Effects of task difficulty on subsequent preference for visual complexity.

Ss rated on a 1 to 13 Likert scale their preference for four environmental scenes which differed in complexity. Ss were then given 30 sec. to solve each of 10 3-, 5-, or 7-letter single-solution anagrams. Finally the Ss rated four new slides which were of the same complexity level as the slides seen during the first session. Change scores were calculated by subtracting the preference ratings at each complexity level during the first session from the rating at the corresponding complexity level during the second session. The Anagram Complexity X Slide Complexity interaction was significant: the complexity of the slides showing the most positive change scores was inversely related to the complexity of the anagrams attempted. The results were discussed in terms of optimal level of stimulation theories.     

Amount of stimulus exploration and preference as differential functions of stimulus complexity

Two sets of photographic slides, one made up of scenes from the geographic environment, the other of works of non-representational modern art, were scaled for complexity by obtaining judges’ ratings of amount of variation present on several specified stimulus attributes. Fourteen slides defining a sevenpoint scale of complexity were selected from each set and given to college students to obtain measures of (a) amount of exploratory behavior (number of times S chose to expose each slide briefly), and (b) preference (evaluative ratings on a seven-point scale). In accordance with prediction, the former measure emerged as a linearly increasing function of complexity, while the relationship between complexity and preference was curvilinear, reaching a maximum at an intermediate level of complexity. The results are related to Berlyne’s distinction between specific and diversive stimulus exploration, and implications for the study of aesthetics are discussed.     

Observing behavior in the albino rat: a within-subjects' comparison of increasing levels of visual complexity.

54 male CD strain Charles River albino rats were tested for complexity preference using a non-locomotor response. Each subject was presented an array of photographic slides containing an incremental series of complexity elements, i.e., 1, 2, 5 and 25 elements. All photographic slides were randomized both within and across subjects. Each photographic slide of each level of complexity was repeated three times. Results of an analysis of covariance, with luminance as the covariate, showed that cummulative viewing time increased with an increase in stimulus complexity. The relationship between looking and level of complexity was shown to be different when covariance procedures were used than without them.     

Spatial complexity in children's language

The purpose of this research was to explore the properties of locative scenes which influence the sequence of the acquisition of spatial prepositions in English. Children ranging in age from about 2;8 to 5;6 were tested with a comprehension test involving a sentence-picture matching task. The comprehension test contained six kinds of spatial contrasts which were judged to vary in the geometric complexity of the scene. The order of acquisition was as follows: (1) into/out of & onto/off of, (2) in/on, (3) into/onto & out of/off of and through/over (around), (4) between X & Y/Y & Z, and (5) across/along. Complexity depends on a number of factors such as the number of referent objects and the nature of the relationship between the object to be located and the critical feature of the referent object. Prepositions which involve a more complex spatial geometry are more difficult for young children to comprehend. It was argued that the sequence of acquisition is partially determined by the course of conceptual development.     

The Motive for Sensory Pleasure: Enjoyment of Nature and Its Representation in Painting,Music, and Literature

ABSTRACT Eight studies assessed the motive for sensory pleasure (MSP) involving a general disposition to enjoy and pursue pleasant nature‐related experiences and avoid unpleasant nature‐related experiences. The stated enjoyment of pleasant sights, smells, sounds, and tactile sensations formed a unitary construct that was distinct from sensation seeking, novelty preference, and need for cognition. MSP was found to be related to (a) enjoyment of pleasant nature scenes and music of high but not low clarity; (b) enjoyment of writings that portrayed highly detailed nature scenes; (c) enjoyment of pleasantly themed paintings and dislike of unpleasant paintings, as distinct from findings with Openness to Experience; (d) choice of pleasant nature scenes over exciting or intellectually stimulating scenes; (e) view duration and memory of artistically rendered quilts; (f) interest in detailed information about nature scenes; and (g) frequency of sensory‐type suggestions for improvement of a museum exhibit.     

Assessment of sexual preference using a choice reaction time task

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of a choice reaction time task, during which slides of sexually explicit and neutral stimuli were used as an interference task, to differentiate between groups of individuals on the basis of their sexual preference. Twenty subjects, in each of the four groups (heterosexual males, heterosexual females, homosexual males, and homosexual females), participated in this study. Sexual orientation was determined by self-report. Subjects were given a choice reaction time with interference task, followed by a recall incidental learning task. A significant higher-order interaction was found among gender, orientation, and stimulus type for all four groups. This interaction indicated a longer reaction time to slides depicting preferred sexual partners than to nonpreferred sexual partners or neutral scenes. These results indicate that sexual arousal does interfere with cognitive processing. A main effect for gender was found for the incidental learning task, with males having the fewest errors.     

RECOGNISING CITY SCENES: A TEST OF MILGRAM'S FORMULA

Milgram et al. (1972) proposed the formula R = f(C X D) for the recognition of city scenes where R = Recognition, C = Centrality to the population flow and D = architectural or social distinctiveness. In this paper a slight modification to this formula was suggested. The centrality concept was replaced by the more adequate one of familiarity and an empirical test of the proposition was carried out. Fifty-four scenes of urban Adelaide, South Australia were chosen using the two techniques of fixed distance sampling along major roads and equivalent representation sampling from the entire urban area. High School students (N = 41) and University Students (N = 31) were shown colour slides and ratings were obtained for recognition and distinctiveness. Familiarity was assessed using frequency of travel patterns. Multiple regression analyses showed that frequency of encounter was the only significant predictor variable in the younger High School sample, but distinctiveness and frequency were both significant for the University sample. A possible explanation for this difference in terms of car usage is outlined and some critical comments on the distinctiveness concept are presented.     

A developmental analysis of the relationship between hand preference and performance: I. Preferential reaching into hemispace

The present study describes a developmental performance measure of hand preference that considers task complexity and position in hemispace. Eighty right-handed children and adults (ages 3-4, 6-7, 9-10, 18-24) were observed for hand selection responses to 2 unimanual tasks (simple vs complex) across positions in hemispace. Results revealed an age-related trend in the tendency to use the preferred hand in right and left hemispace. While the adult's and 3- to 4-year-old's preferred hand use decreased as they moved into left hemispace, children between the ages of 6 and 10 years tended to use their preferred hands consistently throughout both regions of hemispace. The relationship between hand preference and skilled, cost-efficient performance throughout development are discussed.     

Creativity,preference for complexity,and physical and mental illness

Mental illness might be associated with creative achievement among highly functioning people, but with the mentally ill or with ordinary people, there might be a negative relationship. In Study 1, two measures of creativity (preference for complexity and writing stories rated for creativity) were administered to 37 psychotics. The psychotics were found to be less creative than the control group. Study 2 investigated physical illness and its effects on preference for complexity. People (N=80) diagnosed as having influenza decreased in preference for complexity, suggesting a decline in creativity. However, no significant results occurred with regard to complexity preference and diabetes or genital herpes. The results suggest that physical or mental illness may decrease creativity.     

Interests and Leadership among Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether there is a differential relationship in the socialization of children with respect to gender identification when responses of children were examined with respect to race and sex (N = 596 fifth and sixth grade boys and girls). Strong father preference was found to have no effect on the choice a boy will make when choosing between male and female peers, during preadolescence, while a strong mother preference by a girl is related to the sex of the peers she chooses. Preadolescent girls who identify with their mothers chose girls with whom to interact in a variety of activities more frequently than they chose boys. A greater proportion of girls preferred to engage in activities with their mothers than boys preferred to engage in activities with their fathers. No differences were observed between racial groups in terms of girls' choices involving peers. Black boys, however, preferred to engage in activities with opposite-sex rather than same-sex peers to a greater extent than white boys.     

The Aesthetic Preference for Nature Sounds Depends on Sound Object Recognition

People across the world seek out beautiful sounds in nature, such as a babbling brook or a nightingale song, for positive human experiences. However, it is unclear whether this positive aesthetic response is driven by a preference for the perceptual features typical of nature sounds versus a higher‐order association of nature with beauty. To test these hypotheses, participants provided aesthetic judgments for nature and urban soundscapes that varied on ease of recognition. Results demonstrated that the aesthetic preference for nature soundscapes was eliminated for the sounds hardest to recognize, and moreover the relationship between aesthetic ratings and several measured acoustic features significantly changed as a function of recognition. In a follow‐up experiment, requiring participants to classify these difficult‐to‐identify sounds into nature or urban categories resulted in a robust preference for nature sounds and a relationship between aesthetic ratings and our measured acoustic features that was more typical of easy‐to‐identify sounds. This pattern of results was replicated with computer‐generated artificial noises, which acoustically shared properties with the nature and urban soundscapes but by definition did not come from these environments. Taken together, these results support the conclusion that the recognition of a sound as either natural or urban dynamically organizes the relationship between aesthetic preference and perceptual features and that these preferences are not inherent to the acoustic features. Implications for nature's role in cognitive and affective restoration are discussed.     

Pro-environmental attitudes,pro-environmental behaviours and nature-relatedness: Differences based on place preference

IntroductionThis study explored whether place preference, an individual's relationship with place, differentiated people on pro-environmental attitudes, nature-relatedness and pro-environmental behavior.ObjectiveThe aim was to provide a way to segment people and potentially inform behavior change messaging strategies targeting pro-environmental action.MethodOnline participants reported an urban/nature place preference, completed a sense of place measure in reference to this categorisation, followed by counter-balanced nature-relatedness, pro-environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviour measures.ResultsParticipants reported moderate-to-high levels of sense of place generally and place attachment specifically. Positive associations between sense of place, nature relatedness, pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours existed; but differed by place preference. Correlations were positive in the nature preference group but negative or non-significant in the urban preference group. Individuals with a nature preference reported higher nature-relatedness, pro-environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behavior.ConclusionThe results suggest place preference can discriminate individuals on a range of pro-environmental concepts and may have potential for behavior change strategies targeting these outcomes.     

The Relationship Between Attitudinal and Behavioral Measures of Sex Preference

This study examined the relationship between an attitudal and a behavioral measure of sex preference for offspring. In addition to looking at the relationship between these measures, their relationship to other variables was also investigated. Pregnant women and their spouses (N = 56) responded to a questionnaire measure of sex preference, a behavioral measure of sex preference, Bern's Sex Role Inventory, and the Attitudes Towards Women Scale. The behavioral and questionnaire measures of sex preference were significantly related, indicating that in the area of preferred sex of firstborn children, attitudinal measures appear to be highly related to behavioral measures. Contrary to prediction, androgynous and nonandrogyn-ous persons did not differ significantly on preferred sex of child. However, persons with a more positive attitude toward women's movement ideology showed significantly less male preference than persons with less positive attitudes toward women's movement ideology.     

Confounds in pictorial sets: The role of complexity and familiarity in basic-level picture processing

Complexity is conventionally defined as the level of detail or intricacy contained within a picture. The study of complexity has received relatively little attention-in part, because of the absence of an acceptable metric. Traditionally, normative ratings of complexity have been based on human judgments. However, this study demonstrates that published norms for visual complexity are biased. Familiarity and learning influence the subjective complexity scores for nonsense shapes, with a significant training x familiarity interaction [F(1,52) = 17.53, p < .05]. Several image-processing techniques were explored as alternative measures of picture and image complexity. A perimeter detection measure correlates strongly with human judgments of the complexity of line drawings of real-world objects and nonsense shapes and captures some of the processes important in judgments of subjective complexity, while removing the bias due to familiarity effects.     

Panic-relevant predictability preferences: a laboratory test

In the present investigation the authors evaluated the role of verbally instructed safety periods as they relate to predictability preference within a single-session challenge paradigm involving recurrent administrations of 20% carbon dioxide (CO-sub-2) enriched air. Participants included 160 nonclinical young adults (91 women, 69 men) between the ages of 18 and 59 (M=21.6 years; SD=7.23). Results indicated that equivalent levels of anxiety were experienced during predictable and unpredictable administrations of 20% CO-sub-2, yet participants preferred predictable compared with unpredictable trials, with women showing a stronger predictability preference than men. Lower anxiety was reported during known safety periods (predictable room air trials) but not during predictable compared with unpredictable administrations of 20% CO-sub-2. Findings are discussed in relation to theoretical and applied implications for the role of predictability in the nature of anxiety and its disorders.     

Projector slide changing and focusing as operant reinforcers

Uninstructed subjects choose to view, in sharp focus where possible, projected visual images in preference to various simpler auditory and visual stimuli (e.g., buzzers of flashing lights). The rate of responding on the lever rapidly increased above the operant level (projector inoperative) even though the stimuli were nonsense syllables. When focusing also was made contingent on responses, the subjects promptly started sharpening the focus of legible but blurred nonsense syllables. When the visual material was colored landscape scenes, the rates of slide-changing generally decreased, because of increased viewing time relative to the nonsense syllables, at the same time that the latencies of focusing decreased. Both the sharpness of focus and the total time spent with the image in sharp focus increased greatly with the colored slides, establishing that the subjects were under control of the stimulus events. Extinction of both responses occurred very rapidly when the controls became inoperative.     

Framing Effects: Dynamics and Task Domains

The author examines the mechanisms and dynamics of framing effects in risky choices across three distinct task domains (i.e., life–death, public property, and personal money). The choice outcomes of the problems presented in each of the three task domains had a binary structure of a sure thing vs a gamble of equal expected value; the outcomes differed in their framing conditions and the expected values, raging from 6000, 600, 60, to 6, numerically. It was hypothesized that subjects would become more risk seeking, if the sure outcome was below their aspiration level (the minimum requirement). As predicted, more subjects preferred the gamble when facing the life–death choice problems than facing the counterpart problems presented in the other two task domains. Subjects’ risk preference varied categorically along the group size dimension in the life–death domain but changed more linearly over the expected value dimension in the monetary domain. Framing effects were observed in 7 of 13 pairs of problems, showing a positive frame–risk aversion and negative frame–risk seeking relationship. In addition, two types of framing effects were theoretically defined and empirically identified. Abidirectional framing effectinvolves a reversal in risk preference, and occurs when a decision maker's risk preference is ambiguous or weak. Four bidirectional effects were observed; in each case a majority of subjects preferred the sure outcome under a positive frame but the gamble under a negative frame. In contrast, aunidirectional framing effectrefers to a preference shift due to the framing of choice outcomes: A majority of subjects preferred one choice outcome (either the sure thing or the gamble) under both framing conditions, with positive frame augmented the preference for the sure thing and negative frame augmented the preference for the gamble. These findings revealed some dynamic regularities of framing effects and posed implications for developing predictive and testable models of human decision making.     

Complexity-simplicity,symmetry-asymmetry,and sociometric choice

In order to study the interrelationships associated with shape preference, 30 undergraduate Ss made complexity-simplicity and symmetry-asymmetry choices, and also made sociometric choices of others as well as predicting the sociometric choices of others. Ss who preferred complexity tended to choose Ss who preferred symmetry, which was interpreted as complementary choice. Other findings suggest that complexity and asymmetry are not identical, although there is some relationship between the two.     

Effects of test sequence on anterograde and retrograde impairment of negative emotional scenes1

Abstract: The present study examined recognition for sequences of scenes depicting emotional compared with neutral events. In two experiments, participants were presented with a thematic series of 18 slides of scenes in which the content of two critical scenes in the middle of the series were either emotional (dead men's bodies) or neutral (an opera). A two‐item, forced‐choice recognition paradigm was used to test participants’ immediate memory performance of all 18 slides of scenes. In Experiment 1, anterograde and retrograde amnesic effects were observed for the emotional, but not the neutral scenes when a test sequence of scenes was used that did not match the original presentation order. In contrast, in Experiment 2 the test sequence matched the order seen during the original presentation, and both the anterograde and retrograde amnesic effects were not found. These results indicate that the reinstatement of the original event context is an important factor for the recognition of negative emotional memories.     

Repeated exposure to objects and peers in a play setting

Two hypotheses were contrasted. One posed a positive relationship between mere repeated exposure and preference for stimulus of concern; the other predicted that preference for stimuli would be modulated by their relative novelty and complexity. These hypotheses were tested within the context of a naturalistic play situation in which 40 4- to 5-year-old children were repeatedly exposed to and interacted with play settings differing in complexity. Overt preference for play objects declined with repeated exposure, the rate of decline being inversely determined by the complexity of the play stimuli. Preference for peers, however, increased as a function of repeated exposure, with the amount of increase being an inverse function of the complexity of the external setting.