Dependent spatial channels in visual processing

The present experiments were designed to test whether or not processing in visual information channels defined by spatial position is independent in the visual search paradigm. In Experiment 1 subjects were asked to judge whether or not a red square was present in a display of two colored geometric figures. Their mean reaction time (RT) to respond no to a “divided target” display in which one figure was red and the other was a square was about 100 msec longer than to control displays containing either two red circles or two green squares. This result is inconsistent with a spatially serial independent-channel model and with many spatially parallel independent-channel models. The relatively slow responding to divided target displays was replicated in Experiments 2 and 3, when subjects judged whether or not an “A” was present in a display of two alphanumeric characters, and a divided target display was one which contained two features of “A.” Experiments 4 and 5 demonstrated that the dependence observed in the first three experiments was probably the result of two mechanisms: crosstalk integration, whereby the target features are integrated across the two spatial channels, and repetition facilitation, whereby processing is facilitated (in some cases) when the two figures in the display are physically identical. Experiment 6 suggested that subjects organized the display in terms of spatial channels even when the task allowed subjects to ignore spatial location.     

Interpersonal evaluations,attitudes and attraction

The effect of interpersonal evaluations (e.g., judging a person's intelligence) on attraction toward an anonymous person (person-one) was investigated. The study was conducted to assess attraction in five interpersonal relationships in which evaluations commonly occur. Attraction of subjects toward person-one was greater for positive than for negative evaluations when person-one evaluated either the subjects or himself, when a second anonymous person evaluated person-one and the attitudes of person-one were similar to those of the subjects, and when the second person evaluated both person-one and the subjects. When person-one evaluated the subjects, attraction toward person-one was found predictable using the Byrne-Rhamey rule.     

On the meaning of statistical interactions

The problems which can arise in predicting the presence or absence of statistical interactions when a theoretical model is not set into correspondence with the experimental design model are considered in the context of a specific study of developmental differences in distractibility. It is concluded that intuitive or incomplete theoretical analyses often lead to incorrect prediction concerning statistical interactions and to spurious or ambiguous conclusions based on the confirmation or disconfirmation of those predictions and that the analysis of the relationship between a theoretical model and the experimental design model will offer considerable protection against such undesirable outcomes.     

Visual tracking and existence constancy in 5-month-old infants

Visual fixation and cardiac deceleration for 36 infants 20–24 weeks old were recorded during three kinds of events in which objects moving on a linear trajectory were temporarily occluded by a screen: (1) a familiar object appeared on both sides of the screen; (2) a novel object appeared on both sides of the screen; and (3) a novel object appeared to change to a familiar one behind the screen. Infant attention was related to novelty and familiarity of objects and there was no evidence of behavior reflecting the expectancy that a stable object continued to exist behind the screen. These findings are in conflict with those of previous tracking studies and the discussion focuses upon explanations for this discrepancy.     

Effects of expectancy and order of report on auditory asymmetries

This study examined the relation between selective attention, perception, and memory factors in the generation of auditory asymmetries. Sixty subjects were randomly assigned to one of three dichotic listening groups. One group was presented with paired linguistic stimuli, a second group with dichotic nonverbal material, while a third group heard randomly inteterspersed verbal and nonverbal pairs. Order of ear report was controlled in all three groups. Significant right ear advantages on first and second reports were found in the verbal group, and a similar pattern of left ear advantages was found in the nonverbal group. This ear by material dissociation was only found on second ear reports in the group which heard the randomly interspersed pairs. No first report ear advantages were evident in the latter group. These results are discussed in terms of the independence of perceptual and memory mechanisms in the production of auditory asymmetries.     

Producing simple utterances: How far ahead do we plan?

The subjects were presented pictures depicting a man, woman, girl, or boy touching, kicking, greeting, or standing beside one of the others. The subjects, constrained to using only these names, produced utterances whose lengths and grammatical forms were prespecified. The latencies for subject-verb utterances (e.g., The man is greeting) were longer than for naming the actors (e.g., The man). However, the latencies for subject-verb utterances when the actor was already known were shorter than for naming the actions (e.g., Greeting). Together these results imply that some, but not all, verb selection is performed before subject-verb utterances are initiated. Three control experiments eliminated alternative interpretations. Finally, it was demonstrated that the same degree of advance planning occurs before the initiation of subject-verb-object utterances (e.g., The man is greeting the woman).     

Cognitive biases in blaming the victim

Past research on cognitive biases has demonstrated the existence of a hindsight effect, whereby the receipt of outcome knowledge increases the perceived likelihood of the reported event. Three experiments were conducted that tested and supported the hindsight effect as a cause of victim blaming. Subjects read detailed accounts that were identical except for the concluding sentence, which provided outcome information. Half the subjects in each experiment were informed that the woman narrating the account was raped; the other half read a neutral outcome. Experiment 1 demonstrated that subjects were unable to ignore the influence of outcome knowledge, leading to an exaggerated perception of how likely the outcome appeared. In Experiment 2, the woman was blamed more by subjects who read the rape outcome than by those who read the neutral outcome, despite the presentation of identical behaviors and personality traits prior to outcome information. The increased blame attributed by rape outcome subjects was behavioral, and not characterological, in nature. Experiment 3 found a direct association between the hindsight effect and victim blaming and also demonstrated that an attempt to reduce the negative impact of the hindsight effect on victim blaming was ineffective due to the salience of the rape outcome. Explaining how a neutral outcome was possible given the same account did not reduce victim blaming by subjects who received a rape outcome. Rather, those who received a neutral outcome increased their victim blaming when asked to explain a rape outcome. The implications for victims are discussed.     

Homonym understanding and conservation

It is proposed that a common cognitive capacity underlies both homonym understanding and conservation ability—namely, the capacity to shift attention from one dimension (domain) to another. This hypothesis is tested in a longitudinal study of kindergarten (mean age 6-0) and first-grade (mean age 6-6) children. The results indicate that conservation status is significantly related to homonym understanding, over and above the age or general vocabulary level of the child.     

Studies on the categorization of speech by infants

It is well-known that complexities exist in the mapping between the acoustic information in the speech signal and the phonetic categories of adult language users. We investigated whether the same complexities exist in the mapping between the speech signal and the forerunners of these categories in infants. For two classes of complexity, we found that the manner in which the categorization of information for speech occurs was virtually identical in infant and adult listeners. These findings indicate that the infant possesses finely tuned linguistically-relevant perceptual abilities, which undoubtedly facilitate and shape the task of language acquisition.