A new psychophysical method: Method of transposition or equal-appearing relations.

"In many experiments dealing with perceptual phenomena, investigators try to find a stimulus which appears equal to a standard stimulus. It often happens, however, that the procedure involved in finding the equivalent stimulus alters the stimulus pattern so that the measurement is not made on the original stimulus pattern. To avoid this difficulty, a new psychophysical method, which is named the method of transposition or the method of equal-appearing relations, was proposed. The major advantage of this method over the traditional ones is that it leaves the original stimulus pattern intact." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A NOTE ON BITTERMAN AND KNIFFIN'S "MANIFEST ANXIETY AND PERCEPTUAL DEFENSE."

Criticism is made of the fact that the Manifest Anxiety Scale which Bitterman and Kniffin used in their study of perceptual thresholds for taboo and neutral words (see 28: 2266) measures the subject's general level of anxiety, while what is crucial is the degree of anxiety which each word is able to elicit. Also, it appears as if the words were not equated for frequency of usage nor controlled for personal relevancy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leveling-sharpening and memory organization.

The Schematizing Test (see 35: 2266) and a psychophysical task utilizing the method of single stimuli were used to differentiate a group of "levelers" (in a perceputal sense—or, in a psychoanalytic sense, repressors) from "sharpeners." Ss were asked to relate requested details of a story (the Pied Piper of Hamlin), the story being used as a measure of remote memory. The groups were differentiated on the basis of such recall. The results were seen as supporting the effects of cognitive style upon memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Threat-expectancy, word frequencies, and perceptual pre-recognition hypotheses.

"In order to investigate whether delayed perceptual report of threatening words would occur under conditions of threat-expectancy in an experimental setup which makes possible examination of the operation of possible conscious inhibition as well as differential word frequencies, 59 Ss were given a series of 16 booklets, each containing 30 carbon copies of one five-letter stimulus word, to decipher. Eight of these words were considered neutral and eight threatening… . Significantly more trials were required for correct report of threat words as compared to neutral ones. No correlation between number of trials required for correct identification of the test words and word frequency was found… . The findings are interpreted as consistent with a concept of perceptual defense." 20 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual recognition as a function of anxiety, motivation, and the testing situation.

The hypothesis was made that degree of anxiety and motivation would influence S's performance on tasks measuring skill in discovering objects embedded in a stimulus field, particularly as the situation was structured to be stressful or not. Ss low in anxiety and high in motivation performed significantly better than Ss high in anxiety but with low motivation. In the nonstressful situation, Ss low in anxiety and motivation performed significantly poorer than their counterparts. It is recommended, therefore, that situational task variables be considered as crucial factors in analysing behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

多带谱相减结合感觉加权的语音增强方法研究

语音增强技术是解决噪声污染的一项强有力的预处理技术,也是语音信号处理的一个热门课题.文章提出了一种多带谱相减与感觉加权相结合的语音增强方法.该方法首先对带噪语音进行多带谱相减,然后根据人的听觉掩蔽特性,对多带谱相减后的信号进行感觉加权,以便进一步降低背景噪声.仿真结果表明,该方法在较好地抑制背景噪声和残留音乐噪声的同时,保持了较好的语音可懂度.     

An experimental reunion of psychoanalytic theory with perceptual vigilance and defense.

"This experiment was designed to test, within the framework of perceptual behavior, two psychoanalytic hypotheses: (a) the unconscious striving for expression of underlying psychosexual impulses (vigilance); and (b) the warding off of these threatening impulses as they begin to approach conscious awareness (defense)." Using Blacky Pictures, the vigilance hypothesis was supported in 11 of the 14 cases tested; the defense hypothesis was supported in 12 of the 14 cases tested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of perceptual training on unmatched samples of brain-injured and familial retarded children.

41 brain-injured (Bl) and 39 familial retarded (FR) children matched for CA but not for MA were 1st tested on 1 set of ambiguous pictures, then trained on a 2nd set, and then retested on the 1st set both immediately and 1 mo. following training. Results showed that although the BI group had a significantly higher IQ than the FR group, they nevertheless took more trials to reach a lower level of post-training performance. The difference between the groups reached statistical significance, however, only when the MA differential favoring the BI group was controlled by the analysis of covariance procedure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in perceptual, motor and reading test scores in a remedial reading group.

Two matched groups each composed of nine children with reading problems were compared on a number of perceptual, motor, and reading tests. One group was thereafter exposed to a special remedial program. On retest this group showed significant gains in reading as well as in some of the perceptual and motor areas. No similar improvement was detected in the control group denied the remedial treatment. Not all perceptual tests showed a parallel improvement with reading and the implications of this finding are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Perceptual Organization and Intelligence: A Further Study": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by De Soto and Liebowitz (Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology, 1956[Nov], 53, 334-337). Some incorrectly calculated probabilities of Type II errors were given. Recalculated probabilities are given in Table 1. These are probabilities of Type II errors for 2-tail t tests of the difference between mean vocabulary scores of high and low perceivers in case of certain hypothetical true differences in various experimental conditions and groupings, as explained in the original article. The probabilities in Table 1 are substantially greater than those given earlier, but low enough that a complete absence of significant t's would be surprising if a large true difference existed. All t's obtained were nonsignificant, and the average difference was in fact in the wrong direction. It may be noted that 1-tail t tests might have been used, since the direction of the difference was hypothesized. One-tail t tests would have had lower probabilities of Type II errors than 2-tail t tests for the hypothetical true differences listed, and would also have yielded uniformly nonsignificant results. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1958-03650-001). This experiment was a replication of that of Krech and Calvin (Levels of perceptual organization and cognition. J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 1953, 48, 394-400) using modified techniques. The correlation previously reported by Krech and Calvin between intelligence and perception, did not obtain upon replication. The data confirmed their finding that progression over trials was usually from low to high perceptual organization, but did not show a correlation between perception and stimulus-exposure time from 0.01 to 1.00 second. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)