Comparison processes on visual mental images.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S Bagnara.
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Same RTs to pairs of letters or other patterns are often faster than different RTs. This finding has led to hypothesize a two-process system of comparison: a fast holistic process for same and a slower analytic process for different responses. In connection with hemispheric specialization, RH has been characterized as a holistic and LH as an analytic processor. Therefore same responses should be mediated by RH and different responses by LH. In the present study, subjects made same-different judgments in the two visual fields to successively presented pairs of letters where degree of difference was systematically varied. RTs decreased with increases in the degree of difference in different responses. Same responses were faster than different. These results suggest analytic processing of different and holistic processing of same pairs. Since no clear-cut visual field superiority was found, the conclusion is that both hemispheres can process visual information analytically and holistically.
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Experience with and reflections on the interaction among the workplace, the society, and various institutions in the area of occupational health have played an important role in the general political debate in Italy since the 1960s. This paper describes the emergence of the worker's model of investigation into health hazards, an element unique to the Italian experience, and analyzes its impact on the organization of work, government policies, health institutions, and scientific research.
Two hypotheses of hemispheric specialization are discussed. The first stresses the importance of the kind of processing to which the stimulus is subjected, and the second stresses the importance of the nature of the stimulus. To test these hypotheses, four experiments were carried out. In Experiment 1 verbal material was employed in a same-different classification task, and an overall right visual field superiority was found. Experiment 2, in which verbal stimuli were subjected to visuospatial transformations (i.e. mental rotations), yielded no laterality effect. In Experiment 3 geometrical figures were employed in a classification task similar to that of Experiment 1, and an overall left visual field superiority was found. In Experiment 4 both verbal and geometric stimuli were employed. The results showed a significant interaction between field of presentation and nature of the stimulus and no interaction between field of presentation and level of processing.
16 (8 men, 8 women) subjects were required to respond same or different to pairs of geometrical figures. Same responses were given to physical identity pairs, to analog identity pairs, and to name identity pairs. Male subjects showed a left visual-field advantage regardless of the level of processing, whereas female subjects did not show a clear-cut hemispheric asymmetry. These results were discussed in terms of different processing strategies employed by the two sexes.
In Experiment I the subjects manually signaled whether a solid dot was present or not in an array of empty dots presented either in the right or in the left visual field. The dots were either three or six and the target could appear in any of the possible locations. The results showed (a) a left visual field superiority; (b) a left hand superiority; (c) faster responses to three-dot than to six-dot displays, and (d) an effect of the location of the target in the display. Experiment II exactly replicated the previous experiment with the exception that the stimuli were centrally projected. The results showed: (a) a left hand superiority; (b) an effect of the number of dots in the display. These results can be interpreted to indicate: (a) a right hemisphere specialization in a simple feature detection task without any spatial component; (b) the compatibility of a right-hemisphere advantage with a serial search strategy.
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An experiment has been conducted in order to extend to geometrical figures Posner's (1969) findings of various levels of processing for alphabetical material. Pairs of simple figures (triangles and trapezoids) were tachistoscopically presented to subjects asked to judge if they were "same" or "different". Subjects were instructed to respond "same" either if the two figures had the same shape or the same name, e.g., a scalene triangle paired with a right-angled one. The results support the theory of different levels of processing also for geometrical figures.
Interest in occupational mental illness has increased as a result also of the technological changes at the workplace. A total of 22 epidemiological studies on this topic were reviewed on the following basis: subject of the study, epidemiological design, type of psychometric scale, results. The authors discuss the methods and constraints of these studies, especially the lack of knowledge on occupational exposure and its relationship to mental health. The need for further studies in order to improve prevention of mental illness at the workplace is stressed.