Familiarity,memorability, and the effect of typicality on the recognition of faces

Typical faces are more poorly discriminated on tests of recognition than are atypical faces, an effect suggested to mediate similar findings for attractive or likable faces. We tested the hypothesis that the effect of typicality on recognition is a function of context-free familiarity and memorability, which function in opposition. Two orthogonal principal components were extracted from subjects' ratings of faces for typicality, familiarity, attractiveness, likability, and memorability--one consisting of the ratings of familiarity, attractiveness, and likability, and reflecting context-free familiarity, and the other consisting of the memorability rating. As expected, typicality loaded equally (r approximately .66), but with opposite sign, on both components. In subsequent experiments, both components were found to be significant and additive predictors of face recognition with no residual effect of typicality. General familiarity decreased discrimination, and the memorability component enhanced it, supporting the hypothesis. The results are discussed in terms of the mirror effect.     

ALTRUISM AND CHRISTIAN LOVE

Abstract. Sociobiological theories have had little impact on Christian concepts of neighbor love. Since sociobiological theories of altruism depict love as a form of egoistic interest in enhancing one's general fitness, they are often thought to contradict Christian theories of love. However, altruism as defined by sociobiology has more affinity with Roman Catholic views of Christian love as caritas than Protestant views of extreme agape. Sociobiological views of altruism may provide more updated models for defining the orders and priorities of love, which has been an important aspect of Roman Catholic ethics. The family's role in mediating between kin altruism and wider love for the community is investigated.     

On the relationship between detection and recognition

Predictions derived from a “unitary-process” theory on the relationship between detection and recognition were examined in two experiments on visual detection and recognition. As predicted on the basis of this theory, recognition accuracy was superior to detection accuracy. An analysis of the conditional probabilities from a joint detection-recognition task revealed the pattern of relationships predicted by the theory. Increasing the number of alternative stimuli while maintaining only two response categories was found not to significantly affect detection or recognition performance, contrary to expectations based on the idea of multiple independent detectors.     

Concurrence costs in double stimulation tasks

Seven experiments are described on reaction time (RT₁) to a first auditory stimulus in a double stimulation paradigm, where the response to a second visual stimulus was explicitly non-speeded. In all studies it was found that, compared to a single stimulus control condition, RT₁ showed a constant delay of about 20–30 msec. The effect occurred irrespective of (a) the viewing conditions of the second stimulus in terms of either duration, processing demands or presence vs absence of a backward masking signal (experiments 1, 4, 5, 6, 7); (b) the duration of the interstimulus interval ranging from -200 msec up to at least a second (experiments 2, 3, 5); and (c) the processing demands of the first task (experiment 7). It is suggested that the delay reflects a basic concurrence cost which remains when two reactions can be time-shared.     

Pedagogy of Possibilities: Teaching About Racism in Multicultural Counseling Courses

The topic of diversity/multiculturalism is explored in terms of how to teach about racism in counselor education programs. Issues about racism in general, how racism is handled in multicultural counseling courses, and strategies for successful teaching are explored.     

INSTRUCTIONS,FEEDBACK, PRAISE,BONUS PAYMENTS,AND TEACHER BEHAVIOR1

The study was conducted within a training and demonstration center for teachers from several different school districts. The teachers staffing the center were employees of the host school district who volunteered to serve in the center. Unfortunately, these volunteers did not always use the program materials appropriately and therefore did not always provide clear models for visiting teachers. In particular, four of the volunteer teachers did not always instruct their students from the appropriate reading text, even when encouraged to do so by the principal of the school in which the center was located. Various procedures were employed to alter this situation. The experimenter, (associate director of the training and demonstration center) provided instructions, feedback, and praise regarding use of the appropriate reading text. These procedures had clear effects with only one teacher. Then, merit or bonus payments were provided for teachers who used the appropriate reading text for criterion periods of time; a procedure that was very effective with all four teachers. The problem worked on in this study is typical of those faced by workers in public institutions where change cannot be brought about by the researcher's authority. All teachers in the present study had the necessary skills to demonstrate accurately the prescribed program procedures, but they did not always do so until the bonus payment was used. Although the bonus payment procedure might be inappropriate in some school situations, the procedure could easily be adjusted to accommodate the established practices of many schools. For example, establishment of explicit performance criterion and use of in-service stipends for meeting criterion performance during school hours, rather than attendance at meetings after school, might well be comparably effective.     

Generation of internally restricted random-dot patterns

The probability of a successful draw of a dot position within a random dot pattern is considered for the special case where a minimal city block distance is imposed separating any two dots within the random pattern. An analytical solution is derived and is tested against Monte Carlo simulations. The agreement is considered to be good, except at extremely low probabilities of a successful draw. An alternative method, based upon the utilization of successively coarser grids, is also given. Formulas are also provided for circular and for diamond-shaped separation regions.     

Luminous targets: Visibility fluctuations modified by similar verbal responses

Ss reported visibility fluctuations in a luminous target consisting of small, medium, and large circles. Each S had previously learned a response to each of the three circles. The experimental group learned two words which were free associates of each other and a third unrelated word. The control group learned three unrelated words. Concurrent visibility for the pair of circles associated with related words was greater than for the pairs associated with unrelated words. Thus word associations influence perception of stimuli for which the words are responses.     

Diagnostic reasoning with circumstantial evidence

Individuals often evaluate hypotheses about the cause of particular events on the basis of circumstantial evidence. This article describes a quantitative model of belief revision with circumstantial evidence. The model assumes that subjects revise belief on the basis of a cascaded reasoning process that combines beliefs about three premises—the association of a clue and a possible cause, and forward and backward implications of the clue—to revise belief in a causal hypothesis. Subjects in three experiments solved fictional murder mysteries, reporting on each trial a subset of the beliefs specified by the model. Experiment 1 demonstrates that the model provides a good account of the reasoning process, over several contexts in which clues are evaluated. Subjects appear to develop causal models that affect the interpretation of clues. Experiment 2 provides further evidence on the development of causal models and compares the present model with a model based on Bayes' theorem. Experiment 3 is a control experiment which demonstrates that the belief assessments used in Experiments 1 and 2 do not alter the process of belief revision. Tests of subjects' memory for suspect-clue associations provide further support for the hypothesis that subjects develop causal models of the true cause and demonstrate the contrast between reasoning with currently available information and retrospective access to the facts on which belief revision is based. The present view is compared with other theories of causal thinking and belief revision.