Effects of input conditions on intramodal and crossmodal visual and kinesthetic matches by children

Three experiments are reported on the relation between children's intramodal and crossmodal visual and kinesthetic performance under conditions varying the difficulty of the input patterns. Crossmodal recognition errors exceeded intramodal errors on distance patterns with two and four constituents by ten-year-olds (Expt 1), and by 5.5-year-olds on single and double distance patterns (Expt 2). Preschoolers showed no significant crossmodal deficits in the recognition of single and double patterns (Expt 2), or in recall of single lengths presented in blocked or alternating order (Expt 3). No interactions between crossmodal errors and pattern difficulty were found. Order of presenting the patterns (Expts 1 and 2), and blocked versus alternating presentations (Expt 3) had significant effects on the relation between intramodal and crossmodal errors. The results are discussed with reference to explanations of crossmodal matching.     

The magical number seven and some other features of category scaling: Properties of a model for absolute judgment

A model for absolute judgment is presented. This is derived from a theory of the processes which set and maintain response criteria (M. Treisman & T. C. Williams, 1984, Psychological Review, 91, 68–111) which has been applied to a number of problems in psychophysics. A Thurstonian model is assumed as a basis for absolute judgment, and criterion-setting theory is applied to the criteria in this model. The question is then considered, to what extent can such a model account for the main findings that have been obtained in category scaling? The range of explanations that the model can provide is investigated by means of computer simulation. It appears that features such as the upper limit on information transmission as the number of stimuli increases, the effect of stimulus range on information transmission, the accuracy edge effect, the resolution edge effect, the central tendency of judgment, stimulus and response dependencies, and related phenomena can be reproduced by simulations of the model.     

Children's understanding of the link between situation and emotion

Children of 6 and 10 years were assessed in three experiments for their insight into emotional reactions that are not directly linked to the current situation. Experiment 1 showed that both age groups know that emotion gradually wanes, after the precipitating situation. Experiment 2 showed that both age groups, but especially 6-year-olds, have difficulty in admitting that a single situation can provoke an emotional conflict between a positive and a negative emotion. Experiment 3 showed, on the other hand, that both age groups understand how an earlier situation can provoke an emotion that persists so as to eventually be concurrent with a later, conflicting emotion. Overall, the results show that both age groups understand that a person's current emotional state cannot be directly inferred from his or her immediate situation. Yet they have considerable difficulty in admitting that a single situation can sometimes provoke both a positive and a negative emotion.     

Inferential reasoning in old age

Two experiments examined the effects of aging on the kind of inferential reasoning required in comprehending discourse. In Experiment 1 old subjects made more errors than young subjects in solving logical problems framed in everyday language. Unlike the young subjects they had more difficulty when the problems were spoken than when they were written. Experiment 2 revealed that old subjects are inefficient at extracting implicit information during reading; they fail to generate bridging inferences to supply missing information, so that comprehension is restricted to explicitly stated information. The results show that verbal reasoning ability is impaired in old age and that this affects language comprehension in both listening and reading although the deficit is more marked in listening.     

Homotopic callosal inhibition

Previous theories concerning the function of the corpus callosum have included a “topographic” column-to-column excitatory theory and a diffuse “regional” inhibitory theory. Here it is shown that a topographic inhibitory model, in conjunction with a postulate concerning surround inhibition among cortical columns, produces complementary patterns of cortical column firing which, although qualitatively different, do not imply quantitative metabolic asymmetries. The cognitive implications of such homotopic inhibition are discussed.     

Acquisition and forgetting in monkeys' memory of informational object-reward associations

The first experiment showed the monkeys could recall whether an object had been rewarded with peanuts or with sultanas, two equally preferred foods. The second investigated the effect of rewarded trials with an object on monkeys' ability to recall a nonrewarded trial with the same object. The third demonstrated that monkeys could use the memory of reward to predict nonreward and the memory of nonreward to predict reward, in a Win-Shift Lose-Stay paradigm. The fourth found differences between Win-Shift Lose-Stay and Win-Stay Lose-Shift in the rate at which associations between objects and reward events were forgotten. These results are discussed in relation to D. L. Medin's (In A. M. Schrier, Ed., Behavioral primatology, Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1977, Vol. I, pp. 33–69) distinction between informational and hedonic effects of reward in monkeys. It is argued that the association between an object and a reward event is represented in memory by many independent traces, different traces recording the object's association with different attributes of the reward event.     

Spatial representation by blind and sighted children

Spatial representation by 72 blind and blindfolded sighted children between the ages of 6 and 11 was tested in two experiments by mental rotation of a raised line under conditions of clockwise varied directions.Experiment 1 showed that the two groups were well matched on tactual recognition and scored equally badly on matching displays to their own mentally rotated position.Experiment 2 found the sighted superior in recall tests. There was a highly significant interaction between sighted status and degree of rotation. Degree of rotation affected only the blind. Their scores were significantly lower for rotating to oblique and to the far orthogonal directions than to near orthogonal test positions. On near orthogonals the blind did not differ from the sighted.Age was a main effect, but it did not interact with any other variable. Older blind children whose visual experience dated from before the age of 6 were superior to congenitally blind subjects, but not differentially more so on oblique directions.The results were discussed in relation to hypotheses about the nature of spatial representation and strategies by children whose prior experience derived from vision or from touch and movement.     

Effective list length and part-whole transfer in first-graders' multitrial free recall

First-gradens' multitrial free recall shows an effective list-length (ELL) effect: an initial recall gain followed by a constant output level that fluctuates in item content. The part-whole transfer paradigm was used to investigate ELL. The ELL effect occurred in whole-list learning regardless of whether the prior task consisted of relevant practice, irrelevant practice, or an unrelated task. Relevant part-list learning resulted in positive transfer which declined from a high to a marginal level over the course of whole-list learning. Other analyses indicated a general deficit in the use of strategies. A response-strength model was used to explain the ELL effect and the transfer results.     

Place versus response as the basis of spatial errors made by young infants

Nine-month-old infants search successfully for an object which they have seen hidden in one position, but they frequently continue to search for it there after observing it being hidden in a new position. This error can be explained in terms either of egocentric response perseveration or of perseveration to a particular place in space. In order to distinguish between these hypotheses, 80 infants were presented with a problem consisting of several different conditions which separated response, position on a table, and absolute spatial position as factors leading to errors in search for hidden objects. The results strongly support the egocentric response hypothesis. The reason for this response perseveration strategy is discussed in terms of the lack of active experience of spatial displacements among 9-month-old infants.     

Effect of thought-stopping on thoughts,mood and corrugator EMG in depressed patients

The immediate effects of thought-stopping applied to depressive thoughts were compared to those of a control procedure in a group of depressed psychiatric day-patients. Thought-stopping had only a weak effect on average in reducing the frequency of depressive thoughts, and no significant effects on depressed mood or corrugator EMG. A small significant effect on anxious mood appeared related to non-specific factors. The results raise the possibility that thought-stopping may have little specific effect in reducing the frequency of unwanted thoughts. Corrugator EMG was significantly related to the frequency of spontaneously occurring depressive thoughts both between and within subjects.     

The effect of instruction with relational and item-specific elaborative strategies on young children's organization and free recall

One hundred and sixty second-grade children were assigned on the basis of a free recall pretest to four instruction conditions and were given a series of lists of pictures for free recall. For three groups, the instructions were directed at encoding either (a) list organizational information, (b) item-specific semantic information, or (c) organizational and individual item information, while the fourth group constituted a “No-training” control with standard free recall instructions. The subjects received either related or unrelated lists during the training phase and related or unrelated lists during two post-tests, immediately following and 1 week after training. For both types of lists, instructions emphasizing list organization were more effective than those emphasizing item-specific elaboration. Subjects given individual item elaborative instructions showed levels of recall which were comparable to those of the control subjects. While the combined effect of organizational and individual item processing did not exceed the performance produced by organizational instructions alone, the degree of generalization was greater for subjects processing both kinds of information, especially when subjects received related lists during training.     

Children's detection and awareness of textual anomaly

Children of 8 and 11 years were assessed in two experiments for their sensitivity to textual anomaly. In Experiment 1, subjects read stories containing two target lines, one appropriate and the other anomalous in relation to previously given information. Both age groups read the anomalous line more slowly than the appropriate line, but in a subsequent test of comprehension monitoring, the older group was more likely than the younger group to pick out the anomalous line as not fitting in with the rest of the story. Experiment 2 produced similar results: both 8- and 11-year-old children read an anomalous line more slowly, but 11-year-olds were more likely than 8-year-olds to cite the anomalous line or part of it when questioned about the possible presence of a line that did not fit in with the rest of the story. The results indicate that an age change in comprehension monitoring as indexed by citation or selection of a textual anomaly need not be contingent upon a parallel age change in constructive processing as indexed by modulation of reading rate.     

Central and peripheral vision in early infancy

The size of the effective visual field during the first weeks of life is found to depend on two factors: It increases with age, but it contracts in the face of competition from ongoing activity such as fixation of a central stimulus or non-nutritive sucking.     

Prototypicality and personality: Effects on free recall and personality impressions

An experiment was performed to test the hypothesis that it is easier to process information about characters who fit well with and are, therefore, “prototypical” of shared beliefs about various personality types. Character prototypicality was manipulated in a free recall and personality impression paradigm through variations in the consistency of a character's identification with preexisting beliefs about two personality-type categories—extraversion and introversion. Subjects also were given information about each character that varied in degree of abstraction from traits to concrete behavior. As predicted, both the amount and nature of the information correctly recalled were significantly affected by the consistency of the character's identification with extraversion or with introversion. Character consistency also significantly affected the amount of material written in the personality impressions and the tendency to qualify the generality of the impressions. The results support a model in which incoming data about personality are coded, structured, elaborated, and remembered according to the quality of their match with preexisting beliefs about various personality types.     

Retrieval processes in recall

A reaction time (RT) paradigm was developed to study retrieval processes in paired associate (PA) recall. Prior to the experimental session, subjects learned lists of PAs (varying in length from three to 24 pairs); during the experimental session, subjects' RT to say the response word from the onset of a visually presented stimulus word was measured. The implications of several classes of retrieval models were discussed in the context of this paradigm. The shape of the RT-list length function, practice, and sequential effects were all of interest in distinguishing among models. Four experiments were reported which were designed to (1) establish the baseline effects in this paradigm, (2) determine which of these effects should be attributed to the retrieval stage of processing, and (3) investigate the effect of semantic memory in this task. Results suggest that simple serial scanning models are inadequate to handle the data from this task. Strength, direct-access, or parallel processing models, on the other hand, seem to capture the qualitative effects present in our experiments. When a strength model was formalized and fit to the data from Experiment I, it was found that a two-trace version gave good quantitative fits while a one-trace version did not, suggesting that both short- and long-term memory independently contribute in this task.     

Visual imagery and dream recall

Research in dream recall frequency has failed to isolate psychological variables which clearly and reliably differentiate frequent dream recallers from infrequent recallers. The present study tested the hypothesis that frequent recallers have a greater capacity for visual imagery than infrequent recallers. Subjects selected on the basis of reported dream recall frequency were administered a Paired-Associate Learning task designed to measure visual imagery, a rating scale of imagery clarity and vividness, and a subjective measure of imagery controllability. The results provide support for the hypothesis and, together with other evidence, suggest that a generalized capacity for visualization may contribute to the quality of the dreaming experience and, consequently, to its recallability.     

Information extraction during visual search: A developmental progression

Five developmental experiments examine the role of context in visual search. Experiments I and II presented either lists or paragraphs that were either in meaningful context or scrambled. Results showed a significant interaction of these variables. Experiment II examined within-item context or predictability and replicated and extended the work of Brand (1971) and Ingling (1972). Experiments IV and V examined search through lists of various widths; results showed a significant interaction of Grade × Position × Width reflecting the different perceptual spans of children and adults. Although these were search tasks, appropriate comparisons between list and paragraph performance were made allowing interpretations of the results to be supportive of a model of reading in which meaningfulness, predictability, and peripheral vision play critical roles.     

Five-month-old infant recall and utilization of temporal organization

The ability of 5-month-old infants to recall temporal information and utilize temporal organization was investigated in two experiments. Infants were trained to fixate a hierarchically structured or an unstructured sequence of stimuli which appeared in four spatial positions. In the first study, the number of infants who demonstrated correct recall through the third serial position of a sequence was significantly better then would occur by chance. In the second study, infants given structured sequences showed a significant increase in the number of correct fixations across trials, and they recalled across serial positions better in structured sequences. Also, accuracy of recall in both studies for the middle serial positions was related to hierarchical organization following 8-unit structured sequence training but was at chance level following unstructured sequence training. Results of both studies were interpreted within a temporal organizational framework: Infants appear to utilize organization within sequences of information.