Shape constancy and a perceptual bias towards symmetry

In attempting to judge whether a briefly presented rotated figure was symmetrical (circle or square) or asymmetrical (ellipse or rectangle), a bias towards perceiving symmetry was evident. This bias appears to be perceptual rather than judgmental in origin in that it was affected neither by variations in the probability of occurrence of symmetrical figures nor by familiarization with the stimuli. A characterization of the stimulus similarity space based on the shape-slant invariance hypothesis is presented, and a model which incorporates both the similarity space and the symmetry bias is proposed. The model can account for our paradoxical finding that the more asymmetrical some projected images, the more likely they will be perceived as symmetrical. This model can also account for Massaro’s (1973, 1975) results on shape constancy. However, Massaro’s theory was not supported in that extension in depth did not account for increased difficulty of shape judgments.     

Hyper-volume of eye-contact perception and social anxiety traits

Eye-contact facilitates effective interpersonal exchange during social interactions, but can be a considerable source of anxiety for individuals with social phobia. However, the relationship between the fundamental spatial range of eye-contact perception and psychiatric traits is, to date, unknown. In this study, I analyzed the eye-contact spatial response bias and the associated pupil response, and how they relate to traits of social interaction disorders. In a face-to-face situation, 21 pairs of subjects were randomly assigned to be either viewers or perceivers. The viewer was instructed to gaze either at the perceiver’s eyes, or at a predetermined point, and the perceiver was asked to indicate whether eye-contact had been established or not. I found that the perceptual volume is much larger than the actual volume of eye-contact, and that the subjective judgment of eye-contact elicited greater pupil dilation in the perceiver. Furthermore, the relationship between behavioral performance and social anxiety traits was identified. These findings provide new indications that internal traits related to lower social anxiety are potentially related to a restriction of spatial response bias for eye-contact.     

Memory for symmetry and perceptual binding in patients with schizophrenia

The present study investigated the use of perceptual binding processes in schizophrenic (SC) patients and matched healthy controls, by examining their performance on the recall of symmetrical (vertical, horizontal and diagonal) and asymmetrical patterns varying in length between 2 and 9 items. The results showed that, although SC patients were less accurate than controls in all conditions, both groups recalled symmetrical patterns better than asymmetrical ones. The impairment of SC patients was magnified with supra-span symmetrical arrays, and they were more likely to reproduce symmetrical patterns as asymmetrical, particularly at medium and high length levels. Hierarchical regression analyses further indicated that the between-group differences in the recall of supra-span vertical and horizontal arrays, which require a greater involvement of visual pattern processes, remained significant after removing the variance associated with performance on asymmetrical patterns, which primarily reflects intrafigural spatial processes. It is proposed that schizophrenia may be associated with a specific deficit in the formation and retrieval of the global visual images of studied patterns and in the use of the on-line information about the type of symmetry being tested to guide retrieval processes.     

Young children make scale errors when playing with dolls

Prior research (DeLoache, Uttal & Rosengren, 2004) has documented that 18- to 30-month-olds occasionally make scale errors: they attempt to fit their bodies into or onto miniature objects (e.g. a chair) that are far too small for them. The current study explores whether scale errors are limited to actions that directly involve the child's body. We investigated whether children would also make scale errors with a doll and objects that were much too small for the doll (e.g. a chair, a bed). Many participants did try to fit the doll into or onto the miniature objects. Thus, the previously documented phenomenon of scale errors extends to situations in which the relevant size difference is between two objects. This finding supports the view that scale errors occur when visual information about object size fails to influence the decision to act on an object. The results are discussed in terms of the use of visual information for the planning and control of actions.     

Goal congruency without stimulus congruency in bimanual coordination

Two experiments explored the role of stimulus congruency and goal congruency for the generation of object-oriented actions with two hands. Participants had to place two objects into either parallel or opposite orientations by carrying out either symmetrical or asymmetrical forearm rotations. Performance was superior when the required object orientations were identical rather than different, almost independent of the symmetry of the required arm movements. In extending previous research, goal congruency effects ensued even under conditions in which congruency of imperative response signals could not have contributed to goal congruency effects, either because only a single stimulus was used to indicate the required goals in an individual trial (Experiment 1) or such stimuli were absent at all (Experiment 2). The results thus confirm the importance of goal codes for the reconcilableness of bimanual actions, and rule out accounts in terms of stimulus-related processes.     

Parenting as relationship: a framework for assessment and practice

Parenting tends to be framed as a set of actions directed toward the child rather than as a relationship. This article helps therapists, parent-educators, and researchers conceptualize parenting as a socioculturally embedded relationship. The authors apply the relational orientations typology (Silverstein, Bass, Tuttle, Knudson-Martin, & Huenergardt, 2006) to parent-child relationships. The typology addresses two dimensions: whether the focus is on the child's meeting parental expectations or on expectations of mutuality and whether power between parent and child is expected to be symmetrical or asymmetrical. Four relational orientations are described: (1) rule directed, (2) position directed, (3) independence directed, and (4) relationship directed. These relational orientations describe the nature of the reciprocal relationship between parent and child and offer a framework from which to address parenting issues. A case illustration shows how the relational orientations framework helps therapists incorporate a larger systems/relational perspective into what was originally framed primarily as a child behavior problem.     

Development of mental rotation in 3- to 5-year-old children

We assessed 3- to 5-year-olds’ mental rotation abilities using a new puzzle paradigm. It allows for assessment of mental rotation abilities in children younger than 5 years, using a task comparable to ones used with older children and adults. Children saw pairs of asymmetrical ghost figures, either as three-dimensional cut-outs or two-dimensional paper versions, in seven orientations. One of the ghosts fit into a hole if rotated right-side up – the other ghost was its mirror image and would not fit. Children were asked to turn the ghosts in their heads and choose the one that would fit into the hole. The number of children who chose the correct ghost above chance in the three-dimensional version of the task increased dramatically from 10% of 3-year-olds to 95% of 5-year-olds; average accuracy also increased significantly, from 54% to 83%. The two-dimensional paper version yielded similar results. These results indicate considerable development in mental rotation between 3 and 5 years.     

Identification of tachistoscopically exposed symmetrical and asymmetrical letter arrays.

Six-letter arrays containing symmetrical, e.g., H, M, T, or asymmetrical letters, e.g., J, K, R, were tachistoscopically exposed bilaterally for 100 msec. to 100 college students. Significantly more asymmetrical than symmetrical letters were identified, and significantly more Ss identified more asymmetrical than symmetrical items. This experiment, which incorporated methodological considerations suggested by Harcum (1964) and Bryden (1968), corroborates their findings. Their ideas and other findings were used to account for the data. Asymmetrical letters have more intrinsic left-to-right directionality than symmetrical elements. The rapidly fading after-stimulation of tachistoscopically presented alphabetical material is usually scanned from left to right. Individual array letters might also be scanned in the same direction. Confluence of directionality of letter and scan, which obtains only with asymmetrical letters, might have typically allowed asymmetrical targets to be scanned more rapidly and, consequently, more efficiently than symmetrical displays.     

Sad people avoid the eyes or happy people focus on the eyes? Mood induction affects facial feature discrimination

Depressed people tend to avoid eye-contact in social situations and in experimental settings, whereas happy people actively seek eye-contact. We report an experiment in which participants made discriminations between faces that had either configural or featural changes made to the eyes, nose, or head shape. The results showed participants induced to be happy detected changes in eyes more often than participants induced to be sad, but failed to detect changes in other facial features. Sad-induced participants detected changes to the head shape but not the eyes. The results are interpreted in terms of differential use of features attended to by happy and sad participants, whereby happy people are more likely to attend to eyes during face perception than sad people.     

No symmetry advantage when object matching involves accidental viewpoints

The presupposed advantage of symmetrical objects over asymmetrical objects was investigated in an object matching task, using accidental and non-accidental viewpoints. In addition, the accidental views could be symmetric or asymmetric. When two non-accidental views were presented, symmetrical objects were matched faster than asymmetrical objects. When an accidental view was presented first (followed by a non-accidental view), the matching of symmetrical objects was equal to that of asymmetrical objects. When a non-accidental view was presented first (followed by an accidental view), matching was again equal for the symmetrical and asymmetrical objects, although much faster compared with the opposite sequence of presented views. No effects of image symmetry in the accidental viewpoints were found. Apparently, the advantage of symmetrical objects over asymmetrical objects is only present in object matching when 3-D object structures are visible.     

结构对称汉字识别的加工机制(I)——整字识别的实验研究

在前期关于整字识别研究的基础上 ,增加任务难度 ,以不同倾斜角度呈现汉字、在心理旋转条件下进一步考察了结构对称汉字识别的加工机制。结果表明 :结构对称字的反应时随着识别难度增加而延长的幅度明显小于非对称汉字 ,而且 ,在刺激字的各种倾斜状态下 ,结构对称汉字的识别反应时均显著小于非对称汉字 ,说明汉字的结构对称性不仅可促进汉字的识别进程 ,而且可增强汉字识别的恒常性。     

Influence of stimulus symmetry on visual scanning patterns

Eye movements of four Ss performing a complexity rating task in which the stimuli consisted of random shapes differing in symmetry, number of turns (sides) in the perimeter, and structural angularity were examined. It was found that for both symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes, the number of fixations and fixation time increased directly with structural complexity (number of sides). Distributions of fixations for symmetrical shapes clustered in one-half of the shapes, while the distributions of fixations for asymmetrical shapes did not exhibit this one-sided bias. No differences were found in the distributions of fixation time to either half of asymmetrical or symmetrical shapes. The findings suggest that S utilizes an organizing code in addition to the featural code in characterizing a given shape. The organizing code permits S to generate the feature code for a gwen shape on the basis of partial information.     

Power difference between players and level of matrix as determinants of competition in a MDG

At first, it was demonstrated that social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) predicting a need for moderate (instead of maximal) superiority, could reconcile a number of disparate results of earlier Maximizing Difference Game (MDG) experiments. Using the same theory, it was then further predicted that high power players in an asymmetrical MDG would compete less than their inferior opponents or than equal power players in a symmetrical MDG and that the inferior and equal power players would not differ in competition. The data of an experiment, involving an asymmetrical (8/6) MDG matrix and two symmetrical MDG matrices (8/8 and 6/6), generally confirmed these predictions, but it was observed serendipitously that the high 8/8 symmetrical matrix yielded more competition than the lower 6/6 symmetrical matrix. An extended replication of this variable with five linearly related MDG matrices (4/4, 5/5, 6/6, 8/8 and 12/12) showed a similar result, namely most competition in the highest matrices and least in the lowest ones. The finding was interpreted in terms of the competitive motivation of the players and the low cost of competition in the highest matrices.     

结构对称汉字识别的加工机制——部件识别的实验研究

从部件加工的角度设计了两个实验,分别运用部件启动作业和部件启动再认范式,考察了结构对称汉字识别的加工特点。结果发现:在部件加工层面也存在着显著的结构对称效应。即同一个部件,作为结构对称字的构成部件的启动效应明显大于它作为非对称字的构成部件的启动效应;作为结构对称字的构成部件被识别的反应时和错误率均显著地小于它构成非对称字时被识别的反应时和错误率。这意味着结构对称汉字中的部件(或笔画)比非对称汉字中的同样部件(或笔画)具有加工优势。显示出多层次的结构对称效应。     

Coactivation, pop-out, and symmetry affect line discrimination

17 college students discriminated between vertical and horizontal target lines flanked by vertical and horizontal distractors. Large displays with 3.0-cm lines and small displays half this size were used. The distractors were positioned above and below the target or to the left and right of it, forming vertical and horizontal global orientations. The number of flankers sharing the target's orientation was varied. Vertical targets and small display sizes were processed more quickly. Speed of responding did not differ for the two global orientations. There was no advantage for target lines consistent with global orientation. The results were replicated in Exp. 2 with diagonal flankers. This supports an explanation using stimulus compatibility, since diagonal lines do not correspond to either of the response options and cannot induce a tendency to respond more to one target than another. Displays with multiple symmetry were responded to faster than those with a single symmetry which were faster than asymmetrical displays, supporting the idea that symmetrical axes parallel and perpendicular to the target orientation provide a facilitative frame of reference. Coactivation from same-oriented flankers, pop-out from differences in orientation, and symmetry all influenced responding in these patterns.     

VISUAL INTERACTION AND DISTANCE

Argyle & Dean (1965) predicted that, as the distance increased between a confederate who stared continuously and a naive subject, so the naive subject would increasingly return the confederate's gaze into the eyes. Their findings were held to support the prediction, but Stephenson & Rutter (1970) offered an alternative explanation. They showed that, in the Argyle & Dean situation, observers are increasingly likely with increasing distance to record as gaze directed at the eyes, gaze which is actually directed away from the eyes. In the present experiment, pairs of naive subjects took up positions equidistant from a one-way screen behind which two cameras were located. Each pair held a 5 min. conversation, nine pairs at 2 ft. apart, nine at 6 ft. and nine at 10 ft. The interactions were recorded on videotape, and four observers subsequently scored Looking and Speech from the recordings for each subject independently. By means of zoom lens photography and a ‘split-screen’ recording technique, it was ensured that any relationship between visual behaviour and distance could not be an artifact of observer performance. The results indicated that, while neither the duration of individuals' Looking nor the number of Looks were significantly affected by distance, the two measures of mutual Looking, namely the duration of eye-contact, and mutual focus (the proportion of a pair's Looking which results in eye-contact), both increased with distance.     

Associations Between Sport Participation,Goal and Sportspersonship Orientations,and Moral Reasoning

This study examined associations between level of sport participation, goal and sportspersonship orientations, and moral reasoning in sport and nonsport situations and orientation by sport participation interactions. Participants were individuals with elite (n = 176), high school (n = 183), and youth sport (n = 78) participation. When judging sport situations, individuals who participated in elite sports demonstrated poorer moral reasoning than those who participated in high school and youth sports. At low levels of sportspersonship, individuals who participated in youth sports demonstrated higher moral reasoning than those who participated in high school and elite sports. When judging nonsport situations, moral reasoning was positively related to positive sportspersonship and negatively related to ego orientation but did not differ by sport participation. Within sport, sport participation and goal and sportspersonship orientations play a critical role in moral reasoning. However, these orientations may be more important than sport participation in moral reasoning beyond the sport context.     

Cognitive reference points

Two methods were used to test the hypothesis that natural categories (such as colors, line orientations, and numbers) have reference point stimuli (such as focal colors, vertical and horizontal lines, and numbers that are multiples of 10) in relation to which other stimuli of the category are judged. In Experiment I, subjects placed pairs of stimuli into sentence frames consisting of linguistic “hedges” such as “— is essentially—.” Results were that the supposed reference stimuli were most often placed in the second (reference) slot. In Experiment II, the subject placed a stimulus in physical space to represent his feeling of the psychological distance of that stimulus from another spatially fixed stimulus. Results showed that, when supposed reference stimuli were fixed, other stimuli were placed closer to them than vice versa. The results have substantive implications for the understanding of internal structure of categories and methodological implications for the mapping of reference points, quantification of linguistic intuitions, and the assumption of symmetry in psychological distance judgments.     

Attention switching between global and local elements: Distractor category and the level repetition effect

When selecting information at global and local levels of hierarchical stimuli, there is a robust effect of level repetition in which performance is more efficient when a target is presented at the same level as the previous target. Moreover, the effect is symmetrical; it affects global and local processing equally. Evidence exists to suggest the effect may be automatic; however, we show here that the level repetition effect requires some amount of competition from the ignored level, and that the nature of the irrelevant information can determine whether the level-repetition effect is symmetrical (global and local responses are affected equally) or asymmetrical (global responses are more greatly affected than local responses). In Experiment 1, the level-repetition effect was eliminated when information at the distracting level was invariant across trials; effects of hemisphere bias and level repetition were observed only when suppression or filtering of distractor information was required. Experiment 2 demonstrated that simple featural variance is sufficient to produce the level repetition effect and that the symmetry of the level-repetition effect is sensitive to Garner-type interference that affects global processing to a greater extent than local processing. In Experiment 3, we showed that the absence of a level-repetition effect in the invariant distractor condition persists when the position of relevant stimuli is random within a block, a manipulation which should greatly reduce the contribution of controlled attention. We conclude that simple featural variance at the ignored level is critical to produce the advantage of level repetition, and that the size of the effect can be asymmetrical.     

Mental rotation of random lined figures

The present study investigated the possible occurrence of mental rotation in judgments of whether pairs of line figures were identical. The feasibility of two discrete cognitive explanations based on holistic transformation and on feature computation was examined with varied levels of complexity controlled by the numbers of lines in a figure. In the experiment, participants were required to judge whether simultaneously presented pairs of figures were the same or different. When the participants' data were collapsed for regression analyses, evidence for mental rotation was not detected at any level of complexity, but reanalysis of the data revealed that some participants employed mental rotation in the cognition of complex figures. A monotonous increase in reaction times as a function of the number of lines was evident in identical pairs of figures but not in nonidentical pairs. It is argued that the feature computation explanation would better account for these results than would the holistic transformation explanation.