The effects of display and report order asymmetries on lateralized word recognition

Word recognition typically is better or faster in the right visual field than in the left visual field, an effect that often interacts with the handedness of subjects or the phonetic characteristics of the language employed. While these findings suggest a hemispheric locus, it is possible that the field difference is confounded with display or report order asymmetries. Here two experiments manipulate word orientation (horizontal vs. vertical), letter symmetry, and report order variables, and they demonstrate a generalized right field superiority that fails to interact with other factors. Since the superiority appears even when all apparent artifactual asymmetries are eliminated, the findings support a hemispheric interpretation.     

“Does degree of asymmetry relate to performance?” A critical review

In a recent paper, Chiarello, Welcome, Halderman, and Leonard (2009) reported positive correlations between word-related visual field asymmetries and reading performance. They argued that strong word processing lateralization represents a more optimal brain organization for reading acquisition. Their empirical results contrasted sharply with those of another such large-scale study, by Boles, Barth, and Merrill (2008). We reported negative correlations between asymmetry and performance when both were measured using the same visual lexical tasks. Most recently, within-task negative correlations were also reported by Hirnstein, Leask, Rose, and Hausmann (2010). Here two major differences between studies are explored. Task purity refers to the influence of the same mental processes on both the asymmetry and performance measures, and is arguably maximal in studies measuring both within the same task. The other difference concerns the measurement of asymmetry. Linear corrections for ceiling and floor effects were used by Chiarello et al. and Hirnstein et al., while we used a more appropriate nonlinear one. Their results are difficult to interpret for those reasons. The operation of a third variable to which both asymmetry and performance are positively correlated could also be a factor in the Chiarello et al. findings. The Boles et al. findings reflect a negative correlation between an asymmetric visual lexical process and performance measured within the same task.     

Chain letters: Players and their accounts

Even though it is unlawful to send chain letters through the mails, thousands of Americans send them to friends, acquaintances, and strangers in hopes that their names will move to the top of the pyramid, and they will receive the influx of tax‐free dollars from those at the bottom of the chain. This paper analyzes the content and structure of the chain letter and also describes the accounts which chain letter players (N=129) provide for their participation. Differences between male and female accounts and participation strategies are provided. The implications for these differences for understanding participation in the underground economy are discussed.     

(ANTI)‐Anti‐Intellectualism and the Sufficiency Thesis

Anti‐intellectualists about knowledge‐how insist that, when an agent S knows how to φ, it is in virtue of some ability, rather than in virtue of any propositional attitudpaes, S has. Recently, a popular strategy for attacking the anti‐intellectualist position proceeds by appealing to cases where an agent is claimed to possess a reliable ability to φ while nonetheless intuitively lacking knowledge‐how to φ. John Bengson and Marc Moffett and Carlotta Pavese have embraced precisely this strategy and have thus claimed, for different reasons, that anti‐intellectualism is defective on the grounds that possessing the ability to φ is not sufficient for knowing how to φ. We investigate this strategy of argument‐by‐counterexample to the anti‐intellectualist's sufficiency thesis and show that, at the end of the day, anti‐intellectualism remains unscathed.     

Demonstrating Support for the Formative and Summative Assessment Paradigm in a School-Based Intensive Mental Health Program

We illustrate the use of formative and summative assessment in evaluating a therapeutic classroom program for children with serious emotional disturbances. Information was analyzed based on data gathered for clinical decision-making during treatment (formative assessment) and measurement of outcomes at discharge (summative assessment) from a school-based Intensive Mental Health Program. Results indicated that overall ratings of daily indicators of behavior across all environments (therapeutic classroom, neighborhood school, and home) were predictive of functioning at discharge. An ecological approach during the formative assessment period of evaluation is important as compared to only examining individual environments. Formative assessment techniques can predict scores on a summative assessment measure. Thus, we found supportive evidence for the formative and summative procedures used in the Intensive Mental Health Program for therapeutic interventions, clinical decision-making, and outcomes assessment.     

What dot clusters and bar graphs reveal: subitizing is fast counting and subtraction

In two studies, we found that dot enumeration tasks resulted in shallow-sloped response time (RT) functions for displays of 1-4 dots and steep-sloped functions for displays of 5-8 dots, replicating results implicating subitizing and counting processes for low and high ranges of dots, respectively. Extracting number from a specific type of bar graph within the same numerical range produced a shallow-sloped but scallop-shaped RT function. Factor analysis confirmed two independent subranges for dots, but all bar graph values defined a unitary factor. Significantly, factor scores and asymmetries both showed correlations of bar graph recognition to dot subitizing but not to dot counting, strongly suggesting that subitizing was used in both enumeration of low numbers of dots and bar graph recognition. According to these results, subitizing appears to be a nonverbal process operating flexibly in either additive or subtractive fashion on analog quantities having spatial extent, a conclusion consistent with a fast-counting model of subitizing but not with other models of the subitizing process.     

Fast visual generation: Its nature and chronometrics

The fast-generation model for the matching of mixed-case letter pairs (e.g., Aa, Ab) states that one or both members of a pair activate visual representations in memory of the opposite case, supporting “same” or “different” responses through crossmatching to representations of the pair members themselves. Here the reaction time and error results of three experiments using simultaneous matches support a specific variant of the model in which generation proceeds from the uppercase letter. Furthermore, a manipulation of stimulus onset asynchrony in a fourth experiment using near-simultaneous matches indicates that fast generation produces a visual representation that occurs within 67 msec of initiation and that decays within 200 msec. A fifth experiment contrasts simultaneous and successive matches and in the case of successive matches finds evidence in support of a regeneration process acting after an initial decay. Models of mixed-case matching that are based on the phonetic representation of letter names, or on abstract-letter identities, completely fail to account for the results. Fast generation is distinguishable from slow generation in that it shows fast (vs. slow) dynamics, rapid decay (vs. maintainability), no imagery (vs. imagery), and (probably) automatic (vs. controlled) processing.     

What bilateral displays do

Bilateral presentations of stimuli produce asymmetries larger than those of unilateral presentations, an effect that exists across modalities. In the case of visual field differences at least 13 hypotheses of the effect have been proposed, 6 of which suggest that some form of hemispheric interaction is responsible for the bilateral advantage. Previous research has eliminated all 7 noninteraction hypotheses, has supported the class of hemispheric interaction mechanisms, and has ruled out two specific instances of the latter. Here four experiments test the remaining hypotheses. The results support the homolog activation hypothesis, which states that bilateral stimulation by similar stimuli activates homologous areas of the two hemispheres, disrupting communication between the areas. The other hypotheses were eliminated.     

Sex in lateralized tachistoscopic word recognition

Although a generalized sex difference in lateralization appears to be established, a review of the literature pertaining to lexical tachistoscopic tasks suggests a dissociation by method: females show reduced visual field asymmetries relative to males in lexical decision and naming, but not in word recognition. Here 14 recognition experiments from the author's laboratory are subjected to meta-analysis, and the literature review is confirmed. There is no sex difference is visual field asymmetry for the task, although an overall field difference is found and statistical power is high to find the interaction. Possible reasons for the discrepancy with lexical decision and naming findings are discussed. One possibility is that stress on reaction time in those tasks produces a complex interaction between sex, activation/arousal, and hemispheric differences, which is not found when a less speeded method is used.