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Biomedical subjects

S J Ceci

Publications and source records attributed to S J Ceci.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Semantic priming effects for stimuli presented to the right and left visual fields.

Studies that have addressed the possibility of hemispheric differences in semantic priming effects have yielded contradictory results. This paper reports the findings of two experiments intended to shed greater light on the issue of hemispheric differences in semantic priming. Experiment 1 used a hemiretinal paradigm and examined manual response latency and response accuracy to four types of word pairs; categorically related, syntactically related, unrelated, and pairs containing a nonword member. Experiment 2 examined the effects of unrecognized, disambiguating flank words on verbal responses to a centrally presented homograph. Experiment 1 yielded no significant visual field differences in magnitude of priming effects when response latency served as the dependent measure, although categorical relatedness facilitated response accuracy for left but not right visual field stimuli. In experiment 2, the disambiguating words had a significant effect on meaning interpretation of the homographs that was independent of visual field of presentation. Taken together, the results of these studies are interpreted as indicating that semantic aspects of linguistic input are automatically processed and can influence the content and latency of subsequent responses, whether presented to the left or right visual field.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

"Don't forget to take the cupcakes out of the oven": prospective memory, strategic time-monitoring, and context.

Strategies employed by children in tasks requiring prospective memory (i.e., remembering to do something in the future) were investigated to illuminate the nature of the processes involved, and their developmental and contextual determinants. Efficient strategy use was expected to increase with age but to decrease in an unfamiliar setting or on a task associated with higher sex-role expectations. Children were instructed to perform future activities after waiting 30 min. Children's clock-checking during the waiting period was assessed in their own homes or a university psychophysics laboratory. As predicted, strategic time-monitoring occurred less frequently in the laboratory than in the home. The anticipated differences associated with higher sex-role expectations and age were most salient for older boys in the laboratory setting. The findings indicate that, when observed in a familiar setting, children can be shown to employ sophisticated cognitive strategies. Emphasis is placed on the scientific power of the laboratory as a contrasting context for illuminating developmental processes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

A developmental study of learning disabilities and memory.

Seven-, ten-, and thirteen-year-old learning-disabled (LD) and non-learning-disabled (NORM) children were presented specially structured lists of 38 words each and tested for free recall. Each list contained only four semantically related words. Two of the four related words were presented contiguously (serial positions 9 and 10) and the other two words were spaced (serial positions 20 and 30). All children recalled disproportionately more adjacent words (item 9 or 10) than any other words. Spaced words (items 20 and 30) were less likely to be recalled by the younger children than by the older children and by the LDs than by the NORMs. These findings provided support for the distinction between automatic and purposive semantic processing. NORMs' recall was governed by purposive semantic processing to a greater extent than was LDs' recall. However, no group or age differences were observed in automatic semantic processing.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Hyperactivity and incidental memory: evidence for attentional diffusion.

2 experiments examined hyperactive children's attentional diffusion, that is, their tendency to underfocus their attention during learning. In Experiment 1 hyperactive children correctly rejected more incorrect incidental information than their nonhyperactive peers, indicating they were more likely to process noncentral attributes. This type of diffuse attention did not interfere with hyperactive children's overall memory performance. Experiment 2 varied the difficulty level of encoding central information, either by limiting the time available for encoding it (brief vs. long) or by varying the meaningfulness of the central information (high associative value shapes vs. low associative value ones). Results showed that hyperactives outperformed nonhyperactives on incidental recognition only when the encoding demands of the central task were easy. Easy encoding permitted them to attend to incidental information without sacrificing central information. Taken together, the results of both experiments demonstrated the validity of the attentional diffusion hypothesis and indicate the need to assess the central processing demands associated with central and incidental learning in order to evaluate the extent of hyperactive children's attentional diffusion.

Attention↗
PubMed1983

Lateral asymmetries in electrodermal responses to nonattended stimuli: a response to Dawson and Schell.

Recently, Dawson and Schell (1982) provided convincing evidence that words presented to the nonattended ear during a dichotic-listening task undergo automatic semantic analysis in the absence of intention or awareness. Because of its methodological rigor, this finding is important in the context of the long-standing controversy surrounding the preattentive processing phenomenon. However, we challenge the authors' suggestion of a right-hemisphere locus for this phenomenon. We offer a methodological basis for the findings and propose a countersuggestion of a left hemisphere, or at least bilateral, processing locus.

Attention↗
PubMed1981

Flexibility and memory: are the elderly really less flexible?

All subjects were given two types of semantic encoding tasks; one encoding task directed attention to an item's thematic role (e.g., igloo was presented in the context of other items from the "North Pole" theme) and the other encoding task directed attention to the same item's role in some taxonomy (e.g., igloo was presented with other items from the dwelling taxonomy). Subjects were tested for free recall of the items followed by cued recall, the cues being theme and taxonomy labels. Young adults and middle-aged adults were more flexible retrieving items than older adults. They often switched modes during retrieval, recalling a few members from a theme and using the terminal item as a "pivot" to recall a few items from the taxonomy to which it also belonged. Flexibility was correlated with recall at each age; however, aging was associated with a less flexible style of retrieval.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Coding processes in normal and learning-disabled children: evidence for modality-specific pathways to the cognitive system.

In Experiment 1, normal 10-yr.-olds and 10-yr.-olds diagnosed as learning disabled (LD) were presented with items in visual and auditory modalities for free and cued recall. The LD children had deficits in auditory and/or visual memory. Recall by LD children was worse than for nonimpaired peers only on tasks in the impaired modality, and on cued recall the deficit was confined to recall given a semantic category cue: Recall given perceptual cues was unimpaired. In Experiment 2, presentation-time tasks were used to create a bias toward either perceptual or semantic encoding. The semantic-encoding task removed the modality-specific deficit between LD children and controls. We conclude that deficits in semantically cued recall for children with only one impaired modality had their origins at presentation time. The most parsimonious explanation of these results involves separate pathways linking the auditory and visual modalities to the semantic system.

Child↗