ON THE EFFICIENCY OF VISUAL SELECTIVE ATTENTION:

Abstract— The ability to ignore irrelevant peripheral distractors was assessed as a junction of the efficiency in visual search for a target at the center of display. Efficient target search, among dissimilar nontargets, led to greater distraction than inefficient search, among similar nontargets. This seemingly paradoxical result is predicted by the recent proposal (Lavie, 1995a) that irrelevant processing can be prevented only by increasing the load for relevant processing. Varying the set size of similar items in the central search task demonstrated that interference from irrelevant distractors was eliminated only with more than four relevant items. These results demonstrate how capacity limits determine the efficiency of selective attention, and raise questions about some standard assumptions of most visual search models.     

The effect of orthographic similarity on lexical retrieval: Resolving neighborhood conflicts

This paper reviews recent research on the effects of orthographic neighbors on visual word recognition in order to resolve apparently contradictory findings. The review reveals that the empirical evidence is not as contradictory as has been claimed. Neighbors have consistently been reported to facilitate responses to words in naming and lexical decision tasks. Inhibitory effects of neighbors appear to arise from sophisticated guessing strategies in the perceptual identification task or lexical decision strategies adopted in unusual stimulus environments. For English words, there is minimal evidence of competitive influences on lexical retrieval due to higher frequency neighbors. Such effects are more common in such languages as French and Spanish, perhaps because they embody a more consistent relationship between orthography and phonology. These findings provide important constraints on assumptions about the form of lexical representations and the parallel activation mechanisms assumed to underlie lexical retrieval.     

Problems with the slosson intelligence test for preschool children

The Slosson Intelligence Test (SIT) was administered to 92 preschool children. Because of the considerably above average performance of the group on the SIT, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale was administered to a sample of the group and the results compared to the results on the SIT. The differences between the two sets of scores was highly significant, and as a result the SIT appears to over estimate the performance of average preschool children.     

Paired-Associate Learning in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder as a Function of Hyperactivity-Impulsivity and Oppositional Defiant Disorder

A paired-associate learning (PAL) test was administered to 22 community volunteers without disruptive disorders and 197 children (7.5–13.5 years-old) presenting with the inattentive and combined subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) either in combination with or without oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Participants were screened for learning disorders. In comparison to non-ADHD participants, children with ADHD achieved worse PAL and made errors rated as more acoustically and less semantically similar to the correct paired associates. These deficits were not related to hyperactivity–impulsivity or comorbid ODD. These results suggest that ADHD children are less competent at PAL and use less efficient learning strategies than their non-ADHD peers.     

The effects of voluntary lateral orienting on positive manifold for lateralized cognitive tasks

As an extension of previous studies (Urbanczyk, Angel, & Kennelly, Brain and Cognition, 8, 206-226) examining the effects of unimanual tapping on lateralized cognitive tasks, lateral body orienting was added to an established dual task paradigm to generate differential hemispheric activation and shifts of attention. One hundred twenty right-handed university students retained sequences of digits or spatial locations for 20 sec either alone or during finger tapping. By turning head and eyes left or right, the hemisphere congruent with the sequences (LH for digits, RH for locations) or incongruent (vice versa) was activated. Activation had little effect on retention means but greatly affected resource composition, supporting task performance. Congruent orientation produced significantly higher positive correlations between digit and location tasks than incongruent orientation. Females showed higher sequence retention correlations than males across both orienting groups. For females, congruent activation enhanced tapping rates and tapping-retention task correlations. For males, activation affected neither of these. These results suggest that congruent attentional orienting may couple or integrate regions of the less activated hemisphere into networks of the more activated hemisphere. Greater inter- and intrahemispheric connectivity in the female cortex may produce a greater dependence upon a general attentional "resource."     

Product involvement: an application in clothing

• The paper examines the dimensionality of involvement with clothing. The extant literature is reviewed to show the origins, application and classification of involvement. The discussion focuses on enduring, situational and response involvement, emphasising the dimensionality of the construct. The research examines enduring involvement with clothing, using a scale of 15 Likert‐type statements to operationalise the concept. The findings suggest that involvement with clothing stems from: (1) pleasure and enjoyment derived from shopping and (2) the importance consumers attach to the product, which relates to the symbolic nature of clothing as a means of self‐expression.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hypnotherapy and cognitive behaviour therapy of acute stress disorder: a 3-year follow-up

The long-term benefits of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for trauma survivors with acute stress disorder were investigated by assessing patients 3 years after treatment. Civilian trauma survivors (n=87) were randomly allocated to six sessions of CBT, CBT combined with hypnosis, or supportive counselling (SC), 69 completed treatment, and 53 were assessed 2 years post-treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale. In terms of treatment completers, 2 CBT patients (10%), 4 CBT/hypnosis patients (22%), and 10 SC patients (63%) met PTSD criteria at 2-years follow-up. Intent-to-treat analyses indicated that 12 CBT patients (36%), 14 CBT/hypnosis patients (46%), and 16 SC patients (67%) met PTSD criteria at 2-year follow-up. Patients who received CBT and CBT/hypnosis reported less re-experiencing and less avoidance symptoms than patients who received SC. These findings point to the long-term benefits of early provision of CBT in the initial month after trauma.     

Gender-typed play and amniotic testosterone

Sex differences in play are apparent in a number of mammalian species, including humans. Prenatal testosterone may contribute to these differences. The authors report the first attempt to correlate gender-typed play in a normative sample of humans with measurements of amniotic testosterone (aT). Testosterone was measured in the amniotic fluid of 53 children (31 boys and 22 girls). A strong sex difference was observed in aT and, at ages 4.75 to 5.8 years, on a modified version of the Child Game Participation Questionnaire. Hierarchical regression analyses on the entire group and within-sex correlations suggested that variations in aT did not contribute to individual differences in game participation as reported by the mother. A critique of explanations for this finding is presented.     

Aging, inhibition, and social inappropriateness

This study explores the hypothesis that age-related declines in inhibitory ability are associated with increases in socially inappropriate behavior. Consistent with this hypothesis, older participants were less likely than younger participants to differentiate between public and private settings when inquiring about potentially embarrassing issues, according to their peers. Additionally, this indiscriminate public inquiry was associated with decreased closeness with participants' peers, particularly for older adults. Finally, this age-related increase in social inappropriateness was mediated by inhibitory deficits associated with aging. These results suggest that age-related deficits in inhibitory ability may cause people to become socially inappropriate against their will.