How does feature-based attention affect visual processing?

Five experiments are reported from which it is concluded that attending on the basis of a stimulus feature (e.g., red) does not directly affect the sensory quality of stimuli that possess that feature. Feature-based attention was manipulated in a visual search task by providing information about the probability that the target would possess a given feature (e.g., "The target has a 1.0 probability of being red when present.") Feature-based attention failed to aid performance under "data-limited" conditions (i.e., those under which performance was primarily affected by the quality of the stimulus) but did affect performance under conditions that were not data limited (Experiments 1-3). If attending to a feature had affected the sensory quality of stimuli, performance should have been aided under all conditions. Experiments 4 and 5 provided converging support for this conclusion.     

Differences in preschool children's conceptual strategies when thinking about animate entities and artifacts.

Two-, 3-, and 4-year-old children viewed 10 stimulus sets. Each set contained a sample picture (e.g., a dog), a basic-level taxonomic match (e.g., another dog), a thematic match (e.g., a bone), and an irrelevant match (e.g., a pen). The children were asked to choose a match that "goes with" each sample. Sample pictures were either animate entities or artifacts. The children's choice behavior indicated that a shift occurs between 3 and 4 years of age from a taxonomic bias to a thematic bias and that, at both ages, animate sample stimuli enhance the children's tendency to adopt thematic conceptual strategies. These data are consistent with recent suggestions that thematic thinking presupposes basic-level taxonomic thinking during early conceptual development and that this developmental progression occurs more rapidly in some domains of knowledge than in others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discrimination and memory for symmetry in young children.

Conducted 3 experiments to assess the development of symmetry perception in children between the ages of 4 and 6 yrs. Exp I employed a learning task in which 72 Ss were asked at different times to discriminate vertically symmetrical, obliquely symmetrical, and horizontally symmetrical holistic patterns from asymmetrical ones. Results reveal a developmental progression: 4-yr-olds discriminated only vertical; 5-yr-olds, vertical and horizontal; and 6-yr-olds, vertical, horizontal, and oblique. Exp II retested the 18 6-yr-olds with fragmented patterns of the different symmetries; these Ss regressed to the performance level of 4-yr-olds and only discriminated vertical. Exp III, conducted with 18 Ss, used a memory-production task with new vertical, oblique, horizontal, and asymmetrical patterns constructed to 4, 5, or 6 elements. Measures of the goodness and accuracy of Ss' reproductions were consistent with data from the discrimination-learning experiments in terms of age, stimulus orientation, and stimulus complexity. These studies support the view that vertical symmetry is special perceptually and developmentally and that, after vertical, horizontal predominates, followed by oblique. The role of symmetry in early perceptual development and the value of child–adult perceptual comparisons are discussed. (55 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intrusion of schizophrenics' idiosyncratic associations into their conceptual performance.

Instructed 19 schizophrenic and 7 nonschizophrenic inpatients to give 10 associations which were "names of things" to each of 3 stimulus words which were category names (e.g., fruit). After approximately 2 wk. without medications, Ss performed a concept identification task which involved signaling whether or not names of specific items belonged to a given category. Names to be identified included instances of the category (e.g., apple), similar things (e.g., carrot), and dissimilar things (e.g., football). Also included were idiosyncratic associations given by S to the category word and idiosyncratic associations given by a different S. Schizophrenics produced significantly more idiosyncratic associations than nonschizophrenics on the initial association test. On the conceptual task, schizophrenics significantly more often identified their own idiosyncratic associations to the category names as instances of the category than they did for idiosyncratic associations from another patient. It is suggested that at least some idiosyncratic intrusions in the conceptual performance of schizophrenics consist of preexisting associations, as predicted by response interference theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effet différentiel du vieillissement sur les processus impliqués dans la génération d'images mentales.

The purpose of this study was to measure the degree to which the deterioration of mental image generation processes observed in elderly subjects by Dror and Kosslyn (1994) depends on the nature of the processing (referential vs. representational) involved in performing the task at hand. In keeping with the results of research showing that processing resources diminish as normal aging occurs (Craik & Bird, 1982; Rabinowitz, Craik & Ackerman, 1982), we suggest that generation ability based on referential processing is affected to a greater extent in older adults than is the generation ability involving representational processing. Fifteen young adults and 15 elderly persons performed a generation task modeled on that used by Dror and Kosslyn (1994). Observations were based on two contrasting conditions. In the first instance, subjects were required to generate an image representation of numbers when instructed to do so by a graphic stimulus, e.g., "31" (representational generation). In the second case, generation was produced on the basis of a verbal stimulus, e.g., "thirteen" (referential generation)... (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A psychophysiological study of the use of partial information in stimulus-response translation.

Ss performed a hybrid go/no-go reaction task in which colored letters were assigned in various ways to 4 finger responses, 2 on each hand. In addition to reaction time (RT), psychophysiological measures were used to assess the duration of stimulation and the onset of central and peripheral motor activity. The results suggest that response selection can begin on the basis of 1 stimulus dimension (e.g., color), while the other dimension (e.g., letter form) has not yet been identified. Other results are discussed with regard to "selection for action" (D. A. Allport, 1987) and the importance of stimulus–response translation strategies in the use of partial information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Challenging the notion of a thematic preference in young children.

Many researchers have argued that early cognitive development is characterized by a conceptual preference for thematic over taxonomic relations. However, more recent research indicates that infants and toddlers may not favor thematic relations. To resolve this discrepancy, the conceptual preferences of children ranging from 2 to 4 years of age were examined, using a forced-choice task including a target (e.g., a carrot), a thematic alternative (e.g., a rabbit), and a taxonomic alternative (e.g., a tomato). The effects of age, experimenter's instructions, hierarchical level (basic vs. superordinate), and stimulus medium (pictures vs. objects) were examined systematically. Children revealed no pervasive preference for either thematic or taxonomic relations. This challenges the notion of a developmental shift in conceptual preferences and suggests a more continuous trajectory in early conceptual development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Nature of priming effects in semantic matching": Correction to Whitlow.

Reports an error in "Nature of priming effects in semantic matching" by J. W. Whitlow (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1986[Jul], Vol 12[3], 353-360). The Appendix table was constructed incorrectly. The correct table appears in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1986-29114-001.) Studied priming effects in a semantic matching task that distinguished visually based matching processes from nominally and semantically based matching processes, using 24 undergraduates. Ss judged semantic matches for 3 types of word pairs: identical (e.g., robin-robin), same category (e.g., robin-sparrow), and different category (e.g., robin-truck). Visual matching was isolated by comparing performance between physical identity (e.g., robin-robin) and nominal identity (e.g., robin-ROBIN) pairs. Physical identity pairs, which allowed visually based matching, exhibited an interaction between priming and the typicality of category exemplars that was absent in nominal identity and same-category pairs. Priming had no effect on nominal identity pairs. For same-category pairs, which required semantically based matching, priming produced facilitation at all levels of typicality. The results bring the semantic matching paradigm into agreement with other procedures that show that priming facilitates processing for all related targets. Categories and exemplars used as stimulus materials are appended. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A psychophysiological investigation of the selection and the use of partial stimulus information in response choice.

Two alternative explanations were examined for why selective response activation sometimes starts before stimulus identification is complete (e.g., J. O. Miller & S. A. Hackley, 1992) and sometimes starts only after stimulus identification is complete (e.g., R. De Jong, M. Wierda, G. Mulder, & L. J. M. Mulder, 1988). Distinct psychophysiological methods related to stimulus identification and response selection provided evidence suggesting that partial stimulus information is identified but is or is not used before the stimulus is identified more fully, depending on task requirements. This result (a) suggests strategic adaptation of task performance, (b) is inconsistent with particular discrete and continuous models of information processing, and (c) shows the existence of a central selection mechanism that can prevent the automatic activation of responses associated with preliminary available stimulus information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Crossmodal semantic priming by naturalistic sounds and spoken words enhances visual sensitivity.

We propose a multisensory framework based on Glaser and Glaser's (1989) general reading-naming interference model to account for the semantic priming effect by naturalistic sounds and spoken words on visual picture sensitivity. Four experiments were designed to investigate two key issues: First, can auditory stimuli enhance visual sensitivity when the sound leads the picture as well as when they are presented simultaneously? And, second, do naturalistic sounds (e.g., a dog's “woofing”) and spoken words (e.g., /d?g/) elicit similar semantic priming effects? Here, we estimated participants' sensitivity and response criterion using signal detection theory in a picture detection task. The results demonstrate that naturalistic sounds enhanced visual sensitivity when the onset of the sounds led that of the picture by 346 ms (but not when the sounds led the pictures by 173 ms, nor when they were presented simultaneously, Experiments 1-3A). At the same SOA, however, spoken words did not induce semantic priming effects on visual detection sensitivity (Experiments 3B and 4A). When using a dual picture detection/identification task, both kinds of auditory stimulus induced a similar semantic priming effect (Experiment 4B). Therefore, we suggest that there needs to be sufficient processing time for the auditory stimulus to access its associated meaning to modulate visual perception. Besides, the interactions between pictures and the two types of sounds depend not only on their processing route to access semantic representations, but also on the response to be made to fulfill the requirements of the task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does irrelevant stimulus location affect response selection?

Reaction time (RT) is shorter when the irrelevant location of the stimulus corresponds to the relevant location of the response: When a subject is to perform a left or right keypress according to the colour of a stimulus delivered either to the left or to the right of a fixation, RT is typically shorter when the location of the stimulus corresponds to the location of the response (e.g., left stimulus/left response) than when it does not (e.g., left stimulus/right response). Umiltà and Nicoletti (1990) have suggested that this effect, known as the ?Simon effect' in the literature, occurred at the response selection stage, a stage whose duration depends on the effectors used to perform the task. In the present study, this effect and that of the finger response repertoire (within- versus between-hand composition) were found to be additive, which does not support the response selection hypothesis of the Simon effect.     

Static and dynamic visual sensitivity in older adults.

Many visual changes accompany the aging process, even in the absence of known visual pathology. One such change which has attracted recent attention is that "normal" older adults, on average, exhibit diminished contrast sensitivity (CS). This loss is not of a general nature, but rather is restricted to intermediate and higher spatial frequencies. Age-related decline in CS has been attributed to both optical (e.g., retinal illuminance, light scatter) and neural factors (e.g., cell loss in higher-order neurons). Three experiments evaluated CS in adults of varying ages. These experiments were intended to 1) establish provisional age norms for the Vistech Contrast Test System, a recently developed method for CS evaluation; 2) assess the convergent and construct validity of the Vistech charts against an optical/neural model of age-related differences in spatial vision; and 3) determine the degree to which these age-deficits in CS were magnified in a dynamic contrast sensitivity (DCS) task where bifoveal fixation requires accurate smooth pursuit. Results demonstrate that the Vistech charts appear to possess good convergent validity with respect to age differences in spatial vision. In addition to declines in spatial vision, older adults are less able to smoothly pursue a moving stimulus. This decline in smooth pursuit accuracy suggested that age differences in CS would be magnified when the elderly were required to discern contrast in a moving stimulus. Two studies have produced results which are consistent with this argument. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sequential effects in number comparison.

The modular framework of number processing (e.g., S. Dehaene & R. Akhavein, 1995) was applied to study sequential trial-to-trial effects in a number comparison task. In Experiment 1, numbers were always presented as digits. Responses were faster when the same number was repeated, but this effect was additive with the numerical distance effect. In Experiment 2, numbers were presented either as digits or as words. The authors found significant effects of repeating (a) the same physical stimulus, (b) the same number but in a different notation, and (c) the same notation but a different number. Again, all 3 effects were additive with the numerical distance effect. The authors' results provide strong evidence against accounts according to which, on stimulus repetition trials, the comparison stage is bypassed (as proposed by S. Dehaene, 1996), and the results clearly favor an early, precomparison locus of repetition effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word identification in reading proceeds from spelling to sound to meaning.

Van Orden (1987) reported that false positive errors in a categorization task are elevated for homophonic foils (e.g., {hare} for {a part of the human body}). Two new experiments replicate this finding and extend it to nonword homophone foils (e.g., {sute} for {an article of clothing}). False positive errors to nonword homophone foils substantially exceed false positive errors to nonhomophonic nonword spelling controls, showing that the phonological characteristics of the nonword foils are critical. Because nonwords are not represented in the lexicon, this new result implicates computed phonological codes as a source of the categorization errors. Additionally, in each of two experiments, matched word and nonword homophones produced virtually identical error rates. If stimulus nonword homophones are viewed as extremely unfamiliar words, compared with the relatively familiar stimulus word homophones, then our failure to observe an effect of stimulus familiarity strengthens the case that phonological coding plays a role in the identification of all printed words. The fact that the results are obtained in a categorization task that requires reading for meaning (rather than a lexical decision task) makes it difficult to avoid the conclusion that phonological mediation plays a role in normal reading of text for meaning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nearest neighbor analysis of psychological spaces.

Investigated diagnostic properties based on nearest neighbor data. It is suggested that geometric models impose an upper bound on the number of points that can share the same nearest neighbor. A much more restrictive bound is implied by the assumption that the data points represent a sample from some continuous distribution in a multidimensional Euclidean space. Analysis of 100 data sets showed that most perceptual data satisfy the geometric-statistical bound, whereas many conceptual data sets exceed it. The most striking discrepancies between the data and their multidimensional representations arise in semantic fields when the stimulus set includes a focal element (e.g., a superordinate category) that is the nearest neighbor of many of its instances. Theoretical and methodological implications of nearest neighbor analysis are discussed, with particular reference to the properties of centrality and reciprocity. (78 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquired equivalence and distinctiveness in matching to sample by pigeons: Mediation by reinforcer-specific expectancies.

Assessed the ability of a reinforcer to mediate an association between 2 stimuli that independently predict the occurrence of that reinforcer (acquired equivalence of cues). In Exp I, 12 male White Carneaux pigeons were trained on shape (plus and circle) and color (red and green) matching-to-sample tasks. Correct responses were systematically reinforced with corn on some trials and wheat on others to establish associations between 1 stimulus from each task and a "common" outcome. Following training, Ss were transferred to a symbolic matching-to-sample task wherein a stimulus from one training task was presented as the sample, and the stimuli from the other training task were presented as comparisons. In the 1st session, experimental Ss made significantly more correct responses than controls (i.e., Ss "matched" stimuli previously associated with a common outcome). Exp II with 18 Ss replicated this acquired equivalence effect and controlled for food preference. Delayed matching-to-sample training demonstrated enhanced memory performance for Ss exposed to different reinforcement contingencies, but this effect was confined to the shape task. Results indicate that a reinforcer can serve as the basis for organizing otherwise unpaired predictive cues in memory and that animals will selectively use differential expectancies as cues for solving complex discrimination tasks, depending on the difficulty of the discrimination. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding metaphorical comparisons: Beyond similarity.

Traditionally, metaphors such as "my job is a jail" have been treated as implicit similes (i.e., this metaphor would be treated as if it were a comparison statement, "my job is like a jail"). A. Tversky's (1977) account of similarity is applied to such nonliteral similarity expressions, and is shown to apply as readily to nonliteral comparisons as to literal comparisons. But treating metaphors as comparison statements fails to account for certain important phenomena, including metaphoricity itself (the judgment that a comparison statement is nonliteral). We argue that metaphors are exactly what they appear to be: class-inclusion assertions, in which the topic of the metaphor (e.g., "my job") is assigned to a diagnostic category (e.g., entities that confine one against one's will, are unpleasant, are difficult to escape from). In such assertions, the metaphor vehicle (e.g., "jail") refers to that category, and at the same time is a prototypical exemplar of that category. This account of metaphor provides a basis for a theory of metaphor comprehension, and also clarifies why people use metaphors instead of similes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The speed of feature-based attention: Attentional advantage is slow, but selection is fast.

When paying attention to a feature (e.g., red), no attentional advantage is gained in perceiving items with this feature in very brief displays. Therefore, feature-based attention seems to be slow. In previous feature-based attention studies, attention has often been measured as the difference in performance in a secondary task. In our recent work on Boolean map theory (Huang & Pashler, 2007), we distinguished between 2 concepts that are often conflated with the term attention, namely the selection of information from stimulus and the following processing optimization (i.e., attentional advantage) of the selected stimulus. Attention, as examined in previous feature-based attention studies, only fits the definition of processing optimization, but does not fit the definition of selection of information. Therefore, it is open to question whether feature-based attention, when defined as selection, is fast or slow. In this study, I systematically measured the speed of feature-based attention in relation to both definitions. Attention was found to be slow (~100 ms) in terms of processing optimization (i.e., attentional advantage) but fast in terms of the selection of information (     

Temporal limitations in the effective binding of attended target attributes in the mutual masking of visual objects.

The problem of feature binding has been examined under conditions of distributed attention or with spatially dispersed stimuli. We studied binding by asking whether selective attention to a feature of a masked object enables perceptual access to the other features of that object using conditions in which spatial attention was directed at a single location where all objects appeared. In an identification condition, the task required reporting the same property of each object. High rates of identification showed good perceptual availability. In a search condition, the task required reporting the property (e.g., shape) that was associated with a specific value of the searched property (e.g., surface texture) of the same object. Focusing of attention on a target’s searched property value did not result in a high rate of identifying the target’s other property, and strong object masking was found. Backward masking between spatially superimposed visual objects appears to be primarily due to a difficulty in feature binding of a target object rather than to a substitution of an integrated object by the following stimulus. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)