bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The politics of knowledge in education
Authors: Rata Elizabeth
Published: September 2011

This article contributes to the growing social realist literature in the sociology of education. A world systems approach is used to explain the shift to the various forms of localisation, including the emphasis on experience in the curriculum, as a strategy of globalisation that contributes to the decline of universal class consciousness and progressive politics in the contemporary period. Limiting the curriculum to experiential knowledge limits access to a powerful class resource; that of conceptual knowledge required for critical reasoning and political agency. Knowledge that comes from experience limits the knower to that experience. The shift to localised knowledge fixes groups in the working class to a never ending present as schools that use a social constructivist approach to knowledge in the curriculum fail to provide the intellectual tools of conceptual thinking and its medium in advanced literacy that lead to an imagined, yet unknown, future.
International Federation of Journalists in Istanbul
Authors: Turkay Osman
Published: September 2011

Further light on the situation of the press was shed when the International Federation of Journalists (FIJ) held their 11th General Assembly in Istanbul in September last year. Osman Turkay, a Turkish-Cypriot writer living in this country, describes the proceedings.
Cat and mouse in the Ukraine
Authors: Swoboda Victor
Published: September 2011

A great deal is now known about the professional difficulties of dissident intellectuals in the Soviet Union and the publication problems of outspoken Russian writers. These have led to the rise of the phenomenon known as samizdat or ‘self-publishing’ in manuscript form. Far less, however, has been written about similar activities in the non-Russian parts of the Soviet Union, notably in the Baltic republics (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) and the Ukraine.

In the Ukraine the problems of the writers are intimately bound up with the problem of Ukrainian cultural independence and Ukrainian autonomy and are complicated by the political bogey of ‘nationalism’. But apart from this the Ukrainian writers' situation has much in common with that of their Russian colleagues, as is shown by a series of trials and by the ries of a samizdat journal, the Ukrainian Herald, that is remarkably similar to the Russian Chronicle of Current Events.

In our last issue we published an extract from Mykhaylo Osadchy's autobiographical novel The Mote in order to convey something of the flavour of today's literary life in the Ukraine, and now Victor Swoboda discusses some typical cases.
A Tiny, Unheard Voice
Authors: Royston Robert
Published: September 2011

This is the first of an occasional series of articles in which writers give a personal view of the situation in their own countries.
The BBC and the politicians
Authors: Dearlove John
Published: September 2011

On Sunday 15 July 1973, the BBC broadcast a programme headed A Question of Confidence in the series The People Talking. On 19 July, Sir Michael Swann, Chairman of the BBC, wrote a letter to the six MPs who took part expressing ‘regret’ about the programme, and advising them that the ‘Director-General is examining the possibility of mounting a further programme on this subject in which the issues would be discussed in a calmer atmosphere’. Next day, a letter critical of the stance adopted by Sir Michael Swann was sent to the same six MPs signed by more than 50 members of the General Features Department which had produced the programme. The Observer of 22 July reported that ‘a group of Governors took the view that the programme was so bad that only Mr Wilcox's dismissal would be an adequate response’. Later, the Director-General denied that discussions of this kind took place. In the following week it was reported that both the Association of Broadcasting Staff and the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians would ‘black any programme which the Corporation makes to atone for its recent “Question of Confidence” production’. At least one leader article (in the Guardian, 25 July) suggested that this case proved (yet again) the need for an independent broadcasting council.

This incident cannot be seen as an isolated controversy, but must be set in a wider context which raises and highlights questions of quite profound importance for the notion of public service broadcasting. In essence, these questions centre on the extent to which programme makers within the BBC are in a position to enjoy genuine independence from political influence in their coverage of politics and politicians. This leads to our ultimately needing to assess the role which public service broadcasting should assume in a democracy.
Austrian RTV under pressure
Authors: Konitzer Hanni
Published: September 2011

Vienna, like Paris, has recently witnessed a bitter struggle between the authorities and the head of the country's radio and television. Gerd Bacher, like his French counterpart Arthur Conte, has resisted attempts to curb the independence of the broadcasters. This is a slightly abridged translation of an article on the subject which appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 6 October 1973.
The tragedy of the Crimean Tartars
Authors: Turkay Osman
Published: September 2011

Cenghis Daĝci, with his nine best-sellers published by Varlik Yainevi, a leading Turkish publishing house, takes his place at the top of the list of successful Turkish novelists over the last twenty years. Two of his bulky works (1,019 pages) - Onlar da Insandi (‘They Too Were Human Beings’) and O Topraklar Bizimdi (‘Those Lands Belonged to Us’) - can be counted among the world's modern classics. Another two of his novels - Badem Dalina Asili Bebekler (‘Dolls Hanged on the Almond Tree’) and tlsiiyen Sokak (‘Cold Street’) - are said to be masterpieces of contemporary colloquial Turkish.

Daĝci is a Crimean Turk who writes in Turkish and publishes his books in Istanbul. He seems to have set himself the task of recording the tragedies of the Crimean Tartars under the Communist regime in the early years of the Soviet state (1920-36) from a critical realist's point of view. The genuine love of a writer towards his people enabled Daĝci to bring about his remarkable achievement. His own life is a sequence of contradictions and tragedies. When the war broke out he was a young university graduate. During the German invasion of the USSR he fought against the Nazis as a Red Army officer, and later against the Russians as a member of the Free Turkestan Army after he had been taken prisoner by the Germans. When the Russians advanced deep into Poland Daĝci, who had in the meantime been wounded, fled with the help of a Polish nurse to Italy by way of Czechoslovakia. By then the war was over and Cenghis Dagci decided to make his home in England.
Challenging the silence
Authors: Fugard Athol
Published: September 2011

The problems created by the policy of apartheid for the theatre in South Africa are discussed by the playwright, actor and producer Athol Fugard in this interview with Michael Coveney, Assistant Editor of Plays and Players (November 1973).

Athol Fugard was in London to produce his

play Sizwe Bansi Is Dead, which he had written in collaboration with the two actors taking part in it, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, and which has been very well received both at The Theatre Upstairs in London and on its tour of the provinces in November and December.
The International League for the Rights of Man
Authors: Stewart Shirley M.
Published: September 2011

From time to time index has published articles on the activities of various human rights organisations concerned with freedom of expression and related freedoms. Organisations dealt with in the past have included Amnesty International, The pen Club and the International Commission of Jurists, and we will include further organisations in this occasional series as opportunity and space allow.
Czechoslovakia Hypocrisy
Authors: Chomsky Noam
Published: September 2011

Below we print an open letter signed by 30 former Czechoslovak political prisoners, gaoled in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of 1968. The letter was published in The Times on 1 November 1974.
India: Two viewpoints
Authors: Ghosh Tushar Kanti , Irani C. R.
Published: September 2011

Two leading Indian journalists, Mr Tushar Kanti Ghosh and Mr C. R. Irani, published their views on the restrictions of India's press freedom in the CPU Quarterly. Mr Ghosh is the Editor of Amrita Bazar Patrika and, at 77, still active in international newspaper affairs. A former chairman of the Press Trust of India and past president of the Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society and the All-India Newspaper Editors Conference, he was head of the Indian section of the CPU for almost 20 years. Mr Irani, managing director of The Statesman and, like Mr Ghosh, a former leading official of the Press Trust of India and the Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society, was one of the first top journalists to raise his voice against government moves to regulate and dominate the press.

Below, we reprint the two articles in full.
Mexico: The Guessing Game
Authors: Taylor John
Published: September 2011

What happens to papers which print what the government doesn't want them to print but doesn't want to say that it doesn't want them to print it?
Recency Effects in Visual Memory
Authors: Broadbent Donald E. , Broadbent Margaret H. P.
Published: September 2011

A number of studies were conducted, in each of which a series of abstract visual patterns was presented, and the subject was then asked to choose which of two test items was in the list. The items contained specifiable visual features, and similarity could therefore be varied in a relatively known way. As in earlier studies by other workers with randomly generated patterns, a recency effect was obtained. However, this effect did not depend on similarity between the items in the list, or between them and an intervening activity. Such factors do in some cases affect the average level of performance, but not the magnitude of recency. Nor was recency abolished by tasks interposed between presentation and test. These findings suggest a general mechanism of short-term memory, rather than a specifically sensory one. However, the recency effect did depend on the similarity of location of items in the visual display. Thus there is some evidence for a specific sensory store, with items arriving more recently over-writing those which came earlier and which were similar in location.
On Varying the Span of Visual Attention: Evidence for Two Modes of Spatial Attention
Authors: Humphreys Glyn W.
Published: September 2011

Three experiments investigated whether subjects could selectively attend to a target item presented in close spatial proximity to a distractor element. Typically, the display consisted of two curved lines, one a target and the other a distractor. The task was to judge the direction of curvature of the target. When subjects attended to a target away from fixation, performance was affected by the presence of a distractor within an area of 1° around the target. In contrast, the distractor did not influence target processing when subjects fixated on the target location. Two modes of visual attention are proposed. When a target is located away from fixation, a “wide” attentional span is employed. With the present stimuli, this led to the detailed processing of items within 1° of the attended position. However, when targets are at fixation a “narrow” span can be adopted, with the result that there is differential processing of attended items even within the formerly critical area.
Intertrial Effects of Same-Different Judgements
Authors: Krueger Lester E. , Shapiro Ronald G.
Published: September 2011

Specific intertrial effects (repetition effects) and general intertrial effects (refractoriness or persisting attention to the preceding trial) were studied with the same-different judgment task, which dissociates the effects of response repetition and stimulus repetition. Response repetition alone did not facilitate performance. Stimulus repetition did aid performance, but mainly when accompanied by response repetition. Subjects tended to avoid the normal comparison process by using the (invalid!) “bypass rule” (Fletcher and Rabbitt, 1978): repeat the response if the stimulus or some aspect thereof (letter contents, size, position) is repeated from the preceding trial, otherwise change the response. As to general effects, partial refractoriness was evident at response execution, but not at earlier processing stages. Mean RT increased, but errors decreased, as the response-stimulus interval (RSI) between trials decreased. Presenting a new letter pair immediately after the preceding response produced a delay, but subjects used the waiting time, while the response system recovered or was redirected to the present trial, to improve the accuracy of their decision.
The Use of Abstract Graphemic Information in Lexical Access
Authors: Evett Lindsay J. , Humphreys Glyn W.
Published: September 2011

Three experiments investigated the nature of the information required for the lexical access of visual words. A four-field masking procedure was used, in which the presentation of consecutive prime and target letter strings was preceded and followed by presentations of a pattern mask. This procedure prevented subjects from identifying, and thus intentionally using, prime information. Experiment I extablished the existence of a semantic priming effect on target identification, demonstrating the lexical access of primes under these conditions. It also showed a word repetition effect independent of letter case. Experiment II tested whether this repetition effect was due to the activation of graphemic or phonemic information. The graphemic and phonemic similarity of primes and targets was varied. No evidence for phonemic priming was found, although a graphemic priming effect, independent of the physical similarity of the stimuli, was obtained. Finally Experiment III demonstrated that, irrespective of whether the prime was a word or a nonword, graphemic priming was equally effective. In both Experiments II and III, however, the word repetition effect was stronger than the graphemic priming effect. It is argued that facilitation from graphemic priming was due to the prime activating a target representation coded for abstract (non-visual) graphemic features, such as letter identities. The extra facilitation from same identity priming was attributed to semantic as well as graphemic activation. The implications of these results for models of word recognition are discussed.
Reading for Meaning: The Effects of Concurrent Articulation
Authors: Besner Derek , Davies Julia , Daniels Shona
Published: September 2011

Six experiments are reported which examine the assertion that phonological recoding for the purpose of lexical access in visual word recognition is prevented or impaired by concurrent articulation (“articulatory suppression”). The first section of this paper selectively reviews the literature, and reports two experiments which fail to replicate previous work.

The third experiment contrasts performance with visually presented words and with non-words. Latency measures show an effect of suppression that is specific to words, whilst error rates show an effect common to both words and non-words. The fourth experiment shows that if the task is changed from a judgement of rhyme (BLAME-FLAME) to one of homophony (AIL-ALE), the suppression effect seen in the latency data is eliminated, whilst error effects remain. It is suggested that, in addition to producing error effects that are not easily interpretable, suppression prevents or impairs a phonological segmentation process operating subsequent to the retrieval of whole word phonology (a process that is needed for rhyme judgement but not for one of homophony).

Experiment V shows that while suppression has no effect on the time taken to decide if printed non-words sound like real words (e.g. PALLIS), error rates increase. Experiment VI shows that suppression has no effect on either RT or errors in the same task if subjects suppress at a slower rate than in Experiment V.

It is suggested that there are at least two different phonological codes. Buffer storage and/or maintenance of phonologically coded information derived from print is affected by suppression; phonological recoding from print for the purpose of lexical access can be carried out without any interference from suppression.
The Scheduling of Text Integration Processes in Reading
Authors: Green D. W. , Mitchell D. C. , Hammond E. J.
Published: September 2011

In two experiments using a self-paced reading task we explored how readers schedule the processes involved in representing text. Experiment I showed that processes concerned with increasing the coherence of the representation occur at the ends of sentences. Experiment II provided evidence that readers can modify and evaluate their representation before a sentence boundary, contrary to the type of processing scheme exemplified by H. H. Clark's Given-New strategy (Clark and Clark, 1977). A modification of the strategy is considered which renders it compatible with the data.
Priming and the Effects of Sentence and Lexical Contexts on Naming Time: Evidence for Autonomous Lexical Processing
Authors: Forster K. I.
Published: September 2011

Models of language processing which stress the autonomy of processing at each level predict that the semantic properties of an incomplete sentence context should have no influence on lexical processing, either facilitatory or inhibitory. An experiment similar to those reported by Fischler and Bloom (1979) and Stanovich and West (1979, 1981) was conducted using naming time as an index of lexical access time. No facilitatory effects of context were observed for either highly predictable or semantically appropriate (but unpredictable) completions, whereas strong inhibitory effects were obtained for inappropriate completions. When lexical decision time was the dependent measure, the same results were obtained, except that predictable completions now produced strong facilitation. In a further experiment the inhibitory effects of context on lexical decision times for inappropriate targets were maintained, even though unfocussed contexts were used, in which no clear expectancy for a particular completion was involved. These results were interpreted in terms of a two-factor theory which attributes the facilitation observed with the lexical decision task to postaccess decision processes which are not involved in the naming task. The inhibitory effects were attributed to interference resulting from semantic integration. In contrast to the results for sentence contexts, lexical contexts of the doctor-nurse variety produced clear facilitation effects on naming time (but no inhibitory effects). It was also shown that relatively minor variations in the type of neutral context could completely alter the relative importance of facilitation and inhibition.
Rightward Superiority of Eye Movements in a Bimanual Aiming Task
Authors: Honda Hitoshi
Published: September 2011

To examine the role of visual monitoring in the between-hand differences in skilled manual movements, eye movements and performance during bimanual aiming tasks were analysed. When subjects were required to make bimanual aiming responses to symmetrically placed targets, they preferentially monitored the movements of the right hand, resulting in better performance on the right hand. In addition, manipulation of the subject's gaze showed that the movements of the right hand were more influenced by visual monitoring than those of the left hand. The results were interpreted as showing that the between-hand differences in skilled movements are mainly due to the different efficiency in the use of visual monitoring.
Short-Term Forgetting and the Articulatory Loop
Authors: Vallar Giuseppe , Baddeley Alan D.
Published: September 2011

Two experiments explored the role of subvocal articulatory rehearsal in the Peterson short-term forgetting task. In the first of these, subjects recalled consonant trigrams after an interval of 0, 5 or 15 s during which they either counted backwards in threes, suppressed articulation by continuously uttering the word “the”, or in a third control condition continuously tapped on the table. While counting backwards caused the usual dramatic forgetting, tapping caused no forgetting, and articulatory suppression only minimal forgetting at the longest delay. A second study used the same procedure but included only two conditions, articulatory suppression during the retention interval and articulatory suppression during both input and retention. Neither showed evidence of forgetting over the 15 s delay. These results suggest that covert speech is not necessary for rehearsal in short-term verbal memory. As such they call for a re-evaluation of the nature and function of rehearsal.
The Uninterpretability of Categories on Degenerated Scales: A Comment on Howard on Comparisons
Authors: Gregson Robert A. M.
Published: September 2011

Results of Howard (1980) on analogue versus category encodings of occupational status comparison judgements are shown to be compatible with an alternative scaling model that makes no assumptions about hierarchical orderings of strategies, but instead uses some local distance properties on a continuum. It is indicated that the univariate case chosen by Howard cannot be unequivocally identified from the data and assumptions given, but that some ancillary postulates and experimental results would be needed. An alternative empirical system without the properties of social status or class ratings could be a better object of study.
The Relationship between Types of Feedback, Gain of a Display and Feedback Precision in Acquisition of a Simple Motor Task
Authors: Patrick J. , Mutlusoy F.
Published: September 2011

Three experiments are reported which investigate the role of concurrent and terminal feedback in the acquisition of a discrete positioning task. Experiments I and II compare the efficiency of concurrent visual feedback (CVF) and terminal visual feedback (TVF) as training methods when the gain of the visual display is varied from 1:1 to 4:1. There is a consistent interaction between feedback method and gain of the display over the recall trials. Concurrent visual feedback is inferior to terminal visual feedback at a gain of 4:1 in Experiment I and when the displayed and actual movement directions differ (Experiment II). Experiment III explores the relationship between concurrent and terminal feedback when feedback is of a digital form and its precision is varied. Concurrent feedback is worse as a training method although there is no interaction between feedback method and precision of feedback. These findings are discussed in the light of a variety of factors which could contribute to the inferiority of concurrent feedback as a training method.
Complex Movement Patterns: Learning Retention and Sources of Error in Recall
Authors: Bairstow Phillip J. , Laszlo Judith I.
Published: September 2011

In this study of kinaesthesis, the learning, retention, and recall of complex patterns was examined. Subjects were blindfolded, held a stylus in the right hand, and moved around stencil patterns, either actively or passively. The patterns were recalled with a free active movement of the right hand, after various amounts of practice, immediately or after a 60–s interval, once or twice in succession, with and without visual guidance. The shape and size of the drawings was compared with the criterion patterns. The effect of practice varied depending on whether the criterion movement was active or passive, and on the measure of recall performance. Even when the criterion patterns were freely practised, the recall traces showed large errors in shape and systematic shrinkage in size, and there were large individual differences. Regardless of these errors, recall performance was reliable. The effect of an unfilled retention interval varied as a function of practice. When the patterns were recalled under visual guidance, there was no shrinkage in the size of the drawings.
Interaction and Analogy in the Comprehension and Appreciation of Metaphors
Authors: Sternberg Robert J. , Nigro Georgia
Published: September 2011

Two experiments tested a theory of information processing in metaphoric comprehension and appreciation. According to this theory, certain kinds of metaphors are based upon underlying analogies, and the processing components used to interpret these metaphors are highly similar to those used in the interpretation of analogies. A difference in the two kinds of information processing, however, is in an interaction of tenor and vehicle in the interpretation of a metaphor; a comparable interaction is not as likely in the interpretation of the domain (first half) and range (second half) of an analogy. In the first experiment, modelling of latencies for comprehending analogies and corresponding metaphors showed that information processing was similar, but not identical, in the two tasks. In the second experiment, comparisons between different metaphoric forms showed that the proposed theory could account for ratings of the aptness and comprehensibility of various metaphors, and that making clearer the identities of the terms of the analogy underlying a metaphor and the nature of interaction between tenor and vehicle increases both the aptness and the comprehensibility of a metaphor.
Metacognitive Experience and Transfer of Logical Reasoning
Authors: Berry Dianne C.
Published: September 2011

The experiments examine the influence of metacognitive experience on the transfer of logical processes in a problem solving setting. Subjects were presented with two versions of Wason's (1966) selection task. Although they were able to perform successfully on the concrete tasks (following a minimal explanation of the correct solution on an initial trial), the majority were not able to transfer a successful method to the abstract tasks. Verbalization during, or following, the concrete tasks produced substantial transfer effects however. It is suggested that verbalization may lead to an increased awareness of past behaviour, particularly of those aspects necessary for successful solution.
Influence of Context on the Activation and Selection of Ambiguous Word Senses
Authors: Oden Gregg C. , Spira James L.
Published: September 2011

The activation of ambiguous word senses was investigated by measuring the amount of interference in naming the ink color of a word that was either related or unrelated to one of the meanings of a preceding ambiguous word. In agreement with previous results obtained using this procedure (Conrad, 1974), evidence was obtained that both meanings of the ambiguous words are activated even in the presence of biasing context. However, contrary to previous findings, the degree of activation of each word sense depended on its degree of compatibility with the context. These results are consistent with a language processing system in which all interpretations of an ambiguity are accessed and then processed until an accurate determination has been made of which interpretation best satisfies the syntactic and semantic constraints that govern it.
Cross Modality Facilitation in Tachistoscopic Word Recognition
Authors: Clarke Robert , Morton John
Published: September 2011

In its old form, the logogen model (Morton, 1969) would have predicted extensive cross-model facilitation of tachistoscopic word recognition. An experiment by Winnick and Daniel (1970) violated this prediction by showing no effects on subsequent visual word recognition of naming a picture or filling a definition. The latter results was replicated, and it was also found that pretraining with handwritten words transferred to printed words from 10-45 min later. A further experiment showed no significant transfer from auditory presentation to subsequent visual recognition. A third experiment, designed to minimize the role of conscious guessing strategies showed a significant cross-model transfer. The logogen model was modified substantially in the light of these data. There are now seen to be modality specific input categorization systems which are separate from the output lexicon and which are identified as the site of facilitation in the experiments.
Linguistic Impairment after Left Hemidecortication for Infantile Hemiplegia? A Reappraisal
Authors: Bishop D. V. M.
Published: September 2011

It is now widely accepted that patients who have undergone left hemidecortication for infantile hemiplegia have subtle linguistic deficits. It is argued that the evidence supporting this view is weak, and that many of the “deficits” of left hemidecorticates fall in the normal range of performance.
Visual Dissociations of Movement, Position, and Stereo Depth: Some Phenomenal Phenomena
Authors: Gregory Richard L. , Heard Priscilla F.
Published: September 2011

Helmholtz (1867) described as “irradiation” the apparently greater size of a white compared with a dark square, or disc or whatever of the same physical size. The illusory size difference is reversed at low contrasts (Weale, 1974). It is also known that rapid increases in brightness gives apparent movement (gamma movement), though there is no agreed explanation for either phenomenon.

When narrow bordering stripes are added, further systematic phenomena occur. With intensity modulation of an edge-striped grey rectangle, which has a dark stripe on the left side and a light stripe on the right (which is similar to figures used by Stuart Anstis and Brian Rogers), the entire figure shifts, with reversed motion when the background luminance is modulated. By presenting a pair of such figures, mirror reversed one to each eye and fused stereoscopically, the question may be asked: Do these illusory shifts produce stereo depth? The answer is surprising: stereo is produced-but at the cross-over with luminance of the central grey rectangle with the background the depth change is opposite to that given by normal, non-illusory, opposed lateral shifts. We interpret this anomalous stereo depth as a switch of which edges of the stripes are fused, with the change of relative contrast of the edges of the dark and light stripes as the figure-background contrast is changed.

Measures of static shift, lateral movement, and stereo depth, give somewhat different functions. These are considered in terms of different signalled positions, stereo depth, and movement. This study brings out the importance, for explaining such perceptual anomalies, of distinguishing between neural signal channel characteristics and which stimulus features from the display are selected and accepted for perception. Although conceptually clearly distinct these are all too easily confused in psycho-physical experiments.
The Contribution of the Thumb to Reaching Movements
Authors: Wing Alan M. , Fraser Carole
Published: September 2011

Transport of the hand towards an object and the formation of grasp are logically separable components of reaching. It has been suggested that, although the two components must be temporally co-ordinated, their spatial parameters are under the control of independent visuo-motor channels. A case study of reaching by a proficient user of a manually-operated artificial hand is presented. A pattern of natural hand usage was observed in which the index finger rather than the thumb was responsible for reduction of grasp aperture as the hand approached an object. The same pattern of usage was also observed in the artificial hand even though the mechanics of that hand make it no easier to move the finger than the thumb. This suggests that the relative stability of the thumb in the natural hand is determined, not simply by anatomy, but by a role in guiding the transport component of reaching. At least part of the spatial aspect of grasp formation is closely related to the transport component of reaching and this is evidence against theories postulating two independent visuo-motor channels controlling the spatial parameters of grasp and transport.
Visual Control of Discrete Aiming Movements
Authors: Wallace Stephen A. , Newell Karl M.
Published: September 2011

An experiment is reported which investigated the visual control of discrete rapid arm movements. Subjects were required to move as rapidly as possible to several target width-movement distance combinations under both visual and non-visual conditions. The movement time (MT) data were supportive of Fitts' Law in that MT was linearly related and highly correlated to the Index of Difficulty (ID). MT was also similar for different target width-distance combinations sharing the same ID value. The error rate analysis, which compared visual to non-visual Performance, indicated that vision was only used, and to varying degrees, when MT exceeded 200 ms (3.58 ID level). There was some evidence that vision was differentially used within target width-distance combinations sharing the same ID. Estimates of endpoint variability generally reflected the results of the error rate analysis. These results do not support the discrete correction model of Fitts' Law proposed by Keele (1968).
The Communication of Musical Metre in Piano Performance
Authors: Sloboda John A.
Published: September 2011

Six pianists of varying levels of experience were required to give repeated performances of a note sequence presented for sight-performance under two conditions. The two conditions differed only in the location of metrical stresses signified by the notation. In condition (b) the bar-lines and beams were shifted one note to the right in comparison to condition (a). Details of note duration and intensity were recorded by computer. This allowed the discovery of significant differences in expressive treatment between the two conditions. There were significant agreements between subjects concerning the position, nature and direction of expressive variation. The more experienced players, however, made greater use of expressive variation than did the less experienced players. In a second experiment listeners were asked to identify the metre of each performance from the first experiment. They achieved greatest success at this with the most experienced player, least success with the least experienced player. A detailed examination of between-performer agreements and disagreements, and their effects on listeners, allowed the isolation of a proposed set of generally effective procedures for signalling stress. These procedures imply the existence of an internal representation guiding performance which identifies the major metrical subdivisions of a bar in the absence of notational symbols specifically marking these subdivisions.
The Temporal Course of Visual Pattern Encoding: Effects of Pattern Goodness
Authors: Howe Edmund S. , Brandau Cynthia J.
Published: September 2011

Subjects typically display superior reproduction of good (redundant, symmetrical) visual patterns compared with poor ones. This pattern goodness effect could conceivably involve encoding processes, short-term memory processes, or response processes. The present experiments explored the time course of wholistic encoding of Garner dot patterns as a function of tachistoscopic exposure time, delay of backward masking, and post-mask shadowing. Within the specific framework of additive factors theory, Experiment I showed: (a) equal rates of encoding for all patterns since comparable slopes were obtained for the recall X processing time functions; and (b) superior absolute recall for good patterns since different intercepts were obtained. Experiment II demonstrated that when degree of encoding was initially equalized for all patterns, the rate of extraction of further information remained constant over available processing time and was unaffected by pattern goodness, slopes and intercepts for good versus poor patterns then being equal. Experiment III confirmed that, given some fixed duration of available processing time, information is abstracted at the same rate for all pattern regardless of the ratio stimulus display time to delay of mask onset. Experiment IV indicated that maintenance rehearsal normally occurs in the present experimental situation, and that very good patterns are somewhat less disrupted by shadowing over a three-second interval. While STM is thus implicated in the pattern goodness effect it does not follow that STM constitutes a complete explanation of the intercept differences reported here. Empirical evidence of response bias toward production of good patterns, however, was not found. It was shown that very good patterns are highly familiar and nameable, and proposed that they do consequently have an early encoding advantage.
The Accessibility of Pronominal Antecedents as a Function of Episode Shifts in Narrative Text
Authors: Anderson A. , Garrod S. C. , Sanford A. J.
Published: September 2011

One of the characteristics of connected discourse is that entities introduced are often referred to again at a later point. Such anaphoric reference clearly necessitates a memory representation of the prior text, so that the new reference can be established as coreferential with the old. In this paper, a distinction is made between people introduced in a narrative who depend upon a particular setting in order to be interpreted (scenario-dependent entities), and those who do not (main characters). It is argued that the availability of representations of these two types of character in working memory will depend upon whether the text indicates a change in setting to have occurred. Two experiments are described which show that dependent entities become less available if a change has occurred, while main characters are not so affected. The first study uses incidence of mention in a passage continuation procedure as an index of availability, while the second uses reading time and question-answering latencies. The experiments rule out any simple view that availability depends only upon how far back in the text a character was mentioned, and illustrate how passage of time in a narrative serves as a cue for recognizing the end of an episode.
Instantiation in Skilled and Less Skilled Comprehenders
Authors: Oakhill Jane
Published: September 2011

Previous research has shown that adults tend to infer particular meanings of words, according to their context, a process that has been termed instantiation. An experiment was carried out to investigate the relation between 7 to 8 year olds’ skill at reading comprehension and their ability to instantiate. A cued recall paradigm was used: the subjects were presented with a series of short sentences, and either the general noun that had appeared in the original sentence, or a particular noun that fitted the context, was given as a cue. The results showed that both skilled and less skilled comprehenders recalled the original sentences equally well, given the original nouns, but that the performance of the skilled group was superior when they were given the particular word cues, indicating that the skilled comprehenders were instantiating more readily. An independent test showed that their superior performance was not attributable to their better general knowledge.
Thresholds for Movement Direction: Two Directions are Less Detectable than One
Authors: Mather George , Moulden Bernard
Published: September 2011

Thresholds for detecting movement direction were measured for two different types of dynamic dot display; first, one in which all dots moved upwards, and secondly, one in which half the dots moved upwards and half moved downwards. Direction sensitivity was found to be worse for the stimulus containing two simultaneous directions of motion than for the stimulus in one direction. These data are taken as evidence of some form of competition, or AND-NOT gating, between the outputs of direction-specific analysers during threshold determination.
The Effects of Problem Content and Negation on Wason's Selection Task
Authors: Griggs Richard A. , Cox James R.
Published: September 2011

The present study examined performance on Wason's selection task for two types of thematic content that have been shown to lead reliably to correct responding in this task. The four versions of the implication rule that are possible when negative components (antecedent and consequent) are allowed were used. This permitted a test of the hypothesis that matching bias and verification bias are cognitive short-circuiting strategies which are used when subjects have no prior experience with the problem content. In support of this hypothesis, facilitation was observed for the negated thematic rules when compared to performance on negated abstract rules. In addition, neither matching bias nor verification bias explained very well the data for negated abstract rules which were recodable into non-negative form. For both thematic and abstract problems, a fairly substantial percentage of the selections were unaccounted for with respect to processing strategy.
Grouping Frequency Components of Vowels: When is a Harmonic not a Harmonic?
Authors: Darwin C. J. , Sutherland N. S.
Published: September 2011

When one harmonic of a vowel starts before and stops after the others, its contribution to the vowel's phonetic quality is reduced. Two experiments demonstrate that this reduction cannot be attributed entirely to adaptation. The first experiment shows that a harmonic that starts at the same time as a short vowel but continues after the vowel has ended contributes almost as little to the vowel's phonetic quality as a harmonic that starts before but stops at the same time as the vowel. The second experiment shows that the small contribution to vowel quality of a harmonic that starts before a vowel can be increased by adding an additional tone that will in turn form a perceptual group with that part of the harmonic preceding the vowel. The experiments demonstrate that some perceptual grouping operations are performed before the first formant of a vowel is estimated from the amplitudes of its component harmonics.
On the Relationship between Task Performance and Associated Verbalizable Knowledge
Authors: Berry Dianne C. , Broadbent Donald E.
Published: September 2011

Three experiments explore the relationship between performance on a cognitive task and the explicit or reportable knowledge associated with that performance (assessed here by written post-task questionnaire). They examine how this relationship is affected by task experience, verbal instruction and concurrent verbalization. It is shown that practice significantly improves ability to control semi-complex computer-implemented systems but has no effect on the ability to answer related questions. In contrast, verbal instruction significantly improves ability to answer questions but has no effect on control performance. Verbal instruction combined with concurrent verbalization does lead to a significant improvement in control scores. Verbalization alone, however, has no effect on task performance or question answering.
Primed Lexical Decision: Combined Effects of the Proportion of Related Prime-Target Pairs and the Stimulus-Onset Asynchrony of Prime and Target
Authors: de Groot Annette M. B.
Published: September 2011

Lexical decisions to word targets preceded by associatively related word primes are generally faster than those to words following neutral primes, whereas, under certain circumstances, lexical decisions to words preceded by unassociated word primes are slower than those to words following neutral primes. An experiment is reported that investigates the influence of the proportion of related prime-target pairs in the set of materials and of the stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) of prime and target on these associative priming effects. Four levels of proportion and three levels of SOA are systematically varied. Both variables are found to affect the size of the associative priming effects. Furthermore, the data suggest interdependence between them. The magnitude of priming only varies with SOA if the proportion of related pairs is relatively large. In contrast, the amount of priming varies with proportion under all SOA conditions. The data are interpreted primarily in terms of two contextual processes, viz., “prime-induced attentional processing” and “post-lexical coherence checking”.
Effects of Chlorpromazine and Promazine on the Perception of Some Multi-Stable Visual Figures
Authors: Phillipson O. T. , Harris J. P.
Published: September 2011

Chlorpromazine (CPZ) and promazine were studied for their effects on the reversal rate and dominance of aspect of several multi-stable (ambiguous) visual figures. The normal perception of some versions of the Schröder Staircase and the Man/Woman figure was biased towards one aspect and CPZ increased this bias compared with saline and promazine. There was a tendency for both CPZ and promazine to lower reversal rate. The results are discussed in relation to explanations of perceptual reversal and some implications are suggested for understanding the functional deficits of schizophrenia.
Associative Blocking of the Mccollough Effect
Authors: Westbrook R. F. , Harrison W.
Published: September 2011

After exposure to two simultaneously presented achromatic grids (A and B) on a coloured field, subjects reported colour aftereffects on each of the separately presented grids. These aftereffects were shown to be examples of the McCollough effect, since they were contingent upon the subjects having experienced the grid in combination with the coloured field. Exposure to the coloured field in advance of combining the colour field with the grids attenuated the strengths of the aftereffects on the A and B grids. Moreover, exposure to the A grid on the coloured field in advance of combining the B grid with the A grid on the coloured field abolished the aftereffect on the B grid. The failure of the B grid to arouse the aftereffect was due to the presence of the already trained A grid, since exposure to the A grid on the coloured field followed by exposure to the B grid on that field yielded the aftereffect on the B grid. The conditions under which the McCollough effect was attenuated are those under which learning fails to occur in Pavlovian conditioning procedures. The results, therefore, supported the view that the pairing between the grids and the colour resulted in a learned association between the grids and some aspect of the response by the visual system to the colour.
Bilingual Biscriptal Deep Dyslexia
Authors: Byng Sally , Coltheart Max , Masterson Jacqueline , Prior Margot , Riddoch Jane
Published: September 2011

Studies of deep dyslexia in Japanese patients, and of non-word reading by deep dyslexic readers of alphabetic scripts, suggest a general principle that reading that depends on the mapping of characters onto phonological segments (phonemes in the case of alphabetic scripts, syllables in the case of syllabaries) is impossible in deep dyslexia.

We describe a case of deep dyslexia in a patient who premorbidly could read English and Nepalese. As the latter is written in the syllabic Devanagari script, this case may be used to explore the generality of this principle. It would be expected that reading Nepalese words written in the syllabic script would be more difficult than reading English words written in the Roman alphabet. In oral reading tasks this was the case, even though Nepalese was the patient's first language. However, further studies showed that he could understand Nepalese words written in the syllabic script at least as well as English words written in the Roman alphabet, and that he could read aloud Nepalese words written in the Devanagari script, provided he was allowed to respond in English. In addition, naming of pictures was much worse in Nepalese than in English. Therefore this patient's difficulties in reading Nepalese aloud were output difficulties, not difficulties in reading a syllabic script.

We argue that the superiority of expressive speech in English over expressive speech in Nepalese arose because the patient had had intensive speech therapy in English and no speech therapy in Nepalese. We also conclude that his reading performance demonstrates that the reading of syllabic scripts is not necessarily abolished in deep dyslexia. The inability of Japanese deep dyslexics to read aloud or comprehend the syllabic script kana is thus not simply a function of this script being a syllabary. This inability therefore remains to be explained.