A further investigation of apparent size and retinal size as determinants of the figural after-effect

A figure which is more distant from the eye than another but subtends the same visual angle is usually seen as the larger. This phenomenon is called perceptual size constancy. Experiments have been reported which show that sometimes the apparent and sometimes the retinal sizes of the stimulus figures determine the direction of the figural after-effect. These experiments are reviewed and two further experiments are reported. In the first experiment two types of stimulus figure (discs and annuli) which subtended a visual angle of 1° 36' resulted in figural after-effects, the direction of which would have been predicted by the retinal sizes of the figures. In the second experiment larger figures were used which subtended a visual angle of about 4° and which were the same as those used by Sutherland (1954). In this experiment the after-effects were generally in a direction which would have been expected if apparent size determined the direction of the after-effect. In the interpretation of the results attention is drawn to the “Central Tendency Effect” which has been observed in size judgements of stimulus figures of varying size. Two hypotheses are suggested; one is that the true figural aftereffect has been obscured by the “Central Tendency Effect” in successive judgements, and the other is that time error in successive judgements of size is essentially a figural aftereffect. Some supportive evidence for the latter hypothesis is reported. It is concluded that apparent size is not a critical determinant of the figural after-effect.     

Human judgements of control: The interaction of the current contingency and previous controllability

Two experiments were carried out to determine the effects of the learned helplessness treatment on judgement of control over a outcome. In the first experiment judgements were found to be sensitive to the actual level of response-outcome contingency. When the contingency level was high, this sensitivity was also influenced by pretreatment, in that a prior uncontrollable experience gave rise to lower judgements than both a controllable one and no experience at all. The latter pretreatments produced the most accurate judgements. In the second experiment the judgements after an uncontrollable task were found to be insensitive to a previous controllable or uncontrollable pretreatment. The results are discussed in terms of contingency-learning models.     

Temporal contiguity and the judgement of causality by human subjects

Three experiments examined the role of the degree of temporal contiguity between an action and an outcome in human causality judgement. In all the experiments subjects were required to perform an action—pressing a key on a computer keyboard—and to judge the extent to which the action caused an outcome on the computer screen to occur. The action and outcome occurred on a free-operant schedule. In the first experiment a 2-sec delay between the action and outcome reduced causality judgements relative to a situation in which there was no delay. In the second experiment judgements in conditions with delays of 0, 4, 8, and 16 sec were compared with judgements in conditions in which the same pattern of outcomes occurred non-contingently with respect to the subjects' responding. In both of these experiments the events were controlled by random ratio schedules, following the procedure of Wasserman, Chatlosh, and Neunaber (1983), in which each condition was divided into 1-sec intervals. In the third experiment judgements in conditions with delays of 0, 2, 4, or 8 sec were compared in a continuous procedure rather than one divided into 1-sec intervals. In all experiments the increasing delays led to progressively lower judgements of causality. The results are related to three accounts of the mechanism underlying human causality judgement and are also compared with results from analogous animal conditioning studies.     

Not Half Bad: Self and Others’ Judgements of Body Size and Attractiveness Across the Life Span

Self-deprecating judgements of body size are a robust exception to the general tendency for people to make self-enhancing judgements of themselves. This paper investigates whether the failure to make self-enhancing body size judgements also generalises to judgements of other physically grounded attributes, namely, physical attractiveness and sexiness. Sixty Australian women and men aged between 18 and 88 years of age were photographed, and their own ratings of their body size, attractiveness and sexiness were compared with those made of them by others. Women and men made self-deprecating judgements of body size, but made self-enhancing judgements of attractiveness and sexiness. We suggest that the unambiguous nature of cultural standards for body size, rather than low self-esteem, accounts for the self-deprecating judgements of body size made by men and women.     

Size-weight interaction in judgements of compound stimuli

Recent work in the fields of multidimensional information transmission and perceptual accentuation due to value has led to theories concerning unidimensional judgements of compound stimuli. The present study attempts to explore these theories, adding the dimension of size to judged weight, following negative results with judgements of size when brightness is varied.

Three sets of stimulus objects were prepared. Variation of weight was the same in each set. However, the size of the objects was the same in one set, while in another set size increased with weight, and in a third set size and weight were negatively correlated. Three groups of 16 subjects were asked to make replicated absolute judgements of the weights in each set.

It appeared that judgements of weight are more affected by density when density varies than when changes of size produce constant density. As predicted, contrast between successive stimuli is greatest when size and weight are negatively correlated, and least with positive correlation. The extent of the judged scales, and the means of these scales, follow the same pattern. Differences in discriminability between the three series, whilst in the expected direction, are not significant. The hypothesis that these effects would be more apparent in the psychologically linked dimensions of size and weight, than in the relatively neutral case of size and brightness, was largely confirmed. These findings both amplify and modify the previous suggestions concerning compound stimuli.     

The role of colour in categorial judgements

Two experiments are reported that extend the findings of Ostergaard and Davidoff (1985) on the role of colour in object processing. Two types of categorial judgements were investigated from pictorial stimuli: size judgement and living/non-living classifications. The effect of real size on size judgements (Paivio, 1975) was replicated. It was found that colour did not affect either of the categorial judgements, but the facilitation occurring in object naming tasks was confirmed. It is argued that semantic judgements can precede name retrieval, that physical colour input does not enter the semantic system, and that the representation of object colour information in the semantic system may be largely verbal.     

Predictive Feeling of Knowing Judgements and Postdictive Confidence Judgements in Eyewitness Memory and General Knowledge

Recent accounts of feeling of knowing (FOK) judgements assume that they arise from an assessment of cue familiarity, whilst retrospective confidence judgements arise from an assessment of the retrieval process. An experiment was conducted to extend this laboratory work to the area of eyewitness memory, in order to examine whether subjects are able to make accurate feeling of knowing judgements and retrospective confidence judgements for eyewitness memory (EM), in contrast to general knowledge (GK). For confidence judgements there was a reliable within-subject assessment of confidence for both GK and EM, but reliable between-subjects confidence—accuracy correlations for general knowledge only. For FOK a different pattern emerged, with no evidence of FOK accuracy for eyewitness memory at all. The theoretical implications of this pattern are discussed.     

Background surface and horizon effects in the perception of relative size and distance

The projected height of an object in a scene relative to a ground surface influences its perceived size and distance, but the effect of height should change when the object is moved above the horizon. In four experiments, observers judged relative size or relative distance for pairs of objects varying in height with respect to the horizon. Higher objects equal in projected size were judged larger below the horizon, but the relative size effect was reversed either when one object was on the horizon and one was above the horizon or when both objects were above the horizon. With the real horizon not explicitly present in the display, relative size judgements were affected both by the boundary of the visible surface and the vanishing point implied by the converging lines. For relative distance judgements, the higher object was judged more distant regardless of the height of the objects relative to the perceptual horizon, resulting in a reversal of the relation between size and distance judgements for objects above the horizon.     

Variations in size judgements as a function of surface texture

Adult subjects made monocular size judgements in two experiments in which the independent variables of surface texture and restrictions on viewing conditions were manipulated. Texture density gradients of stimulation had a significant influence of size judgements only under the less reduced conditions of observation when subjects could see other textured surfaces beyond the surfaces over which judgements were made. Identical manipulations of surface texture had earlier been found to have a highly significant influence on relative distance judgements (Newman, 1971). The principally negative results were thus taken to imply that subjects extract different information from the texture density gradient when judging size from that extracted when judging relative distance.     

Emotions in sexual morality: Testing the separate elicitors of anger and disgust

Recent work suggests that negative moral judgements of sexual activities are informed by disgust and anger. A correlational study (N=62) and an experiment (N=176) examined the specific antecedents that elicit these distinct, though correlated, moral emotions. Participants in Study 1 rated their emotional reactions to, and judgements of, 10 sexual scenarios. Across scenarios, judgements of abnormality predicted disgust independent of anger, and judgements of harm/rights violation predicted anger independent of disgust. Study 2 replicated these results in an experimental design. Participants rated their emotions and judgements in response to behaviours that varied in degree of potential sexual morality violation (non-sexual, heterosexual, homosexual) and rights violation (no harm, indirect harm, direct harm). Judgement of rights violation mediated the effects of harm on anger. Judgements of abnormality, but not other antecedents proposed to elicit moral disgust, mediated the effects of sexual immorality on disgust.     

Perceived distance in imagined space

An experiment was designed to determine whether, in the absence of distance-cues, the perceived distance of an object is regulated by the imagined space in which the object is located. Judgements of distance and size were obtained in a completely reduced situation. Preceding these judgements, the subject engaged in 5 min. of visual exploration of the interior of an oblong box. The length of the box differed (3, 6 or 9 ft.) for different groups of subjects. The different pre-exposure conditions were expected to produce diffrences in the dimensions of the imagined space that the subject introduced in the subsequent test session. These differences in imagined space should lead to differences in the perceived distance of a single object located at a constant distance. Significant differences were obtained in the expected direction. In addition, judgements of the size of the standard tended to co-vary positively with the distance-judgments, suggesting that the effect of imagined space on judged distance was not simply the product of experimental biasing of the response system. Some methodological and theoretical implications of the findings are considered.     

Emotions in sexual morality: Testing the separate elicitors of anger and disgust

Recent work suggests that negative moral judgements of sexual activities are informed by disgust and anger. A correlational study (N=62) and an experiment (N=176) examined the specific antecedents that elicit these distinct, though correlated, moral emotions. Participants in Study 1 rated their emotional reactions to, and judgements of, 10 sexual scenarios. Across scenarios, judgements of abnormality predicted disgust independent of anger, and judgements of harm/rights violation predicted anger independent of disgust. Study 2 replicated these results in an experimental design. Participants rated their emotions and judgements in response to behaviours that varied in degree of potential sexual morality violation (non-sexual, heterosexual, homosexual) and rights violation (no harm, indirect harm, direct harm). Judgement of rights violation mediated the effects of harm on anger. Judgements of abnormality, but not other antecedents proposed to elicit moral disgust, mediated the effects of sexual immorality on disgust.     

Does binocular disparity or familiar size information override effects of relative size on judgements of time to contact?

Previous studies indicate that non-tau sources of depth information, such as pictorial depth cues, can influence judgements of time to contact (TTC). The effect of relative size on such judgements, the size-arrival effect, is particularly robust. However, earlier studies of the size-arrival effect did not include binocular disparity or familiar size information. The effects of these cues on relative TTC judgements were measured. Results suggested that disparity can eliminate the size-arrival effect but that the amount of disparity needed to do so is greater than typical stereoacuity thresholds. In contrast, familiar size eliminated the size-arrival effect even when disparity information was not available. Furthermore, disparity contributed more to performance when familiar size was present than when it was absent. Consistent with previous studies, TTC judgements were influenced by multiple sources of information. The present results suggested further that familiar size is one such source of information and that familiar size moderates the influence of binocular disparity information.     

An experimental study of angular subtension

The confusion arising over judgements of the sizes of angular forms is described. Three experiments are reported. In the first, the apparent-sizes of acute and obtuse angles are estimated. In the second, judgements of the sizes assumed by upward- and downward- and left- and right-facing angles are compared. The third experiment is concerned with tactile reproduction of angles of specified sizes. In discussion an attempt is made to clarify the logical and empirical problems involved.     

Responsibility attribution by groups and individuals: The effects of the interaction episode

Studied the effects of formal and informal interaction styles on the extremity of responsibility attribution judgements by groups. The stimuli were eight scenarios describing typical ‘life dilemmas’, incorporating the manipulation of the following two variables in a 2 × 2 design: (a) the risky-cautious decision taken by the actor in response to the dilemma, and (b) the outcome of the decision (success-failure). Subjects (N = 130) provided judgements about the attributed responsibility of the actor, and their perception of the actor and the situation first as individuals, followed by (a) formal or (b) informal group discussion, leading to consensus judgements. Results showed that group attributions were significantly more extreme than individual attributions, but only following the informal group interaction. The actors' riskiness and success were also significantly related to the size of the extremity shift. The findings are discussed in terms of the importance of the social context and the specific interaction episode in attribution judgements, and the possible implications of the results for such real life decision-making groups as committees and interviewing panels are considered.     

Factors that affect action possibility judgements: recent experience with the action and the current body state

It has been suggested that action possibility judgements are formed through a covert simulation of the to-be-executed action. We sought to determine whether the motor system (via a common coding mechanism) influences this simulation, by investigating whether action possibility judgements are influenced by experience with the movement task (Experiments 1 and 2) and current body states (Experiment 3). The judgement task in each experiment involved judging whether it was possible for a person's hand to accurately move between two targets at presented speeds. In Experiment 1, participants completed the action judgements before and after executing the movement they were required to judge. Results were that judged movement times after execution were closer to the actual execution time than those prior to execution. The results of Experiment 2 suggest that the effects of execution on judgements were not due to motor activation or perceptual task experience-alternative explanations of the execution-mediated judgement effects. Experiment 3 examined how judged movement times were influenced by participants wearing weights. Results revealed that wearing weights increased judged movement times. These results suggest that the simulation underlying the judgement process is connected to the motor system, and that simulations are dynamically generated, taking into account recent experience and current body state.     

Factors that affect action possibility judgements: Recent experience with the action and the current body state

It has been suggested that action possibility judgements are formed through a covert simulation of the to-be-executed action. We sought to determine whether the motor system (via a common coding mechanism) influences this simulation, by investigating whether action possibility judgements are influenced by experience with the movement task (Experiments 1 and 2) and current body states (Experiment 3). The judgement task in each experiment involved judging whether it was possible for a person's hand to accurately move between two targets at presented speeds. In Experiment 1, participants completed the action judgements before and after executing the movement they were required to judge. Results were that judged movement times after execution were closer to the actual execution time than those prior to execution. The results of Experiment 2 suggest that the effects of execution on judgements were not due to motor activation or perceptual task experience—alternative explanations of the execution-mediated judgement effects. Experiment 3 examined how judged movement times were influenced by participants wearing weights. Results revealed that wearing weights increased judged movement times. These results suggest that the simulation underlying the judgement process is connected to the motor system, and that simulations are dynamically generated, taking into account recent experience and current body state.     

An experimental synthesis of the associations and gestalt accounts of the perception of size: Part II

A quantitative and qualitative analysis is given of the judgements described in Part I of this paper. The relation between the findings of the experiment, and the Associationist and Gestalt accounts, is discussed.     

Predictions and causal estimations are not supported by the same associative structure

Studies performed by different researchers have shown that judgements about cue-outcome relationships are systematically influenced by the type of question used to request those judgements. It is now recognized that judgements about the strength of the causal link between a cue and an outcome are mostly determined by the cue-outcome contingency, whereas predictions of the outcome are more influenced by the probability of the outcome given the cue. Although these results make clear that those different types of judgement are mediated by some knowledge of the normative differences between causal estimations and outcome predictions, they do not speak to the underlying processes of these effects. The experiment presented here reveals an interaction between the type of question and the order of trials that challenges standard models of causal and predictive learning that are framed exclusively in associative terms or exclusively in higher order reasoning terms. However, this evidence could be easily explained by assuming the combined intervention of both types of process.     

Articulatory coding and phonological judgements on written words and pictures: The role of the phonological output buffer

Abstract

The ability of Italian subjects to make phonological judgements was investigated in three experiments. The judgements comprised initial sound similarity and stress assignment on pain of both written words and pictures. Stress assignment on both words and pictures as well as initial sound similarity on pictures required the activation of phonological lexical representations, but this was not necessarily the case for initial sound similarity judgements on word pairs. The first study assessed the effects of concurrent articulatory suppression on the judgements. Experiment 2 used a concomitant task (chewing), which shares with suppression the use of articulatory components but does not involve speech programming and production. The third experiment investigated the effects of unattended speech on the phonological judgements. The results of these three experiments showed that articulatory suppression had a significant disrupting effect on accuracy in all four conditions, while neither articulatory non-speech (chewing) or unattended auditory speech had any effect on the subjects' performance. The results suggest that these phonological judgements involve the operation of an articulatory speech output component, which is not implemented peripherally and does not require the involvement of a non-articulatory input system.