Individual differences in the detection of embedded figures

The individual differences in processing obtained by Hock (1973) were extended to two experiments in which the embedded figures test was recast into the form of a yes-no reaction time task. Ss emphasizing analytic processes detected the embedded figures more rapidly than Ss emphasizing structural processes, supporting the hypothesis that attention to the parts of the embedded figures was the strategy most appropriate for the task. Based on the interaction between familiarity (normal vs rotated orientation) and embeddedness (intact vs embedded figures), it was concluded in both experiments that familiarity facilitated the detection of the embedded figures for analytic Ss. For structural Ss, familiarity was similarly found to facilitate the detection of the embedded figures, but only when a template-matching strategy was possible (when the target figure and the embedded figure were physically identical).     

Extension cues in open and closed figures

Subjects were shown line drawings of figures differing in degree of closure, and asked what the drawings most looked like. Responses were dichotomized into “upright” (e.g. beaker) and “extended” (e.g. runway). Although, overall, about twice as many upright as extended responses were given, relatively open figures yielded about twice as many extended responses as did relatively closed figures. Converging lines as such appeared an unexpectedly weak cue for extension, and horizontal discontinuity in a drawing seemed more suggestive of extension than did vertical discontinuity. Reclassifying the responses as two- or three-dimensional showed that although two-dimensional responses were less common overall, they were three times as common in relatively closed drawings. Predictions are made relating the findings to standard visual illusions.     

Sequential letter and word recognition in deaf and hearing subjects

To examine the processing of sequentially presented letters of familiar and nonsense words, especially among Ss of vastly differing experience on sequential tasks, three groups of Ss were tested on letters of words spelled sequentially on an alphanumeric display and on letters of words fingerspelled. These were a deaf group (N=33) with little or no hearing and who varied in their fingerspelling ability; a staff group (N=12) who taught fingerspelling and were highly proficient; and a hearing group (N=19). Of principal interest was the finding that the hearing Ss did better on nonsense letter recognition, while the deaf group did better on word recognition. Word length was important except to the staff Ss on fingerspelled words, which also suggests that concentration on fingerspelling proficiency forces attention to the whole word and not its component letters. Hearing Ss, who are the group faced with an unfamiliar task, seemed to attend to each letter and hence had more difficulty with recognition of the longer unit.     

Mechanisms of aural encoding: I. Distinctive features for consonants

To examine the importance of distinctive features that are used to encode consonants (following Wickelgren’s analysis) in an immediate recall task, sequences of 5 consonants, all paired with the vowel /a/ were constructed and presented aurally for recall. The middle three items in each sequence all had either the same place of articulation (front, middle, or back of the vocal apparatus), orthe same manner of articulation (voiced, unvoiced, or nasal), or were unrelated in either place or manner (control). It was shown that, in comparison with the control sequences, consonants imbedded among others articulated similarly were recalled less accurately, suggesting that these distinctive features are important in encoding and memory maintenance. A comparison of the 3 manner and 3 place features showed that the greatest difficulty in recall occurred for the similar manner sequences (especially voiced and unvoiced, implicating manner of articulation as the critical distinctive feature in aural encoding. Some discussion is also presented of a distinction between articulation and acoustic factors in encoding processes.     

A replication and extension of the Eriksen and Steffy (1964) experiment on short-term visual storage

Eriksen and Steffy (1964) were critical of short-term visual storage effects (STVS) because they were unable to find any evidence for them. In their first experiment they found instead great interference in performance over the same ISIs in which STVS is usually found. Their second experiment eliminated the interference by avoiding a bright second flash, but it still produced no evidence for STVS. Keele and Chase (1967) demonstrated that Eriksen and Steffy’s second condition failed to find STVS because the memory load was too small, and perhaps because the luminance was too low. However, the design of Eriksen and Steffy’s second experiment is not the one typically used to find STVS. Eriksen and Steffy’s first experiment was replicated here, and a second condition was added in which each S was also tested in a light adapted version. Interference was found in the former, as Eriksen and Steffy also found, but not in the latter. Little STVS was found in either of these conditions, presumably for reasons similar to those demonstrated by Keele and Chase.     

Book reviews

Timing in Temporal Tracking. By J. A. Michon. Soesterberg, Netherlands: Institute for Perception RVO-TNO, Netherlands. 1967. Pp. 127.

Human Performance. By Paul M. Fitts and Michael I. Posner. Belmont, California: Brook/Cole Publishing Co. 1967. Pp. x + 162. 14s.

Human Memory. By Jack A. Adams. New York: Mcgraw Hill. I967. Pp. ix + 326. $9.50.

Biological Foundations of Language. By Eric H. Lenneberg. With Appendices by Noam Chomsky and Otto Marx. New York and London: Wiley. 1967. Pp. xvi+489. £6.

The Genesis of Language: A Psycholinguistic Approach. Edited by Frank Smith and G. A. Miller. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The M. I. T. Press. Pp. xii + 400. $4.

Acquisition du Langage at Developpement de la Pensee. By H. Sinclair-de Zwart. Paris: Dound. 1967. Pp. vi+ 168. 23F.

Principles and Methods of Social Psychology. By E. P. Hollander. London and New York: Oxford University Press. 1967. Pp. xxiii + 520. 64s.

Current Perspectives in Social Psychology. Second Edition. Edited by E. P. Hollander and R. G. Hunt. London and New York: Oxford University Press. 1967. Pp. vii + 685. 40s. (paper).

The Use of Lateral Thinking. By Edward de Bono. London: Cape. 1967. Pp. 157. 18s.

“Instinct” and “Intelligence”: The Science of Behaviour in Animals and Man. By S. A. Barnett. London: Macgibbon & Kee. 1967. Pp. xiv + 250. 45s.     

How much help do repeated presentations give to recognition processes?

A recent experiment by Haber and Hershenson (1965) had shown that in a recognition task one long look at a stimulus was always superior to two or more shorter looks summing to the same total presentation time. In order to explore this more fully and to account for opposite results in a different type of recognition task, as well as in a serial learning task, an improved replication of the earlier study was carried out using very short durations and single letters as stimuli. The same non-reciprocity was found, again strongly favoring duration over repetition as a determinant of clarity of a percept, even though repetition alone was also shown to be a significant independent variable. As a subsidiary finding, an error analysis showed that when a letter was misnamed it was nearly always confused with one that looked like it rather than one that sounded like it. Some discussion was offered as to the role of an auditory information storage in low memory load tasks such as this one, as well as some general implications for information processing analyses of the non-reciprocity of duration and repetition.     

A stand camera for line-of-sight recording

The paper describes a method that has been extensively used to superpose a spot marking the position of the line-of-sight on photographs of stimulus scenes. The spot, reflected from the cornea, determines the line-of-sight with an accuracy of plus or minus 1°. Some of the useful measurements that can be made of fixation patterns are described. Two basic themes have guided the experimental applications: the relation between attention and the line of sight, and the association between peripheral and central vision. Comparisons among age groups have also demonstrated the erratic and piecemeal nature of children’s visual input. Comparisons among scenes have shown that certain areas of a picture, judged highly informative, receive most of the visual fixations. More than 20 other laboratories have also used the camera in a wide range of research on perception, cognition, and psycholinguistics.