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Context effects in symbolic magnitude comparisons.

Five experiments demonstrate that context has an effect on the ease with which people can determine the relative sizes of pairs of large and small animals. In a standard context, people are faster at choosing the larger of two large animals and the smaller of two small animals. However, when only pairs of small animals are presented (Experiment 1), relatively large pairs (RABBIT-BEAVER) are treated as if they were large animals and are discriminated more rapidly under the choose larger instruction. Similarly, when only large animals are presented (Experiment 2), the smaller of these are now treated as if they were small animals. Several models are presented that account for these effects of context, and these models are examined in subsequent experiments that impose yet other variations in magnitude pairings. The results demonstrate the importance of context in comparative judgement and place important constraints on theories of linear orders.

Female↗

Encoding processes and memory organization: a model of the von Restorff effect.

The mechanisms underlying the improved recall of isolated events (von Restorff effect) were investigated. Participants studied lists of stimuli containing a physical and a semantic isolate while performing a physical task or a lexical decision task. The physical-task group showed a physical but not a semantic isolation effect (IE) in free recall, whereas the lexical-decision group displayed both types of IEs. The recall of the isolates was independent of that of the other words, and isolates were usually reported separately from other words in the list. Event-related potentials recorded at encoding predicted the recall of both types of isolates. In recognition tests, the IE was obtained only when the encoding context was reinstated. These results are consistent with a model of the IE that stresses the role of the encoding processes immediately following the presentation of distinctive events, and that postulates interactions between these processes and subsequent elaboration of the stimuli.

Adult↗

Activating representations in permanent memory: different benefits for pictures and words.

Previous research has suggested that pictures have privileged access to semantic memory (W. R. Glaser, 1992), but J. Theios and P. C. Amrhein (1989b) argued that prior studies inappropriately used large pictures and small words. In Experiment 1, participants categorized pictures reliably faster than words, even when both types of items were of optimal perceptual size. In Experiment 2, a poststimulus flashmask and judgments about internal features did not eliminate picture superiority, indicating that it was not due to differences in early visual processing or analysis of visible features. In Experiment 3, when participants made judgments about whether items were related, latencies were reliably faster for categorically related pictures than for words, but there was no picture advantage for noncategorically associated items. Results indicate that pictures have privileged access to semantic memory for categories, but that neither pictures nor words seem to have privileged access to noncategorical associations.

Adolescent↗

Disruption to word or letter processing? The origins of case-mixing effects.

MiXeD-cAsE stimuli have long been used to test whether word recognition is based on holistic visual information or preliminary letter identification. However, without knowing which properties of mixed-case stimuli disrupt processing, it is not possible to determine which visual units mediate word recognition. The present studies examined the effects of case mixing on word and nonword naming as a function of (a) whether spaces were inserted between letters and (b) whether letter size was alternated independent of letter case. The results suggest that case-mixing disruption effects are due to at least 2 factors: the introduction of inappropriate grouping between letters with the same size and case, and the disruption of transletter features. The data support a model of visual lexical access based on the input from multiple visually based units.

Adult↗

Mental representations of large and small spatial layouts are orientation dependent.

Previous research on spatial memory indicated that memories of small layouts were orientation dependent (orientation specific) but that memories of large layouts were orientation independent (orientation free). Two experiments investigated the relation between layout size and orientation dependency. Participants learned a small or a large 4-point path (Experiment 1) or a large display of objects (Experiment 2) and then made judgments of relative direction from imagined headings that were either the same as or different from the single studied orientation. Judgments were faster and more accurate when the imagined heading was the same as the studied orientation (i.e., aligned) than when the imagined heading differed from the studied orientation (i.e., misaligned). This alignment effect was present for both small and large layouts. These results indicate that location is encoded in an orientation-dependent manner regardless of layout size.

Female↗

Sequence effects in categorization of simple perceptual stimuli.

Categorization research typically assumes that the cognitive system has access to a (more or less noisy) representation of the absolute magnitudes of the properties of stimuli and that this information is used in reaching a categorization decision. However, research on identification of simple perceptual stimuli suggests that people have very poor representations of absolute magnitude information and that judgments about absolute magnitude are strongly influenced by preceding material. The experiments presented here investigate such sequence effects in categorization tasks. Strong sequence effects were found. Classification of a borderline stimulus was more accurate when preceded by a distant member of the opposite category than by a distant member of the same category. It is argued that this category contrast effect cannot be accounted for by extant exemplar or decision-bound models of categorization. The effect suggests the use of relative magnitude information in categorization. A memory and contrast model illustrates how relative magnitude information may be used in categorization.

Attention↗

Analogical problem solving: a hierarchical analysis of procedural similarity.

Similarity between source analogues and target problems is a central theme in the research on analogical transfer. Much of the theorizing and research has focused on the effects of superficial and structural similarity on transfer. The present research is an attempt to analyze systematically another critical type of similarity, namely, procedural similarity, and to examine its effects on the executing process. Participants viewed a schematic picture as a source model, interpreted its conceptual meaning, and then attempted to solve a problem to which the conceptual information from the source model could be applied. The results indicate that the ease with which a source solution was implemented was largely determined by the abstraction level at which a solution was shared by a source analogue and the target problem. The degree of procedural similarity was also found to influence the executing process in analogical transfer. A conceptual model concerning the function of procedural similarity as a utilizational constraint in analogical problem solving is proposed.

Association Learning↗

Covert operations: orthographic recoding as a basis for repetition priming in word identification.

When a word is generated from a semantic cue, coincident orthographic visualization of that word may cause priming on a subsequent perceptual identification test. A task was introduced that required subjects to visualize the orthographic pattern of auditorily presented words. When used at study, this task produced a pattern of priming similar to that produced by a generate study task. When used at test, equal priming on the orthographic task was produced by read and generate study tasks but not by a generate study task that failed to invite orthographic visualization. Priming on perceptually based word identification tests that results from a generate study episode may be largely due to orthographic recoding of the target rather than to conceptual processing.

Analysis of Variance↗

Acquisition and retention by hippocampal rats of simple, conditional, and configural tasks using tactile and olfactory cues: implications for hippocampal function.

Hippocampal rats were given simple, conditional, and configural tasks that required them to pull up strings to obtain food pellets. The tasks contrasted string size, odor, location, paired string size and location, or compounds of string size and odor. There was no anterograde or retrograde amnesia for the simple discriminations or for simple discrimination components of the other tasks. Hippocampal rats also learned conditional and configural tasks, although they were impaired on the configural task. Finally, the rats were impaired in postoperative retention of the conditional but not the configural task, although they displayed savings in relation to naive rats on the conditional task. The results do not support theories that the hippocampus is essential for conditional or configural learning but may support a modified form of configural theory in which the hippocampus contributes to, but is not essential for, learning or retention of configurations.

Animals↗

Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex lesions in rats impair the acquisition and retention of a tactile-olfactory configural task.

Rats with aspirative lesions of the ventrolateral frontal cortex were tested on acquisition and postsurgical retention of an associative learning task that required that they learn a tactile-olfactory configural discrimination. The task required that they pull up a string to obtain attached food and that they identify the correct string using a compound of string size and odor. The rats were not impaired in initial learning or reversal of the olfactory elements of the discrimination. They were impaired in acquisition and retention of the compound, and their deficit was proportional to lesion size. The results confirm that the ventrolateral frontal cortex is involved in processing of olfactory information and imply that the prefrontal cortex is involved in at least certain types of cross-modal configural associative learning.

Animals↗

Fornix-fimbria section and working memory deficits in rats: stimulus complexity and stimulus size.

Rats were trained on delayed matching-to-sample (DMS) with goalboxes containing complex objects as stimuli. On reaching the preoperative learning criterion, the rats were allocated to conventional fornix-lesioned or control groups. In a series of postoperative DMS experiments, different kinds of stimuli were used, ranging from complex object boxes to large, simple black or white goalboxes, with 3 transitional types in between. Lesions impaired choice accuracy whenever the rats were tested with large, simple goalboxes, but not with smaller boxes of otherwise identical construction. A brief, final experiment showed no amelioration of the lesion-induced impairment when complex objects were added to large, simple goalboxes. The results are discussed in terms of spatial and nonspatial accounts of hippocampal function.

Animals↗

Rats with fimbria-fornix lesions can acquire and retain a visual-tactile transwitching (configural) task.

The idea that the hippocampus is essential for acquisition and retention of a transwitching (configural) problem is evaluated with a visual-tactile task. The task requires the rats to pull up a string of one of two sizes for food, as signalled by room lighting conditions. Rats received cathodal fimbria-fornix lesions either prior to or after learning the task. Rats with fimbria-fornix lesions were unimpaired in acquisition or retention. The results do not support the position that the hippocampal formation is essential for the acquisition and retention of a transwitching configural problem. The result is discussed in relation to the configural theory of hippocampal function.

Animals↗

Reorganization of prehension components following perturbation of object size.

This study provides a kinematic comparison of the response of 12 older persons (ages 60-70) and 12 young persons (ages 20-26) to a perturbation of object size during a reach-to-grasp movement. For 80 out of 100 trials, each participant reached to grasp an illuminated cylinder of either small or large diameter (0.7 and 8.0 cm, respectively). For 20 out of 100 trials, a visual perturbation occurred at movement onset. This perturbation consisted of a switch of illumination from 1 to the other cylinder. For the switch from large to small cylinder, participants changed the distal grasp from whole-hand prehension to precision grip. For the opposite switch, participants changed from precision grip to whole-hand prehension. The older participants successfully adapted to these perturbations but showed a more conservative approach. Generally the approach time as the hand neared the object was prolonged, and the coordination between transport and manipulation components was maintained when comparing perturbed with nonperturbed trials. Young participants showed a more flexible pattern with a decrease or loss of temporal coupling between the components. It is hypothesized that the more rigid movement pattern of older participants to unanticipated motor requirements could be a contributory factor to the higher incidence of accidents for this group.

Adult↗

Effects of stimulus integrality on visual attention in older and younger adults: a quantitative model-based analysis.

Twenty-one older and 21 younger adults were administered a series of visual attention tasks. A series of quantitative models was applied to each observer's data to determine whether he or she performed optimally or suboptimally or showed a deficit-in-attentional processing. The results suggested that (a) older and younger observers were affected equally by the integrality-separability manipulation, (b) there are no age-related differences in selective attention performance for either integral or separable-dimension stimuli, (c) there are no age-related differences in dimensional integration performance with separable-dimension stimuli, and (d) older observers were more likely to be suboptimal when asked to integrate information from integral-dimension stimuli. Implications for current theories of attentional processing in normal aging are discussed.

Adult↗

Preserved priming across study-test picture transformations in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Picture-naming priming was examined across different study-test transformations to explore the nature of memory representations of objects supporting implicit memory processes in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although severely impaired in explicit memory for pictures and words, AD patients demonstrated normal priming across perceptual transformations in picture orientation (Experiment 1) and picture size (Experiment 2) and across symbolic transformations from words to pictures (Experiment 3). In addition, the priming across alterations in picture size was invariant. This demonstrates that AD patients have preserved implicit memory for high-level, abstract representations of objects.

Aged↗

Integrating text and pictorial information: eye movements when looking at print advertisements.

Viewers looked at print advertisements as their eye movements were recorded. Half of them were told to pay special attention to car ads, and the other half were told to pay special attention to skin-care ads. Viewers tended to spend more time looking at the text than the picture part of the ad, though they did spend more time looking at the type of ad they were instructed to pay attention to. Fixation durations and saccade lengths were both longer on the picture part of the ad than the text, but more fixations were made on the text regions. Viewers did not alternate fixations between the text and picture part of the ad, but they tended to read the large print, then the smaller print, and then they looked at the picture (although some viewers did an initial cursory scan of the picture). Implications for (a) how viewers integrate pictorial and textual information and (b) applied research and advertisement development are discussed.

Adult↗

Magnitude estimation of conceptual data dimensions for use in sonification.

Sonifications must match listener expectancies about representing data with sound. Three experiments showed the utility of magnitude estimation for this. In Experiment 1, 67 undergraduates judged the sizes of visual stimuli and the temperature, pressure, velocity, size, or dollars they represented. Similarly, in Experiment 2, 132 listeners judged the pitch or tempo of sounds and the data they represented. In both experiments, polarity and scaling preference depended on the conceptual data dimension. In Experiment 3, 60 listeners matched auditory graphs to data created with the results of Experiment 2, providing initial validation of scaling slopes. Magnitude estimation is proposed as a design tool in the development of data sonifications, with the level of polarity preference agreement predicting mapping effectiveness.

Adult↗

Conceptual information permeates word learning in infancy.

Three experiments document that conceptual knowledge influences lexical acquisition in infancy. A novel target object was initially labeled with a novel word. In both yes-no (Experiment 1) and forced-choice (Experiment 2) tasks, 2-year-olds' subsequent extensions were mediated by the conceptual description of the targets. When targets were described as artifacts, infants extended on the basis of shape. When targets were described as animates, infants extended on the basis of both shape and texture. Experiment 3 revealed similar results for 1.5-year-olds. These results challenge the notion that expectations in word learning (e.g., the "shape bias") (a) emerge late and (b) rest entirely on correlations between perceptual object features and words. Instead, the results indicate that both perceptual and conceptual information permeate word learning in infancy.

Child, Preschool↗