Seymour Wapner

Bio: Seymour Wapner is an academic researcher from Clark University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Perception & Tonic (physiology). The author has an hindex of 30, co-authored 129 publications receiving 3339 citations. Previous affiliations of Seymour Wapner include Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research.

Interference effects of Stroop color-word test in childhood, adulthood, and aging.

Abstract: (1962). Interference Effects of Stroop Color-Word Test in Childhood, Adulthood, and Aging. The Journal of Genetic Psychology: Vol. 100, No. 1, pp. 47-53.

The effect of danger upon the experience of time

Abstract: Studies on the interrelationship of space and time have demonstrated that when the time-interval between successive flashes of lights is kept constant while the physical distance between them is varied, the obsener's experience of elapsed time does not remain constant but varies with the physical distance.l A further question may be asked as to whether such space-time interrelationship also obtains if the psychological distance is changed through variations other than those of physical distance. Werner and Wapner developed a method of obtaining changes in psychological distance with physical distance held constant. They found that psychological distance changed under conditions of danger; e.g. when S walked toward and stopped short of a precipitous edge, he overestimated the distance he travelled, or stated another way, the edge appeared closer. The introduction of danger affected psychological distance even though physical distance was not changed.2 The purpose of this study was to determine whether the space-time interrelationship obtains when psychological space alone is changed. The presence of danger, known to aSect psychological distance, was introduced as the experimental condition. It was thought that changes in psychological distance, under conditions of danger, would be paralleled by changes in psychological time. More specifically, it was expected that since distance traversed is overestimated under conditions of danger, time elapsed wouId be overestimated under danger.

Modes of Experiencing and Adapting to Retirement

Abstract: Retirement is typically viewed as a monolithic event which affects all individuals in generally the same way. As a way of beginning to transcend stereotypic views and understand the complex reality of how individuals actually experience retirement, this study was directed toward identifying and describing diversity in modes of retirement adaptation. Twenty-four individuals, drawn from a range of occupational groups, were intensively interviewed one month prior to and six to eight months following retirement. Interview transcripts were analyzed using a phenomenological method which generates systematic descriptions of the structure of an individual's experience. Comparisons among these analyses yielded four distinct ways of conceptualizing and experiencing retirement--as a transition to old age, as a new beginning, as a continuation of preretirement life structure, and as an imposed disruption. Features of each of these patterns of adaptation are described and implications of these findings for preretirement planning and counseling are discussed.

Half a century of research on the Stroop effect: an integrative review.

Abstract: The literature on interference in the Stroop Color-Word Task, covering over 50 years and some 400 studies, is organized and reviewed. In so doing, a set of 18 reliable empirical finding is isolated that must be captured by any successful theory of the Stroop effect. Existing theoretical positions are summarized and evaluated in view of this critical evidence and the 2 major candidate theories ―relative speed of processing and automaticity of reading― are found to be wanting. It is concluded that recent theories placing the explanatory weight on parallel processing of the irrelevant and the relevant dimensions are likely to be more sucessful than are earlier theories attempting to locate a single bottleneck in attention

Working Memory, Comprehension, and Aging: A Review and a New View

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the theoretical and empirical literature that addresses aging and discourse comprehension. A series of five studies guided by a particular working memory viewpoint regarding the formation of inferences during discourse processing is described in the chapter. Compensatory strategies may be used with different degrees of likelihood across the life span largely as a function of efficiency with which inhibitory mechanisms function because these largely determine the facility with which memory can be searched. The consequences for discourse comprehension in particular may be profound because the establishment of a coherent representation of a message hinges on the timely retrieval of information necessary to establish coreference among certain critical ideas. Discourse comprehension is an ideal domain for assessing limited capacity frameworks because most models of discourse processing assume that multiple components, demanding substantially different levels of cognitive resources, are involved. For example, access to a lexical representation from either a visual array or an auditory message is virtually capacity free.

The Theory of Event Coding (TEC): a framework for perception and action planning.

Abstract: Traditional approaches to human information processing tend to deal with perception and action planning in isolation, so that an adequate account of the perception-action interface is still missing On the perceptual side, the dominant cognitive view largely underestimates, and thus fails to account for, the impact of action-related processes on both the processing of perceptual information and on perceptual learning On the action side, most approaches conceive of action planning as a mere continuation of stimulus processing, thus failing to account for the goal-directedness of even the simplest reaction in an experimental task We propose a new framework for a more adequate theoretical treatment of perception and action planning, in which perceptual contents and action plans are coded in a common representational medium by feature codes with distal reference Perceived events (perceptions) and to-be-produced events (actions) are equally represented by integrated, task-tuned networks of feature codes – cognitive structures we call event codes We give an overview of evidence from a wide variety of empirical domains, such as spatial stimulus-response compatibility, sensorimotor synchronization, and ideomotor action, showing that our main assumptions are well supported by the data

The prefrontal cortex

Abstract: The Prefrontal Cortex, Fifth Edition, provides users with a thoroughly updated version of this comprehensive work that has historically served as the classic reference on this part of the brain. The book offers a unifying, interdisciplinary perspective that is lacking in other volumes written about the frontal lobes, and is, once again, written by the award-winning author who discovered "memory cells," the physiological substrate of working memory. The fifth edition constitutes a comprehensive update, including all the major advances made on the physiology and cognitive neuroscience of the region since publication in 2008. All chapters have been fully revised, and the overview of prefrontal functions now interprets experimental data within the theoretical framework of the new paradigm of cortical structure and dynamics (the Cognit Paradigm), addressing the accompanying social, economic, and cultural implications. * Provides a distinctly interdisciplinary view of the prefrontal cortex, covering all major methodologies, from comparative anatomy to modern imaging* Unique analysis and synthesis of a large body of basic and clinical data on the subject (more than 2000 references)* Written by an award-winning author who discovered "memory cells," the physiological substrate of working memory* Synthesizes evidence that the prefrontal cortex constitutes a complex pre-adaptive system* Incorporates emerging study of the role of the frontal lobes in social, economic, and cultural adaptation