Duration processing in children as determined by time reproduction: implications for a few seconds temporal window

From research carried out over recent years using different experimental paradigms, it has become apparent that central information processing is temporally segmented into sequential units of a few seconds. This segmentation presumably reflects a neuronal process of temporal integration (TI) which automatically binds successive events into temporal units. Support for such TI comes, for example, from studies on temporal reproduction where standards up to approximately 2-3 s are reproduced veridically. Using this paradigm of temporal reproduction, we investigated the effect of normal cognitive development of sensory modality and of the range of presented standards on TI. Sixty children aged 6-7, 9-10 and 13-14 years reproduced visual or auditory standard durations ranged from 1 to 5.5 s or from 1 to 3 s. The results showed that durations of approximately 2 s were reproduced correctly, whereas those longer than 2.5 s were under-reproduced in the three age groups. For standards shorter than 2 s substantial age-related differences were revealed: the youngest group displayed significant over-reproduction comparing to older subjects. These observations indicate that the upper limit for TI is a stable feature across the different age groups. Furthermore an age-related modulation within the temporal window of the operating TI seems to be linked to cognitive development.     

Spectral cues which influence monaural Localization in the horizontal plane

An extensive series of behavioral tests was carried out to determine what region, or regions, of the sound spectrum were critical for locating sounds monaurally in the horizontal plane. Seven subjects were requested to locate narrow bands of noise centered at different frequencies, combinations of these noise bands, low-pass, high-pass, and broadband noise. As observed in an earlier study, increasing bandwidth did not necessarily lead to improved localization performance until the band became broad, including, for example, all frequencies above 4.0 kHz. What seems to be happening is that listeners perceive narrow bands of noise originating from restricted places in the horizontal plane which may differ one from another depending on the frequency composition of the stimulus. In several instances, if two noise bands were presented simultaneously, the resulting stimulus was located with reasonable accuracy provided each component, when presented singly, was perceived as emanating from clearly separate azimuthal positions. If, however, two noise bands, which were perceived to originate from approximately the same azimuthal position when presented singly, were now presented simultaneously, the resulting stimulus still was perceived to originate from the same region of the horizontal plane. This, then, is a case where augmenting the spectral content of the stimulus does not bring about improved performance. We suggest that the expression of judgmental biases in the apparent location of a band of noise may prove useful for understanding why some stimuli of specified width and center frequency are localizable while others are not.     

The evaluation of effectiveness and likability of gender-role congruent and gender-role incongruent leaders

The aim of the present study was to test the gender-role congruency hypothesis in the context of assumed leadership. Three hundred and forty-two female and 154 male Dutch students participated in a laboratory experiment. We expected that gender-role incongruent leaders would be evaluated less favorably than gender-role congruent leaders and that male subjects would devalue the gender-role incongruent leaders to a greater extent than would female subjects. In addition, we were interested in the relative contribution of the effectiveness and likability measures to the devaluation of gender-role incongruent leaders. The gender-role congruency hypothesis was supported by the data from male subjects only, and then only for the effectiveness measures. The results are discussed in the context of two meta-analyses concerning the impact of gender stereotypes on judgments of competence and evaluation of leaders.     

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