Characterizing typographic expertise: Do we process typefaces like faces?

Studies of face recognition and discrimination provide a rich source of data and debate on the nature of their processing, in particular through using inverted faces. This study draws parallels between the features of typefaces and faces, as letters share a basic configuration, regardless of typeface, that could be seen as similar to faces. Typeface discrimination is compared using paragraphs of upright letters and inverted letters at three viewing durations. Based on previously reported effects of expertise, the prediction that designers would be less accurate when letters are inverted, whereas nondesigners would have similar performance in both orientations, was confirmed. A proposal is made as to which spatial relations between typeface components constitute holistic and configural processing, posited as the basis for better discrimination of the typefaces of upright letters. Such processing may characterize designers' perceptual abilities, acquired through training.     

Resolving conflicting views: Gaze and arrow cues do not trigger rapid reflexive shifts of attention

It has become widely accepted that the direction of another individual's eye gaze induces rapid, automatic, attentional orienting, due to it being such a vital cue as to where in our environment we should attend. This automatic orienting has also been associated with the directional-arrow cues used in studies of spatial attention. Here, we present evidence that the response-time cueing effects reported for spatially nonpredictive gaze and arrow cues are not the result of rapid, automatic shifts of attention. For both cue types, response-time effects were observed only for long-duration cue and target stimuli that overlapped temporally, were largest when the cues were presented simultaneously with the response-relevant target, and were driven by a slowing of responses for invalidly cued targets rather than speeding for validly cued ones. These results argue against automatic attention-orienting accounts and support a novel spatial-incongruency explanation for a whole class of rapid behavioural cueing effects.     

Mirror reading of words and numbers: Practice and transfer effects

It remains unknown whether mirror reading represents a genuine text processing skill or is based on recognition of visual patterns. The present study attempts to determine whether (1) systematic practice with a particular mirrored typography also improves reading performance for other mirrored typographies, and whether (2) this transfer extends from lexical to numerical material and vice versa. The results show that short-term intensive practice with mirror-reversed words significantly improves reading performance not only for the trained typography but also for other mirrored typographies and mirror-reversed Arabic digits. Practice with mirror-reversed Arabic digits showed a mixed pattern of transfer effects with regard to other digit transformations and there were no transfer effects to lexical material. Hence, for lexical material, at least, improvement after training seems to be based on generalized skill with transfer effects beyond lexical material, rather than on mere improvement of visual recognition of the material used in training.     

The relation of discrete stimuli can be integrated despite the failure of conscious identification

ABSTRACT

The integration of the sameness or difference of two unconscious stimuli occurs and affects behaviour without subjective visual consciousness. Yet, intermittent stimulus awareness or a process simpler than integration could also account for these results. In a masked go/no-go task, participants provided or withheld a response based on the same/different relation of two stimuli. Post-trial performance on a discrimination task was used to classify invisible stimuli, providing an objective criterion of awareness. Stimulus pairs with a No-go-associated relation showed reduced and slower responding even when those stimuli were incorrectly discriminated and presumably unconscious. Due to the large set of stimuli, this effect is unlikely to be due to response mapping or action triggers. The integration of the relation of discrete stimuli is a cognitive function that is not dependent upon visual awareness, in the form of conscious identification, to occur.     

Models of dependence and independence: A two-dimensional architecture of dual processing

This theoretical note proposes a two-dimensional cognitive architecture for dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making. Evans (2007b Evans, J. St. B. T. 2007b. On the resolution of conflict in dual process theories of reasoning. Thinking and Reasoning, 13: 321–339. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2008a Evans, J. St. B. T. 2008a. Dual-processing accounts of reasoning, judgment, and social cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59: 255–278. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2009 Evans, J. St. B. T. and Frankish, K. 2009. In two minds: Dual processes and beyond, Oxford, , UK: Oxford University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) distinguishes between two types of dual-processing models: parallel-competitive, in which both types of processes operate in parallel, and default-interventionist, in which heuristic processes precede the analytic processes. I suggest that this temporal dimension should be enhanced with a functional distinction between interactionist architecture, in which either type of process influences the content and valence of the other, and independent architecture, in which they do not. Override architecture is a special case of the latter, which postulates statistical interaction, but no interaction of valence and content. I show that this added dimensional distinction casts doubt on two assumptions of statistical modelling that Evans makes: independence and linearity. However, Evans' (2007b Evans, J. St. B. T. 2007b. On the resolution of conflict in dual process theories of reasoning. Thinking and Reasoning, 13: 321–339. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) point, that statistical modelling is underspecified vis-à-vis the verbal theory, is given further support. The functional dimension is crucial to interpreting the statistical model, as well as to theoretical understanding of the cognitive architecture and its educational applications.     

Miserliness in human cognition: the interaction of detection,override and mindware

ABSTRACT

Humans are cognitive misers because their basic tendency is to default to processing mechanisms of low computational expense. Such a tendency leads to suboptimal outcomes in certain types of hostile environments. The theoretical inferences made from correct and incorrect responding on heuristics and biases tasks have been overly simplified, however. The framework developed here traces the complexities inherent in these tasks by identifying five processing states that are possible in most heuristics and biases tasks. The framework also identifies three possible processing defects: inadequately learned mindware; failure to detect the necessity of overriding the miserly response; and failure to sustain the override process once initiated. An important insight gained from using the framework is that degree of mindware instantiation is strongly related to the probability of successful detection and override. Thus, errors on such tasks cannot be unambiguously attributed to miserly processing – and correct responses are not necessarily the result of computationally expensive cognition.     

The logic sense: exploring the role of executive functioning in belief and logic-based judgments

Abstract

The Default Interventionist account suggests that by default, we often generate belief-based responses when reasoning and find it difficult to draw the logical inference. Recent research, however, shows that in some instances belief judgments take longer, are more prone to error and are more affected by cognitive load. One interpretation is that some logical inferences are available automatically and require intervention in order to respond according to beliefs. In two experiments, we investigate the effortful nature of belief judgments and the automaticity of logical inferences by increasing the inhibitory demands of the task. Participants were instructed to judge conclusion validity, believability and either font colour or font style, to increase the number of competing responses. Results showed that conflict more strongly affects judgments of believability than validity and when inhibitory demands are increased, the validity of an argument impacts more on belief judgments. These findings align with the new Parallel Processing model of belief bias.     

Reflections on relational readings of organizational learning

In this concluding article we further reflect on relational readings of organizational learning and how they can contribute to organization studies and organizing practices. As has been seen, the root metaphor of “organizational learning” takes a variety of forms. These include “product-oriented” pictures such as learning curves, strategy, and business processes, and the generative metaphor of organizational learning as conversations-for-new-possibilities. This special issue highlights the contribution of learning-as-conversations, especially in those organizational instances where the organizing is “in-the-making” and where the creation of a transitional space can be a new meeting ground for participants. In an increasingly globalized world we are more and more in need of the ability to construct such transitional and possibility-enabling practices. It can be a task of work and organizational psychology to contribute ideas and practices for this endeavour.