Published: Sept. 18, 2014

The influence of expectation on inattentional blindness (IB) was investigated using a lexical-based IB task. In two experiments, 235 participants performed word compilations from briefly presented letters and combinations of letters with an unexpected syllable appearing in one of the trials. In Experiment 1, we varied the frequency and grammatical form ofthe presented words, evaluating the role of “general” and “contextual” expectations. The results showed the effect of frequency but not of the grammatical form of the words. Experiment 2 controlled for the role of the state of completion of the word compilation in generating “contextual” expectations. We varied two …

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Published: May 31, 2014

The mesolimbic dopamine system is believed to be a key component in the processing of rewarding information by the brain, although the precise nature of dopamine release remains unknown. Avoidance conditioning combines reward (positive) and aversion (negative) phenomena. Here the activity of 60 neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) was studied in freely moving rabbits during the acquisition and performance of an active avoidance. A total of 48 % of the recorded neurons responded to the conditioned stimulus (CS). A significant predominance of excitatory responses to the (CS) was demonstrated. Two main patterns of cell responses to the CS …

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Published: Jan. 1, 2014

In the second year of life, infants are actively interested in objects used by adults, despite the number of experienced difficulties in achieving their goals while handling these objects. What causes the child attempt to handle an object for a designated purpose while watching the adult? One of the evident explanations concerns the effectiveness of the adults behavior and the child’s desire to achieve the same result. However, multiple studies have shown that a child is guided not exclusively by the hoped-for result, but also by the adults intention. In our study, we verified the reason guiding a child’s choice …

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Published: Jan. 1, 2014

This paper describes the possible methodological techniques of evaluation of the problem solving process as the main task by a secondary probe task. We propose a method of estimation of the microdynamics of thought processes via changes in the dynamics of working memory load in problem solving by a probe monitor. The results of assessment of the dynamics of working memory load in insight and algorithmized problem solving via a two-alternative choice task are shown. There are significant differences between the dynamics of working memory load in insight and algorithmized problem solving in the last stages, which confirm the hypothesis …

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Created: Sept. 13, 2022

A great amount of evidence has now been accumulated indicating that many aspects of cognition, including language are closely interconnected with or “grounded” in the sensory-motor modalities. In this respect, an interesting line of research that has not yet been studied in great detail is whether activation of the sensory-motor brain areas can be found when figurative language is processed. Two experiments were conducted to address the following questions: firstly, can evidence of effector-specific motor activation be found in the processing of idioms; secondly, how would such activation unfold in time? We hypothesized that highly imageable idioms are more strongly …

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Published: Jan. 1, 2014

Almost 50 years ago, Reber described implicit learning as the unintentional and unconscious processing of regularities in the environment. Since then, psychologists have actively investigated this phenomenon. However, there is currently no unambiguous description of the mechanisms of implicit learning. Moreover, the descriptions of implicit learning properties vary depending on the approach to the phenomenon. The main theoretical accounts developed in the last decades are presented in this work. Four types of theories are identified, which differ in how they answer two main questions: 1) How explicit is the knowledge acquired during implicit learning?; and 2) How automatically is it …

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Published: Dec. 8, 2019

Individual variability in imagery experiences has long attracted the interest of philosophers, educators, and psychologists. Since Aristotle’s time, it was assumed that imagery is a universal ability, so everyone possesses it. Galton first measured the vividness of subjective imagery experiences, and discovered that some individuals reported zero imagination. Recent research has coined the term “aphantasia” — an inability to form mental imagery, or having a “blind mind’s eye” (Zeman, Dewar, & Della Sala, 2015). We argue that there maybe more than one type of aphantasia. Substantial behavioral and neuropsychological evidence has demonstrated a distinction between visual-object imagery (mental visualization of …

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Published: July 31, 2018

Bioinformatics is an emerging field, where information technology usage can significantly accelerate life science research. It is a relatively new field and the scope of exploring new tools and techniques seems immense. One major field where bioinformatics plays important role is next generation sequence analysis (NGS), in which an unknown genome is shuttered into pieces and tried to align it to a reference known genome to decipher its functions using sequence comparison. The first well known application of this technology is the human genome project which took nearly 10 years to finish. With advancements in central processing units (CPUs), the …

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Published: June 27, 2019

Many psychological theories attempt to explain the mechanisms that govern cognition in adults, and fewer theories attempt to explain also how cognitive mechanisms change across development. Even fewer theories provide a brain representation of mechanisms related to cognitive development. One such theory is the Theory of Constructive Operators. In this review, we present key components of this general theory and provide quantitative predictions for the development of core cognitive abilities such a mental-attentional capacity. Specifically, the model of endogenous mental attention presents a domain-free resource that increases in power during childhood and adolescence. Mental-attentional capacity grows concurrently with prefrontal brain …

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Published: Jan. 31, 2018

Indices of codon usage pattern of human papillomavirus (HPV) were analyzed to understand the key determinants of synonymous codon usage in the HPV genome. The complete sequences of 39 HPV genomes were downloaded from the website of the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The relative synonymous codon usage values, effective number of codons, GC content, percentage of GCs at the third position of synonymous codons (GC3s), codon adaptation index, hydrophobicity, aromaticity of conceptually translated gene products were calculated using the Codon W 1.4.2 program. HPV preferentially used codons ending with A/U. By comparing relative synonymous codon usage of the HPV …

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