Blur-modulated orientation perception in the rod-and-frame task

In order to assess the role of blur in a rod-and-frame task, an afocal blurring technique was developed that restricted the blur to the frame. Three levels of blur were investigated, along with a nonblurred, directly viewed frame. Results showed a significant drop in the rod-and-frame effect (RFE) with increasing blur (decreasing spatial frequency), but spatial frequencies even as low as .092 cpd failed to reduce the RFE to zero. Decreasing luminance was correlated with increased blur, but control studies showed that variation in luminance levels between .007 and .0015 cd m^?2 had no effect on RFE. The finding of a spatial frequency dependency in the rod-and-frame task permits the development of a neuropsychological theory of individual and gender differences typically found in studies of static spatial orientation.     

Cognitive style and customer orientation

Cognitive style, the ways in which we take in information from the environment and process that information, has been shown to influence interactions in various behavioral fields. This paper investigates whether cognitive style would impact an individual's orientation toward the customer or toward the sale, as measured by the SOCO scale. The results suggest that cognitive style can influence one's orientation. This knowledge should prove useful to sales managers in designing training programs for new sales personnel, as well as in assigning sales personnel to specific selling tasks.     

Instructions, illusory self-tilt and the rod-and-frame test

If an illusion of self-tilt is involved in rod-and-frame test performance, then instructions to adjust the rod to the body midline (egocentric instructions) should result in less rod adjustment error than the standard instructions for the rod-and-frame test to adjust the rod to the gravitational vertical. Two experiments were designed to examine this possibility. The results of the first experiment indicate that the tilted rod-and-frame display induces an illusion of self-tilt in the opposite direction. Significant differences between instructional conditions were found in the second experiment as expected. Other rod-and-frame studies are discussed in view of these findings.     

Construct validity of perceptual style: Role of stimulus size in the embedded-figures test and the rod-and-frame test

Three experiments were performed in order to test the construct validity of perceptual field dependence (FD) and field independence (FI). In Experiment 1, performance of subjects on two sizes of Form A of Witkin’s Embedded Figures Test (EFT) with a size-ratio of 1 to 4 was compared. The size of the standard EFT was taken as unity. A nonsignificant size effect was found for all subjects as a group, and a significant rank correlation was found between performances on the two sizes of the EFT. Furthermore, the performance of field-dependent subjects (as defined by performance on the standard EFT) and field-independent subjects did not interact significantly with the size factor. In Experiment 2, the physical size of the EFT changed from 1 to 8. A nonsignificant, overall size effect was again found, but the EFT performance of fielddependent and field-independent subjects interacted significantly with the size factor. In Experiment 3, the performance of subjects on two sizes of the EFT (i.e., 1 to 8) and two sizes of the standard rod-and-frame test (RFT) (i.e., 1 to 4.5) were compared. A significant stimulus-size effect was found in the EFT, with all subjects becoming morefield-independent, and a significant stimulus-size effect was found in the RFT with the same subjects becoming morefield-dependent. Finally, the EFT performance of the field-dependent and field-independent subjects again displayed a significant interaction with the size of the embedded figures. A parallel-serial processingstyles hypothesis is proposed to account for the EFT data.     

Solving the rod-and-frame test in a tachistoscopic presentation: Effects of stimulus size and perceptual style

This research was undertaken to demonstrate, with correlational evidence, that presenting the rod-and-frame test (RIT) with either limited (tachistoscopic) or unlimited (Oltman’s, 1968, portable RFT) exposure time does not significantly affect the ranking of subjects. The underlying hypothesis is that the intersubject variability of performance on the portable RFT is due essentially to differences in sensitivity to the optostatic vection that appears automatically and almost immediately. Results of the tachistoscopic test show that the effect of angular size of the stimulus is similar to that described in the literature for unlimited time situations, and that subjects’ ranking is very similar regardless of the exposure time (W = .80). However, although a difference is observed between the means of low and high achievers in both types of RFT, intraindividual intertask homogeneity (correlation coefficient) is not verified in each of these subgroups. From these results, one can distinguish two processes in the RFT: the first, vections, has to do with the subject’s postural orientation and seems to playa great role in organizing interindividual differences. The second process, a more cognitive one, has a less striking effect and has to do with the selection of reference frames in perceptual organization.     

Cognitive style and learning: performance of adaptors and innovators in a novel dynamic task

The influence of cognitive style on performance in a novel dynamic task modelled on the task of controlling air traffic was investigated. It was hypothesized that participants who preferred a more adaptive cognitive style would maintain better rule adherence and safe distances between aircraft in a low‐fidelity air traffic control task than those who preferred a more innovative style. Problems were presented to participants using computer‐based scenarios in screening, practice, and experimental trials. Performance was measured by the number of times the participant violated two types of scenario rules. Screening, practice, and experimental performance were analysed separately. Cognitive style had a significant effect on performance only during experimental trials. Performance of individuals who preferred a more adaptive style improved across experimental trials while those preferring a more innovative style did not. Results suggest that the more innovative participants, although perhaps having some initial advantage, may not be able to sustain performance in this type of task. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Goal orientation, task difficulty, and task interest: A multilevel analysis

We studied whether goal orientation affects the relationships that task difficulty and interest have with self-set goals. Using a sample of 499 undergraduate students who listed grade goals for their classes, we employed Hierarchical Linear Modeling to explain differences in the extent to which difficulty and interest related to goals. Higher goals were set for more interesting and easier classes, and for individuals higher in mastery goal orientation and for those lower in performance-avoidance orientation (at average levels of interest and difficulty). Furthermore, performance-approach and performance-avoidance orientations reduced and strengthened (respectively) the effects of task difficulty on self-set goals, and the buffering effect of mastery orientation was marginally significant. Portions of this paper were presented at the 19^th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Chicago, IL, in April 2004.     

Learning implications of field dependence-independence: Cognitive style versus cognitive ability

The relationship between field dependence-independence and learning has been the subject of much research. In particular it has been suggested that matching teachers and students on cognitive style may produce beneficial results. Much research has also related cognitive style to the way students learn, the way teachers teach, and the way students make choices and perform in various academic areas. While cognitive style has provided the theoretical framework, it is found upon re-examination that a contrasting interpretation in terms of cognitive ability is readily applicable.     

Spatial and temporal task characteristics as stress: a test of the dynamic adaptability theory of stress, workload, and performance

The goal for this study was to test assertions of the dynamic adaptability theory of stress, which proposes two fundamental task dimensions, information rate (temporal properties of a task) and information structure (spatial properties of a task). The theory predicts adaptive stability across stress magnitudes, with progressive and precipitous changes in adaptive response manifesting first as increases in perceived workload and stress and then as performance failure. Information structure was manipulated by varying the number of displays to be monitored (1, 2, 4 or 8 displays). Information rate was manipulated by varying stimulus presentation rate (8, 12, 16, or 20 events/min). A signal detection task was used in which critical signals were pairs of digits that differed by 0 or 1. Performance accuracy declined and workload and stress increased as a function of increased task demand, with a precipitous decline in accuracy at the highest demand levels. However, the form of performance change as well as the pattern of relationships between speed and accuracy and between performance and workload/stress indicates that some aspects of the theory need revision. Implications of the results for the theory and for future research are discussed.     

Field-dependence, extraversion and perception of the vertical: empirical and theoretical perspectives of the rod-and-frame test.

Using conventional scoring procedures for the Rod-and-frame Test (RFT), extraversion was shown to interact with field-dependence (defined by scores on the Hidden-shapes Test), with the field dependent extraverts being most inaccurate performers on the rod and frame. Of greater importance, serious questions were raised about theoretical and empirical aspects of the relationship between paper-and-pencil measures of field-dependence and performance on the rod and frame, and it was concluded that "what has...been demonstrated over the past ten years is the reliability of a relationship of questionable validity."     

Cognitive style and the Perky effect.

Depending on inner versus outer frames of reference in Witkin's sense parallels a subject's tendency to distinguish between internal images and external percepts. A rank-order correlation of .69 (N = 22) was found between scores on a task designed to test the latter tendency and scores on the rod-and-frame task.     

Eliminating the cost of task set reconfiguration

With insufficient time to fully prepare for a switch in task, a deterioration in performance on the first trial of a new task would be expected. The interest of researchers has been captured by the residual switch costs that, surprisingly, remain despite sufficient time to prepare. We used avery simple task to investigate the costs to reaction time and accuracy associated with changing between two different instructional sets every eight trials. Subjects responded to left and right visual targets by making either spatially compatible or incompatible eye movements (Experiment 1) or buttonpress responses (Experiment 2). The subjects were cued as to whether to make the compatible or the incompatible response by the color of a border appearing on the perimeter of the display. In cases in which the subject alternated between making pro- and antisaccades, the large costs to reaction time and accuracy at the short cue-target stimulus onset asynchrony were completely eliminated when sufficient time was provided to prepare for the switch. This complete elimination of residual switch costs was not obtained when the same alternation was applied to manual responses. This pattern of results links residual costs to response selection processes and suggests that they are not a necessary component of the switch process. We propose that the elimination of "stubborn" residual switch costs is rooted in our use of a hypercompatible task (making saccades toward targets) that places minimal demands on response selection.