Grouping by proximity: Selective attention measures

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - The role of element proximity in perceptual grouping was examined in tasks requiring speeded discrimination of two-element visual patterns. Grouping of...     

The role of configuration and target discriminability in a visual search task

Ss sorted through decks of cards bearing five-element patterns, separating those in which all five were identical from those in which one of the five was different from the remaining four. Sorting time depended on the configuration and size of the pattern in which the elements were arranged but was independent of the goodness of these patterns. It was concluded that Ss did not attend to the patterns themselves, but just to the elements comprising them in searching for the discrepant element. The differences owing to the patterns appear to be due in part to the compactness of the configurations.     

Imagery,propositions, and the form of internal representations

This paper has four major sections: First, we review the basic arguments offered by Pylyshyn (Psychological Bulletin, 1973, 80, 1–24) and others against using imagery as an explanatory construct in psychology. Second, we consider each of these points and find none that speak against any but the most primitive notions of imagery. Third, we review the results of various experiments on imagery. In each case, we compare two explanations of the findings: one which assumes the existence of a surface image manifesting emergent properties, and one which assumes that all internal representations are coded in terms of “abstract propositions.” We find imagery hypotheses to be at least as adequate as those based on propositional representation. Finally, we conclude that debate about the ultimate foundations of internal representation is fruitless; the empirical question is whether images have properties that cannot be derived directly from more abstract propositional structures.     

Global and local precedence: selective attention in form and motion perception

This study explores the perception of stimuli at two levels: local parts and the wholes that comprise these parts. Previous research has produced contradictory results. Some studies (e.g., Pomerantz & Sager, 1975) show local precedence, in which the local parts are more difficult to ignore in selective attention tasks. Other studies (e.g., Navon, 1977) have shown the opposite effect, global precedence. The present five experiments trace the causes of this discrepancy by exploring the effects of the relative discriminabilities of the local and global levels of the stimuli and the differences between two different measures of selective attention, namely, Stroop-type interference (attributable to incongruity on the irrelevant dimension) and Garner-type interference (attributable to variability on the irrelevant dimension). The experiments also examine whether the precedence effects previously examined in form perception generalize to motion perception. The results show that (a) some cases of global precedence are due solely to the greater perceptual discriminability of the global level and thus demonstrate only that more discriminable stimuli are harder to ignore; (b) instances of both local and global precedence can be demonstrated for certain types of stimuli, even when the discriminabilities of their local and global levels have been equated; and (c) the Stroop and Garner measures of selective attention are not equivalent but instead measure different types of interference. In addition, a distinction is made between two fundamentally different types of part-whole relationships that exist in visual configurations, one based only on the positions of the parts (Type P) and one based also on the nature of the parts (Type N). Previous research has focused on Type P, which appears to be irrelevant to the broader questions of Gestalt and top-down effects in perception. It is concluded that bona fide cases of both local and global precedence have been amply documented but that no general theory can account for why or when these effects will appear until we better understand both the nature of part-whole relationships and the perceptual processes that are tapped by different measures of selective attention.     

The Role of Parental Control in Children's Development in Western and East Asian Countries

ABSTRACT— Decades of research in Western countries such as the United States have supported the idea that parental control undermines children's psychological development. In recent years, investigators have asked whether this is also true in East Asian countries such as China, given that several aspects of East Asian culture have the potential to make children more accepting of parental control. We review research indicating that the effects of parental control on children's psychological functioning are similarly negative in the United States and China, the two countries where most research on this subject has been conducted. However, we also highlight specific contexts in which the effects may be stronger in the West.     

Sex differences in math performance: The role of children's approach to schoolwork

This research examined whether the tendency for girls to outperform boys in the classroom is due to differences in how girls and boys approach schoolwork. In 5th grade and then again in 7th grade, children (N=518) reported on how they approach schoolwork (i.e., achievement goals and classroom behavior), their learning strategies, and their self-efficacy in math; math grades and achievement test scores were also collected. Girls were more likely than boys to hold mastery over performance goals and to refrain from disruptive classroom behavior, which predicted girls' greater effortful learning over time. The sex difference in learning strategies accounted for girls' edge over boys in terms of grades. Girls did not do better on achievement tests, possibly because self-efficacy, for which there was also no sex difference, was the central predictor of performance on achievement tests.     

Effects of mothers' perceptions of children's competence: the moderating role of mothers' theories of competence

There is much evidence that parents' perceptions of children's competence affect the development of children's academic functioning. In the current research, the possibility that this is moderated by parents' theories about the stability of competence was examined. In a 2-wave, 1-year study of 126 children (9 to 12 years old) and their mothers, children's academic functioning (i.e., grades, perceptions of competence, attributions for performance, and mastery orientation) and affective functioning (i.e., self-esteem and depressive symptoms) were examined. Among mothers with relatively high entity theories, their perceptions acted as self-fulfilling prophecies foreshadowing children's academic and affective functioning over time. However, among mothers with relatively low entity theories, mothers' perceptions did not predict children's academic and affective functioning.