All of the data reported in Robilotto, Khang, and Zaidi (2002) Robilotto and Zaidi (2004), and Singh and Anderson (2002) are consistent with Robilotto and Zaidi's theory that perceived transparency (or opacity) is determined by the perceived contrast of the filter region. Kasrai and Kingdom's (2001) results also appear largely consistent with the…

In M. Singh and B. L. Anderson, the authors proposed a model based on ratios of Michelson contrasts to explain how human observers quantitatively scale the perceived opacity of transparent surfaces. In subsequent work by B. L. Anderson, M. Singh, & J. Meng, the authors found that this model failed to generalize to other contexts and replaced it…

There has been a growing interest in understanding the computations involved in the processes underlying visual segmentation and interpolation in conditions of occlusion. P. J. Kellman, P. Garrigan, T. F. Shipley, and B. P. Keane and M. K. Albert defended the view that identical contour interpolation mechanisms underlie modal and amodal…

Developments within education, psychology and the neurosciences have shed a great deal of light on how we learn while, at the same time, confirming for us all that learning is a profoundly complex process and far from understood. Against this background, and in this position article, we consider the recent rise in interest in the concept of…

This paper comments on the article by Plaut and Booth. Plaut and Booth's first simulation shows that there is essentially perfect discrimination between word and nonwords sharing the same orthographic structure when the simulation is carried out in the way we suggested. We take the view that Plaut and Booth's new simulation work settles little…

Discusses how advancements in computer graphics technology, especially hypermedia, are changing the language of visual communication and defining multidimensional communication models that require new perspectives in information design. Suggests that an understanding of these new communication models can be enhanced by examining works of…

A major error in cognitive science has been to suppose that the meaning of a representation in the mind is known prior to its production. Representations are inherently perceptual--constructed by a perceptual process and given meaning by subsequent perception of them. The person perceiving the representation determines what it means. This premise…

A model of mental representations is developed and shown to provide a framework for interpreting research. The content of awareness is characterized as a model of the world capable of simulating future events, anticipating present events, and thereby formulating appropriate actions. Properties of awareness and of underlying processes are…

This paper offers a model of visual functioning focusing on three factors: (1) visual capacity, (2) visual processing, and (3) visual attention. Practical implications of visual therapy are considered, and intervention strategies with children with impaired visual functioning are suggested. (Author/DB)

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century models of first and second language reading are examined and compared. Figures are provided of six models that propose relationships among visual input and processes, auditory input, phonological processes, and comprehension. These models illustrate the processes that may be operating in persons who achieve their…

This study reviews historical thinking about visual literacy, addresses the issue of setting visual literacy's parameters, and provides a philosophy to link individual theories in this multidisciplinary movement. The report examines the roots of the visual literacy movement and the seminal literature in the field. It includes a categorizing of…

A discussion of the visual aspect of second-language reading processes proposes a theoretical model of reading and reports on research into the kinds of questions second-language students ask in class. The model of reading outlined is based on the operations of the human eye. Just as the operations of the lens (focus) change the picture at the…

This investigation of the encoding features of graphs begins with a description of a cognitive framework which allows designers to factor into the process of designing displays how people interpret the information found and what display properties are responsible for this interpretation. The framework also provides a performance measure for use in…

Behaviorism cannot adequately explain language processing. A synthesis of the psycholinguistic and information processing approaches of cognitive psychology, however, can provide the basis for a speculative analysis of reading, if this synthesis is tempered by a perceptual learning theory of uncertainty reduction. Theorists of information…

Intended for teachers of theatrical design who need to describe a design process for their students, this paper begins by giving a brief overview of recent research that has described the different functions of the right and left cerebral hemispheres. It then notes that although the left hemisphere tends to dominate the right hemisphere, it is the…