Spatial reasoning with external visualizations: what matters is what you see, not whether you interact

Three experiments examined the effects of interactive visualizations and spatial abilities on a task requiring participants to infer and draw cross sections of a three-dimensional (3D) object. The experiments manipulated whether participants could interactively control a virtual 3D visualization of the object while performing the task, and compared participants who were allowed interactive control of the visualization to those who were not allowed control. In Experiment 1, interactivity produced better performance than passive viewing, but the advantage of interactivity disappeared in Experiment 2 when visual input for the two conditions in a yoked design was equalized. In Experiments 2 and 3, differences in how interactive participants manipulated the visualization were large and related to performance. In Experiment 3, non-interactive participants who watched optimal movements of the display performed as well as interactive participants who manipulated the visualization effectively and better than interactive participants who manipulated the visualization ineffectively. Spatial ability made an independent contribution to performance on the spatial reasoning task, but did not predict patterns of interactive behavior. These experiments indicate that providing participants with active control of a computer visualization does not necessarily enhance task performance, whereas seeing the most task-relevant information does, and this is true regardless of whether the task-relevant information is obtained actively or passively.     

Attending to objects: costs or benefits?

The single-object advantage is said to occur when performance is faster and/or more accurate when the two targets to be compared appear on one object than when they appear on two different objects. The single-object advantage has been interpreted to suggest that attention can select objects rather than unparsed regions of visual space. In five experiments we explored whether directing attention to one object rather than two objects produces a benefit or a minor cost. Participants were required to compare two target features that belonged to one object, to two objects, or did not belong to any object. In addition, we varied the relevance to the task of object-related global information, such as symmetry of the object and perceptual cluttering of the background. Results showed that attending to one object in comparison to attending to no object produced a benefit only when object-related global information was relevant to the task. In contrast, when object-related global information was irrelevant to the task, attending to one object produced a cost. Thus, it can be concluded that attending to an object does not produce an absolute benefit, but rather produces a smaller cost than attending to two objects.     

Novelty-seeking,novelty-finding,and the developmental continuity of intelligence

This article suggests that novelty-seeking and novelty-finding, as well as the ability to learn and reason with novel kinds of concepts, are critical aspects of intelligence at all ages from infancy, onward. The results of studies by Lewis and Brooks-Gunn and by Fagan and McGrath regarding intelligence in infancy are reviewed, and these results are found to be compatible with some of my own results regarding intelligence in adulthood. It is suggested that a major aspect of intelligence, attitude toward and performance with novel kinds of concepts, is continuous in nature throughout the life span, although by necessity, they must be measured in different ways at different times of life.     

A stereo disadvantage for recognizing rotated familiar objects

We tested recognition of familiar objects in two different conditions: mono, where stimuli were displayed as flat, 2-D images, and stereo, where objects were displayed with stereoscopic depth information. In three experiments, participants performed a sequential matching task, where an object was rotated by up to 180° between presentations. When the 180° rotation resulted in large changes in depth for object components, recognition performance in the mono condition showed better performance at 180° rotations than at smaller rotations, but stereo presentations showed a monotonic increase in response time with rotation. However, 180° rotations that did not result in much depth variation showed similar patterns of results for mono and stereo conditions. These results suggest that in some circumstances, the lack of explicit 3-D information in 2-D images may influence the recognition of familiar objects when they are depicted on flat computer monitors.     

What’s in an object file? Evidence from priming studies

Six experiments were conducted to investigate the nature of the contents of object files, temporary representations that store information about objects. Experiment 1 used a lexical priming paradigm with a lexical decision task, in which the prime and target could appear in either the same or different locations. The results indicated a greater priming effect when the prime and target appeared in the same location than when they appeared in different locations (object- or location-specific priming). Experiment 2 replicated these findings for objects that changed position during the display. Experiment 3 demonstrated that these findings reflected the inclusion of abstract identity information, rather than physical form, in object files. Three additional experiments tested for the presence of three types of semantic information (related concepts, semantic features, and category membership) in object files. No object-specific priming effects were found. Taken together, these experiments suggest that an object file includes identity information, but not semantic information. Implications of the results for object file theory are discussed.     

Language, space, and the development of cognitive flexibility in humans: the case of two spatial memory tasks

Prior experiments have shown that young children, like adult rats, rely mainly on information about the macroscopic shape of the environment to reorient themselves, whereas human adults rely more flexibly on combinations of spatial and non-spatial landmark information. Adult rats have also been shown to exhibit a striking limitation in another spatial memory task, movable object search, again a limitation not shown by human adults. The present experiments explored the developmental change in humans leading to more flexible, human adult-like performance on these two tasks. Experiment 1 identified the age range of 5-7 years as the time the developmental change for reorientation occurs. Experiment 2 employed a multiple regression approach to determine that among several candidate measures, only a specific language production measure, the production of phrases specifying exactly the information needed to solve the task like adults, correlated with the reorientation performance of children in this age range. Experiment 3 revealed that similar language production abilities were associated with more flexible moving object search task performance. These results, in combination with findings with human adults, suggest that language production skills play a causal role in allowing older humans to construct novel representations rapidly, which can then be used to transcend the limits of phylogenetically older cognitive processes.     

Attentional demands and recall of verbal and color information in action events

Two experiments addressed the influence of secondary task performance at encoding on recall of different features of subject-performed tasks (SPTs) involving objects (e.g., turn the wallet). In Experiment 1, memory for verbs and colors of objects was assessed, with object names serving as cues. In Experiment 2, object and color memory were assessed, with verbs serving as cues. Results from both experiments indicated a greater deterioration of memory performance under divided attention for verbal features than for colors. In addition, intention to remember did not affect performance for any feature in either experiment. The overall pattern of outcome is discussed relative to the view that encoding of verbal features of SPTs is more attention-demanding than encoding of physical task features, such as color.     

三维图形的客体和空间工作记忆存储时程研究

研究采用单探测变化检测范式,探讨了三维图形在视觉客体和空间工作记忆中的存储时程。实验一的三维图形由不同颜色、形状组成,实验二的图形由不同颜色、图案组成。两个实验的结果均发现:被试的正确率随刺激间隔时间的延长而显著下降; 空间工作记忆任务的正确率显著高于客体工作记忆任务。研究结果表明,视觉刺激消失后,不论是客体信息还是空间信息,均随间隔时间的延长而逐渐衰退,且客体信息衰退的速度比空间信息快。总体来看,三维图形的客体和空间信息在视觉工作记忆满负荷条件下能保持大约3～5秒的时间。     

Categorizing objects in isolation and in scenes: what a superordinate is good for

Many studies have shown that subjects are faster at categorizing objects into "basic" concepts than into more general superordinate concepts. However, all of these studies have used a categorization task in which single, isolated objects are identified. There is good reason to believe that superordinate concepts are typically used to refer to collections of objects rather than to individual objects. For example, people more often use the term furniture to refer to a number of pieces of furniture rather than to name a single piece. This suggest that superordinate concepts include information about multiple objects and their common relations, particularly the typical scenes in which such objects appear. Four experiments examined this possibility by investigating whether the basic concept advantage will decrease or reverse itself when subjects are asked to categorize an object as part of a scene. The results showed that the basic-superordinate difference did decrease when subjects categorized objects in scenes. Furthermore, when an object was placed in an inappropriate scene, there was more interference for superordinate identifications. The results suggest qualitative differences in the representations of superordinate and basic concepts.     

Reasoning with uncertain categories

Five experiments investigated how people use categories to make inductions about objects whose categorisation is uncertain. Normatively, they should consider all the categories the object might be in and use a weighted combination of information from all the categories: bet-hedging. The experiments presented people with simple, artificial categories and asked them to make an induction about a new object that was most likely in one category but possibly in another. The results showed that the majority of people focused on the most likely category in making inductions, although there was a group of consistently normative responders who used information from both categories (about 25% of our college population). Across experiments the overall pattern of results suggests that performance in the task is improved not by understanding the underlying principles of bet-hedging but by increasing the likelihood that multiple categories are in working memory at the time of the induction. We discuss implications for improving everyday inductions.     

Young children's storage behavior in a memory-for-location task

Two experiments concerned with children's intentional preparation for future retrieval in a memory-for-location task are presented. In the first experiment, 3-, 5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds were instructed to store and subsequently retrieve an object on a large spatial display. All age groups, except the 3-year-olds, tended to store the object at distinctive locations and their retrieval performance was facilitated accordingly. The four age groups did not differ in the types of selections made in a nonmemory control task. The second experiment dealt with the effects of feedback and informational factors on strategy acquisition. Preschoolers were given experience at retrieving the object from distinctive and nondistinctive positions on the stimulus display. Later, when instructed to store the object by themselves, older preschoolers produced the distinctive-position storage strategy following a feedback procedure in which they directly observed the consequences of their retrieval selections. The strategy was adopted by younger preschoolers, but only when additional strategy and task information accompanied visual feedback. The use of external memory tasks with young children and factors affecting strategy acquisition and utilization are discussed.     

结构、任务类型和导航对超文本信息搜索的影响

通过两个实验考察了结构、任务类型和导航对超文本信息搜索绩效的影响。实验一采用2（层次结构,混合结构）×2（特定任务,关系任务）的被试内设计,探讨了超文本结构和任务类型对信息搜索的影响;实验二在实验一的基础上,采用2（层次结构,混合结构）×2（有导航图,无导航图）的被试内设计,考察超文本结构和导航对关系任务信息搜索的影响。结果表明：（1）超文本结构和任务类型对信息搜索绩效有显著的交互影响,就关系任务而言,混合结构超文本优于层次结构超文本,但就特定任务而言,两者无显著差异;（2）导航对信息搜索行为有指导作用,尤其对层次结构超文本有利;（3）两种主观指标的结果与客观指标存在一定程度的一致性。     

Reconciling change blindness with long-term memory for objects

How can we reconcile remarkably precise long-term memory for thousands of images with failures to detect changes to similar images? We explored whether people can use detailed, long-term memory to improve change detection performance. Subjects studied a set of images of objects and then performed recognition and change detection tasks with those images. Recognition memory performance exceeded change detection performance, even when a single familiar object in the postchange display consistently indicated the change location. In fact, participants were no better when a familiar object predicted the change location than when the displays consisted of unfamiliar objects. When given an explicit strategy to search for a familiar object as a way to improve performance on the change detection task, they performed no better than in a 6-alternative recognition memory task. Subjects only benefited from the presence of familiar objects in the change detection task when they had more time to view the prechange array before it switched. Once the cost to using the change detection information decreased, subjects made use of it in conjunction with memory to boost performance on the familiar-item change detection task. This suggests that even useful information will go unused if it is sufficiently difficult to extract.     

Interference between object-based attention and object-based memory

Research has shown that there are at least two kinds of visual selective attention: location based and object based. In the present study, we sought to determine the locus of spatially invariant object-based selection using a dual-task paradigm. In four experiments, observers performed an attention task (object feature report or visual search) with a concurrent memory task (object memory or spatial memory). Object memory was interfered with more by a concurrent object-based attention task than by a concurrent location-based attention task. However, this interference pattern was reversed for spatial memory, with greater interference by a location-based attention task than by an object-based attention task. These findings suggest that object-based attention and locationbased attention are functionally dissociable and that some forms of object-based selection operate within visual short-term memory.     

Selective information use and perseveration in the search behavior of infants and young children

Two experiments examined the early development of selective information use in search. The first experiment tested 9- and 16-month-olds on a modification of Piaget's Stage IV object permanence task. It examined infants' use of information from previous experiences with an object (prior information) and from the most recent hiding (current information) to locate a hidden object. In the second experiment, 2-, $\text{2}\text{1}\text{2}$-, and 4-year-old children received these same sources of information along with new forms of prior and current information: information about the typical locations of objects (location specificity) and verbal information. No systematic perseveration was observed at 9 months, although previous findings related to perseveration were replicated. Perseveration was found at 16 months, but there was also evidence of selectivity at that age. When errors occurred, they tended to be to the prior location, but they were infrequent in comparison to correct searches at the current location. The preschoolers, while continuing to show perseveration, were more consistently selective than the infants. They also showed considerable generality in extending their selectivity to new sources of information.     

Perceptual processes in matching and recognition of complex pictures

The role of perceptual feature sampling in speeded matching and recognition was explored in 4 experiments. Experiments 1-3 involved a perceptual matching task with pictures of various objects and scenes. In Experiments 2 and 3, same-different judgments were given under time pressure. The main objective of the matching task was to obtain measures of the perceptual processing rates of different object features. Experiment 4 was an old-new recognition experiment, in which the same stimuli as those in the matching task were used. Response signals were used to limit processing time in the recognition task. The results demonstrated that it is possible to predict speeded recognition performance from performance in perceptual matching. A simple stochastic feature-sampling model provides a unified account of the data from the 4 experiments.     

Physiological activity in an attribute learning task.

The relationship between the amount of information processing in an Attribute Learning task and autonomic activity, measured by skin conductance response (SCR), was investigated. The amount of information processing was manipulated by type of concept and feedback. Furthermore, the influence of practice and verbalization was studied.Three types of concepts were used: conjunction, exclusion and joint denial. The stimulus population consisted of four three-valued dimensions. The results showed that (1) SCR did not differ among concepts; (2) SCR varied with type of feedback, it being smallest at blanks and largest at infirming feedback; (3) SCR was related to the number of confirmations preceding infirmation; (4) subjects mainly used the strategy ‘reject hypothesis only after infirmation’; (5) subjects usually selected not-yet-tested hypotheses; (6) practice influenced performance; (7) verbalization did not result in more efficient use of information; however, the appropriateness of the experimental set-up to study this factor was questioned; (8) conjunction was easier to learn than the other concepts. The results were discussed in terms of uncertainty reduction, resulting from testing hypotheses in a concept learning task.     

Visual recognition: as soon as you know it is there, you know what it is

What is the sequence of processing steps involved in visual object recognition? We varied the exposure duration of natural images and measured subjects' performance on three different tasks, each designed to tap a different candidate component process of object recognition. For each exposure duration, accuracy was lower and reaction time longer on a within-category identification task (e.g., distinguishing pigeons from other birds) than on a perceptual categorization task (e.g., birds vs. cars). However, strikingly, at each exposure duration, subjects performed just as quickly and accurately on the categorization task as they did on a task requiring only object detection: By the time subjects knew an image contained an object at all, they already knew its category. These findings place powerful constraints on theories of object recognition.