Averaged occipital responses to stimulation of sites in the upper and lower halves of the retina

Averaged responses of the occipital lobes to flashes imposed along the midline of the upper part of the retina are larger and of shorter latency than responses to flashes imposed on the lower retina. Since reaction times also are shorter when the upper retina is stimulated, this study provides further evidence for the generalization that reaction time varies inversely with amplitude and directly with latency of the evoked response.     

Semantic constraints and judged preference for interpretations of ambiguous sentences

It is proposed that the degree of sensibleness of sentences is determined by semantic constraints which may be more or less satisfied. Such continuous semantic constraints were examined in two experiments in which subjects judged the likelihood of obtaining each of the interpretations of ambiguous sentences. The sentences were factorially generated by independently varying the degree to which semantic constraints for each interpretation were satisfied. In one experiment, the semantic constraints were manipulated by varying critical words within the ambiguous sentence; in the other experiment, a preceding context sentence was used. The results of both experiments supported the hypotheses that the judged likelihood was a direct function of the relative sensibleness of the interpretations, that semantic constraints determined the degree of sensibleness of each interpretation, and that these semantic constraints are continuous restrictions which are independent of each other and stable from sentence to sentence in which they occur.     

Dependence, independence, and emergence of word features

The degree to which a letter is perceived to be an e rather than a c is a function of the central, horizontal bar, which can be made to be more or less present in any given stimulus. By this means, word-form stimuli were produced through the independent, continuous manipulation of e versus c and of r versus h in two word frames (wat-- and --ase) yielding stimuli that ranged between water and watch in the former instance and between erase and chase in the latter. The identification probabilities for these stimuli were well accounted for in each case by a version of a fuzzy propositional model that is based on the assumption of independent features, indicating that the manipulated features within each word frame were not perceptually interdependent. However, the probabilities differed systematically between the two stimulus matrices; this means that there must be some other kind of higher order effect involved in identification. The hypothesis that the interaction was due to an emergent word envelope feature was rejected on the basis of the model analysis.     

Classroom Exercise: Interpreting Sacred Texts

The author uses a contemporary functional document (a campus map) to design an imaginative exercise which teaches students the limits of map (or text) as a guide to reliable information. Through the exercise, students learn about gaps in information and the limits of what any text reveals, even one which is ostensibly designed as a reliable guide for navigating a campus.     

Perceptual adjustments on representations of familiar patterns: change over time and relational features

Subjects classified individual stimuli as exact copies or as distortions of previously viewed prototype letters. Perceptual adjustments were induced by the presence of difficult (subtle) distortions within the stimulus set. In Experiment 1, subjects initially made feature-based adjustments, and, with experience, adjustments became identity-based. Decisional adjustments also occurred. A similar change over time was obtained in Experiment 2; in addition, the feature-based adjustments could not be explained by overall similarity between letters. Experiment 3 indicated that feature-based adjustments can be long lasting under appropriate circumstances. Experiment 4 indicated that the relevant features are not functionally independent parts of letters, but rather relations between neighboring parts. The results are consistent with the idea that adjustments can change between levels over time, and that the adjusted features are relational in nature.