The effects of punishment (electric shock) on perceptual learning.

3 experiments were conducted to explore the consequences of the association of punishment with percepts and to trace its residual effects. Electric shock was associated with tactual profiles of faces. Voltage, temporal contiguity, and ability to escape shock were varied. The results showed that there was more reporting of the non-shocked profile as intensity of shock increased, that escape conditions lead to more reporting of the shocked profiles, the shocked profile is recalled more vividly, and as the delay between exposure and recall increases there is more reporting of the nonshocked profile. (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)     

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)     

Converging operations for perceptual defense.

Discusses some recent experimental attempts to provide converging operations for a concept of perceptual defense. For present purposes, perceptual defense is defined as a relative failure of perception per se due to the emotional character of the stimulus. Experiments are evaluated and discussed mainly in terms of their ability to eliminate as an explanation the response-bias hypothesis for differential accuracy between neutral and emotional words. In addition, following Blum, a stimulus-effect hypothesis is described and applied; all the experiments discussed require, if differences in accuracy of recognition are to be attributed to perceptual variation, converging operations to eliminate this hypothesis. It is argued as well that the search for converging operations for perceptual defense has implications for methodology in other areas of perception. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The reliability of a response measure: Differential recognition-threshold scores.

In studies of perceptual defense where the dependent variable has been differential thresholds for emotionally toned vs. neutral stimulus materials, little attention has been given to the internal consistency of such measures. A study is reported which suggests that the internal consistency may be very low. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How chronic self-views influence (and potentially mislead) estimates of performance.

An important source of people's perceptions of their performance, and potential errors in those perceptions, are chronic views people hold regarding their abilities. In support of this observation, manipulating people's general views of their ability, or altering which view seemed most relevant to a task, changed performance estimates independently of any impact on actual performance. A final study extended this analysis to why women disproportionately avoid careers in science. Women performed equally to men on a science quiz, yet underestimated their performance because they thought less of their general scientific reasoning ability than did men. They, consequently, were more likely to refuse to enter a science competition. (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)     

Feature sampling in detection: Implications for the measurement of perceptual independence.

The article presents the feature sampling signal detection (FS-SDT) model, an extension of the multivariate signal detection (SDT) model. The FS-SDT model assumes that, because of attentional shifts, different subsets of features are sampled for different presentations of the same multidimensional stimulus. Contrary to the SDT model, the FS-SDT model enables the estimation of pure perceptual effects that are uncontaminated by strategic attention shifts. The consideration of feature sampling in detection and identification opens a new perspective on the problem of measuring, respectively, the separability and integrality of stimulus dimensions. Disregarding feature sampling as a component process in detection and identification usually results in biased estimations of perceptual independence concepts relevant for judgments of whether stimulus dimensions are processed independently. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Your Highness: Vertical Positions as Perceptual Symbols of Power.

Metaphorically, power equals up. Drawing on embodied theories of cognition, the author argues that thinking about power involves mental simulation of space and can be interfered with by perception of vertical differences. Study 1 assessed image schemas for power and found a shared vertical difference metaphor. Studies 2, 3, and 4 showed that the judgment of a group's power is influenced by the group's vertical position in space and motor responses implying vertical movement. Study 5 ruled out that the influence of vertical position on power judgments is driven by valence differences. Study 6 showed that vertical position also influences the power judgment result itself. The evidence suggests that the concept of power is partly represented in perceptual form as vertical difference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)