bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Definition and Identification of Housing Submarkets
Authors: Watkins Craig A
Published: August 2002

Although it is widely accepted that urban housing markets are too complex to be described by unitary market, equilibrium models, the role of submarkets has not been embraced in applied research. In this paper it is argued that this is unsurprising and can be traced to the failure to establish a theoretical or empirical basis for submarket modeling. I note that, throughout the housing economics literature, the term ‘submarket’ is subject to a range of definitions; the means of identifying submarkets has varied; empirical analyses have employed differing tests; and case studies have focused on a range of different cities and different time periods. This inconsistency has prevented the development of a coherent analytical approach. By using data from the Glasgow housing market a range of alternative definition and identification schemes are compared. The evidence suggests that submarkets are important and that, rather than being based exclusively on the similarity of property characteristics or geographical contiguity, the dimensions of housing submarkets are determined by both spatial and structural factors simultaneously.
Measuring Neighbourhood Spatial Accessibility to Urban Amenities: Does Aggregation Error Matter?
Authors: Hewko Jared , Smoyer-Tomic Karen E , Hodgson M John
Published: August 2002

Neighbourhood spatial accessibility (NSA) refers to the ease with which residents of a given neighbourhood can reach amenities. NSA indicators have been used to inform urban policy issues, such as amenity provision and spatial equity. NSA measures are, however, susceptible to numerous methodological problems. We investigate one methodological issue, aggregation error, as it relates to the measurement of NSA. Aggregation error arises when, for the purpose of distance calculations, a single point is used to represent a neighbourhood, which in turn represents an aggregation of spatially distributed individuals. NSA to three types of recreational amenities (playgrounds, community halls, and leisure centres) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is used to assess whether aggregation error affects NSA measures. The authors use exploratory spatial data analysis techniques, including local indicators of spatial association, to examine aggregation-error effects on NSA. By integrating finer resolution data into NSA measures, we demonstrate that aggregation error does affect NSA indicators, but that the effect depends on the type of amenity under investigation. Aggregation error is particularly problematic when measuring NSA to amenities that are abundant and have highly localized service areas, such as playgrounds. We recommend that, when analyzing NSA to these types of amenities, researchers integrate finer resolution data to indicate the spatial distribution of individuals within neighbourhoods better, and hence reduce aggregation error.
Regional Networking of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Japan and Germany: Evidence from a Comparative Study
Authors: Braun Boris , Gaebe Wolf , Grotz Reinhold , Okamoto Yoshiyuki , Yamamoto Kenji
Published: August 2002

In this paper we compare the regional network relationships of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the mechanical engineering and related metal manufacturing industries in Japan and Germany. We show that the structure of network relationships is still largely determined by traditional forms of the organization of production, despite convergent developments. The network relationships of SMEs in Japan are thus very largely determined by a hierarchically organized system of production. By contrast, the German SMEs almost always have far more scope for strategic action than their Japanese counterparts because they are less dependent on large companies and have their own distinctive images in the final markets. In both countries, cooperative network relationships are on the increase. However, reregionalization as postulated in the flexible specialization hypothesis does not appear to be a dominant trend in either Japan or Germany.
Ecosocialisation and Environmental Planning: A Polanyian Approach
Authors: Low Nicholas
Published: August 2002

Karl Polanyi provided a theoretically astute guide to the political economy of the developed world in the 20th century. He left us with important concepts that can inform thought and action in the 21st century. Most importantly his work brings together a critical understanding of society, nature, and economy and can therefore provide conceptual keys to placing that elusive concept ‘ecologically sustainable development’ in the broad flow of social change. In this paper I sketch a Polanyian approach to environmental planning, foregrounding the concept of ‘ecosocialisation’. I move from a discussion of our present situation through an analysis of ecological modernisation and eco-Marxist theory, retrieving some insights and revealing some lacunae. A Polanyian analysis of questions of social change is then outlined. Its implications for environmental planning are explored.
The Quasi-Symmetric Side of Gravity Modelling
Authors: Bavaud François
Published: August 2002

Many properties of gravity models are sole consequences of the quasi-symmetry condition or its avatars. We investigate here quasi-symmetry per se, in contrast to geographical tradition, which has been more focused on the exogenous socioeconomic and spatial conditions. In particular, the ‘size – utility – accessibility’ parameterization of migration counts turn out to rely exclusively upon the quasi-symmetry of flows. Various facets of quasi-symmetry are presented and put in correspondence with Markov chains theory, Bradley – Terry – Luce decision theory, the Weidlich – Haag model, and alternative classical statistical models (marginal homogeneity, symmetry, independence). Existing as well as presumably new estimation and model selection procedures (maximum likelihood, minimum discrimination information, maximum entropy, generalized power divergence, least squares and logarithmic least squares) are discussed in a way which unifies different traditions in gravity modelling.
Reforming Adult Education: Struggles over the British State Strategy of Learndirect
Authors: Tooke Jane
Published: August 2002

The state is increasingly understood as a collection of institutions that are continually reforming as a result of multiple influences. As a consequence, the form of the state is by no means coherent or stable. One type of influence shaping this ongoing reformation is state institutions themselves, for example, the continuing struggles over public service provision in the United Kingdom. It is this kind of internal state reformation with which this paper is concerned. The paper explores the shift within the British state towards ‘governance’ entailing the transfer of state activities to ‘nonstate’ organisations. It focuses on an initiative called Learndirect that is part of this transition and its local articulation in east London. It applies strategic relational state theory as a way to simultaneously consider the order and the contingency of processes surrounding this initiative. This reveals tensions between different spatial scales of the institutions involved and the struggles that ensue. The paper highlights the power relations shaping the form Learndirect is taking and how this privileges the provision of particular kinds of services. It is argued that analysing these networks of power can help to uncover the ways in which some institutions exert influence over others so as to enlist support for a particular agenda. At the same time, the author is careful to stress that politics is always an open-ended space; consequently, the state form that results is never completely knowable, but neither is it completely random.
Territorial Policies and Transformative Politics? Agri-Environmentalism in Central Spain
Authors: Clark Julian R A , Jones Alun
Published: August 2002

Increasingly, geographers are adopting so-called ‘new institutional’ approaches in order to examine scalar processes of socioeconomic and political restructuring. The authors build on this development by showing how a new institutional analysis of policy implementation transcending different politico-geographic scales might be undertaken. Using contemporary public policy theories, they show how new institutional analyses can be fine-tuned to identify common scalar themes for detailed examination at local through to supranational scales. Drawing on a case study of agri-environmental policy implementation in central Spain between 1992 and 1998, the authors use this nuanced new institutional approach to elucidate the flows of knowledge, territorial representation, and power between multiscalar policy elites. They demonstrate how the interplay between the political strategies of these scalar elites, and the presence of ‘historically sedimented’ institutional forms in the central Spanish region of Castilla la Mancha, have shaped local agri-environmental policy outcomes.
Algebras and Grammars for Shapes and their Boundaries
Authors: Krstic Djordje
Published: August 2002

A special kind of shape algebra is defined for concurrent computations with shapes and their boundaries, together with related shape grammars. Some new types of shape grammar are defined and classified.
From Isovists to Visibility Graphs: A Methodology for the Analysis of Architectural Space
Authors: Turner Alasdair , Doxa Maria , O'Sullivan David , Penn Alan
Published: August 2002

An isovist, or viewshed, is the area in a spatial environment directly visible from a location within the space. Here we show how a set of isovists can be used to generate a graph of mutual visibility between locations. We demonstrate that this graph can also be constructed without reference to isovists and that we are in fact invoking the more general concept of a visibility graph. Using the visibility graph, we can extend both isovist and current graph-based analyses of architectural space to form a new methodology for the investigation of configurational relationships. The measurement of local and global characteristics of the graph, for each vertex or for the system as a whole, is of interest from an architectural perspective, allowing us to describe a configuration with reference to accessibility and visibility, to compare from location to location within a system, and to compare systems with different geometries. Finally we show that visibility graph properties may be closely related to manifestations of spatial perception, such as way-finding, movement, and space use.
The Implications of Eu Accession for Polish Smes
Authors: Smallbone David , Piasecki Bogdan , Rogut Anna
Published: August 2002

Poland's membership of the EU will involve economic integration across a variety of fields, with important potential implications for the external environment in which business is conducted in Poland. These implications stem first from the need to adapt Polish legislation, regulatory systems, and methods of certification and standards to EU requirements; and, second, from the continuing process of transforming the Polish economy into a market-based system. Although integration processes have important potential implications for Polish firms of all sizes, it can be argued that there are size-related characteristics of SMEs that can affect their ability to cope with potential threats and respond to new opportunities presented. The paper draws on two studies commissioned by the Polish SME Foundation, in which the authors were involved. The first was concerned with a comparison of the conditions for SME development in Poland with those in EU member states; the second specifically with the implications of accession for Polish SMEs. In this context, the paper considers three key questions: (1) What are the main sources of threat and opportunity for Polish SMEs, arising out of EU membership? (2) What are the main implications for Polish and EU policymakers? (3) To what extent are the implications of Poland's accession to the EU similar to or different from the issues faced by SMEs in the United Kingdom at the time of Single Market completion?
Local Sourcing by Multinational Enterprise Plants: Evidence from the UK Regions and the Implications for Policy
Authors: Crone Mike
Published: August 2002

New empirical evidence on local sourcing by multinational enterprise plants in two UK regions (Yorkshire and The Humber and Northern Ireland) is presented and compared with evidence from other UK regions. The proportion of material inputs sourced locally is generally quite low in both regions and is broadly in line with that observed elsewhere. The scope for increasing the level of local sourcing through policy intervention is then examined and the suitability of various policy models for the UK regions is considered. A number of obstacles to greater local sourcing are identified including the sourcing strategies employed by multinationals and problems of availability, capacity, and competitiveness in local supply bases. The scope for policy intervention, it is argued, is quite limited but supplier-development policies designed to tackle issues of supplier capacity and competitiveness have greater potential than simple ‘brokering’ services.
Should Cities Help their Citizens to Adopt ICTs? On ICT-Adoption Policies in European Cities
Authors: van den Berg Leo , van Winden Willem
Published: August 2002

In this paper we argue that large cities can benefit from higher levels of adoption of ICT (information and communication technology) among the population. We develop an analytical framework permitting the analysis, assessment, and comparison of urban ICT-adoption stimulation policies. The frame is applied to four types of ICT-adoption policy, pursued in different European cities: The Hague, Eindhoven, Helsinki, and Manchester. We conclude that adoption policies can be justified for a number of reasons, and may contribute to urban development in several respects. However, in many cases, policies lack effectiveness because crucial factors that determine ICT adoption are not taken into account. Also, in too many cases, public policies interfere with market initiatives. On the basis of our case studies, we conclude that the most effective policies are not only problem driven but are also opportunity based and integrated: this includes infrastructure provision, content development, and resource building among low-adoptive groups.
D'Accord or Discord? New Institutionalism, Concordance, and the European Union Agriculture Council
Authors: Jones Alun , Clark Julian
Published: August 2002

The Council of Ministers plays a major role in EU governance. However, it has not Received sufficient analytical attention because of the difficulties encountered by researchers in obtaining precise information about its activities. Using the Agriculture Council as our focus, we draw upon detailed interviews conducted with over twenty-five Council officials and representatives from member state Agriculture Ministries over the period 1995–2000. Conceptualising the EU polity in the context of multilevel governance, we apply new institutionalist perspectives from political science to argue that the Agriculture Council's operation is founded upon a search for consensus and concordance. On this basis we scrutinise the Council's decisionmaking structure, the tactical and strategic dimensions of decisionmaking within it, and the attitudinal environment in which this occurs.
The Relationship between Training and Small Business Performance: An Analysis of the Barclays Bank Small Firms Training Loans Scheme
Authors: Fraser Stuart , Storey David , Frankish Julian , Roberts Richard
Published: August 2002

The authors assess empirically the impact on firm performance of a state-subsidised training-loan scheme for small businesses (the Small Firms Training Loan Scheme). To achieve this assessment, a longitudinal sample of firms that received loans from the leading lender under the scheme, Barclays Bank, and a control sample of otherwise similar nonparticipants with Barclays accounts were studied. The authors present and apply a panel-data methodology for estimating the impact of the scheme on firm growth, which is able to take into account nonrandom selection onto the scheme. The main empirical findings are that participants are both more likely to survive and to grow faster than nonparticipants.
Geographical Scale, the Attribution of Credit/Blame, Local Economic Circumstances, and Retrospective Economic Voting in Great Britain 1997: An Extension of the Model
Authors: Johnston Ron , Pattie Charles
Published: August 2002

Economic voting models have received a great deal of empirical support in Great Britain over the last decade, sustaining the general argument that governments tend to be rewarded for delivering econmic prosperity but blamed for declining prosperity. Voters evaluate governments both at the national scale (the performance of the national economy) and at the individual or household scale (changes in their own perceived financial situation). Results of a cross-sectional study of the respondents to a survey conducted after the 1997 General Election are consistent with this argument. The case is developed, however, that additional variables should be added, representing: an intermediate spatial scale—perceived changes in the voters' local economy; the attribution of credit/blame—governments should only be rewarded (punished) if voters associate economic changes with government policies; the local context—the actual situation in the voters' milieux; and the electoral context—do voters' economic evaluations have a differential impact depending on whether they voted for the successful party at the previous election. Expansion of the basic economic voting model to incorporate all four of these provides improved insights to voter decisionmaking at the 1997 election.
Federalism and Metropolitan Governance in Cross-National Perspective: The Case of Urban Sprawl
Authors: Sellers Jefferey M
Published: August 2002

In this paper, I employ a ‘bottom-up’ approach to analyze efforts to curb exurban sprawl in cross-national perspective. Based on local housing and environmental data in a total of eleven French, German, and US urban regions, the analysis demonstrates that policies and institutions addressed to urban governance made more of a difference for outcomes than did federalism and other aspects of vertical integration at the heights of national states. This result highlights the importance both of local policy determinations and of the supralocal institutional infrastructures in which they nest.
Financing School-Based Education in England: Poverty, Examination Results, and Expenditure
Authors: West Anne , Pennell Hazel , Travers Tony , West Robert
Published: August 2002

The authors examine two main research issues. First, they focus on the way in which funds for education are targeted on disadvantage at the level of the local education authority (LEA). They explore the relationship between various indicators of disadvantage and national test and public examination results and find that the relationship between one measure of disadvantage—the proportion of children dependent on Income Support recipients in an LEA—has a stronger negative relationship with examination results of that LEA than the additional educational needs (AEN) index currently used by central government in the formula to distribute resources to local authorities. Second, the authors focus on the relationship between expenditure and performance and find evidence that higher expenditure by LEAs on education is associated with better examination results once poverty (as measured by the Income Support measure) has been controlled for. The first finding suggests that targeting educational need could be improved by substituting the Income Support measure for the current AEN index; the second lends support to the use of increased expenditure as a means of combating educational disadvantage.
The ‘Employability Gap’: Long-Term Unemployment and Barriers to Work in Buoyant Labour Markets
Authors: McQuaid Ronald W , Lindsay Colin
Published: August 2002

We analyse the main barriers limiting the employability of long-term unemployed job seekers within a local labour market characterised by generally high levels of demand. We use four key elements of employability (employability assets, the deployment of assets, the presentation of assets, and context) as an analytical framework in order to analyse the manner in which job seekers' personal characteristics, social and family circumstances, and perceptions of the labour market affect their ability to pursue employment opportunities. The results of interviews carried out with 115 long-term unemployed job seekers show that individual and family circumstances and attitudes towards work and job seeking are likely to be increasingly important barriers given the context of a relative lack of demand-side problems and the availability of lower-skilled jobs in expanding industries. In particular, many long-term unemployed job seekers were reluctant to seek jobs in the expanding service sectors of the local economy. Although the concept of employability provides a useful theoretical and policy framework for analysing long-term unemployment issues, models based upon an employability framework should be expanded to incorporate the role of employers and so integrate supply-side and demand-side perspectives.
What are we Gaining from Stakeholder Involvement? Observations from Environmental Planning in the Great Lakes
Authors: Beierle Thomas C , Konisky David M
Published: August 2002

Attention to the need for greater stakeholder involvement in environmental decisionmaking has been increasing in recent years. The authors draw on a number of cases of environmental planning in the Great Lakes Region in an attempt to understand the possible benefits stakeholder processes can bring to environmental decisionmaking. They outline benefits in four areas: (1) the quality of decisions, (2) the relationships among important players in the decisionmaking process, (3) the capacity for managing environmental problems, and (4) improvements in environmental quality. Although the research suggests that in a number of the cases studied there was a good outcome in the first three areas, there did not appear to be an obvious link between good participation and improvements in environmental quality through implementation of cleanup and restoration activities.
Promoting Regional Economic Growth in Greece by Investing in Public Infrastructure
Authors: Rovolis Antonis , Spence Nigel
Published: August 2002

The role of public infrastructure capital in the development process, either at national or at regional levels, was a relatively neglected area of research until recently. The innovatory work of Aschauer, and the ensuing debate between himself, Munnell, and Holtz-Eakin regarding the role of infrastructure in the development process in the USA, has spawned much interest in the issue. The authors aim to assess the impact of public capital on Greek manufacturing industries, especially focused at the regional scale. Capital stocks were estimated for the private and public sectors and Cobb—Douglas production functions were used in the analytical framework. The results suggest that the role of private capital in economic development in recent times has been marginal, as private investment has declined, whereas the role of labour and public capital has been both positive and significant. The authors segregate public capital into ‘productive’ and ‘social’ infrastructure; they argue that when productive infrastructure makes a positive contribution to production output, the impact of social infrastructure is insignificant and/or negative in most cases. The network effects of infrastructure are also estimated.
Forests of Consumption: Postproductivism, Postmaterialism, and the Postindustrial Forest
Authors: Mather A S
Published: August 2002

Symptoms of postproductivism are more clearly developed in forestry than in agriculture, but they have attracted less attention. The ‘postindustrial’ forest, in which the emphasis placed on timber production is reduced relative to that placed on environmental services (such as biodiversity and recreation), epitomises the character of postproductive forestry. In many parts of the industrialised world, forests have essentially become places of consumption (of amenity, recreation, and wildlife observation) by a largely urban population, rather than places of production (of timber) for a largely urban population. Changing forestry and forest policy in Britain, mainland Europe, and North America are reviewed in the light of a trend towards postproductivism, and some of the causal factors underlying this trend are explored.
Religion as Space for the Expression of Caribbean Identity in the United Kingdom
Authors: Chivallon Christine
Published: August 2002

This paper puts forward the idea that the religious practices of the members of the Caribbean diaspora in the United Kingdom provide a space where an alternative vision of social issues evolves in response to the pressures experienced in British society. Based on the views of Lefebvre and De Certeau, I propose that the religious experience be seen as the appropriation of a symbolic place where identity is freed from the weight of social conventions. Contrary to the dual construction of identity imposed by the reality of segregated British cities, religious space allows for the conception of an intercultural sociality, an ‘open identity’, unhindered by the weight of the specific characteristics of particularisms of the different groups. This approach to the religious experience allows me to intervene in current intellectual debates. Geographically speaking, it is a question of showing how the idea of space is necessary in the formulation of identities, as well as the role played by space in the relationship between ‘power and resistance’. More generally, it is an examination of the notion of diaspora, showing how, when coupled with the idea of hybridity, this intellectual discourse can be framed empirically.
Colonialism, the Shuar Federation, and the Ecuadorian State
Authors: Rubenstein Steven
Published: August 2002

This author suggests new avenues for thinking about the relationship between formerly stateless societies and the state. It does so through a detailed study of one particular group, the Shuar, indigenous to the Ecuadorian Amazon. Formerly an acephalous society of hunter-gardeners, the Shuar now constitute a federation with a democratically elected, hierarchical leadership and are at the forefront of indigenous movements in Latin America. The author analyzes this transformation in the context of colonialism but argues that colonialism involves far more than the movement of people from one place to another or the extension of state authority over new territory. Rather, he reveals colonialism to hinge on the transformation of sociospatial boundaries. Such transformations were critical not only to Shuar ethnogenesis but also to Ecuadorian state-building. That is, colonialism involves a dialectical reorganization both of the state and of its new subjects.
Illegitimate Subjects?: Abject Whites, Neoliberal Modernisation, and Middle-Class Multiculturalism
Authors: Haylett Chris
Published: August 2002

Political attention to the plight of the ‘socially excluded’ in contemporary Britain suggests a renewed interest in issues of class and inequality at government level. This paper addresses the nature of that engagement by analysing the dominant discourse of welfare reform as a cultural reconstruction project which references goals of modernisation and multiculturalism. The centrality of the white working-class poor to the realisation of these goals is examined as a racialised positioning, a stage in the reconstruction of nation through the reconstruction of white working-class identities. The shift from naming the working-class poor as ‘underclass’, a racialised and irredeemable ‘other’, to naming them ‘the excluded’, a culturally determined but recuperable ‘other’, is pivotal to the recasting of Britain as a postimperial, modern nation. Analysis of the modes of modernisation and multiculturalism through which new definitions of nation are being established shows the constitutive role of neoliberal and class-based interests. The use of the white working-class poor as symbols of a generalised ‘backwardness’ and specifically a culturally burdensome whiteness, is examined as a form of class racism, the product of a dominant class-based anglocentrism. The paper concludes with a consideration of class as an illegitimate discourse within the dominant representational fields of media, politics, and academia and the author argues the need for a politics of representation that can recognise difference where it may not be visibly marked, that can see class through whiteness.
‘Over There’ and ‘Back Then’: An Odyssey in National Subjectivity
Authors: Hyams Melissa
Published: August 2002

In this paper I explore the ways in which Latinas, young US-born Mexican-descent teenage girls, construct national belonging through difference: corporeal, spatial, and temporal difference between themselves and their Mexican contemporaries, young Mexicanas. Specifically, I analyse their representations of Mexico and Mexicanas, in narratives of their own and others' travels, and experiences of living, ‘over there’ and ‘back then’. I argue that, in and through an engagement of body image with national narratives and transnational hierarchies, the young women intervene in and reproduce hegemonic narratives of nation and gender. In so doing they simultaneously construct a transgressive modern national subjectivity for themselves and a regressive domestic subjectivity for the young Mexicanas, both of which are fixed in place and ordered differentially in time.
Computational and Performance Aspects of PCA-Based Face-Recognition Algorithms
Authors: Moon Hyeonjoon , Phillips P Jonathon
Published: August 2002

Algorithms based on principal component analysis (PCA) form the basis of numerous studies in the psychological and algorithmic face-recognition literature. PCA is a statistical technique and its incorporation into a face-recognition algorithm requires numerous design decisions. We explicitly state the design decisions by introducing a generic modular PCA-algorithm. This allows us to investigate these decisions, including those not documented in the literature. We experimented with different implementations of each module, and evaluated the different implementations using the September 1996 FERET evaluation protocol (the de facto standard for evaluating face-recognition algorithms). We experimented with (i) changing the illumination normalization procedure; (ii) studying effects on algorithm performance of compressing images with JPEG and wavelet compression algorithms; (iii) varying the number of eigenvectors in the representation; and (iv) changing the similarity measure in the classification process. We performed two experiments. In the first experiment, we obtained performance results on the standard September 1996 FERET large-gallery image sets. In the second experiment, we examined the variability in algorithm performance on different sets of facial images. The study was performed on 100 randomly generated image sets (galleries) of the same size. Our two most significant results are (i) changing the similarity measure produced the greatest change in performance, and (ii) that difference in performance of ±10% is needed to distinguish between algorithms.
Rock's Cognitive Theory of Illusory Figures: A Commentary
Authors: Parks Theodore E
Published: August 2002

Contrary to a previously published opinion, the ‘cognitive’ theory of illusory contours is rich in detail and empirical support.
Attenuation of Alignment Effect with Exocentric Encoding of Location
Authors: Féry Yves-André , Magnac Richard
Published: August 2002

An object's location is best retrieved from the orientation in which it was learned. Otherwise, retrieval necessitates a mental effort to restore the original perspective. In this case there is a cost to speed and accuracy of location responses known as the alignment effect. We hypothesised that one can attenuate this alignment effect by systematically referring objects in an exocentric frame of reference during learning. Sixteen male students were asked to learn the location of five objects disposed in a totally new environment either by locating the objects in an egocentric or in an exocentric spatial frame of reference. After the learning phase, the participants were asked to imagine orienting themselves to an object in the scene and to point to another object. The analysis of pointing accuracy, orientation, and pointing times showed that the performances of participants engaged in the exocentric condition remained insensitive to the augmentation of the angle between their actual position on the path and the imagined orientation. On the other hand, the participants engaged in egocentric learning were disoriented when the difference between their actual orientation and the imagined orientation was great. We conclude that when an object's location is intentionally referred to in an exocentric reference frame, alignment effect can be significantly reduced.
The Influence of Presentation Format and Viewer Training in the Visual Arts on the Perception of Pictorial and Aesthetic Qualities of Paintings
Authors: Locher Paul J , Smith Jeffrey K , Smith Lisa F
Published: August 2002

The comparability of viewers' responses to slide-projected and computer-generated images of nine paintings by renowned artists to those obtained from individuals experiencing the originals in the galleries of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art was investigated. The influence of training in the visual arts upon evaluative judgments made under the three presentation formats was also assessed. Specifically, art-trained and untrained participants in each format condition rated each artwork on sixteen measures of physical and structural characteristics, novelty of content, and aesthetic qualities. Analyses revealed significant differences in the judged hedonic value of the originals as contrasted with the two types of reproduction, whereas trained and untrained participants' evaluations of the pictorial qualities of the artworks were comparable across presentation formats. Findings are discussed in terms of a facsimile-accommodation hypothesis proposed by the authors.
The Role of Surface Attraction in Perceiving Volumetric Shape
Authors: Albert Marc K , Tse Peter U
Published: August 2002

Rock [1973, Orientation and Form (New York: Academic Press)] showed that form perception generally depends more on the orientation of a stimulus in world coordinates than on its orientation in retinal coordinates. He suggested that the assignment of an object's ‘environmental orientation’ depends on gravity, visual frame of reference, and the observer's ability to impose orientation along one axis or another. This paper shows that the assignment of environmental orientation and perceived 3-D form also depends on the relationship between an object and retinally adjacent surfaces in the scene to which it might be attached. Whereas previous examples have demonstrated effects of orientation on 2-D form, we show that orientation can affect the perceived intrinsic 3-D shape of a volume.
Brain Areas Sensitive to Coherent Visual Motion
Authors: Braddick Oliver J , O'Brien Justin M D , Wattam-Bell John , Atkinson Janette , Hartley Tom , Turner Robert
Published: August 2002

Detection of coherent motion versus noise is widely used as a measure of global visual-motion processing. To localise the human brain mechanisms involved in this performance, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to compare brain activation during viewing of coherently moving random dots with that during viewing spatially and temporally comparable dynamic noise. Rates of reversal of coherent motion and coherent-motion velocities (5 versus 20 deg s−1) were also compared. Differences in local activation between conditions were analysed by statistical parametric mapping. Greater activation by coherent motion compared to noise was found in V5 and putative V3A, but not in V1. In addition there were foci of activation on the occipital ventral surface, the intraparietal sulcus, and superior temporal sulcus. Thus, coherent-motion information has distinctive effects in a number of extrastriate visual brain areas. The rate of motion reversal showed only weak effects in motion-sensitive areas. V1 was better activated by noise than by coherent motion, possibly reflecting activation of neurons with a wider range of motion selectivities. This activation was at a more anterior location in the comparison of noise with the faster velocity, suggesting that 20 deg s−1 is beyond the velocity range of the V1 representation of central visual field. These results support the use of motion-coherence tests for extrastriate as opposed to V1 function. However, sensitivity to motion coherence is not confined to V5, and may extend beyond the classically defined dorsal stream.
Can Semantic Knowledge Influence Motion Correspondence?
Authors: Yu Karen
Published: August 2002

Semantic factors are presumed to have little influence on motion perception. Two experiments examined the effects of an object's semantic identity on motion correspondence using the Ternus paradigm. Motion correspondence was not influenced by whether the object depicted is typically moving or stationary, but it was influenced by the way(s) in which an object's components typically move relative to one another: perceived correspondence differed depending on whether the motion tokens constituted the feet of a person walking or the wheels of a car. Apparently, semantic knowledge can influence motion correspondence, although such influence is weak and may be restricted to certain types of semantic information. The adaptive significance of such restricted influences is considered.
Does Face Recognition Rely on Encoding of 3-D Surface? Examining the Role of Shape-from-Shading and Shape-from-Stereo
Authors: Liu Chang Hong , Collin Charles A , Chaudhuri Avi
Published: August 2002

It is now well known that processing of shading information in face recognition is susceptible to bottom lighting and contrast reversal, an effect that may be due to a disruption of 3-D shape processing. The question then is whether the disruption can be rectified by other sources of 3-D information, such as shape-from-stereo. We examined this issue by comparing identification performance either with or without stereo information using top-lit and bottom-lit face stimuli in both photographic positive and negative conditions. The results show that none of the shading effects was reduced by the presence of stereo information. This finding supports the notion that shape-from-shading overrides shape-from-stereo in face perception. Although shape-from-stereo did produce some signs of facilitation for face identification, this effect was negligible. Together, our results support the view that 3-D shape processing plays only a minor role in face recognition. Our data are best accounted for by a weighted function of 2-D processing of shading pattern and 3-D processing of shapes, with a much greater weight assigned to 2-D pattern processing.
Perceived Depth of 3-D Objects in 3-D Scenes
Authors: Sauer Craig W , Saidpour Asad , Braunstein Myron L , Andersen George J
Published: August 2002

Effects of information specifying the position of an object in a 3-D scene were investigated in two experiments with twelve observers. To separate the effects of the change in scene position from the changes in the projection that occur with increased distance from the observer, the same projections were produced by simulating (a) a constant object at different scene positions and (b) different objects at the same scene position. The simulated scene consisted of a ground plane, a ceiling plane, and a cylinder on a pole attached to both planes. Motion-parallax scenes were studied in one experiment; texture-gradient scenes were studied in the other. Observers adjusted a line to match the perceived internal depth of the cylinder. Judged depth for objects matched in simulated size decreased as simulated distance from the observer increased. Judged depth decreased at a faster rate for the same projections shown at a constant scene position. Adding object-centered depth information (object rotation) increased judged depth for the motion-parallax displays. These results demonstrate that the judged internal depth of an object is reduced by the change in projection that occurs with increased distance, but this effect is diminished if information for change in scene position accompanies the change in projection.
Dynamic Properties Influence the Perception of Facial Expressions
Authors: Kamachi Miyuki , Bruce Vicki , Mukaida Shigeru , Gyoba Jiro , Yoshikawa Sakiko , Akamatsu Shigeru
Published: August 2002

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the role played by dynamic information in identifying facial expressions of emotion. Dynamic expression sequences were created by generating and displaying morph sequences which changed the face from neutral to a peak expression in different numbers of intervening intermediate stages, to create fast (6 frames), medium (26 frames), and slow (101 frames) sequences. In experiment 1, participants were asked to describe what the person shown in each sequence was feeling. Sadness was more accurately identified when slow sequences were shown. Happiness, and to some extent surprise, was better from faster sequences, while anger was most accurately detected from the sequences of medium pace. In experiment 2 we used an intensity-rating task and static images as well as dynamic ones to examine whether effects were due to total time of the displays or to the speed of sequence. Accuracies of expression judgments were derived from the rated intensities and the results were similar to those of experiment 1 for angry and sad expressions (surprised and happy were close to ceiling). Moreover, the effect of display time was found only for dynamic expressions and not for static ones, suggesting that it was speed, not time, which was responsible for these effects. These results suggest that representations of basic expressions of emotion encode information about dynamic as well as static properties.
The Flash-Lag Phenomenon: Object Motion and Eye Movements
Authors: Nijhawan Romi
Published: August 2002

An object flashed briefly in a given location, the moment another moving object arrives in the same location, is perceived by observers as lagging behind the moving object (flash-lag effect). Does the flash-lag effect occur if the retinal image of the moving object is rendered stationary by smooth pursuit of the moving object? Does the flash-lag effect occur if the retinal image of a stationary object is caused to move by smooth-pursuit eye movements? A disk was briefly flashed in the center of a moving ring such that the ring center was completely ‘filled’ by the disk. In this display, observers perceived the flashed disk to lag such that it appeared only to partially ‘fill’ the ring center. The ‘unfilled’ portion (perceived void) of the moving ring was seen in the color of the background. With smooth pursuit of the ring, the flash-lag effect was eliminated, and observers saw the flashed disk centered on the moving ring. A strong flash-lag effect was observed when observers smoothly pursued a moving point target past a continuously visible stationary ring. Once again, the flashed disk appeared to only partially fill the center of the continuously visible stationary ring, yielding a vivid ‘perceived void’. These results are discussed in terms of neural delays and their compensation.
Evaluating Models of Collinearity Judgment for Reliability and Scale
Authors: Greene Ernest , Frawley William
Published: August 2002

In prior work from this laboratory, we have examined how accurately subjects can judge collinearity, ie alignment, as a function of the angular position of stimulus elements. In those experiments, subjects were presented with a line segment (or a pair of dots) which varied across the 360° range of angular positions, and were required to select and mark a point which was perceived as being collinear. We found that the models of error for each subject consisted of a complex set of peaks and valleys which are herein described as S excursions. The error tendencies appeared to be idiosyncratic, in that each subject manifested a different profile of these excursions. Here we report the results of three experiments. In the first, we tested subjects across five sessions, and found that the five models of error were fairly comparable for a given subject. In the second and third experiments, we tested at close intervals of angular position, and found evidence for localized sources of error. We continue to find that the error model for each subject is idiosyncratic, and argue that the excursions may be due to defects in a system which combines responses from position-encoding fields that vary in size.
The Fourier Theory of Vision
Authors: Westheimer Gerald
Published: August 2002

The historical roots of the Fourier theory of spatial visual perception are traced. The development of the underlying concepts and the psychophysical experiments that led to them, and that they in turn spawned, are examined, as well as their relation to the current knowledge of neural substrates in the retina and primary visual cortex. Allowing nonlinearities or even substituting other types of basis functions does not eliminate the difficulties faced by any theory of visual perception that is built on the notion of fixed spatial filters.
Multiple Routes to Object Matching from Different Viewpoints: Mental Rotation versus Invariant Features
Authors: Vanrie Jan , Willems Bert , Wagemans Johan
Published: August 2002

Previous research has shown that object recognition from different viewpoints often yields strong effects of viewpoint. However, for some objects and experimental paradigms almost complete viewpoint invariance is obtained. This suggests the existence of multiple routes to object recognition. In this study we further strengthen this notion by designing two different conditions using the same experimental paradigm (simultaneous matching) and highly similar objects (multiblock figures). In the first condition (involving a handedness violation), strong effects of viewpoint were obtained. In the second condition (involving an invariance violation), the effects of viewpoint were negligible. This result illustrates that asking under what circumstances object recognition is viewpoint dependent or independent is more fruitful than attempting to show that object recognition is either viewpoint dependent or independent.
Rapid Communication: The Synthesis of Mesoporous Materials Using Novel Ionic Liquid Templates in Water
Authors: Adams C. J. , Bradley A. E. , Seddon K. R.
Published: August 2002

The alkyltrimethylammonium templates, cited in the original patent for the preparation of MCM-41, have been replaced by a novel set of templates, 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium salts. Systematic studies have revealed subtle differences in the performance of the novel templates, and identify them as viable reagents in the synthesis of good quality MCM-41.