Recognition and recall of invisible objects

Three experiments examined recognition and recall of items that people imagined as being invisible. When one item hid another, the hidden item suffered in recognition, but so did the one that remained visible; the demand to imagine items invisibly made both items less recognizable than in control conditions. Cued recall did not depend on whether the visible item or the invisible item was the cue, but it did depend on whether the initial task required relational processing of the items. When both items were invisible in a dark imaginary scene, there was a general loss in all measures of memory, including memory for the scene. None of the results requires recourse to the “out of sight, out of mind” principle that memory depends on the visual characteristics of images. The results attest, instead, to the importance of the informational characteristics of memorial records.     

Lingual vibrotactile threshold and suprathreshold responses of normal-speaking black and white young adults.

A paradigm for studying oral sensory tactile function through use of single frequency vibration applied to the dorsal surface of the tongue was administered to a group of 10 young black women and 10 young white normal-speaking women. Analyses showed no differences between groups with regard to lingual vibrotactile threshold of sensitivity or suprathreshold magnitude-estimation scaling responses.     

Differences in lingual vibrotactile threshold shifts during magnitude-estimation scaling between normal-speaking children and children with articulation problems.

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in function of the tactile sensory system between groups of normal-speaking children and children with articulation problems. This task was accomplished by studying possible tactile threshold shifts occurring during magnitude-estimation scaling of vibratory stimuli presented to the dorsal surface of the tongue. 10 normal-speaking children (M age = 7.8 yr.) and 9 children with articulation problems (M age = 7.5 yr.) participated. The normal-speaking children and articulatory defective children performed differently on the magnitude-estimation scaling task in which threshold was allowed to return to baseline after each stimulus presentation. These two groups of children also showed dissimilar threshold shifts for the suprathreshold intensities employed in the magnitude-estimation scaling.     

Reading long words embedded in sentences: informativeness of word halves affects eye movements

The possibility was explored that the informativeness of a specific region within a word can influence eye movements during reading. In Experiment 1, words containing identifying information either toward the beginning or toward the end were displayed asymmetrically around the point of fixation so that the reader was initially presented with either the informative or noninformative zone. Words were read with shorter summed initial fixation time when the reading was started from the informative zone. In Experiments 2 and 3, the target words were presented in sentences that were to be comprehended. More attention was given to the informative endings of words than to redundant endings. The latter were also skipped more often. The duration of the first fixation was not affected by information distribution within the word, whereas the second fixation duration was. The results of these experiments lend good support to the hypothesis of immediate lexical control over fixation behavior and to the notion of a convenient viewing position.     

Salkovskis on obsessional-compulsive neurosis: a rejoinder

Salkovskis (Behav Res. Ther. 27, 677–682, 1989) presents a development of his 1985 account, together with empirical findings. A number of criticisms of this work are presented.     

Do letter features migrate? A note of caution

Summary The feature-integration model of visual information processing (Treisman & Gelade, 1980) predicts perceptual errors based on the incorrect grouping of stimulus features in multi-element displays. Experiment 1 examined the frequency of such errors with a tachistoscopic bar probe task using letters and novel patterns with a production response. A substantial proportion of the errors did involve figures that were not present in the display but contained combinations of features which had been present. Such errors were especially prominent with novel patterns. The results with letters suggested that such responses were due to guessing, not feature migration, and this was confirmed by Experiment 2. In the second study, responses were collected for single character displays but were scored as if they had been responses to the multielement displays in Experiment 1. The results showed the same high proportion of illusory conjunction errors as the previous results and it was concluded that both results were due to guessing. Spatial confusions in the bar probe task with letters appear to involve whole characters, not character features.This research was supported by grant A-9581 from the National Science and Engineering Council of Canada to the senior author. This research was reported as a paper to the annual meeting of the Canadian Psychological Association, Toronto, 1981. Ian Morrison is now a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Psychology, Carnegie-Mellon University.     

It's just (family) business: The impact of familial work experience on perceived qualification and hireability during the selection process

Though scholars have explored the impact of familial work experience (FWE) posthire, research has yet to determine the role of such experience during the selection process. Drawing from Attribution Theory and research on nepotism and family business dynamics, we suggest that the presence of FWE on an applicant's selection materials will lead to reduced perceptions of qualifications and hireability. Through two online experiments (N₁ = 170, N₂ = 251), we found mixed support for this proposition. In our first study focused on cover letters, we found that applicants who reported FWE were not appraised differently than those who did not. In our second study focused on letters of recommendation, however, we found that applicants who reported FWE were perceived as less qualified and less hireable. Moreover, we found that the level of job (i.e., service vs. managerial) moderates these relations, such that managerial applicants with FWE on their letter of recommendation were perceived as less hireable than those who did not. Implications for research and practice are discussed, and future research directions are offered.