Search results for "Covert"
showing 10 items of 35 documents
In Situ Representations and Access Consciousness in Neural Blackboard or Workspace Architectures
2018
Phenomenal theories of consciousness assert that consciousness is based on specific neural correlates in the brain, which can be separated from all cognitive functions we can perform. If so, the search for robot consciousness seems to be doomed. By contrast, theories of functional or access consciousness assert that consciousness can be studied only with forms of cognitive access, given by cognitive processes. Consequently, consciousness and cognitive access cannot be fully dissociated. Here, the global features of cognitive access of consciousness are discussed based on neural blackboard or (global) workspace architectures, combined with content addressable or "in situ" representations as …
On the "Strength" of Behavior.
2020
AbstractThe place of the concept of response strength in a natural science of behavior has been the subject of much debate. This article reconsiders the concept of response strength for reasons linked to the foundations of a natural science of behavior. The notion of response strength is implicit in many radical behaviorists’ work. Palmer (2009) makes it explicit by applying the response strength concept to three levels: (1) overt behavior, (2) covert behavior, and (3) latent or potential behavior. We argue that the concept of response strength is superfluous in general, and an explication of the notion of giving causal status to nonobservable events like latent behavior or response strengt…
Covert digital manipulation of vocal emotion alter speakers' emotional states in a congruent direction
2016
International audience; Research has shown that people often exert control over their emotions. By modulating expressions, reappraising feelings, and redirecting attention, they can regulate their emotional experience. These findings have contributed to a blurring of the traditional boundaries between cognitive and emotional processes, and it has been suggested that emotional signals are produced in a goal-directed way and monitored for errors like other intentional actions. However, this interesting possibility has never been experimentally tested. To this end, we created a digital audio platform to covertly modify the emotional tone of participants' voices while they talked in the directi…
Clinical Predictors for Poor Quality of Life in Patients With Covert Hepatic Encephalopathy.
2018
Background Current EASL/AASLD guidelines recommend treatment of covert hepatic encephalopathy (HE) only in symptomatic patients, for example, in those with impaired quality of life or with affected driving abilities. Goals Because testing for impaired quality of life is time consuming, the aim of the present study was to identify simple clinical predictors for poor quality of life in patients with covert HE (CHE). Study In total, 139 cirrhotic in- and outpatients without a history of overt hepatic encephalopathy were enrolled. Diagnosis of HE grade 1 (HE1) was diagnosed clinically according to the West-Haven Criteria. Critical flicker frequency and the Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Sc…
Mentally represented motor actions in normal aging. I. Age effects on the temporal features of overt and covert execution of actions.
2005
The present study examines the temporal features of overt and covert actions as a function of normal aging. In the first experiment, we tested three motor tasks (walking, sit-stand-sit, arm pointing) that did not imply any particular spatiotemporal constraints, and we compared the duration of their overt and covert execution in three different groups of age (mean ages: 22.5, 66.2 and 73.4 years). We found that the ability of generating motor images did not differentiate elderly subjects from young subjects. Precisely, regarding overt and covert durations, subjects presented similarities for the walking and pointing tasks and dissimilarities for the stand-sit-stand task. Furthermore, the tim…
Mentally represented motor actions in normal agingII. The influence of the gravito-inertial context on the duration of overt and covert arm movements
2007
Here, we address the question of whether normal aging influences action representation by comparing the ability of 14 young (age: 23.6 +/- 2.1 years) and 14 older (age: 70.1 +/- 4.5 years) adults to mentally simulate arm movements under a varying dynamic context. We conducted two experiments in which we experimentally manipulated the gravity and inertial components of arm dynamics: (i) unloaded and loaded vertical arm movements, rotation around the shoulder joint, (ii) unloaded and loaded horizontal arm movements, rotations around the shoulder and elbow joints, in two directions (inertial anisotropy phenomenon). The main findings indicated that imagery ability was equivalent between the two…
Anatomical Correlate of Impaired Covert Visual Attentional Processes in Patients with Cerebellar Lesions
2010
In the past years, claims of cognitive and attentional function of the cerebellum have first been raised but were later refuted. One reason for this controversy might be that attentional deficits only occur when specific cerebellar structures are affected. To further elucidate this matter and to determine which cerebellar regions might be involved in deficits of covert visual attention, we used new brain imaging tools of lesion mapping that allow a direct comparison with control patients. A total of 26 patients with unilateral right-sided cerebellar infarcts were tested on a covert visual attention task. Eight (31%) patients showed markedly slowed responses, especially in trials in which an…
Integration of cognitive allocentric information in visuospatial short-term memory through the hippocampus
2005
Visuospatial short-term memory relies on a widely distributed neocortical network: some areas support the encoding process of the visually acquired spatial information, whereas other ares are more involved in the active maintenance of the encoded information. Recently, in a pointing to remembered targets task, it has been shown in healthy subjects that, for memory delays of 5 s, spatial errors are affected also by cognitive allocentric information, i.e., covert spatial information derived from a pure mental representation. We tested the effect of a lesion of the hippocampus on the accuracy of pointing movements toward remembered targets, with memory delays falling in the 0.5-30 s range. The…
Discovering what is hidden: The role of non-ritualized covert neutralizing strategies in Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder
2015
Abstract Background and objectives Neutralizing strategies are secondary to obsessions and an additional cause of distress and interference, but they have received little attention in theories and research, especially the non-ritualized covert strategies. This study focuses on the comparative impact of non-ritualized covert and compulsive-overt strategies in the course of OCD. Methods Eighty-two OCD adult patients completed measures assessing distress, interference, appraisals and overt and covert neutralizing strategies to control obsessions. Thirty-eight patients who had completed cognitive therapy were assessed again after treatment. Results Only overt compulsions are associated with OCD…
Testing the egocentric mirror-rotation hypothesis.
2011
AbstractAlthough observers know about the law of reflection, their intuitive understanding of spatial locations in mirrors is often erroneous. Hecht et al. (2005) proposed a two-stage mirror-rotation hypothesis to explain these misconceptions. The hypothesis involves an egocentric bias to the effect that observers behave as if the mirror surface were rotated by about 2° to be more orthogonal than is the case. We test four variants of the hypothesis, which differ depending on whether the virtual world, the mirror, or both are taken to be rotated. We devised an experimental setup that allowed us to distinguish between these variants. Our results confirm that the virtual world — and only the v…