Learning to read: The redundant cues approach.

Two experiments with 48 undergraduates in each investigated the effects of color coding sounds in Thai syllables on the acquisition of pronunciation responses and on transfer to syllables which were not color coded. The mere presence of color as a redundant cue had no significant effect on acquisition or transfer relative to a control group trained on uncoded syllables. When Ss were informed that color was a relevant cue and given pretraining which emphasized the color code, acquisition was facilitated, but transfer to uncoded syllables was impaired. When Ss were informed that color was a relevant cue and given pretraining which emphasized the shapes of the letters, acquisition was facilitated with no impairment on the transfer task. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word recognition cues in children: The relative use of graphemic cues, orthographic cues, and grapheme-phoneme correspondence rules.

Pre-readers and children with varying amounts of reading experience were shown a stimulus word (or nonword) followed by four response alternatives that varied in similarity to the target stimulus. The response alternatives varied in terms of graphemic similarity to the target, the extent to which they conformed to English orthography, and the extent to which they sounded like the target stimulus. Initially, children were asked to choose the response alternative that was "most like" the target stimulus. On subsequent trials, they were asked to choose the alternative that "sounded like" or "looked like" the target. Pre-readers and beginning readers were very inflexible in their choices and chose response alternatives that looked like the target quite independently of the instructions. Children with 3 years of reading experience also chose alternatives that looked like the stimulus in the initial ambiguous task, but were able to choose the alternative sounding like the target when instructed to do so. Children with 5 years of reading experience initially chose alternatives that sounded like the target stimulus, but when instructed to do so, chose alternatives that looked like the target. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Elimination of verbal cues in judgments of emotion from voice.

Judging emotion from the nonverbal properties of speech requires elimination of verbal cues. 3 methods of doing this are investigated: (a) a constant, ambiguous set of words for various emotional expressions, (b) filtering out the frequencies which permit word recognition, (c) speech in a language unknown to the listener. 7 actors portrayed the emotions, which were judged by 27 Ss, under all 3 conditions. Constant verbal content virtually requires artificially prepared situations. Filtered speech judgments depend partially on different individual differences from judgments of normal speech. Foreign speech (here, Japanese) may have different nonverbal cues from English. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonverbal cues in the employment interview: Links between applicant qualities and interviewer judgments.

Investigated the role of nonverbal behavior in the employment interview inference process, using a modified Brunswik lens model. Job interviews for an actual research assistant position were conducted and videotaped with 34 candidates (aged 18–67 yrs). Job applicants' self-appraised motivation to work and social skill were assessed, and their nonverbal behaviors during the interview were scored. 18 judges with training and experience in employment interviewing watched the videotaped interviews and rated the Ss on their motivation, social skill, and hirability. Social skill was more accurately inferred by the judges as a group than was motivation to work. Ss' social skill was apparently transmitted to the judges via 3 nonverbal cues: rate of gesturing, time spent talking, and formality of dress. In contrast, there was a lack of correspondence between cues correlated with Ss' self-appraised motivation to work and those used by judges in making their attributions. Implications for employment interview training are discussed. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of spatial cues on children's cardinal number judgments.

Administered a series of stimuli designed to assess the dependence of cardinal number judgments on relative length and relative density cues to 200 4- and 6-yr-olds. Among younger Ss, developmental changes were restricted to same-length/different-density stimuli and to different-length/different-density stimuli in which length differences exceeded density differences. Among older Ss, developmental changes were noted for different-length/different-density stimuli in which length and density differences were equal. Scalogram analyses revealed 4 distinct levels of stimulus difficulty for both age groups. There was some evidence that, in addition to the effects of relative length and relative density cues, children's cardinal number judgments are influenced by extreme crowding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The use of visuomotor cues as a strategy for making perceptual judgments in a patient with visual form agnosia.

Accumulating evidence from human neuropsychological studies and from electrophysiological and behavioral work in the monkey is consistent with a recent proposal by M. A. Goodale and A. D. Milner (see record 1992-22553-001) that visual perception of the world is mediated by a ventral stream of visual processing projecting from striate to inferotemporal cortex whereas the visual control of skilled actions is mediated by a dorsal stream of visual processing projecting from striate to posterior parietal cortex. Compelling support for this view comes from work with a patient with visual form agnosia (DF), who cannot reliably report the size, orientation, and shape of different objects, yet can use this information to make accurate hand movements toward these same objects (for review see A. D. Milner & M. A. Goodale, 1995). Data demonstrate that DF is better able to discriminate between a square and a rectangle when she is required to reach out and pick up the designated target object than when she is required to verbally report the target's left/right position. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in the use of proximity and eye contact in judgments of affiliation in preschool children.

Investigated sex differences in preschool children's use of nonverbal cues in judgments of affiliation in 2 experiments. Ss were a total of 40 male and 40 female 3-6 yr olds. Results of Exp I show that although both 4-yr-old boys and girls used proximity cues in judging liking, only girls showed an increase in the accuracy of use of this cue by age 6. At age 4 neither boys nor girls were functioning above chance in their use of eye contact cues in judgments of affiliation, and again girls alone showed improvement by age 6. Exp II demonstrates that discrimination training involving the proximity cue facilitated the correct use of this cue in the judgments of 4-yr-old girls but not in boys. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Olfactory and/or visual cues for spatial navigation through ontogeny: Olfactory cues enable the use of visual cues.

This study analyzed the spatial memory capacities of rats in darkness with visual and/or olfactory cues through ontogeny. Tests were conducted with the homing board, where rats had to find the correct escape hole. Four age groups (24 days, 48 days, 3-6 months, and 12 months) were trained in 3 conditions: (a) 3 identical light cues; (b) 5 different olfactory cues; and (c) both types of cues, followed by removal of the olfactory cues. Results indicate that immature rats first take into account olfactory information but are unable to orient with only the help of discrete visual cues. Olfaction enables the use of visual information by 48-day-old rats. Visual information predominantly supports spatial cognition in adult and 12-month-old rats. Results point out cooperation between vision and olfaction for place navigation during ontogeny in rats. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the relationship between the redundant signals effect and temporal order judgments: Parametric data and a new model.

Paradigms used to study the time course of the redundant signals effect (RSE; J. O. Miller, 1986) and temporal order judgments (TOJs) share many important similarities and address related questions concerning the time course of sensory processing. The author of this article proposes and tests a new aggregate diffusion-based model to quantitatively explain both the RSE and TOJs and the relationship between them. Parametric data (13 stimulus onset asynchronies) from an experiment with pairs of visual stimuli (626-nm LEDs) confirm that, relative to central signals (3 degrees), peripheral signals (35 degrees) yield slower reaction times, more strongly modulated RSE time-course functions, and flatter TOJ psychometric functions. All of these qualitative features are well captured, even in quantitative detail, by the aggregate diffusion model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual processing and the use of redundant information in tachistoscopic recognition.

Examined the relation between information available in the stimulus and information required in report. 54 undergraduates in 3 groups reported on the basis of different attributes of 4 sets of visual stimuli varying in form of redundancy. Loss of information from conic memory was measured by means of a partial report procedure. The redundancy manipulation affected the level of accuracy and there was differential loss of stimulus information from iconic memory, depending on the stimulus attribute to be reported. There was, however, no relation between redundancy and loss of information. Results show that (a) the use of stimulus information plays an important role in accuracy, and (b) there are some basic differences in the way in which the visual system treats different categories of information. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's use of intention cues in evaluating behavior.

Examines the proposition that 5–10 yr old children are unable to focus on intention cues but use consequence information in evaluating others' behavior. Piaget's paradigm for testing young children's moral evaluations is examined, as is related research. A conceptual analysis of the paradigm indicates that it is inappropriate for assessing the use of intention cues in evaluating behavior. A review of research suggests that children do evaluate on the basis of intentions and ignore consequence information when accidental and intentional acts are explicitly specified. The review also indicates that children's failure to judge on the basis of intentions when intent and outcome covary may be due to the fact that evaluation of ill-intentioned acts occurs earlier in the developmental sequence than does the evaluation of well-intentioned acts. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preparatory processes in the task-switching paradigm: Evidence from the use of probability cues.

The purpose of the investigations was to dissociate processes of task preparation from task execution in the task-switching paradigm. The basic assumption was that task repetitions have 2 advantages over task shifts: an activation advantage as a result of the execution of the same task type in the pretrial, and an expectation advantage, because participants, in general, implicitly expect a repetition. In Experiments 1-3, the authors explicitly manipulated expectancies by presenting cues that announced a shift and/or a repetition with probabilities of 1.00, .75, .50, or .25. Increasing latencies with decreasing probability for shifts and repetitions show that the expectation advantage can be equalized by preparation. However, the activation advantage represented by constant shift costs between tasks of the same probability is not penetrable by preparation. In Experiments 4 and 5, the authors found evidence that preparation involves activation of the expected task and inhibition of distracting tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From figurative to operative expectancy in the perceptual judgments of children.

Conducted 2 studies on "figurative expectancy," the tendency to make perceptual judgments on the basis of temporal patterns. In Exp I, 60 4-9 yr old children were shown 4 series of animal pictures in which the relative strengths of the temporal patterns were varied. Results show (a) a significant decrease with age in figurative expectancy and (b) significantly more figurative expectancy in the case of a strong temporal sequence linked with a weak critical figure than in the case of a weak temporal sequence linked with a strong critical figure. In Exp II, 66 4-yr-old children were shown a single series of pictures presented at different rates and with critical figures that were ambiguous or nonambiguous. Results show that there was more figurative expectancy the more rapid the rate of presentation. There was also an ambiguity effect showing more figurative expectancy judgments the greater the ambiguity of the critical figure. Results support Piaget's theory of perceptual development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of visual, vocal, and lexical cues on judgments of counselor qualities.

75 female and 55 male undergraduates rated Carl Rogers on a number of counseling-relevant dimensions. Experimental treatment groups received information via the visual, lexical, vocal, or vocal-lexical communication channels; a control, or reference, group received information via the nature visual-vocal-lexical channel. Lexical cue seemed particularly important in creating favorable impressions among females, but results were less clear-cut for males. When experimental Ss were later exposed to visual-vocal-lexical cues in combination (as control Ss had been earlier), they tended to rate Rogers as warmer and less distant than they had earlier on the basis of limited information. In some instances, however, ratings made with additional information were less favorable than those made partial information. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Flexible use of recent information in causal and predictive judgments.

Associative and statistical theories of causal and predictive learning make opposite predictions for situations in which the most recent information contradicts the information provided by older trials (e.g., acquisition followed by extinction). Associative theories predict that people will rely on the most recent information to best adapt their behavior to the changing environment. Statistical theories predict that people will integrate what they have learned in the two phases. The results of this study showed one or the other effect as a function of response mode (trial by trial vs. global), type of question (contiguity, causality, or predictiveness), and postacquisition instructions. That is, participants are able to give either an integrative judgment, or a judgment that relies on recent information as a function of test demands. The authors concluded that any model must allow for flexible use of information once it has been acquired. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood, memory, and social judgments in children.

The influence of positive and negative moods on children's recall and recognition memory and impression-formation judgments was investigated in a two-list experimental design. A total of 161 schoolchildren, 8 to 10 years old, were presented with audiovisual information containing positive and negative details about 2 target children. Each presentation was preceded by happy or sad mood manipulations. One day later, the children were again placed in a happy or sad mood, and their recall and recognition memory and impression-formation judgments were assessed. Results showed that memory was better when (a) the children felt happy during encoding, retrieval, or both; (b) the material was incongruent with learning mood; (c) the 2 target characters were encountered in contrasting rather than in matching mood states; and (d) recall mood matched encoding mood. A happy mood increased the extremity of both positive and negative impression-formation judgments. Results are contrasted with experimental data obtained with normal or depressed adults, and implications are considered for contemporary theories of mood effects on cognition and for social-developmental research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preschoolers' use of form class cues in word learning.

Three experiments were conducted, involving a total of 180 2?-5-year-old children. The experiments assessed the claim that preschoolers override form class cues in the interest of honoring word-meaning assumptions when they acquire new labels. Children were asked to choose an unlabeled- or a labeled- category object as the referent of a novel word modeled syntactically as a count noun or an adjective (Experiment 1) or as a count noun, adjective, or proper name (Experiments 2 and 3). Participants' interpretations of the word were also assessed (Experiment 3). Unlike many previous results, results of the present study demonstrate that children respect the form class cues when these cues and word-meaning assumptions suggest conflicting interpretations. It is proposed that past findings underestimate the robustness of form class cues as sources of information for preschoolers about the meanings of new words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social judgeability: The impact of meta-informational cues on the use of stereotypes.

According to a social judgeability analysis, a crucial determinant of impression formation is the extent to which people feel entitled to judge a target person. Two experiments, with a total of 113 undergraduates, tested the impact of the subjective availability of individuating information on a social judgment independent of its actual presence. In Exp 1, Ss made a stereotypical judgment when they believed individuating information was present even if no information was in fact given. In Exp 2, Ss who thought they received individuating information made more extreme and confident judgments than Ss who thought they received category information. This indicates that Ss' judgments were not simply a function of implicit demand: The illusion of receiving individuating information led Ss to believe they possessed the necessary evidence for legitimate decision making. This result supports the existence of rules in the social inference process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)