Reducing the effects of adjacent distractors by narrowing attention.

Three experiments explored the gradual narrowing of visual attention to a letter target when other letters were positioned close by. The method by which attention was narrowed involved presenting a digit target immediately prior to the latter target and in the same location for progressively shorter durations and requiring the subject to identify both the digit target and the letter target before responding. The response time data from the first 2 experiments indicated that shorter durations of the digit reduced the amount of information processed from noise letters positioned on either side of the letter target. In the third experiment, in which separation of letters was increased slightly, the response times indicated that the information from flanking noise letters may have been virtually eliminated.     

Phonological access of the lexicon: evidence from associative priming with pseudohomophones.

Pseudohomophones were used in a primed naming task. In Experiments 1 and 2, target pseudowords that sounded like real words (e.g., CHARE) were preceded either by context words that related associatively to the word with which the target was homophonic (TABLE-CHARE) or by context words that were not associatively related (NOVEL-CHARE). Control pairs were TABLE-THARE and NOVEL-THARE (Experiment 1) and TABLE-CHARK and NOVEL-CHARK (Experiment 2). In relation to NOVEL, TABLE benefited the naming of CHARE but not the naming of THARE or CHARK. TAYBLE-CHAIR pairs were used in Experiment 3. If the prime TAYBLE activated/table/,then/chair/would be activated associatively and the target CHAIR would be named faster than if TARBLE was the prime. Experiment 4 extended the design of Experiment 3 to include TABLE-CHAIR pairs and a comparison of a short (280 ms) and a long (500 ms) delay between context and target onsets. The priming due to associated pseudohomophones was unaffected by onset asynchrony and equal in magnitude to that due to associated words. Results suggest that lexical representations are coded and accessed phonologically.     

Intra- and interpattern relations in letter recognition.

Strings of 4 unrelated letters were backward masked at varying durations to examine 3 major issues. (a) One issue concerned relational features. Letters with abnormal relations but normal elements were created by interchanging elements between large and small normal letters. Overall accuracy was higher for letters with normal relations, consistent with the idea that relational features are important in recognition. (b) Interpattern relations were examined by mixing large and small letters within strings. Relative to pure strings, accuracy was reduced, but only for small letters and only when in mixed strings. This effect can be attributed to attentional priority for larger forms over smaller forms, which also explains global precedence with hierarchical forms. (c) Forced-choice alternatives were manipulated in Experiments 2 and 3 to test feature integration theory. Relational information was found to be processed at least as early as feature presence or absence.     

Immediate and delayed transfer of training effects in statistical reasoning

Ss were trained on the law of large numbers in a given domain through the use of example problems. They were then tested either on that domain or on another domain either immediately or after a 2-week delay. Strong domain independence was found when testing was immediate. This transfer of training was not due simply to Ss' ability to draw direct analogies between problems in the trained domain and in the untrained domain. After the 2-week delay, it was found that (a) there was no decline in performance in the trained domain and (b) although there was a significant decline in performance in the untrained domain, performance was still better than for control Ss. Memory measures suggest that the retention of training effects is due to memory for the rule system rather than to memory for the specific details of the example problems, contrary to what would be expected if Ss were using direct analogies to solve the test problems.     

Self-management of diabetes mellitus: a critical review

Diabetes has no known cure and is a leading source of morbidity and mortality. Clinical management involves patients managing a complex and variable regimen. This article reviews the determinants of effective self-management and the methods of promoting better self-management. Trait variables (e.g., personality and demographics) have been presumed to affect self-management, but evidence suggests they have little impact. The important determinants of self-management are transient situational factors such as psychological stress and social pressure to eat. Interventions to promote better self-management have reported initial improvements in blood glucose control, but the long-term effects are unclear. We conclude that self-management has been inadequately assessed and that attempts to improve self-management have relied excessively on providing information. More research is needed to clarify determinants of self-management, and interventions to improve self-management will need to change these determinants.     

Conditional withholding of proboscis extension in honeybees (Apis mellifera) during discriminative punishment.

Proboscis extension conditioning of honeybee workers was used to test the ability of bees to respond to appetitive and aversive stimuli while restrained in a harness that allows subjects to move their antennae and mouthparts (Kuwabara, 1957; Menzel, Erber, & Masuhr, 1974). Subjects were conditioned to discriminate between two odors, one associated with sucrose feeding and the other associated with a 10 V AC shock if they responded to the sucrose unconditioned stimulus (US) in the context of that odor. Most Ss readily learned to respond to the odor followed by sucrose feeding and not to the odor associated with sucrose stimulation plus shock. Furthermore, in the context of the odor associated with shock, significantly more subjects withheld or delayed proboscis extension on stimulation with the sucrose US than they did in the context of the odor associated with feeding. Thus, restrained honeybees can readily learn to avoid shock according to an odor context by withholding proboscis extension to a normally powerful releaser. Analysis of individual learning curves revealed that subjects differed markedly in performance on this task. Some learn the discrimination quickly, whereas others show different kinds of response patterns.     

Relative salience of species maternal calls in neonatal gallinaceous birds: a direct comparison of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) and domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus)

Differential-approach tendencies of individual incubator-hatched chickens and Japanese quail were assayed using one exemplar of each of the species maternal calls in a simultaneous-choice paradigm. Within 24 hr after hatching, the birds received several short periods of exposure to rotating mounts of an adult female chicken and quail, which emitted the species-appropriate call. All birds were then tested with calls alone over the following 2 to 4 days. The test stimuli were played from speakers located behind pressure-sensitive panels so that approach behavior was recorded when a bird pushed against one of the panels. Both the chickens and the quail, as groups, spent significantly more time attempting to approach the exemplar of their own species maternal call, although there was considerable variation in the magnitude of the approach difference among individuals within each species. Sources of variation in preference scores are analyzed, and a simulation is used to interpret individual differences in response scores. This type of preference test is useful for a number of applications, notably for studying the behavior of quail-chick nervous system chimeras.     

Acquisition of a relative class concept by an African gray parrot (Psittacus erithacus): discriminations based on relative size

We report that an African gray parrot (Psittacus erithacus), Alex, responds to stimuli on a relative basis. Previous laboratory studies with artificial stimuli (such as pure tones) suggest that birds make relational responses as a secondary strategy, only after they have acquired information about the absolute values of the stimuli. Alex, however, after learning to respond to a small set of exemplars on the basis of relative size, transferred this behavior to novel situations that did not provide specific information about the absolute values of the stimuli. He responded to vocal questions about which was the larger or smaller exemplar by vocally labeling its color or material, and he responded "none" if the exemplars did not differ in size. His overall accuracy was 78.7%.     

Effects of prior juror experience on jury sentencing

The effect of prior juror service on jury sentencing was investigated in an archival study of 143 criminal trials resulting in convictions. Trials took place over two calendar years in a state circuit court requiring jurors to serve 30-day terms. Jurors sentenced defendants in each case according to a set of guidelines determined by trial judges. The severity of the sentences imposed by jurors was rated by 101 subjects on a scale of 1 (least severe) to 100 (most severe). The results indicated that the more experienced juries gave significantly more severe sentences than did the less experienced juries. This finding was unchanged when civil court experience was considered in addition to criminal court experience. Possible interpretations of these results are discussed.