TY - JOUR
T1 - Coherence across consciousness levels
T2 - symmetric visual displays spare working memory resources
AU - Dumitru, Magda L.
PY - 2015/12/15
Y1 - 2015/12/15
N2 - Two studies demonstrate that the need for coherence could nudge individuals to use structural similarities between binary visual displays and two concurrent cognitive tasks to unduly solve the latter in similar fashion. In an overt truth-judgement task, participants decided whether symmetric colourful displays matched conjunction or disjunction descriptions (e.g., "the black and/or the orange"). In the simultaneous covert categorisation task, they decided whether a colour name (e.g., "black") described a two-colour object or half of a single-colour object. Two response patterns emerged as follows. Participants either acknowledged or rejected matches between disjunction descriptions and two visual stimuli and, similarly, either acknowledged or rejected matches between single colour names and two-colour objects or between single colour names and half of single-colour objects. These findings confirm the coherence hypothesis, highlight the role of coherence in preserving working-memory resources, and demonstrate an interaction between high-level and low-level consciousness.
AB - Two studies demonstrate that the need for coherence could nudge individuals to use structural similarities between binary visual displays and two concurrent cognitive tasks to unduly solve the latter in similar fashion. In an overt truth-judgement task, participants decided whether symmetric colourful displays matched conjunction or disjunction descriptions (e.g., "the black and/or the orange"). In the simultaneous covert categorisation task, they decided whether a colour name (e.g., "black") described a two-colour object or half of a single-colour object. Two response patterns emerged as follows. Participants either acknowledged or rejected matches between disjunction descriptions and two visual stimuli and, similarly, either acknowledged or rejected matches between single colour names and two-colour objects or between single colour names and half of single-colour objects. These findings confirm the coherence hypothesis, highlight the role of coherence in preserving working-memory resources, and demonstrate an interaction between high-level and low-level consciousness.
KW - coherence
KW - symmetry
KW - consciousness
KW - reasoning
KW - working memory
KW - analogy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84947738639&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.concog.2015.10.007
DO - 10.1016/j.concog.2015.10.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 26609805
VL - 38
SP - 139
EP - 149
JO - Consciousness and cognition
JF - Consciousness and cognition
SN - 1053-8100
ER -