The relationship between discrimination and memory for spacing and feature changes in houses

Adults need to discriminate between stimuli and recognize those previously seen. For faces, feature changes (e.g., different eyes) and spacing changes (e.g., distances between eyes) are important cues. In two experiments, we assessed the influence of these on discrimination and recognition of houses, a commonly used control in face studies. In both experiments, discrimination was better for feature than spacing changes. Memory for spacing changes was generally poor but aided by extra learning and intermixing change types. Conversely, memory for features was good, especially when there were few houses, and change type was blocked. Unexpectedly, memory was best for differences that might signal something about occupants (e.g., changes to garden or bins), perhaps akin to hairstyles for faces. Overall, results are consistent with previous work showing poor discrimination of spacing in non-face objects and extends them to show that, unlike for faces, spacing differences are also not well remembered.     

对齐法在单因子和三因子多组比较中允许的不等参数率

在传统的多组验证性因子分析中,进行因子均值比较的前提条件是模型满足强测量不变性假设,但该假设在实证研究中很难满足。这时,Asparouhov和Muthén(2014)提出的对齐法是一种可供备选的多组分析法。通过蒙特卡洛模拟研究,探究了在对齐法精确估计模型参数前提下所允许的不等参数率范围。研究发现：在平均组样本量充足,识别算法为固定识别算法等理想状态下,对齐法在单因子模型多组比较中所允许的不等参数率可以是100%;在三因子模型中所允许的不等参数率上限是20%至30%;在此范围内,对齐法允许更多高程度不等参数;在组数目从30、15或9降至3时,对齐法能允许更多的不等参数在模型中。     

Learning the form of causal relationships using hierarchical bayesian models

People learn quickly when reasoning about causal relationships, making inferences from limited data and avoiding spurious inferences. Efficient learning depends on abstract knowledge, which is often domain or context specific, and much of it must be learned. While such knowledge effects are well documented, little is known about exactly how we acquire knowledge that constrains learning. This work focuses on knowledge of the functional form of causal relationships; there are many kinds of relationships that can apply between causes and their effects, and knowledge of the form such a relationship takes is important in order to quickly identify the real causes of an observed effect. We developed a hierarchical Bayesian model of the acquisition of knowledge of the functional form of causal relationships and tested it in five experimental studies, considering disjunctive and conjunctive relationships, failure rates, and cross-domain effects. The Bayesian model accurately predicted human judgments and outperformed several alternative models.     

How the intentions of the draftsman shape perception of a drawing

The interaction between the recovery of the artist’s intentions and the perception of an artwork is a classic topic for philosophy and history of art. It also frequently, albeit sometimes implicitly, comes up in everyday thought and conversation about art and artworks. Since recent work in cognitive science can help us understand how we perceive and understand the intentions of others, this discipline could fruitfully participate in a multidisciplinary investigation of the role of intention recovery in art perception. The method I propose is to look for cases where recovery of the artist’s intentions interacts with perception of a work of art, and this cannot be explain by a simple top-down influence of conscious propositional knowledge on perception. I will focus on drawing and show that recovery of the draftsman’s intentional actions is handled by a psychological process shaped by the motor system of the observer.     

Vertical perceptual span and the processing of visual signals in reading

A previous study by Pollatsek et al. ( 1993 ) claims that the perceptual span in reading is restricted to the fixated line, i.e. readers typically focus their visual attention on the line of text being read. The present study investigated whether readers make use of content structure signals (paragraph indentations and topic headings) present several lines away from the currently fixated line. We reasoned that as these signals are low-resolution visual objects (as opposed to letter and word identity), readers may attend to them even if they are located some distance away from the fixated line. Participants read a hierarchically organized multi-topic expository text containing structure signals in either a normal condition or a window condition, where the text disappeared above and below a vertical 3° gaze-contingent region. After reading, participants were asked to produce a written recall of the text. The results showed that the overall reading rate was not affected by the window. Nevertheless, the headings were reread more in the normal condition than in the window one. In addition, more topics were recalled in the normal than in the window condition. We interpret the results as indicating that the readers visually attend to useful text layout features while considering bigger units than single text lines. The perception of topic headings located away from the fixated line may favour long-range regressions towards them, which in turn may favour text comprehension. This claim is consistent with previous studies that showed that look-back fixations to headings are performed with an integrative intent.     

Mirrors and Misleading Appearances

Although philosophers have often insisted that specular perception is illusory or erroneous in nature, few have stressed the reliability and indispensability of mirrors as optical instruments. The main goal of this paper is to explain how mirrors can contribute to knowledge and at the same time be a source of systematic errors and misleading appearances. To resolve this apparent paradox, I argue that mirrors do not generate perceptual illusions or misperceptions, by defending a view of mirrors as transparent and invisible visual media. I then consider the reasons for which mirrors are said to be misleading. Contrary to the illusory account, I defend a nonperceptual approach to the errors attributable to mirrors, which analyses the kind of errors generated by the use of mirrors in terms of false judgments. I further show that a nonperceptual view of errors extends to all of the cases in which a sensorimotor adaptation is required, such as perception through magnifying or inversing lenses.     

让自适应测验更知人善选——基于推荐系统的选题策略

基于推荐系统中协同过滤推荐的思想, 提出两种可以利用已有答题者数据的CAT选题策略：直接基于答题者推荐(DEBR)和间接基于答题者推荐(IEBR)。通过两个模拟研究, 在不同题库和不同长度的测验中, 比较了两种推荐选题策略与两种传统选题策略(FMI和BAS)在测量精度和对题目曝光率控制上的表现, 以及影响推荐选题策略表现的因素。结果发现：两种推荐选题策略对题目曝光率的控制优于两种传统选题策略, 测量精度不亚于BAS方法, 其中DEBR侧重选题精度, IEBR对题目曝光率控制最好。已有答题者数据的特点和质量是影响推荐选题策略表现的主要因素。     

具身模拟在汉语肢体动作动词理解中的作用

通过3个实验, 考察具身模拟在汉语肢体动作动词理解中的作用。实验1考察在整字启动下具身模拟对运动通道中箭头方向判断的影响, 发现理解肢体动作动词在运动通道中存在着动作-汉字相容效应, 汉字的具身方向与箭头方向一致促进被试对箭头方向的判断。实验2考察在整字启动下具身经验对视觉通道中字母位置判断的影响, 发现理解肢体动作动词在视觉通道中存在着动作-汉字相容效应, 汉字的具身方位与字母方位一致促进对字母方位的识别。实验3采用义符启动范式考察义符与整字的具身模拟, 发现理解汉语肢体动作动词不仅在整字层次上存在着具身模拟, 在部件层次上也存在着具身模拟。义符在汉字加工中期被激活了, 并且持续到加工晚期。整个研究表明, 汉语肢体动作动词理解是一个跨通道的具身模拟过程, 具身模拟在汉语肢体动作动词的理解中起着非常重要的作用。     

Basic visual perceptual processes in children with typical development and cerebral palsy: The processing of surface,length, orientation,and position

The present study aims to assess how the processing of basic visual perceptual (VP) components (length, surface, orientation, and position) develops in typically developing (TD) children (n = 215, 4–14 years old) and adults (n = 20, 20–25 years old), and in children with cerebral palsy (CP) (n = 86, 5–14 years old) using the first four subtests of the Battery for the Evaluation of Visual Perceptual and Spatial processing in children. Experiment 1 showed that these four basic VP processes follow distinct developmental trajectories in typical development. Experiment 2 revealed that children with CP present global and persistent deficits for the processing of basic VP components when compared with TD children matched on chronological age and nonverbal reasoning abilities.     

Perception2

The article is an overview of some central philosophical problems associated with perception. It discusses what distinguishes perception from other sensory capacities and from conception. It discusses anti‐individualism, a view according to which the nature of a perceptual state is dependent not just causally but for its identity or ‘essence’ on relations to a normal environment in which systems containing that state were formed. It discusses different views about epistemic warrant. By emphasising the deep ways in which human and animal perceptual systems, especially visual systems, are similar, it criticises a dominant view of the last century, in both philosophy and large parts of psychology, according to which a range of sophisticated supplementary abilities have to be learned before a child can perceive objective features of the physical world.