Auditory localization for spatial orientation

The use of three-dimensional auditory technology that provides localization of auditory cues presented through headphones is proposed as a means of providing supplemental information to pilots on the spatial orientation of an aircraft. This technique shows promise for reducing accidents due to spatial disorientation associated with high visual load. A study was conducted using United States Air Force pilots as subjects to determine desirable? cue characteristics for accurately localizing auditory cues using this technique. The study examined the use of 9 different cue types at each of 2 frequency levels. It was found that the accuracy of subjects' localization of cues in elevation was greatly enhanced by the use of multidimensional cues that provided redundant elevation information through varying frequencies and distance from the horizon cues in addition to the inherent spatial location information. Trade-offs in azimuth localization accuracy and response time were noted, however. Recommendations are made for further developing and investigating this technique for the aircraft spatial orientation task.     

Perceptual localization of surface position.

In 2 experiments, observers were required to identify corresponding points on an object viewed from multiple orientations. On each trial, a surface was presented initially with a single target location marked by a small dot. Following a brief blank interval, the same surface was presented again at a different orientation. The observer was required to position an adjustable probe dot in this 2nd display to match the location of the target in the 1st view. Under optimal conditions, the variance in their settings over multiple trials was just a few minutes of arc, though these errors varied significantly with the structural complexity of the depicted surface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual and cognitive spatial learning.

Ss were taught novel mappings between visual space and motor space with either a variant on a prism adaptation paradigm (Exps 1 and 2) or a nonperceptual cognitive task (Exps 3 and 4). First, discrimination training specified that one visual location required a new pointing response but another location did not. This led to unusual generalization unlike typical generalization decrement. Second, training at 9 locations specified that 1 location required a new response but that the remaining 8 did not. This simple isolation mapping was unlearnable and instead a flat function fit through all of space. In contrast, for the cognitive paradigm, not only was isolation of one region of space easily learned, it was the preferred pattern of generalization. Implications for perceptual learning, as well as the qualitative distinctions between perceptual and cognitive learning, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual orientation and empathy.

Administered an empathy scale and the Embedded Figures Test to 32 male undergraduates to explore the relationship between empathy, as an interpersonal affective variable, and psychological differentiation. As was predicted, empathy was significantly correlated with perceptual orientation (p     

Perceptual categories for spatial layout

The central problems of vision are often divided into object identification and localization. Object identification, at least at fine levels of discrimination, may require the application of top-down knowledge to resolve ambiguous image information. Utilizing top-down knowledge, however, may require the initial rapid access of abstract object categories based on low-level image cues. Does object localization require a different set of operating principles than object identification or is category determination also part of the perception of depth and spatial layout? Three-dimensional graphics movies of objects and their cast shadows are used to argue that identifying perceptual categories is important for determining the relative depths of objects. Processes that can identify the causal class (e.g. the kind of material) that generates the image data can provide information to determine the spatial relationships between surfaces. Changes in the blurriness of an edge may be characteristically associated with shadows caused by relative motion between two surfaces. The early identification of abstract events such as moving object/shadow pairs may also be important for depth from shadows. Knowledge of how correlated motion in the image relates to an object and its shadow may provide a reliable cue to access such event categories.     

Contextual cueing: implicit learning and memory of visual context guides spatial attention

Global context plays an important, but poorly understood, role in visual tasks. This study demonstrates that a robust memory for visual context exists to guide spatial attention. Global context was operationalized as the spatial layout of objects in visual search displays. Half of the configurations were repeated across blocks throughout the entire session, and targets appeared within consistent locations in these arrays. Targets appearing in learned configurations were detected more quickly. This newly discovered form of search facilitation is termed contextual cueing. Contextual cueing is driven by incidentally learned associations between spatial configurations (context) and target locations. This benefit was obtained despite chance performance for recognizing the configurations, suggesting that the memory for context was implicit. The results show how implicit learning and memory of visual context can guide spatial attention towards task-relevant aspects of a scene.     

Developmental differences in implicit learning of spatial context.

The authors examined whether a form of implicit memory that has been unambiguously dissociated from conscious awareness--learning of spatial context on the contextual cuing task introduced by M. M. Chun and Y. Jiang (1998)--is mature in childhood as predicted by an evolutionary view of cognition. School-aged children did not show reliable learning relative to adults who performed the same version of the task or another version that slowed responses to match those of children. Thus, unreliable learning in childhood was mediated by immature implicit representations of spatial context rather than by slower baseline response speed. The present finding is inconsistent with the prediction of the evolutionary view of cognition but consistent with incomplete maturation of medial temporal lobes known to mediate contextual learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Problem solving with equals: Peer collaboration as a context for learning mathematics and spatial concepts.

Assessed effects of peer collaboration on mathematical and spatial reasoning for fourth graders and on learning with logical-physical materials 1 year later. Subjects were 152 fourth graders, randomly divided into 4 groups: mathematics, spatial reasoning, and 2 control groups. In Year 1, pairs in the math and spatial groups worked together for six sessions on math and spatial problems, respectively. In Year 2, pairs of children in the math, spatial, and Control 1 groups worked together on a series of 6 sessions with balance scale problems. Findings from the pretest/posttest data indicated that peer collaboration is an effective learning environment for tasks that require reasoning, but not for tasks that require rote learning or copying. Furthermore, the learning that occurred in the second year was directly related to first-year gains made by pairs in the math group. Pretest gender differences in favor of boys diminished during the intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective corticosteroid antagonists modulate specific aspects of spatial orientation learning.

Receptors for mineralocorticoids (MRs) and glucocorticoids (GRs) display a high concentration and distinct distribution in the hippocampus. The effects of corticosteroids on behavior mediated by central MRs and GRs were assessed in rats. Spatial navigation is considered to be a sensitive measure for hippocampal functioning. Removal of circulating corticosteroids (via adrenalectomy) impaired spatial learning. In intact rats, blockade of central MRs and GRs by icv injection of selective MR and GR antagonists influenced different aspects of spatial learning. The analysis of the behavioral pattern revealed that treatment with the MR antagonist altered search–escape strategies in the water maze. The injection of the GR antagonist after training resulted in increased latencies to find the platform, which reflects the disturbed consolidation of spatial information. Corticosteroids affect, in a differential and coordinated manner, behavioral strategies and storage of spatial information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual learning and free classification

Two experiments are reported that investigate the effects of stimulus preexposure on discrimination performance in a free classification task, using adult humans as subjects. In free classification subjects are asked to put stimuli into groups in any way that seems reasonable or sensible to them. Experiment 1 shows that the effect of preexposure is contingent on stimulus structure. Experiment 1b is the first demonstration of a retardation in learning as a consequence of simple preexposure in adult human subjects (previous demonstrations have relied on incidental or masked preexposure). Experiment 2 further supports the conclusions of Experiment 1 and extends them with the demonstration that stimulus similarity is a crucial factor. Taken together, these experiments rule out a class of attention-based explanations of the phenomena reported here. The experiments also provide novel information about the effects of preexposure. Preexposure can change the actual classifications subjects form in addition to altering the rate at which they are formed. Implications of these results for current theories of category formation and perceptual learning are considered.     

Ventromedial prefrontal damage and memory for context: Perceptual versus semantic features.

Memory for context is known to rely on episodic binding and strategic retrieval processes. It is unclear, however, whether memory for different contextual features taps the same cognitive and neural mechanisms. Here, the authors compare memory for a perceptual feature (i.e., the format in which an item had been presented) and for a semantic feature (i.e., the concept with which an item had been paired) in 13 patients with lesions in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, including patients with and without confabulation, and 13 healthy controls. Participants studied picture–word pairs and received an old–new recognition test that included intact pairs, rearranged pairs, format pairs (studied pairs in which the picture–word format of each item was switched), old–new pairs, and new–new pairs. Hit rates for intact pairs were similar for all participant groups. Compared with controls, patients, especially those with confabulation, had higher false-alarm rates for format pairs but comparable false-alarm rates for rearranged pairs. The authors propose that distinct monitoring processes are engaged during retrieval of perceptual and semantic context, with only the former crucially dependent on ventromedial prefrontal cortex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual learning in visual search: fast, enduring, but non-specific

Visual search has been suggested as a tool for isolating visual primitives. Elementary "features" were proposed to involve parallel search, while serial search is necessary for items without a "feature" status, or, in some cases, for conjunctions of "features". In this study, we investigated the role of practice in visual search tasks. We found that, under some circumstances, initially serial tasks can become parallel after a few hundred trials. Learning in visual search is far less specific than learning of visual discriminations and hyperacuity, suggesting that it takes place at another level in the central visual pathway, involving different neural circuits.     

Effects of specificity and position of written instructional objectives on learning from lecture.

Investigated the effects of specificity and position of written instructional objectives on learning from an audiotaped lecture using material from E. Z. Rothkopf and R. Kaplan (see record 1973-07952-001). Undergraduates (N = 160) received either specific or general objectives before or after the 4 sections of the lecture. A control group received no objectives. Vocabulary items used throughout the experiment served as the covariate in analysis. Results indicating a departure from previous findings on the use of objectives with written text show that the before position increased intentional learning more than the after position. Incidental learning was significantly higher than intentional learning for treatment groups combined and particularly for the after groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual learning style and learning proficiency: A test of the hypothesis.

Given the potential importance of using modality preference with instruction, the authors tested whether learning style preference correlated with memory performance in each of 3 sensory modalities: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. In Study 1, participants completed objective measures of pictorial, auditory, and tactile learning and learning style self-assessments. The results indicate that objective test performance did not correlate with learning style preference. In Study 2, the authors examined in more detail the information participants used to answer the learning style self-assessment. The findings indicate that participants answered the inventory using general memories and beliefs rather than specific examples of learning in different modalities. These results challenge the hypothesis that individuals learn best with material presented in a particular sensory modality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual grouping and spatial distortion: A developmental study.

20 Ss in each of 5 age groups (kindergartners; 2nd, 4th, and 6th graders; and graduate students) estimated distances between elements in patterns illustrating the Gestalt grouping principles of proximity, similarity, closure, and good continuation. Ss of all age groups consistently judged distances between elements in the same perceptual group as smaller than physically identical distances between elements in different perceptual groups, which indicated that all Ss were sensitive to the structure of the Gestalt patterns. The magnitude of these distance distortions decreased significantly with age, which suggests that perceptual development includes improvements in the ability to disregard Gestalt groupings when the task requires selective attention to certain elements. Results are consistent with evidence that perceptual development moves from visual processing based primarily on global attributes of patterns to processing that can selectively analyze the component structure of patterns. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual specificity of auditory priming: Implicit memory for voice intonation and fundamental frequency.

Five experiments explored the effect of acoustic changes between study and test on implicit and explicit memory for spoken words. Study-test changes in the speaker's voice, intonation, and fundamental frequency produced significant impairments of auditory priming on implicit tests of auditory identification and stem completion but had little or no effect on explicit recall and recognition tests (Exps 1–4). However, study-test changes in overall decibel level had no effect on priming on an auditory stem-completion test or on cued-recall performance (Exp 5). The results are consistent with the idea that fundamental frequency information is represented in a perceptual representation system that plays an important role in auditory priming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intact implicit learning of spatial context and temporal sequences in childhood autism spectrum disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is defined by atypicalities in domains that are posited to rely on implicit learning processes such as social communication, language, and motor behavior. The authors examined 2 forms of implicit learning in 14 children with high-functioning ASD (10 of whom were diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome) and 14 control children, learning of spatial context known to be mediated by the medial temporal lobes (using the contextual cueing task) and of sequences known to be mediated by frontal-striatal and frontal-cerebellar circuits (using the alternating serial reaction time task). Both forms of learning were unimpaired in ASD. Spatial contextual implicit learning was spared in ASD despite slower visual search of spatial displays. The present findings provide evidence for the integrity of learning processes dependent on integration of spatial and sequential contextual information in high-functioning children with ASD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sleeping position, orientation, and proximity in bedsharing infants and mothers

The impact of mother-infant bedsharing on infant sleeping position, orientation, and proximity to the mother was assessed in 12 breast-feeding Latino mother-infant pairs. Six routinely bedsharing and six routinely solitary-sleeping pairs slept 3 nights in the sleep laboratory. The first night matched the routine home condition, followed by 1 bedsharing night and 1 solitary-sleeping night in random order. During bedsharing infants were never placed prone, regardless of their routine sleeping condition. On the bedsharing night, mothers and infants spent most of the night oriented toward each other; seven of 12 infants remained oriented toward their mothers the entire night. While sleeping in a face-to-face orientation, most pairs slept most of the time less than 30 cm apart with appreciable amounts of time at less than 20 cm. This orientation and proximity should facilitate sensory exchanges between mother and infant which, we hypothesize, influence the infant's sleep physiology and nocturnal behavior. We conclude that bedsharing minimizes the use of the prone infant sleeping position, probably in part to facilitate breast feeding. By promoting nonprone positions, bedsharing may protect some infants from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), since prone sleeping is a known risk factor for SIDS. The large percentage of the night that mothers spent oriented toward their infants suggests that a higher degree of maternal vigilance may also result from bedsharing.     

Dissociating context and space within the hippocampus: Effects of complete, dorsal, and ventral excitotoxic hippocampal lesions on conditioned freezing and spatial learning.

Rats with complete excitotoxic hippocampal lesions or selective damage to the dorsal or ventral hippocampus were compared with controls on measures of contextually conditioned freezing in a signaled shock procedure and on a spatial water-maze task. Complete and ventral lesions produced equivalent, significant anterograde deficits in conditioned freezing relative to both dorsal lesions and controls. Complete hippocampal lesions impaired water-maze performance; in contrast, ventral lesions improved performance relative to the dorsal group, which was itself unexpectedly unimpaired relative to controls. Thus, the partial lesion effects seen in the 2 tasks never resembled each other. Anterograde impairments in contextual freezing and spatial learning do not share a common underlying neural basis; complete and ventral lesions may induce anterograde contextual freezing impairments by enhancing locomotor activity under conditions of mild stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phenomenology of attention: I. Color, location, orientation, and spatial frequency.

The effect of attention on the phenomenal appearance of objects was investigated in the domains of color (hue), location, line orientation, and spatial frequency. Observers indicated the appearance of a briefly presented above-threshold stimulus by selecting a matching stimulus along a sensory continuum (e.g., color). Attention was manipulated with a dual task that involved letter identification. Attention had little effect in changing the way objects appeared in terms of observers' mean response. However, in each stimulus domain, attention reduced the variability of responses. It is argued that attention should be viewed in terms of reducing uncertainty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)