The effect of landmark features on mental rotation times

By varying what we take to be the saliency oflandmarks (which are cues to location and orientation that are unique and visible from a distance), the slopes and intercepts of the time/angle function in the "mental rotation" task were caused to vary accordingly.     

Nominalism and Idealism

The article considers, in a historical setting, the links between varieties of nominalism—the extreme nominalism of the Quine-Goodman variety and the trope nominalism current today—and types of idealism. In so doing arguments of various twentieth century figures, including Husserl, Bradley, Russell, and Sartre, as well as a contemporary attack on relations by Peter Simons are critically examined. The paper seeks to link the rejection of realism about universals with the rejection of a mind-independent “world”—in short, linking nominalism with idealism.     

Attribution of intention as a function of physiognomy

Ss agree in attributing character traits to strangers’ photographs, but there has been no explication of what such labels imply. Presumably. trait names either mediate or reflect Ss’ expectations of such strangers" likely social behaviors: but that remains undemonstrated, and we may be able to study such physiognomy-tied expectations directly. Sampling problems confront trait studies and intention studies alike, but the present research showed that Ss’ expectations of a person’s behavioral intentions, as measured by alternative interpretations of short “scenarios,” were reliably influenced by that person’s photograph.     

Acts of perceptual inquiry: problems for any stimulus-based simplicity theory

Stimulus-specified simplicity is simply insufficient to predict the appearance of objects' 3D forms and figural shapes, etc., as originally intended. Which information a viewer chooses to attend can determine both what 3D structure is perceived and its attendant perceptual consequences; moreover, a shape's meaningfulness or denotivity [M.A. Peterson, Current Directions in Psychological Science 3 (1994) 105] can overcome simplicity-based figure-ground segregation. In both cases, perceptual consequences, such as subsequent perceived movements, are constrained or primed in ways that can help us corroborate and define what the viewer has perceived; that may help us in studying the underlying events in brain processing; and that should help in designing such perceptual applications as still and animated displays. Demonstrations, theoretical framework, and potential research tools are offered.