The one that does, leads: Action relations influence the perceived temporal order of graspable objects.

Perception and action are influenced by the “possibilities for action” in the environment. Neuropsychological studies (e.g., Riddoch, Humphreys, Edwards, Baker, & Willson, 2003) have demonstrated that objects that are perceived to be interacting (e.g., a corkscrew going toward the top of a wine bottle) are perceptually integrated into a functional unit, facilitating report of both objects. In addition, patients with parietal damage tend to report the “active” item of the pair (the corkscrew in the above example) when the objects are positioned for action, overriding their spatial bias toward the ipsilesional side. Using a temporal order judgment task we show for the first time that normal viewers judge that active objects appear earlier when they are positioned correctly for action. This effect is not dependent on a learned relationship between objects, or on the active object being integrated at a perceptual level with the object it is paired with. The data suggest that actions afforded by a correctly positioned active object permeate normal perceptual judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus dynamics and temporal discrimination: Implications for pacemakers.

The purpose of the present study was to observe the functional relationship between stimulus dynamics and stimulus duration judgments in humans. Stimulus duration was defined as the length of time that a spinning sphere appeared on a computer screen. Stimulus dynamics were defined by how quickly the sphere rotated on its y-axis. Using a logarithmic scale, a psychophysical bisection task was used to divide stimulus durations into two categories, short and long. Across three experiments, participants’ duration judgments were longer the faster the sphere was rotated. This effect was observed over both a long and short temporal scale and over a wide range of stimulus dynamics despite the fact that the reinforcement contingencies penalized participants for this effect. The results are discussed in terms of perceived change as the possible basis of temporal duration estimation. This hypothesis was investigated through applications of the leading quantitative models of temporal discrimination to the present data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus pooling and social perception.

"The effects of stimulus pooling on judgments of personal attractiveness were investigated in an orthogonal factorial design, using as stimulus components identification type photographs which had been previously scaled on attractiveness… . The implications of the findings for (a) social perception… and (b) group judgment were considered." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Process demands of rejection mechanisms of recognition memory.

A surge of research has been conducted to examine memory editing mechanisms that help distinguish accurate from inaccurate memories. In the present experiment, the authors examined the ability of participants to use novelty detection, recollection rejection, and plausibility judgments to reject lures presented on a recognition memory test. Participants studied a list of word pairs that were arranged in a category relationship (both words from the same category) or an unrelated relationship (both words from different categories) under full or divided attention. At test, participants were given a yes/no recognition test in which they were to respond after seeing the test items for 400 ms or 2,800 ms. Some of the test items were rearranged word pairs that were consistent with the study relationship, whereas others were inconsistent with the study relationship. The results demonstrate that the participants required full attention at study to use novelty detection, recollection rejection, and plausibility judgments to reject lures. Moreover, the results indicate that a long response deadline at test was needed for participants to use both recollection rejection and plausibility judgments to reject lures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of Afrocentric features in person perception: Judging by features and categories.

Four studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that group-related physical features may directly activate related stereotypes, leading to more stereotypic inferences over and above those resulting from categorization. As predicted, targets with more Afrocentric features were judged as more likely to have traits stereotypic of African Americans. This effect was found with judgments of African Americans and of European Americans. Furthermore, the effect was not eliminated when a more sensitive measure of categorization processes (category accessibility) was used or when the judgement context made category distinctions salient. Of additional interest was the finding that category accessibility independently affected judgment, such that targets who could be more quickly categorized as group members were judged more stereotypically. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A constant error approach to the study of dimensions of social perception.

"A method was described for use in the study of dimensions of social perception which consisted of the factor analysis of intercorrelations between trait judgments of photographs where each judgment was made of a different stimulus." 4 factors were isolated, and the findings were related to other research on social perception and personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial grouping resolves ambiguity to drive temporal recalibration.

Cross-modal temporal recalibration describes a shift in the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS) between 2 events following repeated exposure to asynchronous cross-modal inputs—the adaptors. Previous research suggested that audiovisual recalibration is insensitive to the spatial relationship between the adaptors. Here we show that audiovisual recalibration can be driven by cross-modal spatial grouping. Twelve participants adapted to alternating trains of lights and tones. Spatial position was manipulated, with alternating sequences of a light then a tone, or a tone then a light, presented on either side of fixation (e.g., left tone—left light—right tone—right light, etc.). As the events were evenly spaced in time, in the absence of spatial-based grouping it would be unclear if tones were leading or lagging lights. However, any grouping of spatially colocalized cross-modal events would result in an unambiguous sense of temporal order. We found that adapting to these stimuli caused the PSS between subsequent lights and tones to shift toward the temporal relationship implied by spatial-based grouping. These data therefore show that temporal recalibration is facilitated by spatial grouping. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender Differences in Judgments of Multiple Emotions From Facial Expressions.

The authors tested gender differences in emotion judgments by utilizing a new judgment task (Studies 1 and 2) and presenting stimuli at the edge of conscious awareness (Study 2). Women were more accurate than men even under conditions of minimal stimulus information. Women's ratings were more variable across scales, and they rated correct target emotions higher than did men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Judgments of synchrony between auditory and moving or still visual stimuli.

The flash-lag effect is a visual illusion wherein intermittently flashed, stationary stimuli seem to trail after a moving visual stimulus despite being flashed synchronously. We tested hypotheses that the flash-lag effect is due to spatial extrapolation, shortened perceptual lags, or accelerated acquisition of moving stimuli, all of which call for an earlier awareness of moving visual stimuli over stationary ones. Participants judged synchrony of a click either to a stationary flash of light or to a series of adjacent flashes that seemingly bounced off or bumped into the edge of the visual display. To be judged synchronous with a stationary flash, audio clicks had to be presented earlier--not later--than clicks that went with events, like a simulated bounce (Experiment 1) or crash (Experiments 2-4), of a moving visual target. Click synchrony to the initial appearance of a moving stimulus was no different than to a flash, but clicks had to be delayed by 30-40 ms to seem synchronous with the final (crash) positions (Experiment 2). The temporal difference was constant over a wide range of motion velocity (Experiment 3). Interrupting the apparent motion by omitting two illumination positions before the last one did not alter subjective synchrony, nor did their occlusion, so the shift in subjective synchrony seems not to be due to brightness contrast (Experiment 4). Click synchrony to the offset of a long duration stationary illumination was also delayed relative to its onset (Experiment 5). Visual stimuli in motion enter awareness no sooner than do stationary flashes, so motion extrapolation, latency difference, and motion acceleration cannot explain the flash-lag effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Same"–"different" judgments: A review of current controversies in perceptual comparisons.

Reviews the literature on 2 anomalous effects, the "fast-same" effect (FSE) and the criterion effect, found in the interpretation of same–different reaction-time data. No 2 models localize the FSE in the same information-processing stage or attribute the phenomenon to a common stimulus property or task demand. It is suggested that each of the models, or some combination of them, may account for particular instances of the FSE. Findings show that disjunctive same–different judgments differ from conjunctive judgments in both quantitative and qualitative respects. The criterion effect rules out models in which a dimensional comparison process underlies conjunctive different judgments, for such models have no provision for making disjunctive judgments contingent on a different process. It has been suggested that feature matching might be amenable to criterion-contingent processing modes, forming the basis of a unified model of same–different judgments. Another approach takes the view that the conjunctive same response is an absolute, rather than relative, judgment, giving rise to an attentional model. (4? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Univariate and default standard unit biases in estimation of body weight and caloric content.

College students estimated the weight of adult women from either photographs or a live presentation by a set of models and estimated the calories in 1 of 2 actual meals. The 2 meals had the same items, but 1 had larger portion sizes than the other. The results suggest: (a) Judgments are biased toward transforming the example in question to the size and/or properties of a “standard” unit. For estimates of body weight, students assigned weights assuming a standard height, even though height information was provided in the photographs or directly present with live models. (b) There is an inclination to focus on 1 aspect or dimension of the stimulus (e.g., for female figures, their width, for meals the identity of the components as opposed to their size) and either devalue or completely ignore another parameter critical for accurate judgment (height, for the case of body weight estimations). That is, students defaulted to a normative unit size and thus treated the stimulus as a representative, categorical, and unvarying example, and focused on only 1 dimension (univariate bias) in making judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing architectures of the decision–confidence relation.

Two experiments examined the effect of rendering confidence judgments on the properties of the comparative decision process. In Exp 1, participants worked for 12 sessions that required 2-alternative perceptual, line-length comparisons. For sessions 1–4 and sessions 9–12, confidence judgments were not required. For sessions 5–8, participants provided confidence reports following each comparative judgment. The requirement of confidence judgments significantly increased decisional response time, suggesting that some confidence processing occurs in parallel with the primary decision process. Concomitantly, an examination of the properties of the time to determine confidence during sessions 5–8 revealed clear evidence of postdecisional confidence processing. These results were replicated in a 2nd experiment requiring 2 alternative comparative judgments of Canadian city populations. The authors conclude that confidence processing occurs both during the decision process and postdecisionally, and discuss the implications of the present findings for current theories of confidence in human judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Judgments of emotional intensity in self and others: The effects of stimulus context, sex, and expressivity.

Examined 48 undergraduates' emotional reactions to evocative visual stimuli and their judgments of the reactions of others to these stimuli. Ss reported the intensity of their own reactions and then judged the category and intensity of the others' photographed facial expressions. Intensity of the stimulus (weak/strong) and of the others' facial expressions (low/high) were factorially combined in a 2?×?2 within-Ss design while the emotion category was held constant. Expressivity was objectively rated during both self and other judgment. Results reveal sex differences in expressive responses to the stimuli: Females were more modulated than males in their expressive behavior. Level of nonverbal expressivity (low/high) was found to be independent of sex. In addition, stimulus intensity systematically affected ratings of the other person. Judgments of intensity were lowest when a strong stimulus preceded a low-intensity facial expression (contrast effect) and highest when a strong stimulus preceded a high-intensity facial expression (assimilation effect). Sex and expressivity interacted to affect judgments of others, underscoring the independence of the 2 factors. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consistency in response to group pressures.

The studies to be described take as their point of departure the investigations of Asch on modification of judgments under group pressure in face-to-face situations. Asch has reported that naive subjects (Ss) yielded approximately one-third of the time to the erroneous judgments of a tutored majority in matching the length of comparison lines with a standard line. The Ss who yielded early in the line series tended to continue to yield throughout, while Ss who were independent of the announced judgments of the tutored majority, tended to continue independent throughout. The purpose of the present studies is to answer the question: Are the consistencies in yielding or not yielding specific to the situation studied, i.e., judgment of lines, or do they extend beyond it? Is such consistency episodic or situationally determined, or is it a consequence of relatively settled modes of orientation? 88 student nurses were observed in each of several Asch-type situations, in each of which they had to make a choice between being independent or conforming to the judgments of three accomplices who were tutored by the experimenter to make erroneous judgments. Results showed that when comparisons are possible, present findings confirm those of Asch. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rorschach correlates of response to suggestion.

"The purpose of the present study was to discover Rorschach measures associated with change of autokinetic judgments under the influence of planted judgment given by a confederate, and to generalize about personality correlates of response to suggestion." Change of judgment was found to relate highly to the eleven Rorschach measures chosen. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived supervisor support: Contributions to perceived organizational support and employee retention.

Three studies investigated the relationships among employees' perception of supervisor support (PSS), perceived organizational support (POS), and employee turnover. Study 1 found, with 314 employees drawn from a variety of organizations, that PSS was positively related to temporal change in POS, suggesting that PSS leads to POS. Study 2 established, with 300 retail sales employees, that the PSS-POS relationship increased with perceived supervisor status in the organization. Study 3 found, with 493 retail sales employees, evidence consistent with the view that POS completely mediated a negative relationship between PSS and employee turnover. These studies suggest that supervisors, to the extent that they are identified with the organization, contribute to POS and, ultimately, to job retention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confidence-Accuracy Calibration in Absolute and Relative Face Recognition Judgments.

Confidence-accuracy (CA) calibration was examined for absolute and relative face recognition judgments as well as for recognition judgments from groups of stimuli presented simultaneously or sequentially (i.e., simultaneous or sequential mini-lineups). When the effect of difficulty was controlled, absolute and relative judgments produced negligibly different CA calibration, whereas no significant difference was observed for simultaneous and sequential mini-lineups. Further, the effect of difficulty on CA calibration was equivalent across judgment and mini-lineup types. It is interesting to note that positive (i.e., old) recognition judgments demonstrated strong CA calibration whereas negative (i.e., new) judgments evidenced little or no CA association. Implications for eyewitness identification are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two-month-old infants' sensitivity to changes in arbitrary syllable–object pairings: The role of temporal synchrony.

To explore early lexical development, the authors examined infants' sensitivity to changes in spoken syllables and objects given different temporal relations between syllable–object pairings. In Experiment 1, they habituated 2-month-olds to 1 syllable, /tah/ or /gah/, paired with an object in synchronous (utterances coincident with object motions, N = 16) or asynchronous (utterances erratic relative to object motions, N = 16) conditions. In the asynchronous condition, the audio track preceded or succeeded the visual track by 1,200 ms. On test, infants in the synchronous condition alone detected the changes. Post hoc computational analyses confirmed lower time separation, interpreted as greater synchrony, between peaks and onsets–offsets of visual motion and audio energy in the synchronous relative to the asynchronous condition. Further examining lexical development, in Experiment 2 they habituated 2-month-olds (N = 16) to two synchronous syllable–object pairs and tested them on switch versus same pairings. Infants failed to detect the switch in the pairings. These results suggest that 2-month-olds use synchrony to detect changes in one novel syllable–object pairing at a time, providing a basis for further word mapping development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)