The authors conducted 4 experiments to test the decision-bound, prototype, and distribution theories for the categorization of sounds. They used as stimuli sounds varying in either resonance frequency or duration. They created different experimental conditions by varying the variance and overlap of 2 stimulus distributions used in a training phase…

The authors proposed a model of the control of interceptive action over a ground plane (Chardenon, Montagne, Laurent, & Bootsma, 2004). This model is based on the cancellation of the rate of change of the angle between the current position of the target and the direction of displacement (i.e., the bearing angle). While several sources of visual…

It is the purpose of this paper to elaborate the concept of autocontingencies, distinguishing them from "traditional" contingencies, and to present data which bear directly on the acquisition and extent of behavioral control exerted by autocontingencies. (Author)

I analyze the process by which we react cognitively to information that contradicts our culturally held sentiments in the context of affect control theory. When bizarre, unanticipated events come to our attention and we have no opportunity to act so as to alter them, we must reidentify at least one event component: the actor, the behavior, or the…

Faces are perceived holistically, a phenomenon best illustrated when the processing of a face feature is affected by the other features. Here, the authors tested the hypothesis that the holistic perception of a face mainly relies on its low spatial frequencies. Holistic face perception was tested in two classical paradigms: the whole-part…

Article evaluated research studies completed by Baddeley-Ecob concerning the relationship between reaction time models and recognition memory. (Author/RK)

The experiment in physics has often been pictured as an ideal for the less mature social sciences, especially by positivist philosophy of science. The thesis to be presented here is that the physical experiment as a paradigm for psychology is merely a pretext, a smoke-screen for a more fundamental and concealed technological paradigm for the study…

On the premise that committing a word to memory is a type of covert action capable of being stopped, this study merged an item-method directed forgetting paradigm with a stop signal paradigm. The primary dependent measure was immediate recall. Indicating that participants were able to countermand the default instruction to remember, there was an…

Describes a psychology experiment that investigated the effect of ambiguity on human decision-making behavior. (Available from Behavioral Science, University of Louisville, P.O. Box 1055, Louisville, KY 40201; $3.50 single copy.) (JG)

Two experiments tested a set of predictions regarding category definitions and categorization latencies. Neither prediction was supported by the experiment results, leading to the formulation of an alternative feature-based model of category definitions using the notion of a polymorphous concept. (Author/AM)

Speeded perceptual classification experiments were conducted to distinguish among the predictions of exemplar-retrieval, decision-boundary, and prototype models. The key manipulation was that across conditions, individual stimuli received either probabilistic or deterministic category feedback. Regardless of the probabilistic feedback, however, an…

The authors present data from 2 feature verification experiments designed to determine whether distinctive features have a privileged status in the computation of word meaning. They use an attractor-based connectionist model of semantic memory to derive predictions for the experiments. Contrary to central predictions of the conceptual structure…

This paper has been concerned with the recognition of items in relatively short memorized lists, investigated with RT methods. (Author)

Learners are able to use 2 different types of knowledge to perform a skill. One type is a conscious mental model, and the other is based on memories of instances. The authors conducted 3 experiments that manipulated training conditions designed to affect the availability of 1 or both types of knowledge about an artificial grammar. Participants…

The divergent predictions of 2 models of dual-task performance are investigated. The central bottleneck and central capacity sharing models argue that a central stage of information processing is capacity limited, whereas stages before and after are capacity free. The models disagree about the nature of this central capacity limitation. The…