Two experiments were conducted with Chinese subjects to investigate whether phonemic similarity affected the visual information processing of Chinese characters. The first experiment used a short-term retention paradigm and the second, a sentence judgment task. Results were discussed with respect to the issues of orthographical differences and of…

Three word-identification experiments suggest that a model derived from experiments with pseudowords can be applied successfully to word identification. The data derived from the experiments confirm the role of higher order verbal units in word identification and suggest the structural components of a verbal-mediation theory of reading. (Editor/RK)

Meyer, Schvaneveldt, and Ruddy report that semantic context has a larger effect on visually degraded words than on undegraded words. Degrading stimuli takes place by superimposing a dot pattern over letters thereby slowing information processing. Four experiments explore alternative explanations of this research finding. (Editor/RK)

Examines earlier studies relating to human memory, extracts estimates of parameters that appear to be crucial to performance in complex tasks, and illustrates how these parameter values predict behavior in a range of laboratory situations. (JR)

The purpose of this study was to investigate, both empirically and theoretically, the manner in which human Ss (might) learn to estimate relative frequencies of nine different outcomes of an uncertain event on the basis of a random sequence of event occurences. (Author)

Describes two experiments on the processing of ambiguous words: one involving lexical decisions for words related to dominant or subordinate meanings of homograph primes, the other involving ambiguous words ending sentences that bias the homographs at varying degrees. Concludes that dominance and context contribute independently to processing of…

Limitations of current information-processing research on the nature of intelligence are discussed. Major criticisms are that the tasks are static; lack of generalizability from the laboratory to the real world; and collective intellect, motives, goals, circumstances, and ambiguity are not addressed in either theory or research. (Author/RD)

Three experiments are reported in which, following presentation of a categorized list, subjects either recalled the whole list or a part of the list. Results indicate that it is difficult to retrieve selectively parts of a studied list when instructions specify only what not to recall. (Author/AM)

Four commissurotomy patients were tested for ability to match tachistoscopically presented stimuli with pictures in free vision, according to either structural appearance or functional/conceptual category. (Editor)

The authors examined the evolution of cognitive and emotional responses to terror risks for a nationally representative sample of Americans between late 2001 and late 2002. Respondents' risk judgments changed in ways consistent with their reported personal experiences. However, they did not recognize these changes, producing hindsight bias in…

Three experiments were conducted that provide a direct examination of within-category discontinuity manipulations on the implicit, procedural-based learning and the explicit, hypothesis-testing systems proposed in F. G. Ashby, L. A. Alfonso-Reese, A. U. Turken, and E. M. Waldron's (1998) competition between verbal and implicit systems model.…

This article examines how the human visual system represents the shapes of 3-dimensional (3D) objects. One long-standing hypothesis is that object shapes are represented in terms of volumetric component parts and their spatial configuration. This hypothesis is examined in 3 experiments using a whole-part matching paradigm in which participants…

In separate studies, observers viewed upright biological motion, inverted biological motion, or arbitrary motion created from systematically randomizing the positions of point-light dots. Results showed that observers (a) could learn to detect the presence of arbitrary motion, (b) could not learn to discriminate the coherence of arbitrary motion,…

The aim was to determine whether logical concepts acquired in one language could be transferred to another language. (Author)

The Springs Task measures the ability to conduct controlled experiments, name variables, and criticize variables which are demonstrated to the subject. It provides an operational definition of formal thought. Subjects aged ten to adult can be tested with this instrument, an apparatus-based task administered individually in a 15-minute interview.…