Pictorial versus textual information and the ratio-bias effect

The ratio-bias effect refers to the perception that a low probability event is more likely when presented in the form of a larger, e.g., 10-in-100, than smaller, e.g., 1-in-10, numerical ratio. This phenomenon has been used to help distinguish between rational-analytic versus heuristic-automatic ways of problem solving. In the current study, responding in accordance with the ratio bias was more prevalent when choices were presented pictorially as opposed to textually. Results are discussed with respect to how various factors, including mode of information presentation, may affect whether problems are solved via heuristic, automatic processes as opposed to effortful, analytic strategies.     

Eyewitness identification accuracy and response latency: the unruly 10-12-second rule

Data are reported from 3,213 research eyewitnesses confirming that accurate eyewitness identifications from lineups are made faster than are inaccurate identifications. However, consistent with predictions from the recognition and search literatures, the authors did not find support for the "10-12-s rule" in which lineup identifications faster than 10-12 s maximally discriminate between accurate and inaccurate identifications (D. Dunning & S. Perretta, 2002). Instead, the time frame that proved most discriminating was highly variable across experiments, ranging from 5 s to 29 s, and the maximally discriminating time was often unimpressive in its ability to sort accurate from inaccurate identifications. The authors suggest several factors that are likely to moderate the 10-12-s rule.     

Relational information and the context effect in recognition memory

A role for relational information was examined for the paradigm in which recognition-memory performance on items tested in the same context in which they were studied is compared with performance on items tested in different contexts. Over a series of five experiments, randomly formed pairs were used to manipulate the context of high-frequency English words. Comparisons were made between instructional manipulations designed to influence the use of relational information, and between yes/no, confidence rating (both between- and within-subject), and forced-choice tasks. There was a context effect not due to the use of inappropriate response strategies. However, high-criterion subjects resembled those subjects who were specifically instructed to use relational information, while low-criterion subjects showed little or no context effect. A model specifying the relationship between item and relational information and how relational information influences decisions in recognition-memory paradigms was proposed.     

Priming correct information reduces the misinformation effect

The misinformation effect is a well-established phenomenon in the false memory literature, although the mechanisms that underlie it are debated. In the present study, we explored one aspect of the controversy, the fate of the original memory. We began from an activation-based view of memory, capitalizing on the well-understood processes of associative priming and spreading activation, to test the hypothesis that true and suggested information can coexist in memory. After exposure to misinformation, participants were unknowingly primed with associates of either the true or a suggested item. Misled participants who were primed for the true item performed better on a final memory test than did misled participants primed for neutral information. The results indicated that true and suggested information coexist and that retrieval is influenced by each concept's activation level at test. Implications for theories of the misinformation effect were discussed.     

The dilution effect: Nondiagnostic information weakens the implications of diagnostic information

In a series of studies, subjects were asked to make predictions about target individuals. Some subjects were given information about the target which pretest subjects had judged to be “diagnostic”—that is, had judged to be usefully predictive of the outcome. Other subjects were given a mix of information judged to be diagnostic and information judged to be “nondiagnostic” by pretest subjects—that is, judged to be of little value for predicting the outcome. Subjects given mixed information made much less extreme predictions than did subjects given only diagnostic information. It was argued that this “dilution effect” occurs because people make predictions by making simple similarity judgments. That is, they compare the information they have about the target with their conception of outcome categories. The presence of individuating but nondiagnostic information about the target reduces the similarity between the target and those outcomes that are suggested by the diagnostic information. One of the major implications is that stereotypes and other “social knowledge structures” may be applied primarily to abstract, undifferentiated individuals and groups and may be largely set aside when judgments are made about concrete, individuated people.     

Short-term memory and time estimation: beyond the 2-second "critical" value.

We showed previously that when time intervals around two seconds (s) are reproduced concurrently with a memory task, intervals are positively related to duration of memory processing. However, some data in research on timing as well as in memory research suggest that 2 s might be a critical duration beyond which different mechanisms or structures would support performance. This implies that the interference observed between memory processing and 2-s productions could be specific to these durations, and would not be obtained with longer durations. In this experiment, intervals ranging from 1.85 to 6.45 s were reproduced by participants, who were searching simultaneously for a memory probe. At all durations, reproductions were positively related to memory set size. These findings have implications with regards to previous research indicating a discontinuity around 2-3 s in time perception. They suggest in particular that the role of memory is similar in reproduction of durations around 2 s and of longer durations.     

Anxiety and the interpretation of ambiguous information: beyond the emotion-congruent effect

The authors investigated how anxiety influences the use of contextual information in the resolution of ambiguity. Participants heard ambiguous homophones (threat/neutral, positive/neural, and neutral/neutral) with related contextual information. State anxiety was manipulated experimentally. The interpretations of anxious participants were influenced by context to a greater extent than those of control participants. Some mood-incongruent effects were observed where anxious participants were more likely to adopt neutral interpretations of potentially threatening stimuli. Effects were observed in a spelling task (Experiments 1 and 2) and in a lexical decision task (Experiment 3), with supraliminal, and subliminal presentation of contextual cues, and with 2 different anxiety-induction procedures. Results show how anxiety affects both the content and the process of resolution of ambiguity.     

Incentives,information, rehearsal,and the negative recency effect

The negative recency effect is generally attributed to inadequate rehearsal of terminal input items during study. In two experiments, Ss were encouraged to increase rehearsal of initial or terminal input items by offers of incentives for remembering these items and information that there would be a delayed memory test (Experiment I) or by explicit instructions to rehearse terminal items and provision of added rehearsal time (Experiment II). Serial position curves in immediate and delayed recall were little affected by these manipulations. These results are more in line with models that give rehearsal the role of maintaining items in a short-term store than with models that accord rehearsal a role in transfer of information to a more permanent store.     

Locus of information in words and the right visual field effect

The right visual field (RVF) advantage found for the identification or classification of words has usually been interpreted as evidence for left hemisphere language functions. It has more recently been explained as the result of the fact that the most informative part of the word, presumably the beginning, is in a region of better visual acuity. It is not clear from existing evidence that the beginnings of words are in fact more informative. The present study assessed the locus of information in words by deleting either the initial or terminal one or two letters. Subjects were required to generate a completion. Regardless of whether subjects were scored as correct for generating the original target word (as would be appropriate in a naming study) or for producing any legitimate word (as would be appropriate for a lexical decision study), the results indicated that most words have more information in the initial letters. Nevertheless, there are exceptions to this rule, and some words have more terminal information. Equal numbers of words with more initial information and with more terminal information were selected for two visual field studies in order to assess the effect of the locus of information on visual laterality. In neither a lexical decision study nor a naming study did locus of information affect the commonly observed right visual field superiority. Thus the distribution of information is not likely to be a major confounding variable in laterality studies employing horizontally presented words.     

The association of motor information and verbal information: a new perspective on the mechanism of the SPT effect

Current perspectives on the mechanism underlying the Subject Performed Task (SPT) effect have not yet reached a consensus. This study investigated whether the association between motor and verbal information is a key factor that explains the SPT effect. Experiment 1 and 2 tested whether motor and verbal retrieval memory performance were different when the association level was varied. Results showed that when subjects used low association learning materials, memory performance in either motor or verbal retrieval condition was significantly better than performance in the combined retrieval condition. Experiment 3 examined whether the level of association between motor and verbal information affects the SPT effect. Results revealed that the SPT effect disappeared when low association learning materials were used. Our findings imply that the high association level between motor and verbal information enables mutual activation of the two information types, leading to improved memory performance.     

Retinal location and its effect on the processing of target and distractor information

Two experiments were conducted to study the perceptual facilitation and inhibition that occurs between foveal and parafoveal or peripheral regions of the eye. Experiment 1 used a Stroop task to compare color detection latencies of foveal and parafoveal targets. The target and distractor components of the Stroop stimuli were separated and presented with varied stimulus onset asynchronies. Experiment 2 used a Stroop-like task to replicate and extend the findings into the visual periphery. Subjects were found to process foveally presented distractor information while attending to targets presented in parafoveal or peripheral regions of the eye. Distractor information that was incompatible was suppressed while compatible information was used to facilitate target processing. When the targets were presented foveally along with the distractor information, subjects appeared to automatically process the distractor information. The findings are discussed within the framework of past studies that presented subjects with competing tasks across retinal location. The implications of these findings to a two-process theory of attention are also considered.     

The contribution of shape and surface information in the other-race face effect

Faces from another race are generally more difficult to recognize than faces from one's own race. However, faces provide multiple cues for recognition and it remains unknown what are the relative contribution of these cues to this “other-race effect”. In the current study, we used three-dimensional laser-scanned head models which allowed us to independently manipulate two prominent cues for face recognition: the facial shape morphology and the facial surface properties (texture and colour). In Experiment 1, Asian and Caucasian participants implicitly learned a set of Asian and Caucasian faces that had both shape and surface cues to facial identity. Their recognition of these encoded faces was then tested in an old/new recognition task. For these face stimuli, we found a robust other-race effect: Both groups were more accurate at recognizing own-race than other-race faces. Having established the other-race effect, in Experiment 2 we provided only shape cues for recognition and in Experiment 3 we provided only surface cues for recognition. Caucasian participants continued to show the other-race effect when only shape information was available, whereas Asian participants showed no effect. When only surface information was available, there was a weak pattern for the other-race effect in Asians. Performance was poor in this latter experiment, so this pattern needs to be interpreted with caution. Overall, these findings suggest that Asian and Caucasian participants rely differently on shape and surface cues to recognize own-race faces, and that they continue to use the same cues for other-race faces, which may be suboptimal for these faces.     

Opportunity for information search and the effect of false heart rate feedback

The role of information search in the attribution of physiological states was investigated by manipulating the subject’s opportunity for information search following the presentation of false information about his heart-rate reactions to photographs of female nudes. Consistent with the self-persuasion hypothesis proposed by Valins, the rated attractiveness of the slides was not affected by the false heart-rate feedback for those subjects who were prevented from visually searching the slides. Those subjects who had ample opportunity to view the slides rated those slides accompanied by false information of a heart-rate change as more attractive than those slides which were not paired with a change in heart rate.     

A precedence effect in the processing of verbal information.

When a brief sound is monitored in a sound-reverberating room, it is immediately followed by numerous echoes bounced off the walls and ceiling. Only the first sound to arrive at the ears appears to be used in its localization. This is generally referred to as the precedence effect. If the processing of verbal information is seen as a reverberating system (after Hebb) and rehearsal as the manifestation of the echoes, then an analogous precedence effect can be empirically demonstrated. Such an analogy not only helps explain previously uninterpretable data but also generates a very unique prediction that was confirmed by experimental data. The theoretical implications of the analogy are also discussed.     

The effect of non-verbal information on the recall of negation

The influence of non-verbal information on storage of different versions of negated sentences was investigated in a one-trial learning experiment. The negation governed either the subject, the object, or the predicate of the sentence. One group was presented with the sentences together with pictures. Another group the sentences only. The picture which was shown with a sentence represented the sentence content with an alternative for the negated concept. It was found that pictorial information had an effect on the recall of the sentences and that this effect is different for the different sentence versions.     

Women's verbal estimation of a 40-second interval during the first week postpartum: a replication.

In this replication research 49 mothers verbally estimated a 40-sec. interval each day for the first seven days after delivery. Throughout this postpartum period mothers overestimated the time interval. Findings of this study confirmed the results of the original 1987 research.     

Norm setting for the verbal estimation of a 40-second interval by women of childbearing age

95 female college students verbally estimated a 40-sec. interval. Norms for age groups between 19 and 49 yr. were determined. All age groups overestimated the 40-sec. time interval.