• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.39-59
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• 2018

To elucidate the effect of working memory (WM) load on negative facial emotion processing, we examined ERP components (P1 and N170) elicited by fearful and neutral expressions each of which was presented during 0-back (low-WM load) or 2-back (high-WM load) tasks. During N-back tasks, visual objects were presented one by one as targets and each of facial expressions was presented as a passively observed stimulus during intervals between targets. Behavioral results showed more accurate and fast responses at low-WM load condition compared to high-WM load condition. Analysis of mean amplitudes of P1 on the occipital region showed significant WM load effect (high-WM load > low-WM load) but showed nonsignificant facial emotion effect. Analysis of mean amplitudes of N170 on the posterior occipito-temporal region showed significant overall facial emotion effect (fearful > neutral), but, in detail, significant facial emotion effect was observed only at low-WM load condition on the left hemisphere, but was observed at high-WM load condition as well as low-WM load condition on the right hemisphere. To summarize, facial emotion effect observed by N170 amplitudes was modulated by WM load only on the left hemisphere. These results show that early emotional processing of negative facial expression could be eliminated or reduced by high load of WM on the left hemisphere, but could not be eliminated by high load on the right hemisphere, and suggest right hemispheric lateralization of negative facial emotion processing.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.27-51
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• 2015

The present study tested the effect of a top-down influence on recalling the colors of Stroop words. Participants remembered the colors of 1, 2, 3 or 6 Stroop words. After 1 second of a memory delay, they were asked to recall the color of a cued Stroop word by selecting out its corresponding color on a color-wheel stimulus. The correct recall was defined when the participants chose a color that was within ${\pm}45^{\circ}$ from the exact location of Stroop word's color on the color-wheel. Otherwise, the recall was defined as incorrect. The analyses of the frequency distribution of the participants' responses in the error trials showed that the probability of choosing the color-name of the target Stroop word was higher than the probability of other five color-names on the color-wheel. Further analyses showed that increasing the number of Stroop words to manipulate memory load did not affect the probability of the Stroop interference. These results indicate that the top-down interference by Stroop manipulation may induce systematic distortion of the stored representation in visual working memory.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.425-455
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• 2012

Multi-dimensional verbal short-term memory mechanisms are largely divided into the phonological channel and the lexical-semantic channel. The former is called phonological short-term memory and the latter is called semantic short-term memory. Phonological short-term memory is further segmented into the phonological input buffer and the phonological output buffer. In this study, the language performance of each of three patients with similar levels of conduction aphasia was analyzed in terms of multi-dimensional verbal short-term memory. To this end, three patients with conduction aphasia were instructed to perform four different aspects of language tasks that are spontaneous speaking, repetition, spontaneous writing, and dictation in both word and sentence level. Moreover, the patients' phonological memories and semantic short-term memories were evaluated using digit span tests and verbal learning tests. As a result, the three subjects exhibited various types of performances and error responses in the four aspects of language tests, and the short-term memory tests also did not produce identical results. The language performance of three patients with conduction aphasia can be explained according to whether the defects occurred in the semantic short-term memory, phonological input buffer and/or phonological output buffer. In this study, the relations between language and multi-dimensional verbal short-term memory were discussed based on the results of language tests and short-term memory tests in patients with conduction aphasia.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.185-191
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• 2018

This study examined the type and extent of interruption between induced emotion and succeeding arithmetic operation. The experiment was carried out to determine the influence of the induced emotions (anger, joy, and sorrow) and stimulus types (picture and sentence) on the cognitive process load that may block the interactions among the constituents of working memory. The study subjects were 32 undergraduates who were similar with respect to age and education parameters and were especially instructed to attend to induced emotion by imitation of facial expression and to make a correct decision during the remainder calculation task. In the results, the stimulus types did not exhibit any difference but there was a significant difference among the induced emotion types. The difference was observed in slower response time at positive emotion(joy condition) as compared with other emotions(anger and sorrow). More specifically, error and delayed correct response rate for emotion types were analysed to determine which phase the slower response was associated with. Delayed responses of the joy condition by sentence-inducing stimulus were identified with the error rate difference, and those by picture-inducing stimulus with the delayed correct response rate. These findings not only suggest that induced positive emotion increased response time compared to negative emotions, but also imply that picture-inducing stimulus easily affords arithmetic fluctuation whereas sentence-inducing stimulus results in arithmetic failure.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.283-307
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• 2010

In this study, a new open-ended format math testing system for elementary school students has been proposed. This system is an application of the recently proposed Constructive Multiple-choice Testing (CMT) system on math testing. The CMT system is a testing system in which the examinee has to respond to an item twice, first in an open ended format, and then in the multiple choice format. The advantages of this system is that process information can easily be obtained and that the examinee can receive feedback immediately after the test, based on his/her multiple choice responses. This open-ended format math testing system includes the manager mode, which allows the generation of the test items and student account management, and the testing mode, which allows the students to input their solution process using the menu bar and the keyboard. When two groups, one tested using the CMT system and the other tested using the paper and pencil test, were compared, there was no significant difference in average scores between the two groups although the testing time was longer for the group tested using the CMT system. This result suggests that the open-ended format math testing system proposed in this study can be used effectively in the actual classroom setting.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.12 no.1_2
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• pp.77-89
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• 2001

Applying perceptual hierarchy of facial feature points, a neural network model for recognizing facial expressions was designed. Input data were convolution values of 150 facial expression pictures by Gabor-filters of 5 different sizes and 8 different orientations for each of 39 mesh points defined by MPEG-4 SNHC (Synthetic/Natural Hybrid Coding). A set of multiple regression analyses was performed with the rating value of the affective states for each facial expression and the Gabor-filtered values of 39 feature points. The results show that the pleasure-displeasure dimension of affective states is mainly related to the feature points around the mouth and the eyebrows, while a arousal-sleep dimension is closely related to the feature points around eyes. For the filter sizes. the affective states were found to be mostly related to the low spatial frequency. and for the filter orientations. the oblique orientations. An optimized neural network model was designed on the basis of these results by reducing original 1560(39x5x8) input elements to 400(25x2x8) The optimized model could predict human affective rating values. up to the correlation value of 0.886 for the pleasure-displeasure, and 0.631 for the arousal-sleep. Mapping the results of the optimized model to the six basic emotional categories (happy, sad, fear, angry, surprised, disgusted) fit 74% of human responses. Results of this study imply that, using human principles of recognizing facial expressions, a system for recognizing facial expressions can be optimized even with a a relatively little amount of information.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.385-416
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• 2014

In this study, memory for emotional words was compared between extraverts and introverts, employing signal detection analysis to distinguish differences in discriminative memory and response bias. Subjects were presented with a study list of emotional words in an encoding session, followed by a recognition session. Effects of task difficulty were examined by varying the nature of the encoding task and the intervals between study and test. For an easy task, with a retention interval of 5 minutes (Study I), introverts exhibited better memory (i.e., higher d') than extraverts, particularly for low-frequency words, and response biases did not differ between these two groups. For a difficult task, with a one-month retention period (Study II), performance was poor overall, and only high-frequency words were remembered; also extraverts adopted a more liberal criterion for 'old' responses (i.e., more hits and more false alarms) for positive emotional-valence words. These results suggest that as task difficulty drives down performance, effects of internal control processes become more apparent, revealing differences in response biases for positive words between extraverts and introverts. These results show that extraversion can distort memory performance for words, depending on their emotional valence.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.376-385
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• 2016

This paper aims to understand the conceptual definition and the characteristics of reality shock in new graduate nurses. We analyzed the data using the hybrid model, initially introduced by Schwartz-Barcott and Kim. The data used in this study were collected from six recently graduated nurses who work in S-si and G-si. Another part of the data was obtained from literature review regarding Reality Shock. We categorized Reality Shocks in recently graduated nurses into nine attributes within a three-dimension model. The dimensions include "cognitive", "emotional", and "situational" domains. The cognitive domain is to be aware of the factor that causes Reality Shock. The emotional domain is the negative emotional responses that appear when facing a situation causing Reality Shock. The situational domain is the sort of circumstantial situations that cause Reality Shock. Reality Shock is defined as recently graduated nurses having several negative emotions, such as powerlessness, difficulty in peer relationships, confusion, and pressure due to (i) the differences between reality of nursing and what they have learned in school, (ii) the differences between an ideal situation and the real situation, (iii) the lack of expertise of senior nurses, (iv) a situation without the respect from colleagues, and (v) the overloaded role compare with the expectations. In conclusion, we provide a guideline for establishing a strategy to reduce Reality Shock in recently graduated nurses by identifying the concept of Reality Shock.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.259-276
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• 2014

Artists such as Duchamp and Balla tried to portray moving objects on static canvases by superimposing snapshots of moving objects. Previously, our group showed the influence of prior experience on brain responses within a motion-sensitive area MT+ to abstr act paintings with or without implied motion. In the present study, we went further to investigate whether the differential MT+activation between observers is originated from differential eye movement patterns. Prior experience was defined operationally with major in art. In addition, we examined whether perceiver's awareness of artist's intention concerning the implied motion, as well as expertise in art, affects the way he/she views the artwork. Results showed that the number and the duration of fixation on the abstract paintings tended to differ between participants based on art major. The awareness of artist's intention was not related to such differences. In contrast, observers' awareness of artist's intention of implying motion affected eye movement patterns in specific regions of the abstract paintings where the motion was portrayed. In other words, observers with awareness focused more on the parts of paintings portraying motion and moved their eyes in the direction corresponding to the direction of moving objects than observers without awareness. Expertise was not related to such specific eye movement patterns. The present study implies that art expertise and awareness of artist's intention play differential roles in observers' perception of paintings with implied motion. Namely, it suggests that expertise is related to the overall perception of paintings, while awareness of implied motion is related to perception of the specific spatial information in those paintings.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.49-69
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• 2013

While we interact with other people or objects, the brain continuously updates our own body schema to recognize the agent of observed actions. The Extrastriate Body Area (EBA) provides an initial interface for the sense of agency by integrating visual inputs of body parts with internal signals related to self-generated body movements. Less is known, however, about how the functional use of tools contributes to such processes. Here, we investigated whether tool-specific affordance would differentially affect the neural responses in the EBA depending on the agency of imaginary actions. In each trial we presented a picture of an object in a rectangular frame. Objects were either the tools typically brought towards the body (body tools; e.g., telescope, earphones) or away from the body (world tools; e.g., pen, dice; Rueschemeyer, Pfeiffer, & Bekkering, 2010). Depending on the color of the frame, participants imagined either themselves or the other person using the tool (self vs. other conditions). These four types of trials were randomly intermixed with blank trials. As results, independently localized right EBA regions of interest showed greater activation when participants imagined themselves using body tools than using world tools whereas no such differential activations were found when they imagined the other person using the tools. The postscan test revealed no significant difference in vividness of imagery between the self and other conditions. Our results suggest that the EBA incorporates functional affordance of tools into the body schema in order to enhance the sense of agency and to guide our own actions.