Modeling feature perception in brief displays with evidence for positive interdependencies

Recent studies have begun to test certain fundamental assumptions underlying popular models of feature perception. This research is continued here. It was discovered that every basic assumption that was open to test in the present study was disconfirmed. However, several new characteristics of line and curve feature perception were discovered: (1) Feature perception sensitivity was inversely related to the number of features present in a stimulus pattern, and the decision criteria for reporting a feature decreased with the number of features contained in a pattern; (2) the decrements in sensitivity reported in (1) were greater for features lying inside a pattern than for those on the exterior; and (3) feature perception sensitivity actually improved if another feature was known to be correctly perceived during the same trial. Likewise, feature sensitivity decreased if another feature was missed on any trial. At the present time, a system that first extracts global and then local (more detailed) featural information provides a basis that qualitatively accounts for our findings and is also compatible with several other studies in the literature.     

Further experiments on movement masking

Voluntary attention to one of two static objects in the peripheral field of one eye makes this object more liable to masking by a moving object in the corresponding area of the field of the other eye (Experiment 1).

Positive after images (and probably negative after images) are subject to (binocular) movement masking (Experiment 2).

Movement masking can occur in the field of either eye, but with the displays so far tried the inhibitory influence of a moving object is less in the field of the eye to which it is shown than in the field of the other eye (Experiment 3).     

A clarification of some current multiplicative confusion models

Four recently proposed models of confusion are examined within a classification of major types of multiplicative models. It is shown that all four are equivalent within a single confusion matrix but are open to mutual testing across experiments producing two or more confusion matrices. Generalization of these models is considered.     

Immediate memory for words from main and subordinate clauses at different age levels

A probe-latency task was used to assess accessibility to the words from the first and second clauses of four types of sentences. The sentences contained either independent clauses or main and subordinate clauses. The subjects were 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children, and adults. On sentences with no main-subordinate distinction, word recognition latencies were shorter for second clauses for all groups except 4-year-olds. On sentences with main and subordinate clauses systematically varied over position in the sentence, however, latencies were most often shorter for subordinate clauses, even when they occurred at the beginning of the sentence. The results indicate that a clause is not simply represented in abstract form rather than verbatim form once the complete clause has been heard, but instead the structural role of the clause, as well as other factors, influences accessibility to verbatim form. It is proposed that listeners frequently interpret an asserted main clause more readily than a subordinate clause. This comprehension strategy appears in different forms at different stages of development.This research was supported in part by NIMH Fellowship No. 1 FO2MH 57352-01 and in part by a Montclair State College Faculty Research Grant to the first author.     

Word-Monitoring Tasks Interact with Levels of Representation During Speech Comprehension

Researchers frequently use data from monitoring tasks to argue that constraints on meaning facilitate lower-level processes. An alternate hypothesis is that the processing level that a monitoring task requires interacts with discourse-level processing. Subjects monitored spoken sentences for a synonym (semantic match), a nonsense word (phonological match), or a rhyme (phonologically and semantically constrained matching). The critical targets appeared at the beginning of the final clause in two-clause sentences that began with if, which signals a semantic analysis at the discourse level, or with though, which maintains a surface representation. Synonym-monitoring times were faster for if than for though, nonsense word-monitoring times were faster for though than for if, and rhyme-monitoring times did not differ for if and though. The results show that conjunctions influence how listeners allocate attention to semantic versus phonological information, implying that listeners form these kinds of information independently.     

Contrast effects or loss aversion? Comment on Usher and McClelland (2004)

M. Usher and J. L. McClelland (2004) recently proposed a new connectionist type of model to explain context effects on preferential choice including the similarity, attraction, and compromise effects. They compared their model with an earlier connectionist type model for these same effects proposed by R. Roe, J. R. Busemeyer, and J. T. Townsend (2001) and raised several new issues. The authors address these issues and point out the main theoretical differences between the 2 explanations for context effects.     

Something from nothing: exploring dimensions of children's knowing through the repeated reading of favourite books

Witte‐Townsend and DiGiulio explore some of the dimensions of knowing that children, teachers and parents may engage together during story‐time. They reflect on some of their own long‐term relationships with children and children's books, especially Phoebe Gilman's Gilman P 1992 Something from nothing (New York, NY, Scholastic Inc)  [Google Scholar] Something from nothing (published in 1992) and Simms Taback's Taback S 1999 Joseph had a little overcoat (New York, NY, Viking‐Penguin)  [Google Scholar] Joseph had a little overcoat, published in 1999. The authors probe issues such as why children ask to hear a favourite story over and over and why they suddenly abandon all interest and move on to a new book. They explore the meaning of the silences that sometimes arise during story‐time, pooling around the young listeners as the last words of the book are read. Witte‐Townsend and DiGiulio remind us of the value of literature in the lives of children and they affirm that the reading and re‐reading of favourite stories enables the understanding of complex human issues and contributes significantly to social, emotional and spiritual growth.     

Independent Sampling vs Interitem Dependencies in Whole Report Processing: Contributions of Processing Architecture and Variable Attention

All current models of visual whole report processing assume perceptual independence among the displayed items in which the perceptual processing of individual items is not affected by other items in the display. However, models proposed by Townsend (1981, Acta Psychologica 47, 149-173), Shibuya and Bundesen (1988, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 14, 591-600), and Bundesen (1990, Psychological Review 97, 523-547) contain postperceptual buffers that must predict negative dependencies. The perceptual-independence assumption forms what we term the modal model class. A recent example of a model that assumes perceptual independence is the Independent Sampling Model of Loftus, Busey, and Senders (1993, Perception and Psychophysics 54, 535-554). The fundamental independence assumption has only been directly tested once before, where tests revealed no dependencies except those produced by guessing. The present study tests the independence assumption using several different statistics and, contrary to most extant models of whole report, finds significant positive dependence. Poisson models do predict a positive dependence and we develop a succinctly parameterized version, the Weighted Path Poisson Model, which allows the finishing order to be a weighted probabilistic mechanism. However, it does not predict the data quite as well as a new model, the Variable Attention Model, which allows independence within trials (unlike the Poisson models). This model assumes that attention (or, potentially, other aspects such as signal quality) varies widely across trials, thus predicting an overall positive dependence. Intuitions for and against the competing models are discussed. In addition, we show, through mimicking formulae, that models which contain the proper qualitative type of dependence structure can be cast in either serial or parallel form. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.