Showing papers in "American Journal of Psychology in 1973"
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TL;DR: When the range of stimulus intensities varies among perceptual continua, the judgmental range tends to be invariant whether the response continuum is number, force of handgrip, or sound-pressure level, related to the view that widely varying dynamic ranges are subjectively equal.
Abstract: When the range of stimulus intensities varies among perceptual continua, the judgmental range tends to be invariant whether the response continuum is number, force of handgrip, or sound-pressure level. These findings are related to the view that widely varying dynamic ranges are subjectively equal. Variation in stimulus range within a continuum is also inversely related to size of exponent, but does not reflect judgmental invariance. The intramodel effect is described by a revision of Stevens' law that specifies stimulus and response ratios as the key variables.
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TL;DR: Patterns of optical expansion during approach to a surface were simulated, and 20 men were asked to locate the focus of that expansion under different conditions, which casts doubt on J. J. Gibson's hypothesis of the importance of thefocus of expansion in locomotor control.
Abstract: Patterns of optical expansion during approach to a surface were simulated, and 20 men were asked to locate the focus of that expansion under different conditions. Errors were less when the pattern was framed and when the visual field was small. Further, the subjects located the focus with any real confidence and accuracy only at the fastest expansion rate (i.e., .5 sec before theoretical surface impact), which casts doubt on J. J. Gibson's hypothesis of the importance of the focus of expansion in locomotor control.
121 citations
TL;DR: This article showed that prior exposure to one sentence reduced reaction time to a second sentence, sometimes by as much as 600 msec, whenever the same subject noun was used, and they also found that exposure to 'A canary is a bird' reduced response time to other sentences about canaries.
Abstract: that the retrieval process consisted of at least two major steps: (a) entering the appropriate category and (b) finding the appropriate member of that category. Suppose now that we ask a subject to name a member of a category, and some time later ask him to name a different member of that category. Will the speed with which he retrieves the second instance depend at all on his having retrieved the first instance? Several recent lines of investigation suggest that producing an instance of a category will facilitate later production of another instance of that category. In one such investigation, Collins and Quillian (1970) presented sentences such as 'A canary is a bird' and required subjects to decide whether the sentences were true or false. Prior exposure to one sentence reduced reaction time to a second sentence, sometimes by as much as 600 msec, whenever the same subject noun was used. For example, prior exposure to 'A canary is a bird' reduced reaction time to other sentences about canaries.
120 citations
TL;DR: This paper aims to demonstrate the efforts towards in-situ applicability of the Bouchut-Boyaval–Boyaval method, which aims to provide concrete examples of concrete actions that can be motivated by a human being.
Abstract: Intentional behavior; an approach to human motivation , Intentional behavior; an approach to human motivation , کتابخانه دیجیتال و فن آوری اطلاعات دانشگاه امام صادق(ع)
119 citations
TL;DR: Spatial acuity was poor at low levels of stimulation and showed only modest improvement with increases in level of irradiance, but capacity to discriminate between a single field of warmth and two fields of warmth separated from each other by various distances increased.
Abstract: One experiment explored capacity to discriminate between a single field of warmth and two fields of warmth separated from each other by various distances. Discriminability, measured by d', increased with both interfield distance and level of irradiance. Spatial acuity was poor at low levels of stimulation and showed only modest improvement with increases in level of irradiance. Another experiment showed that irradiation of the ventral surface of the torso is sometimes confused with irradiation of the dorsal surface. Such gross errors of localization did not occur in the tactile sense.
TL;DR: Cross et al. as discussed by the authors reported an experiment in which subjects were better at recognizing faces they had previously identified as 'attractive' than those they had not so identified, and they did not present any evidence on that inspection time.
Abstract: The ability to identify the faces of people one has seen before is important in everyday life, and adults and children show a high level of performance in recognizing faces after a single presentation. For example, Yin (1969) found fewer errors in the recognition of faces than in the recognition of houses, airplanes, or stick figures. Scapinello and Yarmey (1970) reported that faces were remembered better than pictures of dogs and of buildings; and Goldstein and Chance (1970) noted that there was a higher proportion of faces recognized than of ink blots or photographs of snow crystals. While faces in general appear to be better remembered than other homogeneous pictorial material, some experimenters have noted that faces differ in their memorability. Cross, Cross, and Daly (1971) suggest that one characteristic distinguishing more memorable faces from less memorable ones is 'beauty.' They report an experiment in which subjects were better at recognizing faces they had previously identified as 'attractive' than those they had not so identified. Cross et al. required their subjects to scan an array of photographs to select the attractive faces, and while the authors reject an explanation of their results in terms of differences in time spent looking at faces of different attractiveness, they do not present any evidence on that inspection time. Cross et al. offer the hypothesis that attractive faces are more actively attended to, but studies in verbal learning indicate that evaluative judgments of words are associated with their ease of recall. Amster (1964) found that words evaluated as 'good' were recalled better than words
TL;DR: The continuity hypothesis as discussed by the authors proposes that retrieval in both modes is essentially the same, a joint product of the information stored in the past and that in the immediate environment, and that the continuity view is both more parsimonious and more fruitful than the discontinuity view.
Abstract: The discontinuity hypothesis is that recall and recognition are in some sense fundamentally different memory processes. The continuity hypothesis is that retrieval in both modes is essentially the same, a joint product of the information stored in the past and that in the immediate environment. Data from a simple experiment and a brief discussion of other studies in the literature support the proposal that the continuity view is both more parsimonious and more fruitful than the discontinuity view.
TL;DR: Findings and other evidence support the physical-correlate theory of sensory intensity and suggest that quantitative estimates of sensation are based not on the quantitative nature of sensory events as such but rather on the external events and relations they signify.
Abstract: The present study employed 600 subjects and extended earlier experiments under 'ideal' conditions to white noise. When known experimental biases were eliminated, half loudness was equal to half sound-pressure level (-6 dB) from 45 through 90 dB. The same simple relation held whether stimulation was through headphones or loudspeaker, and whether responses were numerical estimates or marks on a linear loudness scale. These findings and other evidence support the physical-correlate theory of sensory intensity and suggest that quantitative estimates of sensation are based not on the quantitative nature of sensory events as such but rather on the external events and relations they signify.
TL;DR: It was found that the spatial summation of warmth takes place primarily in the central nervous system and that the rules by which area and intensity trade to preserve a constant liminal or supraliminal sensation of warmth are basically the same for brief and longer exposures.
Abstract: It was found that the spatial summation of warmth takes place primarily in the central nervous system and that the rules by which area and intensity trade to preserve a constant liminal or supraliminal sensation of warmth are basically the same for brief (.5 sec) and longer (3 sec) exposures as well as for unitary (on one dermatome) and split (on two dermatomes) fields. Warmth approximated a power function of thermal intensity, but the size of the function's exponent depended systematically on the areal extent and therefore, like spatial summation, on central neural factors. A striking feature of the warmth sense is its capacity to sum the neural effects of thermal stimulation over large areas of skin-up to at least several hundred square centimeters. This spatial summation reveals itself in measurements of absolute threshold. Intensity of stimulation and its areal extent can be traded for each other to preserve a threshold sensation. The rule of trading approximates a reciprocity so that, for example, the effect of halving thermal irradiance can be offset by approximately doubling the stimulated area (Hardy and Oppel, 1937; Kenshalo, Decker, and Hamilton, 1967). Spatial summation reveals itself also in measurements of supraliminal warmth. Irradiance and area can be traded to preserve any constant level of warmth above the absolute threshold. (Often, two combinations of area and irradiance that have equal warmth appear virtually indistinguishable even in their subjective areal dimensions.) The rules for trading area and irradiance vary, however, with level of warmth. With increasing warmth, area makes an ever smaller proportional contribution to the warmth sensation; accordingly, it takes an ever larger proportional change in area to compensate for a given change in irradiance (Stevens and Marks, 1971). In other words, the degree of spatial summation declines with increasing warmth and may fail altogether at a high enough level. Spatial summation reveals itself also in simple reaction time to thermal
TL;DR: Coleman's (1963) discussion of acoustic data from listening settings suggests that distance should be perceived more accurately by moving one's head, and the particular pattern of binaural differences produced with head movement should specify the distance of that source.
Abstract: By actively moving his head a listener can increase the accuracy with which he localizes the source of a sound. There is good evidence for this when the listener is judging stimulus azimuth (Thurlow and Runge, 1967; Thurlow, Mangels, and Runge, 1967). Wallach (1940) presented a rationale for comparable facilitation in perceiving stimulus elevation, although subsequent empirical data have not always confirmed this (Roffler and Butler, 1968). Attempts to demonstrate facilitation from head movement in perceiving the distance of a sound's source have produced no such evidence. Yet Coleman's (1963) discussion of acoustic data from listening settings suggests that distance should be perceived more accurately by moving one's head. For distances of 15 ft or less, binaural differences in intensity and time of an arriving wavefront change with distance of the sound's source. Thus the particular pattern of binaural differences produced with head movement should specify the distance of that source.
TL;DR: The kinesthetic aftereffect was measured across 15 days and pre- and postinduction scores decreased across sessions for group I>T (inducing block wider than test block) and increased for groups I T and the positive one forgroup I T.
Abstract: The kinesthetic aftereffect was measured across 15 days. Pre- and postinduction scores decreased across sessions for group I>T (inducing block wider than test block) and increased for groups I T and the positive one for group I T), another group rubbed an inducing block narrower than the test block (group I
TL;DR: Motivation theory has been traced from its inception in Aristotle's thinking to the form it has assumed in contemporary work as discussed by the authors, where mental images of goal objects serve as motives by providing energization and direction.
Abstract: An extremely influential theory of motivation is traced from its inception in Aristotle's thinking to the form it has assumed in contemporary work. The ancient theory--that mental images of goal objects serve as motives by providing energization and direction - seemed to succumb to the Darwinian revolution in the nineteenth century, despite William James' attempt to save it, but then surreptitiously reappeared in behavioristic systems and has since openly surfaced in Mowrer's theory. Its treatment in contemporary physiological and cognitive psychology obviates the problems that led to its earlier abandonment.
TL;DR: The more specific goal was to infer the nature of the speech-production system that generates the speech errors known as synonymic intrusions, a class of behavioral hybrids that occur whenever a speaker begins with one expression and inadvertently continues with another expression having roughly equivalent meaning.
Abstract: The speech errors known as synonymic intrusions (e.g., 'sotally,' an inadvertent combination of initial word 'solely' and sequel word 'totally' in 'He was sotally responsible for that') suggest that two or more words can be simultaneously activated, competing for the same position in a sentence. Statistical analysis of 257 such intrusions showed that the intruding word (or phrase) was simpler than the initial one at the segment, syllabic, lexical, and at two syntactic levels. A hierarchic model for the serial production of speech, and more generally, for the study of other motor systems, is proposed. Speech errors place strong constraints on theories of speech production, since an adequate model of normal speech must also allow for those errors, as does the actual speech-production system. Conversely, an adequate explanation of speech errors must incorporate the general principles of normal speech production, in the sense that an explanation of the backfiring of an automobile engine must incorporate the general principles of internal combustion. The present study explores some of the implications of this metatheory for theories of speech production as well as other motor systems. Our more specific goal was to infer the nature of the speech-production system that generates the speech errors known as synonymic intrusions. Synonymic intrusions represent a class of behavioral hybrids that occur whenever a speaker begins with one expression (defined as the initial phrase or word) and inadvertently continues with another expression having roughly equivalent meaning. The intruding constituent is defined as the sequel phrase or word. Consider the synonymic intrusion 'I am together,' an inadvertent combination of 'I am with you' (initial phrase) and 'We are together' (sequel phrase). What must be explained in such combinations is why the initial phrase stops where it does. One might suggest that the speaker is switching his message or revising his meaning when he makes such errors. But the fact that the initial and sequel phrases are synonymic, or semantically
TL;DR: In this paper, subjects successfully acquired probability biases, which they then used in an information-processing task, and their opinion revision in information processing at low levels of prior probability bias was conservative; they were sometimes risky at high levels.
Abstract: In two experiments subjects successfully acquired probability biases, which they then used in an information-processing task. In general, their opinion revision in information processing at low levels of prior probability bias was conservative; they were sometimes risky at high levels. The amount of conservatism was related to the diagnostic impact of the data processed, and the prior probability bias affected the amount of information subjects bought for a decision favored by the bias.
TL;DR: The purpose of the present study was to extend the earlier observations on size discrimination to lengths of lines and to report that size discrimination on the skin has far more acuity than would be supposed from the previous literature on two-point thresholds.
Abstract: The ability to identify the longer of two straightedges placed along the volar surface of the forearm depended on the difference in length between the two lines and the absolute length of one of them (the standard). The difference limen increased slowly with the standard's length but was generally quite small, about 5/16 in., considerably smaller than the two-point limen for the same subjects and area of stimulation. With the straightedges placed across the arm, the difference limens were smaller yet. Ratio estimations (halving and doubling) suggest that subjective length depends on areal as well as circumferential (linear) aspects of the stimulus. The psychophysical literature on tactile perception concerns two-point thresholds, almost exclusively.' Some studies involve the perception of size or length by active manipulation with the fingers (Kelvin, 1954; Kelvin and Mulik, 1958). Others use lines or discs to contrast perception in different modalities, including skin senses (Jastrow, 1889; Lobb, 1965; Davidon and Mather, 1966). The discrimination of lines or discs passively impressed on the skin has only recently been made a subject of investigation. The first fact to be reported was that size discrimination on the skin has far more acuity than would be supposed from the previous literature on two-point thresholds (Vierck and Jones, 1969). Vierck and Jones used plastic cylinders impressed on a subject's skin as discs. In any one determination, two discs differing in diameter were presented to the subject, who was asked to say whether the first or the second was larger. The two investigators obtained difference limens ranging from 2 to 6 mm in diameter. For example, when the standard stimulus measured 25 mm in diameter, a test stimulus with a diameter less than 4 mm longer could be successfully discriminated 75% of the time. Since the two-point thresholds reported in the literature generally range upward of 40 mm, these difference limens were on the order of one-tenth as large. The purpose of the present study was to extend the earlier observations on size discrimination to lengths of lines. Several questions suggested themselves immediately. Are lines easier or more difficult to discriminate than discs? Does it matter whether the line's orientation on
TL;DR: The research reported below utilizes a simple methodology that makes it possible to investigate time-dependent performance within subjects, however, and leads to a novel observation that must be accounted for by any theory purporting to explain the phenomenon of retrograde amnesia.
Abstract: Systematic study of experimentally induced amnesia has accumulated considerable evidence in support of a trace-consolidation theory of memory (see McGaugh, 1966). The theory proposes that memory for events hinges on a time-dependent process in which traces of a perception are held temporarily in a short-term memory store and slowly made permanent through some unknown cerebral action. The direct measurement of the process is beyond present technological skill, and the existence of the construct is usually inferred from the consequences of interrupting the assumed process by one of a variety of amnesia-inducing events. Typically, training is given to a group of animals on a learning task and the amnesiainducing event (electroconvulsive shock) is introduced to independent random subgroups of the original group at several time intervals after the training. The time-dependent nature of this intraindividual process is then inferred from point estimates on a time gradient derived from the mean performance of these independent groups. The research we report below does not resolve any of the current issues surrounding consolidation theory. It utilizes a simple methodology that makes it possible to investigate time-dependent performance within subjects, however, and it leads to a novel observation that must be accounted for by any theory purporting to explain the phenomenon of retrograde amnesia. The method, essentially, was to closely observe the progress of amnesia in human subjects after a mild concussion-inducing blow, concussion being defined as transient confusion and/or motor incoordination.
TL;DR: Measured under a variety of conditions, the critical feature of the induction period for the kinesthetic aftereffect was found to be a distance between thumb and forefinger different from the width of the test block, and attended to by the subject.
Abstract: Measured under a variety of conditions, the critical feature of the induction period for the kinesthetic aftereffect was found to be a distance between thumb and forefinger different from the width of the test block, and attended to by the subject. A constant-stimulus technique (the group version of the up-and-down method) yielded aftereffects comparable to those obtained by the traditional adjustment method. Across testing days, there was a declining aftereffect with high reliability of pre- and postinduction scores but low reliability for the differences between scores (the aftereffect). The original studies of Kohler and Dinnerstein (1947) showed that the judged width of a test block could be altered by rubbing an inducing block, a phenomenon called the kinesthetic aftereffect. A more or less standard procedure has evolved in which subjects make several baseline judgments of the test block by grasping it with thumb and forefinger while using the thumb and forefinger of the other hand to find a position that feels equally wide along an elongated comparison wedge. Next, the one hand is shifted from the test block to the inducing block, which differs in width. After a period of rubbing the latter (induction period), the felt size of the test block is again assessed via the wedge. Data averaged across subjects generally show a size change that is termed contrast: the felt width of the test block after the induction period is altered in a direction opposite to the width of the inducing block. There are methodological problems associated with this wedge/adjustment method. An 'error of anticipation' is found; the subject stops too soon as he moves along the wedge (Costello, 1961; Blitz, Dinnerstein, and Lowenthal, 1966). It is usual for four judgments to be taken-two ascending the wedge, two descending the wedge-so that the average 'gets rid of' the error. The error may be statistical in that it is tied to the biased sampling procedure dictated by the adjustment method. Averaging is then justified. (See Herrick, 1969, who discusses the problem as it applies to the method of limits.) On the other hand, the sampling bias may be confounded with subject factors, which are disguised by the averaging process. In addition to the error, the time required to gather
TL;DR: The authors investigated the effects of language (Chinese or English), mode of stimulus presentation (visual or auditory), and noun frequency on short-term serial recall for Chinese and American subjects, finding that visual input facilitated learning for Chinese subjects but not for American subjects who learned faster with auditory input.
Abstract: An investigation of the effects of language (Chinese or English), mode of stimulus presentation (visual or auditory), and noun frequency on short-term serial recall indicated that visual input facilitated learning for Chinese subjectsbut not for American subjects, who learned faster with auditory input. This finding is discussed in terms of qualitative differences in basic memory processes versus quantitative differences in common learning parameters across the two language groups. The major results are seen as compatible with past findings on persuasion, on association, and on unit-sequence interference in immediate memory.
TL;DR: In this article, pairs of subjects learned to infer the state of a criterion variable from that of the cues, one linear and one nonlinear, in a two-cue inference task.
Abstract: Pairs of subjects learned to infer the state of a criterion variable from that of the cues, one linear and one nonlinear, in a two-cue inference task. The distribution of the cues' validities varied in five conditions. The subjects learned the systematic features of their tasks equally well in all conditions, but achievement was lower in the predominantly nonlinear ones, where subjects used the cues less systematically than they did in the predominantly linear conditions. The subjects also apparently gave too much weight to the communication from the other subject in the pair, and too little weight to the feedback from the task.
TL;DR: Postshift running speed was inversely related to magnitude of preshift reward, and the three shifted groups showed stable positive contrast relative to the unshifted control group.
Abstract: Four groups of rats were given 24 trials of training in a straight runway with 1, 2, 4, or 8 food pellets, and then shifted to 8 pellets. There was a 20-sec delay of reinforcement on each trial, to prevent a ceiling effect on running speeds. The three shifted groups showed stable positive contrast relative to the unshifted control group. Postshift running speed was inversely related to magnitude of preshift reward.
TL;DR: The continuous hue-estimation technique with restricted categories was used to determine the chromatic response functions of six deuteranomalous observers, indicating that the subjects did not always need four Chromatic response categories to describe the spectrum.
Abstract: The continuous hue-estimation technique with restricted categories was used to determine the chromatic response functions of six deuteranomalous observers T ce stimuli, 12 min in diameter, were presented as 12-msec foveal flashes The computed response functions indicate that the subjects did not always need four chromatic response categories to describe the spectrum: at low luminances, some did not need yellow; at high luminances, some did not need green, replacing it with white
TL;DR: The authors found that accurate specific recognition memory for sentences occurs when semantic intersentential relations are not present but virtually disappears when they are present, and that the relationship between specific memory and integrated recognition memory is ambiguous.
Abstract: Semantic 'relatedness' of sentences was manipulated in an attempt to clarify the relationship between specific recognition memory (Shepard, 1967) and integrated recognition memory (Bransford and Franks, 1970, 1971). Results indicate that accurate specific recognition memory for sentences occurs when semantic intersentential relations are not present but virtually disappears when they are present.