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Biomedical subjects

L Standing

Publications and source records attributed to L Standing.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Successful part-whole perception in young children using multiple-choice tests.

In 3 experiments involving young children (N = 164), excellent perceptual integration of parts and wholes was revealed, unlike findings of earlier Piagetian studies (D. Elkind, R. R. Koegler, & E. Go, 1964). In Experiment 1, 5-year-olds' performance in part-whole perception was raised nearly sixfold when a multiple-choice task was substituted for the Piagetian verbal task used earlier. Performing the multiple-choice first rather than second also raised verbal scores. Experiment 2, with 3- to 5-year-olds, tested whether the children could have been confusing "whole made of parts" with "whole and parts" stimuli. Equal performance was found with 2 versions of a multiple-choice task, including either a whole and parts or a whole and different parts picture, which contradicts the confusion hypothesis. In Experiment 3, with 2- to 4-year-olds, good part-whole perception was demonstrated through the use of a 2-alternative, forced-choice procedure. The lower age bounds for this type of performance are much earlier than hitherto proposed.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1995

Can we judge the strength of a drink?

Using the method of direct magnitude estimation, ten subjects each judged by taste the strength of ten rum/water mixtures; these ranged from 10% to 100% rum. Mean judgements of the concentration of rum were highly accurate (r = .99) and showed no tendency towards underestimation or overestimation at any concentration.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1995

Zero effect of crowding on arousal and performance: on 'proving' the null hypothesis.

This study examined the effect of crowded versus uncrowded conditions upon pulse and self-rated arousal, and upon verbal production performance in subjects' first and second languages. Participants were 52 francophone college students. Arousal estimates were identical for crowded and noncrowded conditions as was verbal performance, thereby contradicting the theories of Zajonc (1965) and Freedman and Perlick (1979) in which crowding is viewed as an activating and intensifying stimulus. Crowding itself appears to have no direct effect on arousal or behaviour as measured.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Verbal memory elicited by ambient odor.

This study examined whether an ambient odor can act as a contextual cue for retrieval of verbal stimuli. Subjects (N = 47) learned a list of 24 words while exposed to one of two odors (either jasmine incense or Lauren perfume) and subsequently relearned the list with either the same or the alternative odor present. Superior memory for the word list was found when the odor present during the relearning session was the same one that had been present at the time of initial learning, thereby demonstrating context-dependent memory. There were no differences in initial learning between the two odor conditions. No differences in pleasantness or intensity were found between the odors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Imagined test situations produce contextual memory enhancement.

Two groups of 12 undergraduates learned a 26-item list of medium-imagery words. Those who visualized an examination-hall scored better at 1-wk. recall than those who visualized countryside during learning, thereby providing confirmation of the context-dependency effect.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Effects of size changes on memory for words and pictures.

The effects of changing the size of stimuli between learning and recognition sessions were examined for word and picture materials. Size changes did not affect correct recognition of items as new or old, for either words or pictures. However, size alteration impaired recognition memory for the size of word stimuli. With pictures, impaired size recognition was noted with changes only from large to small.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Impairment of cognition, risk-taking, and self-perception by alcohol.

The effects of alcohol on risk-taking, visual signal detection, and perceptual-motor skills were examined under controlled conditions. Skill in two videogame tasks (driving and racquetball simulations) was unaffected by a massive dose of alcohol, whereas risk-taking in the driving task was increased. Alcohol also impaired performance on the signal-detection task, decreasing both perceptual vigilance and caution (d' and beta). The dependent measures yielded minor correlations with personality and biographical variables, although men were more skilled and riskier in their behaviour than women. A second experiment employing the signal-detection task indicated that even moderate doses of alcohol can significantly impair visual perception and perceptual decision making. Both studies showed that subjects who receive a massive dose of alcohol (bac .12% or .16%) significantly underestimate the amount consumed, and rate themselves as being much less than totally drunk.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1989

Subvocalization rate versus other predictors of the memory span.

Two experiments were performed to determine how accurately the immediate memory span may be predicted from the subject's subvocalization rate, as compared with other subject and stimulus variables. In the first, span and free-recall measures were obtained for 24 subjects, each tested with four types of spoken material (nonsense syllables, random words, fourth-order approximations to English, and normal prose). Silent subvocalization rate, whispered subvocalization rate, speaking rate, and silent reading rate were also measured for each subject. The span (3.9-14 items) showed the highest zero-order correlation with silent subvocalization rate: r = .80. Multiple regression analysis confirmed this as the span's best predictor, partial r = .31. Similar results were found for free-recall scores. In Exp. 2 the digit span was correlated against measures of age, intelligence, subvocalization rate, perceptual speed, and memory search rate, for 40 subjects aged 7 to 17 yr. The best zero-order predictor was age (.62), followed by subvocalization rate (.57) and intelligence (.39). Multiple regression analysis indicated that the span was best predicted by age, partial r = .37, and subvocalization rate, partial r = .29. The span appears more closely related to subjects' internal speech rate than to other cognitive functions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Recognition of form and of orientation by poor and normal readers.

Poor and normal readers were tested on two visual recognition tasks (N = 34). In both tasks, subjects were shown a random-dot pattern as a standard stimulus on each trial. After a 0.5-sec. or a 15-sec. interval (i.e., 'perceptual' versus 'memory' delay conditions), subjects were shown four patterns on a test slide and required to identify the one resembling the standard. This comparison was based on form identity in Task I and on form orientation in Task II. Recognition by poor and normal readers did not differ at either delay on Task I or at the 0.5-sec. delay on Task II. No evidence of a generalized perceptual deficit among dyslexics was obtained. In general accordance with the theory of Corballis (1974), poor readers performed significantly worse than normals at the 15-sec. delay on Task II, indicating defective memory for orientation. More specific predictions of Corballis's theory were not borne out, however, with regard to the frequency of different types of error. Furthermore, up-down (rather than left-right) rotation errors appeared to be a better predictor of dyslexics' reading performance.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Satiation effects with reversible figures.

Three experiments were performed to examine the rate at which reversible perspective figures (Necker cubes) undergo apparent reversal, as a function of selected stimulus variables. 100 subjects were instructed not to inhibit or to promote reversals of perspective, but to remain neutral. The data indicated: (1) an incomplete cube reverses less frequently than does a corresponding complete figure, (2) two adjacent cubes reverse in synchrony when of equal luminance but often out of phase when differing in luminance, (3) a shift of the cube's retinal position causes its reversal rate to drop to baseline level. These results suggest that the reversal effect increases over time due to a localized rather than general process, and are thus compatible with a sensory satiation model of perceptual alternation.

Discrimination Learning↗
PubMed1980

The effects of environmental noise on anxiety level.

Forty-five male and female undergraduates were exposed to low (43 dB), medium (61 dB), or high (75 dB) levels of ambient white noise for 30 minutes. Subsequent testing with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory revealed that mean situational (or state) anxiety was significantly elevated for the 75 dB group, while the variability of these scores increased for both the 61 and 75 dB groups. Habitual (or trait) anxiety measures, however, were not affected by noise. Further testing indicated that essentially the same anxiety/noise relationship occurred in selected subgroups of S s with extreme scores on trait anxiety, neuroticism, extraversion, lie, and intelligence scales. Edsell's data are confirmed and extended by these results, which indicate that even quite moderate environmental noise levels can have undersirable psychological consequences among a wide range of individual S s.

Adult↗