The effects of inventory on vowel perception in French and Spanish: an MEG study

Production studies have shown that speakers of languages with larger phoneme inventories expand their acoustic space relative to languages with smaller inventories [Bradlow, A. (1995). A comparative acoustic study of English and Spanish vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97(3), 1916-1924; Jongman, A., Fourakis, M., & Sereno, J. (1989). The acoustic vowel space of Modern Greek and German. Language Speech, 32, 221-248]. In this study, we investigated whether this acoustic expansion in production has a perceptual correlate, that is, whether the perceived distance between pairs of sounds separated by equal acoustic distances varies as a function of inventory size or organization. We used magnetoencephalography, specifically the mismatch field response (MMF), and compared two language groups, French and Spanish, whose vowel inventories differ in size and organization. Our results show that the MMF is sensitive to inventory size but not organization, suggesting that speakers of languages with larger inventories perceive the same sounds as less similar than speakers with smaller inventories.     

The categorical structure of knowledge for famous people (and a novel application of Centre-Surround theory)

Knowledge of familiar people is essential to guide social interaction, yet there is uncertainty about whether semantic knowledge for people is stored in a categorical structure as for objects. Four priming experiments using hard-to-perceive primes investigated whether occupation forms a category connecting famous persons in semantic memory. Primes were famous faces exposed for 17ms with masking, resulting in severely restricted awareness and thus precluding expectancy-based priming effects. Targets were consciously perceptible famous faces (Experiments 1-3), famous names (Experiment 3), or occupations (Experiment 4) representing either the same or different occupation to the prime. Significant priming demonstrated the operation of automatic processes, including spreading activation, among persons sharing a common occupation; this supports the categorical view. The direction of priming (faster/slower responses to same-occupation than different-occupation targets) was dependent on prime-target stimulus onset asynchrony (Experiments 1-3) and type of target (Experiment 4). This pattern of results is attributed to the Centre-Surround mechanism proposed by Carr and Dagenbach [Carr, T. H., & Dagenbach, D. (1990). Semantic priming and repetition priming from masked words: evidence for a centre-surround attentional mechanism in perceptual recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 16, 341-350]. These results support (a) the categorical structure of semantic knowledge for famous people and (b) the application of the Centre-Surround mechanism to the domain of person recognition.     

The effects of the age of eyewitnesses on the accuracy and suggestibility of their testimony

Previous studies have compared the performance of young adult eyewitnesses with that of children or elderly eyewitnesses, but few studies have allowed direct comparison of the performance of all three age groups. The accuracy and suggestibility of accounts of a video recording of a kidnapping were investigated using an experimental eyewitness paradigm. Subjects were drawn from three age groups: children (aged 7–9 years); young adults (aged 16–18 years) and elderly subjects (aged 60–85 years). Subjects' accuracy in answering non-misleading questions and their susceptibility to misleading information was measured. Both the elderly and child subjects gave fewer correct answers and more incorrect answers to non-misleading questions than did young adults. The elderly subjects gave fewer correct responses but also fewer incorrect responses to non-misleading questions than did child subjects. Children were more suggestible than either elderly or young adults. No significant difference was found in the suggestibility of elderly and young adults. Contrary to the trace strength hypothesis no relationship was found between accuracy of recall and suggestibility. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mental rotation of faces

The effect of orientation upon face recognition was explored in two experiments, which used a procedure adapted from the mental rotation literature. In the first experiment, a linear increase in the RT of same-different judgments was found as the second of a pair of sequentially presented faces was rotated away from the vertical. Also, it was found that the effect of changing facial expression did not interact with orientation. In the second experiment, a linear relationship between RT and orientation was found in a task involving the recognition of famous faces. This recognition task was found to be more affected by inversion than was an expression classification task. These results are interpreted as evidence against the view that inverted faces are processed in a qualitatively different manner from upright faces, and are also inconsistent with the hypothesis that inversion makes faces difficult to recognize because facial expression cannot be extracted from an inverted face.     

Towards an exemplar model of face processing: the effects of race and distinctiveness.

Valentine (1991a, 1991b) described a theoretical framework for face recognition in which faces are encoded as locations in a multidimensional space. It was argued that this approach could provide a unified account of the effects of distinctiveness, inversion, and race on face recognition. In this paper we evaluate the ability of this theoretical framework to account for the effects of distinctiveness and race in four experiments in which white British and Japanese faces served as stimuli and both white British and Japanese students acted as subjects. In a recognition memory experiment the expected "own-race bias" was observed as a Race of Subject x Race of Face interaction. Distinctive faces were recognized more accurately than typical faces, but the effect of distinctiveness did not interact with the race of face or the race of subject. Typical faces were classified faster than distinctive faces in a task in which intact faces had to be distinguished from jumbled faces, as found in earlier work, and the effect of distinctiveness did not interact with the race of face or race of subject. In contrast, a task in which subjects classified faces according to their race did show a greater effect of distinctiveness for own-race faces. The results are discussed in relation to the two specific models within the multidimensional space framework identified by Valentine (1991a): a purely exemplar-based model and a norm-based coding model. It is argued that these results are more easily accommodated in terms of a purely exemplar-based model. Some conceptual problems in applying the norm-based coding model to the effect of race are discussed.     

On the relationship between reading, listening, and speaking: It’s different for people’s names

Two experiments are reported that tested predictions derived from the framework of face, object, and word recognition proposed by Valentine, Brennen, and Brédart (1996). The findings were as follows: (1) Production of a celebrity’s name in response to seeing the celebrity’s face primed a subsequent familiarity decision to the celebrity’s printed name. The degree of repetition priming observed was as great as that observed when a familiarity decision to the printed name was repeated in the prime and test phases of the experiment. (2) Making a familiarity decision to an auditory presentation of a celebrity’s name primed a familiarity decision to the same celebrity’s name presented visually. The magnitude of cross-modality priming was as great as the magnitude of within-modality repetition priming. This result for people’s names contrasted with the effects observed in lexical decision tasks, in which no reliable cross-modality priming was observed. The results cannot be accounted for by previous models of face and name processing. They show a marked contrast between processing people’s names and processing words. The results support the framework proposed by Valentine et al. (1996). The implications for models of speech production, perception, and reading are discussed, together with the potential of the methodology to elucidate our understanding of proper name processing.     

The Effect of Age of Acquisition on Speed and Accuracy of Naming Famous Faces

Three experiments examined whether famous faces would be affected by the age at which knowledge of the face was first acquired (AoA). Using a multiple regression design, Experiment 1 showed that rated familiarity and AoAwere significant predictors of the time required to name pictures of celebrities' faces and the accuracy of producing their names. Experiment 2 replicated an effect of AoA using a factorial design in which other attributes of the celebrities were matched. In both Experiments 1 and 2, several ratings had been collected from participants before naming latency data were collected. Experiment 3 investigated the accuracy and latency of naming celebrities without any prior exposure to the stimuli. An advantage for naming early acquired celebrities was observed even on the first presentation. The participants named the same celebrities in three subsequent presentations of the stimuli. The effect of AoA was not significant on the fourth presentation. The implications of these results for models of face naming and directions for future research are discussed.     

A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Feminist Beliefs and Feminist Identity Development Among College Women Survivors of Gender-Based Violence

Using a mixed-methods approach, we explored how college women’s lifetime experiences of physical or sexual gender-based violence (GBV) were associated with appraisals of GBV and their feminist beliefs or identity (N = 32). Women commented on their increased awareness of the prevalence of GBV, their desire to help other women, and their beliefs about the trustworthiness of men and the current state of gender equality. Women who perceived no or minimal influence of sexism on GBV attributed their GBV experiences to a flaw in themselves or the perpetrators (i.e., self-blame, poor vigilance) or as a reasonable disciplinary measure for their ‘misbehavior.’ We also found that some women reported agreement with pro-feminist beliefs, yet rejected a feminist identity. Our findings illustrate how feminist stigma and sexism might prevent women who endorse core feminist beliefs from characterizing GBV as a sexist event. Given the potential harmful consequences of GBV and other forms of sexism, connecting women with meaningful resources, such as empowering educational programs, nurturing peer-to-peer women’s support groups, and awareness campaigns, may help to facilitate sisterhood and alleviate distress. Our findings also support the need for clinical assessment of how GBV may have affected beliefs about gender, self, world, and others.     

“A brilliant and many‐sided personality”: Jessie Margaret Murray,founder of the Medico‐Psychological Clinic

This paper outlines the life and career of Jessie Margaret Murray, the moving spirit behind the foundation of the Medico‐Psychological Clinic, the first public clinic in Britain to offer psychoanalytic therapy and training in psychoanalysis. Biographical details of Murray and her close friend and collaborator, Julia Turner, are presented, and possible routes by which the two women may have met are explored. Murray's role in the suffragist movement is described, as well as other networks and professional societies in which she was involved, in particular the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology, and her relationship with Marie Stopes. An account is given of events leading up to the founding of the Clinic, its activities, Murray's death, and other factors contributing to its demise. Finally, the Clinic's heritage and implications of the personalities of Murray and Turner for understanding the subsequent development of psycho‐analysis in Britain are considered.