Newborns discriminate the rhythm of multisyllabic stressed words.

Three experiments were run to test whether newborns were able to discriminate different stress patterns in multisyllabic stressed Italian words that varied both in consonants and in number of syllables. A high-amplitude sucking procedure was adopted in which the experimental group heard 2 sets of stimuli alternating minute by minute, whereas the control group heard only a single set of stimuli. The results showed that stress patterns were discriminated in 2 disyllabic phonetically unvaried words (Exp 1), in 2 trisyllabic consonant-varied words (Exp 2), and in 2 sets of disyllabic words varied in consonants within and between words (Exp 3). The alternation procedure proved to be suitable for examining newborns' abilities of discrimination and categorization. It also lowered the participants' rejection rate compared with the classic habituation procedure. The present results suggest that newborns are sensitive to words' rhythm, as carried by stress patterns, and that this prosodic information is salient even in the presence of substantial consonant variation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning faces from photographs.

Previous studies examining face learning have mostly used only a single exposure to 1 image of each of the faces to be learned. However, in daily life, faces are usually learned from multiple encounters. These 6 experiments examined the effects on face learning of repeated exposures to single or multiple images of a face. All experiments provided evidence for image-specific picture learning taking place over and above any invariant face learning, with recognition accuracy always highest for the image studied and performance falling across transformations between study and test images. The relative roles of pictorial and structural codes in mediating learning faces from photographs need to be reconsidered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Crossing the divide: Infants discriminate small from large numerosities.

Although young infants have repeatedly demonstrated successful numerosity discrimination across large sets when the number of items in the sets changes twofold (E. M. Brannon, S. Abbott, & D. J. Lutz, 2004; J. N. Wood & E. S. Spelke, 2005; F. Xu & E. S. Spelke, 2000), they consistently fail to discriminate a twofold change in number when one set is large and the other is small (     

Global context effect in normal and scrambled musical sequences.

The processing of chords is facilitated when they are harmonically related to the context in which they appear. The purpose of this study was to assess whether this harmonic priming effect depends on the version (normal vs. scrambled) of the context chord sequences. Normal sequences were scrambled by permuting chords two-by-two (Experiment 1) or four-by-four (Experiments 2 and 3). Normal chord sequences were judged less coherent than scrambled-sequences. However, normal chord sequences showed facilitation for harmonically related rather than for unrelated targets, and this effect of relatedness did not diminish for scrambled sequences (Experiments 1–3). The data of musicians and nonmusicians were interpreted with Bharucha's (1987) spreading activation framework. Simulations suggested that harmonic priming results from activation that spreads via schematic knowledge of Western harmony and accumulates in short-term memory over the course of the chord sequence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robust representations for faces: Evidence from visual search.

We report evidence from visual search that people can develop robust representations for highly overlearned faces. When observers searched for their own face versus the face of an unfamiliar observer, search slopes and intercepts revealed consistently faster processing of self than stranger. These processing advantages persisted even after hundreds of presentations of the unfamiliar face and even for atypical profile and upside-down views. Observers not only showed rapid asymptotic recognition of their own face as the target, but could reject their own face more quickly as the distractor. These findings suggest that robust representations for a highly overlearned face may (a) mediate rapid asymptotic visual processing, (b) require extensive experience to develop, (c) contain abstract or view-invariant information, (d) facilitate a variety of processes such as target recognition and distractor rejection, and (e) demand less attentional resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion recognition from faces and prosody following temporal lobectomy.

The anteromedial temporal lobe has been found to participate in processing emotion, but there are unresolved discrepancies in the literature. To address this issue, the authors investigated recognition of emotion from faces and from prosody in 26 participants with unilateral temporal lobectomy (15 left, 11 right) and in 50 brain-damaged controls. Participants with right, but not left, temporal lobectomy did significantly worse in recognizing fear from facial expressions. There were no group differences in recognizing emotional prosody. Neither IQ nor basic perceptual function accounted for task performance; however, there was a moderate negative correlation between extent of amygdala damage and overall performance. Consistent with some prior studies, these findings support a role for the right anteromedial temporal lobe (including amygdala) in recognizing emotion from faces but caution in drawing conclusions from small group samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attention to emotional faces following recovery from depression.

This study was designed to examine attentional biases in the processing of emotional faces in currently and formerly depressed participants and healthy controls. Using a dot-probe task, the authors presented faces expressing happy or sad emotions paired with emotionally neutral faces. Whereas both currently and formerly depressed participants selectively attended to the sad faces, the control participants selectively avoided the sad faces and oriented toward the happy faces, a positive bias that was not observed for either of the depressed groups. These results indicate that attentional biases in the processing of emotional faces are evident even after individuals have recovered from a depressive episode. Implications of these findings for understanding the roles of cognitive and interpersonal functioning in depression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recollections of things schematic: Room schemas revisited.

In 2 experiments, the authors examined the effects of schemas on the subjective experience of remembering. Participants entered a room that was set up to look like a graduate student's office under intentional or incidental learning conditions. They later took a recognition memory test that included making remember-know judgments. In Experiment 1, they were tested during the same session; in Experiment 2 they were tested either during the same session or after a 48-hr delay. Consistent with the authors' predictions, memory for atypical objects was especially likely to be experienced in the remember sense. In addition, false remember judgments rose dramatically after the 48-hr delay, especially for participants in the incidental learning condition. Results are discussed in terms of schema theory, fuzzy-trace theory, and the distinctiveness heuristic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inhibitory effect of schematic processing on perceptual encoding.

Hypothesized that although schemata facilitate organized conceptual processing, and hence recall, they simultaneously inhibit perceptual encoding. This inhibitory effect should emerge because schemata allow perceivers to rely on prior knowledge in place of incoming information and because schemata facilitate selective attention. Exps 1 and 2 demonstrated that Ss encode less relevant perceptual information when they are provided with or are able to induce a schema. Exp 3 demonstrated that Ss encode less relevant perceptual information when they are self-schematic in a domain, even though they have better recall for that information. Exp 4 demonstrated that Ss encode less irrelevant perceptual information when they are provided with a schema. Thus, results show that although schemata facilitate recall, they simultaneously inhibit perceptual encoding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antipunishment activity of diazepam in rats trained to discriminate diazepam from vehicle.

The anxiolytic and discriminative stimulus effects of drugs in the same rats during a single session were examined in this study. Rats were trained to discriminate diazepam (5 mg/kg) from vehicle in a 2-lever drug discrimination procedure and were then trained to press a 3rd lever under a multiple fixed-interval (60 sec), fixed-ratio 5 + shock schedule of food reward. Diazepam produced substitution for itself in all rats; however, it produced antipunishment effects in some of the rats, suggesting that its discriminative stimulus and antipunishment effects are separable. In contrast, the N-methyl-{d}-aspartate antagonists, NPC 17742 and phencyclidine, failed to substitute fully for diazepam and did not increase punished responding in any of the rats. These results are consistent with those of studies showing that drugs from this class produce weaker antipunishment effects than diazepam does. The potential utility of this new method is that it allows direct comparisons of the antipunishment and discriminative stimulus effects of putative anxiolytic drugs during a single session with the same animals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender-based schematic processing: An empirical investigation and reevaluation.

This study was designed to provide a test of two models of gender-based schematic processing: gender schema theory (Bem, 1981b) and self-schema theory (Markus, Crane, Bernstein, & Saldi, 1982). The former position stipulates that only sex-typed individuals should provide strong evidence for schematic processing of gender-related information, whereas the latter contends that individuals may exhibit such processing with respect to masculine, feminine, neither, or both classes of stimuli. A total of 167 male and female introductory psychology students were classified into the four sex role categories and then participated in a standard "me/not me" attribute rating task, followed by either a free-recall or "yes/no" recognition procedure, which used an independent set of stimuli. Results indicated that although predictions from self-schema theory were best able to account for the findings emerging from the attribute rating task, neither model satisfactorily addressed the data from the memory tasks. The discussion focuses on implications for current conceptualizations of gender schematic processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hierarchical ordering of schematic knowledge relating to area-of-rectangle problems.

Assessed schematic knowledge by asking 195 9th- and 10th-grade students to classify area-of-rectangle problems in terms of whether the text of each problem provided insufficient, sufficient, or irrelevant information for solution. Problems involving adjacent sides information were most accurately classified, followed in increasing order of difficulty by problems involving 1 side and the ratio of sides, 1 side and the perimeter, and 1 side and the diagonal. Students rarely demonstrated awareness of the structure of a more difficult problem after having failed on classification of a less difficult problem. When confronted with a problem for which they lacked the relevant schema, students often attempted to meet task requirements by inappropriately using a lower order template. Implications for instruction in mathematics are discussed through reference to the basis for hierarchical ordering of schemata for area of a rectangle. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Three faces of intellect.

An analysis of human intelligence into its components is presented. "The preservation of our way of life and our future security depends upon our most important national resources: our intellectual… [and] creative abilities… . The discovery of the components of intelligence has been by means of the experimental application of the method of factor analysis." Factors may be classified according to: basic processes or operations (cognition, memory, convergent thinking, divergent thinking, evaluation), material or content (figural, symbolic, semantic), products (units, classes, relations, systems, transformations, implications). Major sections are: The Structure of Intellect, Some Implications of the Structure of Intellect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Probability learning with four event classes of schematic stimuli.

Describes 2 experiments with a total of 80 college students in which classification performance was explored using distorted patterns within a sequentially dependent temporal context. Visual stimuli representing 4 prototype classes were used. All Ss classified patterns by identifying each with 1 of 4 prototypes, and rated the similarity of each pattern to the prototypes. In addition, Ss in 2 groups predicted which pattern would occur next and indicated their confidence in that prediction. Stimulus classes were arranged so that there were sequential dependencies to be learned. Results indicate that both classification and prediction performance improved with sequence redundancy. Prediction performance improved during training, demonstrating that probability learning can occur even when the S is dealing with distorted patterns. Moreover, sequential dependencies in the stimulus sequence facilitated Ss' accurate classification of the patterns. (French summary) (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age and schematic differences in the reliability of eyewitness testimony.

Examined the reliability of eyewitness testimony for the crime of shoplifting as a function of age, prior knowledge/expectations, and type of memory test. Study 1, with 100 10-yr-olds, 100 undergraduates, and 65 older adults (mean age 72.3 yrs), was designed to empirically establish Ss' expectations for common and unusual occurrences in shoplifting. Results from a rating task indicate that Ss had expectations for common and unusual occurrences of objects and actions but not person characteristics. In Study 2, 32 10-yr-olds, 32 undergraduates, and 29 older adults (mean age 67.6 yrs) viewed videotapes of staged shopliftings incorporating high and low probability-of-occurrence actions and objects. Incidental memory was tested 1 wk later under recall and recognition test instructions. All Ss' reports were more complete, but less accurate, for high than low probability-of-occurrence information. Children's reports were as complete as but less accurate than younger adults'. Older adults' reports were less complete than but as accurate as college students'. Age differences were greatest for completeness of recall measures. Implications for theories of memory development and for the use of eyewitness testimony in legal situations are discussed. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pigeons discriminate continuous versus discontinuous line segments.

Three experiments examined various facets of the perception of continuous and discontinuous line segments in pigeons. Pigeons were presented with 2 straight lines that were interrupted by a gap. In some instances, the lines were the same angle and were positioned so that they appeared (to human observers) to form a continuous line. In other instances, the lines were different angles or the same angle but spatially misaligned. The birds were trained to classify each stimulus as continuous or discontinuous using a go/no-go procedure. A series of tests followed in which the birds received novel discontinuous displays made up of familiar line segments, continuous and discontinuous stimuli made up of novel line segments (novel straight lines or curved lines), and familiar displays in which the gap was covered with a gray square. Results from the tests indicated that 2 of the 3 pigeons had learned a continuous-discontinuous categorization and that they appeared to use the relationship between the 2 line segments in discriminating the displays. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Shared perceptual basis of emotional expressions and trustworthiness impressions from faces.

Using a dynamic stimuli paradigm, in which faces expressed either happiness or anger, the authors tested the hypothesis that perceptions of trustworthiness are related to these expressions. Although the same emotional intensity was added to both trustworthy and untrustworthy faces, trustworthy faces who expressed happiness were perceived as happier than untrustworthy faces, and untrustworthy faces who expressed anger were perceived as angrier than trustworthy faces. The authors also manipulated changes in face trustworthiness simultaneously with the change in expression. Whereas transitions in face trustworthiness in the direction of the expressed emotion (e.g., high-to-low trustworthiness and anger) increased the perceived intensity of the emotion, transitions in the opposite direction decreased this intensity. For example, changes from high to low trustworthiness increased the intensity of perceived anger but decreased the intensity of perceived happiness. These findings support the hypothesis that changes along the trustworthiness dimension correspond to subtle changes resembling expressions signaling whether the person displaying the emotion should be avoided or approached. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Angry faces are special too: Evidence from the visual scanpath.

Traditional models of face processing posit independent pathways for the processing of facial identity and facial expression (e.g., Bruce & Young, 1986). However, such models have been questioned by recent reports that suggest positive expressions may facilitate recognition (e.g., Baudouin et al., 2000), although little attention has been paid to the role of negative expressions. The current study used eye movement indicators to examine the influence of emotional expression (angry, happy, neutral) on the recognition of famous and novel faces. In line with previous research, the authors found some evidence that only happy expressions facilitate the processing of famous faces. However, the processing of novel faces was enhanced by the presence of an angry expression. Contrary to previous findings, this paper suggests that angry expressions also have an important role in the recognition process, and that the influence of emotional expression is modulated by face familiarity. The implications of this finding are discussed in relation to (1) current models of face processing, and (2) theories of oculomotor control in the viewing of facial stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual knowledge underlying letter perception: Font-specific, schematic tuning.

The representation of visual information about letters is proposed to be highly systematic. The system exploits regularities that are characteristic of letters and fonts by becoming tuned to the details of the font. This should result in efficient letter perception when the stimuli are regular, but not when the stimuli are irregular. The prediction of faster processing with a regular font, as compared with a mixed font, was examined in three experiments requiring the recognition of four-letter strings. Experiment 1 confirmed the prediction, and Experiment 2 replicated the effect with the number of "features" equated across conditions. Experiment 3 showed that the disadvantage for a mixture of fonts is related to how much the representational system must be adjusted to handle the different fonts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The many faces of literacy.

Reviews the book, Literacy, language, and learning by D. R. Olson, N. Torrance, and A. Hildyard (1985). Literacy, Language, and Learning has something to offer all students of language. Its breadth is achieved through an interdisciplinary analysis of both written and spoken forms of language. The focus is on the differences between these two language modalities and on the impact, on both society and the individual, of acquiring reading and writing skills. In a very real sense the book highlights the embarrassingly narrow appreciation of language shown by much work in cognitive psychology, particularly the work using an information processing orientation. This book has no lack of breadth, yet offers considerable depth of analysis in many chapters. Arguments are well supported with research and historical findings. The book is not particularly easy to read, but it is worth the effort, in this reader's view. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)