Two forms of persistence in visual information processing

Iconic memory, which was initially regarded as a unitary phenomenon, has since been subdivided into several components. In the present work we examined the joint effects of two such components (visible persistence and the visual analog representation) on performance in a partial report task. The display consisted of 15 alphabetic characters arranged around the perimeter of an imaginary circle on the face of an oscilloscope. The observer named the character singled out by a bar-probe. Two factors were varied: exposure duration of the array (10, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 400 or 500 ms) and duration of blank period (interstimulus interval, ISI) between the termination of the array and the onset of the probe (0, 50, 100, 150, or 200 ms). Performance was progressively impaired as both exposure duration and ISI were increased. The results were explained in terms of a probabilistic combinatorial model in which the timecourses of visible persistence and of the visual analog representation are regarded as time-locked to the onset and to the end of stimulation, respectively. The impairing effect of exposure duration was attributed to the relatively high spatial demands of the task that could be met optimally by information in visible persistence (which declines as a function of exposure duration), but less adequately by information in the visual analog representation. A second experiment, employing a task with lesser spatial demands, confirmed this interpretation.     

The recording of continuous variation along four dimensions

A system is described for signalling, recording and analysing continuous changes in up to four dimensions applicable to the visual after-image and other phenomena. Some advantages of the method are discussed.     

Interference with memory for lifted weight

An adaptation-level model for memory was tested by interpolating different weights between the standard and comparison weights. The results suggest that the model should be modified to account for the general tendency to use alternative categories of judgment with equal frequency. In terms of the modified model, memory for the standard shifts toward the value of the interfering stimulus, the magnitude of shift being proportional to the difference between the interfering stimulus and the value the memory would otherwise have had.     

Research in Consultation: Toward Better Analogues and Outcome Measures

Recommendations for improving consultation research include (a) strengthening consultation analogue research by incorporating “boundary” conditions into research designs and (b) extending the outcome measures used.     

EXPANDING THE MOTHER-CHILD PARADIGM

Reliance on the mother–child dyad as the primary context for under–standing child development has caused fathers to be underrepresented in published research on child development and developmental psychopathology. In order to investigate whether this pattern was also evident in the work of future psychologists, we reviewed Dissertation Abstracts from 1986 through 1994. Results showed that fathers were the focus of significantly fewer dissertation studies (10.5%) than were mothers (59.5%) or both parents (30.0%). We argue that essentializing the mother–child bond is a political philosophy about the roles of men and women that places the discipline of psychology at risk for inadvertently becoming an apologist for the neoconservative political right. Specific suggestions for revising graduate training are presented. The social policy implications for continuing this trend into the next generation of psychologists are discussed.     

A two-year follow-up study of a preventive mental health program for preschoolers

The long-term effects of a preschool intervention program for high-risk experimental children were assessed and compared to a high-risk placebo control group and low-risk normal controls. Seventy first-grade children were involved in this 2-year follow-up. The experimental treatment group was superior to that of the placebo control group at follow-up on the criteria measures of behavioral adjustment and achievement. The low-risk normal control group was significantly different from that of the placebo control groups, but generally not significantly different from that of the experimental groups, suggesting that the intervention had boosted the high-risk experimental treatment children to the point where their performance was comparable to that of children who had not experienced behavioral or learning difficulties.The study was supported by grants from the McGregor Fund and the Eloise and Richard Webber Foundation, and by the Detroit Public Schools, for which the authors express grateful appreciation. A version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, New York, September 1979.     

Introversion-extraversion: the Bell-Magendie law revisited

Evidence from several sources, including psychophysical, electrodermal and evoked potential measures, indicates that introverts display an enhanced response to sensory stimulation. There is also evidence, primarily from psychophysical studies, which suggests that extraverts may be disposed to emit short, strong bursts of motor activity which facilitate performance on tasks that involve gross motor activity but which impede performance on tasks which require refined motor control. The present paper develops an argument in which the differences between introverts and extraverts in the response to sensory stimulation and in the expression of motor activity may be referred to differences at the level of the sensory and motor nerve.     

Gender-role adoption and sex as academic and psychological risk factors

Five hundred and ten first-year junior high school students were administered a battery of psychological tests. On the basis of their scores from two gender-role adoption measures, three smaller groups were extracted within each biological sex: masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated individuals. Feminine students reported a greater amount of discomfort (vulnerability). A battery of tests administered toward the end of that school year revealed that females attained greater neuroticism and alienation scores than did their male peers. Possible explanations for this pubescent self-report of maladjustment are the more masculine orientation of the junior high school in comparison to the elementary school and the menarche.The authors wish to thank Ms. S. Chesterman, Regional Director of the Montreal Catholic School Commission, and Mr. K. Quinn, Principal of Sir Wilfred Laurier Junior High School, for granting us permission to disrupt school activities in order to test their students. We also wish to acknowledge the assistance of the following members of Sir Wilfred Laurier: Mr. O. Hruby, Vice-Principal; Sr. G. Larocque, Vice-Principal; Mr. S. Radeschi, key teacher; and members of the administrative and teaching staff.     

Tachistoscopic display using color-lookup-table display devices

In this article, I describe a method for presenting multiple bit-mapped images on video displays under precise temporal control. The method makes use of the color-table animation technique that can be used with color-lookup-table display devices. The principal challenge in applying this technique to the display of multiple stimuli lies in dealing efficiently with the problem of overlapping displays. The solution described here is to allocate separate bit slices of screen memory to stimuli that overlap and to allocate sequential color-table indices to stimuli that are disjoint. Software is described that automatically computes the location of a stimulus on the screen, allocates color indices appropriately, transfers bit images to screen memory efficiently, and manipulates the color lookup table to present a given stimulus to the viewer. These operations are handled transparently; the user simply draws the stimuli and then turns them on or off under program control.