Mei-Ching Lien - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Mei-Ching Lien

Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2014

Objective: In this study, we examined how effectively people can monitor new stimuli on a periphe... more Objective: In this study, we examined how effectively people can monitor new stimuli on a peripheral display while carrying out judgments on an adjacent central display.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2007

When people attempt to perform two tasks at the same time, interference usually occurs. Although ... more When people attempt to perform two tasks at the same time, interference usually occurs. Although dual-task studies have generally yielded consistent findings, certain core issues have not yet been resolved. Recent debate has focused on whether central processes (activation and selection of responses) can operate in parallel for different tasks. Behavioral data (response time and accuracy) have provided useful clues, but no closure. What is needed is a more direct window into central operations as they emerge. The present study therefore addressed this issue by supplementing behavioral data with online electrophysiological measures.

Psychology and Aging, 2006

The present experiments examined the automaticity of word recognition. The authors examined wheth... more The present experiments examined the automaticity of word recognition. The authors examined whether people can recognize words while central attention is devoted to another task and how this ability changes across the life span. In Experiment 1, a lexical decision Task 2 was combined with either an auditory or a visual Task 1. Regardless of the Task 1 modality, Task 2 word recognition proceeded in parallel with Task 1 central operations for older adults but not for younger adults. This is a rare example of improved cognitive processing with advancing age. When Task 2 was nonlexical (Experiment 2), however, there was no evidence for greater parallel processing for older adults. Thus, the processing advantage appears to be restricted to lexical processes. The authors conclude that greater cumulative experience with lexical processing leads to greater automaticity, allowing older adults to more efficiently perform this stage in parallel with another task.

Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2011

... it cannot start until central attention is released from Task 1. Accordingly, the effect of t... more ... it cannot start until central attention is released from Task 1. Accordingly, the effect of the difficulty manipulation should be additive with the effect of SOA (ie ... Stimulus-response compatibility and psychological refractory period effects: Implications for response selection. ...

Third-party authentication devices are being used increasingly to authenticate user access to sys... more Third-party authentication devices are being used increasingly to authenticate user access to systems and networks. A significant but often overlooked variable concerning the effectiveness of such devices is ease-of-use. The field of human factors provides a promising approach to studying usability in thirdparty authentication methods, as well as in other tasks that humans must perform to increase security in systems and networks. The method of task analysis, for example, involves breaking a user's task down into individual steps or elements to determine its relative complexity. Task analyses for several third-party authentication methods show that a number of additional user behavior steps not required during "normal" password-based authentication are necessary. The major probable consequence of the difficulty associated with these additional task steps is an increase in user error rate. Most importantly, however, the task analyses suggest that not all third-party authentication methods are equally conducive to usability. Information security managers and staff should include usability considerations in the many cost-benefit tradeoffs involving controls and security.

Psychological research, Jan 20, 2015

Previous studies suggest that older adults process positive emotions more efficiently than negati... more Previous studies suggest that older adults process positive emotions more efficiently than negative emotions, whereas younger adults show the reverse effect. We examined whether this age-related difference in emotional bias still occurs when attention is engaged in two emotional tasks. We used a psychological refractory period paradigm and varied the emotional valence of Task 1 and Task 2. In both experiments, Task 1 was emotional face discrimination (happy vs. angry faces) and Task 2 was sound discrimination (laugh, punch, vs. cork pop in Experiment 1 and laugh vs. scream in Experiment 2). The backward emotional correspondence effect for positively and negatively valenced Task 2 on Task 1 was measured. In both experiments, younger adults showed a backward correspondence effect from a negatively valenced Task 2, suggesting parallel processing of negatively valenced stimuli. Older adults showed similar negativity bias in Experiment 2 with a more salient negative sound ("scream&q...

Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2014

Tipper, Paul and Hayes found object-based correspondence effects for door-handle stimuli for shap... more Tipper, Paul and Hayes found object-based correspondence effects for door-handle stimuli for shape judgments but not colour. They reasoned that a grasping affordance is activated when judging dimensions related to a grasping action (shape), but not for other dimensions (colour). Cho and Proctor, however, found the effect with respect to handle position when the bases of the door handles were centred (so handles were positioned left or right; the base-centred condition) but not when the handles were centred (the objectcentred condition), suggesting that the effect is driven by object location, not grasping affordance. We conducted an independent replication of Cho and Proctor's design, but with behavioural and event-related potential measures. Participants made shape judgments in Experiment 1 and colour judgments in Experiment 2 on the same door-handle objects. Correspondence effects on response time and errors were obtained in both experiments for the base-centred condition but not the object-centred condition. Effects were absent in the P1 and N1 data, which are consistent with the hypothesis of little binding between visual processing of grasping component and action. These findings question the grasping-affordance view but support a spatialcoding view, suggesting that correspondence effects are modulated primarily by object location.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2000

Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2014

Objective: In this study, we examined how effectively people can monitor new stimuli on a periphe... more Objective: In this study, we examined how effectively people can monitor new stimuli on a peripheral display while carrying out judgments on an adjacent central display.

Visual Cognition, 2014

Whereas capture experiments typically repeat a single task many times, real world cognition is ch... more Whereas capture experiments typically repeat a single task many times, real world cognition is characterized by frequent switching. reported that the attentional control system can rapidly and fully switch between different search settings (e.g., red to green), with no carryover and no intertrial priming. 15 The present study examined whether this impressive flexibility is possible even when the switch is not between different features along the same dimension, but between mutually incompatible search modes. On each trial, participants were prompted to find and identify the letter that was in a specific colour (feature search mode) or was uniquely coloured (singleton search mode). Within each block, search mode was either 20 pure or mixed; the mixed blocks contained a fixed AABB search sequence (singletonsingleton-feature-feature) in Experiment 1 and a random sequence in Experiment 2. The target display was preceded by a noninformative cue display containing a nontarget colour singleton. In pure feature search blocks, these irrelevant singleton cues were generally unable to capture attention, replicating previous findings of "contingent 25 capture". In mixed blocks, however, irrelevant colour singletons captured attention on feature search trials. This breakdown indicates a limitation in the sharpness of attentional control following mode switches, which might be common in the real world.

Objective: Our objective was to use episodic memory and executive function tests to determine whe... more Objective: Our objective was to use episodic memory and executive function tests to determine whether or not Chiari Malformation Type I (CM) patients experience cognitive dysfunction.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2008

One of the most robust findings in attention research is that the time to name a color is lengthe... more One of the most robust findings in attention research is that the time to name a color is lengthened markedly in the presence of an irrelevant word that spells a different color name: the Stroop effect. The Stroop effect is found even when the word is physically separated from the color, apparently indicating that words can be read outside the focus of spatial attention. The present study critically evaluated this claim. We employed several stringent measures within a Stroop paradigm to prevent participants from attending to the irrelevant words (e.g., limiting exposure duration to prevent attention capture). Nonetheless, residual Stroop effects were obtained for both color words and semantic associates (e.g., sky to blue). These data suggest that lexical processing can sometimes occur outside the focus of spatial attention.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2006

This study assessed whether or not the difficulty of task switching stems from previous inhibitio... more This study assessed whether or not the difficulty of task switching stems from previous inhibition of the task set. A predictable sequence of univalent stimuli (affording performance of one active task) and bivalent stimuli (affording performance of two tasks) was used in two experiments. Experiment 1 used an alternating-runs paradigm (AABB) and Experiment 2 used a strictly alternating sequence (ABAB). The critical variable was whether the incentive for task-set inhibition was strong (on bivalent trials) or weak (on univalent trials). The question was whether it would be more difficult to switch to a task that previously needed to be inhibited than to a task that did not need to be inhibited. This pattern was not observed in either experiment. Thus, the data provide no evidence that task switching is difficult because of the need to overcome recent task-set inhibition.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2007

Psychology and Aging, 2006

The present experiments examined the automaticity of word recognition. The authors examined wheth... more The present experiments examined the automaticity of word recognition. The authors examined whether people can recognize words while central attention is devoted to another task and how this ability changes across the life span. In Experiment 1, a lexical decision Task 2 was combined with either an auditory or a visual Task 1. Regardless of the Task 1 modality, Task 2 word recognition proceeded in parallel with Task 1 central operations for older adults but not for younger adults. This is a rare example of improved cognitive processing with advancing age. When Task 2 was nonlexical (Experiment 2), however, there was no evidence for greater parallel processing for older adults. Thus, the processing advantage appears to be restricted to lexical processes. The authors conclude that greater cumulative experience with lexical processing leads to greater automaticity, allowing older adults to more efficiently perform this stage in parallel with another task.

Psychology and Aging, 2011

The present study examined whether people become more susceptible to capture by salient objects a... more The present study examined whether people become more susceptible to capture by salient objects as they age. Participants searched a target display for a letter in a specific color and indicated its identity. In Experiment 1, this target display was preceded by a non-informative cue display containing one target-color box, one ignored-color box, and two white boxes. On half of the trials, this cue display also contained a salient-but-irrelevant abrupt onset. To assess capture by the target-color cue, we used the N2pc component of the event-related potential, thought to reflect attentional allocation to the left or right visual field. The target-color box in the cue display produced a substantial N2pc effect for younger adults and, most importantly, this effect was not diminished by the presence of an abrupt onset. Therefore, the abrupt onset was unable to capture attention away from the target-color cue. Critically, older adults demonstrated the same resistance to capture by the abrupt onset. Experiment 2 extended these findings to irrelevant color singleton cues. Thus, we argue that the ability to attend to relevant stimuli and resist capture by salient-but-irrelevant stimuli is preserved with advancing age.

Psychology and Aging, 2008

The present study tested the hypothesis that older adults establish a weaker task set than younge... more The present study tested the hypothesis that older adults establish a weaker task set than younger adults and therefore rely more on stimulus-triggered activation of task sets. This hypothesis predicts that older adults should have difficulty with task switches, especially when the stimuli-responses are associated with multiple, competing tasks. Weak task preparation, however, could actually benefit older adults when performing an unexpected task. The authors tested this prediction in Experiment 1 using a repeating AABB task sequence, with univalent and bivalent stimuli intermixed. On some univalent trials, participants received an unexpected task. Contrary to the authors' predictions, expectancy costs were not smaller for older adults. Similar findings were obtained in Experiments 2 and 3, in which the authors used a task-cueing paradigm to more strongly promote deliberate task preparation. The authors found no disproportionate age effects on switch costs but did find age effects on bivalence costs and mixing costs. The authors conclude that older adults do experience extra difficulty dealing with stimuli associated with 2 active tasks but found no evidence that the problem specifically stems from an increased reliance on bottom-up task activation rather than top-down task preparation.

Psychology and Aging, 2002

Two psychological refractory period (PRP) experiments were conducted to examine overlapping proce... more Two psychological refractory period (PRP) experiments were conducted to examine overlapping processing in younger and older adults. A shape discrimination task (triangle or rectangle) for Task 1 (T 1 ) and a lexical-decision task (word or nonword) for Task 2 (T 2 ) were used. PRP effects, response time for T 2 increasing as stimulus onset synchrony (SOA) decreased, were obtained for both age groups. The effect of word frequency on T 2 was smaller at the short SOA than at the long SOA, reflecting slack effects, which were larger for older than younger adults in both experiments. These results suggest that older adults can perform lexical access of T 2 in parallel with the processing of T 1 at least as efficiently as younger adults.

Psychological Research, 2007

It has been argued that the psychological refractory period (PRP) effect is eliminated with two i... more It has been argued that the psychological refractory period (PRP) effect is eliminated with two ideomotor compatible tasks when instructions stress fast and simultaneous responding. Three experiments were conducted to test this hypothesis. In all experiments, Task 1 required spatially compatible manual responses (left or right) to the direction of an arrow, and Task 2 required saying the name of the auditory letter A or B. In Experiments 1 and 3, the manual responses were keypresses made with the left and right hands, whereas in Experiment 2 they were left-right toggle-switch movements made with the dominant hand. Instructions that stressed response speed reduced reaction time and increased error rate compared to standard instructions to respond fast and accurately, but did not eliminate the PRP effect on Task 2 reaction time. These results imply that, even when response speed is emphasized, ideomotor compatible tasks do not bypass response selection.

Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2014

Objective: In this study, we examined how effectively people can monitor new stimuli on a periphe... more Objective: In this study, we examined how effectively people can monitor new stimuli on a peripheral display while carrying out judgments on an adjacent central display.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2007

When people attempt to perform two tasks at the same time, interference usually occurs. Although ... more When people attempt to perform two tasks at the same time, interference usually occurs. Although dual-task studies have generally yielded consistent findings, certain core issues have not yet been resolved. Recent debate has focused on whether central processes (activation and selection of responses) can operate in parallel for different tasks. Behavioral data (response time and accuracy) have provided useful clues, but no closure. What is needed is a more direct window into central operations as they emerge. The present study therefore addressed this issue by supplementing behavioral data with online electrophysiological measures.

Psychology and Aging, 2006

The present experiments examined the automaticity of word recognition. The authors examined wheth... more The present experiments examined the automaticity of word recognition. The authors examined whether people can recognize words while central attention is devoted to another task and how this ability changes across the life span. In Experiment 1, a lexical decision Task 2 was combined with either an auditory or a visual Task 1. Regardless of the Task 1 modality, Task 2 word recognition proceeded in parallel with Task 1 central operations for older adults but not for younger adults. This is a rare example of improved cognitive processing with advancing age. When Task 2 was nonlexical (Experiment 2), however, there was no evidence for greater parallel processing for older adults. Thus, the processing advantage appears to be restricted to lexical processes. The authors conclude that greater cumulative experience with lexical processing leads to greater automaticity, allowing older adults to more efficiently perform this stage in parallel with another task.

Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2011

... it cannot start until central attention is released from Task 1. Accordingly, the effect of t... more ... it cannot start until central attention is released from Task 1. Accordingly, the effect of the difficulty manipulation should be additive with the effect of SOA (ie ... Stimulus-response compatibility and psychological refractory period effects: Implications for response selection. ...

Third-party authentication devices are being used increasingly to authenticate user access to sys... more Third-party authentication devices are being used increasingly to authenticate user access to systems and networks. A significant but often overlooked variable concerning the effectiveness of such devices is ease-of-use. The field of human factors provides a promising approach to studying usability in thirdparty authentication methods, as well as in other tasks that humans must perform to increase security in systems and networks. The method of task analysis, for example, involves breaking a user's task down into individual steps or elements to determine its relative complexity. Task analyses for several third-party authentication methods show that a number of additional user behavior steps not required during "normal" password-based authentication are necessary. The major probable consequence of the difficulty associated with these additional task steps is an increase in user error rate. Most importantly, however, the task analyses suggest that not all third-party authentication methods are equally conducive to usability. Information security managers and staff should include usability considerations in the many cost-benefit tradeoffs involving controls and security.

Psychological research, Jan 20, 2015

Previous studies suggest that older adults process positive emotions more efficiently than negati... more Previous studies suggest that older adults process positive emotions more efficiently than negative emotions, whereas younger adults show the reverse effect. We examined whether this age-related difference in emotional bias still occurs when attention is engaged in two emotional tasks. We used a psychological refractory period paradigm and varied the emotional valence of Task 1 and Task 2. In both experiments, Task 1 was emotional face discrimination (happy vs. angry faces) and Task 2 was sound discrimination (laugh, punch, vs. cork pop in Experiment 1 and laugh vs. scream in Experiment 2). The backward emotional correspondence effect for positively and negatively valenced Task 2 on Task 1 was measured. In both experiments, younger adults showed a backward correspondence effect from a negatively valenced Task 2, suggesting parallel processing of negatively valenced stimuli. Older adults showed similar negativity bias in Experiment 2 with a more salient negative sound ("scream&q...

Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2014

Tipper, Paul and Hayes found object-based correspondence effects for door-handle stimuli for shap... more Tipper, Paul and Hayes found object-based correspondence effects for door-handle stimuli for shape judgments but not colour. They reasoned that a grasping affordance is activated when judging dimensions related to a grasping action (shape), but not for other dimensions (colour). Cho and Proctor, however, found the effect with respect to handle position when the bases of the door handles were centred (so handles were positioned left or right; the base-centred condition) but not when the handles were centred (the objectcentred condition), suggesting that the effect is driven by object location, not grasping affordance. We conducted an independent replication of Cho and Proctor's design, but with behavioural and event-related potential measures. Participants made shape judgments in Experiment 1 and colour judgments in Experiment 2 on the same door-handle objects. Correspondence effects on response time and errors were obtained in both experiments for the base-centred condition but not the object-centred condition. Effects were absent in the P1 and N1 data, which are consistent with the hypothesis of little binding between visual processing of grasping component and action. These findings question the grasping-affordance view but support a spatialcoding view, suggesting that correspondence effects are modulated primarily by object location.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2000

Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2014

Objective: In this study, we examined how effectively people can monitor new stimuli on a periphe... more Objective: In this study, we examined how effectively people can monitor new stimuli on a peripheral display while carrying out judgments on an adjacent central display.

Visual Cognition, 2014

Whereas capture experiments typically repeat a single task many times, real world cognition is ch... more Whereas capture experiments typically repeat a single task many times, real world cognition is characterized by frequent switching. reported that the attentional control system can rapidly and fully switch between different search settings (e.g., red to green), with no carryover and no intertrial priming. 15 The present study examined whether this impressive flexibility is possible even when the switch is not between different features along the same dimension, but between mutually incompatible search modes. On each trial, participants were prompted to find and identify the letter that was in a specific colour (feature search mode) or was uniquely coloured (singleton search mode). Within each block, search mode was either 20 pure or mixed; the mixed blocks contained a fixed AABB search sequence (singletonsingleton-feature-feature) in Experiment 1 and a random sequence in Experiment 2. The target display was preceded by a noninformative cue display containing a nontarget colour singleton. In pure feature search blocks, these irrelevant singleton cues were generally unable to capture attention, replicating previous findings of "contingent 25 capture". In mixed blocks, however, irrelevant colour singletons captured attention on feature search trials. This breakdown indicates a limitation in the sharpness of attentional control following mode switches, which might be common in the real world.

Objective: Our objective was to use episodic memory and executive function tests to determine whe... more Objective: Our objective was to use episodic memory and executive function tests to determine whether or not Chiari Malformation Type I (CM) patients experience cognitive dysfunction.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2008

One of the most robust findings in attention research is that the time to name a color is lengthe... more One of the most robust findings in attention research is that the time to name a color is lengthened markedly in the presence of an irrelevant word that spells a different color name: the Stroop effect. The Stroop effect is found even when the word is physically separated from the color, apparently indicating that words can be read outside the focus of spatial attention. The present study critically evaluated this claim. We employed several stringent measures within a Stroop paradigm to prevent participants from attending to the irrelevant words (e.g., limiting exposure duration to prevent attention capture). Nonetheless, residual Stroop effects were obtained for both color words and semantic associates (e.g., sky to blue). These data suggest that lexical processing can sometimes occur outside the focus of spatial attention.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2006

This study assessed whether or not the difficulty of task switching stems from previous inhibitio... more This study assessed whether or not the difficulty of task switching stems from previous inhibition of the task set. A predictable sequence of univalent stimuli (affording performance of one active task) and bivalent stimuli (affording performance of two tasks) was used in two experiments. Experiment 1 used an alternating-runs paradigm (AABB) and Experiment 2 used a strictly alternating sequence (ABAB). The critical variable was whether the incentive for task-set inhibition was strong (on bivalent trials) or weak (on univalent trials). The question was whether it would be more difficult to switch to a task that previously needed to be inhibited than to a task that did not need to be inhibited. This pattern was not observed in either experiment. Thus, the data provide no evidence that task switching is difficult because of the need to overcome recent task-set inhibition.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2007

Psychology and Aging, 2006

The present experiments examined the automaticity of word recognition. The authors examined wheth... more The present experiments examined the automaticity of word recognition. The authors examined whether people can recognize words while central attention is devoted to another task and how this ability changes across the life span. In Experiment 1, a lexical decision Task 2 was combined with either an auditory or a visual Task 1. Regardless of the Task 1 modality, Task 2 word recognition proceeded in parallel with Task 1 central operations for older adults but not for younger adults. This is a rare example of improved cognitive processing with advancing age. When Task 2 was nonlexical (Experiment 2), however, there was no evidence for greater parallel processing for older adults. Thus, the processing advantage appears to be restricted to lexical processes. The authors conclude that greater cumulative experience with lexical processing leads to greater automaticity, allowing older adults to more efficiently perform this stage in parallel with another task.

Psychology and Aging, 2011

The present study examined whether people become more susceptible to capture by salient objects a... more The present study examined whether people become more susceptible to capture by salient objects as they age. Participants searched a target display for a letter in a specific color and indicated its identity. In Experiment 1, this target display was preceded by a non-informative cue display containing one target-color box, one ignored-color box, and two white boxes. On half of the trials, this cue display also contained a salient-but-irrelevant abrupt onset. To assess capture by the target-color cue, we used the N2pc component of the event-related potential, thought to reflect attentional allocation to the left or right visual field. The target-color box in the cue display produced a substantial N2pc effect for younger adults and, most importantly, this effect was not diminished by the presence of an abrupt onset. Therefore, the abrupt onset was unable to capture attention away from the target-color cue. Critically, older adults demonstrated the same resistance to capture by the abrupt onset. Experiment 2 extended these findings to irrelevant color singleton cues. Thus, we argue that the ability to attend to relevant stimuli and resist capture by salient-but-irrelevant stimuli is preserved with advancing age.

Psychology and Aging, 2008

The present study tested the hypothesis that older adults establish a weaker task set than younge... more The present study tested the hypothesis that older adults establish a weaker task set than younger adults and therefore rely more on stimulus-triggered activation of task sets. This hypothesis predicts that older adults should have difficulty with task switches, especially when the stimuli-responses are associated with multiple, competing tasks. Weak task preparation, however, could actually benefit older adults when performing an unexpected task. The authors tested this prediction in Experiment 1 using a repeating AABB task sequence, with univalent and bivalent stimuli intermixed. On some univalent trials, participants received an unexpected task. Contrary to the authors' predictions, expectancy costs were not smaller for older adults. Similar findings were obtained in Experiments 2 and 3, in which the authors used a task-cueing paradigm to more strongly promote deliberate task preparation. The authors found no disproportionate age effects on switch costs but did find age effects on bivalence costs and mixing costs. The authors conclude that older adults do experience extra difficulty dealing with stimuli associated with 2 active tasks but found no evidence that the problem specifically stems from an increased reliance on bottom-up task activation rather than top-down task preparation.

Psychology and Aging, 2002

Two psychological refractory period (PRP) experiments were conducted to examine overlapping proce... more Two psychological refractory period (PRP) experiments were conducted to examine overlapping processing in younger and older adults. A shape discrimination task (triangle or rectangle) for Task 1 (T 1 ) and a lexical-decision task (word or nonword) for Task 2 (T 2 ) were used. PRP effects, response time for T 2 increasing as stimulus onset synchrony (SOA) decreased, were obtained for both age groups. The effect of word frequency on T 2 was smaller at the short SOA than at the long SOA, reflecting slack effects, which were larger for older than younger adults in both experiments. These results suggest that older adults can perform lexical access of T 2 in parallel with the processing of T 1 at least as efficiently as younger adults.

Psychological Research, 2007

It has been argued that the psychological refractory period (PRP) effect is eliminated with two i... more It has been argued that the psychological refractory period (PRP) effect is eliminated with two ideomotor compatible tasks when instructions stress fast and simultaneous responding. Three experiments were conducted to test this hypothesis. In all experiments, Task 1 required spatially compatible manual responses (left or right) to the direction of an arrow, and Task 2 required saying the name of the auditory letter A or B. In Experiments 1 and 3, the manual responses were keypresses made with the left and right hands, whereas in Experiment 2 they were left-right toggle-switch movements made with the dominant hand. Instructions that stressed response speed reduced reaction time and increased error rate compared to standard instructions to respond fast and accurately, but did not eliminate the PRP effect on Task 2 reaction time. These results imply that, even when response speed is emphasized, ideomotor compatible tasks do not bypass response selection.