Novel popout and familiar popout in a brightness discrimination task

A single novel word among several familiarized words may be localized more effectively than the familiarized words (novel popout). Early demonstrations of novel popout attributed the effect to the capture of attentional resources by novel stimuli. Christie and Klein (1995, 1996) argued that differential recollection of novel versus familiar words could alternatively account for the popout effect. In the present experiments, participants judged which of four locations contained a physically brighter word. A bright novel word was localized significantly better than a bright familiar word in one-novel/three-familiar arrays, inconsistent with a retrievability account of novel popout. However, a bright familiar word was also localized better than a bright novel word in three-novel/one-familiar arrays, inconsistent with the mismatch theory proposed by Johnston and Hawley (1994). The results suggest that familiarity and novelty provide a perceptual segregation of the odd item; superior brightness discrimination at that location may be due either to attentional capture or to locational ambiguity within the larger group.     

Novel popout without novelty

Localization of a novel word in an array with several familiar words is typically enhanced relative to localization in an all-novel array (between-array novel popout) and sometimes enhanced relative to familiar words in one-novel arrays (within-array novel popout). Christie and Klein (1996) have questioned the reality of the latter effect, suggesting that it may be an artifact of guessing bias. The present Experiment 1 replicated within-array novel popout with the novel word probed at chance (i.e., on only one quarter of trials). Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated a similar popout effect for a categorically unrelated word among three categorically related words, despite superior performance on all-related arrays relative to all-unrelated arrays. Repetition of constant sets of words within the experimental context is therefore unnecessary for a popout effect, contrary to assertions by Johnston and Hawley (1994). Interitem associations appear to be sufficient to produce a popout effect; as such, “novel popout” appears to be a misnomer for a phenomenon that does not depend on novelty.     

Adaptive Skills and Academic Achievement in Latino Students

Interventions developed to improve adaptive skills can improve academic achievement. The authors expanded this line of research by examining the relationship between performance on a state proficiency exam and adaptive skills classifications on the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition parent and teacher reports. Participants included 392 Latino students, Grades 2–6 in a large urban school district. Ordinal regression models were used to assess relationships between student academic proficiency level and adaptive skills classifications. Students classified as having higher adaptive skills by teachers were more likely to be classified as proficient or higher in reading and mathematics. These findings further support the relationship between adaptive skills and academic achievement. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.