The necessity of a perception–action approach to definite distance perception: Monocular distance perception to guide reaching.

In this investigation of monocular perception of egocentric distance, the authors advocate the necessity of a perception–action approach because calibration is intrinsic to definite distance perception. A helmet-mounted camera and display were used to isolate optic flow generated by participants' head movements toward a target, and participants' reaches to place a stylus either in a target hole (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) or aligned under a target surface (Experiment 3) were analyzed. Conclusions are that binocular distance perception is accurate, monocular distance perception yields compression that is not eliminated by feedback, but feedback is used to eliminate underestimation generated by restriction of the size of the visual field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distortions in definite distance and shape perception as measured by reaching without and with haptic feedback.

Psychophysical studies reveal distortions in perception of distance and shape. Are reaches calibrated to eliminate distortions? Participants reached to the front, side, or back of a target sphere. In Experiment 1, feedforward reaches yielded distortions and outward drift. In Experiment 2, haptic feedback corrected distortions and instability. In Experiment 3, feedforward reaches with only haptic experience of targets replicated the shape distortions but drifted inward. This showed that outward drift in Experiment 1 was visually driven. In Experiment 4, visually guided reaches were accurate when participants used binocular vision but when they used monocular vision, reaches were distorted. Haptic feedback corrected inaccuracy and instability of distance but did not correct monocular shape distortions. Dynamic binocular vision is representative and accurate and merits further study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Picture perception and monocular vision: a reply to Hagen

It is argued that M. A. Hagen's (see record 1975-00215-001) review of picture perception contains a number of inaccuracies involving the nature of higher order variables in perception, the demonstration of visual compensation, the manipulation of relative size information, the postulation of an ability to discriminate the correctness of viewing point, and the existence of ambiguity in monocular perception. It is suggested that such errors are the result of a misunderstanding of the formal basis of J. J. Gibson's (1950, 1966) perceptual theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical atopy score and TEWL are not correlated in a cohort of metalworkers

The case of a 12-year-old Caucasian boy, living in a non-endemic area, with two intrapulmonary masses is presented. Conventional X-rays and computed tomography images were highly suggestive of pulmonary Echinococcus disease because of the presence of pericystic emphysema in one of both masses, a finding known as the "crescent" or "meniscus" sign. This radiological feature and other highly suggestive imaging findings of pulmonary hydatid disease are presented and discussed.     

Height perception: A function of social distance.

Investigated the effects of (a) status-related ethnic membership, and (b) the prejudice of the O on height perception. Ss were 126 undergraduates who were shown slides of various objects and people in a counter-balanced fashion. It was found that height-equated individuals rated high on the Bogardus Social Distance Scale were perceived as taller than height-equated individuals rated low on the Bogardus Social Distance Scale. The implications of these findings are discussed. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of young infants' reaching behavior to stimulus distance and solidity.

The reaching behavior of 12 infants in the presence of solid objects and pictures of objects placed within and beyond possible contact distance was videotaped in 3 sessions at 15, 19, and 24 wks of age. From 15 wks onward the Ss adjusted their reaching behavior to changes in the physical distance of stimuli. However, infants who attempted to manipulate the solid objects tended to reach for pictured objects in the same way. The different amounts of visual attention Ss paid to objects and pictures indicated that they could visually discriminate between the flat and solid stimuli, but it seemed this capacity for depth perception could be obscured by the rather compulsive tendency of young infants to manipulate patterned surfaces situated within reach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-report measures of prospective memory are reliable but not valid.

Are self-report measures of prospective memory (ProM) reliable and valid? To examine this question, 240 undergraduate student volunteers completed several widely used self-report measures of ProM including the Prospective Memory Questionnaire (PMQ), the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ), the Comprehensive Assessment of Prospective Memory (CAPM) questionnaire, self-reports of retrospective memory (RetM), objective measures of ProM and RetM, and measures of involvement in activities and events, memory strategies and aids use, personality and verbal intelligence. The results showed that both convergent and divergent validity of ProM self-reports are poor, even though we assessed ProM using a newly developed, reliable continuous measure. Further analyses showed that a substantial proportion of variability in ProM self-report scores was due to verbal intelligence, personality (conscientiousness, neuroticism), activities and event involvement (busyness), and use of memory strategies and aids. ProM self-reports have adequate reliability, but poor validity and should not be interpreted as reflecting ProM ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparing effects of the horizontal-vertical illusion on grip scaling and judgment: Relative versus absolute, not perception versus action.

The discovery that the prehension component of an open-loop, two-fingered reach is largely immune to certain salient pictorial illusions has been used to suggest that humans possess 2 distinct visual systems, 1 that subserves perceptual judgment and 1 that mediates visually controlled action. In this article, the authors present evidence that suggests that the critical distinction is not that of reaching and judgment but of relative and absolute perception. Experiment 1 extends the findings of S. Aglioti, J. F. X. DeSouza, and M. A. Goodale (1995) and suggests that the manual prehension component of open-loop reaching is affected by the horizontal-vertical illusion to a much smaller degree than perceptual size judgments. In Experiments 2 and 3, however, when perceptual size judgment is directed at a single element of the display, this difference vanishes. Experiment 4 demonstrates that grip scaling is strongly affected by the illusion when a single reach is scaled to both the horizontal and vertical components of a triangular figure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of verbal evaluation feedback and interpersonal distance on behavioral compliance.

80 female clients were individually interviewed in the context of a weight-reduction clinic. In a 2 * 2 factorial design, a counselor offered either accepting or neutral verbal feedback for a client's self-disclosures and sat either at a "personal" or "social" distance from the client. A significant interaction was obtained, which showed that physical proximity strengthened adherence to a counselor's dieting recommendations when accepting feedback was offered and lowered compliance when neutral feedback was expressed. Results are discussed in terms of the notion of consistency in communicative channels. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived susceptibility measures are not interchangeable: Absolute, direct comparative, and indirect comparative risk.

Objective: To provide an explanation of perceived susceptibility judgment that accounts for both inconsistencies among commonly used measures of perceived susceptibility (i.e., absolute risk, direct comparative risk, and indirect comparative risk) and their inconsistent relationships to disease risk factors. Inconsistencies are attributed to differential processing of general versus personal risk factors, coupled with the method of computation of the risk measures. Design and Measures: Study 1 characterized risk factors as general versus personal. In Studies 2 and 3, community-residing adult women (ns = 432 and 147, respectively) rated perceived susceptibility to osteoporosis, breast cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, rated risk factors, and reported personal medical history. Results: Correlations and regression analyses mainly supported our characterization of the source of inconsistencies among susceptibility measures and their relationships to risk factors. Conclusion: Perceived susceptibility measures are not interchangeable and can lead to opposite conclusions about correlates of perceived susceptibility. Researchers are cautioned against using indirect comparative measures, computed as difference scores, and are encouraged to use other methods to compel participants to consider the risk of others when making comparative judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of personal space in young children: perception of distance cues

Two methods of assessing personal space in young children were examined in a group of 24 boys and 24 girls, aged 3 to 6 yr. When sex of peer figures and affect attributed to them were varied, 3-yr.-olds made distance-cue judgements based on affect but failed to use affect cues in structuring personal space. However, 4- to 6-yr.-olds readily perceived and used distance to communicate the affective quality of peer relations. On both measures, perception of distance cues increased with age. Only girls also used sex of figures as a social cue in depicting appropriate distances.     

Psychosocial resources, threat, and the perception of distance and height: Support for the resources and perception model.

Threatening things are often perceptually exaggerated, such that they appear higher, closer, of greater duration, or more intense than they actually are. According to the Resources and Perception Model (RPM) psychosocial resources can prevent this exaggeration, leading to more accurate perception. Two studies tested RPM. Study 1 showed that the perceived closeness of a threatening object (a live tarantula) but not an innocuous object (a cat toy) was moderated by induced self-worth. Further, the more self-worth that participants experienced, the less close the tarantula appeared to them. Study 2 showed that greater levels of self-esteem reduced perceived height, but only among participants prevented from holding a protective handrail while looking down. Together, these studies confirm that resources moderate the physical perception of both distance and height, that resources moderate perception of threats but not nonthreats, that different resources have similar moderating effects, and that psychosocial resources can supplant physical resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparing direct and indirect measures of sequence learning.

Comparing the sensitivity of similar direct and indirect measures is proposed as the best way to provide evidence for unconscious learning. The authors apply this approach, first proposed by E. M. Reingold and P. M. Merikle (see record 1989-21201-001), to a choice reaction-time task in which the material is generated probabilistically on the basis of a finite-state grammar (A. Cleeremans, see record 93:127012). The data show that participants can learn about the structure of the stimulus material over training with the choice reaction-time task, but only to a limited extent - a result that is well predicted by the simple recurrent network model of A. Cleeremans and J. L. McClelland (see record 1992-00389-001). Participants can also use some of this knowledge to perform a subsequent generation task. However, detailed partial correlational analyses that control for knowledge as assessed by the generation task show that large effects of sequence learning are exclusively expressed through reaction time. This result suggests that at least some of this learning cannot be characterized as conscious. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preservice teachers' responses to bullying scenarios: Comparing physical, verbal, and relational bullying.

In the present study, 82 undergraduate students in a teacher education program responded to 6 written vignettes describing school bullying incidents. Scenarios described physical bullying, verbal bullying, and relational bullying events. Respondents rated relational bullying as the least serious of the 3 types. Participants had the least empathy for the victims of relational bullying and were least likely to intervene in relational bullying incidents. When asked to describe interventions they would use in these cases, the preservice teachers proposed the least severe actions for both perpetrators and victims of relational bullying compared with other forms of bullying. Results were compared with those of practicing teachers in a previous study. Implications for teacher education programs are discussed. Two supplemental studies, conducted to address concerns about seriousness of bullying scenarios, are also described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hemispheric lateralization of perception and memory for emotional verbal stimuli in normal individuals.

The purposes of this study were to extend the literature on lateralization of perception of emotional verbal stimuli in normal individuals, including a test of both the right hemisphere and valence models, and to investigate predictions from these models regarding lateralization of memory for emotional verbal stimuli in normal individuals, an area that, to our knowledge, has not been investigated. Seventy-nine undergraduates were presented lateralized positive, negative, and neutral English words and nonwords. Participants were then asked to freely recall the presented words and, after a 20-min delay, to recognize the words. Recognition memory data provided strong support for the valence model. In addition, free-recall and perception data provided partial support for this model. The literature on the lateralization of processing emotional verbal and nonverbal material is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distancing from experienced self: How global-versus-local perception affects estimation of psychological distance.

In 4 studies, the authors examined the prediction derived from construal level theory (CLT) that higher level of perceptual construal would enhance estimated egocentric psychological distance. The authors primed participants with global perception, local perception, or both (the control condition). Relative to the control condition, global processing made participants estimate larger psychological distances in time (Study 1), space (Study 2), social distance (Study 3), and hypotheticality (Study 4). Local processing had the opposite effect. Consistent with CLT, all studies show that the effect of global-versus-local processing did emerge when participants estimated egocentric distances, which are distances from the experienced self in the here and now, but did not emerge with temporal distances not from now (Study 1), spatial distances not from here (Study 2), social distances not from the self (Study 3), or hypothetical events that did not involve altering an experienced reality (Study 4). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Restrained eating among adolescents: Dieters are not always bingers and bingers are not always dieters.

This study examined individual differences in the relationships among 3 constructs relevant to restrained eating theory—cognitive restraint (dieting), disinhibition (bingeing), and hunger. Participants were 421 adolescents (158 male, 255 female, and 8 not indicated). Comparisons among subgroups based on scores on the 3 constructs indicated that there were (a) 2 types of frequent dieters—those who follow theoretical predictions and become disinhibited and those who maintain their restraint; (b) 2 types of bingers—those who engage in dieting-induced bingeing and those who are hungry and disinhibited; and (c) 2 types of low-hunger eaters—those who suppress their hunger and those who eat before they experience much hunger. Implications of the results for restrained eating theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why faces are and are not special: An effect of expertise.

Conducted 4 experiments to demonstrate that faces are not unique with regard to vulnerability to inversion (i.e., impairment of recognition memory with inverted presentation) and to isolate the source of the inversion effect. In Exp I, with 16 undergraduates, use of stimuli (landscapes) in which spatial relations among elements are potentially important distinguishing features was shown not to guarantee a large inversion effect. Exps II and III (with 64 undergraduates, 16 dog experts [aged 29–58 yrs], and 16 dog experts [aged 42–77 yrs]) showed that for dog experts sufficiently knowledgeable to individuate dogs of the same breed, memory for photographs of dogs of that breed was as disrupted by inversion as face recognition. Exp IV, with 19 undergraduates, indicated that the effect of orientation on memory for faces did not depend on inability to identify single features of these stimuli upside down. Findings are consistent with the view that experts represent items in memory in terms of distinguishing features of a different kind than do novices. Speculations as to the type of feature used and neuropsychological and developmental implications of this accomplishment are offered. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The induction of c-Fos in the NTS after taste aversion learning is not correlated with measures of conditioned fear.

The induction of c-Fos-like immunoreactivity (c-FLI) in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) has been shown to be correlated with behavioral expression of a conditioned taste aversion (CTA). However, because this cellular response is also dependent on an intact amygdala, it may represent the activation of a stress-related autonomic response. The present experiments addressed this possibility by evaluating the correlation between c-FLI in the intermediate division of the NTS (iNTS) and 2 measures of conditioned fear: freezing and changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR). Exposure to the taste conditioned stimulus (CS) resulted in a marked induction of c-FLI in the iNTS, whereas exposure to a fear CS did not. Further, exposure to a taste CS did not selectively lead to increases in MAP or HR. Results suggest that induction of c-FLI in the iNTS may reflect the activation of a cell population whose function is unique to the CTA paradigm. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)