Biomedical subjects

F S Beltran

Publications and source records attributed to F S Beltran.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Typicality of objects in urban park scenes.

Typicality is a basic property of any categorization process, including the categorization of environmental scenes. We tried to judge whether a scene as a type of situation influences judgements about the typicality of elements when considering the part-whole relationship between the element and the scene. The subjects were asked to rate typicality on a scale of 1 to 7 and to give a word that defined the urban park elements appearing in a park scene or on a blank background. Some elements (wastepaper basket, fountain, street lamp, and statue) were depicted with two styles (classical and contemporary). The results indicate that the scene or blank background had no effect on the typicality scores but subjects had difficulty providing an appropriate word when elements with a contemporary style were shown on a blank background.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

P-SPACE: a program for simulating spatial behavior in small groups.

P-SPACE is a computer program that simulates spatial behavior in a small group of individuals. The program describes how interpersonal distances change through time as a result of changes in microlevel features, such as the minimization of local dissatisfaction. Agents are located in a two-dimensional lattice and can move some discrete space units at each discrete time unit within their neighborhood. A nonsymmetrical matrix of ideal distances between agents must be specified. Agents move in order to minimize their dissatisfaction, defined as a function of the discrepancy between possible future distances and ideal distances between agents. At each iteration, agents will move to those cells in their neighborhoods for which the function is minimized. Depending on the specific values in the ideal-distance matrix, different kinds of social dynamics can be simulated.

Electronic Data Processing↗

PubMed1998

Figure-ground perceptual organization and learning by three-year-old children.

We have elaborated a program for the instruction of 54 3-yr.-olds using visual aids (cards showing the graphic representation of a number printed on three different types of backgrounds). Analysis showed differences in the increase in scores obtained by the children before and after the application of the program depending on the type of background.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1995

Measuring the typicality of objects included in environmental scenes: a logistic model for atypicality.

Some empirical studies have stated that people usually categorize scenes according to the suitability of their elements. This paper proposes a method of measuring the typicality of naturalistic objects contained in environmental scenes. 517 subjects gave a score of suitability for 110 object-scene pairs. We used a logistic model for the measurements which enabled us to obtain two indexes, atypicality and discrimination. Analysis showed that the objects could be arranged on a numerical scale according to their typicality in a scene, and from this we concluded that logistic models are a useful and powerful method of measuring typicality.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Thumb rule of visual angle: a new confirmation.

The classical thumb rule of visual angle was reexamined. Hence, the visual angle was measured as a function of a thumb's width and the distance between eye and thumb. The measurement of a thumb's width when held at arm's length was taken on 67 second-year students of psychology. The visual angle was about 2 degrees as R. P. O'Shea confirmed in 1991. Also, we confirmed a linear relationship between the size of a thumb's width at arm's length and the visual angle.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Processing typical objects in scenes: effects of photographs versus line-drawings.

The main purpose of this paper is the description of our research into the influence of stimuli (photographs or line-drawing pictures) in perception of scenes. Many researchers have been using the concept of "typically" in an attempt to explain the influence of knowledge structures on processing visual stimuli. We have also tried to examine the influence of typicality on processing objects in environmental scenes. An experiment was carried out using photographs and their equivalent line-drawings. Subjects had to identify objects and associate them with environmental scenes. Our results show that the typicality factor was significant but not the kind of stimuli used (photographs versus line-drawings). We also discussed the use of photographs and line-drawing pictures as stimuli in the identifying process of visual perception.

Adult↗