Ewald Neumann

University of Canterbury | UC · Department of Psychology

Aims: The purpose was to examine the relationship between dietary creatine intake obtained in food and selective attention and inhibitory control processes in older adults. Methods: Forty-five (n = 11 males; n = 34 females) participants over 60 years of age volunteered. Participants completed a 5-day dietary recall survey to estimate creatine intak...

Research on the accuracy of Brain Fingerprinting has produced mixed outcomes: some report 99.9% and others report lower. Furthermore, no studies have measured the susceptibility of Brain Fingerprinting to countermeasures. In Experiment‐1, we report the accurate classification of 15 of the 16 subjects, tested on their own real‐life autobiographical...

Selective attention and inhibitory processing in older adults: The impact of dietary creatine.

Brain Fingerprinting (BFP) is an electroencephalogram-based system used to detect knowledge, or absence of knowledge of a real-life incident (e.g., a crime) in a person's memory. With the help of BFP, a potential crime suspect can be classified as possessing crime-related information (Information-Present), not possessing crime-related information (...

Language modulation in a selective attention task by Spanish-English and Twi-English bilinguals as evidenced by positive and negative priming effects.

Surprising effects of working memory load on visual selective attention.

A bilingual primed lexical decision task was used to investigate priming effects produced by attended and ignored words. Participants were required to name prime target words in their weaker (L2) language and then make lexical decisions to probe target items in their dominant (L1) language. Accelerated lexical decisions to probe target words result...

Two experiments investigated positive priming and negative priming effects in a lexical decision task. A priming task was used in which participants were required to make a verbal naming response to a prime target word, flanked by a distractor word, followed by a lexical decision response to a probe target word or nonword, flanked by a distractor w...

Two issues were addressed in this study. First, it addresses the viability of the assertion that working memory is crucial for reducing distraction by maintaining the prioritization of relevant over irrelevant information in visual selective attention tasks. The authors tested this hypothesis in an experiment involving a modified n-back task with...

Language access in bilinguals requires highly refined selective attention abilities. This review chronicles the implications from cross-language priming studies collected from three different continents. These research explorations using novel selective attention paradigms begin to reveal the local word and global language inhibitory control capaci...

A monolingual and a bilingual primed lexical decision task was used to investigate priming effects produced by attended and ignored visual stimuli. In the Chinese language unilingual experiment, accelerated responses to the traditional Chinese character probe targets were observed when the traditional character probe target was the same as the prec...

Appendix A, B, C, and D

The ability to use multiple languages selectively is an impressive feat of the human information processing system. Although bilinguals scarcely commit random cross-language errors when they speak, there is evidence that both languages are active when one is in use. This article builds on previous work using a selective attention variant of cross-l...

Overcoming attentional competition generated by simultaneously conflicting stimuli has been addressed in cutting-edge neurophysiological research on selective attention and memory. This brief editorial summarizes my lab's explorations of cross-language positive and negative priming with various groups of bilinguals. Taken collectively, these studie...

A longitudinal study of mathematical word problem solving in children using computer-based strategy recommendations.

Christie and Klein (2008) recommended using the 7 key conditions used by Neumann and De-Schepper (1991) and Stadler and Hogan (1996) to investigate the full range of effects produced by recently rejected distractors (negative priming) and recently attended targets (positive priming) in selective attention tasks. They suggested that incorporating al...

This article summarizes four experiments that have produced negative priming reaction-time delays using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams. Both identity and semantic negative priming were obtained from potentially interfering non-target distractor items that were separated in time from target items. This verifies for the first time th...

Experiments examining identity priming from attended and ignored novel words (words that are used only once except when repetition is required due to experimental manipulation) in a lexical decision task are reported. Experiment 1 tested English monolinguals whereas Experiment 2 tested Twi (a native language of Ghana, Africa)-English bilinguals. Pa...

An important facet of human cognition is the ability to retrieve information accurately and in sufficient detail across a wide variety of domains. This is particularly relevant in the domain of school examinations. It has been well established that successful retrieval of momentarily wanted information depends to some extent on the inhibition of un...

Previous studies have shown that stimulus repetition can lead to reliable behavioral improvements. Although this repetition priming (RP) effect has been reported in a number of paradigms using a variety of stimuli including words, objects, and faces, only a few studies have investigated mathematical cognition involving arithmetic computation, and n...

In the current experiments, within- and between-language primed lexical decision tasks with Twi-English bilinguals were used. The aim was to explore the priming effects produced by attended and ignored words, in an effort to draw theoretical and empirical parallels and differences between the mechanisms of excitation and inhibition and to isolate t...

In selective attention tasks, the efficiency of processing concurrently presented target and distractor stimuli in a given display is often influenced by the relationship these stimuli have with those in the previous display. When a to-be-attended target on a current trial (the probe trial) matches the ignored, non-target distractor on a previous t...

Many studies have shown the benefits for long term retention of repeated retrieval during learning in verbal tasks, but few have shown its effectiveness using nonverbal materials. The aim of this study was to examine whether the retention benefits of repeated retrieval extend to preschool children performing a spatial location memory task. In this...

Testing has a powerful effect on long-term retention. We examined whether training with instructions about the mnemonic benefits of testing could lead to spontaneous use of it during free studying. After studying a short-answer question associated with a selection of prose, some students were given an instruction and training session focusing on th...

The authors used a unilingual and bilingual primed lexical decision task to investigate priming effects produced by attended and ignored words. In the unilingual experiment, accelerated lexical decisions to probe target words resulted when the word matched the preceding target word, whereas slowed lexical decisions to probe target words resulted wh...

As text-based communication increases in the civilian and military workplace (Finomore, Popik, Castle, & Dallman, 2010), so does the potential to encounter text-speak. It has been proposed that processing text-speak (I wll tlk 2 u l8tr, I will talk to you later) comes at a cognitive cost (Head, Helton, Russell, & Neumann, 2012). To the authors’ kno...

People who text messages often shorten words by eliminating internal letters (e.g., "climate, clmte"). Although these novel representations (i.e., subset word forms) are not true words, sentence context may prime semantic activation. We hypothesized that if participants are presented with a context sentence prime containing a subset form target wor...

Text messaging and online instant messaging are popular means of communication in New Zealand. Given the constraints of space and time, people use text-speak (a method for shortening words or phrases) to convey messages more concisely (Head, Helton, Neumann, Russell, & Shears, 2011). The current study collected text-speak word norms from 100 native...

Dual task experiments have highlighted that driving while having a conversation on a cell phone can have negative impacts on driving (Strayer & Drews, 2007). It has also been noted that this negative impact is greater when reading a text-message (Lee, 2007). Commonly used in text-messaging are shortening devices collectively known as text-speak (e....

Negative priming indexes an inhibition process that aids target selection by reducing distractor interference. To date, children have produced negative priming only in tasks where distractor response tendencies are consistently greater than or equal to targets and not in tasks containing a substantial proportion of low-conflict distractors. To esta...

We examined performance in a sustained attention to response task (SART) (Experiment 1) and a more traditionally formatted vigilance task (Experiment 2) using novel word stimuli (text-speak) and normally spelt words. This enabled us to address whether the SART is a better measure of sustained attention or of response strategy, and to investigate th...

There has been a steady shift from more traditional means of communication (e.g., hand written letters) to more electronically based (e.g., text messaging) (Crystal, 2008). This shift in communication style has influenced both civilian and military occupations (Turkoski, 2009; Finomore, et al., 2010). The current study investigated whether text-spe...

Negative priming indexes an inhibition process that aids target selection by reducing distractor interference. To date, children have produced negative priming only in tasks where distractor response tendencies are consistently greater than or equal to targets and not in tasks containing a substantial proportion of low-conflict distractors. To esta...

Despite being ignored, visual distractors often produce traceable negative priming (NP) effects that can be used to investigate inhibitory processes. Robust NP effects are typically found with young adults, but not with children. Using 2 different NP tasks, the authors compared NP in 5 different age groups spanning 5 to 25 years of age. The 1st tas...

Selective attention has durable consequences for behavior and neural activation. Negative priming (NP) effects are assumed to reflect a critical inhibitory component of selective attention. The performance of adolescents with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was assessed across two conceptually based NP tasks within a selective atten...

  This study examined how a metacognitive strategy known as self-explanation influences word problem solving in elementary school children. Participants were 79 sixth-graders. They were assigned to one of three groups: the self-explanation group, the self-learning group, or the control group. Students in each group performed a ratio word problem te...

Three visual selective attention tasks were used to measure potential differences in susceptibility to interference and inhibitory cognitive control processes in 16 adolescents diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 45 similar-aged controls. Susceptibility to interference was assessed using the Stroop color and word nami...

Selective attention is conventionally taken to indicate the selection of one set of sensory inputs over others. The selection of relevant over irrelevant stimuli is fundamental for efficient interaction with the visual world. Such interaction relies on selection mechanisms that allow for the direction of action to behaviourally relevant items. Atte...

Selective attention is conventionally taken to indicate the selection of one set of sensory inputs over others. The selection of relevant over irrelevant stimuli is fundamental for efficient interaction with the visual world. Such interaction relies on selection mechanisms that allow for the direction of action to behaviourally relevant items. Atte...

The influence of working memory load on visual selective attention was examined using a dual selective attention and working memory task. This dual task required participants to ignore distractor faces while categorizing superimposed celebrity names under low or high memory loads. Surprisingly, both memory load conditions produced equivalent interf...

  In a false memory experiment, lists of semantic associates (e.g., newspaper, letter, book, etc.) were presented to three groups of participants to induce false memories for critical nonpresented (CN) words (e.g., read) in an incidental learning task. The control group simply estimated the frequency rate in everyday Japanese discourse of each word...

The influence of working memory load on visual selective attention was examined using a dual selective attention and working memory task. This dual task required participants to ignore distractor faces while categorizing superimposed celebrity names under low or high memory loads. Surprisingly, both memory load conditions produced equivalent interf...

Three experiments are reported that examined conceptual negative priming effects in children 5 to 12 years of age. Experiment 1 used a negative priming variant of a flanker task requiring the naming of a central color blob flanked by irrelevant distractors. Experiment 2 used a negative priming variant of the Stroop color-word task. Experiment 3 use...

This commentary examines Glenberg's characterization of in light of negative priming and related phenomena. After offering a radically different slant on suppression, an attempt is made to weave this alternative version into Glenberg's provocative discussion of embodied memories.

An action-oriented theory of embodied memory is favorable for many reasons, but it will not provide a quick yet clean solution to the grounding problem in the way Glenberg (1997t) envisages. Although structural mapping via analogical representations may be an adequate mechanism of cognitive representation, it will not suffice to explain repre-senta...

This article provides a general rationale and step-by-step procedures for statistically assessing a theory-based or predicted pattern in a set of K > 2 means. A coherent hypothesis-testing strategy that incorporates Type I error and power considerations is an integral part of the process. Some specific advantages that are conferred by predicted pat...

Bilingual and multilingual persons present an intrigu-ing puzzle for cognitive psychology, because two or more language-bounded experiential systems are housed in the confines of a single brain. To understand multilingual pro-cessing, it is crucial to uncover the structure and organi-zation of language representations in memory, as well as the proc...

Two negative priming experiments in older and younger adults are reported. Participants in Experiment 1, involving both positive and negative priming conditions, showed both types of priming. There were no significant differences between age groups. If anything, older participants showed more negative priming. In Experiment 2, involving only negati...

Using randomized stimulus onset asynchrony (SOAs), the authors traced the time course of Stroop interference and facilitation in normal participants and participants with schizophrenia. Unlike earlier findings using blocked SOAs, singular peaks in interference, facilitation, or both occurred at particular SOAs. The peaks of normal participants and...

In this article, the authors respond to J. D. Cohen, K. O. Dunbar, D. M. Barch and T. S. Braver's (1997) comment on their target article. The present article (a) takes issue with the characterization given by Cohen et al. of the authors' approach as a classical speed-of-processing account of Stroop effects, (b) discusses the value and relevance of...

In this article, the authors respond to J. D. Cohen, K. O. Dunbar, D. M. Barch and T. S. Braver's (see record 1997-02838-005) comment on their target article (see record 1997-02838-004). The present article (a) takes issue with the characterization given by Cohen et al. of the authors' approach as a classical speed-of-processing account of Stroop e...

Two experiments explored limited capacity inhibitory selective attention processes in working memory. Experiment 1 used a modified Sternberg-type 'short-term memory scanning' task, where both irrelevant and relevant memory-set words were included to see if an inhibitory fan effect operated on lexical associates of the should-be-ignored (irrelevant)...

Abstract An inhibition-based fan effect hypothesis was tested using a negative priming paradigm in Experiments I and 2 and a short-term memory scanning paradigm in Experiment 3. In Experiment I and 2, the time to name a letter (surrounded by I to 3 distractor letters) was longer when it had been a distractor on the previous display than in a contro...

An inhibition-based fan effect hypothesis was tested using a negative priming paradigm in Experiments I and 2 and a short-term memory scanning paradigm in Experiment 3. In Experiment 1 and 2, the time to name a letter (surrounded by 1 to 3 distractor letters) was longer when it had been a distractor on the previous display than in a control conditi...

Three experiments examined the relative contributions of positive and negative priming in a selective attention task. A typical trial consisted of a briefly presented letter display containing a red target letter and a distractor letter of another color. This prime display was followed by another similar letter display (the probe). When the red tar...