Do details bug you? Effects of perceptual richness in learning about biological change

People often have difficulty in understanding processes of biological change, and they typically reject drastic life cycle changes such as metamorphosis, except for animals with which they are familiar. Even after a lesson about metamorphosis, people often do not generalize to animals not seen during the lesson. This might be partially due to the perceptual richness of the diagrams typically used during lessons on metamorphosis, which serves to emphasize the individual animal rather than a class of animals. In two studies, we examined whether the perceptual richness of a diagram influences adults' learning and transfer of knowledge about metamorphosis. One study was conducted in a laboratory setting, and the other was online. In both studies, adults who saw the bland diagram during the lesson accurately transferred more than adults who saw the rich diagram during the lesson.     

Thoughts on the Meaning of Brain Electrical Activity

Recordings of electrical brain activity have provided a rich field of data. These data are harvested at at least two scales of inquiry: scalp recordings from humans have accessed cognitive aspects of the mind/brain relationship, and microelectrode recordings in animals have delineated circuits involved in sensory and motor processes. As yet, there are few studies that have attempted to reconcile the findings obtained at these different scales. It is such reconciliation that we are attempting in experiments performed in our Center for Brain Research and Informational Sciences. A progress report follows.     

Towards a Perfectionist Response to Ethical Conflict

This paper argues for a pluralist perfectionist response to ethical conflict. This sets for states and their public schools the task of helping people adjudicate conflicts between ethical orientations and of promoting or discouraging particular conceptions of a good life. The aim of deliberation is mutual ethical recognition and growth, judged against a thick yet universally shared conception of human flourishing. The political justification of perfectionism is that it provides a better defense against repression and discrimination than state neutrality on issues of the good life. The paper addresses liberal concerns and counters claims that adjudication threatens human relationships.     

GATB APTITUDE TESTING OF THE DEAF: PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES

This study, based on aptitude testing of 408 deaf high school students, provides evidence that a modified version of the GATB is a useful instrument for measuring the occupational aptitudes of deaf individuals.     

Direct psychophysical scaling of the olfactory pleasantness of diluted n-amyl acetate

A category and two magnitude scales were constructed from observations of 12 Os who judged the pleasantness of a geometric dilution series of n-amyl acetate. Pleasantness varied inversely with concentration and had a short subjective range for a fairly typical range of stimulus concentrations. Scales resembled power functions with negative exponents of .110 to .126. A concave upward relationship between the two types of scales, which was also found in previous experiments involving hedonic and oiliness attributes, suggests a nonprothetic continuum, although evidence was mixed.     

A test of independence of dimensions in multidimensional scaling

Models for multidimensional scaling use metric spaces with additive difference metrics. Two important properties of additive difference metrics are decomposability and intradimensional subtractivity. A prediction was derived from these properties and tested experimentally. Rectangles varying in area and shape served as stimuli. Dissimilarity judgments were obtained by both rating and pair comparison procedures. The assumptions of the model were violated by most of the Ss. Apparently this violation was due to an interaction between the two dimensions.     

A decentralized computer network for supervision of multiple psychological laboratories

The computer network described was designed to optimize the use of a number of independent minicomputers as a single integrated system for process control of several research laboratories. The implementation of the network required both the development of a special purpose interprocessor interface and the design of a software support system to direct network operations. The network was designed according to the familiar “star” configuration, with the exception that the central computer in the star does not exercise exclusive supervisory control over the system. Rather, each computer on the system “sees” the central computer as a peripheral similar in characteristics to a medium speed I/O device. This design allows each computer to serve not only as a node in the network, but also as an entirely independent process controller.