, but were present for both tasks and both modalities despite a similar asymmetry in efficiency (vision relative to audition). The data further show that the specific task-modality combination being responded to impacted on combined task- and modality switching effects, with those combinations leading to either the greatest or lowest costs contributing most heavily to sub-additivity.
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Auditory Perception, Attention, Executive Function, and 15 moreVision, Humans, Task Switching, Cues, Female, Male, Reaction Time, Task analysis, Cognitive processes, Efficiency, Neurosciences, Acoustic Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance, Neuropsychological Tests, and photic stimulation
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The use of lectures is ubiquitous in higher-education institutions, but also heavily criticized from an andragogical viewpoint. A current challenge for lecturers is to provide opportunities for active learning during these sessions and to... more
The use of lectures is ubiquitous in higher-education institutions, but also heavily criticized from an andragogical viewpoint. A current challenge for lecturers is to provide opportunities for active learning during these sessions and to evaluate their impact on student experience. Three one-minute interventions based on the lecture materials (write down one thing you have already learnt, one question you would like answering, and take a break) were introduced approximately 20, 30 and 40 minutes into the lecture and assessed with respect to engagement over a five-week period on a final-year psychology option. Students were invited to record their current level of lecture engagement every 5 minutes. Both between-and within-subject analyses revealed a significant increase in lecture engagement for the first intervention during the first intervention week relative to baseline weeks. The data show an enhancement of student engagement with certain small-scale interventions during large-...