Unifying sequential effects in perceptual grouping

Temporally-extended perception involves a delicate balance of constancy and change. 'This can be seen, for instance, when viewing bistable figures such as the Necker cube. A recent study by Gepshtein and Kubovy of sequential effects in multistable dot lattices demonstrates constancy and change within the same set of data. They propose that these opposing trends might be explained by the same single factor: a persistent random orientation bias that is intrinsic to brain activity. This proposal could form the basis for a new account of multistability.     

Observation and judgment in psychology: Assessing agreement among markings of behavioral events

In a sequence from a videotaped dialogue between two persons (e.g., psychotherapist and patient), observers are given the task of searching for, marking, and commenting on conspicuous events. The observers receive no information on where to look for conspicuous events and no information on what events are worth marking. Moreover, nothing is known about the observers’ marking preferences. Marking is therefore very spontaneous and subjective. This marking freedom leads to the problem that a superimposition of all observers’ markings yields complicated configurations of mutually overlapping intervals. To address this difficulty, a new definition of the concept of marking agreement is proposed that is based upon relational considerations. According to this definition, a set ofagreeing marking subsets of various sizes can be found in marking configurations. A significance concept is proposed to allow comparison of different configurations, and standardization on the basis of random configurations is performed using Monte Carlo simulations.     

Face inversion disproportionately impairs the perception of vertical but not horizontal relations between features

Upside-down inversion disrupts the processing of spatial relations between the features of a face, while largely preserving local feature analysis. However, recent studies on face inversion failed to observe a clear dissociation between relational and featural processing. To resolve these discrepancies and clarify how inversion affects face perception, the authors monitored inversion effects separately for vertical and horizontal distances between features. Inversion dramatically declined performance in the vertical-relational condition, but it impaired featural and horizontal-relational performance only moderately. Identical observations were made whether upright and inverted trials were blocked or randomly interleaved. The largest performance decrement was found for vertical relations even when faces were rotated by 90 degrees. Evidence that inversion dramatically disrupts the ability to extract vertical but not horizontal feature relations supports the view that inversion qualitatively changes face perception by rendering some of the processes activated by upright faces largely ineffective.     

Autobiographical recall training in elderly adults with subjective memory complaint: a pilot study

Subjective memory complaint is a self-reported memory impairment which affects elderly people. This problem does not interfere with daily living activities but could decrease quality of life. This study's purpose was to verify whether a specific, newly developed, autobiographical recall training could modify self-perception of memory of subjects with subjective memory complaint. Seven elderly subjects (4 women and 3 men; mean age 65.5 yr., SD=11) with such complaint, evidenced through a specific questionnaire, attended the training course and were prospectively assessed on standard neuropsychological tests, depressive symptomatology, and self-perception of memory. Self-perception of memory, as assessed by scores on a formalized questionnaire, improved significantly after the training, while depressive symptoms did not change. Neuropsychological performances were normal before and after the training, but a statistically significant improvement was observed only on the phonological fluency test. Thus the present pilot study suggested that the training may be effective in improving self-perception of memory and metamnestic capacity in elderly people with subjective memory complaints but not in changing subjects' depressive symptoms. This requires replication of this work with a much larger sample so statistical power is adequate.     

Perceiving the numerosity of rapidly occurring auditory events in metrical and nonmetrical contexts

Experiment 1 determined the fastest tempo at which participants could tap in synchrony with every nth tone (n = 2 to 9) in an isochronous sequence. Tapping was difficult with every 5th or 7th tone but easy with every 2nd, 4th, or 8th tone, suggesting that evenly divisible groups of n tones are automatically subdivided into equal groups of 2 or 3-a form of auditory subitizing that generates metrical hierarchies commonly found in Western music. Experiments 2 and 3 sought evidence of subitizing and subdivision in timed explicit enumeration of short, rapidly presented tone sequences (n = 2 to 10). Enumeration accuracy decreased monotonically with n. Response time increased monotonically up to n = 5 or 6, but less between 2 and 3 than between 3 and 4. Thus, a single group of 2 or 3 tones perhaps can be subitized, but subdivision of larger groups into subgroups of 2 or 3 tones seems to be specific to a repetitive, metrical context.     

Unconscious, stimulus-dependent priming and conscious, percept-dependent priming with chromatic stimuli

Using metacontrast masking to suppress the conscious registration of a prime stimulus, Breitmeyer, Ro, and Singhal (2004) showed that color priming produced by a masked prime disk occurs at unconscious stimulus-dependent rather than at percept-dependent levels of visual processing. The current set of experiments compares this type of unconscious stimulus-dependent priming to conscious priming produced by a prime that, in two separate ways, is rendered visible and thus activates percept-dependent visual processes. The results indicate that while the masked prime again acts at a stimulus-dependent level of processing, the unmasked, visible primes additionally act at a later percept-dependent level of processing.     

Pianists duet better when they play with themselves: on the possible role of action simulation in synchronization

Ensemble musicians play in synchrony despite expressively motivated irregularities in timing. We hypothesized that synchrony is achieved by each performer internally simulating the concurrent actions of other ensemble members, relying initially on how they would perform in their stead. Hence, musicians should be better at synchronizing with recordings of their own earlier performances than with others' recordings. We required pianists to record one part from each of several piano duets, and later to play the complementary part in synchrony with their own or others' recordings. The pianists were also asked to identify their own recordings. The pianists were better at synchronizing with their own than with others' performances, and they were able to recognize their own recordings. Furthermore, synchronization accuracy and recognition were correlated: Pianists who were relatively accurate at synchronizing with their own performances were also good at recognizing them. Thus, action simulation may underlie both synchronization and self-recognition.     

Use of the computer and Internet among Italian families: first national study.

Although home Internet access has continued to increase, little is known about actual usage patterns in homes. This nationally representative study of over 4,700 Italian households with children measured computer and Internet use of each family member across 3 months. Data on actual computer and Internet usage were collected by Nielsen//NetRatings service and provide national baseline information on several variables for several age groups separately, including children, adolescents, and adult men and women. National averages are shown for the average amount of time spent using computers and on the Web, the percentage of each age group online, and the types of Web sites viewed. Overall, about one-third of children ages 2 to 11, three-fourths of adolescents and adult women, and over four-fifths of adult men access the Internet each month. Children spend an average of 22 hours/month on the computer, with a jump to 87 hours/month for adolescents. Adult women spend less time (about 60 hours/month), and adult men spend more (over 100). The types of Web sites visited are reported, including the top five for each age group. In general, search engines and Web portals are the top sites visited, regardless of age group. These data provide a baseline for comparisons across time and cultures.     

Auditory word identification in dyslexic and normally achieving readers

The integrity of phonological representation/processing in dyslexic children was explored with a gating task in which children listened to successively longer segments (gates) of a word. At each gate, the task was to decide what the entire word was. Responses were scored for overall accuracy as well as the children's sensitivity to coarticulation from the final consonant. As a group, dyslexic children were less able than normally achieving readers to detect coarticulation present in the vowel portion of the word, particularly on the most difficult items, namely those ending in a nasal sound. Hierarchical regression and path analyses indicated that phonological awareness mediated the relation of gating and general language ability to word and pseudoword reading ability.     

Automatic activation of phonology in silent reading is parallel: evidence from beginning and skilled readers

The picture-word interference paradigm was used to shed new light on the debate concerning slow serial versus fast parallel activation of phonology in silent reading. Prereaders, beginning readers (Grades 1-4), and adults named pictures that had words printed on them. Words and pictures shared phonology either at the beginnings of words (e.g., DOLL-DOG) or at the ends of words (e.g., FOG-DOG). The results showed that phonological overlap between primes and targets facilitated picture naming. This facilitatory effect was present even in beginning readers. More important, from Grade 1 onward, end-related facilitation always was as strong as beginning-related facilitation. This result suggests that, from the beginning of reading, the implicit and automatic activation of phonological codes during silent reading is not serial but rather parallel.