Repetition priming reveals sustained facilitation and transient inhibition in reaction time

Reaction time (RT) in a detection or a location discrimination task increases when a target is repeatedly presented at the same location (inhibition), whereas RT decreases in feature (color or orientation) discrimination tasks (facilitation; Y. Tanaka & S. Shimojo, 1996a). Here, the time course of inhibition and facilitation was examined, using a repetition priming paradigm. Results indicate that inhibition occurred only in the immediately successive trial, whereas facilitation accumulated over several trials with location repetition. Moreover, inhibition and facilitation occurred in a task-relevant manner: Detection-location discrimination tasks produced transient RT increase, whereas feature discrimination tasks produced cumulative RT decrease. These results suggest a functional dissociation between spatial orienting and feature analysis, as well as top-down modulations by tasks leading to different types of visual memory.     

When sound affects vision: effects of auditory grouping on visual motion perception

Two identical visual targets moving across each other can be perceived either to bounce off or to stream through each other. A brief sound at the moment the targets coincide biases perception toward bouncing. We found that this bounce-inducing effect was attenuated when other identical sounds (auditory flankers) were presented 300 ms before and after the simultaneous sound. The attenuation occurred only when the simultaneous sound and auditory flankers had similar acoustic characteristics and the simultaneous sound was not salient. These results suggest that there is an aspect of auditory-grouping (saliency-assigning) processes that is context-sensitive and can be utilized by the visual system for solving ambiguity. Furthermore, control experiments revealed that such auditory context did not affect the perceptual qualities of the simultaneous sound. Because the attenuation effect is not manifest in the perception of acoustic characteristics of individual sound elements, we conclude that it is a genuine cross-modal effect.     

Interrupting the cascade: orienting contributes to decision making even in the absence of visual stimulation

Most systematic studies of human decision making approach the subject from a cost analysis point of view and assume that people make the highest utility choice. Very few articles investigate subjective decision making, such as that involving preference, although such decisions are very important for our daily functioning. We have argued (Shimojo, Simion, Shimojo, & Scheier, 2003) that an orienting bias effectively leads to the preference decision by means of a positive feedback loop involving mere exposure and preferential looking. The illustration of this process is a continually increasing gaze bias toward the eventual choice, which we call the gaze cascade effect. In the present study, we interrupt the natural process of preference selection, but we show that gaze behavior does not change even when the stimuli are removed from observers' visual field. This demonstrates that once started, the involvement of orienting in decision making cannot be stopped and that orienting acts independently of the presence of visual stimuli. We also show that the cascade effect is intrinsically linked to the decision itself and is not triggered simply by a tendency to look at preferred targets.     

Development of the Brief Personal Values Inventory for Sense of Values

The Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) is a widely used questionnaire for assessing sense of values; however, it is difficult to apply for children and adolescents. Therefore, the present study aimed to develop a questionnaire for sense of values, called the Brief Personal Values Inventory (BPVI), consisting of simple questions and fewer items compared to the PVQ. We first created 12 items for the BPVI and then tested criterion-related validity with values in the PVQ-57 in 167 Japanese general population participants (81 males, mean age [SD], range: 23.4 [8.2], 15–57 years). Each of these items was correlated with one or more of the values in the PVQ-57 and covered all higher-order values in Schwartz's theory (openness to change, self-enhancement, conservation, and self-transcendence). In summary, the BPVI adequately corresponded with Schwartz's value theory, indicating an acceptable criterion-related validity. This questionnaire is applicable to a wide population, including adolescents, and will be a useful tool for researchers to elucidate the developmental pathway of personal sense of values.     

Cross-National Identity Transformation: Becoming a Gay ‘Asian-American’ Man

Prior to moving to the U.S., the author, a gay Japanese man, was secure in his multiple identities. After the cross-national transition to the U.S., however, he confronted unique and particular challenges in negotiating his multiple identities. As a foreigner, adopting the cultural discourse of the gay Asian-American identity as a way of life shocked and surprised him—especially because of the ways in which others communicated with him. In particular, others generally viewed his identity expression as reinforcing the stereotypical image of gay men and failing to conform with the social perception of Asian-Americans. Also, the racialized and gendered image of gay Asian-American men became a conflict in his interactions with gay and bisexual men because its image did not fully represent who he is. Being trapped by his dual-identity conflict, he faced difficulty in negotiating performative aspects of gay Asian-American male identity construction. At the same time, this contradiction became an opportunity for him to (de)construct his dual identity conflict and to finally name himself with such labeling. This analysis employs autoethnography to explore the author’s cross-national transformation process of becoming a gay Asian-American man. Finally, this analysis intends to link his personal experience and the cultural and social experiences of gay Asian-American male identity.     

“Seeing” shapes that are almost totally occluded: A new look at Parks’s camel

When a shape moves behind a very narrow window, or “slit,” the entire shape can be recognized, although at any instant only meaningless fragments are visible. In some manner, the human visual system has the ability to piece together these sequential fragments into a coherent shape that is seen as moving across the largely occluded field. As a first step toward understanding how this feat may be accomplished, we show some minimal conditions for recovering the direction and speed of motion of an unknown shape moving behind a slit. Two important conditions are that the object be rigid and that its motion be a simple transition in the image plane.     

Mirror reversal by blind subjects in cutaneous perception and motor production of letters and numbers

A letter drawn on the forehead is often perceived as its mirror reversal. Similarly, people produce mirror reversals when asked to write a letter on the underside of a table at which they are sitting. We varied the orientation and position of the stimulated or inscribed surface, and found several examples of these two mirror-reversal phenomena in blind subjects (who had no, or very little, visual experience), as well as in sighted subjects. Furthermore, the mirror-reversal rate of the two groups of subjects as a function of orientation and position of the surface was highly correlated. Thus, the mirror-reversal phenomena should be attributed to a nonvisual, spatial cognitive scheme that is perhaps shared by sighted and blind subjects.     

Perceived spatial organization of cutaneous patterns on surfaces of the human body in various positions

The perceived spatial organization of cutaneous patterns was examined in three experiments. People identified letters or numbers traced on surfaces of their body when the relative spatial orientations and positions of the body surfaces and of the stimuli were varied. Stimuli on the front or back of the head were perceived with respect to a frame of reference positioned behind those surfaces, independent of the surfaces' position and orientation. This independence may relate to the way in which the sensory apparatus on the front of the head is used in planning action. Stimuli on other surfaces of the head and body were perceived in relation to the position and orientation of the surface with respect to the whole body or trunk (most of which was usually upright). Stimuli on all transverse/horizontal surfaces were perceived with respect to frames of reference associated with the head/upper chest area. These frames were also used for stimuli on frontoparallel surfaces in front of the upper body. These observations may result from the use of "central" frames of reference that are independent of the head and are associated with the upper body. Stimuli on surfaces in other positions and orientations (with two exceptions) were perceived "externally"--that is, in frames of reference directly facing the stimulated surface. The spatial information processing we found may be fairly general because several of our main findings were also observed in very young children and blind adults and in paradigms studying perception by "active touch" and the spatial organization of the motor production of patterns.     

Critical role of foreground stimuli in perceiving visually induced self-motion (vection)

The effects of a foreground stimulus on vection (illusory perception of self-motion induced by a moving background stimulus) were examined in two experiments. The experiments reveal that the presentation of a foreground pattern with a moving background stimulus may affect vection. The foreground stimulus facilitated vection strength when it remained stationary or moved slowly in the opposite direction to that of the background stimulus. On the other hand, there was a strong inhibition of vection when the foreground stimulus moved slowly with, or quickly against, the background. These results suggest that foreground stimuli, as well as background stimuli, play an important role in perceiving self-motion.     

Imagery experts: How do expert abacus operators process imagery?

This study examined how expert abacus operators process imagery. Without imagery instructions a digit series was auditorily presented as one whole number (WHL list) or separate digits (SEP list). RT from offset of the probe to onset of the response was measured. The main findings were as follows: experts showed no difference in RT between the two lists, while significant differences occurred in non-experts; non-experts' RT increased with probed position, while experts' RT was flat if the series size was within their image capacity; experts' RT increased with probed position when the series size was longer than their image capacity, but its rate of increase was smaller than that of non-experts; and the smaller the image capacity, the steeper the slope of the RT function. It was concluded that experts spontaneously encode the digit series into an imaged abacus, while non-experts encode it verbally; that experts directly access the probed position within their image but serially process the verbally coded overflowed part; and that non-experts search the digit series serially.