Do top and bottom contribute to object perception more than left and right?

To examine whether the top–bottom axis has an inherent advantage in object perception over the left–right one, three experiments were conducted. In all of them, on each trial one of two alternative stimuli, identical in shape but opposite in direction (viz, related by reflection), was presented. Both reflection about the vertical axis and reflection about the horizontal axis were applied, in different blocks. In Experiment 1, objects with an orientation-free definition (arrows, incomplete squares) were presented. Subjects were to respond when the stimulus pointed in a specific direction, and to refrain from responding when it was reflected, namely pointed in the opposite direction. Axis of reflection (vertical, horizontal) was varied between blocks. In Experiment 2, the object was a Hebrew character asymmetric on both axes, presented either in its normal appearance or reflected. Subjects were to respond only when the stimulus was normal. Both axis of reflection (vertical, horizontal) and orientation angle (upright, tilted by 90°) were varied between blocks. In Experiment 3, stimuli were the same as in Experiment 2, but the task explicitly asked for a binary reflection judgment (normal vs. reflected). No sign for the presence of an axis effect was observed in any of those experiments, which seems incompatible with the hypothesis of vertical advantage in object perception. It is suggested that most vertical advantage observed before is due to extra-perceptual processing.

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Do confusing information and egocentric instructions influence perception?

In an investigation of psychological differentiation, Witkin's personality dimension, 12 field-dependent and 12 field-independent students were selected from a population of college men in summerschool based on their Embedded Figures Test scores. They were assigned to conditions, given egocentric or gravitational instructions, and provided clarified or obscuring feedback about their performance on the Rod and Frame Test. Although instructions had no effect, students with clarified feedback performed better than those whose feedback was confusing. Field-independent men had less difficulty with the confusing feedback than did field-dependent men.     

Does familiarity change in the revelation effect?

The revelation effect describes the increased tendency to call items "old" when a recognition judgment is preceded by an incidental task. Past findings show that d' for recognition decreases following revelation, evidence that the revelation effect is due to familiarity change. However, data from receiver operating characteristic curves from 3 experiments produced no evidence of changes in recognition sensitivity. The authors illustrate how the use of a single-point measure like d' can be misleading when familiarity distribution variances are unequal. Also investigated was whether the effect depends on the revelation materials used. Neither the memorability of the revelation items, their similarity to recognition probes, nor the difficulty of the task changed the size of the effect. Thus, the revelation effect is not the result of a memory retrieval mechanism and seems to be generic and all-or-nothing. These characteristics are consistent with response bias rather than familiarity change.     

Do young and old preschoolers exhibit response bias due to different mechanisms? Investigating children's response time

Previous studies have suggested that younger preschoolers exhibit a yes bias due to underdeveloped cognitive abilities, whereas older preschoolers exhibit a response bias due to other factors. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the response latency to yes-no questions pertaining to familiar and unfamiliar objects in 3- to 6-year-olds. The 3-year-olds exhibited a strong yes bias for both objects, and their response latency was significantly shorter than that of the 6-year-olds. The 4- and 5-year-olds did not exhibit any response bias, whereas the 6-year-olds exhibited a nay-saying bias (a response bias to say “no”) for unfamiliar objects. Overall, children’s response bias scores were stronger for familiar objects than for unfamiliar objects. The results suggest that 3-year-olds exhibit a yes bias automatically, but 5- and 6-year-olds are sensitive to question context.     

Do sex and perception of immediate stress affect optimism?

The purpose was to assess differences in mean optimism scores of men and women of low immediate stress (23 men, 28 women) and high immediate stress (11 men, 34 women). Using factorial analysis of variance, mean differences on the Coping Resources Inventory, Cognitive Domain, were not significant for sex, immediate stress, or their interaction.     

Do endogenous and exogenous action control compete for perception?

Human actions are guided either by endogenous action plans or by external stimuli in the environment. These two types of action control seem to be mediated by neurophysiologically and functionally distinct systems that interfere if an endogenously planned action suddenly has to be performed in response to an exogenous stimulus. In this case, the endogenous representation has to be deactivated first to give way to the exogenous system. Here we show that interference of endogenous and exogenous action control is not limited to motor-related aspects but also affects the perception of action-related stimuli. Participants associated two actions with contingent sensory effects in learning blocks. In subsequent test blocks, preparing one of these actions specifically impaired responding to the associated effect in an exogenous speeded detection task, yielding a blindness-like effect for arbitrary, learned action effects. In accordance with the theory of event coding, this finding suggests that action planning influences perception even in the absence of any physical similarities between action and to-be-perceived stimuli.     

Do educational aspirations and expectations matter in improving school achievement?

Social Psychology of Education - The main objective of this paper is to examine the role of students’ aspirations and expectations in affecting school achievement among 7th and 8th grade...     

Does the effect of familiarity on proofreading change with encoding task and time?

The authors examined whether the beneficial effect of text familiarity on proofreading is dependent on the type of encoding operations performed on the text prior to proofreading (i.e., surface vs. deep), and on the time elapsed between encoding and proofreading. In the present study, familiarity, irrespective of the nature of the encoding operations and delay, improved proofreading times, whereas only surface encoding made proofreading more accurate. These results represent a challenge for the transfer-appropriate processing model of memory.     

The failure to respond to changes in the road environment: Does road familiarity play a role?

Road signs do not necessarily lead to the right response. Especially when signs are changed, drivers may not always detect new signs and may therefore fail to respond correctly to the situation indicated. The present driving simulator study investigated whether road familiarity (increased exposure to the same road) influenced failure to respond to a change in road signs. In order to study the failure to respond, participants were presented with a change in the road lay-out (as indicated by a road sign) in the last of a series of simulated drives. The change introduced was the conversion of a normal road into a No-Entry road. Results show that several participants failed to respond to this change. However, the failure to respond was not simply the result of familiarity with the road or prior exposure to precisely the same road, but seemed to be influenced by expectations induced by the road design. Additional safety measures such as the placement of additional road signs reduced the failure to respond. An auditory in-vehicle message gave the best results. Interestingly, both in the case of additional signs and of the in-vehicle message, a general warning was sufficient, without the need to specify the precise traffic situation.     

Adherence,expectations and the placebo response: Why is good adherence to an inert treatment beneficial?

Objective: The current study sought to better understand why good adherence to a placebo treatment has been reliably associated with health benefits. We proposed a model where initial expectations shape adherence, which then influences subsequent expectations that affect placebo response. Design: Seventy-two participants were told that they were enrolling in a study of physical activity and memory, and were asked to increase their physical activity by 35% for two weeks (placebo treatment). Main outcome measures: Adherence to this physical activity target was measured by pedometer. Expectations and short-term memory (free recall) were assessed before and after physical activity. Results: Initial expectations predicted adherence to physical activity (r = .27, p < .03), but adherence did not predict subsequent expectations (r = .06, p = .60). Testing a multi-step meditational model revealed that initial expectations predicted better memory even after controlling for adherence, subsequent expectations, baseline memory and gender (c’ = 1.10, 95% CI = .46–1.74). Stronger expectations for memory improvement predicted better memory performance, but adherence and later expectations did not mediate this association. Conclusions: Good adherence to a placebo may reflect strong treatment expectations which may convey benefits by enhancing the non-specific effects of treatment.     

Do glasses change children’s perceptions? Effects of eyeglasses on peer- and self-perception

A literature overview is presented on the influence of eyeglasses on children’s perceptions. Children’s stereotypes of eyeglass wearers were mostly negative, but included smartness. Glasses were of relatively low importance in person categorization. Eyeglasses seemed non-destructive for global self-esteem, but negatively affected self-perceptions of physical appearance. Additionally, particularly older, urban children showed non-compliance, which probably indicates a dislike of glasses. It was concluded that children have negative and positive stereotypes of peers with eyeglasses. Wearing eyeglasses can negatively affect physical self-esteem.     

Action in perception? Empirical and philosophical arguments against the enactive approach to perception

This paper focuses on the epistemic conditions of visual perception, ie it concentrates on the question of what kind of knowledge is required for us in order to be able to see colours and shapes as spatial properties of things. According to contemporary theories of sensory perception that follow the tradition of George Berkeley, like Alva Noe's so-called enactive approach to perception, this type of visual perception requires a certain kind of implicit practical knowledge, namely implicit sensorimotor knowledge of the way sensory stimulation varies as the perceiver moves. Two objections are presented against this central claim of the enactive approach. First, empirical evidence from psychological research on children's cognitive and motor development suggests that visual content is entirely independent of sensorimotor knowledge. Second, the enactive approach gets involved in the characteristic problems of classical sense--datum theories by introducing the extremely problematic claim that the recognition of appearances is the epistemic starting point for the perception of things and their properties.     

Parental expectations and school relationships as contributors to adolescents’ positive outcomes

Researchers examined associations of parental expectations and parental school relationships with school outcomes among U.S. middle and high school students. Nationally representative data involving families from the National Household Education Surveys were analyzed with structural equation modeling. Measures included interview responses about parent expectations for their children’s long term educational attainment (ranging from dropping out of high school to obtaining a JD/PhD/MD) and how much parents feel welcomed at school, trust and have positive interactions with educators. The latter three variables formed a latent variable called parent school relationship. Analyses controlled for SES (parents’ educational attainment and household income), family structure, gender, and ethnicity. The school outcomes variable was derived from parental report of students’ grades, retention in any grade and behavior problems at school. Parental expectations were positively related (standardized path coefficient = .44, $p<.01$ ) to positive school outcomes and had a stronger effect than SES (standardized path coefficient = .24). Parent school relationships were also positively related to school outcomes. These findings suggest that psychologists and educators should be aware of the potential for parents to play a significant role (e.g., via expectations and developing supportive relationships with educators) in children’s education, even in middle and high school.     

Drivers’ and cyclists’ safety perceptions in overtaking maneuvers

Drivers overtaking cyclists on rural roads are a safety concern, as drivers need to handle the interaction with the cyclist and possibly an oncoming vehicle. Improving the maneuver’s outcome requires an understanding of not only the objective, measurable safety metrics, but also the subjective, perceived safety of each road user. Previous research has shown that the perceived safety of the cyclist is most at risk at the passing moment, when driver and cyclist are closest to each other. However, to develop safety measures, it is necessary to know how both road users perceive safety, by understanding the factors that influence their perceptions during the overtaking maneuver. This study measured the perceived safety of drivers in a test-track experiment in Sweden and the perceived safety of cyclists in a field test in Spain. For both drivers and cyclists, we developed Bayesian ordinal logistic regression models of perceived safety scores that take as input objective safety metrics representing the different crash risks at the passing moment. Our results show that while drivers’ perceived safety decreases when there is an oncoming vehicle with a low time-to-collision, cyclists’ perceived safety is reduced by a small lateral clearance and a high overtaking speed. Although our datasets are heterogeneous and limited, our results are in line with previous research. In addition, the Bayesian models presented in this paper are novel and may be improved in future studies once more naturalistic data become available. We discuss how our models may support infrastructure development and regulation, policymaking, driver coaching, the development of active safety systems, and automated driving by providing a possible method for predicting perceived safety.     

Drivers’ driving style and their take-over-control judgment

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADASs), which help a driver drive a car safely and easily (e.g., warning alerts, steering control, and brake/acceleration pedal operation), have increased in popularity. However, such systems have not yet been perfected. Sometimes, humans must take over control from the systems; otherwise, they can cause an accident. In this study, we focused on one of the ADASs, adaptive cruise control (ACC), which automatically maintains a selected distance from the preceding car, and investigated individual differences in take-over-control judgment and related factors. The candidate factors included driver’s manual driving style, driving performance without the ACC, and the usability evaluation of ACC. Ten participants repeated the short, strictly controlled trials in a driving simulator (DS), with a varying value of only one parameter (deceleration of the preceding car) affecting the need for intervention. First, we confirmed that the participants made the judgment based on the dangerousness of the situation and that there were individual differences in the take-over-control judgments. Some participants intervened in the ACC control in less dangerous trials, whereas other participants did not, even if their own car got very close to the preceding car. We conducted a correlation analysis and confirmed the results with the estimation of the confidence interval using a bootstrap method. As a result, we found that driving style and driving performance without ACC had a stronger relationship to the number of interventions, rather than the usability evaluation. In particular, methodical drivers, who obeyed traffic rules and manners, began to intervene in less dangerous situations. The tendency to avoid utilizing brake operations was also related to take-over-control judgment. This might be because the participants intervened by pressing the brake pedal. Our study showed that drivers’ driving style could affect the usage of ACC independently from the performance of the ACC.     

Does road familiarity change eye fixations? A comparison between watching a video and real driving

Fixation times are known to decrease after multiple exposures to the same road in simulated environments. The present study investigates whether this also holds for real driving and for watching a video, which was taped during driving (while simulating steering and braking). It appeared that the fixation times for traffic signs, information signs or road markings decreased as participants encountered the environment more often. This decrease between the two conditions in fixation times was quite comparable between watching a video and actual driving. However, there were also some differences in fixation times and frequencies to specific objects. Therefore, great care is needed when using video instead of real driving to investigate fixation times and frequencies to traffic related objects.     

Do isoluminant color changes capture attention?

Four experiments are reported in which the effects of peripheral cues on visual orienting were investigated. In the luminance condition, the cues consisted of a peripheral change in stimulus luminance. In the isoluminance condition, the cues consisted of an isoluminant color change, using the transient tritanopic technique. In Experiments 1 and 2, it was found that peripheral luminance cues captured attention, whereas peripheral isoluminance cues did not. In Experiments 3 and 4, the participants detected a peripheral target that was also isoluminant with the background. Under these conditions, it was found that both luminance and isoluminance cues captured attention. The results are discussed in terms of the roles of the dorsal and ventral streams in visual orienting, and it is concluded that our findings provide partial support for the contingent involuntary orienting hypothesis of C. Folk and colleagues.     

Do parent-child relationships change during puberty?

This article reviews changes in parent-child relationships during puberty, emphasizing the developmental processes that might be implicated in these changes. Evidence suggests increases in conflict and less warm interactions in relationships between parents and children during puberty. Changes are assumed to be short term, although little longitudinal research has directly addressed the issue of long-lasting effects. Other developmental changes occurring for the adolescent, the parent, or both (such as social cognitive or self-definitional change), as well as other relationship changes, personality characteristics, and the sheer number of life events or transitions have all been posited as potential contributors to changes in the parent-child relationship for young adolescents. These possible contributors, however, have seldom been studied in conjunction with pubertal changes. Such integrative research is necessary to test various models through which puberty, social relationships, social cognitive, self-definitional, and other processes influence one another and are influenced by one another during the transition to adolescence.