Perceptual tasks such as object matching, mammogram interpretation, mental rotation, and satellite imagery change detection often require the assignment of correspondences to fuse information across views. We apply techniques developed for machine translation to the gaze data recorded from a complex perceptual matching task modeled after…

Decision-makers effortlessly balance the need for urgency against the need for caution. Theoretical and neurophysiological accounts have explained this tradeoff solely in terms of the "quantity" of evidence required to trigger a decision (the "threshold"). This explanation has also been used as a benchmark test for evaluating…

The type of visual information needed for categorizing faces and nonface objects was investigated by manipulating spatial frequency scales available in the image during a category verification task addressing basic and subordinate levels. Spatial filtering had opposite effects on faces and airplanes that were modulated by categorization level. The…

Previous research has shown that the appearance of task-irrelevant abrupt onsets influences saccadic eye movements during visual search and may slow down manual reactions to target stimuli. Analysis of reaction time distributions in the present study offers evidence suggesting that top-down inhibition processes actively suppress oculomotor or…

People presume that the light source in pictures comes from above, and there is some evidence that this phenomenon also demonstrates lateral biases. When investigators present multiple ambiguous stimuli or visually complex objects, people assume that the source of light is from above, and to the left. However, when single relatively simple stimuli…

Investigates extent to which perceptual factors of speed and flexibility of closure represent more general processes also operating in cognitive and personality domains by including in a single factor analysis perceptual tests and new tests requiring cognitive abilities resembling closure abilities operating in the perceptual domain. (RC)

The defining attributes of analytic ability as they relate to theoretical cognitive styles were explored in a study using a sample of 492 males aged 16-21 years. The Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT--Witkin, Oltman, Rasher, and Karp) was used to measure field dependent and independent aptitude. Scores on the GEFT were compared with scores on an…

Spatial and temporal matching abilities of normal and disabled readers were investigated. Average and dyseidetic readers were better able than dysphonetic and alexic readers to match purely temporal information. Dysphonetic and alexic readers demonstrated greater difficulty with temporal rather than spatial information. The existence of memory and…

To measure how the complexity of a television image affects the viewer's ability to identify or recognize visual details within the image, two coders rated the form complexity of 30 public service announcements, basing their evaluation on the familiarity of the images in the announcements, the rate at which they presented new information, and the…

Although numerous studies have indicated that older persons process visual information more slowly than younger persons, the precise nature of age-associated changes in the processing of visually presented information remains unclear. Older adults (N=18) and college students (N=18) performed a visual search task in which lists of words and…

A correlation exists between verbal ability test scores and name identity minus physical identity reaction times in a letter matching task. The present results support Carroll's (1981) suggestion that the reaction time difference is related more to speed than power component of standardized tests and is not optimum for prediction. (Author/RD)

The effect of stimulus familiarity on the comprehension of polar adjectives by preschool children was examined by administering a perceptual judgment task. The children's ability to indicate the correct object illustrating a particular word was assessed. Antonyms representing opposite dimensions of quantity, height, length, or size were presented.…

Individual differences in perceptual information processing were tested using 327 ten year old children, with verbal tasks representing successive information processing and spatial tasks representing simultaneous information processing. Three sets of tasks, (1) visual/reconstruction (V/R), (2) visual/verbal (V/VL), and (3) verbal/reconstruction…