TEACHING MENTALLY RETARDED ADULTS TO TIME-MANAGE IN A VOCATIONAL SETTING

Three retarded adults who had minimal ability to tell time were trained to “time-manage.” Each was given a card with clock face representations on which the hands of the clock were drawn, representing each trainee's assigned lunch and break times. Instruction was given before work to perform each of the required behaviors when the “real” clock matched the clock faces. Praise was given following correct responses, and reprimands, instruction, and, in some instances, delay or omission of the scheduled activity followed incorrect responses. Pre-instruction and instructional feedback were then sequentially withdrawn. Results indicated that the package consisting of pre-instruction, instructional feedback, and picture cues was effective in producing independent time management responding. When the first two components were withdrawn, two trainees maintained high levels of correct responding. Correct responding decreased for one trainee when pre-instruction was withdrawn. Reintroduction and subsequent withdrawal of the components resulted in maintenance by this trainee. Little improvement in time-telling ability resulted.     

MULTIPLE TREATMENT INTERFERENCE IN THE ALTERNATING TREATMENTS DESIGN AS A FUNCTION OF THE INTERCOMPONENT INTERVAL LENGTH

In experimental designs requiring the administration of more than one treatment to the same subject(s), the effect of one treatment may be influenced by the effect of another treatment (Campbell & Stanley, 1963), a phenomenon known as multiple treatment interference. We conducted two studies in which multiple treatment interference in an alternating treatments design was shown to be a function of the length of the intercomponent interval (ICI) separating treatment conditions. In the first study, we evaluated the effects of four different treatments on the mouthing of a severely retarded boy. Under a 1-min ICI no consistent differential responding to treatment was obtained. Differential responding emerged when the ICI was increased from 1 min to 120 min, thus suggesting multiple treatment interference in the lack of differential responding under a 1-min changeover interval. Functional control of the nondifferential and differential responding as a function of the ICI length was replicated in a reversal phase. In the second study, we compared two treatment procedures for the disruptive noncompliant behavior of a moderately retarded boy. Multiple treatment interference (i.e., the lack of differential responding) occurred with the 1-min intercomponent interval. An increase to a 120-min ICI again resulted in differential responding. A replication of multiple treatment interference by a reversal to a short interval phase was not achieved in the second subject. Results of this study support much of the basic literature on discrimination and multiple treatment interference. Major findings of this study are twofold: Multiple treatment interference can depend on the length of the changeover interval between treatments and multiple treatment interference can take the form of a lack of differential responding to various treatments. Implications for future research are discussed.     

发展性阅读障碍的视觉拥挤效应

发展性阅读障碍的核心缺陷一直是研究者关注的焦点。近年来,国内外大量研究发现视觉加工缺陷可能是导致阅读障碍的一个重要原因,其中视觉拥挤效应与阅读障碍密切相关。本文将回顾视觉拥挤效应的概念及其理论基础、拼音文字和汉语阅读障碍者视觉拥挤效应的相关研究,提出汉语阅读障碍视觉拥挤效应研究的未来发展方向,以便更好地了解汉语阅读障碍与视觉拥挤效应之间的关系。     

利他行为的内隐启动研究

通过视觉与组词任务启动范式的两个实验考察了利他人物形象与利他词语对利他行为的内隐启动效应。结果发现,完成利他人物形象视觉启动(实验1)与完成利他组词任务启动(实验2)的实验组被试,在独裁者分配任务中分配给他人的钱数显著多于控制组被试。研究结果表明:利他人物形象视觉和利他语义组词都可以使个体的利他行为被显著直接无意识启动,即内隐启动。研究对设计能更好地启动人们的利他行为的一般情境有重要的启示。     

Mood-dependent retrieval in visual long-term memory: dissociable effects on retrieval probability and mnemonic precision

Although memories are more retrievable if observers’ emotional states are consistent between encoding and retrieval, it is unclear whether the consistency of emotional states increases the likelihood of successful memory retrieval, the precision of retrieved memories, or both. The present study tested visual long-term memory for everyday objects while consistent or inconsistent emotional contexts between encoding and retrieval were induced using background grey-scale images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). In the study phase, participants remembered colours of sequentially presented objects in a negative (Experiment 1a) or positive (Experiment 2a) context. In the test phase, participants estimated the colours of previously studied objects in either negative versus neutral (Experiment 1a) or positive versus neutral (Experiment 2a) contexts. Note, IAPS images in the test phase were always visually different from those initially paired with the studied objects. We found that reinstating negative context and positive context at retrieval resulted in better mnemonic precision and a higher probability of successful retrieval, respectively. Critically, these effects could not be attributed to a negative or positive context at retrieval alone (Experiments 1b and 2b). Together, these findings demonstrated dissociable effects of emotion on the quantitative and qualitative aspects of visual long-term memory retrieval.     

Arousal (but not valence) amplifies the impact of salience

Previous findings indicate that negative arousal enhances bottom-up attention biases favouring perceptual salient stimuli over less salient stimuli. The current study tests whether those effects were driven by emotional arousal or by negative valence by comparing how well participants could identify visually presented letters after hearing either a negative arousing, positive arousing or neutral sound. On each trial, some letters were presented in a high contrast font and some in a low contrast font, creating a set of targets that differed in perceptual salience. Sounds rated as more emotionally arousing led to more identification of highly salient letters but not of less salient letters, whereas sounds’ valence ratings did not impact salience biases. Thus, arousal, rather than valence, is a key factor enhancing visual processing of perceptually salient targets.     

Guided search through memory

In “hybrid” search, observers search a visual display for any of several targets held in memory. It is known that the contents of the memory set can guide visual search (e.g., if the memorized targets are all animals, visual attention can be guided away from signs). It is not known if the visual display can guide memory search (e.g., if the memory set is composed of signs and animals, can a visual display of signs restrict memory search to just the signs?). In three hybrid search experiments, participants memorized sets of items that belonged to either one or several categories. Participants were then presented with visual displays containing multiple items, also drawn from one or several categories. Participants were asked to determine if any of the items from their current memory set were present in the visual display. We replicate the finding that visual search can be guided by the contents of memory. We find weaker, novel evidence that memory search can be guided by the contents of the visual display.     

Aging and guided visual search: the role of visual working memory

In the present study, we examined age-related differences in utilizing learned associations to guide visual search. Participants viewed an object cue that was associated with 1 or 2 target colors, followed by a search array. Older adults showed slower RTs, larger visual search slopes, and reduced cue–target association knowledge than did younger adults. We also found increased search RTs and higher error rates when the cue was associated with 2 colors instead of 1. However, visual search slopes did not vary with the number of associated colors. This indicates that participants could activate multiple templates simultaneously to guide the search or retrieve associative information directly from the long-term memory. Furthermore, regression analyses showed that VWMC can predict both visual search performances and cue–target association knowledge. More broadly, our results demonstrate that VWMC can modify the effects of age on cued visual search performance.     

Writing life narratives through art practice

This article shares some of my doctoral experiences in a practice-based PhD research in arts developed at the Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London. It locates art practice within the academic research realm and contributes to researchers working on autobiographical studies and practice-based research methods. By offering an overview on my research topic focusing on the relationship between language and place in the life of Brazilian women living in London, I reflect on the relevance of “not-knowing” as a fruitful space for researching autobiographical and situated life narratives through art practice. The article concludes that qualitative methods are relevant for building passages from the individual to the collective sphere of an art practice developed within geographical displacement and in the context of academic research.     

Video installation as a creative means of representing temporality in visual data

This paper describes the use of video installation as a creative means of engaging audiences in visual research. A detailed image-based overview of the project, 1247 Days on Whymark Avenue, is also presented. This interactive video installation offered viewers a level of phenomenological immersion in the compressed temporality and asynchronous dialogue captured by this visual research project. This film is part of a larger research project on the longitudinal photo-documentation of urban life (Hansen & Flynn 2015a). The project uses repeat photography to study street art and graffiti as visual dialogue.