社会场景下联合表征的整合机制

人们在交互过程中会同时表征自我和他人相关的信息,形成社会性联合表征.然而,自我和他人相关信息是以整合还是分离的形式存在,这一问题尚未厘清.本研究以工作记忆蓬佐错觉为指标展开了探讨.实验中要求两名被试分别记忆部分构成蓬佐错觉的线段并回忆.结果发现,竞争和合作场景下的个体不仅表征了他人相关的信息,还将其和自身相关的信息进行了整合,形成工作记忆蓬佐错觉效应,表明社会交互条件下会自动整合成社会性共同表征.     

Sexual orientation and visuo-spatial ability

On the basis of a literature review it was concluded that sex differences in cognitive ability and the etiology of male homosexuality may have a common biological base, leading to the prediction that in terms of cognitive ability homosexual males (HmM) would resemble heterosexual females (HtF) rather than heterosexual males (HtM). This prediction was investigated using visuo-spatial tasks on which males are known to perform better than females. In Experiment 1 HtM performed better on a water level task than HmM and HtF whose performances did not differ significantly. A different version of the water level task and the Vincent Mechanical Diagrams Test were used in Experiment 2; on both tasks the HtM performed better than the HmM and the HtF whose performance did not differ significantly. The results are interpreted as support for a common biological determinant of cognitive ability and male sexual orientation.     

Visual field differences in the magnitude of the Oppel-Kundt illusion vary with processing time

Three experiments were performed to investigate hemispheric differences in susceptibility to the Oppel-Kundt illusion presented tachistoscopically to the two visual hemifields. Experiment 1 used a successive comparison mode, in which 16 undergraduate students indicated whether the second of two successive extents looked shorter or longer than the first. Experiment 2 (20 under-graduates) and Experiment 3 (1 commissurotomy patient) required judgments of two extents presented simultaneously. The first experiment found no significant visual field differences, although females were more susceptible than males. In the second experiment, the illusion magnitude was greater in the left visual field, and in the third experiment, it was greater in the right visual field. Post hoc analyses resolve the conflicting results and show that in all three experiments, the susceptibility of the right hemisphere declined more than that of the left hemisphere during illusion processing. An interpretation is offered in terms of two parallel processes, one that is fast, uses feature extraction, and is performed more effectively in the left hemisphere, and one that is slow, uses visuospatial analysis to compute distances between parts of the illusion figure, and is performed more effectively in the right hemisphere.     

Gender and distributive justice: The influence of gender-related characteristics on allocations

The influence of dispositional and situational gender-related factors on the distributive justice behavior of males and females was examined in this research. Using the self-other allocation paradigm, traditional and andrognyous subjects outperformed traditional or androgynous opposite-sex co-workers (Experiment 1) or same-sex co-workers (Experiment 2). The task gender-linkage and the physical attractiveness of the opposite-sex co-workers were also considered. The results indicated that androgynous persons were more generous in their allocations and were less influenced by the gender-related characteristics of an opposite-sex co-workers than traditional persons. In same-sex dyads, males were more equitable than females and were uninfluenced by gender-related factors. Traditional, but not androgynous, females adjusted their allocation behavior according to the gender-linkage of the task, allocating more equitably on gender-congruent tasks than on gender-incongruent tasks. The significance of these findings to understanding sex differences in distributive justice behavior is discussed.     

Perception of the Ponzo illusion by rhesus monkeys, chimpanzees, and humans: Similarity and difference in the three primate species

In Experiment 1, 3 rhesus monkeys and 1 chimpanzee were tested for their susceptibility to the Ponzo illusion. The subjects were first trained to report the length of the target bar presented at the center of the computer display by touching either of the two choice locations designated as “long” or “short.” When inverted-V context lines were superimposed on the target bar, the subjects tended to report “long” more often as the apex of these upward-converging lines approached the target bar. The perception of the Ponzo illusion was thus demonstrated. In Experiment 2, the same 3 rhesus monkeys and 2 new chimpanzees were tested using two types of context lines that provided different strengths of linear perspective. The subjects showed a bias similar to that found in Experiment 1, but there was no difference in the magnitude of the bias between the two types of context in either species. This failed to support the classic account for the Ponzo illusion, the perspective theory, raised by Gregory (1963). In Experiment 3, the magnitude of the illusion was compared between the inverted-V context and the context consisting of short vertical lines having the same gap as the former in the same 3 rhesus monkeys and 2 of the chimpanzees from the preceding experiments. While the chimpanzees showed the illusion for both types of stimuli, the monkeys showed no illusion for the latter. In Experiment 4, 6 humans were tested in a comparable procedure. As in the nonhuman primates, the illusion was unaffected by the strength of linear perspective. On the other hand, the humans showed considerably larger illusion for the context consisting of vertical lines than for contexts consisting of converging lines. Thus, there was a great species difference in the effect of the gap itself on the magnitude of the Ponzo illusion. Similarity found at first turned out to be no more than superficial. Possible sources of this species difference are discussed.     

Ontogeny of the Ponzo illusion: Effects of age,schooling, and environment(1)

Subjects were 384 Moroccan males (age range 6–22 yrs.), divided into 16 equal groups, according to the factorial design: age (4) × schooling (2) × environment (2). Subjects were tested on four Ponzo configurations (differing in contextual information) from Leibowitz et al. (1969), the Ponzo perspective stimulus from Segall et al. (1966), the CEFT from Witkin et al. (1971), and a measure of pictorial depth perception. Individual measures of contact with mass-media and urban life were collected on each subject. Analyses indicated that all main factors of age, schooling, and environment played important, and differing, roles in inducing illusion susceptibility. Piaget's (1969) theory of primary and secondary illusions was found useful in understanding the results of the Ponzo configurations used in the study. Primary illusion configurations were found to be relatively insensitive to experiential variables, and illusion susceptibility decreased with chronological age. In contrast, secondary illusion configurations were affected by many experiential factors, and illusion susceptibility was mediated through perceptual development and pictorial depth perception rather than chronological age. It was concluded that single-factor theories of ontogenetic change in illusion susceptibility were inadequate to explain the complex interactions found in this study.     

Effect of sex and joystick experience on pursuit tracking in adults

Using a joystick, adults (n = 39 males, 40 females in Experiment 1; n = 35 males, 40 females in Experiment 2; and n = 18 males, 18 females in Experiment 3) performed a computerized pursuit tracking task. Contrary to previously reported findings, the males were not more accurate than the females when performance was adjusted for prior perceptual-motor experience. Although no sex differences were found in a speeded tracking task, in an inverted tracking task the males exhibited a significant performance advantage; that advantage remained after several blocks of practice. Because participants' performance was adjusted statistically for prior perceptual-motor experience, the male advantage in inverted tracking was not related to experience. Rather, more proficient inverted tracking performance was associated with higher 3-dimensional mental rotations scores. In sum, sex differences in normal pursuit tracking may be better explained by differences in perceptual-motor experience. Inverted tracking, however, may depend on proficiency with spatial transformations.     

Gender differences in patterns of spatial ability, environmental cognition, and math and English achievement in late adolescence

Relationships were explored among three measures of spatial ability--the Embedded Figures Test (EFT), the Mental Rotations Test (MRT), and the Differential Aptitude Spatial Relations subtest (DAT)--an environmental cognition task (MAP), American College Testing (ACT) math and English achievement, and gender in a sample of 282 undergraduates. Variance attributable to gender among the spatial tasks ranged from 0.5% in the EFT to 12% in the MRT. Gender accounted for only 1% of the variance in the MAP task. Gender differences were noted in regression analyses; women's math and English achievement scores were both predictive of spatial ability, while for men, only math achievement was predictive of spatial ability. The results were interpreted as substantiating sex role socialization theory of cognitive abilities.     

A Sex Difference on a Novel Spatial Working Memory Task in Humans

Neurophysiological and behavioral evidence suggests that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) may be sexually differentiated in nonhuman primates. The present study examined whether there are sex differences in working memory in humans that might reflect sexual differentiation of human PFC. Male and female undergraduates were administered a novel multitrial spatial working memory task (SPWM) and a verbal working memory task. In three experiments, females committed significantly fewer working memory errors and took significantly less time to reach criterion than males on the SPWM task. The female advantage was not accounted for by differences in general intellectual ability, attention, perceptual speed, incidental memory, or speed of verbal access. In Study 3, a sex difference was also observed on a measure of verbal working memory. The findings suggest that some prefrontal functions may be sexually differentiated in humans.     

Sex differences in cerebral laterality of language and visuospatial processing

Sex differences on language and visuospatial tasks are of great interest, with differences in hemispheric laterality hypothesized to exist between males and females. Some functional imaging studies examining sex differences have shown that males are more left lateralized on language tasks and females are more right lateralized on visuospatial tasks; however, findings are inconsistent. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study thirty participants, matched on task performance, during phonological and visuospatial tasks. For each task, region-of-interest analyses were used to test differences in cerebral laterality. Results indicate that lateralization differences exist, with males more left lateralized during the phonological task and showing greater bilateral activity during the visuospatial task, whereas females showed greater bilateral activity during the phonological task and were more right lateralized during the visuospatial task. Our data provide clear evidence for differences in laterality between males and females when processing language versus visuospatial information.     

Individual and sex differences in reminiscence

Inverted alphabet printing, rotary pursuit, and mirror tracking tasks were administered to 84 subjects in order to ascertain (a) reproducibility of reminiscence scores within and between tasks and (b)sex differences in reminiscence. With prerest performance levels held constant by second-order partial correlation procedures, reproducibility of individual reminiscence differences within tasks was significant but quite low, while predictability of reminiscence from one task to another was negligible. The sexes reminisced essentially alike on inverted alphabet printing, but females reminisced more than males on the other tasks, presumably because they were relatively more depressed by massed practice on these tasks. Thus, individual and sex differences were essentially task specific. Implications of results for reminiscence theories and for the credibility of alleged relationships between reminiscence and other organismic variables were discussed.     

Effect of Sex and Joystick Experience on Pursuit Tracking in Adults

Using a joystick, adults (n = 39 males, 40 females in Experiment 1; n = 35 males, 40 females in Experiment 2; and n = 18 males, 18 females in Experiment 3) performed a computerized pursuit tracking task. Contrary to previously reported findings, the males were not more accurate than the females when performance was adjusted for prior perceptual-motor experience. Although no sex differences were found in a speeded tracking task, in an inverted tracking task the males exhibited a significant performance advantage; that advantage remained after several blocks of practice. Because participants' performance was adjusted statistically for prior perceptual-motor experience, the male advantage in inverted tracking was not related to experience. Rather, more proficient inverted tracking performance was associated with higher 3-dimensional mental rotations scores. In sum, sex differences in normal pursuit tracking may be better explained by differences in perceptual-motor experience. Inverted tracking, however, may depend on proficiency with spatial transformations.     

The Ponzo illusion with auditory substitution of vision in sighted and early-blind subjects

We tested the effects of using a prosthesis for substitution of vision with audition (PSVA) on sensitivity to the Ponzo illusion. The effects of visual experience on the susceptibility to this illusion were also assessed. In one experiment, both early-blind and blindfolded sighted volunteers used the PSVA to explore several variants of the Ponzo illusion as well as control stimuli. No effects of the illusion were observed. The results indicate that subjects focused their attention on the two central horizontal bars of the stimuli, without processing the contextual cues that convey perspective in the Ponzo figure. In a second experiment, we required subjects to use the PSVA to consider the two converging oblique lines of the stimuli before comparing the length of the two horizontal bars. Here we were able to observe susceptibility to the Ponzo illusion in the sighted group, but to a lesser extent than in a sighted non-PSVA control group. No clear effect of the ilusion was obtained in early-blind subjects. These results suggest that, at least in sighted subjects, perception obtained with the PSVA shares perceptual processes with vision. Visual experience appears mandatory for a Ponzo illusion to occur with the PSVA.     

The relationship between vertical stimulation and horizontal attentional asymmetries

The original aim was to examine the effect of perceived distance, induced by the Ponzo illusion, on left/right asymmetries for line bisection. In Experiment 1, university students (n?=?29) made left/right bisection judgements for lines presented in the lower or upper half of the screen against backgrounds of the Ponzo stimuli, or a baseline. While the Ponzo illusion had relatively little effect on line bisection, elevation in the baseline condition had a strong effect, whereby the leftward bias was increased for upper lines. Experiment 2 (n?=?17) eliminated the effect of elevation by presenting the line in the middle and moving the Ponzo stimuli relative to the line. Despite this change, the leftward bias was still stronger in the upper condition in the baseline condition. The final experiment (n?=?17) investigated whether upper/lower visual stimulation, which was irrelevant to the task, affected asymmetries for line bisection. The results revealed that a rectangle presented in the upper half of the screen increased the leftward line bisection bias relative to a baseline and lower stimulation condition. These results corroborate neuroimaging research, showing increased right parietal activation associated with shifts of attention into the upper hemispace. This increased right parietal activation may increase the leftward attentional bias—resulting in a stronger leftward bias for line bisection.     

Sex differences in early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood on cognitive tasks that rely on orbital prefrontal cortex

Through the use of several tests of cognition we have documented sex differences in young children, adolescents, and adults on tasks that rely on the integrity of the orbital prefrontal cortex. In children under three years of age, males performed with significantly fewer errors than did females on tests of object reversals. No significant sex differences were found in older children, despite the use of a more challenging object reversal task. Sex differences were also found in adolescents and adults on the Iowa Gambling Task. On this decision-making task, in contrast to males, females appear to be responding to different elements of the task. Discussion of the implications for these findings is presented.     

Temporal processing characteristics of the Ponzo illusion

Many visual illusions result from assumptions of our visual system that are based on its long-term adaptation to our visual environment. Thus, visual illusions provide the opportunity to identify and learn about these fundamental assumptions. In this paper, we investigate the Ponzo illusion. Although many previous studies researched visual processing of the Ponzo illusion, only very few considered temporal processing aspects. However, it is well known that our visual percept is modulated by temporal factors. First, we used the Ponzo illusion as prime in a response priming task to test whether it modulates subsequent responses to the longer (or shorter) of two target bars. Second, we used the same stimuli in a perceptual task to test whether the Ponzo illusion is effective for very short presentation times (12 ms). We observed considerable priming effects that were of similar magnitude as those of a control condition. Moreover, the variations in the priming effects as a function of prime-target stimulus-onset asynchrony were very similar to that of the control condition. However, when analyzing priming effects as a function of participants’ response speed, effects for the Ponzo illusion increased in slower responses. We conclude that although the illusion is established rapidly within the visual system, the full integration of context information is based on more time-consuming and later visual processing.     

Sex differences in object location memory and spatial navigation in Long-Evans rats

In both humans and rodents, males typically excel on a number of tasks requiring spatial ability. However, human females exhibit advantages in memory for the spatial location of objects. This study investigated whether rats would exhibit similar sex differences on a task of object location memory (OLM) and on the watermaze (WM). We predicted that females should outperform males on the OLM task and that males should outperform females on the WM. To control for possible effects of housing environment, rats were housed in either complex environments or in standard shoebox housing. Eighty Long-Evans rats (40 males and 40 females) were housed in either complex (Complex rats) or standard shoebox housing (Control rats). Results indicated that males had superior performance on the WM, whereas females outperformed males on the OLM task, regardless of housing environment. As these sex differences cannot be easily attributed to differences in cognitive style related to linguistic processing of environmental features or to selection pressures related to the hunting gathering evolutionary prehistory of humans, these data suggest that sex differences in spatial ability may be related to traits selected for by polygynous mating strategies.     

Assimilation and contrast illusions: Differences in plasticity

Three experiments show differences in the plasticity of the contrast and assimilation portions of the Delboeuf, Ebbinghaus, and Ponzo illusions. Contrast illusions show decrement in illusion magnitude with free inspection, whereas assimilation illusions do not. A model to explain both the original distortion and the differential susceptibility of the two classes of illusion to decrement is offered.     

Apparent equivalence between perception and imagery in the production of various visual illusions

The ability of high and low imagers (as assessed by the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire) to utilize imagery in the production of a visual illusion was examined in three experiments. In Experiment 1, subjects were to imagine noninducing elements oi the Ponzo figure. In Experiment 2, subjects were asked to imagine the inducing angle of the Ponzo figure. Subjects were requested to imagine the inducing diagonals of the Hering and Wundt figures in Experiment 3. Regardless of which figure was presented, high imagers consistently reported an illusion whether it was produced by real or imagined lines. Also, the imagery-produced illusion was equivalent in magnitude to the actual illusion (when all lines are physically present). Low imagers reported an illusion only when lines were physically present. These results were interpreted in terms of Finke’s (1980) equivalence theory.     

The role of apparent depth and context in the perception of the Ponzo illusion

The role of apparent depth features and the proximity of the test lines to the adjacent contours in the actuation of the Ponzo illusion was examined. Six versions of the Ponzo figure were employed: a standard Ponzo figure and five modified figures in which the test lines varied in orientation (horizontal or vertical) and in location (inside or outside the converging contours). Both manipulations resulted in a significant decrease in the magnitude of the illusion in comparison to the standard Ponzo figure. The results suggest that the Ponzo illusion is significantly affected by contextual factors.