Reviews & Analysis

Environments shape reward learning, which can result in individual differences in behaviour. In this Perspective, Nussenbaum and Hartley consider the development of reward learning through the lens of meta-learning models, in particular meta-reinforcement learning.

Experiences of objects and features are biased to appear more like previously seen stimuli than they really are. In this Perspective, Manassi and Whitney describe this phenomenon of positive serial dependence and propose continuity fields as the underlying mechanism.

Theories of how human cognition differs from that of non-human animals often posit domain-specific advantages. In this Perspective, Cantlon and Piantadosi posit that differences in domain-general information capacity underlie uniquely human capacities.

Off-job recovery and optimal work motivation are vital for reducing or avoiding work stress and promoting occupational health and work performance. In this Perspective, Kujanpää and Olafsen propose a dual-pathway model of proactive recovery strategies that delineates how individuals can self-manage their off-job time through proactive recovery strategies to optimize motivation across life domains.

Visual temporal attention involves the prioritization of certain points in time at the expense of others. In this Review, Denison synthesizes experimental results and computational models of voluntary temporal attention and distinguishes it from related phenomena.

Personality is relatively stable over long timescales but remains malleable to some degree. In this Review, Jackson and Wright examine the mechanisms responsible for intentional and naturally occurring change as well as mechanisms that promote stability, thereby limiting potential change.

Focal neuromodulation approaches are promising therapeutic options for challenging-to-treat neurological and psychiatric symptoms, but might indirectly or directly affect cognition. In this Review, Rabin et al. describe the cognitive effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation, deep brain stimulation and ablative techniques.

Sounds are generated by interactions between objects in the world. In this Review, Winkler and Denham describe how representations of sources and actions enable humans to segment complex auditory experience into meaningful units.

Social emotions such as guilt and gratitude serve adaptive functions critical to social interactions and relationships. In this Perspective, Yu and colleagues argue that to advance a mechanistic understanding of social emotions, an integrative approach is needed that considers goals and functions, cognitive operations and biological implementation.

A sense of belonging can provide LGBTQ+ people with the opportunity to thrive and promote psychological well-being. In this Review, Matsick et al. summarize factors that influence belonging based on sexual orientation and gender diversity using a multi-pronged approach.

Visual memory has traditionally been thought of as all-or-none, with items remembered perfectly or completely forgotten. In this Review, Brady and colleagues synthesize work that indicates that visual memory representations in working memory and long-term memory are not all-or-none but are instead noisy and hierarchical.

People frequently use their own minds as a point of departure when generating inferences about the minds of others, and such self-referential information often persists in biasing social inferences. In this Review, Todd and Tamir discuss features that amplify and attenuate egocentrism during mentalizing.

Impairments in social cognition are typical in schizophrenia–bipolar spectrum disorders. In this Review, Lewandowski and colleagues characterize impairments across social cognitive domains and illness phases including links with community functioning, and make recommendations for assessment and intervention.

Humans organize the visual world into meaningful perceptual objects. In this Review, Ayzenberg and Behrmann examine the maturation of object recognition from infancy through childhood and describe how children’s environments and visual capabilities shape early object recognition.

Studies of the effect of sleep on learning and memory sometimes reveal conflicting or unreliable results. In this Perspective, Nemeth and colleagues review methodological challenges and make recommendations for improving the reliability of research in this field.

The p-factor is a construct that is thought to explain and perhaps cause variation in all forms of psychopathology. In this Perspective, Watts et al. outline theoretical and statistical challenges in the p-factor literature that raise questions about whether general factors of psychopathology are useful summaries of psychopathology variation.

Some researchers equate insight with cognitive restructuring processes that occur when solvers reinterpret the problem, whereas others equate insight with phenomenological Aha! experiences that accompany solutions. In this Review, Wiley and Danek summarize both approaches to insight problem solving and consider the extent to which Aha! experiences co-occur with restructuring.

Laypeople tend to believe that self-esteem influences the quality of relationships, but the empirical evidence is mixed. In this Review, Wood et al. summarize the current state of evidence for simple direct effects, propose that self-esteem is best understood as influencing relationships indirectly through a causal chain of mediators, and review evidence for such mediators.

Humans can rapidly and accurately recognize visual scenes and objects within them. In this Review, Peelen and colleagues discuss bidirectional interactions between object and scene processing and the role of predictive processing in visual inference.

Autistic individuals and people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders share traits and behaviours, which can interfere with diagnosis and treatment. In this Review, Schalbroeck and colleagues describe the shared and unique clinical and neuropsychological features of each condition and discuss clinical implications.