Visual attention to own- versus other-race faces: Perspectives from learning mechanisms and task demands

Multiple factors have been proposed to contribute to the other-race effect in face recognition, including perceptual expertise and social-cognitive accounts. Here, we propose to understand the effect and its contributing factors from the perspectives of learning mechanisms that involve joint learning of visual attention strategies and internal representations for faces, which can be modulated by quality of contact with other-race individuals including emotional and motivational factors. Computational simulations of this process will enhance our understanding of interactions among factors and help resolve inconsistent results in the literature. In particular, since learning is driven by task demands, visual attention effects observed in different face-processing tasks, such as passive viewing or recognition, are likely to be task specific (although may be associated) and should be examined and compared separately. When examining visual attention strategies, the use of more data-driven and comprehensive eye movement measures, taking both spatial–temporal pattern and consistency of eye movements into account, can lead to novel discoveries in other-race face processing. The proposed framework and analysis methods may be applied to other tasks of real-life significance such as face emotion recognition, further enhancing our understanding of the relationship between learning and visual cognition.     

The relationship between numerical mapping abilities,maths achievement and socioeconomic status in 4- and 5-year-old children

Background

Early numeracy skills are associated with academic and life-long outcomes. Children from low-income backgrounds typically have poorer maths outcomes, and their learning can already be disadvantaged before they begin formal schooling. Understanding the relationship between the skills that support the acquisition of early maths skills could scaffold maths learning and improve life chances.

Aims

The present study aimed to examine how the ability of children from different SES backgrounds to map between symbolic (Arabic numerals) and non-symbolic (dot arrays) at two difficulty ratios related to their math performance.

Sample

Participants were 398 children in their first year of formal schooling (Mean age = 60 months), and 75% were from low SES backgrounds.

Method

The children completed symbolic to non-symbolic and non-symbolic to symbolic mapping tasks at two difficulty ratios (1:2; 2:3) plus standardized maths tasks.

Results

The results showed that all the children performed better for symbolic to non-symbolic mapping and when the ratio was 1:2. Mapping task performance was significantly related to maths task achievement, but low-SES children showed significantly lower performance on all tasks.

Conclusion

The results suggest that mapping tasks could be a useful way to identify children at risk of low maths attainment.     

Fixed-interval limited-hold avoidance with and without signalled reinforcement

Rats trained to lever press on a fixed-interval limited-hold avoidance schedule maintained a pattern of responding similar to that maintained by fixed-interval limited-hold schedules of positive reinforcement. But this positively accelerated pattern of behavior was maintained only when the occurrence of reinforcement was signalled by the presentation of a brief flash of light. This result suggests that the discriminative function of the reinforcer in avoidance is less pronounced than the discriminative function of the reinforcer in escape or positive reinforcement. It also suggests that the distinction between positive reinforcement and avoidance is not superfluous. Although the schedule of reinforcement is an important variable in determining the pattern of behavior, other variables, such as the nature (i.e., stimulus presentation, termination, or omission) of the reinforcer, are also potent determinants of behavior.     

Dimensional salience as a function of educational attainment and method of discrimination training

The effects of three methods of selective-attention training with 4-sided forms on the salience of an invagination physical dimension in discrimination judgments with a stimulus domain of 12-sided forms were examined for 6-year-old Ss of low and high educational attainment. The results demonstrated that training procedures involving perceptual demonstration or manipulation increase the invagination dimension salience in the 12-sided stimulus domain more than a verbal training procedure for low educational attainment Ss. Implications for the psychophysical study of relatedness of stimulus domains are discussed.     

The relationship between cognitive,motor-kinesthetic,and oculomotor adaptation

The literature concerning adaptation to prism indicates that several adaptive mechanisms may be important. The particular mechanism or mechanisms involved depends (at least in part) upon the type of adaptive exposure. In the present study. three adaptive mechanisms (cognitive. oculomotor, and motor-kinesthetic) were investigated. Ss were asked to point in the dark at an illuminated target. The target was seen displaced from its veridical position due to a wedge prism placed before S’s right eye. The left eye was occluded. Ss then viewed their visual target pointing errors through the displacing prism without seeing any part of their bodies. One group of Ss was instructed to ignore these prism-induced errors and to continue pointing at the target’s visual position. A second group of Ss was instructed to compensate fully for their errors and to at tempt to eliminate them on all future trials. For the latter group errors were completely eliminated, while for Ss instructed to ignore their errors, relatively small improvement in visual target settings occurred. This improvement was called cognitive adaptation, since it depended on the S’s conscious control. In addition. for both conditions. evidence was found that allowing Ss to view their prism-induced pointing errors resulted in some form of motor-kinesthetic adaptation. This adaptation was hypothesized to represent a change in the judged position of the pointing hand relative to its felt position. It was concluded that this motor-kinesthetic adaptation was dependent, in part, upon cognitive information concerning the effects of the prism and that it serves to reduce conflict between cognitive and visual cues, i.e., between what S believes and what he sees.     

Oculomotor adaptation to wedge prisms with no part of the body seen

When S looks at a visual target through prisms, adaptive shifts in reaching behavior occur even though he sees no part of his body through the prisms. These shifts are caused by a change in the judgment of the direction of gaze (oculomotor change), which in turn is caused by two secondary prismatic effects: (a) asymmetry of the visual display and (b) apparent rotation about a vertical axis of a panel or wall facing S. The “asymmetry” factor contributes 22% of the total oculomotor change, and the “rotation” effect contributes the remaining 78%. Oculomotor change is not facilitated by eye-movement activity. The adaptive oculomotor change induces a non-adaptive proprioception change about one-tenth as large as the oculomotor change. These findings are capable of accounting for the previously unexplained results reported by Wooster in 1923, and also for the current controversy about the role of reafferent stimulation in sensorymotor adaptation.     

Oculomotor adaptation to wedge prisms with no part of the body seen

When S looks at a visual target through prisms, adaptive shifts in reaching behavior occur even though he sees no part of his body through the prisms. These shifts are caused by a change in the judgment of the direction of gaze (oculomotor change), which in turn is caused by two secondary prismatic effects: (a) asymmetry of the visual display and (b) apparent rotation about a vertical axis of a panel or wall facing S. The “asymmetry” factor contributes 22% of the total oculomotor change, and the “rotation” effect contributes the remaining 78%. Oculomotor change is not facilitated by eye-movzment activity. The adaptive oculomotor change induces a non-adaptive proprioception change about one-tenth as large as the oculomotor change. These findings are capable of accounting for the previously unexplained results reported by Wooster in 1923, and also for the current controversy about the role of reafferent stimulation in sensorymotor adaptation.     

Social uncertainty and interdependence: A study of resource allocation decisions in groups

Social uncertainty about the behavior of others with whom one is interdependent for rewards is hypothesized to encourage self-interested behavior and inhibit behavioral commitment to the group. This paper examines the roles of uncertainty, expectations, and feedback about other group members' contributions to the group in interdependent decision making. In the absence of feedback, resources tend to be divided between individual and group interests. Resource allocations to the group are found to increase significantly if group members receive feedback about other members' allocations, particularly if that feedback is at the individual level, not an aggregated group level. However, the effects of feedback presence and type are eliminated when group members state their expectations about other members' future contributions to the group. Implications for expectancy value theories of motivation and commitment to groups in organizations are discussed.     

Internal consistency and reliability of alternate short forms of the college women's assertion sample: Clinical and research implications

Assertive behavior is most often assessed with self-report or role-play measures. The latter modality is preferred because it provides for the sampling of the structure of behavior and for the consideration of the situational context. MacDonald (1978) has developed such an assessment device but it is limited by the length of time for administration and scoring. Two studies were conducted to reconstruct reliable alternate short forms. The first study describes the selection of items and demonstrates the internal consistency of the alternate forms. The second study demonstrates the alternate form and retest reliability and provides normative statistics. We conclude that reliable alternate short forms have been constructed to be used in research in clinical applications.This research was supported by the Marie Wilson Howells Fund.Alternate short forms of the CWAS may be obtained from the first author.