Contrast and assimilation in the Baldwin illusion

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the role of "large" squares on the occurrence of assimilation and contrast in the Baldwin illusion. In Exps. 1 and 2, in which subjects reproduced the length of the test line, large squares induced illusions of assimilation. In Exp. 3, reproduction of the entire length of the test line also resulted in illusions of assimilation but bisection of the test line and reproduction of one-half the length of the test line resulted in contrast. Exp. 4 replicated the findings involving judgments of one-half the length of the test line. Over-all, the results indicate that judgments of one-half the length of the test line result in contrast, whereas judgments of the entire extent result in assimilation.     

Sex bias in visual images evoked by generics: A new zealand study

Male biases are known to exist in the usage, evaluation, and interpretation of masculine generics. This study explored, by means of a tachistoscope, sex-specific biases in visual images evoked by masculine (All men are created equal, At university a student can study whatever he wants) and feminine (The feminists protested outside the town hall, At university a student can study whatever she wants) generics. Photographs of male and female faces were presented in a deliberately ambiguous (subthreshold) viewing field while maintaining the masculine or feminine generic sentence on constant view. It was predicted and found in a sample of 48 university students that if generics invoked sex-specific images, the images would affect the direction in which the viewer would resolve the ambiguous faces, resulting in more reported male faces in the masculine than in the feminine generic condition.Preparation of this article was supported by a New Zealand Social Sciences Research Fund Committee grant (8632/21/24/8604) to S. H. Ng.     

An animal model of excessive eating: schedule-induced hyperphagia in food-satiated rats.

Nineteen rats were maintained throughout the experiment on ad libitum wet mash and water and were trained to press a lever on fixed-interval or fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement with electrical brain stimulation. Fourteen rats ate at least 150% more mash during intermittent reinforcement sessions than during baseline, massed reinforcement control, and/or extinction sessions. In a 3-hr session, 11 of those 14 consumed more than 22 g of wet mash (13 g dry weight), the equivalent of nearly half an animal's daily food intake. In subsequent control sessions, the electrodes did not support stimulus-bound eating despite attempts to make stimulation parameters optimal. These results indicate that the eating was schedule induced or adjunctive, and suggest that the procedure may provide an animal model of excessive nonregulatory eating that contributes to obesity in humans.     

Prediction of wins and losses in a series of field hockey games: A study of probability assessment quality and cognitive information-processing models of players

The ability of players in a competitive team sport to assess win/loss probabilities, and the role that feedback plays in improving the quality of their assessments are the major foci of this study. The paper describes a study of sequential probability assessments by members of a women's field hockey team participating in a championship series. Several classes of cognitive models of probability revision were postulated and tested. The results of the paper indicate that (1) players generally attain a high level of calibration in their assessments, (2) their assessments are reliable and of high quality, (3) those who systematically and sensitively revise their probabilities attain, on average, significantly higher quality forecasts than those who are more conservative in responding to feedback scores, and (4) most of those who systematically revise their assessments in response to feedback scores appear to employ myopic models utilizing information about only one team—either their own or their opponents.     

Middle temporal cortical visual area and visuospatial function in Galago senegalensis.

Bushbabies with lesions restricted to the middle temporal (MT) area and animals with larger extrastriate lesions including area MT were compared with normal control animals on test of visuospatial localization and discrimination learning. Ablation of area MT was sufficient to produce impairments in directing behavior appropriately on the basis of visuospatial cues. Extension of the lesion into areas 18 and 19 produced more profound deficits. Retardation in learning a stripe discrimination problem was correlated with the extent of damage to the geniculostriate system. It is hypothesized that area MT is important in achieving and maintaining fixation on a target whereas cortical areas 18 and 19 are necessary for establishing the location of stimulation in visual space.     

Whites' ethnocentrism and their attributions for the behavior of blacks: A motivational bias1

Previous research has shown that people make more derogatory attributions for the behavior of outgroup members than for the behavior of ingroup members. However, these results may be due merely to a cultural stereotype of the outgroup rather than to ethnocentrism (which would entail dislike for members of the outgroup). To examine the effect of ethnocentrism on attributions, irrespective of the cultural stereotype, and to examine whether people who differ in ethnocentrism also differ in their attributions for whites and blacks, high and low ethnocentric whites made attributions for the success and failure of black and white actors on a task which required an ability that was outside the scope of the cultural stereotype of blacks, i.e., ESP ability. Examination of these attributions revealed that the more ethnocentric the subjects were, the more they tended to give whites greater credit for success than blacks, and the more they tended to give whites less blame for failure than blacks. These results were discussed in terms of their implications for the persistence of prejudice and for the effects of motivations on attributions for the behavior of others.     

Structural factors in figure perception

In this report, we examine tachistoscopic perception of lines in structured figures. Previous research has shown that perception of lines is facilitated when the lines occur as parts of coherent three-dimensional figures. Experiment 1 demonstrates that it is not necessary for the figure to be three-dimensional to obtain facilitation. Experiments 2 and 3 show that three-dimensionality is not sufficient either. What is important is that the target lines be structurally relevant to the figure. However, structural relevance of a target segment to the figure as perceived with unlimited viewing time is not perfectly correlated with perceptibility under tachistoscopic conditions; it appears that the targets which fall on the external contour of a figure may be facilitated even without a high degree of structural relevance. In view of this, we suggest a model in which perceivers use processing heuristics to direct processing to aspects of the input that are potentially important for determining the structure of the final figure, working primarily from the outside in.     

Suggestibility and type of interpersonal relationship: Special implications for the patient-practitioner relationship

Suggestibility was assessed in five conditions by the subject's response to suggestions falsely labeled as matters of fact. These misrepresentations of fact, or virtual suggestions, denoted a variety of hallucinations, an anesthesia, and an amnesia. They were administered as incidental intrusions while the subject was involved in the primary experimental task. In three of these conditions, the subject either observed his own spontaneous visual imagery, observed visual scenes provided by the experimenter, or simply waited with closed eyes for the presentation of the virtual stimuli. These conditions were characterized by a passive-receptive, interpersonal relationship in which the subject remained silent. Suggestibility was expected to be high. In a fourth condition the subjects described spontaneous visual imagery. This was characterized as an active-receptive relationship in which speech was maintained throughout. The suggestibility of the three passive-receptive conditions was comparable, and none of them differed from a baseline condition involving the formal induction of hypnosis. However, the fourth, active-receptive condition was significantly lower, and this difference survived a replication. Of special interest was the induction of an anesthesia in the majority of subjects in the three passive-receptive conditions.     

The evaluation of an intervention program for young schoolchildren with acting-out problems

The rationale and nature of a program to train nonprofessional child-aides for helping interactions with young acting-out school children are described. Pre/ post teacher measures of children's problems and competencies, aide measures of problem behavior, and school mental health professionals' change in behavior estimates were used to evaluate the program's effectiveness. Children seen by trained aides showed significantly greater reductions both in acting-out problems and in overall maladjustment than did similar children seen by comparable aides who did not have additional training, or by themselves before training. Implications were considered for optimizing outcomes both in the specific school intervention project in question and in other, broader types of clinical interventions.This study was supported by a grant from the NIMH Experimental and Special Training Branch (MH 14547-02), which the authors acknowledge with gratitude. Our thanks also go to Bruce Rapkin and Mary Boike, who assisted in the data analyses.