The role of eye-fixation research in cognitive psychology

Eye-fixation research can be used to address issues of theoretical interest in several areas of cognitive psychology, such as linguistic processing, spatial processing, and reading. The eye-fixation behavior can lead to processing models, assuming that the eye fixates the referent of the symbol being operated on.     

A comparison of the influence of handle load and of unfavourable atmospheric conditions on a tracking task

An experiment was made to determine the extent to which the performance of a tracking task was adversely influenced by simulated tropical environmental conditions, by comparing this effect with that of loading the control handle with weights. The pursuitmeter used was similar to that used by Mackworth (1948) when he showed that the accuracy of performance was reduced under tropical conditions. The score of error was the total angular separation between the target and follower pointers expressed in arbitrary units. It was found that as the room temperature was raised from approximately 80° to 90° on the Effective Temperature scale, this score increased in the ratio 1-13, an increase which was also obtained by increasing the load on the control handle from 8 to 30 lb. There were also indications that the effect of room temperature was greater with higher handle loads. The effect on performance was not correlated with rectal temperature or with the amount of weight lost.     

A stochastic multidimensional unfolding approach for representing phased decision outcomes

This paper presents a stochastic multidimensional unfolding (MDU) procedure to spatially represent individual differences in phased or sequential decision processes. The specific application or scenario to be discussed involves the area of consumer psychology where consumers form judgments sequentially in their awareness, consideration, and choice set compositions in a phased or sequential manner as more information about the alternative brands in a designated product/service class are collected. A brief review of the consumer psychology literature on these nested congnitive sets as stages in phased decision making is provided. The technical details of the proposed model, maximum likelihood estimation framework, and algorithm are then discussed. A small scale Monte Carlo analysis is presented to demonstrate estimation proficiency and the appropriateness of the proposed model selection heuristic. An application of the methodology to capture awareness, consideration, and choice sets in graduate school applicants is presented. Finally, directions for future research and other potential applications are given.     

The patterns seen when alternating electric current is passed through the eye

When alternating current of frequency up to 210 c's. is passed through the eye while the retina is brightly and uniformly illuminated, conspicuous spatial patterns are seen. Other such patterns are seen when current of frequency up to 100 c/s. is passed through the eye in darkness. These patterns are here described, and their origin is discussed.     

The role of eye movements in the perception of visually induced motion

Changes in eye position were recorded while S experienced visually induced motion. Movement of the eye was not found to correlate, in either direction or extent, with this type of apparent motion. Induced movement was explained, therefore, in terms of a change in phenomenal rather than retinal location.     

The neural bases of strategy and skill in sentence-picture verification

This experiment used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to examine the relation between individual differences in cognitive skill and the amount of cortical activation engendered by two strategies (linguistic vs. visual-spatial) in a sentence-picture verification task. The verbal strategy produced more activation in language-related cortical regions (e.g., Broca's area), whereas the visual-spatial strategy produced more activation in regions that have been implicated in visual-spatial reasoning (e.g., parietal cortex). These relations were also modulated by individual differences in cognitive skill: Individuals with better verbal skills (as measured by the reading span test) had less activation in Broca's area when they used the verbal strategy. Similarly, individuals with better visual-spatial skills (as measured by the Vandenberg, 1971, mental rotation test) had less activation in the left parietal cortex when they used the visual-spatial strategy. These results indicate that language and visual-spatial processing are supported by partially separable networks of cortical regions and suggests one basis for strategy selection: the minimization of cognitive workload.     

Three aspects of self-disclosure as they relate to quality of adjustment

Subjects completed two measures of actual self-disclosure (one for intimacy of self-presentation and one for inwardness of self-presentation)and a self-report of past self-disclosure. and California Psychological Inventory. For both sexes the two measures of actual disclosure correlated positively but neither instrument related positively to the self-report measure. Females disclosed more than males on both measures of actual disclosure. Quadratic, inverted-U relationships were hypothesized for the self-disclosure and CPI scales, but by and large they were not found. Linear associations were noted, the major ones being a positive pattern of correlations between the inwardness of actual disclosure and measures of flexible autonomy, responsibility and socialization for the males, a negative set of relations between the intimacy of actual disclosure and scales indicative of good interpersonal adjustment for the females, and a positive relationship between the self-report measure and scales indicative of social poise, extraversion and socialization for both sexes.     

The relationship between childhood abuse and adult personality disorder symptoms

This study assessed personality disorder symptomatology in a community sample of healthy adults without diagnosable DSM-IV-TR Axis I psychiatric disorders who reported a history of childhood abuse. Twenty-eight subjects with a history of moderate to severe physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse according to the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire were compared to 33 subjects without an abuse history on symptoms of personality disorders. Subjects in the Abuse group were more likely to report subclinical symptoms of paranoid, narcissistic, borderline, antisocial, obsessive compulsive, passive-aggressive, and depressive personality disorders. These findings link reports of childhood abuse with symptoms of personality disorders in the absence of Axis I psychiatric disorders in a community sample of healthy adults.