Visual processing and infant ocular latencies in the overlap paradigm.

Young infants have repeatedly been shown to be slower than older infants to shift fixation from a midline stimulus to a peripheral stimulus. This is generally thought to reflect maturation of the neural substrates that mediate the disengagement of attention, but this developmental difference may also be attributable to young infants' slower processing of the midline stimulus. This possibility was tested with 3- and 7-month-old infants in 2 experiments in which the degree of familiarity of the midline stimulus was manipulated across repeated trials. The results of these experiments demonstrated that the processing of midline content does affect infants' ocular latencies to a peripheral stimulus but that developmental differences in such processing do not account for developmental differences in disengagement seen across the 1st year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Salience of visual patterns in the human infant.

In 3 experiments, 350 10-mo-old infants were familiarized on a simple frame containing 2 horizontally placed circles and dishabituated on a variety of transformations on the standard. Results show that transformations that increased the sizes of the circular elements or changed their spatial arrangement from horizontal to vertical produced significant increases in attention. However, changes in number of circles, shape of the internal elements, and placement outside the frame did not produce dishabituation, despite the discriminability of these changes. It is suggested that the infant may be biologically prepared to award salience to increased size and changes in the horizontal–vertical placement of elements. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of stimulus complexity and familiarization time on infant preferences for novel and familiar stimuli.

Measures of visual fixation (VF) and of focused manipulation of an array of familiar and of novel toys were evaluated for 32 8-mo-olds and 32 12-mo-olds for whom both arrays contained 3 toys and 32 12-mo-olds for whom both arrays contained 5 toys. Prior to testing, half of the Ss in each group had been habituated to the familiar array, whereas the other half had been familiarized but interrupted before habituation could be completed. Results show that habituated Ss in each group preferred to look at and manipulate toys in a novel array. In contrast, interrupted Ss preferred toys in a familiar array, but only if the array was complex relative to age (3 toys for 8-mo-olds and 5 toys for 12-mo-olds) and only with the focused manipulation measure. If the stimulus was simple and/or the response measured was VF, interrupted Ss showed no preference for either array. Findings provide evidence of a progression from familiarity preference to novelty preference that is not tied to a particular age but occurs repeatedly as new stimuli are encountered. Age-related changes are present, however, in the effective complexity of the stimuli, the amount of familiarization, and the form of response necessary to elicit the progression. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of attention on infants' preference for briefly exposed visual stimuli in the paired-comparison recognition-memory paradigm.

This study examined the effect of attention on 3- to 6-mo-olds' responses to briefly exposed visual stimuli. In Study 1, stimuli presented at 2.5 or 5.0 s resulted in a familiarity preference in a subsequent paired-comparison procedure. A novelty preference was found with 10.0- or 20.0-s exposure durations. In Study 2, a Sesame Street movie elicited heart-rate-defined attention phases and stimuli replaced Sesame Street during sustained attention, attention termination, or 5.0 s following attention termination. For 20 and 26-wk-olds, stimuli presented for 5.0 s during sustained attention resulted in a novelty preference similar to that found when exposure time was 20.0 s. The duration of stimulus exposure during sustained attention in the familiarization phase was positively correlated with the preference for the novel stimulus in the paired-comparison procedure. Thus, processing of briefly presented visual stimuli differs depending on the type of attention in which the infant is currently engaged. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of priming, discriminability, and reinforcement on reaction-time components of pigeon visual search.

Pigeons searched computer screens for 1 of 4 letter targets among 55 alphanumeric distractors. In Experiment 1, valid-cue trials used distinctive patterns to signal the subsequent appearance of specific targets, whereas ambiguous-cue trials used a signal common to all targets. Search reaction times (RTs) after valid cues were shorter than after the ambiguous cue; increased target discriminability also reduced RT. In Experiment 2, when reinforcement for 2 targets shifted from 10% to 20%, RTs to those targets dropped, whereas RTs to the other 2 targets rose. RT distributions suggested that precues and discriminability both affect the momentary probability of finding a target, as embodied in the decay constant of an underlying exponentially distributed RT component. Reinforcement changes appeared to affect different components of the response process, embodied in changes in the mean of an underlying lognormal distribution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of supervisors' sex and level of authoritarianism on evaluation and reinforcement of blind and sighted workers.

Describes an experiment with 60 male and 60 female undergraduates selected on the basis of their scores on the Forced-Choice F scale (N. Berkowitz and G. Wolkon, 1964). Use of a factorial design, with authoritarianism and sex of Ss and vision of workers as the factors, revealed that blind workers were rewarded significantly more than sighted workers for identical performance and that no significant main effects occurred for level of authoritarianism and sex. No significant 2- or 3-way interactions were found. Although sex and level of authoritarianism affected attitudes toward the blind, they did not appear to affect reinforcement behavior. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The dimensionality of visual complexity, interestingness, and pleasingness.

Applied the Shepard-Kruskal multidimensional scaling technique to judgments of complexity, interestingness, and pleasingness with visual patterns as stimulus material. After a principal-axes rotation, 2 dimensions were found to account for 90% of the variance with respect to complexity and interestingness, and 3 dimensions accounted for almost 90% of the variance with respect to pleasingness. There was a high degree of inter-S consistency, and distance ratings with regard to the 3 properties were significantly intercorrelated. Values assigned to patterns on the 1st complexity dimension, which apparently represents "information content," were significantly correlated with values along the 1st interestingness and pleasingness dimensions. Values on the 2nd interestingness dimension were significantly correlated with values on the 2nd complexity dimension and on the 2nd pleasingness dimension. The results with 60 undergraduates confirm that judged complexity is a major determinant of judged interestingness and judged pleasingness and that Ss tend to agree on the relative locations of stimulus patterns in the spaces that govern interestingness and pleasingness judgments, even though the regions that they find most interesting or pleasing may differ. (French summary) (40 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of structure in infant visual pattern perception.

In Exp 1, 15 infants (aged 4 mo 2 days to 5 mo 9 days) were presented with a symmetrical (SYP) and an asymmetrical pattern (ASP), using a paired comparison preference technique. The SYPs represented vertical, horizontal, 2-fold, and 4-fold symmetry (SYM). 15 infants (aged 3 mo 29 days, to 5 mo 16 days) in Exp 2 additionally viewed patterns with 8-fold SYM, using the same procedure as Exp 1. Ss preferred patterns with multiple axes of bilateral SYM relative to ASPs. Also, vertically oriented single axis bilateral SYM was more salient than horizontally oriented SYM. The perception of structure appears to be basic to the functioning of the visual system. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of visual and body movement information in infant search.

Three experiments investigated the use of visual input and body movement input arising from movement through the world on spatial orientation. Infants between 9.5 and 18 months participated in a search task in which they searched for a toy hidden in 1 of 2 containers. Prior to beginning search, either the infants or the containers were rotated 180*; these rotations occurred in a lit or dark environment. These experiments were distinguished by the environmental cues for object location; Experiment 1 used a position cue, Experiment 2 a color cue, and Experiment 3 both position and color cues. Accuracy was better in Experiments 2 and 3 than in Experiment 1. All studies found that search was best after infant movement in the light; all other conditions led to equivalently worse performance. These results are discussed relative to a theoretical characterization of spatial coding focusing on the uses of spatial information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical examination of visual and social responses in infant rhesus monkeys.

Obtained normative data from a battery of tests (e.g., pupillary response, sound localization, orienting, and face reaction) administered to evaluate simple visual functions in 15 infant rhesus monkeys. Visual responsiveness was limited to simple reflexes in the 1st days of life, but it developed rapidly. By the 2nd wk, Ss reached for objects and responded socially to faces with both gaze aversion and lipsmacking. However, social responsiveness developed differently in males and females: Males responded to faces with lipsmacking 4 days after responding with gaze aversion, while females showed both responses for the 1st time on the same day. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of sex and sex role attributions on the ear advantage in dichotic listening.

The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and a dichotic listening task were administered to 30 participants in order to investigate the effect of polar sex (male, female) and spectral sex (masculinity, femininity) on hemispheric interactions. The dichotic pairs consisted of the consonant-vowel syllables Bee, Dee, Gee, Pee, Tee, and Kee. Although overall performance was the same across groups, women demonstrated smaller right ear advantages than men, due primarily to smaller right ear scores. Less masculine men also had smaller right ear advantages than more masculine men, but this difference was due primarily to greater left ear scores. These results were interpreted both in terms of the callosal relay and direct access models of hemispheric processing. Based on these interpretations, it was suggested that sex and sex role attribution have similar, but not identical effects on interhemispheric relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in the effectiveness of stimulus intensity on infant visual attention.

Tested the hypothesis that the effectiveness of stimulus intensity declines with age. Stimulus intensity was manipulated by varying the size of pairs of bull's-eye and striped patterns. 50 infants from 6 wks to 24 wks of age were shown 18 pairs of stimuli in which there were 5 different sizes of each pattern. Infants 10 wks and younger responded on the basis of size, looking more at the larger sizes. The older Ss looked more at the bull's-eye regardless of its size or the size of the striped pattern paired with it. Possible mechanisms underlying this shift are discussed, and the concept of stimulus intensity is considered. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social reinforcement with children as a function of CA, sex of E, and sex of S.

The interactive effect of sex on the performance of Ss at varying ages was investigated. The performance (in a game) of Ss at 3 age levels (3-4, 6-7, 9-10) was reviewed after exposure to male or female E. Sex of E had a statistically significant effect at the 3-4 level only, women being more effective in stimulating performance than men. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4FC47S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond the reinforcement principle: Another step toward understanding sex role development.

40 21–25 mo olds participated in ongoing play groups (with almost equal numbers of boys and girls in each group of 12–25 children) while observers studied them and noted the reactions of both peers and teachers to behaviors that could be identified and coded as male, female, or neutral. Teachers, both female and male, responded primarily to the category of behavior. Regardless of the sex of the child, they gave positive reactions to behaviors that were female-preferred or neutral but seldom to those that were male-preferred. Responses among the peer group were more complicated. Girls responded more positively to other girls than to boys, regardless of the category (male, female, or neutral) of the behavior. Boys responded to the category of the behavior and to the sex of their peer and gave more positive responses to other boys when the boys were engaged in male-preferred activities. Both girls and teachers were effective in changing the behavior of other girls, but neither could influence boys to change; boys were effective in influencing other boys but not in influencing girls. It is suggested that although reinforcements do appear to affect the likelihood of a behavior continuing, other factors must be at work, for behaviors are maintained even under conditions of no responses, and, most important, the reinforcements themselves are most effective when they have been processed in terms of gender. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Searching for signs, symbols, and icons: Effects of time of day, visual complexity, and grouping.

Searching for icons, symbols, or signs is an integral part of tasks involving computer or radar displays, head-up displays in aircraft, or attending to road traffic signs. Icons therefore need to be designed to optimize search times, taking into account the factors likely to slow down visual search. Three factors likely to adversely affect visual search were examined: the time of day at which search was carried out, the visual complexity of the icons, and the extent to which information features in the icon were grouped together. The speed with which participants searched icon arrays for a target was slower early in the afternoon, when icons were visually complex and when information features in icons were not grouped together to form a single object. Theories of attention that account for both feature-based and object-based search best explain these findings and are used to form the basis for ways of improving icon design. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of visual cliff discrimination by infant hooded rats.

2 experiments investigated the development of visual cliff discrimination in 360 infant hooded rats. Normal visual cliff responses were seen 2 days after eye opening, at about 16-17 days of age. These findings are in agreement with physiological experiments showing that visually evoked responses attain adult characteristics at about the same time. Normal visual cliff behavior was found to deteriorate after this age if animals could utilize tactual information. In Exp II, repeated experience with the visual cliff, under conditions where tactual information was used, had effects difficult to evaluate. Some animals avoided the shallow side of the cliff while others did not. These differences seem to be related to the developmental age of the animals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of vicarious reinforcement in normal and severely disturbed children.

In the 1st study, 40 5–7 yr old children (Stanford-Binet IQ 107–236) were engaged in pairs in a laboratory task during which the experimenter delivered social reinforcement to one child; the other child in the dyad received no direct reinforcement. In the 2nd study, 14 severely disturbed 5–7 yr old hospitalized children (Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale or Bayley Scales of Infant Development MA 23–38 mo) were engaged in a naturalistic setting in which one was reinforced and the other was not. Results of both studies were similar. Although observation of another S being reinforced initially improved the performance of the nonreinforced Ss, their performance levels decreased over time and resembled those observed when extinction procedures are used. Findings are discussed in terms of modeling, discriminative cue, and extinction hypotheses as they relate to the effects of vicarious reinforcement. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Basal ganglia damage and impaired visual function in the newborn infant

AIM: To examine the effects of early lesions in the visual pathway on visual function; and to identify early prognostic indicators of visual abnormalities. METHODS: The visual function of 37 infants with perinatal brain lesions on magnetic resonance imaging was assessed using behavioural and electrophysiological variables. RESULTS: Normal visual behaviour was observed in most infants with large bilateral occipital lesions, but all the infants with associated basal ganglia involvement had abnormal visual function. Visual abnormalities were also present in six infants with isolated basal ganglia lesions. CONCLUSIONS: These observations suggest that basal ganglia may have an integral role in human visual development and that their presence on neonatal MRI could be an early marker of abnormal visual function.     

Effects of social reinforcement on the level of abstraction in schizophrenics.

This study was designed to investigate (1) the effects of the nature of contingent vs. noncontingent social reinforcement upon the level of abstraction in schizophrenics as measured on a proverbs task, (2) the generalization of this behavior to another verbal conceptual task administered under neutral conditions, and (3) the predictive and construct validity of the Ullmann-Giovannoni Process-Reactive Self-Report Scale. 64 male schizophrenics were assigned to 4 treatment groups: contingent positive, noncontingent positive, contingent negative, and control. The results indicated that only the contingent positive Ss significantly increased their level of performance on the proverbs task and showed generalization. The other 3 groups showed no significant differences. Validity evidence for the Process-Reactive Scale and marital status was obtained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)