Publisher Summary Attribution theory is concerned with the attempts of ordinary people to understand the causes and implications of the events they witness. It deals with the “naive psychology” of the “man in the street” as he interprets his own behaviors and the actions of others. For man—in the perspective of attribution theory—is an intuitive psychologist who seeks to explain behavior and draw inferences about actors and their environments. To better understand the perceptions and actions of this intuitive scientist, his methods must be explored. The sources of oversight, error, or bias in his assumptions and procedures may have serious consequences, both for the lay psychologist himself and for the society that he builds and perpetuates. These shortcomings, explored from the vantage point of contemporary attribution theory, are the focus of the chapter. The logical or rational schemata employed by intuitive psychologists and the sources of bias in their attempts at understanding, predicting, and controlling the events that unfold around them are considered. Attributional biases in the psychology of prediction, perseverance of social inferences and social theories, and the intuitive psychologist's illusions and insights are described.

The Intuitive Psychologist And His Shortcomings: Distortions in the Attribution Process1

Sensations of color show a strong correlation with reflectance, even though the amount of visible light reaching the eye depends on the product of reflectance and illumination. The visual system must achieve this remarkable result by a scheme that does not measure flux. Such a scheme is described as the basis of retinex theory. This theory assumes that there are three independent cone systems, each starting with a set of receptors peaking, respectively, in the long-, middle-, and short-wavelength regions of the visible spectrum. Each system forms a separate image of the world in terms of lightness that shows a strong correlation with reflectance within its particular band of wavelengths. These images are not mixed, but rather are compared to generate color sensations. The problem then becomes how the lightness of areas in these separate images can be independent of flux. This article describes the mathematics of a lightness scheme that generates lightness numbers, the biologic correlate of reflectance, independent of the flux from objects

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Lightness and Retinex Theory

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The Perception of the Visual World. By James J. Gibson. U.S.A.: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1950 (George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., London). Price 35s.

On perceptual readiness.

A comprehensive mathematical model to account for colour constancy is formulated. Since the visual system is able to measure true object colour in complex scenes under a broad range of spectral compositions, for the illumination; it is assumed that the visual system must implicitly estimate and illuminant. The basic hypothesis is that the estimate of the illuminant is made on the basis of spatial information from the entire visual field. This estimate is then used by the visual system to arrive at an estimate of the (object) reflectance of the various subfields in the complex visual scene. The estimates are made by matching the inputs to the system to linear combinations of fixed bases and standards in the colour space. The model provides a general unified mathematical framework for related psychophysical phenomenology.

A spatial processor model for object colour perception

The problem of how three-dimensional form is perceived in spite of the fact that pertinent stimulation consists only in two-dimensional retinal images has been only partly solved. Much is known about the impressive effectiveness of binocular disparity. However, the excellent perception of threedimensional form in monocular vision has remained essentially unexplained. It has been proposed that some patterns of stimulation on the retina give rise to three-dimensional experiences, because visual processes differ in the spontaneous organization that results from certain properties of the retinal pattern. Rules of organization are supposed to exist according to which most retinal projections of three-dimensional forms happen to produce three-dimensional percepts and most retinal images of flat forms lead to flat forms in experience also. This view has been held mainly by gestalt psychologists. Another approach to this problem maintains that the projected stimulus patterns are interpreted on the basis of previous experience, either visual

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The kinetic depth effect.

The precedence effect in sound localization.

Brightness constancy and the nature of achromatic colors.

In a previous paper the writer has demonstrated that a distinct localization of sound exists for directions which do not fall into the horizontal plane but lie above or below at varying elevations, in other words that a discrimination of directions with respect to above and below and front and back is possible as well as discrimination with respect to right and left which has been studied for many years. It was found that only a head movement during the presentation of the sound affords an adequate discrimination of sound direction in the dimension of above and below and thus makes localization complete. This is probably the reason why sound localization with respect to above and below has not been demonstrated in the laboratory at an earlier time. The paper referred to gives an analysis of the manner in which a complete perception of a sound direction is achieved with the help of a head movement. The binaural cues on which sound localiza1 The writer wishes to express his gratitude to Prof. W. Koehler and to Dr. Mary Henle for their help in preparing this manuscript. • Ueber die Wahrnehmung der Schallrichtung. Psychol. Forsch., 22, pp. 238-266 (I). A short English report on the same work has been published in the / . Acoust. Soc. Amer., 1939, pp. 270-74 (II). The two papers will be referred to as I and II respectively. In the present paper the writer has attempted to present the material in such a way that it can be understood without knowledge of the previous papers. While paper II lacks theoretical discussion it may be useful for a quick reference to previous experimental results.

Hans Wallach

Papers

The kinetic depth effect.

The precedence effect in sound localization.

Brightness constancy and the nature of achromatic colors.

The role of head movements and vestibular and visual cues in sound localization.

Über visuell wahrgenommene Bewegungsrichtung