复合字母刺激心理旋转加工中的整体优先效应

采用复合字母材料结合正镜像判断任务,首次揭示了心理旋转加工中的整体优先效应。实验一延长复合字母材料的呈现时间,检验心理旋转实验常用的正/镜像判断任务中的视知觉整体优先效应;实验二将实验一的复合字母材料旋转一定角度,考察心理旋转加工中的整体优先效应。结果发现：（1）延长复合字母呈现时间后的字母正镜像判断任务中,被试判断大字母和判断小字母的时间没有显著差异,并且大小字母是否一致对大字母判断和小字母判断的影响无显著差异;（2）在排除了视知觉的整体优先效应存在的情况下,发现心理旋转加工中存在明显的整体优先效应,大字母（整体）旋转条件下的反应时显著短于小字母（局部）旋转条件下的反应时;（3）旋转角度一致性对大字母旋转和小字母旋转条件下的反应时均无显著影响,表明心理旋转的整体优先效应模式可能有别于视知觉加工的整体优先效应模式     

Mental rotation with egocentric and object-based transformations

Two experiments were conducted to address methodological issues with past studies investigating the influence of egocentric and object-based transformations on performance and sex differences in mental rotation. In previous work, the egocentric and object-based mental rotation tasks confounded the stimulus type (embodied vs. non-embodied) and transformation task (egocentric vs. object-based). In both experiments presented here, the same stimuli were used regardless of the type of transformation but task instructions were modified to induce either egocentric (left–right judgment) or object-based (same–different judgment) processing. Experiment 1 used pairs of letters whereas Experiment 2 presented pairs of line-drawings of human hands. For both experiments, it was hypothesized that the mental rotation slope for response time would be steeper for object-based than for egocentric transformations. This hypothesis was verified in both experiments. Furthermore, Experiment 2 showed a reduced male advantage for egocentric compared to object-based rotations, whereas this pattern was reversed for Experiment 1. In conclusion, the present study showed that the influence of the type of transformation involved in mental rotation can be examined with the same set of stimuli simply by modifying task instructions.     

Seeing or hearing? Perceptual independence,modality confusions,and crossmodal congruity effects with focused and divided attention

Observers were given brief presentations of pairs of simultaneous stimuli consisting of a visual and a spoken letter. In the visual focused-attention conditon, only the visual letter should be reported; in the auditory focused-attention condition, only the spoken letter should be reported; in the divided-attention condition, both letters, as well as their respective modalities, should be reported (forced choice). The proportions of correct reports were nearly the same in the three conditions (no significant divided-attention decrement), and in the divided-attention condition, the probability that the visual letter was correctly reported was independent of whether the auditory letter was correctly reported. However, with a probability much higher than chance, the observers reported hearing the visual stimulus letter or seeing the spoken stimulus letter (modality confusions). The strength of the effect was nearly the same with focused as with divided attention. We also discovered a crossmodal congruity effect: Performance was better when the two letters in a stimulus pair were the same than when they differed in type.     

意识和无意识知觉:注意和刺激特性间的相互补偿

该研究基于Exclusion任务,利用质的差异的研究范式,不仅确立了意识和无意识知觉在行为结果上的质的差异,而且发现刺激特性和注意在决定知觉意识时存在相互补偿的现象。在实验一中,当靶字短暂呈现时。被试用靶字补笔的比率高于基线水平;而当延长靶字呈现时间或提高对靶字的注意水平时,出现反转现象一用靶字补笔的比率低于基线水平。相对应地,在实验二中,分散注意条件下被试用靶字补笔的比率高于基线水平;而当注意集中或在分散注意条件下延长呈现时间时,出现了反转现象。     

Controlled and automatic processing during mental rotation

In two experiments, 9- and 10-year-olds and adults were tested on a mental rotation task in which they judged whether stimuli presented in different orientations were letters or mirror-images of letters. The mental rotation task was performed alone on 48 trials and concurrently with a memory task on 48 additional trials. The concurrent memory task in Experiment 1 was recalling digits; in Experiment 2, recalling positions in a matrix. The key result was that the slope of the function relating response time to stimulus orientation was the same when the mental rotation task was performed alone and when performed concurrently with the memory task. This result is interpreted as showing that mental rotation is an automatic process for both children and adults.     

Holistic processes in the perception and transformation of disoriented figures

Two experiments tested whether mental rotation of complex, hierarchical stimuli occurs holistically or separately at global and local levels of structure. Large (global) letters were constructed from spatial arrangements of small (local) letters. Reflection conditions (normal vs. reflected) were produced by varying the two levels independently. The task was structured so that subjects could rotate one level of the stimulus in some conditions but had to rotate both levels in other conditions. Experiment 1 showed that rotation rate was not affected by the number of levels that had to be rotated to make a reflection decision. This result implies that the rotation of global and local levels occurred together rather than sequentially. Experiment 2 showed that the rotation of the two levels was holistic as opposed to parallel and independent. The results also demonstrate that global information is processed faster than local information regardless of whether or not a rotation is performed. These findings are discussed in relation to theories of mental rotation and global precedence.     

Object-based and egocentric mental rotation performance in older adults: The importance of gender differences and motor ability

In this study, mental rotation performance was assessed in both an object-based task, human figures and letters as stimuli, and in an egocentric-based task, a human figure as a stimulus, in 60 older persons between 60 and 71 years old (30 women, 30 men). Additionally all participants completed three motor tests measuring balance and mobility. The results show that the reaction time was slower for letters than for both human figure tasks and the mental rotation speed was faster over all for egocentric mental rotation tasks. Gender differences were found in the accuracy measurement, favoring males, and were independent of stimulus type, kind of transformation, and angular disparity. Furthermore, a regression analysis showed that the accuracy rate for object-based transformations with body stimuli could be predicted by gender and balance ability. This study showed that the mental rotation performance in older adults depends on stimulus type, kind of transformation, and gender and that performance partially relates to motor ability.     

Verbal recoding of visual stimuli impairs mentalimagetransformations

Two experiments were carried out to test the hypothesis that verbal recoding of visual stimuli in short-term memory influences long-term memory encoding and impairs subsequent mental image operations. Easy and difficult-to-name stimuli were used. When rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, each stimulus revealed a new pattern consisting of two capital letters joined together. In both experiments, subjects first learned a short series of stimuli and were then asked to rotate mental images of the stimuli in order to detect the hidden letters. In Experiment 1, articulatory suppression was used to prevent subjects from subvocal rehearsal when learning the stimuli, whereas in Experiment 2, verbal labels were presented with each stimulus during learning to encourage a reliance on the verbal code. As predicted, performance in the imagery task was significantly improved by suppression when the stimuli were easy to name (Experiment 1) but was severely disrupted by labeling when the stimuli were difficult to name (Experiment 2). We concluded that verbal recoding of stimuli in short-term memory during learning disrupts the ability to generate veridical mental images from long-term memory.     

Mental rotation of letters,pictures, and three-dimensional objects in German dyslexic children

This study examines mental rotation ability in children with developmental dyslexia. Prior investigations have yielded equivocal results that might be due to differences in stimulus material and testing formats employed. Whereas some investigators found dyslexic readers to be impaired in mental rotation, others did not report any performance differences or even superior spatial performance for dyslexia. Here, we report a comparison of mental rotation for letters, three-dimensional figures sensu Shepard and Metzler, and colored pictures of animals or humans in second-grade German dyslexic readers. Findings indicate that dyslexic readers are impaired in mental rotation for all three kinds of stimuli. Effects of general intelligence were controlled. Furthermore, dyslexic children were deficient in other spatial abilities like identifying letters or forms among distracters. These results are discussed with respect to the hypotheses of a developmental dysfunction of the parietal cortex or a subtle anomaly in cerebellar function in dyslexic readers.     

Mental rotation of letters, pictures, and three-dimensional objects in German dyslexic children.

This study examines mental rotation ability in children with developmental dyslexia. Prior investigations have yielded equivocal results that might be due to differences in stimulus material and testing formats employed. Whereas some investigators found dyslexic readers to be impaired in mental rotation, others did not report any performance differences or even superior spatial performance for dyslexia. Here, we report a comparison of mental rotation for letters, three-dimensional figures sensu Shepard and Metzler, and colored pictures of animals or humans in second-grade German dyslexic readers. Findings indicate that dyslexic readers are impaired in mental rotation for all three kinds of stimuli. Effects of general intelligence were controlled. Furthermore, dyslexic children were deficient in other spatial abilities like identifying letters or forms among distracters. These results are discussed with respect to the hypotheses of a developmental dysfunction of the parietal cortex or a subtle anomaly in cerebellar function in dyslexic readers.     

注意和非注意条件下的整体和局部性质加工

以往关于整体和局部知觉的研究通常要求被试直接对出现在复合刺激整体或局部水平上的靶目标做反应,因此复合刺激与任务相关并被注意。该研究通过测量复合字母的整体和局部性质对随后出现的探测刺激的启动效应来研究在非注意条件下整体和局部性质加工的差异。实验一发现复合刺激的整体和局部性质对探测刺激产生负启动效应,但二者没有显著差异。实验二缩短了启动刺激与探测刺激之间的时间间隔,复合刺激的整体和局部性质对探测刺激都不再产生启动效应。在实验一、二中,当要求被试直接对复合刺激做反应时,其分辨局部性质的错误率都比分辨整体性质的错误率高。根据这些结果,讨论了在注意和非注意下的整体和局部性质加工的差异。     

The role of stimulus axis salience in children's ability to mentally rotate unfamiliar figures

A mental rotation task with unfamiliar stimuli was presented to 5-year-old (n = 36) and 8-year-old children (n = 36). The stimuli contained either an intrinsic salient axis (S +) or no salient axis (s-). Results showed that both 5-year-old and 8-year-old children were able to perform the mental rotation task with the S + stimulus. However, 5-year-old children had difficulties in performing the mental rotation task with the S- stimulus. These results suggest that there are limitations in mental rotation abilities of young children. The ability to encode and mentally rotate unfamiliar stimuli containing no salient axis seems to improve between the ages of 5 and 8.     

Repetition benefit in mental rotation is independent of stimulus repetition

In this study, we investigated whether there is a repetition benefit in mental rotation that is independent of stimulus repetition (i.e., due to increased efficiency in postencoding processing). Three experiments were conducted, in which different conditions of stimulus repetition (different letters on consecutive trials in Experiment 1, letters of different orientations on consecutive trials in Experiment 2, and priming of rotation direction in Experiment 3) were used, and the extent of repetition of rotation direction between two consecutive trials was manipulated. The results of all three experiments showed clear evidence of a repetition benefit without repeating the stimulus, suggesting that this effect is independent of stimulus repetition and lending support to the notion of increased efficiency in mental rotation as a result of repeated rotation direction per se.     

Chinese character recognition in mirror reading: evidence from event-related potential

As is well known, mirror reading in language requires recognition of words and letters in mirror-reversed pattern compared with normal reading, and the cognitive mechanism underlying the mirror reading may involve two critical processes: visuospatial transformation and linguistic regulation. Chinese characters, different from English, are characterized by some unique features in orthography and spelling. Using ERP techniques, the present study investigated neural correlates underlying the mirror reading of Chinese characters, and whether the cognitive processes underlying the recognition of mirrored Chinese characters is different from those of alphabetic words. Twelve native Chinese speakers participated in the experiment, during which they were instructed to make an animal/nonanimal distinction. The stimuli varied with the word category (animal vs nonanimal) and presentation format (normal vs mirror-reversed). The data analyses focused on three aspects: the reaction times (RT) for Chinese words of normal and mirror-reversed formats, peak latencies, and peak amplitudes of ERP components elicited by mirror-reversed and normal Chinese words. The results from implicit reading provide evidence for a mirror-reversed effect. The behavioural data showed that mirror-reversed words were more difficult to identify than normal words, with RTs delayed for mirror-reversed words over normal words. Moreover, a clear N2 component, with maximal activity occurring at 200-250ms interval (N2), was more negative for mirror-reversed words than for normal words at posterior regions. However, there were no latency differences between normal and mirror-reversed words. The occipital N2 might be closely related to abstract word form representation. Larger N2 amplitude in response to mirror-reversed Chinese words is interpreted as reflecting visuospatial transformation in order to compensate for impaired word form analysis. The result of no N2 latency delay indicated that word form analysis and visuospatial transformation might be processed in parallel.     

Cognitive precedence for local information in hierarchical stimulus processing by pigeons

Four experiments investigated the processing of hierarchical stimuli by pigeons. Using a 4 alternative divided-attention task, 4 pigeons were food-reinforced for accurately identifying letters arranged as either hierarchical global- or local-relevant stimuli or as size-matched filled stimuli. Experiment 1 found that task acquisition was faster with local-relevant than global-relevant stimuli. This difference was not due to letter size. Experiment 2 demonstrated successful transfer to a novel irrelevant letter configuration. Experiments 3 and 4 tested pigeons' responses to conflict probe stimuli composed of equally discriminable relevant letters at each level. These tests revealed that all of the pigeons showed a cognitive precedence for local information early in processing, with the pigeons using different cues to initiate the processing of global information. This local advantage contrasts with previously reported results for humans and pigeons but is similar to that reported for nonhuman primates. Alternatives attempting to reconcile these contrasting comparative results are considered.     

Maintaining readiness for mental rotation interferes with perceptual processes in children but with response selection in adults

Previous work revealed that mental rotation is not purely inserted into a same-different discrimination task. Instead, response time (RT) is slowed to upright stimuli in blocks containing rotated stimuli compared to RT to the same upright stimuli in pure upright blocks. This interference effect is a result of maintaining readiness for mental rotation. In two experiments we investigated previous evidence that these costs depend upon distinct sub-processes for children and for adults. In Experiment 1, the maintaining costs turned out to be independent of the visual quality of the stimulus for adults but not so for children. Experiment 2 revealed that the maintaining costs were greatly reduced for adults when they performed mental rotation as a go-no-go task, but not so for children. Taken together, both experiments provide evidence that whereas perceptual processes seem to be important for school-age children to maintain readiness for mental rotation, response selection is relevant for adults.     

Mental rotation performance in primary school age children: Are there gender differences in chronometric tests?

In contrast to the well documented male advantage in psychometric mental rotation tests, gender differences in chronometric experimental designs are still under dispute. Therefore, a systematic investigation of gender differences in mental rotation performance in primary-school children is presented in this paper. A chronometric mental rotation task was used to test 449 second and fourth graders. The children were tested in three separate groups each with different stimulus material (animal drawings, letters, or cube figures). The results show that chronometric mental rotation tasks with cube figures – even rotated in picture plane only – were too difficult for children in both age groups. Further analyses with animal drawings and letters as stimuli revealed an overall gender difference in response time (RT) favoring males, an increasing RT with increasing angular disparity for all children, and faster RTs for fourth graders compared to second graders. This is the first study which has shown consistent gender differences in chronometric mental rotation with primary school aged children regarding reaction time and accuracy while considering appropriate stimuli.     

Taking a bright view of negative priming in the light of dim stimuli: further evidence for memory confusion during episodic retrieval.

A same-different letter-matching task was used to examine the effects of stimulus intensity on negative priming, which is poorer performance when target letters have been presented as distractor letters on the immediately preceding trial. In Experiment 1, stimulus intensity was manipulated between-participants, whereas in Experiment 2, it varied randomly from trial-to-trial within-participants. In Experiment 1, negative priming was equivalent for both stimulus intensities. In Experiment 2, negative priming effects were larger for repeated intensity stimuli than for nonrepeated intensity stimuli, when stimulus intensity was dim. Furthermore, for repeated intensity stimuli, negative priming effects were enhanced when the overt response required to the stimulus was repeated from prime to probe trial. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that negative priming may be due to memory confusion, rather than to inhibition of the distractor stimuli.     

SPATIAL COGNITION AND GENDER Instructional and Stimulus Influences on Mental Image Rotation Performance

Recent research has demonstrated that "sex differences" on mental image rotation (MIR) tasks may be attenuated through manipulations of instructional or stimulus conditions. The interaction of these variables was examined in two experiments. In the first, subjects received instructions that emphasized or de-emphasized the spatial nature of the MIR task. In the second, instructions emphasized the use of MIR abilities in stereotypically "masculine" or "feminine" occupations. The relevant interactions were significant in both experiments. Men performed at higher levels than women in the spatial instruction conditions, but no sex differences were observed under nonspatial instructions. These effects were further shown to be mediated by stimulus type; simpler or more familiar stimuli were less deleterious to the performance of women. These results add to the evidence that instructional and stimulus effects may exacerbate or eliminate sex differences in spatial cognition.     

Violation of pure insertion during mental rotation is independent of stimulus type, task, and subjects' age

The experiment validated and extended the finding of Ilan and Miller (1994) [A violation of pure insertion: mental rotation and choice reaction time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Psychophysics 20, 520-536] that the mental rotation process is not purely inserted into a mirror-normal discrimination task. In contrast to their work we used other experimental stimuli (drawings of animals instead of characters), a different task (same/different comparison) and investigated this effect under a developmental perspective. Adults and children between the age of 8 and 10 took significantly longer to respond to upright drawings of animals in conditions containing rotated stimuli than in conditions containing only upright stimuli, indicating a violation of pure insertion. In general, we found evidence that the violation of pure insertion during a mental rotation task itself can be generalised across stimulus type, task, and subject populations. However, for children this effect was independent of the format of the stimuli, while for adults the effect was larger for mirror-imaged than for identical objects. This suggests that the violation of pure insertion might occur at different processing stages as a function of age.