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1. EXAMINING THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN NEAR AND FAR DESIGN STIMULI

   https://doi.org/10.1017/pds.2023.173  

   Kwon, Elisa; Goucher-Lambert, Kosa (July 2023, Proceedings of the Design Society)

   Abstract External sources of inspiration can promote the discovery of new ideas as designers ideate on a design task. Data-driven techniques can increasingly enable the retrieval of inspirational stimuli based on nontext-based representations, beyond semantic features of stimuli. However, there is a lack of fundamental understanding regarding how humans evaluate similarity between non-semantic design stimuli (e.g., visual). Toward this aim, this work examines human-evaluated and computationally derived representations of visual and functional similarities of 3D-model parts. A study was conducted where participants (n=36) assessed triplet ratings of parts and categorized these parts into groups. Similarity is defined by distances within embedding spaces constructed using triplet ratings and deep-learning methods, representing human and computational representations. Distances between stimuli that are grouped together (or not) are determined to understand how various methods and criteria used to define non-text-based similarity align with perceptions of 'near' and 'far'. Distinct boundaries in computed distances separating stimuli that are 'too far' were observed, which include farther stimuli when modeling visual vs. functional attributes. 

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2. Paper wasps form abstract concept of ‘same and different’

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1156  

   Weise, Chloe; Ortiz, Christian Cely; Tibbetts, Elizabeth A. (July 2022, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)

   Concept formation requires animals to learn and use abstract rules that transcend the characteristics of specific stimuli. Abstract concepts are often associated with high levels of cognitive sophistication, so there has been much interest in which species can form and use concepts. A key abstract concept is that of sameness and difference, where stimuli are classified as eitherthe same asordifferent thanan original stimulus. Here, we used a simultaneous two-item same-different task to test whether paper wasps (Polistes fuscatus)can learn and apply a same-different concept. We trained wasps by simultaneously presenting pairs ofsameordifferentstimuli (e.g. colours). Then, we tested whether wasps could apply the concept to new stimuli of the same type (e.g. new colours) and to new stimulus types (e.g. odours). We show that wasps learned a general concept ofsamenessordifferenceand applied it to new samples and types of stimuli. Notably, wasps were able to transfer the learned rules to new stimuli in a different sensory modality. Therefore,P. fuscatuscan classify stimuli based on their relationships and apply abstract concepts to novel stimulus types. These results indicate that abstract concept learning may be more widespread than previously thought. 

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3. Switching in harmony: Tailoring the properties of functional materials with orthogonal stimuli

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0189069  

   Thaggard, Grace C.; Maldeni Kankanamalage, Buddhima K.; Park, Kyoung Chul; Haimerl, Johanna; Fischer, Roland A.; Shustova, Natalia B. (March 2024, Chemical Physics Reviews)

   Bridging the current gap between the precision and efficiency demonstrated by natural systems and synthetic materials requires interfacing and independently controlling multiple stimuli-responsive building blocks in a single platform. The mentioned orthogonal control over material properties (i.e., the ability to selectively activate one stimuli-responsive moiety without affecting another) could pave the way for a multitude of applications, including logic-gated optoelectronics, on-demand drug delivery platforms, and molecular shuttles, for example. In this Review, we highlight the recent successful strategies to achieve orthogonal control over material properties using a combination of stimuli-responsive building blocks and multiple independent stimuli. We begin by surveying the fundamental studies of multi-stimuli-responsive systems, which utilize a variety of stimuli to activate a single stimuli-responsive moiety (e.g., spiropyran, diarylethene, or dihydroazulene derivatives), because these studies lay the foundation for the design of systems containing more than one independently controlled fragment. As a next step, we overview the emerging field focusing on systems which are composed of more than one unique stimuli-responsive unit that can respond to independent stimuli, including distinct excitation wavelengths, or a combination of light, heat, pH, potential, or ionic strength. Recent advances clearly demonstrate how strategic coupling of orthogonally controlled stimuli-responsive units can allow for selective modulation of a range of material properties, such as conductivity, catalytic performance, and biological activity. Thus, the highlighted studies foreshadow the emerging role of materials with orthogonally controlled properties to impact the next generation of photopharmacology, nanotechnology, optoelectronics, and biomimetics. 

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4. Meaningfulness and Familiarity Expand Visual Working Memory Capacity

   https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214241262334  

   Chung, Yong_Hoon; Brady, Timothy_F; Störmer, Viola_S (August 2024, Current Directions in Psychological Science)

   Visual working memory is traditionally studied using abstract, meaningless stimuli. Although studies using such simplified stimuli have been insightful in understanding the mechanisms of visual working memory, they also potentially limit our ability to understand how people encode and store conceptually rich and meaningful stimuli in the real world. Recent studies have demonstrated that meaningful and familiar visual stimuli that connect to existing knowledge are better remembered than abstract colors or shapes, indicating that meaning can unlock additional working memory capacity. These findings challenge current models of visual working memory and suggest that its capacity is not fixed but depends on the type of information that is being remembered and, in particular, how that information connects to preexisting knowledge. 

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5. Naturalistic Audio-Movies reveal common spatial organization across “visual” cortices of different blind individuals

   https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhac048  

   Musz, Elizabeth; Loiotile, Rita; Chen, Janice; Bedny, Marina (February 2022, Cerebral Cortex)

   Abstract Occipital cortices of different sighted people contain analogous maps of visual information (e.g. foveal vs. peripheral). In congenital blindness, “visual” cortices respond to nonvisual stimuli. Do visual cortices of different blind people represent common informational maps? We leverage naturalistic stimuli and inter-subject pattern similarity analysis to address this question. Blindfolded sighted (n = 22) and congenitally blind (n = 22) participants listened to 6 sound clips (5–7 min each): 3 auditory excerpts from movies; a naturalistic spoken narrative; and matched degraded auditory stimuli (Backwards Speech, scrambled sentences), during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. We compared the spatial activity patterns evoked by each unique 10-s segment of the different auditory excerpts across blind and sighted people. Segments of meaningful naturalistic stimuli produced distinctive activity patterns in frontotemporal networks that were shared across blind and across sighted individuals. In the blind group only, segment-specific, cross-subject patterns emerged in visual cortex, but only for meaningful naturalistic stimuli and not Backwards Speech. Spatial patterns of activity within visual cortices are sensitive to time-varying information in meaningful naturalistic auditory stimuli in a broadly similar manner across blind individuals. 

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