Intersensory Redundancy Guides the Development of Selective Attention, Perception, and Cognition in Infancy

Abstract— That the senses provide overlapping information for objects and events is no extravagance of nature. This overlap facilitates attention to critical aspects of sensory stimulation, those that are redundantly specified, and attenuates attention to nonredundantly specified stimulus properties. This selective attention is most pronounced in infancy and gives initial advantage to the perceptual processing of, learning of, and memory for stimulus properties that are redundant, or amodal (e.g., synchrony, rhythm, and intensity), at the expense of modality-specific properties (e.g., color, pitch, and timbre) that can be perceived through only one sense. We review evidence supporting this hypothesis and discuss its implications for theories of perceptual, cognitive, and social development.     

Explanations for positive and negative behavior: the intergroup attribution bias in achieved groups

Previous research into intergroup attribution has addressed mainly the behavior of groups to which members are ascribed (e.g. gender, race). The attribution processes of groups of which membership is achieved (e.g. friendship groups) is less well understood, and the current study sought to address this. Fifty-five undergraduate participants were asked to explain the positive and negative behavior of a member of the in-group and a member of the out-group. As predicted, the participants attributed an in-group member's positive behavior more, and their negative behavior less, to internal, global, and specific causes than they did the corresponding behavior of an out-group member. There was also evidence that the participants employed a strategy of out-group derogation in their attributions: they made a higher intemality rating for an out-group member's negative behavior than they did for that person's positive behavior. It is proposed that the current study's use of achieved groups maximized participants' levels of group identification, and that this in turn motivated behavioral strategies aimed at protecting that identity.     

Validity of the Short Form of the Parenting Stress Index for Fathers of Toddlers

We examined the psychometric properties of two scales of the parenting stress index-short form (PSI-SF) in a low-income sample of fathers of toddlers. The factor structure, reliability, and validity of the parental distress and parent–child dysfunctional interaction subscales were assessed for 696 fathers in a multi-site study of Early Head Start. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) compared the fit of the developer recommended two-factor scales with five-factor scales theoretically derived and supported with mothers. Our results suggested that two subscales from the PSI-SF were reliable and valid for this sample of racially diverse, low-income fathers of toddlers. However, these subscales capture multiple dimensions of parenting stress and results also supported the use of more narrowly defined aspects of parenting stress that included general distress, distress specifically related to parenting demands, problematic interactions of the father–toddler dyad, perceptions of the child, and parental perceptions of self as a parent. These unidimensional scales may prove useful in research and clinical activities by allowing researchers to elucidate the mechanisms through which stress impacts parenting and permitting clinicians information to develop more targeted interventions for young children and their families.     

Contingent color aftereffects: Reassessing old conclusions

Although there is considerable evidence supporting an associative interpretation of contingent color aftereffects, there are data that appear inconsistent with this interpretation. New findings from seven experiments are presented indicating that, contrary to earlier claims, contingent color aftereffects are observed after induction with (1) single orthogonal black bars on colored backgrounds, (2) geometric forms, and (3) two orthogonal grids of the same color. The results of these experiments are relevant to an associative interpretation of contingent color aftereffects, as well as to assessing alternative interpretations of the phenomenon.     

Postdrinking Sexual Inferences: Evidence for Linear Rather Than Curvilinear Dosage Effects1

Observers infer more sexual availability and willingness from a drinking dater. We hypothesized that, as dosage rises, these sexual inferences follow a linear pattern. College participants rated a woman (Study 1) and man (Study 2) exhibiting a sober, moderate, or high level of intoxication while with a light-drinking companion. Alcohol was perceived as having linear effects on sexual availability; and, except for male participants in Study 2, alcohol was perceived as having linear effects on willingness. Thus, with rising intoxication and diminished capacity for arousal, drinkers are perceived as more available and willing. Findings are discussed relative to expectancy models of sexuality. Reasons for desynchrony between alcohol's actual supression of sexual arousal and its perceived enhancement of willingness are presented.     

Understanding seat-belt use: A test of Bentler and Speckart's extension of the ‘theory of reasoned action’

It is shown that Fishbein's ‘theory of reasoned action’ can be used to explain people's intentions to wear seat belts. As Bentler and Speckart (1979) have proposed, a self-report measure of past behaviour is shown to significantly improve the model's power; this extended Fishbein model being capable of accounting for the majority of the effects that extraneous variables, which are known to influence seat-belt use, have upon a person's behavioural intentions. In addition, it is shown that the model's motivation to comply term is, as Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) have proposed, a unipolar rather than a bi-polar construct, but that even when this construct is scored as unipolar, it does not significantly add to the model's predictive power.     

Semantic relations between encoding and retrieval in cued recall

Two experiments were conducted to test the encoding-specificity hypothesis. In Experiment 1, subjects were presented pairs of coordinates to study, followed by a cued-recall test. Semantically weak and strong coordinates (defined by the degree of featural overlap shared with the pairs) served as encoding and retrieval cues. The semantic strength of the retrieval cue proved to be the most important factor in recall, whereas the re-presentation of an unrelated cue previously seen during encoding led to no facilitation of recall. In Experiment 2, three noun coordinates of varied semantic interrelatedness were presented for study and then were cued for recall by novel semantically strong or weak coordinates. Maximum recall was achieved when a strong encoding condition was matched with a strong retrieval cue. Implications of these findings for an encoding-specificity hypothesis were discussed.     

On the detection of stepwise changes in a constant signal level

A stepwise change in the frequency of a continuous pure tone is taken as an element signal. The detectability of a single step is compared with the detectability of a pattern composed of two such steps in order to determine the ways in which the steps interact and how these interactions depend upon the time interval between the steps. It is shown that two positive steps separated by D msec interact by summation (d’ for two steps being greater than d’ for a single step) and that this summation is 100% even when D=100 msec. The extent of summation decreases as D is increased beyond 100 msec, leveling off at about 40% when D is near 1,000 msec. A positive step followed by a negative step (an increment) presents a more complex picture. When D=0 msec, the pattern is the null signal, and, of course, the two steps subtract completely. As D is increased, the extent of subtraction decreases, becoming zero when D is about 400 msec. Increasing D beyond 400 msec results in summation, reaching about 40% when D=2,000 msec. For D less than about 1,000 msec, the sign of the second step in a two-step signal is important: two steps of like sign summate, and two steps of unlike sign subtract. However, when the two steps are separated by about 2,000 msec, the sign of the second step is irrelevant: summation occurs, and the extent, about 40%, is the same for two steps of like sign and two steps of unlike sign. A brief theoretical discussion stresses the extant need for an information-processing theory of signal detection.