A note on visual recognition thresholds.

60 college students are presented, tachistoscopically, a list of 7 pleasant and 7 unpleasant 5 letter words which had been matched for frequency. All of the words are presented randomly to the subjects for various lengths of time, the Ss recording the word they believe to have been flashed on the screen before them. Significantly fewer errors of recognition are made on the pleasant words than on the unpleasant words. It is concluded that perceptual behavior, here defined as visual recognition thresholds, is influenced by the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective tone and visual recognition thresholds.

"These findings clearly confirm the results of those studies that have found no differences in recognition thresholds for stimulus words of purportedly differential affective value when the relative frequency of the stimulus words is controlled." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of shock on recognition thresholds.

"The purpose of this study was to test deductions from reinforcement learning theory concerning visual recognition thresholds. The general hypothesis was that the recognition of nonsense syllables previously associated with electric shock will occur more readily if the experimental conditions enable S to escape from the shock than if escape is not possible… . The results suggest that the factor of escapability from shock in a noxious situation is a significant determinant of subsequent recognition thresholds of stimuli associated with that situation." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contribution of response bias to recognition thresholds.

The influence of differential usage preference on verbal identification measures was investigated using a technique which closely mimics the typical recognition threshold investigation. Ss were unrestricted by E in their choice of responses and were presented with stimulus materials at varying duration levels. The stimuli, however, were presented in such a manner that Ss' partial perception could to some degree be controlled. These partial perceptions made 2 response alternatives equally appropriate, one a familiar word and the other a less familiar one. In 2 experiments varying in procedure, the frequency with which familiar responses occurred as guesses was significantly (p     

Reduced trials and reliability of visual-acuity thresholds obtained by the method of constant stimuli.

To determine the effect of a reduction in trials per stimulus upon reliability of visual-acuity thresholds computed by the method of constant stimuli, visual-acuity thresholds were determined for 15 Ss, using a Landolt ring. Thresholds were computed using 5 stimulus values and 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 presentations per stimulus. Retest reliabilities of .92 and higher were obtained for as few as 10 trials per stimulus. It is concluded that "1… . classical… investigators probably tended to utilize more judgments than are necessary… 2… . for purposes of estimating absolute thresholds, the Müller-Urban constant method with five stimulus sizes appears to yield satisfactorily reliable thresholds… when as few as 10 trials per stimulus and 4-choice response categories are used." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of an affective set on disyllable recognition thresholds.

"The present experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that there is a relationship between motivational factors and perception. Electric shock was employed to induce anxiety provoking conditions in relation to the perception of certain verbal symbols, and changes in their speed of perception were noted." The words were associated with a conditioned response and conditioning was more rapid with shock than nonshock syllables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic interference from visual object recognition on visual imagery.

A new technique for examining the interaction between visual object recognition and visual imagery is reported. The "image-picture interference" paradigm requires participants to generate and make a response to a mental image of a previously memorized object, while ignoring a simultaneously presented picture distractor. Responses in 2 imagery tasks (making left-right higher spatial judgments and making taller-wider judgments) were longer when the simultaneous picture distractor was categorically related to the target distractor relative to unrelated and neutral target-distractor combinations. In contrast, performance was not influenced in this way when the distractor was a related word, when a semantic categorization decision was made to the target, or when distractor and target were visually but not categorically related to one another. The authors discuss these findings in terms of the semantic representations shared by visual object recognition and visual imagery that mediate performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of horizontal viewing angle on visual and audiovisual speech recognition.

The authors investigated the effects of changes in horizontal viewing angle on visual and audiovisual speech recognition in 4 experiments, using a talker's face viewed full face, three quarters, and in profile. When only experimental items were shown (Experiments 1 and 2), identification of unimodal visual speech and visual speech influences on congruent and incongruent auditory speech were unaffected by viewing angle changes. However, when experimental items were intermingled with distractor items (Experiments 3 and 4), identification of unimodal visual speech decreased with profile views, whereas visual speech influences on congruent and incongruent auditory speech remained unaffected by viewing angle changes. These findings indicate that audiovisual speech recognition withstands substantial changes in horizontal viewing angle, but explicit identification of visual speech is less robust. Implications of this distinction for understanding the processes underlying visual and audiovisual speech recognition are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The reliability of a response measure: Differential recognition-threshold scores.

In studies of perceptual defense where the dependent variable has been differential thresholds for emotionally toned vs. neutral stimulus materials, little attention has been given to the internal consistency of such measures. A study is reported which suggests that the internal consistency may be very low. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is position "special" in visual attention? Evidence that top-down processes guide visual selection.

The role of spatial position in selective visual processing has been the source of recent debate. The present study, using undergraduates, attempted to reconcile various findings by exploring the influence of top-down processes (task instructions) while explicitly controlling for eye movements. Exp 1 demonstrated there was no inherent selection bias for stimuli similar to those used by A. H. C. van der Heijden et al (1996), suggesting that the tendency to select according to colour found by van der Heijden et al was due to task demands. Exp 2 further established the role of top-down factors by replicating the results of van der Heijden et al with the current authors' stimuli. Exp 3 demonstrated that selection can be switched from colour to position by changing the demands of the task. These results suggest that selection may be accounted for by task demands (e.g., instructions) with no priority access for position information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Values as determinants of word-recognition thresholds.

"Some effects of word value and emotional context upon word-recognition thresholds have been investigated using high- and low-prejudice Ss to define the meaning of the context values. In general, it was found that (a) both positive and negative values lowered word-recognition thresholds in comparison with neutral value, and (b) emotionally loaded contexts have the effect of raising the thresholds of both positively and negatively valued words while lowering that of neutral words." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Limitations of object-based feature encoding in visual short-term memory.

The present study investigated object-based feature encoding in visual short-term memory for 2 features within the same dimension that occur on different parts of an object. Using the change-detection paradigm, this experiment studied objects with 2 colors and objects with 2 orientations. Participants found it easier to monitor 1 rather than both features of such objects, even when decision noise was properly controlled for. However, no object-based benefit was observed for encoding the 2 features of each object that were of the same dimension. When similar stimuli were used but the 2 features of each object were from different dimensions (color and orientation), an object-based benefit was observed. These results thus impose a major constraint on object-based feature encoding theories by showing that only features from different dimensions can benefit from object-based encoding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus generalization as a function of clinical anxiety and direction of generalization.

"This experiment studied stimulus generalization in psychiatric patients as a function of direction of generalization and clinical anxiety. It was found that direction of generalization along the height continuum did not significantly affect the gradient of stimulus generalization. Level of clinical anxiety, as measured by the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, also did not significantly affect the gradient of stimulus generalization. The validity of the Taylor scale with psychiatric patients was discussed briefly." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-cultural patterns in emotion recognition: Highlighting design and analytical techniques.

This article highlights a range of design and analytical tools for studying the cross-cultural communication of emotion using forced-choice experimental designs. American, Indian, and Japanese participants judged facial expressions from all 3 cultures. A factorial experimental design is used, balanced n × n across cultures, to separate "absolute" cultural differences from "relational" effects characterizing the relationship between the emotion expressor and perceiver. Use of a response bias correction is illustrated for the tendency to endorse particular multiple-choice categories more often than others. Treating response bias also as an opportunity to gain insight into attributional style, the authors examined similarities and differences in response patterns across cultural groups. Finally, the authors examined patterns in the errors or confusions that participants make during emotion recognition and documented strong similarity across cultures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Global and local processing of hierarchical visual stimuli in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella).

Capuchin monkeys' (Cebus apella) relative accuracy in the processing of the global shape or the local features of hierarchical visual stimuli was assessed. Three experiments are presented featuring manipulations of the arrangement and the density of the local elements of the stimuli. The results showed a clear advantage for local level processing in this species, which is robust under manipulations of the density of the local elements of the stimuli. By contrast, the density of the component elements linearly affected accuracy in global processing. These findings, which support those from other studies in which a local superiority emerged in animals, challenge the generality of early claims concerning the adaptive value of global advantage in the processing of hierarchical visual patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Picture-object recognition in pigeons: Evidence of representational insight in a visual categorization task using a complementary information procedure.

Success in tasks requiring categorization of pictorial stimuli does not prove that a subject understands what the pictures stand for. The ability to achieve representational insight is by no means a trivial one because it exceeds mere detection of 2-D features present in both the pictorial images and their referents. So far, evidence for such an ability in nonhuman species is weak and inconclusive. Here, the authors report evidence of representational insight in pigeons. After being trained on pictures of incomplete human figures, the birds responded significantly more to pictures of the previously missing parts than to nonrepresentative stimuli, which demonstrates that they actually recognized the pictures' representational content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infant visual recognition memory: Independent contributions of speed and attention.

Relations between infant visual recognition memory and later cognition have fueled interest in identifying the underlying cognitive components of this important infant ability. The present large-scale study examined three promising factors in this regard--processing speed, short-term memory capacity, and attention. Two of these factors, attention and processing speed (but, surprisingly, not short-term memory capacity), were related to visual recognition memory: Infants who showed better attention (shorter looks and more shifts) and faster processing had better recognition memory. The contributions of attention and processing speed were independent of one another and were similar at all ages studied--5, 7, and 12 months. Taken together, attention and speed accounted for 6%-9% of the variance in visual recognition memory, leaving a considerable, but not unexpected, portion of the variance unexplained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attention constraints of semantic activation during visual word recognition.

The reduction of semantic priming following letter search of the prime suggests that semantic activation can be blocked if attention is allocated to the letter level during word processing. Is this true even for the very fast-acting component of semantic activation? To test this, the authors explored semantic priming of lexical decision at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of either 200 or 1000 ms. Following semantic prime processing, priming occurred at both SOAs. In contrast, no priming occurred at the long SOA following letter-level processing. Of greatest interest, at the short SOA there was priming following the less demanding consonant/vowel task but not following the more attention-demanding letter search task. Hence, semantic activation can occur even when attention is directed to the letter level, provided there are sufficient resources to support this activation. The authors conclude that the default setting during word recognition is for fast-acting activation of the semantic system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)