The psychology of the Monty Hall problem: Discovering psychological mechanisms for solving a tenacious brain teaser.

The Monty Hall problem (or three-door problem) is a famous example of a "cognitive illusion," often used to demonstrate people's resistance and deficiency in dealing with uncertainty. The authors formulated the problem using manipulations in 4 cognitive aspects, namely, natural frequencies, mental models, perspective change, and the less-is-more effect. These manipulations combined led to a significant increase in the proportion of correct answers given by novice participants, largely because of the synergy of frequency-based formulation and perspective change (Experiments 1, 2). In a training study (Experiment 3) frequency formulation and mental models, but not Bayes's rule training, showed significant positive transfer in solving related problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

More accurate size contrast judgments in the Ebbinghaus Illusion by a remote culture.

The Ebbinghaus (Titchener) illusion was examined in a remote culture (Himba) with no words for geometric shapes. The illusion was experienced less strongly by Himba compared with English participants, leading to more accurate size contrast judgments in the Himba. The study included two conditions of inducing stimuli. The illusion was weaker when the inducing stimuli were dissimilar (diamonds) to the target (circle) compared with when they were similar (circles). However, the illusion was weakened to the same extent in both cultures. It is argued that the more accurate size judgments of the Himba derive from their tendency to prioritize the analysis of local details in visual processing of multiple objects, and not from their impoverished naming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

False memory and the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis: The prototype-familiarity illusion.

According to the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis (B. W. A. Whittlesea & L. D. Williams, 1998), people experience a feeling of familiarity when they perceive their processing to be surprising, but for an indefinite reason. This hypothesis has been successful in explaining several illusions of familiarity. Here, it is applied to the prototype-familiarity effect, an illusion of remembering that occurs when people are shown prototype words after studying lists of associates. The experiments showed that studying associates enhances semantic, but not perceptual, processing of prototypes. They also showed that claims of recognizing prototypes can be modified by presenting them in predictive or incongruous contexts at test. The evidence suggests that the effect results from an evaluation process that monitors the coherence of processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Colors of some small figures on colored grounds

Examination of the receptive field structure of the retina suggested looking at small graphic figures of special forms. The luminance distribution called the “Mexican hat function” was approximated by a black dot with a small white dot at its center, called a “tip,” and the inverse function was approximated by a white dot with a small black dot at its center, called a “pit.” Such figures were given the generic name “tippit.” On a dark‐blue ground, tips looked yellow, and on a bright‐yellow ground, pits looked blue. Similarly, a black line with a white center, on a blue ground, and a white line with a black center, on a yellow ground, elicited these effects. On yellow and blue grounds, simple, small colored dots looked more like the color of the ground than when seen as large spots on a neutral gray ground, an effect here called “microspreading.” This effect may be attributable to scattering and blurring, but these processes do not account for the tippit effects. The visual system exaggerates contrast between a large spot and ground, and diminishes contrast between a small dot and ground, but exhibits neither effect on a figure of some intermediate size. Chromatic pit lines exhibit effects obeying laws of additive mixture. It appears that perceptions of these effects are normally repressed. No causal link was sought or established between receptive field theory and the observed effects. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 28, 242–250, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.10159     

服装中炫目迷彩图案的设计应用

基于史料和近代设计运用分析,从历史文化,图案设计及视觉效果原理等方面入手,对这一特殊的迷彩图案进行分析。研究指出了这一源于第一次世界大战的迷彩图案的兴起历程及发展现状,炫目迷彩在基于视错觉原理的基础上,其流行的本质并非如军事用途一样,意图破坏身体轮廓线的完整性以达到隐藏扰乱敌方视觉判断的目的。相反地,炫目迷彩图案成为彰显个人品味与风格的重要视觉元素,即是时尚态度的大胆表达和释放。同时指出其符合服饰图案的美学要求,并为如何巧妙地运用炫目迷彩做出有益的探索。     

The role of eye movements in the size-speed illusion of approaching trains

Recent research on the perceived speed of large moving objects, compared to smaller moving objects, has revealed the presence of a size-speed illusion. This illusion, where a large object seems to be moving more slowly than a small object travelling at the same speed may account for collisions between motor cars and trains at level crossings, which is a serious safety issue in New Zealand and worldwide. One possible reason for the perceived size-speed difference may be related to the movement of our eyes when we track moving vehicles. In order to investigate this, we tested observers’ relative speed perception of moving objects (both abstract and more detailed objects) moving in depth towards the observer, presented on a computer display and eye movements recorded with an eyetracker. Experiment 1 confirmed first the size-speed illusion when the observers were situated further away (18, 36 m) from the simulated rail crossing or intersection. It also revealed that the eye movement behaviour of our participants was different when they judged the speeds of the small and large objects; eye fixations were localised around the visual centroid of longer objects and hence were further from the front of the moving large objects than the smaller ones. Experiment 2 found that manipulating eye movements could reduce the magnitude of the illusion. When observers tracked targets (dots) that were placed at corresponding locations at the front of the small object and the long object respectively, they perceived the speeds of the two objects as equal. When target dots were placed closer to the visual centroid, observers perceived the larger object to be moving slower. These results demonstrate that there is a close relationship between eye movement behaviour and our perceived judgement of an approaching train's speed.     

Illusion Effects on Grasping Are Temporally Constant Not Dynamic.

The authors tested whether the effects of the Ebbinghaus illusion on grasping are corrected during late phases of the movement. Surprisingly, the grasp aperture was corrected neither under no-vision (N = 52) nor under full-vision (N = 48) conditions. The authors show that previous reports of a correction (e.g., S. Glover & P. Dixon, 2002a) are due to 2 artifacts: (a) inclusion of time points at which the target object was already touched and (b) erroneous statistics. This removes the central evidence on which S. Glover and P. Dixon's (2001a) planning-control model of action is based. In addition, the authors' results can help to refine more classic notions of motor control (e.g., R. Woodworth, 1899). In consequence, the authors reject S. Glover and P. Dixon's (2001a) planning-control model but not classic online-control theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

穷而幻富:《聊斋志异》的士魂商才观

《聊斋志异》是幻想与现实的象征投射机制的产物.其中《黄英》是作者穷而幻富的心理补偿需要在各种条件刺激下形成的一篇主旨广阔深远的作品,它以陶生与马生人格的冲撞、对比和黄英与马生的融合过程,象征性地传达出作者对商的有限承认这一士魂商才观.     

Depth cues and constancy scaling in the horizontal-vertical illusion: The bisection error.

Analysis of the horizontal-vertical illusion in terms of possible depth cues allows the prediction of a bisection illusion in which the length of the lower portion of the vertical is underestimated relative to the length of the upper segment. Significant variations in illusion magnitude as a function of line length and angle of inclination indicates that height in the plane is the depth cue which is evoking inappropriate size constancy scaling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)