Withdrawing attention at little or no cost: Detection and discrimination tasks

We used a concurrent-task paradigm to investigate the attentional cost of simple visual tasks. As in earlier studies, we found that detecting a unique orientation in an array of oriented elements (“pop-out”) carries little or no attentional cost. Surprisingly, this is true at all levels of performance and holds even when pop-out is barely discriminable. We discuss this finding in the context of our previous report that the attentional cost of stimulus detection is strongly influenced by the presence and nature of other stimuli in the display (Braun, 1994b). For discrimination tasks, we obtained a similarly mixed outcome: Discrimination of letter shape carried a high attentional cost whereas discrimination of color and orientation did not. Taken together, these findings lead us to modify our earlier position on the attentional costs of detection and discrimination tasks (Sagi & Julesz, 1985). We now believe that observers enjoy a significant degree of “ambient” visual awareness outside the focus of attention, permitting them to both detect and discriminate certain visual information. We hypothesize that the information in question is selected by a competition for saliency at the level of early vision.     

The existence and role of retinotopic and spatiotopic forms of visual persistence

Current theoretical conceptualizations of visual persistence fail to address the issue of its functional role. Based on extant experimental data we tentatively identify two general types of visual persistence: one resides in activity along the afferent visual pathway and is retinotopically organized; the other resides at central levels and is spatiotopically organized. Moreover, whereas the former afferent persistence is eliminated via saccadic suppression mechanisms in order to separate successive, retinotopic frames of pattern information, the latter, central one, in contrast, is generated and enhanced via extraretinal signals accompanying saccades in order to preserve phenomenal continuity of a stable spatiotopic representation of the environment from one fixation to the next.     

The effect of light intensity when onset or termination of illumination is used as reinforcing stimulus

The Psychological Record - Two experiments were performed to examine the reinforcing effects of onset and termination of non-aversive illumination, made conterminous with lever contacting, as a...     

Correlates of premarital relationships among unmarried youth in Pune district, Maharashtra, India

CONTEXT: Although premarital partnerships-whether or not they involve sex-are widely discouraged in India, some youth do form such partnerships. It is important to know more about the nature of and the factors associated with these relationships. METHODS: Data are drawn from a community-based study of 15-24-year-olds in urban slum and rural settings in Pune District, Maharashtra. Multivariate analyses were conducted to identify associations between youths' individual, peer and family factors and their experience of romantic relationships and physical intimacy, including intercourse. RESULTS: Among young men, 17-24% had had a romantic relationship, 20-26% had engaged in some form of physical intimacy and 16-18% had had sex; the proportions among young women were 5-8%, 4-6% and 1-2%, respectively. Exposure to alcohol, drugs or pornographic films and having more frequent interaction with peers were positively associated with romantic and sexual relationships for both young women and young men. Educational attainment was negatively associated with both types of relationships for young women, but only with sexual relationships for young men. Closeness to parents was negatively associated with relationships only for young women. Young women whose father beat their mother were more likely than other young women to form romantic partnerships, and those beaten by their family had an elevated risk of entering romantic and sexual partnerships. Youth who reported strict parental supervision were no less likely than others to enter relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Program interventions should ensure that youth are fully informed and equipped to make safe choices and negotiate wanted outcomes, while positively influencing their peer networks; encourage closer interaction between parents and children; and be tailored to the different circumstances and experiences of young women and men.     

Differential testosterone secretory capacity of the testes of aggressive and nonaggressive house mice during ontogeny

In this study, testosterone secretory capacity of testicular Leydig cells during ontogeny was determined in males of an aggressive and a nonaggressive genetic selection line of wild house mice. Neonates, 23-day-old prepubertals, and adult male mice were studied. A morphometric method was used to quantify 3β-hydroxy steroid dehydrogenase (3β-3HSD)-stained Leydig cells in testicular sections to determine testosterone secretory capacity. We consider this parameter to reflect circulating testosterone in the plasma. The results of this study show that the testosterone secretory capacity of Leydig cells in the testis changes differentially during development in males of the aggressive and nonaggressive selection lines. This capacity is highest in the aggressive selection line males at adulthood and at the prepubertal age of 23 days. Surprisingly, at birth, the highest T-secretory capacity was observed in the males of the nonaggressive selection line. The significance of an interaction between genetic factors and differences in perinatal testosterone for the individual variation in adult aggressive behavior is discussed.     

Cross-cultural comparison of personality: Hungarian children and english children

1150 Hungarian boys and 1035 girls were given the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire translated into Hungarian. Product-moment correlations were factored by principal components methods, rotated by Varimax and then obliquely by Promax. Thirteen extra items, added for substitution if necessary, were included in this analysis. Very close agreement between the responses of British and Hungarian children were found for the Lie or Social Desirability scale, good agreement for Extraversion but less satisfactory agreement for Neuroticism and Psychoticism items. It is argued that the strength of the Lie score could well have interfered with the true responses for the other dimensions. Means and standard deviations for British and Hungarian children are given on scales comprised of items both groups have in common on their respective scoring keys, this being the only way the means can be compared.