Processing of global and local information in memory

The experiments reported in this paper were designed to test how global and local information are processed by the memory system. When subjects are required to match a given letter with either a previously presented large capital letter or the small capital letters comprising it, (1) responses to the global level (i.e. the big letter) are faster than responses to the local level (i.e. the small letters), and (2) responses to the latter level only are affected by the consistency between the large and the small letters (Experiment 2), a pattern similar to that obtained in perception (Experiment 1). Such results obtain when subjects are required to attend to only one level with a short ISI between the first and second stimulus, but not when a longer ISI is used (Experiment 5) or when subjects are required to attend to both levels at the same time (Experiments 3 and 4). The results are discussed in the light of a model that postulates a temporal precedence of the global information over the local one at the perceptual level.     

Adolescents' Decisions About Verbal and Physical Aggression

This investigation examines the ability of the theory of reasoned action (TRA) to explain and predict adolescents' verbal (i.e., insulting) and physical (i.e., fighting) aggression, as well as behaviors that encourage aggression such as watching a fight or telling others about a fight that is going to happen. Subjects were 488 seventh‐grade boys and girls enrolled in 2 public junior high schools in a large Midwestern U.S. city. Subjects completed a survey assessing components of the TRA as they related to the 4 behaviors under investigation. Consistent with the TRA, analysis revealed that attitudes and subjective norms predicted behavioral intent, and intent predicted behavior, for watching a fight, spreading rumors about a fight, and insulting. For fighting, however, attitudes, but not subjective norms, predicted behavioral intent, and intent predicted behavior. Implications for the TRA as well as for the development of youth violence prevention and intervention programs are discussed.     

Attentional and structural constraints on visual encoding

We examined the mechanisms that mediate the transfer of information from visual input to storage in memory. Observers performed two concurrent tasks, one of which required input into memory. We discovered that the processes involved in the transfer of information from sensory input into memory cause slowing in concurrent cognitive tasks (dual-task slowing). We used the dual-task slowing effect to demonstrate that memory encoding requires more time when more information is to be encoded and to show that dual-task slowing occurs long after the initial perceptual encoding of visual information (Exp. 1). These results suggest a late and central locus of interaction between the two tasks. Experiment 2 also used two concurrent tasks. However, we reversed the direction of interaction between them and produced a memory deficit from the execution of a concurrent task. Together the results suggest that the mechanisms that encode information into memory belong to a family of mechanisms that are involved in dual-task slowing phenomena and that have been studied under the rubric of the PRP effect (psychological refractory period). We were able to locate the most probable locus of the dual-task interactions to a process that appears necessary for memory encoding. We call this process short-term consolidation. Received: 20 July 1997 / Accepted: 17 March 1998