Attentional Orienting in Two-dimensional Space

This paper examines how the covert orienting of spatial attention affects motor responses to visual stimuli. Premotor theories, as well as hemi-field inhibition accounts of visual attention predict an increase in response times when a target stimulus appears in the opposite direction to a spatial cue. Some models also suggest that this meridional effect should be increased across oblique meridians. Two types of cue (central and peripheral) were used to orient attention towards locations prior to the onset of visual targets. Simple manual (press button) and saccadic responses were measured. No meridional effects were found with peripheral cues, whereas central cueing produced meridional effects across all meridians. Cueing effects did not vary significantly with two-dimensional axis for either manual or saccadic responses. Increases in response time with cue-target distance were found for both response and cue types. For saccades, distance gradients were shallower moving distally rather than proximally from the cued position. However, simple manual responses did not show this asymmetry. Orienting to central cues also modulated the amplitude of saccades. The results are consistent with an effect of attentional cues in oculomotor centres as well as the existence of actiondependent attentional representations. However, it is proposed that, rather than reflecting oculomotor programming, meridional effects arise from a directional organization within spatio-cognitive representations.     

Pilgrim's progress III: A trend analysis of family theory and methodology.

Exciting developments in family theory construction over the past few years demand a constant survey and evaluation of measurable progress. This paper documents some developmental trends that have taken place in family theory construction and its applications, as well as in the relation of theory to advances in methodology. Many of these trends are examined in the light of two earlier reports, Pilgrim's Progress I (21) and Pilgrim's Progress II (13).     

Lateralization of very-short-duration tone pulses of low and high frequencies

The position and image-width of the simultaneous images produced by very short tone pulses were measured as a function of interaural time difference (ITD) at both low- (250 and 800 Hz) and high- (2500 and 8000 Hz) frequencies using a direct-estimation technique.

Primary images are lateralized towards the ear receiving the leading stimulus. At low frequencies image position is proportional to interaural phase-difference (IPD) below 90° and remains at the lead-ear for larger values. At high frequencies image position is proportional to ITD up to 500-1000 μsec. Secondary images are reported on the opposite side of the head for IPDs greater than 180° at low frequencies, and at ITDs greater than 500 μsec at high frequencies. Image width is approximately constant for all ITDs and both images at a given frequency, but becomes more compact as frequency increases.

The data are discussed in terms of onset cues and stimulus fine-structure cues. The best explanation is in terms of an onset mechanism, but one that is calibrated in terms of IPD at low frequencies. The existence of double images is explained in terms of a breakdown in the mechanism determining fusion.     

Distal cues and latent extinction

The Psychological Record - The hypothesis was tested that the failure of Bugelski et al (1952) to obtain latent extinction effects in a “replication” of Seward and Levy’s (1949)...     

Memory for sentences: The subject superiority effect

Three experiments are reported on subject noun superiority in cued recall from S-V-O sentences. In Experiment I surface subjects were superior cues across a wide variety of conditions when the order of nouns/pronouns was matched in sentences and probes. The effect was less clear-cut in Experiment II, when cues and responses were confined to single key words.

The final experiment showed that cue superiority depends on the cue which subjects learn to use in retrieving information from sentences, and can be reversed by brief training. Several other aspects of the results, including a contrast in recall and recognition patterns, suggest that subject cue superiority results from the way subjects process remembered sentences rather than from memory trace structure. It is suggested that failure to control the utilisation of cues for memory retrieval may account for the sometimes elusive nature of the subject superiority effect.     

COMPUTER ASSESSMENT OF READING VOCABULARY: A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE,WORD FREQUENCY,AND RESPONSE TIME

The assessment of vocabulary knowledge has posed a number of problems which have resulted in widely differing estimates of children's vocabulary growth. Such estimates assume importance when school texts are controlled for vocabulary diversity, and in pedagogical debates concerning the value of vocabulary instruction. In this paper we outline a computer‐based methodology which obtains simple timed responses to sets of words and word‐like nonsense items. We present pilot data depicting estimated vocabulary knowledge, and relating it to word frequency and decision response time, and we speculate about the question of total vocabulary size.