In S. Kanazawa's (see record 2004-12248-010) evolutionary theory of general intelligence (g), g is presented as a species-typical information-processing mechanism. This conceptualization of g departs radically from the accepted conceptualization of g as a source of individual differences that is manifest in the positive manifold. Kanazawa's theory…

Perception of objects in ordinary scenes requires interpolation processes connecting visible areas across spatial gaps. Most research has focused on 2-D displays, and models have been based on 2-D, orientation-sensitive units. The authors present a view of interpolation processes as intrinsically 3-D and producing representations of contours and…

Many experiments have shown that the human visual system makes extensive use of contextual information for facilitating object search in natural scenes. However, the question of how to formally model contextual influences is still open. On the basis of a Bayesian framework, the authors present an original approach of attentional guidance by global…

Modularity has been the subject of intense debate in the cognitive sciences for more than 2 decades. In some cases, misunderstandings have impeded conceptual progress. Here the authors identify arguments about modularity that either have been abandoned or were never held by proponents of modular views of the mind. The authors review arguments that…

Surveys some of the difficulties currently confronting the reinforcement concept and cosiders some alternatives to reinforcement as the fundamental basis of learning. Two specific alternatives considered are: an incentive motivation approach and a cognitive approach. (Author)

Reality monitoring concerns the ability to distinguish knowledge that an individual has produced internally (through reasoning, imagination, etc.) from knowledge that was obtained through experience (or "externally"). A model of reality monitoring is proposed and discussed. (JKS)

In their comments on the present authors' earlier article on beliefs about ordinary psychological activities, C. Fellbaum and G. A. Miller (1990) offer an explanation of the reciprocal effect of believing one activity is a kind of another, and that the second activity is part of the first. Points of disagreement are explained. (SLD)

A model is developed to account for variations in test strategies (hypothesis testing) beginning with the premise that cognitive processes are adapted to reducing errors rather than detecting "truth." The Primary Error Detection and Minimization (PEDMIN) mode of lay hypothesis testing is described, and its five properties are explored.…

Proposes a theory of attentional dynamics and aims at explaining how listeners respond to systematic change in everyday events while retaining a general sense of their rhythmic structure. A mathematical formulation of the theory describes internal oscillations, called attending rhythms, that focus on pulses of attending energy and interact in…

Reviews some limiting properties of the process-dissociation model as it applies to the study of dual-process conceptions of memory. A second-generation model (conjoint recognition) is proposed to address these limitations and supply additional capabilities. Worked applications to data are provided. (Author/GCP)

Reports on conditions under which people's probability judgments are superadditive rather than subadditive. Both directions of deviation from additivity are interpreted in a common framework, in which probability judgments are often mediated by judgments of evidence. The two kinds of nonadditivity result from differences in recruitment of…

The authors hypothesize that the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), despite their apparent nonrationality, have what might be termed an epistemic origin-that is, they stem from an inability to generate the normal "feeling of knowing" that would otherwise signal task completion and terminate the expression of a security motivational…

The sum-difference theory of remembering and knowing (STREAK) provides a sophisticated account of many interactions in the remember-know (R-K) area (C. M. Rotello, N. A. Macmillan, & J. A. Reeder, 2004; see record 2004-15929-002). It assumes 2 orthogonal strength dimensions and oblique criterion planes. Another dual-process model (J. T. Wixted…

The ANDS (A Natural Deduction System) model, described in this article, is a psychological theory of propositional reasoning that makes explicit assumptions about memory and control in deduction. A computer simulation of the ANDS model yields proofs similar to those of untrained subjects. (Author/BW)

It is argued that the visual knowledge of smoothly curved surfaces can be defined in terms of local, non-metric order relations as well as point-by-point mappings of metric depth and/or orientation relative to the observer. A series of experiments with eight graduate students supports this theory. (SLD)