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E M Reingold

Publications and source records attributed to E M Reingold.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

Investigating the visual span in comparative search: the effects of task difficulty and divided attention.

In three experiments, participants' visual span was measured in a comparative visual search task in which they had to detect a local match or mismatch between two displays presented side by side. Experiment 1 manipulated the difficulty of the comparative visual search task by contrasting a mismatch detection task with a substantially more difficult match detection task. In Experiment 2, participants were tested in a single-task condition involving only the visual task and a dual-task condition in which they concurrently performed an auditory task. Finally, in Experiment 3, participants performed two dual-task conditions, which differed in the difficulty of the concurrent auditory task. Both the comparative search task difficulty (Experiment 1) and the divided attention manipulation (Experiments 2 and 3) produced strong effects on visual span size.

Adult↗

Peripheral and parafoveal cueing and masking effects on saccadic selectivity in a gaze-contingent window paradigm.

The present study employed the gaze-contingent window paradigm to investigate parafoveal and peripheral cueing and masking effects on saccadic selectivity in a triple-conjunction visual search task. In the cueing conditions, the information shown outside the gaze-contingent window was restricted to the feature or feature pair shared between the target and a particular distractor type. In the masking conditions, no stimulus features were shown outside the window. Significant cueing and masking effects on saccadic selectivity were observed for saccades directed at items within the window, where all features were visible across experimental conditions. Cueing a particular feature or feature pair biased saccadic selectivity towards this feature or feature pair, while masking generally reduced saccadic selectivity. These findings support the concept of visual guidance being a preattentive process that operates in parallel across the display.

Analysis of Variance↗

Visual span in expert chess players: evidence from eye movements.

The reported research extends classic findings that after briefly viewing structured, but not random, chess positions, chess masters reproduce these positions much more accurately than less-skilled players. Using a combination of the gaze-contingent window paradigm and the change blindness flicker paradigm, we documented dramatically larger visual spans for experts while processing structured, but not random, chess positions. In addition, in a check-detection task, a minimized 3 x 3 chessboard containing a King and potentially checking pieces was displayed. In this task, experts made fewer fixations per trial than less-skilled players, and had a greater proportion of fixations between individual pieces, rather than on pieces. Our results provide strong evidence for a perceptual encoding advantage for experts attributable to chess experience, rather than to a general perceptual or memory superiority.

Adult↗

Visual search asymmetry: the influence of stimulus familiarity and low-level features.

Wang, Cavanagh, and Green (1994) demonstrated a pop-out effect in searching for an unfamiliar target among familiar distractors (U-F search) and argued for the importance of a familiarity difference between the target and the distractors in determining search efficiency. In four experiments, we explored the generality of that finding. Experiment 1 compared search efficiency across a variety of target-distractor pairs. In Experiments 2, 3, and 4, we used Chinese characters and their transforms as targets and distractors and compared search performance between Chinese and non-Chinese participants. We demonstrated that search asymmetry and search efficiency in the U-F condition are influenced by the presence of low-level feature differences between the familiar and the unfamiliar stimuli. Our findings suggest that the familiarity of the distractors, rather than the familiarity difference between the target and the distractors, determines search efficiency. We also documented a counterintuitive familiarity-inferiority effect, suggesting that knowledge of search stimuli may, sometimes, be detrimental to search performance.

Attention↗

Preattentive guidance of eye movements during triple conjunction search tasks: the effects of feature discriminability and saccadic amplitude.

Eye movements were monitored during the performance of triple conjunction search tasks. Stimuli varied in color, shape, and orientation. Across trials, the target was either present or absent, and displays consisted of 6, 12, or 24 stimuli. Stimulus discriminability was manipulated for the shape dimension, with half of the participants seeing displays of Es and Fs (low-discriminability [LD] condition) and half seeing displays of Cs and Ts (high-discriminability [HD] condition). Participants in both conditions performed two search tasks. In the single-feature (SF) task, the target stimulus shared one feature with each of the distractors, whereas in the two-feature (TF) task, it shared two features with each distractor. An examination of saccadic endpoints revealed that participants were more likely to fixate on distractor stimuli sharing color (SF task) or color and shape (TF task) with the target. This was a robust finding, being observed across participants, saccades of different amplitudes and sequential position, and following short and long latencies to move. The extent to which participants made use of shape information increased with discriminability.

Adult↗

Perceptual automaticity in expert chess players: parallel encoding of chess relations.

A check detection task in a 5 x 5 section of the chessboard, containing a King and one or two potential checking pieces was employed. The checking status (i.e., the presence or absence of a check) and the number of attackers (one or two) were manipulated. It was found that the reaction time cost for adding a distractor was differentially greater in no trials than yes trials for novice, but not for expert, chess players. In addition, we contrasted standard check detection trials with trials in which one of two attackers was cued (colored red) and the task was to determine the checking status of the cued attacker while ignoring the other attacker. We documented a Stroop-like interference effect on trials in which a cued nonchecking attacker appeared together with an attacker that was checking (i.e., incongruent). These findings suggest automatic and parallel encoding procedures for chess relations in experts.

Adult↗

The perceptual aspect of skilled performance in chess: evidence from eye movements.

Expert and intermediate chess players attempted to choose the best move in five chess positions while their eye movements were monitored. Experts were faster and more accurate than intermediates in choosing the best move. Experts made fewer fixations per trial and greater amplitude saccades than did intermediates, but there was no difference in fixation duration across skill groups. Examining the spatial distribution of the first five fixations for each position by skill group revealed that experts produced more fixations on empty squares than did intermediates. When fixating pieces, experts produced a greater proportion of fixations on relevant pieces than did intermediates. It is argued that expert chess players perceptually encode chess configurations, rather than individual pieces, and, consequently, parafoveal or peripheral processing guides their eye movements, producing a pattern of saccadic selectivity by piece saliency.

Cognition↗

Distractor ratio influences patterns of eye movements during visual search.

We examined the flexibility of guidance in a conjunctive search task by manipulating the ratios between different types of distractors. Participants were asked to decide whether a target was present or absent among distractors sharing either colour or shape. Results indicated a strong effect of distractor ratio on search performance. Shorter latency to move, faster manual response, and fewer fixations per trial were observed at extreme distractor ratios. The distribution of saccadic endpoints also varied flexibly as a function of distractor ratio. When there were very few same-colour distractors, the saccadic selectivity was biased towards the colour dimension. In contrast, when most of the distractors shared colour with the target, the saccadic selectivity was biased towards the shape dimension. Results are discussed within the framework of the guided search model.

Eye Movements↗

On demonstrating unconscious perception: comment on Draine and Greenwald (1998)

S. C. Draine and A. G. Greenwald (1998) have described a methodology based on regression analysis for demonstrating unconscious perception. They have suggested that their methodology represents a major improvement over existing methodologies. An analysis of their methodology reveals that it is closely related to the classic dissociation paradigm. As such, interpretation of their results is compromised by the same issues concerning the measurement of awareness that have plagued all previous attempts to use the dissociation paradigm to demonstrate unconscious perception in the complete absence of conscious perception.

Cognition↗

Patterns of eye movements during parallel and serial visual search tasks.

Eye movements were monitored while subjects performed parallel and serial search tasks. In Experiment 1a, subjects searched for an "O" among "X"s (parallel condition) and for a "T" among "L"s (serial condition). In the parallel condition in Experiment 1b, "[symbol: see text]" was the target, and "O"s were distractors; in the serial condition these stimuli switched roles. Displays contained 1, 12, or 24 stimuli, with both target-present and target-absent trials. RT and eye-movement measures (number of fixations, saccadic error, and latency to move) indicated that search efficiency was greatest in the parallel conditions, followed by the serial condition of experiment 1a and, finally, by the serial condition of Experiment 1b. This suggests that eye movements are correlated with the attentional processes underlying visual search.

Attention↗

Response bias correction in the process dissociation procedure: a reevaluation?

A Buchner and E. Erdfelder (this volume) provide a commentary on our analysis of response bias correction in the process dissociation procedure. Unfortunately, this commentary fails to address the substantive issues that were raised in M. J. Wainwright and E. M. Reingold (1996). In the present article, we attempt to clarify some of their misrepresentations and the inconsistency inherent in their position.

Attention↗

Facilitation and interference in indirect/implicit memory tests and in the process dissociation paradigm: the letter insertion and the letter deletion tasks.

This paper introduced the letter insertion and letter deletion tasks. In these tasks participants are presented with letter strings and are instructed to insert or delete a letter to create a word. Experiment 1 demonstrated facilitation priming and established these tasks as sensitive indirect measures of memory. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated interference priming effects. In Experiment 4 the process dissociation paradigm (Jacoby, 1991) was applied to investigate the contributions of automatic and consciously controlled processes to performance on the letter insertion task. In addition, performance in the exclusion condition demonstrated an interference effect caused by automatic retrieval. Potential applications for the letter insertion and letter deletion tasks are discussed.

Adult↗

Toward a redefinition of implicit memory: process dissociations following elaborative processing and self-generation.

Does conceptual processing affect unconscious uses of memory? We used a process-dissociation procedure to separate automatic (unconscious) and consciously controlled uses of memory in a stem-completion task. Contrary to results from indirect test conditions, estimates derived from our procedure showed no effect of self-generation and no differential effect of semantic and nonsemantic study conditions on automatic uses of memory. These results provide evidence that (a) indirect tests are often contaminated by conscious uses of memory and (b) stem completion is highly dependent on prior perceptual (and perhaps lexical) processing. The experiments demonstrate the advantages of using process-dissociation procedures over comparisons between direct and indirect tests.

Adult↗

Perceptual versus postperceptual mediation of visual context effects: evidence from the letter-superiority effect.

Two experiments demonstrated letter-context effects that cannot easily be accounted for by postperceptual theories based on structural redundancy, figural goodness, or memory advantage. In Experiment 1, subjects identified the color of a letter fragment more accurately in letter than in nonletter contexts. In Experiment 2, subjects identified the feature presented in a precued color more accurately in letters than in nonletters. We argue that these effects result from top-down perceptual processing.

Adult↗

Recognition and lexical decision without detection: unconscious perception?

Stimulus detection and concurrent measures of stimulus recognition were compared to establish whether perception occurs in the absence of detection. The target stimuli were familiar words (Experiments 1 and 2), nonwords (Experiment 3), or both words and nonwords (Experiment 4). On each trial, either a stimulus or a blank field was presented. Ss first decided whether a stimulus had been presented and then made either a forced-choice recognition decision (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) or a lexical decision (Experiment 4). Both words and nonwords were recognized and discriminated following correct detections (i.e., hits). However, in the absence of stimulus detection (i.e., misses), only words were recognized or discriminated. These qualitatively different patterns of results following hits and misses for words and nonwords suggest that stimulus detection may provide an adequate measure of conscious awareness.

Adult↗

Automatic retrieval of new associations under shallow encoding conditions.

In two experiments during the study phase participants read unrelated context-target word pairs presented below a line drawing of the context word. During test the strong cue group was presented with context words, line drawings, and stems of target words. The line drawings were not presented in the weak cue group. Stems were paired with the same context words as at study (intact), paired with different context words (recombined), or corresponded to unstudied words (control). In Experiment 1 participants were instructed to complete stems with the first word that came to mind (indirect). The priming effect for new associations was twice as large in the strong cue group. In Experiment 2 the process dissociation procedure was applied and participants completed stems with studied words (inclusion) or with unstudied words (exclusion). Results indicated that consciously controlled and automatic retrieval processes mediated the associative effect in both groups.

Adult↗

Response bias correction in the process dissociation procedure: approaches, assumptions, and evaluation.

Buchner, Erdfelder, and Vaterrodt-Plunnecke (1995) advocated an exposition of the process dissociation procedure within the framework of multinomial modeling. Among the misleading aspects of this exposition is its tendency to obscure the overlap between processes. In contrast, clarifying these crucial interactions leads to a general classification of response bias corrections to the process dissociation procedure. This scheme, in which corrective models are classified on the basis of process interactions, clarifies the assumptions underlying previously proposed corrections. As an illustration of the framework, three such corrections are derived. These corrective models are evaluated by applying them to the data reported by Buchner et al. (1995).

Association Learning↗