Functional equivalence of spatial images from touch and vision: evidence from spatial updating in blind and sighted individuals

This research examined whether visual and haptic map learning yield functionally equivalent spatial images in working memory, as evidenced by similar encoding bias and updating performance. In 3 experiments, participants learned 4-point routes either by seeing or feeling the maps. At test, blindfolded participants made spatial judgments about the maps from imagined perspectives that were either aligned or misaligned with the maps as represented in working memory. Results from Experiments 1 and 2 revealed a highly similar pattern of latencies and errors between visual and haptic conditions. These findings extend the well-known alignment biases for visual map learning to haptic map learning, provide further evidence of haptic updating, and most important, show that learning from the 2 modalities yields very similar performance across all conditions. Experiment 3 found the same encoding biases and updating performance with blind individuals, demonstrating that functional equivalence cannot be due to visual recoding and is consistent with an amodal hypothesis of spatial images.     

Piéron's Law holds during stroop conflict: insights into the architecture of decision making

Piéron's Law describes the relationship between stimulus intensity and reaction time. Previously (Stafford & Gurney, 2004), we have shown that Piéron's Law is a necessary consequence of rise-to-threshold decision making and thus will arise from optimal simple decision-making algorithms (e.g., Bogacz, Brown, Moehlis, Holmes, & Cohen, 2006). Here, we manipulate the color saturation of a Stroop stimulus. Our results show that Piéron's Law holds for color intensity and color-naming reaction time, extending the domain of this law, in line with our suggestion of the generality of the processes that can give rise to Piéron's Law. In addition, we find that Stroop condition does not interact with the effect of color saturation; Stroop interference and facilitation remain constant at all levels of color saturation. An analysis demonstrates that this result cannot be accounted for by single-stage decision-making algorithms which combine all the evidence pertaining to a decision into a common metric. This shows that human decision making is not information-optimal and suggests that the generalization of current models of simple perceptual decision making to more complex decisions is not straightforward.     

Validity of Resumé Reviewers' Inferences Concerning Applicant Personality Based on Resumé Evaluation

Recruiters infer personal traits from job applicants' resumés and use these inferences in evaluating job applicants' employability. No research to date, however, has determined if resumé reviewers' inferences of applicants' personality drawn solely from resumé biographical data are valid. In the present study, resumé reviewers (N=52) examined one of two applicant resumés and then described the applicant's personality based on the Big 5 taxonomy. Validities of reviewers' inferences concerning applicant personality were assessed by correlating resumé reviewers' judgments with applicants' self‐reported Big 5 personality scores. Results suggested that valid personality inferences are possible based solely on resumé evaluation. We also found evidence suggesting that attending a brief training session may enhance reviewers' accuracy when inferring applicants' personality from resumé information.     

A dynamical approach to speech categorization: Two routes to learning

Learning to perceive a non-native speech sound reliably is a specific instance of the more general issue of category learning. Here we take a dynamical approach that provides a theoretically motivated way to understand individual differences in the process of learning to perceive new speech sounds. Fundamental to this approach is the focus on the initial categorization and discrimination abilities of individual perceivers and how these structure the form of learning over time. Two distinct patterns of learning were observed that were predictable based on initial perceptual abilities. In one pattern, subjects became more attuned to small acoustic distinctions between stimuli and could use that sensitivity to label tokens reliably. In the second pattern, subjects became less attuned to within-category acoustic distinctions, suggesting cognitive restructuring. Finally, we present a dynamical model that incorporates both modes of category learning, and also allows for failure to learn.     

An efficient computerized testing method for the capuchin monkey (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cebus apella</Emphasis>): Adaptation of the LRC-CTS to a socially housed nonhuman primate species

Even with advances in automated testing techniques, the capuchin monkey (Cebus apella) can be a difficult species to test in the laboratory, given its social/behavioral tendencies and typical activity pattern. Laboratories that maintain social colonies of capuchin monkeys are able to separate and test individuals, but the process can be very effortful and time consuming, and the resulting data can be modest in quantity. The present article describes procedures and apparatuses that were used to train a colony of computer-naive capuchin monkeys to quickly and reliably isolate themselves from group members and interact with a computerized test system in order to produce a large volume of data. Several elements that were important in motivating the monkeys to participate are discussed.     

Maternal perceptions of the sleep patterns of premature infants at seven months corrected age compared to full-term infants

It has been reported that 83%–87% of full-term infants regularly sleep through the night (from midnight to 5 a.m.) by 6 months of age, but there is little information about the sleep patterns of premature infants. The purpose of the current study was to identify maternal perceptions of the sleep patterns of premature infants. Parents of 32 premature infants with birth weight below 1,750 gm and of 13 full-term infants completed a 24-hour sleep record in 30-minute epochs for 1 week at 7 months of chronological (term) or corrected age (premature). Mean birth weight of premature infants was 1,278 ± 340 gm, with a gestational age of 30.4 ± 2.7 weeks. The daily total sleep time, longest sleep segment, frequency of sleep-wake transitions, and percentage of night sleep (8 p.m.–8 a.m.), averaged from the 1-week sleep record and number of night wakenings per week, were used as indicators of sleep patterns. The longest reported sleep segments of premature infants were significantly shorter than those of full-term infants (8.2 ± 2 hours versus 9.6 ± 1 hour, p < 0.01) and the number of night wakenings per week was significantly greater (3.13 ± 3 versus 0.54 ± 7, p < 0.005). Total reported sleep time, percentage of night sleep, and sleep-wake transitions did not differ significantly between premature and full-term infants. However, analysis of feeding events revealed that premature infants received significantly more feedings between midnight and 5 a.m. (M = 0.31 + 3 versus M = 0.06 + 1, p < 0.001). We conclude that sleep pattern diaries kept by parents indicate that premature infants have developed a diurnal sleep rhythm by 7 months corrected age, but they still have shorter sleep segments and they awaken more during the night than term infants.     

A postpartum telephone program of reassurance,information, and early intervention in a family practice

This paper presents a program developed in a family practice office to provide reassurance, guidance, and early detection and intervention for mothers and their new infants in the first month of the infant's life. Telephone calls from an office nurse at 2 weeks of age followed by a written questionnaire demonstrated a dichotomy between the mothers' expressions of their physical and emotional problems. Feeding was the most prominently expressed concern, but we also found that complaints or worries about feeding were also an acceptable way to initiate intervention for more serious problems.     

How Groups Merge: The Effects of Merger Integration Patterns on Anticipated Commitment to the Merged Organization1

This study examined the influence of merger integration patterns on expectations about the merger process. The integration patterns included the absorb, in which the merged organization closely resembled the acquiring company; the blend, in which features of both companies were maintained, and the combine, in which the organization resembled neither pre-merger company. Undergraduates role-played employees of a merging organization and written scenarios manipulated the integration pattern and membership in the acquired or acquiring organization. Participants' commitment to the merged organization was most favorable in the combine pattern. Path analyses indicated that the relationship between merger integration pattern and organizational commitment is mediated by the conditions of intergroup contact, perceptions of organizational support, organizational unity, and the degree of threat experienced.