Alternative processes in the identification of familiar pictures

Individual differences in perceptual processing were investigated in a task requiring subjects to match words (either general or specific category names) with simultaneously presented pictures. Based on the results of previous research, individual differences in processing were inferred from the effect, on "same" reaction time, of rotating the pictures into an unfamiliar orientation. For subjects inferred to emphasize an analytic mode of processing, word-picture matches were faster for general than for specific category names, supporting the hypothesis that analytic subjects would attend to the minimal number of features necessary to infer the categorical identity of the pictures. For subjects inferred to emphasize a structural mode of processing, there was little difference in word-picture matching time between specific and general category names, supporting the hypothesis that structural subjects would attend to all the information in the pictures, regardless of the category level specified by the word.     

Levels of coding in picture-picture comparison tasks

Two experiments are reported in which subjects had to match pairs of pictures of objects. "Same" pairs could be either identical (Ps), pictures of different views of the same object (Pv), or pictures of different objects having the same name (Pd). With line drawings as stimuli, RTs for Condition Ps were shorter than for Condition Pv, which in turn were shorter than for Condition Pd. Visual similarity had no effect on Pd RTs. However, in Experiment II, where photographs of objects with high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) names were used, no difference was found between Conditions Ps(HF), Ps(LF) and Condition Pv(HF); and no difference occurred between Conditions Pd(HF), Pd(LF) and Condition Pv(LF), the latter set of conditions being associated with longer RTs than the former. This pattern of results was found with both a .25-sec and a 2-sec ISI. The results are discussed in terms of the levels of coding involved in processing information from picture stimuli. It is concluded that at least two levels are involved in matching photographs of real objects (an object-code level and a nonvisual semantic code level), while a third level may be used in matching tasks involving stylized line drawings (a picture-code level).     

Automatic mimicry reactions as related to differences in emotional empathy

The hypotheses of this investigation were derived by conceiving of automatic mimicking as a component of emotional empathy. Differences between subjects high and low in emotional empathy were investigated. The parameters compared were facial mimicry reactions, as represented by electromyographic (EMG) activity when subjects were exposed to pictures of angry or happy faces, and the degree of correspondence between subjects' facial EMG reactions and their self-reported feelings. The comparisons were made at different stimulus exposure times in order to elicit reactions at different levels of information processing. The high-empathy subjects were found to have a higher degree of mimicking behavior than the low-empathy subjects, a difference that emerged at short exposure times (17-40 ms) that represented automatic reactions. The low-empathy subjects tended already at short exposure times (17-40 ms) to show inverse zygomaticus muscle reactions, namely "smiling" when exposed to an angry face. The high-empathy group was characterized by a significantly higher correspondence between facial expressions and self-reported feelings. No differences were found between the high- and low-empathy subjects in their verbally reported feelings when presented a happy or an angry face. Thus, the differences between the groups in emotional empathy appeared to be related to differences in automatic somatic reactions to facial stimuli rather than to differences in their conscious interpretation of the emotional situation.     

Desire for control and reaction to proattitudinal and counterattitudinal arguments

The role of motivation for control in an individual's reaction to persuasive arguments was examined. Subjects scoring either high or low on an individual difference measure of desire for control (DC) were exposed to a position on the Equal Rights Amendment with which they either initially agreed or disagreed. It was found that more often high-DC subjects exposed to a proattitudinal message changed their attitudes in the direction advocated than did low DC subjects. Conversely, more often low-DC subjects exposed to counterattitudinal arguments changed their attitudes in the direction of the advocated position than did high-DC subjects. The findings suggest that a motivation to control events may be operative in some attitude-change situations.     

The mediation of aggressive behavior: arousal level versus anger and cognitive labeling.

The principal goal of the present research was to contrast the arousal-level and cognitive-labeling (anger) interpretations of aggressive behavior. In a 2 X 5 factorial between-subjects design, subjects were first either insulated or treated neutrally by a confederate. Four fifths of the subjects then received on each of 50 trials a 10-sec tone sequence while deciding whether or not to give an "electric shock" to the confederate. The stimulation was either simple (4.00 bits/tone) or complex (9.17 bits/tone) and was presented at either a comfortable (73-d.) or an aversively loud (97-db.) level. A group was assigned to each of the four stimulation treatments. The remaining subjects received no stimulation. In terms of the total number of shocks administered by subjects in different groups, the cognitive-labeling hypothesis was strongly supported. Both complexity and loudness had an effect, but only on insulted subjects. Other implications of the results were discussed.     

A psychological perspective interpretation of the attitude-behavior relationship

In two experiments subjects were shown seven items that described uses for photographs taken of them with an opposite-sex black. The uses formed a graded series ranging from a situation in which only other researchers would see the photos to one in which they would be employed in a nationwide campaign for integration. Subjects were either asked to sign releases so that the photographs could actually be taken and used in the ways specified (behavior) or to indicate their hypothetical agreement or disagreement with each release as part of a survey on attitudes (attitude). In both experiments, the attitude subjects agreed to more of the releases than did the behavior subjects. This difference has been termed an attitude-behavior discrepancy by some researchers. However, in both experiments, behavior subjects judged themselves as no less prejudiced than attitude subjects and scaled agreement with each photographic release as reflecting less prejudice than did attitude subjects. These data are consistent with the interpretation that subjects changed their psychological perspectives (Ostrom & Upshaw, 1968) in order to interpret their own behaviors as attitudinally consistent.     

Dismissing-avoidant pattern of attachment and mimicry reactions at different levels of information processing

Individuals with a dismissing-avoidant pattern of attachment are assumed to repress anxiety-related signals, a disposition hypothesized to interfere with facial mimicry and emotional contagion. Further, they are assumed to have one internal working model associated with anxiety, operating out of awareness at early, automatic stages of information processing, and another positive model operating at later, cognitively controlled stages of processing. The main aim of the present investigation was to compare facial mimicry in dismissing-avoidant and non-dismissing subjects at different levels of information processing. Pictures of happy and angry faces were exposed to 61 subjects at three different exposure times (17, 56, and 2,350 ms) in order to elicit facial muscle reactions, first at automatic levels and then at a more controlled levels. Corrugator activity ("frowning muscles") represented negative emotions and zygomaticus activity ("smiling muscles") positive emotions. The dismissing-avoidant subjects scored significantly lower on emotional empathy than the non-dismissing subjects. At the automatic level the dismissing-avoidant subjects showed "normal" corrugator responses (negative emotions) upon exposure to angry faces. At the cognitively controlled level of processing (2,350 ms) a significant interaction effect was shown between Faces x Muscles x Attachment pattern. The dismissing-avoidant subjects showed no corrugator response and an increased zygomaticus response ("smiling reaction") to the angry face, whereas the non-dismissing subjects reacted with a significant mimicking reaction. The dismissing-avoidant subjects' tendency to "smiling" in response to the angry face at the controlled level (2,350 ms) may be interpreted as a repression of their earlier, automatically evoked (56 ms) negative emotional reaction.     

小学生自信心养成的实验研究

本研究对辽宁省六所小学544名儿童自信心发展水平进行调查分析,并进行儿童进行自信心养成的实验研究。结果表明：实施“自主教育系列活动”能有效地促进小学生自信心发展;儿童自信心发展水平随年龄增长呈现不均衡状况;小学高年级女生自信心发展水平高于男生;双亲家庭儿童自信心发展水平优于单亲家庭儿童;独生子女与非独生子女的自信心发展水平没有显著差异。     

Human performance on an analogue of an interval bisection task

Two experiments used normal adult human subjects in an analogue of a time interval bisection task frequently used with animals. All presented durations were defined by the time between two very brief clicks, and all durations were less than 1 sec, to avoid complications arising from chronometric counting. In Experiment 1 different groups of subjects received standard durations of either 0.2 and 0.8 or 0.1 and 0.9 sec and then classified a range of durations including these values in terms of their similarity to the standard short (0.2- or 0.1-sec) and long (0.8- or 0.9-sec) durations. The bisection point (defined as the duration classified as "long" on 50% of trials) was located at 0.43 sec in the 0.2-0.8 group, and at 0.46 sec in the 0.1-0.9 group. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 using a within-subject procedure. The bisection point of both 0.2- and 0.8 sec and 0.1- and 0.9-sec durations was found to be 0.44 sec. Both experiments thus found the bisection point to be located at a duration just lower than the arithmetic mean of the standard short and long durations, rather than at the geometric mean, as in animal experiments. Some other performance measures, such as difference limen, and Weber ratio, were, however, of similar values to those found in bisection tasks with animals. A theoretical model assuming that humans bisect by taking the difference between a presented duration and the short and long standards, as well as having a bias to respond "long", fitted the data well. The model incorporated scalar representations of standard durations and thus illustrated a way in which the obtained results, although different from those found with animal subjects, could be reconciled with scalar timing theory.     

Situation-specific variables as determinants of perceived environmental aesthetic quality and perceived crowdedness

It was hypothesized that relevant situation-specific variables may act along with objective physical conditions to determine environmental perception, and that the exclusive use of the physical level of an environmental stimulus to predict behavior may, therefore, be inadequate. A 2 × 4 between-subjects design was employed in which an attitudinally similar or dissimilar confederate interacted with a subject at one of four distances. As hypothesized, subjects who interacted with a similar confederate judged the environment to be of higher aesthetic quality, perceived themselves to be less crowded, and felt affectively more positive than subjects who interacted with a dissimilar other. The results were also interpreted as supporting the utility of the Byrne-Clore (1970) reinforcementaffect model of evaluative responses as a means of predicting environmental perception and the behavioral response to environmental stimuli.     

Pain and aggression: Some findings and implications

Consistent with the cognitive-neoassociationistic conception of anger and emotional aggression, a wide variety of studies with animal as well as human subjects demonstrate that pain often gives rise to an inclination to hurt an available target, and also, at the human level, that people in pain are apt to be angry. However, and also in accord with the present formulation, these primitive angry/aggressive reactions can be suppressed, intensified, or modified by cognitive processes.     

Visual identification and spatial location in Alzheimer's disease

Twelve patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 15 healthy elderly control subjects were shown sets of luminance-defined letters, texture-defined letters, luminance-defined squares, and texture-defined squares. They were asked to name the letters or point to the target square on each page. The stimuli were graded into four levels of difficulty based on the amount of contrast between the figure and the background. Performance was measured in terms of the maximum level of difficulty at which the participant correctly identified or located the three figures. Contrary to expectations, no significant difference was found between the performance of AD patients and control subjects on texture discrimination tasks vs. luminance discrimination tasks. However, results indicate that AD patients are impaired in performing a task requiring them to locate a texture-defined target of known shape in a noisy background field. By contrast, AD patients show no significant deficit in a task requiring them to locate a texture-defined shape in a known location. This argues that the observed deficit in the location task is not due to a failure in the system that discriminates target texture from background texture (since both location and identification tasks require the same textural discriminations), but rather to an impairment of the system responsible for "finding things" (i.e., locating known targets at unknown locations). This observation suggests that AD patients may suffer selective damage to the dorsal "Where" pathway, which is responsible for localizing objects in space.     

Behavior of visual evoked potentials (pattern reversal VECP) in smokers

Twenty six clinically healthy smokers were studied with transient pattern visual-evoked potentials. In comparison with a sample of "normal" subjects we found a difference of some parameters (P less than 0.05): the P2-latency and the interocular difference of latency on average were 6-7 ms respectively 2 ms larger. Thirteen subjects have had a prolonged P2-latency (P less than 0.05) and/or a difference in interocular latencies larger than 5 ms. These findings may suggest on subclinical disturbances of visual system and indicators of an special sensitivity of that person. The findings are possibly related to tobacco-alcohol amblyopia.     

The effects of desire for control and extrinsic rewards on the illusion of control and gambling

The role of individual differences in the desire to control events in an illusion of control situation was examined. Subjects high and low in the desire for control played several trials of a gambling game under conditions either facilitating or not facilitating the perception that the subject had control over the outcome of the game. Half of the subjects were allowed to trade their winnings in on prizes at the end of the experiment. The other half played the game without extrinsic incentives. It was found that high desire-for-control subjects were more susceptible to the illusion of control, but only when the winnings could be traded in on prizes. Desire for control level and illusion of control manipulations did not appear to affect betting behavior in the absence of extrinsic rewards.     

Auditory threshold,signal-to-noise ratio and signal detection theory

The use of Signal Detection Theory has demonstrated that there is not an auditory threshold at the level supposed by classical psychophysics, but has not disproved the existence of an auditory threshold at a lower level. Following the recommended signal detection theory procedure fairly closely, an experiment obtained evidence either of the existence of a signal-to-noise ratio audi tory threshold, or a nonlinear relationship between stimulus and response which could not be statistically distiguished from such a threshold , Using the same apparatus and subjects, audi tory thresholds were also obtained using the classical method of limits. The acoustic pressure for the classical thresholds was about five times as great as for the signal detection theory method.     

The Relation of Altruistic Orientation to Human Relationships and Moral Judgment in Chinese People

The altruistic orientation and moral judgment of 811 Chinese subjects were studied. Three hypotheses were examined: (1) The altruistic orientation of an actor at any level of moral judgment is larger to a recipient of closer relationship in any situation; (2) an actor at a higher level of moral judgment would be more willing to sacrifice their life for any recipient than an actor at a lower level of moral judgment; (3) an actor at a higher level of moral judgment would be less willing to: (a) Give up rescuing a stranger and turn to rescue close relatives or best friends; or (b) help close relatives or best friends by covering up their crime than an actor at a lower level of moral judgment. The empirical findings supported clearly the aforementioned hypotheses.     

Verbal mediation and memory for novel figural designs: a dual interference study

To the extent that all types of visual stimuli can be verbalized to some degree, verbal mediation is intrinsic in so-called "visual" memory processing. This impurity complicates the interpretation of visual memory performance, particularly in certain neurologically impaired populations (e.g., aphasia). The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative contributions of verbal mediation to recognition memory for visual stimuli that vary with respect to their amenability to being verbalized. In Experiment 1, subjects attempted to verbally describe novel figural designs during presentation and then identify them in a subsequent recognition memory test. Verbalizing these designs facilitated memory. Stimuli that were found to be easiest or most difficult to verbalize at the group level were retained for the second study. In Experiment 2, subjects evidenced superior recognition memory for the relatively easy to verbalize items. This advantage was attenuated in subjects who performed a concurrent verbal interference task during encoding, but not in those who performed an analogous visual interference task. These findings provide evidence that impoverished verbal mediation disproportionately impedes memory for visual material that is relatively easy to verbalize. Implications for the clinical assessment of visual memory are discussed.     

An investigation of the reliability of the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration (P-F) Study, Children's Form

Presents data on the retest and split-half reliability of the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration (P-F) Study, Children's Form, for two groups of subjects (aged 10-11 and 12-13 years, respectively), each group tested twice at an interval of three months. It was found that the retest reliability for all scoring categories (except O-D) were statistically significant (.01 or .05 level). GCR proved stable for the younger group (r = .53) but not for the older group. The difference here may be due to the less comfortable retest conditions prevailing for the older subjects. Reliability by retest was consistently higher than by the less appropriate split-half method, but the latter proved, nevertheless, to be in the main favorable.     

品牌态度强度与品牌态度可达性的关系性质

运用态度量表和反应时实验比较了品牌态度强度与品牌态度可达性的关系性质。研究发现,女性被试对保健品品牌要素的态度评价越肯定,态度通达和提取的时间就越快,两者之间形成有规律的函数关系;但在否定性态度条件下,没有出现类似的规律性;当要求被试把模糊性态度明确为肯定或否定态度时,67％的被试明确为否定态度,但所用时间显著慢于明确为肯定态度所用的时间