Serena Mastroberardino

The effect of eye closure on children's eyewitness testimonies

Abstract Previous studies conducted with adults found that eye closure increased the number of correctly reported details with no concurrent increase in the number of incorrect details. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that closing the eyes reduces external stimulation, and so increases the capacity of the participant to concentrate on the memorial image, dedicating greater resources to the memorial trace. In this study, we investigated whether the same advantage could be found in 6- and 11-year-old children. Participants were asked to provide a free recall and a cued recall of a short emotional clip taken from the movie Jurassic Park either with their eyes open or closed. Free recall was then analysed in terms of proportion of correct details, incorrect details, and confabulations; cued recall in terms of number and type of details. The results clearly showed that eye closure improved childrens cued recall, while leaving free recall substantially unaffected. These results are discussed in the light of the possible advantage of eye closure when interviewing children.

How the bimodal format of presentation affects working memory: an overview

The best format in which information that has to be recalled is presented has been investigated in several studies, which focused on the impact of bimodal stimulation on working memory performance. An enhancement of participant’s performance in terms of correct recall has been repeatedly found, when bimodal formats of presentation (i.e., audiovisual) were compared to unimodal formats (i.e, either visual or auditory), in providing implications for multimedial learning. Several theoretical frameworks have been suggested in order to account for the bimodal advantage, ranging from those emphasizing early stages of processing (such as automatic alerting effects or multisensory integration processes) to those centred on late stages of processing (as postulated by the dual coding theory). The aim of this paper is to review previous contributions to this topic, providing a comprehensive theoretical framework, which is updated by the latest empirical studies.

Parietal cortex integrates contextual and saliency signals during the encoding of natural scenes in working memory.

The Brief presentation of a complex scene entails that only a few objects can be selected, processed indepth, and stored in memory. Both low‐level sensory salience and high‐level context‐related factors (e.g., the conceptual match/mismatch between objects and scene context) contribute to this selection process, but how the interplay between these factors affects memory encoding is largely unexplored. Here, during fMRI we presented participants with pictures of everyday scenes. After a short retention interval, participants judged the position of a target object extracted from the initial scene. The target object could be either congruent or incongruent with the context of the scene, and could be located in a region of the image with maximal or minimal salience. Behaviourally, we found a reduced impact of saliency on visuospatial working memory performance when the target was out‐of‐context. Encoding‐related fMRI results showed that context–congruent targets activated dorsoparietal regions, while context–incongruent targets de‐activated the ventroparietal cortex. Saliency modulated activity both in dorsal and ventral regions, with larger context‐related effects for salient targets. These findings demonstrate the joint contribution of knowledge‐based and saliency‐driven attention for memory encoding, highlighting a dissociation between dorsal and ventral parietal regions. Hum Brain Mapp 36:5003–5017, 2015.

The impact of cross-modal correspondences on working memory performance.

Cross-modal correspondences influence perceptual performance in adults, infants, and even nonhuman primates across a variety of different sensory modalities, including tasks involving speeded detection and categorization. However, to date, it is still unclear whether and how correspondences could modulate post-perceptual processes, such as working memory (WM). We investigated this issue using an audiovisual two-back task. In Experiment 1, 3 kinds of correspondences were used: audio/visual numerosity, pitch/shape, and pitch/elevation, each presented congruently (e.g., for numerosity: 3 tones along with 3 shapes) or incongruently (3 tones/2 shapes). Participants attended to the visual or auditory modalities, or both, simultaneously. The results revealed faster target-detection latencies following congruent as compared to incongruent stimulation, especially for numerosity congruence. In Experiment 2, we focused on numerosity, varying the correspondence of the unattended modality, thus having correspondences at both sample (e.g., 3 tones/3 shapes) and target (e.g., 3 tones/3 shapes), only at sample (sample: 3 tones/3 shapes; target: 3 tones/2 shapes), only at target (sample: 3 tones/2 shapes; target: 3 tones/3 shapes), or never. To investigate the information format we included “symbolic” quantities (i.e., visually/auditorily presented digits). The results confirmed the congruence effects, specifically when the correspondence operates at the target display, thus affecting response selection. The experiment revealed modal effects, showing how task-irrelevant digits affect performance only in the auditory modality, while task-irrelevant quantities affect it only when presented visually. Overall, these findings highlight the impact of cross-modal correspondences on WM, adding new light on the link between perceptual and post-perceptual stages of human information processing.

Crossmodal semantic congruence can affect visuo-spatial processing and activity of the fronto-parietal attention networks

Previous studies have shown that multisensory stimuli can contribute to attention control. Here we investigate whether irrelevant audio–visual stimuli can affect the processing of subsequent visual targets, in the absence of any direct bottom–up signals generated by low-level sensory changes and any goal-related associations between the multisensory stimuli and the visual targets. Each trial included two pictures (cat/dog), one in each visual hemifield, and a central sound that was semantically congruent with one of the two pictures (i.e., either “meow” or “woof” sound). These irrelevant audio–visual stimuli were followed by a visual target that appeared either where the congruent or the incongruent picture had been presented (valid/invalid trials). The visual target was a Gabor patch requiring an orientation discrimination judgment, allowing us to uncouple the visual task from the audio–visual stimuli. Behaviourally we found lower performance for invalid than valid trials, but only when the task demands were high (Gabor target presented together with a Gabor distractor vs. Gabor target alone). The fMRI analyses revealed greater activity for invalid than for valid trials in the dorsal and the ventral fronto-parietal attention networks. The dorsal network was recruited irrespective of task demands, while the ventral network was recruited only when task demands were high and target discrimination required additional top–down control. We propose that crossmodal semantic congruence generates a processing bias associated with the location of congruent picture, and that the presentation of the visual target on the opposite side required updating these processing priorities. We relate the activation of the attention networks to these updating operations. We conclude that the fronto-parietal networks mediate the influence of crossmodal semantic congruence on visuo-spatial processing, even in the absence of any low-level sensory cue and any goal-driven task associations.

Investigating spatial behaviour: an application of space analysis to criminal investigations

Geographical profiling (GP) is an information management system and investigative methodology that evaluates the locations of connected serial crimes to determine the most probable area of offender residence. It can be applied in cases of serial murder, rape, arson, robbery and bombings. Specifically, this investigative methodology uses the crimerelated scenes of a criminal series to determine the area in which the offender might live or conducts relevant activities (e.g. work and exercise). The idea underlying GP is that the offender tends to use familiar places and his own spatial representations to carry out his criminal activities. This methodology is often applied on serial crimes such as rapes, homicides and fire setters, but also on single crimes involving more than a place and it is based on the connection between the geographic information, the knowledge of the victim and the crime frame. The analyst uses tools and digital representations visualised as maps in which it is attempt to indicate where it is more probable that the offender lives and can be used by investigators to reduce the searching areas, select investigative strategies such as assign priority on a list of suspects, implement a search based on addresses, patrolling, etc. The general aim is to reconstruct the offender’s use of his environment to study the distance variable in its explorative strategies and mobility. According to Brantingham and Brantingham (1981, 1984), an offender is not likely to commit an offence very near to the home base, creating a buffer zone in which the crime is less likely to be committed. Levine (2004) hypothesised that after the buffer zone, there will be an area on which committing a crime has highest probability and then, according to a distance decay function, after this zone the number of offence trips would decrease. According to Rossmo (2000), the existence of a buffer zone is considered as a product of an increased risk of being identified or being noticed by the police conducting investigation, if an offence is committed too close to the home of the offender. The concept of distance decay can be used to investigate the origin location of a serial offender based on offence location on a series (Lowe and Moryadas 1975). A number of study on journey to crime (JTC) distances and variables affecting them have been conducted to confirm the existence of the distance decay function (Rossmo 1993; Warren et al. 1995). From an investigative perspective, the concept of distance decay is used to estimate the origin location of a serial offender based on offence locations in a series. In order to predict the home location of an offender statistically, the origin of the constructed model is placed on the location of the crime site and probability of the offender’s residential location is predicted in all directions of the geographic plane. As the model is continuous, this will produce a density surface surrounding the crime incident. The density accumulation from each incident is then combined with those of the other incidents producing a surface of density for an area (Levine 2004). CrimeStat programme’s JTC module, for example, generates statistical predictions concerning the likelihood of any given location to include the home base of the offender. This prediction is visualised as a grid with calculated density values for each grid cell centroid. This grid cell density accumulations can then be exported to surface mapping programs, which transform them visually as surfaces, contour maps or similar. At present, there are three L. P. Luini (&) S. Mastroberardino F. S. Marucci Department of Psychology, ‘‘La Sapienza’’ University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Rome, Italy e-mail: lorenzopluini@hotmail.it

Spatial cognition and crime: the study of mental models of spatial relations in crime analysis

Several studies employed different algorithms in order to investigate criminal’s spatial behaviour and to identify mental models and cognitive strategies related to it. So far, a number of geographic profiling (GP) software have been implemented to analyse mobility and its relation to the way criminals are using spatial environment when committing a crime. Since crimes are usually perpetrated in the offender’s high-awareness areas, those cognitive maps can be employed to create a map of the criminal’s operating area to help investigators to circumscribe search areas. The aim of the present study was to verify accuracy of simple statistical analysis in predicting spatial mobility of a group of 30 non-criminal subjects. Results showed that statistics such as Mean Centre and Standard Distance were accurate in elaborating a GP for each subject according to the mobility area provided. Future analysis will be implemented using mobility information of criminal subjects and location-based software to verify whether there is a cognitive spatial strategy employed by them when planning and committing a crime.

On the influence of audio-visual interactions on working memory performance: a study with non-semantic stimuli

Several studies examined the impact of bimodal stimulation on working memory. Typically, an enhancement of participants’ performance is found when bimodal formats (a barking dog) are compared to single formats of presentation (either the picture of a dog or the sound of barking). This enhancement can be attributed to early —as automatic alerting effect—or late—as postulated by the dual coding theory—stages of processing. Since only semantic stimuli have been used until now, the nature of this phenomenon is still not clear. In this experiment, we used a n-back procedure, wherein participants were required to detect an item seen n-position before in a stream of stimuli, using unimodal (either visual or auditory) or bimodal (both visual and auditory) non-semantic stimuli. We found a significant improvement of performance for bimodal stimuli, which indicates a likely involvement of very early pre-semantic stages of memory processes.

New perspectives in assessing deception: The evolution of the truth machine

In recent years a growing interest has arisen in the development of tools for the detection of deception. Since William M. Marstons first publication (1917) on the use of the polygraph as a lie detector, the application of this tool, commonly known as the truth machine, has evolved. Modern technologies are now trying to push the issue further, investigating brain activity during deception using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). The aim of this paper is to summarise the evolution of research from the original use of the polygraph to the use of new technologies in detecting deception, in order to provide an overview of the recent developments on the use of measurements of deception, and promote new research in this highly important domain of applied cognitive psychology.

Multisensory objects and the orienting of spatial attention

The presentation of an auditory stimulus semantically-congruent with a visual element of a multi-objects display can enhance processing of that element. Here we used multisensory objects (MO) as non-informative cues in a spatial cueing paradigm, aiming to directly assess the interplay between MO integration and spatial attention. We presented two pictures (e.g., left — dog, right — cat) plus a central sound (e.g., a dog’s bark) that defined the location of the MO (left, in this example). This was followed by a target (a Gabor patch) either at the MO location or in the opposite hemifield. Subjects discriminated the orientation of the Gabor, while ignoring all task-irrelevant pictures and sounds. Further, we manipulated the task requirements including ‘easy’ or ‘difficult’ discrimination (Gabor tilt = ±5° or ±10°), and by presenting either a single unilateral Gabor (Exp. 1, ‘low’ competition) or two Gabors bilaterally (red and blue, with the target now defined by colour; Exp. 2, ‘high’ competition). Functional imaging data revealed activation of frontal regions when the target was presented on the opposite side of the MO (invalid trials). The frontal eye-fields activated irrespective of task requirements, while the inferior frontal gyrus activated only when the MO-cue was invalid and competition was low (Exp. 1 only). These findings show that MOs automatically affect the distribution of spatial attention, and that re-orienting operations on invalid trials activate dorsal and ventral frontal areas depending on top-down task constraints. Overall, the results are consistent with the hypothesis linking the integration of multisensory objects with biases of spatial attention.