The APA Style Converter: a Web-based interface for converting articles to APA style for publication

The APA Style Converter is a Web-based tool with which authors may prepare their articles in APA style according to the APAPublication Manual (5th ed.). The Converter provides a user-friendly interface that allows authors to copy and paste text and upload figures through the Web, and it automatically converts all texts, references, and figures to a structured article in APA style. The output is saved in PDF or RTF format, ready for either electronic submission or hardcopy printing.     

The drawing of squares and diamonds: a perceptual-motor task analysis

The aim of the present study was to establish the role of perceptual-motor factors in copying an equilateral four-sided figure. Children, 5 to 12 years, and adults, were asked to copy the figure presented in either "square" or "diamond" orientation under five conditions: control; large model presentation; neutral picture frame surround; partial visual information reduction; and total visual information loss. The model was present at all times. Scores were orientation and angular variability. Developmental trends were found for both figures; the diamond was less well performed than the square at all ages tested. Three perceptual-motor factors were found to be important: formulation of the movement plan; movement programming, and sensory feedback. The difficulty of the diamond is thought to be due to the high programming and hence planning demands in drawing oblique lines. Both kinaesthesis and sequential vision are important factors in drawing; and only from 12 years of age are environmental cues used efficiently to orient the figure.     

Effects of practice and transfer in the detection of embedded figures

Gottschaldt's (1926) study on embedded figures serves as the foundation for the claim that Gestalt factors limit the impact of experience on perception. The present experiments studied the effects of practice and transfer on the detection of embedded figures. Experiment 1 showed the clear effects of practice that might have been due to recognition. Moreover, it demonstrated the effects of transfer, thus reducing the potential impact of recognition. Experiment 2 replicated practice effects and extended them to other types of part and whole figures. It was conducted to evaluate the specificity of the transfer in more detail. In Experiments 1 and 2, transfer between old and new items only occurred when either the figures and their basic elements were of the same kind or the same search strategies could be used. Thus, perceptual abilities improve by training even when Gestalt factors are at work. Possible sources of these improvements are discussed with special attention to a distinction between figural and procedural aspects.     

4~7岁儿童绘画摹写的语义编码特点

以二维模型为主对儿童绘画编码特点及发展进程的探讨。研究对象为4—7岁儿童,按年龄分为4组,共163人。主要实验有二：一是选择同一实物的三维和二维两类模型让被试摹写;二是选择语义熟悉程度和语义多寡不同的二维模型让被试摹写。个别实验,实验顺序随机安排。研究结果表明：儿童对维度不同的模型绘画编码具有共同的特点,表现出三种编码形式：其一,将模型的各构件分离,各自独立编码;其二,依模型的典型特征编码;其三,按各模型真实形象编码。儿童对不同维度模型绘画编码发展的进程不同。对二维模型绘画编码水平和发展速度比三维模型提早1年。模型语义的多寡及熟悉程度影响儿童二维模型绘画编码。     

Sex differences and the role of figural complexity in determining the rate of mental rotation

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of figural complexity on the rate of mental rotation of 3-dimensional figures and to compare the performance of men and women. Complexity was manipulated in three ways: by changing the number of blocks in the figure (7 or 10), by altering the number of turns (2 or 3), and by using outline or solid figures. In the first study, these factors were manipulated between groups of subjects. Women showed steeper slopes than men, but none of the complexity variables affected either slope or intercept for the mental rotation function. In the second study, number of turns and number of blocks were manipulated within-subjects, using only the solid figures. There were significant sex differences in both slope and intercept, and the number of blocks affected the slope of the rotation function. In both studies, a small percentage of the subjects showed nonlinear functions relating angular rotation to response time. Although the women consistently showed slower rotation functions, rate of rotation did not relate either to figural complexity or to nonlinearity. The results suggest that the rate of mental rotation is not affected by figural complexity, at least at the levels used in the present study, and that men and women employ essentially similar strategies.     

The effect of knowledge of reversibility on the reversibility of ambiguous figures

The role of knowledge of the reversibility of reversible figures was tested in four experiments. Two ambiguous figures, the vase-face figure and a depth-reversing pyramid-hallway figure were shown to high school students. In the Uninformed condition, subjects were not told that the figures were reversible. A sampling procedure was used in which subjects reported what they perceived at 5-sec intervals. Viewing durations of up to 3 min were used, and approximately half of all subjects did not reverse at all during the uninformed condition, whereas virtually all subjects reversed quickly and frequently once they knew that the figures were reversible. These results are not consistent with neural fatigue models of perceptual reversal.     

The storage of physical and name properties in short-term visual memory

Two experiments investigated the hypothesis that short-term visual memory is based primarily on physical features of the visual input. Subjects were required to recall visually presented figures or the names of those figures presented either visually or aurally at a number of different retention intervals. Subjects shadowed words during the retention interval presented aurally in Experiment I and visually in Experiment II. In both experiments, figures were recalled better than names and no differences in recall of names were found due to presentation modality. Recall of both names conditions showed a steady decline across retention intervals whereas recall of figures remained at a relatively high level. These findings were interpreted as providing further support for the existence of short-term visual memory not subject to auditory recoding and based primarily on physical features of the input. It was suggested that such visual memory is limited in capacity so that input exceeding this capacity is recoded into an auditory-verbal-linguistic form.     

Feature mislocalizations and misjudgments of intercharacter distance

Summary Three experiments were conducted to gather evidence for Wolford's (1975) feature perturbation model and claims derived from it. The first experiment found that perturbation or mislocalization of features toward the foveal center predominated when a distinctive standard for localization was presented and short-term memory factors were minimized. The second experiment found that foveal mislocalizations do seem to cause two figures in the visual field to be reported as closer to one another than they actually are presented. The final experiment provided no support for the notion that interference between figures in the visual field is caused by foveal mislocalizations making features from the figures appear to be at the same location. A distinction between mislocalizations of figures due to feature perturbations and errors due to figures which were correctly localized but not reported in the instructed order was possible in the last two experiments.     

完美主义者对不完美图形的注意偏好研究

本研究通过两组点探测任务实验,考察高完美主义者和低完美主义者对不完美图形的注意模式。两组实验都表明,当不完美图形与完美图形成对出现时,高完美主义的个体倾向于回避不完美图形,而低完美主义的个体对不完美图形表现出一定的注意倾向。图形不完美的程度对被试的注意偏好模式也有影响。被试比较容易从对中度不完美图形的注意中抽离出来。研究者推断：不完美图形能够唤起完美主义者的“不完美焦虑”,产生注意俘获效应,使其比非完美主义者更难从对这类图形的注意中抽离。     

Memory for orientation of forms as a function of their meaningfulness and complexity.

Accuracy of memory for left-right orientation of single figures varying in meaningfulness and complexity was studied in subjects from kindergarten to adulthood. Complexity was an unimportant variable. Orientation of meaningful figures was remembered better than orientation of nonmeaningful figures at all ages. There were no developmental differences in memory for meaningful figures beyond kindergarten, but pronounced developmental differences were found in memory for nonmeaningful figures. It was proposed that a decision to store orientation information is dependent upon a judgment about the meaningfulness of a presented figure, and that young children have more difficulty than adults in finding meaningfulness in unfamiliar forms. The decision to store appears to occur automatically, since there was only a small difference between conditions in which subjects were informed or not informed to remember orientation. It was also suggested that part of the often reported difficulty in remembering diagonal orientation may be due to the symmetry of the diagonal forms typically investigated.     

Improvement of a figure copying deficit during subsensory galvanic vestibular stimulation

We describe the effects of galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) on an individual who, following right hemisphere stroke, is unable to copy figures accurately. His copies contain most of the constituent elements, but are poorly integrated and drawn in a seemingly haphazard manner. To test whether GVS could help overcome these difficulties, we administered the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure copy task while manipulating both the presence and laterality of the galvanic signal. The signal was applied at a level that was too low to elicit sensation which ensured that the individual was unaware of either when or on what side he was being stimulated. Relative to a sham condition, two consecutive blocks of GVS increased both the accuracy with which the main configural elements of the figure were reconstructed, and there was some, albeit less consistent evidence, that these were drawn in a more wholistic as opposed to piecemeal manner. Improvement was not reliant on the polarity of the stimulating electrodes. These results suggest that GVS can help overcome difficulties in the perception and/or reconstruction of hierarchical visual form, and thereby uncover a new link between vestibular information processing and visual task performance.     

Dependent spatial channels in visual processing

The present experiments were designed to test whether or not processing in visual information channels defined by spatial position is independent in the visual search paradigm. In Experiment 1 subjects were asked to judge whether or not a red square was present in a display of two colored geometric figures. Their mean reaction time (RT) to respond no to a “divided target” display in which one figure was red and the other was a square was about 100 msec longer than to control displays containing either two red circles or two green squares. This result is inconsistent with a spatially serial independent-channel model and with many spatially parallel independent-channel models. The relatively slow responding to divided target displays was replicated in Experiments 2 and 3, when subjects judged whether or not an “A” was present in a display of two alphanumeric characters, and a divided target display was one which contained two features of “A.” Experiments 4 and 5 demonstrated that the dependence observed in the first three experiments was probably the result of two mechanisms: crosstalk integration, whereby the target features are integrated across the two spatial channels, and repetition facilitation, whereby processing is facilitated (in some cases) when the two figures in the display are physically identical. Experiment 6 suggested that subjects organized the display in terms of spatial channels even when the task allowed subjects to ignore spatial location.     

Comparison of the Medical College of Georgia Complex Figures and the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure tests in a normal sample of Japanese university students

Comparability of copy and recall performance on the four figures of the Medical College of Georgia Complex Figures and the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure were examined using an incidental learning paradigm with 60 men and 60 women, healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 24 years (M = 21.5 yr., SD = 1.5) at a Japanese university. A between-subjects design was used in which each group of participants (n = 24) responded to five figures. The interrater reliability of each Georgia figure was excellent. While the five figures yielded equivalent copy scores, the Rey-Osterrieth figure had significantly lower scores than the Georgia figures at recall after 3 min. There were no significant differences between the four Georgia figures. These results are consistent with the findings of the original studies in the USA.     

The latent variable approach as applied to transitive reasoning

We discuss the limitations of hypothesis testing using (quasi-) experiments in the study of cognitive development and suggest latent variable modeling as a viable alternative to experimentation. Latent variable models allow testing a theory as a whole, incorporating individual differences with respect to developmental processes or abilities in the model. Experiments, in contrast, aim at testing hypotheses that refer to a specific part of a theory; also they ignore individual differences or model the individual differences using age group as a proxy for developmental stage. Drawing on a sample of 409 5–13-year olds, we demonstrate the advantages of latent variable models in the area of transitive reasoning. A comparison of three models showed that the latent variable model that represented fuzzy trace theory had a better fit than the models representing Piaget's theory or linear ordering theory.     

Late influences on perceptual grouping: illusory figures

Two experiments demonstrate that grouping can be strongly influenced by the presence of figures defined by illusory contours. Rectangular arrays were constructed in which a central column of figures could group either with those on one side, on the basis of perception of figures defined by illusory contours, or with those on the other side, on the basis of physically present inducing elements. In all displays, subjects grouped according to the illusory figures significantly more often than for control displays that contained the same inducing elements, but rearranged so that illusory contours were degraded or eliminated. A second experiment showed that in objectively defined grouping tasks, subjects grouped faster by illusory figures than by inducing elements. These results indicate that grouping can occur after illusory contours have been perceived.     

Framing the figure: Mental rotation revisited in light of cognitive strategies

The mental rotation literature commonly reports a sex difference, almost always favoring men. Two strategies have been proposed in the literature to account for this difference: holistic and piecemeal. However, there is great variability in rotation performance suggesting other possible contributing factors. This study investigated the effects of stimuli characteristics and habitual spatial thinking on mental rotation performance. In three experiments, participants completed a mental rotation task with two modifications: (1) 3-D figures were presented with their cut versions to promote piecemeal strategy, and (2) block figures were either presented within a frame or none, in light of reference framework model or perceptual grouping model. Overall, whole figures generated faster responses than cut figures and this was more pronounced with greater angular disparity. Shape or the presence of a frame affected rotation performance. Having a frame seemed to impede overall rotation, especially for cut figures, supporting an object-based reference frame. However, a 3-D frame did not have the same effect, possibly suggesting the unitary configuration idea. Men rotated more accurately than women, but still sex was not as robust as it was suggested in the literature. Interestingly, there were similarities between possible strategy use and habitual spatial thinking. People who were categorized as having landmark-centered representations and who preferred verbal directions showed a pattern suggesting the use of a piecemeal strategy, and survey-centered representations and map preference seemed to reflect a holistic strategy.     

Contextual sensitivity in young children's drawings

Previous research has examined the characteristic errors made by young children when drawing from a three-dimensional array. The aim of the present research was to investigate the influence of context in copying tasks. In a series of three experiments children between the ages of 4 and 7 years were presented with contrasting models to copy. These included cups and sugar bowls in various combinations and orientations. In each experiment the children's copies were scored for inclusion or omission of the occluded handle on the model. The results showed that nearly one third of the children did not respond consistently by either copying accurately or by always including the occluded handle. Instead the findings pointed to a large group of children whose responses were directed by the type of context present within the arrays.     

Angular figures constrain the perpendicular bias in children's line copying

When young children copy a vertical line that protrudes from the midpoint of a pre-drawn oblique baseline, they tend to perpendicularise this line. We measured this bias for standard figures and for symmetrical angular figures. The 5- and 6-year-old participants produced the expected bias for the standard figures. However, these same children showed no such bias when tested with angular figures. This suggests that the mechanisms involved in coding angular information directly are not prone to the perpendicular bias.     

Visual imagery and verbalization with simple tachistoscopic displays

Two experiments, designed to compare the perception and retention of tachisto-scopic displays of four block capital letters and four simple “nonsense” figures are described. The results show that the letters were much better remembered and suggest that this was mainly due to the ease with which they were verbalized. The nonsense figures usually gave rise either to rapidly fading “iconic” images, or to an unstable kind of mixed imagery which was difficult to describe or remember, but in which inadequate verbalization was often a source of error. Subsidiary experiments illustrate the importance, not only of verbalization, but also of symmetry and simplicity in remembering visual display.     

Item type,occlusion, and gender differences in mental rotation

Two experiments were conducted to examine the role of item type in mental rotation. In each experiment, participants completed two computerized mental rotation tasks, one with blocks as stimuli and one with human figures as stimuli. The tasks were formatted either as a multiple-choice psychometric test (Experiment 1) or as a same–different type task (Experiment 2). Aside from the expected replication of a decreased effect of occlusion on women's accuracy when processing human figures compared to block figures, it was hypothesized that response times would increase when processing the complex but familiar human figures, compared to the simple but unfamiliar block figures. In Experiment 1, the results relevant to occlusion were replicated. However, the presence of a speed–accuracy trade-off suggested that participants processed human figures faster but less accurately than block figures. In Experiment 2, both men and women performed faster and more accurately when processing occluded human figures than when processing nonoccluded human figures. The effect of item type, its potential link to embodied cognition, and the role of strategy selection on gender differences in mental rotation are discussed.