心理表征对正投影问题解决及轴测投影图再认水平的影响

借鉴内隐记忆的研究范式,采用平面、分离的正投影问题解决及其相应轴测投影图的再认任务,探讨问题表征的结构特征性对空间问题解决和再认水平的影响。实验结果表明,一般在正投影问题获得正确解决时,对其相应的、先前从未见到过的轴测投影图往往也可获得正确再认,而且基于正投影问题获得正确解决条件下的再认水平（PCC）显著地高于那些问题未得获得解决下的再认水平（PCI）。在结合被试口语记录的基础上,研究结果证明：基于正投影图上的问题解决过程是受到一个具有三维结构特性而非正投影图中二维特性心理表征的调节;并且,正是这一具有三维结构特性心理表征的建构,使得对具有相同结构特性的轴测投影图获得了更为有效的再认。     

社会距离对他人行为表征的影响:评价内容效价的作用

心理距离的建构水平理论认为,人与人之间的亲密度具有心理距离特性(即社会距离),人们对心理上远距离的客体或事件的表征倾向于采用高水平建构,而对心理上近距离的客体或事件的表征倾向于采用低水平建构。本研究以特质性和行动性行为描述句子为实验材料,通过两个实验考察了社会距离(亲密舍友/公选课上认识的同性同学)对他人正性和负性行为评价的影响,以探讨评价内容效价对于建构水平的心理距离效应的调节作用。实验结果发现:(1)随着社会距离的延伸,被试对社会远距离他人的正性行为更倾向于高水平的特质性表征,但在负性行为上未获得明确的类似效应;(2)相对于社会远距离他人,被试对社会近距离他人正性行为和负性行为的评价分数均较高,提示人际熟悉度对他人行为的表征具有一定的调节作用。     

矛盾态度对个体信息加工的影响：外显与内隐层面的比较

本研究采用“学习—再认”范式从外显和内隐两个层面探讨了矛盾态度对个体信息加工的影响。结果发现：（1）在两种加工条件下,高外显矛盾态度个体对态度客体信息再认反应时均显著短于低外显矛盾态度个体;（2）在有意加工条件下高内隐矛盾态度个体再认反应时显著长于低内隐矛盾态度个体,在无意加工条件下高低内隐矛盾组的再认反应时差异不显著;（3）对态度客体无关材料高内隐矛盾态度个体再认反应时显著长于低内隐矛盾态度个体,对有关材料二者的反应时差异不显著。该结果表明,外显与内隐的矛盾态度对个体的信息加工具有不同的影响路径,这为进一步探讨外显和内隐矛盾态度对个体心理与行为的影响机制提供了借鉴。     

多视点学习条件下空间表征的朝向特异性

让被试在没有外界参照线索的条件下,从三个观察视点学习物体场景,首次以局部场景再认范式探讨了空间记忆中场景表征的朝向特异性。结果表明：（1）多视点学习条件下,场景空间表征依然是依赖于特定朝向的,不支持空间表征独立于朝向和空间表征依赖于多个观察朝向的观点。（2）场景空间表征的朝向依赖性不仅表现于方位判断任务,也同样表现于场景再认任务。（3）场景本身的内在结构对空间表征中参照系的选取有重要影响。     

问题解决中对问题的外部表征和内部表征

传统观点认为,问题表征是问题解决构建问题的心理结构,是内在的知识、结构和神经网络,是问题解决的根本机制。但近来研究发现,问题的呈现方式、问题情景的成分和结构也对问题解决行为具有独立的指导、约束或决定作用,因此可以把问题表征划分为外部表征和内部表征。这两种表征具有不同的特征,对问题解决具有不同的作用机制。就学科问题解决来说,当前研究主要集中在表征的结构及影响因素方面,未来一个时期,此方面的研究迫切需要探明外部表征的结构、形式、内容及其与内部表征之间相互作用的机制,并建构适宜的研究方法体系。     

问题解决中对问题的外部表征和内部表征

传统观点认为,问题表征是问题解决者构建问题的心理结构,是内在的知识、结构和神经网络,是问题解决的根本机制。但近来研究发现,问题的呈现方式、问题情景的成分和结构也对问题解决行为具有独立的指导、约束或决定作用,因此可以把问题表征划分为外部表征和内部表征。这两种表征具有不同的特征,对问题解决具有不同的作用机制。就学科问题解决来说,当前研究主要集中在表征的结构及影响因素方面,未来一个时期,此方面的研究迫切需要探明外部表征的结构、形式、内容及其与内部表征之间相互作用的机制,并建构适宜的研究方法体系。     

过去时间距离对自我行为表征的影响

建构水平理论认为,人们对心理上远距离(如远期过去)的客体或事件的表征倾向于采用高水平建构,而对心理上近距离(如近期过去)的客体或事件的表征倾向于采用低水平建构。本研究以特质性和行动性行为描述句子为实验材料,通过两个实验考察了过去时间距离对自我正性行为和负性行为的表征特征的影响。实验结果发现:(1)相对于近期过去,被试对远期过去自我的正性行为更倾向于特质性表征,但在负性行为上未获得明确的类似效应;(2)相对于远期过去的自我行为,个体对近期过去的自我行为倾向于负性表征,提示被试对近期过去自我的满意度较低和对未来自我提升的心理期待。     

空间再定向任务中心理表征的多样性——来自虚拟现实实验的证据

成人和儿童完成空间再定向的具体过程与内在机制一直是研究者们关注的问题,在空间中是否形成了关于环境的整体表征是其中的一个关键。研究者们的观点并不一致,研究结果也提供了不同的证据。使用传统的空间再定向任务在此问题上难以得到明确的结论。本研究采用虚拟现实技术,让被试在虚拟现实环境中观察所在空间,然后直接向被试呈现空间的俯视视角并要求完成位置再认。通过对正确率和反应时的模式分析,发现被试反应可以划分为三种类型：整体的、独立于视角的心理表征（各方向均为高正确率低反应时）;整体的、依赖于方向的心理表征（正确率和反应时在不同方向上差异显著）和视角匹配的心理表征（各方向上均为低正确率）。三种不同的表征形式在人群中同时存在,并且在同一个体身上表现出不稳定性。     

析社会建构论心理学思想的四个层面

从社会建构论心理学中萃取四个核心概念,各代表一个思想层面,以此结构出社会建构论心理学思想体系的概观：（1）批判：心理不是对客观现实的“反映”;（2）建构：心理是社会的建构;（3）话语：是社会借以实现建构的重要媒介;（4）互动：社会互动应取代个体内在心理结构和心理过程成为心理学研究的重心。     

汉语语句句式表征及命题表征能力的年龄比较

通过三个年龄段的被试对同命题不同句式汉语语句再认的比较,以再认比率和再认反应时为指标,探讨了句子在记忆中的表征问题。研究结果表明：（１）命题表征是一种原始倾向,既不同于记忆准确性的年龄发展,它在性质上又区别于记忆误差。把句式表征与命题表征分化开是后天发展的结果;（２）命题表征的建立和巩固需要时间,但一经建立,巩固性较强。相反,句式表征的巩固性较差。     

Mental representation of three-dimensional objects in visual problem solving and recognition

Subjects inspected sets of flat, separated orthographic projections of surfaces of potential three-dimensional objects. After solving problems based on these orthographic views, subjects discriminated between isometric views of the same objects and drawings of distractor structures. Recognition of the isometrics, which had never been shown during the problem solving phase of the experiment, was excellent. In addition, recognition of isometrics corresponding to problems that had been solved correctly when presented in orthographic form was significantly superior to recognition of isometrics based on problems solved incorrectly. In Experiment 2, conditions were included in which either orthographic or isometric views functioned as problem solving or recognition displays. Only in the case of orthographic problem solving followed by isometric recognition (Experiment 1) was the superiority of recognition for correctly-solved problems over incorrectly-solved problems obtained. The pattern of results suggests that viewers construct mental representations embodying structural information about integrated, three-dimensional objects when asked to reason about flat, disconnected projections.     

Stored representations of three-dimensional objects in the absence of two-dimensional cues

Object recognition was studied in human subjects to determine whether the storage of the visual objects was in a two-dimensional or a three-dimensional representation. Novel motion-based and disparity-based stimuli were generated in which three-dimensional and two-dimensional form cues could be manipulated independently. Subjects were required to generate internal representations from motion stimuli that lacked explicit two-dimensional cues. These stored internal representations were then matched against internal three-dimensional representations constructed from disparity stimuli. These new stimuli were used to confirm prior studies that indicated the primacy of two-dimensional cues for view-based object storage. However, under tightly controlled conditions for which only three-dimensional cues were available, human subjects were also able to match an internal representation derived from motion of that of disparity. This last finding suggests that there is an internal storage of an object's representations in three dimensions, a tenet that has been rejected by view-based theories. Thus, any complete theory of object recognition that is based on primate vision must incorporate three-dimensional stored representations.     

Manipulating and recognizing virtual objects: where the action is.

In an earlier report (Harman, Humphrey, & Goodale, 1999), we demonstrated that observers who actively rotated three-dimensional novel objects on a computer screen later showed faster visual recognition of these objects than did observers who had passively viewed exactly the same sequence of images of these virtual objects. In Experiment 1 of the present study we showed that compared to passive viewing, active exploration of three-dimensional object structure led to faster performance on a "mental rotation" task involving the studied objects. In addition, we examined how much time observers concentrated on particular views during active exploration. As we found in the previous report, they spent most of their time looking at the "side" and "front" views ("plan" views) of the objects, rather than the three-quarter or intermediate views. This strong preference for the plan views of an object led us to examine the possibility in Experiment 2 that restricting the studied views in active exploration to either the plan views or the intermediate views would result in differential learning. We found that recognition of objects was faster after active exploration limited to plan views than after active exploration of intermediate views. Taken together, these experiments demonstrate (1) that active exploration facilitates learning of the three-dimensional structure of objects, and (2) that the superior performance following active exploration may be a direct result of the opportunity to spend more time on plan views of the object.     

Perceiving Real-World Viewpoint Changes

Retinal images vary as observers move through the environment, but observers seem to have little difficulty recognizing objects and scenes across changes in view. Although real-world view changes can be produced both by object rotations (orientation changes) and by observer movements (viewpoint changes), research on recognition across views has relied exclusively on display rotations. However, research on spatial reasoning suggests a possible dissociation between orientation and viewpoint. Here we demonstrate that scene recognition in the real world depends on more than the retinal projection of the visible array; viewpoint changes have little effect on detection of layout changes, but equivalent orientation changes disrupt performance significantly. Findings from our three experiments suggest that scene recognition across view changes relies on a mechanism that updates a viewer-centered representation during observer movements, a mechanism not available for orientation changes. These results link findings from spatial tasks to work on object and scene recognition and highlight the importance of considering the mechanisms underlying recognition in real environments.     

Encoding 'regular' and 'random' sequences of views of novel three-dimensional objects

When we look at an object as we move or the object moves, our visual system is presented with a sequence of different views of the object. It has been suggested that such regular temporal sequences of views of objects contain information that can aid in the process of representing and recognising objects. We examined whether seeing a series of perspective views of objects in sequence led to more efficient recognition than seeing the same views of objects but presented in a random order. Participants studied images of 20 novel three-dimensional objects rotating in depth under one of two study conditions. In one study condition, participants viewed an ordered sequence of views of objects that was assumed to mimic important aspects of how we normally encounter objects. In the other study condition, participants were presented the same object views, but in a random order. It was expected that studying a regular sequence of views would lead to more efficient recognition than studying a random presentation of object views. Although subsequent recognition accuracy was equal for the two groups, differences in reaction time between the two study groups resulted. Specifically, the random study group responded reliably faster than the sequence study group. Some possible encoding differences between the two groups are discussed.     

Additive effects of inhibiting attention to objects and locations in three-dimensional displays

One of the processes thought to underlie visual selection works by biasing attention away from either recently examined locations or objects. The extent of this “inhibition” is greatest when the inhibited object and the inhibited location coincide. In Experiment 1, rectangles are presented stereoscopically at different depths but at similar positions horizontally and vertically. Here, any inhibition should be based solely on a spatial code, as the objects, the rectangles are clearly separate objects. In Experiment 2, the corners of the rectangles are joined to produce a single cuboid that extends in depth space. Now inhibition based on both spatial and object codes should be seen because even when on different depth planes the cue and target are associated with the same object. Consistent with our understanding of the additive effects of inhibition of space and object codes, the extent of inhibition in the second study is almost double that of the first. The results further suggest that space-based inhibition operates within a two-dimensional representation while object-based inhibition utilizes a three-dimensional representation.     

The effects of spatial representation on memory for verbal navigation instructions

Three experiments investigated effects of mental spatial representation on memory for verbal navigation instructions. The navigation instructions referred to a grid of stacked matrices displayed on a computer screen or on paper, with or without depth cues, and presented as two-dimensional diagrams or a three-dimensional physical model. Experimental instructions either did or did not promote a three-dimensional mental representation of the space. Subjects heard navigation instructions, immediately repeated them, and then followed them manually on the grid. In all display and experimental instruction conditions, memory for the navigation instructions was reduced when the task required mentally representing a three-dimensional space, with movements across multiple matrices, as compared with a two-dimensional space, with movements within a single matrix, even though the words in the navigation instructions were identical in all cases. The findings demonstrate that the mental representation of the space influences immediate verbatim memory for navigation instructions.     

Distinct patterns of viewpoint-dependent BOLD activity during common-object recognition and mental rotation

A fundamental but unanswered question about the human visual system concerns the way in which misoriented objects are recognized. One hypothesis maintains that representations of incoming stimuli are transformed via parietally based spatial normalization mechanisms (eg mental rotation) to match view-specific representations in long-term memory. Using fMRI, we tested this hypothesis by directly comparing patterns of brain activity evoked during classic mental rotation and misoriented object recognition involving everyday objects. BOLD activity increased systematically with stimulus rotation within the ventral visual stream during object recognition and within the dorsal visual stream during mental rotation. More specifically, viewpoint-dependent activity was significantly greater in the right superior parietal lobule during mental rotation than during object recognition. In contrast, viewpoint-dependent activity was significantly greater in the right fusiform gyrus during object recognition than during mental rotation. In addition to these differences in viewpoint-dependent activity, object recognition and mental rotation produced distinct patterns of brain activity, independent of stimulus rotation: object recognition resulted in greater overall activity within ventral stream visual areas and mental rotation resulted in greater overall activity within dorsal stream visual areas. The present results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that misoriented object recognition is mediated by structures within the parietal lobe that are known to be involved in mental rotation.     

Dissociating the effects of angular disparity and image similarity in mental rotation and object recognition

Performance is often impaired linearly with increasing angular disparity between two objects in tasks that measure mental rotation or object recognition. But increased angular disparity is often accompanied by changes in the similarity between views of an object, confounding the impact of the two factors in these tasks. We examined separately the effects of angular disparity and image similarity on handedness (to test mental rotation) and identity (to test object recognition) judgments with 3-D novel objects. When similarity was approximately equated, an effect of angular disparity was only found for handedness but not identity judgments. With a fixed angular disparity, performance was better for similar than dissimilar image pairs in both tasks, with a larger effect for identity than handedness judgments. Our results suggest that mental rotation involves mental transformation procedures that depend on angular disparity, but that object recognition is predominately dependent on the similarity of image features.