Showing papers on "Perceptual learning published in 1987"

The Learning Style Preferences of ESL Students.

Abstract: Following a review of the literature on learning styles and cognitive styles for both native speakers (NSs) and nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English, this article presents the results of a questionnaire that asked 1,388 students to identify their perceptual learning style preferences. Statistical analyses of the questionnaires indicated that NNS learning style preferences often differ significantly from those of NSs; that ESL students from different language backgrounds sometimes differ from one another in their learning style preferences; that other variables such as sex, length of time in the United States, length of time studying English in the U.S., field of study, level of education, TOEFL score, and age are related to differences in learning styles; and that modifications and extensions of ESL student learning styles may occur with changes in academic environment and experience. During the past decade, educational research has identified a

Sexing day-old chicks: A case study and expert systems analysis of a difficult perceptual-learning task.

Abstract: The sexing of day-old chicks has been regarded as an extraordinarily difficult perceptual task requiring years of extensive practice for its mastery. Experts can sex chicks at over 98% accuracy at a rate of 1,000 chicks per hour spending less than a half second viewing the cloacal region. Naive subjects were shown 18 pictures of cloacal regions of male and female chicks (in random appearing arrangement) and asked to judge the sex of each chick. The pictures included a number of rare and difficult configurations. The subjects were then instructed as to the location of a critical cloacal structure for which a simple contrast in shape (convex vs. concave or flat) could serve as an indicant of sex. When the subjects judged the pictures again (in a different order), accuracy increased from slightly above chance to a level comparable to that achieved by a sample of experts. The correlation (over items) between the naive subjects and the experts before instruction was .21; after instruction, .82. The instructions were based on an interview and observation of an expert who had spent 50 years sexing 55 million chicks. Much of the reported difficulty in developing perceptual expertise in this task may stem from the need to classify extremely rare configurations in which the convexity of the structure is not apparent. The rate of learning of these instances could be greatly increased through the use of simple instructions that specified the location of diagnostic contour contrasts. A parallel is drawn between learning to sex chicks and learning to classify tanks as friend or foe.

Specific auditory perceptual dysfunction in a learning disabled child.

Abstract: An 11 1/2 year old child with learning disability was evaluated with a battery of auditory and linguistic test procedures: electrophysiologic (auditory brain stem, middle latency response, and late potentials), electroacoustic (stapedial reflexes), and behavioral (measures of phonetic-phonologic, syntactic, and semantic processing) The overall pattern of results suggested the presence of an isolated auditory-phonologic processing disorder Results supported an auditory-perceptual, as opposed to a linguistic-cognitive, model of learning disability

Comparison of Visual Characteristics in Children With and Without Learning Difficulties

Abstract: This report compares the refractive status, visual acuity, binocular status, vergence/accommodation facility, perceptual skills, and ocular health of 261 children with learning difficulties (LD) and 496 No-LD children, all between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Data reveal that among conditions diagnosed routinely by optometrists, hyperopia and perceptual skills dysfunction were more prevalent in LD children and myopia in No-LD children. No other significant between-group differences were found.

Psychoeducational findings among children treated for phenylketonuria.

Abstract: Early treated phenylketonuric children who maintained a phe-restricted diet through age 10 were compared with those who discontinued the diet after age 6 on standardized tests of intelligence, school achievement, language, and perceptual skills Mean IQ, reading, and spelling test scores improved between ages 6 and 10 for the on-diet children in comparison to those who were off diet Mean scores on arithmetic, language, and perceptual skills, however, declined at a uniform rate for both groups Children with PKU scored significantly lower than did their non-PKU siblings on tests of visual perception and visual-motor skills We conclude that children with PKU should be maintained on a phe-restricted diet

Cognitive Contours and Perceptual Organization

Abstract: Contours perceived in the absence of a corresponding gradient in physical stimulation have been variously called subjective, illusory, virtual, and cognitive contours. For some time now, my students and I have been conducting quantitative and qualitative investigations of this phenomenon. While this chapter will focus on the effects of perceptual organization on subjective-contour perception, I would like to first briefly summarize our quantitative research in this general area.

Perceptual learning in visual category acquisition

Abstract: The attribute structure of a set of dot patterns was studied by having subjects segment (parse) the dots of each pattern into parts or subunits by drawing circles around groups of dots from each pattern. These parsing data were obtained for subjects who had no prior experience with the patterns and for subjects who had previously learned to identify the patterns as members of one of four categories. Analyses of the parsing data indicated that category learning increased the salience of large subunits that were similar in orientation for patterns that were members of the same category. This evidence for perceptual learning was obtained even when the category training procedure required learning to identify the patterns individually, suggesting that attribute abstraction and item learning are not incompatible. It was also obtained without an increase in overall intersubject agreement. The latter result led us to question the usefulness of intersubject agreement as an index of category knowledge.

Cognitive influences on the acquisition of route knowledge in children and adults

Abstract: Route learning is an essential, fundamental spatial phenomenon for a great number of species, including human beings. It is not surprising that psychologists—from the learning theorists of an era past to contemporary cognitive psychologists—have focused considerable attention on the acquisition of route knowledge. Understanding how route knowledge is acquired and utilized is an interesting spatial problem by itself, but it also represents a challenge to any general theoretical explanation of learning as a psychological phenomenon. Thus, learning theorists such as Hull and Tolman employed maze learning procedures not to study spatial behavior per se but to obtain data supporting a comprehensive theoretical account of learning. Similarly, contemporary cognitive psychologists, who work in a much more eclectic era than did the learning psychologists of decades past, examine route knowledge to demonstrate the conceptual utility of an hypothesized set of cognitive processes or type of knowledge structure.

Sound Separation and Auditory Perceptual Organization

Abstract: This paper describes a computer model that attempts to separate two simultaneous talkers Using such a model, a speech recognition system can improve its ability to recognize separate utterances made simultaneously by two different talkers In order to achieve this goal, the computer model’s algorithms were designed to functionally simulate the major steps that are performed by the human auditory system when processing multiple sound sources monaurally It is based on my belief that the human auditory system computes similar representations as the computer model, even if the physiological processes and representations that the auditory system uses differ slightly from those presented here

The Perception of Illusory Contours: A Skills Analysis

Abstract: In this chapter we set out to argue that an analysis in terms of perceptual skill is required for the perception of both illusory contours and real contours. Although there is already a tradition of studying the perception of real edges as a matter of perceptual skill (Gibson, 1969), this does not appear to have been done previously for illusory contours and shapes. It is expected that adoption of a skills analysis will cause light to be cast on the processes of perceiving both illusory and real contours.

A Hierarchy of Perceptual Training in Low Vision

Abstract: A growing concern in low vision care is whether people afflicted with a visual impairment can adapt to their condition and relearn to perform lost functional abilities. A purely sensory-physiological approach to this issue is restricted because 1) low vision patients often have below what is normally assumed as the basic necessary sensory input for many functional tasks (e.g. reading) and 2) in many cases, such an approach assumes a lack of plasticity past a critical period of acquisition. An alternative approach is that there is some useful plasticity or ability to relearn at all ages even though they may differ quantitatively and/or qualitatively.

Cognitive and Personality Characteristics of Experienced and Inexperienced Sonar Operators

Abstract: : Groups of Navy personnel with high, little, or no sonar experience were described and compared on a battery of a cognitive and personality measures. The experienced operator group was significantly stronger in visual- perceptual skills, high in positive life experiences, and low in negative life experiences and anxiety. The less experienced sonar trainees performed average or above average on all measures and had significantly high anxiety scores. Discriminant analyses using personality variables were more successful than using cognitive variables, yet classification of subjects into groups, further analyses revealed no meaningful difference between submarine and surface ship sonar operators. The results suggest that visual perceptual skills and certain personality characteristics which are distinctive in expert sonarmen may well have some predictive significance in sonar and warrant further research. Keywords: Selection, Attrition.

Perceptual Learning: Theory and Practice

Abstract: Perceptual learning is required in a number of different contexts. Certain paradigms have been found to speed this learning, others to slow if not altogether inhibit it. The objectives of this study are twofold. First, an experimental test is described of an alternative explanation or model of the finding that perceptual learning is facilitated in consistent mapping tasks, but not in varied mapping ones (Schneider and Shiffrin, 1977). Second, it is shown how the model can be used to select from a set of equally acceptable graphical or symbolic representations of an object that representation which minimizes the time it takes to find the object in a visual search task.

Perceptual learning of a non-focal color discrimination between ages three and six.

Abstract: A match-to-sample task and a preference-ranking procedure were used to provide predifferentiation experiences on a color discrimination of 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old children. Chronological age was the best predictor of task success. Six-year-olds averaged twice as many correct matches as 3-year-olds. Gender and predifferentiation experience were not significant as main effects or in interactions affecting test performance. There was no difference between scores of untrained and trained children. The predifferentiation experiences had no effect. The data suggest that the years between 3 and 6 may be an important period in the development of the perceptual abilities needed to discriminate among subtle differences in one hue. Boys' and girls' abilities seem to develop at the same rate during this age span.