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Elizabeth Milne 1, Marcin Szczerbinski 2Global and local perceptual style, field-independence, and central coherence: An attempt at concept validation.
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volume 5 issue 5, pages 1-26 |
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Global and local perceptual style, field-independence, and central coherence: An attempt at concept validation. |
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Elizabeth Milne 1, Marcin Szczerbinski 2 |
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1 Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TP, UK
2 Department of Human Communication Sciences, University of Sheffield, 31 Claremont Crescent, Sheffield S10 2TA, UK
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Historically, the concepts of field-independence, closure flexibility, and weak central coherence have been used to denote a locally, rather globally, dominated perceptual style. To date, there has been little attempt to clarify the relationship between these constructs, or to examine the convergent validity of the various tasks purported to measure them. To address this, we administered 14 tasks that have been used to study visual perceptual styles to a group of 90 neuro-typical adults. The data were subjected to exploratory factor analysis. We found evidence for the existence of a narrowly defined weak central coherence (field-independence) factor that received loadings from only a few of the tasks used to operationalise this concept. This factor can most aptly be described as representing the ability to dis-embed a simple stimulus from a more complex array. The results suggest that future studies of perceptual styles should include tasks whose theoretical validity is empirically verified, as such validity cannot be established merely on the basis of a priori task analysis. Moreover, the use of multiple indices is required to capture the latent dimensions of perceptual styles reliably.
Keywords: central coherence, perceptual style, global/local perception, field-independence, closure flexibility, visual perception, factor analysis
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volume 5 issue 5, pages 27-41 |
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Flexibility of temporal expectations for triple subdivision of a beat |
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Bruno H. Repp 1, Haitham Jendoubi 2 |
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1 Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, Connecticut
2 Cognitive Science Program, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
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When tapping in synchrony with an isochronous sequence of beats, participants respond automatically to an unexpectedly early or late beat by shifting their next tap; this is termed the phase correction response (PCR). A PCR has also been observed in response to unexpected perturbations of metrical subdivisions of a beat, which suggests that participants have temporal expectancies for subdivisions to occur at particular time points. It has been demonstrated that a latent temporal expectancy at 1/2 of the inter-beat interval (IBI) exists even in the absence of explicit duple subdivision in previous IBIs of a sequence. The present study asked whether latent expectancies at 1/3 and 2/3 of the IBI can be induced by a global experimental context of triple subdivision, and whether a local context of consistently phase-shifted triple subdivisions can induce different expectancies. Using the PCR as the dependent variable, we find weak evidence for latent expectancies but strong evidence for context-induced shifts in expectancies. These results suggest that temporal referents between beats, which typically are linked to simple ratios of time spans, are flexible and context-dependent. In addition, we show that the PCR, a response to expectancy violation, is independent of and sometimes contrary to the simultaneous phase adaptation required by a change in subdivision timing.
Keywords: synchronization, subdivision, timing, expectation, phase correction
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Catherine J. Stevens 1, David Brennan 1, Agnes Petocz 1, Clare Howell 1Designing informative warning signals: Effects of indicator type, modality, and task demand on recognition speed and accuracy
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volume 5 issue 5, pages 42-48 |
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Designing informative warning signals: Effects of indicator type, modality, and task demand on recognition speed and accuracy |
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Catherine J. Stevens 1, David Brennan 1, Agnes Petocz 1, Clare Howell 1 |
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1 School of Psychology and MARCS Auditory Laboratories, University of Western Sydney
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An experiment investigated the assumption that natural indicators which exploit existing learned associations between a signal and an event make more effective warnings than previously unlearned symbolic indicators. Signal modality (visual, auditory) and task demand (low, high) were also manipulated. Warning effectiveness was indexed by accuracy and reaction time (RT) recorded during training and dual task test phases. Thirty-six participants were trained to recognize 4 natural and 4 symbolic indicators, either visual or auditory, paired with critical incidents from an aviation context. As hypothesized, accuracy was greater and RT was faster in response to natural indicators during the training phase. This pattern of responding was upheld in test phase conditions with respect to accuracy but observed in RT only in test phase conditions involving high demand and the auditory modality. Using the experiment as a specific example, we argue for the importance of considering the cognitive contribution of the user (viz., prior learned associations) in the warning design process. Drawing on semiotics and cognitive psychology, we highlight the indexical nature of so-called auditory icons or natural indicators and argue that the cogniser is an indispensable element in the tripartite nature of signification.
Keywords: auditory warnings, workload, modality, icons, semiotics
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