Immediate and long-term recognition and generalization of advertised products as a function of age and presentation mode.

Examined 30 preschoolers' (aged 3–5 yrs), 30 kindergartners', and 30 2nd graders' immediate and long-term recognition memory for advertised products following an audio, video, or audiovisual presentation of commercials. A 3?×?3 factorial design was employed, with presentation mode (visual only, auditory only, and combined auditory and visual) and age of S as the factors. Ss recognized advertised products more often following exposure to visual or audiovisual commercial presentations than to auditory presentations. Age differences were detected for immediate and long-term product recognition. An errors analysis revealed that Ss of all 3 ages reported being exposed to nonadvertised foods that were members of the same class as the advertised products more frequently than would have been expected by chance. Findings are discussed in terms of the generalized effects of children's TV advertising. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in representation of body image as a function of menarcheal status.

Investigated the significance of menarche for girls' body image and sexual identification by assessing human figure drawings produced by 87 adolescent girls on 2 occasions, 6 mo apart. Three groups of Ss were studied: girls who were premenarcheal on both test occasions, girls who were postmenarcheal on both test occasions, and girls who changed menarcheal status between the 2 test administrations. Parallel results were obtained from both longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons of pre- vs postmenarcheal girls. Postmenarcheal girls produced more sexually differentiated human figure drawings and more frequently drew their own sex first when asked to draw a person. Postmenarcheal, as compared to premenarcheal, girls indicated greater satisfaction with "female" body parts on a modified body-cathexis scale. These data confirm clinical speculations that menarche is a pivotal event for reorganization of the adolescent girl's body image and sexual identity. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recognition of expressive patterns as a function of their mode of production.

The question of whether complex motor behavior, such as handwriting, is a function primarily of built-in neuromuscular patterns or of an imagined design was studied by testing whether judges (15 male and 15 female) were able to correctly match samples of normal writing with variant samples produced by the same persons; the latter consisted of "writing" by means of the foot, mouth, chest, and nondominant hand. Some variants (foot and nondominant hand) were matched at well above the chance level and others were not, suggesting that a motor pattern may be a function of one's imagined design but only if expressed through effective neuromuscular mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Face recognition as a task environment for the reference neuron model of memory

The structure of the reference neuron model and various fine tuning issues were explored within the domain of face recognition. Several faces were presented for the system to learn. Modified versions of one of the faces were then presented, and the system was asked to identify the faces. Increasing amounts of noise were added to the faces and the system's responses were noted. The system proved very capable of accurately identifying modified faces, even rivaling the ability of the human eye. Many interesting tuning and implementation issues were resolved. The system performed best with minimal numbers of neurons involved in the detection process. Another surprising result is that performance achieved was independent of the choice of features to which the neurons responded.     

Speed of form recognition as a function of stimulus factors and test anxiety.

This study evaluated the usefulness of several theories about Rorschach color shock. Using an arabic-greco-latin square design, the influence of color, pattern of color, figure, and anxiety level on response time was investigated in 192 Ss. "The influence on response time of stimulus attributes affecting complexity was confirmed. The hypotheses that highly anxious persons are greatly affected by colors are not confirmed. Partially verified were predictions made from Hullian behavior theory. It was found that drive level and figure difficulty were related to response time in that highly anxious persons became slower with increasing difficulty of figure during warm-up trials. During the test series, however, the predicted relationship was not found." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Check-reading accuracy as a function of pointer alignment, patterning, and viewing angle.

Prior studies have shown that detecting a single deviant dial in a 4 X 4 matrix can be markedly improved by aligning the null position of the pointers. In this study, efficiency in a similar task was rendered 85% more efficient by continuing the line formed by the pointers across the entire panel face. The deviant dial then appeared as a break in a line, a finding consonant with the Gestalt principle of figural continuity. No significant difference was found between the 9 and 12 o'clock orientations for null pointers, nor did any significant difference emerge when displays were presented to the front and the sides of Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rater accuracy as a generalized ability.

To see if those people who can most accurately estimate their peers' performance on an objective criterion are also those who can most accurately rate their peers on carefulness, 236 basic airmen estimated the scores their peers made on a vocabulary test. Then they rated their peers on carefulness, and all Ss took 5 carefulness tests. All 5 of the carefulness tests correlated higher with the ratings assigned by airmen who most accurately estimated their peers' vocabulary scores than they did with ratings assigned by the airmen who least accurately estimated their peers' vocabulary scores. These results were interpreted as a demonstration of the generalizability of rating accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speed and accuracy of scale reading as a function of the number of reference markers.

The speed and accuracy of determining target position on a polar coordinate display as a function of the number of scale rings were investigated for displays ranging in diameter from 5 to 11 inches, with 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, or 40 scale rings. "Error of interpolation (in percentage of the total range of the display) decreased as a function of the number of scale rings used. The frequency of gross errors (misidentification of scale rings) and the time required to make readings increased as a function of the number of scale rings. Increasing display size improved interpolation accuracy slightly and decreased the frequency of gross errors markedly. Constant errors of interpolation were found to be a function of the position of the target between scale rings and also a function of the number of scale rings used." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victimization as a determinant of eyewitness accuracy.

Eyewitness identification research frequently uses a simulated crime paradigm, yet the witnesses in these studies are seldom themselves the victims of the crime. To the degree a witness is more personally involved (as a victim), eyewitness identification accuracy and confidence might be modified. 66 undergraduates were randomly assigned to 3 eyewitness conditions: no-theft control, impersonal calculator theft, or personalized watch theft. Whereas the victims in the watch-theft condition were more accurate than Ss in the other 2 treatments, they were not significantly more accurate than witnesses to the less personal calculator theft. Eyewitnesses' accuracy was unrelated to their confidence in their identification. (12 ref) (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)     

The nature of phoneme representation in spoken word recognition.

Four experiments used the psychological refractory period logic to examine whether integration of multiple sources of phonemic information has a decisional locus. All experiments made use of a dual-task paradigm in which participants made forced-choice color categorization (Task 1) and phoneme categorization (Task 2) decisions at varying stimulus onset asynchronies. In Experiment 1, Task 2 difficulty was manipulated using words containing matching or mismatching coarticulatory cues to the final consonant. The results showed that difficulty and onset asynchrony combined in an underadditive way, suggesting that the phonemic mismatch was resolved prior to a central decisional bottleneck. Similar results were found in Experiment 2 using nonwords. In Experiment 3, the manipulation of task difficulty involved lexical status, which once again revealed an underadditive pattern of response times. Finally, Experiment 4 compared this prebottleneck variable with a decisional variable: response key bias. The latter showed an additive pattern of responses. The experiments show that resolution of phonemic ambiguity can take advantage of cognitive slack time at short asynchronies, indicating that phonemic integration takes place at a relatively early stage of spoken word recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical outcome of hepatitis C as a function of mode of transmission

Several reports suggest that posttransfusion hepatitis C causes more aggressive histological activity than disease that is acquired via other routes. We sought to determine whether mode of transmission affects disease outcome. We studied the demographics, presenting laboratory data, and clinical course of 627 consecutively evaluated nonalcoholic patients with chronic hepatitis C. Two hundred eighty-two patients (45%) were transfusion recipients, 262 (42%) acquired the disease via other routes of percutaneous exposure, and 83 (13%) were without risks. Liver histology was available in 463 patients (215 transfusion recipients, 195 non-transfusion recipients, and 53 who were were without risks) and showed noncirrhosis in 274 (59%), cirrhosis in 173 (37%), and hepatocellular carcinoma in 16 patients (4%) who also had underlying cirrhosis. Duration of follow-up was 1 to 25 years (mean, 48 months; median, 21 years). One hundred eighteen of 173 (68%) cirrhotic patients were transfusion recipients; 40 of 173 (23%) cirrhotic patients acquired infection via other percutaneous exposure, and the remainder were without known risk factors (P < .001). Among the 215 patients with blood transfusions for whom histology was available, 118 of 215 (55%) had cirrhosis and 89 of 215 (41%) were noncirrhotic (P < .001); 8 transfused patients (4%) had hepatocellular carcinoma. In the percutaneous group, 40 of 195 (21%) of the patients were cirrhotic versus 153 of 195 (78%) who were noncirrhotic (P < .001); 2 patients (1%) had hepatocellular carcinoma. During the follow-up period, 59 of 189 (31%) of the cirrhotic patients (including those 16 individuals with hepatocellular carcinoma) developed hepatic decompensation. By univariate analysis, the risk of liver failure was related to age at viral acquisition, but by logistic regression analysis, only mode of transmission, and not age or estimated disease duration, predicted risk of liver failure. Patients with posttransfusion hepatitis C were more likely to develop decompensation than individuals who were not transfusion recipients (relative risk, 3.921; CI = 2.205 to 7.015). Serum albumin, prothrombin time, and platelet count at presentation were independent laboratory predictors of subsequent hepatic decompensation. The rate of hepatocellular carcinoma development among all cirrhotic patients during the follow-up period was 1.2% per year. Patients with posttransfusion hepatitis C are at greater risk of cirrhotic decompensation than those individuals with non-transfusion-acquired disease. The risk of liver failure is more closely related to the mode of transmission than to age at viral acquisition or to the duration of infection.     

Gastrointestinal problems as a function of carbohydrate supplements and mode of exercise

The aim of the study was to examine prevalence and duration/seriousness of gastrointestinal (GI) problems as a function of carbohydrate-rich (CHO) supplements and mode of exercise. The relationship between GI problems and a variety of physiological and personal factors (age, exercise experience) was also examined. Thirty-two male tri-athletes performed three experimental trials at 1-wk intervals, each trial on a different supplement: a conventional, semisolid supplement (S; 1.2 g CHO, 0.1 g protein, and 0.02 g fat.kg BW-1 x h-1); an almost isocaloric fluid supplement (F; 1.3 g CHO.kg BW-1 x h-1, no fat, no protein); and a fluid placebo (P). The 3 h of exercise started at 75% VO2max and consisted of alternately cycling (bouts 1 and 3) and running (bouts 2 and 4). GI symptoms were monitored by a questionnaire. Analysis of variance revealed that nausea lasted longer with P as compared with S (P < 0.05). Bloating lasted longer during bout 3 with P as compared with F and S (P < 0.05). Accounting for confounding factors, most GI symptoms occurred more frequently and lasted longer during running than during cycling. Multiple regression analysis revealed significant relationships between nausea and urge to defecate, between an urge to defecate, GI cramps and flatulence, and between belching and side ache. From all other factors energy depletion, CHO malabsorption, exercise intensity, exercise experience, and age were significantly related to GI symptoms during the exercise.     

Associative strength as a mode of organization in recall and recognition: A comparison of schizophrenics and normals.

In 2 experiments, word pairs of high and low intrapair association were presented to a total of 40 schizophrenic and 40 normal adults. In Exp I, 1 member of each pair in both recall and recognition tasks was also displayed as a cue at the time of response. The number of words correctly recalled and recognized by both schizophrenics and normals was markedly greater for high-association lists. On high-association lists, schizophrenic performance was inferior to that of normals. The same lists were used in Exp II, which required the recognition of both words in each pair. Normal recognition was superior only for high-association lists. Results are interpreted as supporting the view that because schizophrenics did not subjectively organize or encode information when presented, subsequent retrieval was deficient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond compliance and acceptance: Influence outcomes as a function of norm plausibility and processing mode.

A model that can account for influence outcomes beyond the compliance–acceptance dichotomy and that illuminates important conceptual ties between individual and group influence is proposed and tested. In a problem-solving setting, participants who were able to systematically process information complied with implausible majority responses and accepted plausible majority responses. Acceptance generalized to related items and persisted over time. Participants who were unable to systematically process information accepted majority responses, although acceptance neither generalized to related items nor exhibited other characteristics of effortful processing, The latter form of acceptance emerged regardless of norm plausibility, revealing an unanticipated influence outcome, blind acceptance. Discussion centers on implications toward an integrated model of individual–group influence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consonant recognition for spectrally degraded speech as a function of consonant-vowel intensity ratio

Normal-hearing subjects' recognition of spectrally degraded speech was evaluated under conditions in which the consonant-vowel (C-V) intensity ratio was modified. Subjects identified 22 consonants presented in an /a-Consonant-a/ format at suprathreshold and near threshold conditions. Prior to C-V ratio modification, the stimuli were processed to limit spectral information. In the suprathreshold experiment, stimuli were presented at the natural C-V ratio and at six modified C-V ratios. C-V ratio manipulations had dramatic effects on recognition scores for some groups of consonants. Scores for glides and sibilant fricatives increased with increasing C-V ratio, while scores for nasals and weak fricatives were best at low C-V ratios. Recognition scores for the stops and affricates were generally independent of C-V ratio. For nearly all consonants, changes in recognition scores as a function of C-V ratio were associated with changes in a general response bias toward those sounds. Performance was poor when the spectrally smeared VCVs were presented at low SN ratios in a second experiment. The influence of C-V ratio on percent correct scores was generally similar to the suprathreshold results, but consonant audibility, which was not a factor in the suprathreshold experiment, appeared to alter the effect of C-V ratio modification for some consonants.     

Repetition versus luminance as a determinant of recognition.

Studied the effect of repeated brief exposures of single-letter stimuli on 4 normal hearing adults to determine whether the number of repetitions of a stimulus may be varied inversely with its luminance to produce a constant level of recognition performance. This postulated reciprocity relationship was refuted: performance always declined when the luminance was reduced (even though the number of repetitions increased). However, the deviation from reciprocity was small for stimuli at or above threshold luminance, and the facilitatory effect of repetition upon recognition was clearly shown for all luminance levels employed. Implications of the findings for models of visual information processing are discussed. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental representation of three-dimensional objects in visual problem solving and recognition.

Ss inspected sets of flat, separated orthographic projections of surfaces of potential 3-dimensional objects. After solving problems based on these orthographic views, Ss discriminated between isometric views of the same objects and drawings of distractor structures. Recognition of the isometrics, which had never been shown during the problem-solving phase of the experiment, was excellent. In addition, recognition of isometrics corresponding to problems that had been solved correctly when presented in orthographic form was significantly superior to recognition of isometrics based on problems solved incorrectly. In Exp 2, conditions were included in which either orthographic or isometric views functioned as problem solving or recognition displays. Only in the case of orthographic problem solving followed by isometric recognition (Exp 1) was the superiority of recognition for correctly solved problems over incorrectly solved problems obtained. The pattern of results suggests that viewers construct mental representations embodying structural information about integrated, 3-dimensional objects when asked to reason about flat, disconnected projections. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Displacement as a function of conflict.

"Miller's theory of displacement was extended by integration with his conflict theory into a three-dimensional model… . To test deductions from this model rats were first trained to get food at one end of an alley and then shocked while eating until they no longer approached the food cup. They then left this alley and entered other alleys differing slightly from the original alley. Here they went closer to the food end than in the original alley. Tracings of their movements followed a pattern predicted from the model… . After making goal responses in the generalized alleys, the rats returned to eat in the original alley, showing a 'therapeutic' effect." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)