Response latencies in short-term memory

This paper deals with the problem of the interpretation of response latencies in short-term memory. A paired-associate study using a probe technique was conducted with the main experimental variation the length of the recall interval (1, 2, or 4 sec.). While shortening the interval had a statistically significant effect on recall probability the interaction between recall interval and probe position was negligible. While traditionally response latency is considered a measure of associative strength, such an interpretation seems inappropriate here. As an alternative, latencies may reflect more criterion values than sensitivity as these measures are interpreted in signal-detection theory.     

Predicting naming latencies for action pictures: Dutch norms

The present study provides Dutch norms for age of acquisition, familiarity, imageability, image agreement, visual complexity, word frequency, and word length (in syllables) for 124 line drawings of actions. Ratings were obtained from 117 Dutch participants. Word frequency was determined on the basis of the SUBTLEX-NL corpus (Keuleers, Brysbaert, & New, Behavior Research Methods, 42, 643–650, 2010). For 104 of the pictures, naming latencies and name agreement were determined in a separate naming experiment with 74 native speakers of Dutch. The Dutch norms closely corresponded to the norms for British English. Multiple regression analysis showed that age of acquisition, imageability, image agreement, visual complexity, and name agreement were significant predictors of naming latencies, whereas word frequency and word length were not. Combined with the results of a principal-component analysis, these findings suggest that variables influencing the processes of conceptual preparation and lexical selection affect latencies more strongly than do variables influencing word-form encoding.     

Response latencies in human matching-to-sample

Optimum characterization of individual information-processing skills requires isolation of assessable components. In matching-to-sample, three elementary processes might be separated if a proposed model of serial, selfterminating search were supported: registration of the stimulus in short-term memory, comparison of the two registered stimuli, and execution of the identifying response. Support for the model was obtained when response latencies were examined as a function of left-to-right position of the target stimulus in a display, but quantitative estimates of components could not be made because of interactions between tasks and the linearity of the scanning process. A second experiment, which varied the number of comparison stimuli, yielded highly linear functions whose slopes and intercepts violated certain aspects of the model. Data on eye movements obtained in a third experiment again supported the basic model but indicated that median response latencies represent a confounding of optimal and suboptimal performances.     

Factors influencing the response latencies of subnormal children in naming pictures

The times taken to name 56 drawings of objects on five separate occasions were analysed for 21 ESN(M) and 21 ESN(S) children, matched for picture-naming vocabulary. The ESN(S) group not only had a higher mean response latency but also showed greater inter- and intra-subject variance. Nine objects were selected whose names have a Thorndike-Lorge language frequency of 50 words per million or greater, and nine others were selected with a frequency of less than 50 words per million. Each object was drawn in two ways, one giving a two-dimensional outline with the addition of important detail, the other drawing also incorporating cues indicating the depth of the object. An analysis of variance of the children's latencies in naming the selected 36 pictures of 18 objects over five trials indicated that the method of drawing had no effect upon naming latencies. Pictures with high-frequency names were named faster than those with lower frequency names, the ESN(S) group showing a greater rate of increase in naming latency for the lower frequency words than the ESN(M) children. Results were discussed in terms of the Oldfield and Lachman models of lexical memory storage and of the search processes required for the retrieval of names.     

Imagining and naming rotated natural objects

The present experiment examined whether subjects can form and store imagined objects in various orientations. Subjects in a training phase named line drawings of natural objects shown at six orientations, named objects shown upright, or imagined upright objects at six orientations. Time to imagine an upright object at another orientation increased the farther the designated orientation was from the upright, with faster image formation times at 180° than at 120°. Similar systematic patterns of effects of orientation on identification time were found for rotated objects. During the test phase, all subjects named the previously experienced objects as well as new objects, at six orientations. The orientation effect for old objects seen previously in a variety of orientations was much reduced relative to the orientation effect for new objects. In contrast, substantial effects of orientation on naming time were observed for old objects for subjects who had previously seen the objects upright only or upright but imagined at different orientations. The results suggest that the attenuation of initially large effects of orientation with practice cannot be due to imagining and forming representations of objects at a number of orientations.     

Parallel processing of objects in a naming task

The authors investigated whether speakers who named several objects processed them sequentially or in parallel. Speakers named object triplets, arranged in a triangle, in the order left, right, and bottom object. The left object was easy or difficult to identify and name. During the saccade from the left to the right object, the right object shown at trial onset (the interloper) was replaced by a new object (the target), which the speakers named. Interloper and target were identical or unrelated objects, or they were conceptually unrelated objects with the same name (e.g., bat [animal] and [baseball] bat). The mean duration of the gazes to the target was shorter when interloper and target were identical or had the same name than when they were unrelated. The facilitatory effects of identical and homophonous interlopers were significantly larger when the left object was easy to process than when it was difficult to process. This interaction demonstrates that the speakers processed the left and right objects in parallel.     

Competitor effects in naming objects and famous faces

The prior production of an alternative name increases the time taken to name a famous face. For example, naming a picture of the comedy actor “John Cleese” by the name of the character he played in the TV series Fawlty Towers (Basil Fawlty) increases the time required to subsequently produce the name “John Cleese”. This effect has been termed the “nominal competitor effect”. In contrast prior production of a property associated with a famous person has no effect on naming speed. For example, prior production of the name of the TV series Fawlty Towers does not slow subsequent production of “John Cleese”. The experiments reported explored analogous effects in object naming. Experiment 1 examined the effects of prior production of an alternative name (e.g., from American English or British English) and a semantic associate on the time taken to name line drawings of objects. It was found that prior production of an alternative name slowed object naming, but prior production of the name of a semantic associate did not. Experiment 2 demonstrated that cueing a specific name (e.g., the British English name) was not a necessary condition for the nominal competitor effect on object naming. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the nominal competitor effect on naming famous faces was also observed under both cued and uncued naming instructions. The data from both object and face naming are interpreted within the terms of current models of speech production.     

Phonographic neighbors,not orthographic neighbors,determine word naming latencies

The orthographic neighborhood size (N) of a word—the number of words that can be formed from that word by replacing one letter with another in its place—has been found to have facilitatory effects in word naming. The orthographic neighborhood hypothesis attributes this facilitation to interactive effects. A phonographic neighborhood hypothesis, in contrast, attributes the effect to lexical print-sound conversion. According to the phonographic neighborhood hypothesis, phonographic neighbors (words differing in one letter and one phoneme, e.g., stove and stone) should facilitate naming, and other orthographic neighbors (e.g., stove and shove) should not. The predictions of these two hypotheses are tested. Unique facilitatory phonographic N effects were found in four sets of word naming mega-study data, along with an absence of facilitatory orthographic N effects. These results implicate print-sound conversion—based on consistent phonology—in neighborhood effects rather than word-letter feedback.     

Processing of extrafoveal objects during multiple-object naming

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated the extent to which objects that are about to be named are processed prior to fixation. Participants named pairs or triplets of objects. One of the objects, initially seen extrafoveally (the interloper), was replaced by a different object (the target) during the saccade toward it. The interloper-target pairs were identical or unrelated objects or visually and conceptually unrelated objects with homophonous names (e.g., animal- baseball bat). The mean latencies and gaze durations for the targets were shorter in the identity and homophone conditions than in the unrelated condition. This was true when participants viewed a fixation mark until the interloper appeared and when they fixated on another object and prepared to name it while viewing the interloper. These results imply that objects that are about to be named may undergo far-reaching processing, including access to their names, prior to fixation.     

Phonological priming effects on speech onset latencies and viewing times in object naming

An earlier experiment (Meyer, Sleiderink, & Levelt, 1998) had shown that speakers naming object pairs usually inspected the objects in the required order of mention (left object first) and that the viewing time for the left object depended on the word frequency of its name. In the present experiment, object pairs were presented simultaneously with auditory distractor words that could be phonologically related or unrelated to the name of the object to be named first. The speech onset latencies and the viewing times for that object were shorter after related distractors than after unrelated distractors. Since this phonological priming effect, like the word frequency effect, most likely arises during wordform retrieval, we conclude that the shift of gaze from the first to the second object is initiated after the word form of the first object’s name has been accessed.     

Response amendment latencies during discrete arm movements

Examinations of the ability to rapidly modify ongoing movements have found that amendment latencies are shorter when a visual stimulus specifies an increase in movement velocity as compared to when a movement reversal is required. Our present study examined the hypothesis that amendment latencies for both continue and reverse instructions are dependent on the muscle activation state when the amendment is produced. Visual stimuli representing continue and reverse instructions wer represented at four different phases of a discrete arm movement, with amendment latencies measured to modified electromyographic (EMG) patterns. Amendment latencies for the continue instruction were shortest when the stimulus was presented early in the movement and increased when the stimulus was presented later in the response. The opposite trend was true for the reversal condition with long latencies occurring when the stimulus was presented early in the movement. Our findings support the notion that amendment latencies are directly related to the active state of the motor system when the modification is required, and the nature of the amendment to be generated.     

Response latencies of rats during behavioral thermoregulation

The cutaneous thermal stimulation that elicits behavioral thermoregulatory behavior was investigated in these experiments. In Experiment I, rats were placed in a cool environment and allowed to barpress for 3-sec bursts of radiant heat reinforcement. In various phases of the study, rats could earn different intensities of anterior, posterior, or whole-body radiation. Identical response rates were exhibited at each intensity for all exposure conditions; this information, when considered with existing literature on behavioral and neurophysiological studies, suggests that the rat’s thermoregulatory behavior depends on information carried by nonmyelinated fibers that supply thermoreceptors in the skin. Experiment II investigated the hypothesis that cooling of the skin is the stimulus that elicits each thermoregulatory response. Time series measures of skin temperature fluctuations and reaction times (RTs) were obtained. Tails of the RT distributions were shown to conform to exponential probability density functions, and mean RT varied linearly over the domain of reinforcement intensities used. A computer simulation model that describes temperature gradients across layers of skin was employed to estimate temperature fluctuations at the level of the cool receptors. Comparison of simulated skin temperatures with obtained RTs suggests that momentary thermoregulatory behavior is controlled mainly by cooling skin temperature.     

Seriality of phonological encoding in naming objects and reading their names

There is a remarkable lack of research bringing together the literatures on oral reading and speaking. As concerns phonological encoding, both models of reading and speaking assume a process of segmental spellout for words, which is followed by serial prosodification in models of speaking (e.g., Levelt, Roelofs, & Meyer, 1999). Thus, a natural place to merge models of reading and speaking would be at the level of segmental spellout. This view predicts similar seriality effects in reading and object naming. Experiment 1 showed that the seriality of encoding inside a syllable revealed in previous studies of speaking is observed for both naming objects and reading their names. Experiment 2 showed that both object naming and reading exhibit the seriality of the encoding of successive syllables previously observed for speaking. Experiment 3 showed that the seriality is also observed when object naming and reading trials are mixed rather than tested separately, as in the first two experiments. These results suggest that a serial phonological encoding mechanism is shared between naming objects and reading their names.     

Response latencies and the computerized assessment of intelligence

A study was undertaken to examine the relationship between response latencies to verbal ability test items administered by computer and overall verbal intelligence test scores. Sixty-four undergraduate students responded to a test of verbal ability under four conditions of alternate test forms (A or B) and modes of administration (computerized vs paper-and-pencil). The response latencies recorded during computerized testing, averaged for each subject, showed a negative correlation with overall test scores as would be predicted from a speed-of-information-processing perspective of human intelligence (Jensen, 1982a, b; Vernon, 1983). This inverse relationship was evident in every condition of test form and mode of administration, thereby demonstrating the generalizability of these findings. Discussion considered the implications of test speededness for the results of this study and provided suggestions for future research employing response latency data as a means for studying the cognitive processes underlying intelligent behaviour.     

Some effects of color on naming and recognition of objects

In this article, we investigated the role of color in the recognition and naming of everyday objects. In the first experiment we found that color pictures were named faster than black-and-white and that shape information did not facilitate color naming. Experiment 2 was carried out to determine at which stage of object processing the color facilitation occurred. We found that color had no effect on object recognition but did facilitate object naming, even when color was redundant for discrimination. This did not apply to naming abstract shapes. Experiment 3 replicated the findings of Experiment 2 using different objects and colors. The results showed that color could facilitate but not inhibit object naming and did not affect object recognition.     

Sound symbolic naming of novel objects is a graded function

Although linguistic traditions of the last century assumed that there is no link between sound and meaning (i.e., arbitrariness), recent research has established a nonarbitrary relation between sound and meaning (i.e., sound symbolism). For example, some sounds (e.g., /u/ as in took) suggest bigness whereas others (e.g., /i/ as in tiny) suggest smallness. We tested whether sound symbolism only marks contrasts (e.g., small versus big things) or whether it marks object properties in a graded manner (e.g., small, medium, and large things). In two experiments, participants viewed novel objects (i.e., greebles) of varying size and chose the most appropriate name for each object from a list of visually or auditorily presented nonwords that varied incrementally in the number of “large” and “small” phonemes. For instance, “wodolo” contains all large-sounding phonemes, whereas “kitete” contains all small-sounding phonemes. Participants' choices revealed a graded relationship between sound and size: The size of the object linearly predicted the number of large-sounding phonemes in its preferred name. That is, small, medium, and large objects elicited names with increasing numbers of large-sounding phonemes. The results are discussed in relation to cross-modal processing, gesture, and vocal pitch.     

Sound symbolic naming of novel objects is a graded function

Although linguistic traditions of the last century assumed that there is no link between sound and meaning (i.e., arbitrariness), recent research has established a nonarbitrary relation between sound and meaning (i.e., sound symbolism). For example, some sounds (e.g., /u/ as in took) suggest bigness whereas others (e.g., /i/ as in tiny) suggest smallness. We tested whether sound symbolism only marks contrasts (e.g., small versus big things) or whether it marks object properties in a graded manner (e.g., small, medium, and large things). In two experiments, participants viewed novel objects (i.e., greebles) of varying size and chose the most appropriate name for each object from a list of visually or auditorily presented nonwords that varied incrementally in the number of "large" and "small" phonemes. For instance, "wodolo" contains all large-sounding phonemes, whereas "kitete" contains all small-sounding phonemes. Participants' choices revealed a graded relationship between sound and size: The size of the object linearly predicted the number of large-sounding phonemes in its preferred name. That is, small, medium, and large objects elicited names with increasing numbers of large-sounding phonemes. The results are discussed in relation to cross-modal processing, gesture, and vocal pitch.     

Slow categorization but fast naming for photographs of manipulable objects

Previous research investigating the influence of object manipulability (the properties of objects that make them appropriate for manual action) on object identification has not tightly controlled for effects of both object familiarity and age of acquisition of objects. The current research carefully controlled these two variables on a balanced set of 120 photographs and showed significant effects of object manipulability during object categorization (Experiment 1) and object naming (Experiment 2). Critically, the effects showed a manipulability-effect reversal, with faster categorization of non-manipulable objects, but faster naming of manipulable objects, suggesting that task moderates the direction of the manipulability effect. Exposure duration (the amount of time the object was visible to participants) was also investigated, but no interactions between exposure duration and manipulability were found. These results indicate that not only can manipulability influence object identification, but the way in which it does depends on the task.