Solving the rod-and-frame test in a tachistoscopic presentation: Effects of stimulus size and perceptual style

This research was undertaken to demonstrate, with correlational evidence, that presenting the rod-and-frame test (RIT) with either limited (tachistoscopic) or unlimited (Oltman’s, 1968, portable RFT) exposure time does not significantly affect the ranking of subjects. The underlying hypothesis is that the intersubject variability of performance on the portable RFT is due essentially to differences in sensitivity to the optostatic vection that appears automatically and almost immediately. Results of the tachistoscopic test show that the effect of angular size of the stimulus is similar to that described in the literature for unlimited time situations, and that subjects’ ranking is very similar regardless of the exposure time (W = .80). However, although a difference is observed between the means of low and high achievers in both types of RFT, intraindividual intertask homogeneity (correlation coefficient) is not verified in each of these subgroups. From these results, one can distinguish two processes in the RFT: the first, vections, has to do with the subject’s postural orientation and seems to playa great role in organizing interindividual differences. The second process, a more cognitive one, has a less striking effect and has to do with the selection of reference frames in perceptual organization.     

The relationship of analogical distance to analogical function and preinventive structure: the case of engineering design

Analogy was studied in real-world engineering design, using the in vivo method. Analogizing was found to occur frequently, entailing a roughly equal amount of within- and between-domain analogies. In partial support for theories of unconscious plagiarism (Brown & Murphy, 1989; Marsh, Landau, & Hicks, 1996) and Ward's (1994) path-of-least-resistance model, it was found that the reference to exemplars (in the form of prototypes) significantly reduced the number of between-domain analogies between source and target, as compared with using sketches or no external representational systems. Analogy served three functions in relation to novel design concepts: identifying problems, solving problems, and explaining concepts. Problem identifying analogies were mainly within domain, explanatory analogies were mainly between domain, and problem-solving analogies were a mixture of within- and between-domain analogies.     

Associations between childhood trauma and emotion-modulated psychophysiological responses to startling sounds: a study of police cadets

Childhood trauma may confer risk for adult psychopathology by altering emotional and physiological responses to subsequent stressors. Few studies have distinguished effects of childhood trauma from effects of current Axis I psychopathology on adult psychophysiological reactivity. The authors exposed 90 psychiatrically healthy police cadets to startling sounds under increasing threat of shock while assessing their eyeblink electromyogram (EMG), skin conductance (SC), and heart rate responses. When compared with those who did not endorse early trauma (n = 65), cadets reporting childhood trauma (n = 25) reported less positive emotion and showed greater SC responses across all threat levels. They also showed threat-dependent elevations in reported negative emotions and EMG responses. Results suggest that childhood trauma may lead to long-lasting alterations in emotional and psychophysiological reactivity even in the absence of current Axis I psychopathology.     

Same,same — but different: On the use of Navon derived measures of global/local processing in studies of face processing

Some studies have reported a significant correlation between face discrimination/recognition ability and indexes of global/local processing derived from the Navon paradigm. Other studies, however, have failed to find such a relationship. In this paper we examine three aspects related to the Navon paradigm that may have contributed to this discrepancy but which have been largely neglected: (i) the use of different types of compound stimuli across studies, (ii) differences between studies in the type of index derived from the Navon paradigm, and (iii) the reliability of these indexes. In a Navon experiment comparing performance with compound letters and compound shapes in normal participants, we find little consistency both within and across participants in how they perform with these stimulus types, despite the fact that both stimulus types give rise to the typical effects. In addition we find that many of the Navon derived indexes of global/local effects used in studies examining face processing have low reliability and do not measure the same aspects of global/local processing. Echoing the results from the normal participants, we also find little consistency in how a congenital prosopagnosic performs in the Navon paradigm. With compound letters, she responds much faster to local than to global aspects of the stimuli; a pattern not seen in a single of the normal participants. With compound shapes, however, she exhibits no such abnormality. These findings question the validity of the conclusions in studies relating Navon derived indexes of global/local processing to face processing.     

Speech‐perception‐in‐noise deficits in dyslexia

Speech perception deficits in developmental dyslexia were investigated in quiet and various noise conditions. Dyslexics exhibited clear speech perception deficits in noise but not in silence. Place‐of‐articulation was more affected than voicing or manner‐of‐articulation. Speech‐perception‐in‐noise deficits persisted when performance of dyslexics was compared to that of much younger children matched on reading age, underscoring the fundamental nature of speech‐perception‐in‐noise deficits. The deficits were not due to poor spectral or temporal resolution because dyslexics exhibited normal ‘masking release’ effects (i.e. better performance in fluctuating than in stationary noise). Moreover, speech‐perception‐in‐noise predicted significant unique variance in reading even after controlling for low‐level auditory, attentional, speech output, short‐term memory and phonological awareness processes. Finally, the presence of external noise did not seem to be a necessary condition for speech perception deficits to occur because similar deficits were obtained when speech was degraded by eliminating temporal fine‐structure cues without using external noise. In conclusion, the core deficit of dyslexics seems to be a lack of speech robustness in the presence of external or internal noise.     

Number versus continuous quantity in numerosity judgments by fish

A fundamental question in human cognition is how people reason about space. We use a computational model to explore cross-cultural commonalities and differences in spatial cognition. Our model is based upon two hypotheses: (1) the structure-mapping model of analogy can explain the visual comparisons used in spatial reasoning; and (2) qualitative, structural representations are computed by people’s visual systems and used in these comparisons. We apply our model to a visual oddity task, in which individuals are shown an array of two-dimensional images and asked to the pick the one that does not belong. This task was previously used to evaluate understanding of geometric concepts in two disparate populations: North Americans, and the Mundurukú, a South American indigenous group. Our model automatically generates representations of each hand-segmented image and compares them to solve the task. The model achieves human-level performance on this task, and problems that are hard for the model are also difficult for people in both cultures. Furthermore, ablation studies on the model suggest explanations for cross-cultural differences in terms of differences in spatial representations.     

Birds of a feather sit together: physical similarity predicts seating choice

Across four studies, people sat (or reported they would sit) closer to physically similar others. Study 1 revealed significant aggregation in seating patterns on two easily observed characteristics: glasses wearing and sex. Study 2 replicated this finding with a wider variety of physical traits: race, sex, glasses wearing, hair length, and hair color. The overall tendency for people to sit beside physically similar others remained significant when controlling for sex and race, suggesting people aggregate on physical dimensions other than broad social categories. Study 3 conceptually replicated these results in a laboratory setting. The more physically similar participants were to a confederate, the closer they sat before an anticipated interaction when controlling for sex, race, and attractiveness similarity. In Study 4, overall physical similarity and glasses wearing similarity predicted self-reported seating distance. These effects were mediated by perceived attitudinal similarity. Liking and inferred acceptance also received support as mediators for glasses wearing similarity.