ISSN : 1226-9654
The previous studies (Park, 2001, 2004a), using identification task of brief displays, did not obtain evidence supporting the hypothesis of uniform connectedness (i.e., UC) that uniformly connected forms are processed as a single unit. Negative repetition effect (i.e., NRE) which was observed in these studies and led to this conclusion might be caused by easy namability or good continuation of the alternative displays. NRE means that target detection rates are lowered in the repetitive displays than in the alternative displays. Three experiments were conducted to test the UC hypothesis. In experiment 1, where the repetitive displays were 'M' or 'W' in shape for ease of naming, no NRE was observed. In experiment 2, where good continuation between two parts was controlled among the displays, there was also no NRE. And no UC effect was observed in both experiments, that is, UC displays were not identified more accurately than disconnected displays. To test that these null results might be caused by the improper stimulus displays, Experiment 3 applied post-cueing forced-choice task to the same displays used in Experiment 2, and observed NRE but still no UC effect. This results indicated that UC had no influence on the perception of briefly exposed displays, irrespective of namability and good continuation, and the type of report task and its related attentional processing might have an affect on the mode of processing of the whole display.
For investigating whether the moment of inertia be the crucial perceptual invariant and perceptual differentiation on moment of inertia would enhance the accuracy of golf putting, the present experiment was conducted from the perspective of the ecological psychology. Group A used the putter of fixed weight(500g), and group B used the putter of varying weight(500g, 625g, 750g) for the practice, and they used the same fixed weight putter(500g) for the test. The moment of intia of the 500g putter was .173kg·m2, the 625g putter was .235kg·m2, the 750g putter was .298kg·m2. The accuracy of the two groups was compared based on their five sessions of putting, and the results showed that there were significant differences on Day, and, also, on interaction of Day and Group. The result of interaction between Day and Group showed us that in the beginning the performance of Group A was superior to Group B, but as the practice continued the performance of Group B became more accurate than Group A, and this result supported the hypothesis of the present study. In sum, the perceptual differentiation theory of E. Gibson can be properly applicable to learning of the golf putting.
Exposure of organisms to a threatening environment often reduces their pain sensitivity to peripheral nociceptive stimulation. The present review was processed based on a considerable amount of existing neurobiological/psychological evidence to provide a comprehensive understanding of the amygdala-brainstem neural mechanisms of the stress-induced antinociception. Brainstem areas including the PAG and the RVM are critical for descending antinociception. The amygdala is neuroanatomically and functionally connected to these brainstem areas. Stimulation of the amygdala cells following presentation of fear-inducing stimuli to organisms activates the descending antinociceptive system of the brainstem, leading to inhibition of pain. Antinociception is now believed to arise from interactions between opioid and non-opioid synapses in this brain circuitry. Notably, the activity of an antinociceptive cell in this brain circuitry is suggested to be determined by a fine balance, or neural integration between excitatory (i.e., glutamatergic, neurotensinergic, or VIPergic) input and mu-opioid regulated inhibitory (i.e., GABAergic) input onto this cell. The author further discussed some implications of recent observations on amygdala antinociceptive mechanisms, via reflecting them onto findings from studies on other fear responses including freezing in the rodent.
This study was to examine dominance of information modality in the presentation with combination of different types of information. Accuracy and reaction time were measured in the tasks with 2 or 3 types of information presented synchronously in semantically congruent or incongruent conditions. The results showed that spatial information dominated over visual and auditory information and relative to auditory information, visual dominance took place. It is suggested that as to the design of system display and control, spatial information should be considered in the first place; however, on the basis of previous results that task performance changed according to different response modalities, stimulus-response compatibility should be primarily satisfied as a precondition. Although the results supported the hypothesis that visual information dominated auditory information, because of the physical space limitation of display, the visual information arrangement should be considered in the system with spatial and visual information combined together rather than presented independently.
The crowding effects in reading mean the phenomenon in which the recognition of target letters is interfered by adjacent letters. This study examined the crowding effects in Hangul character recognition in central and peripheral vision using 0, 5, and 10 degrees of eccentricities to the right and left of fixation (horizontal eccentricity) and up and down from fixation (vertical eccentricity). The results from Experiment 1 showed that the crowding effects were minimal in central vision, but were significantly large in both peripheral vision regardless of the locations of periphery (horizontal or vertical). The results from Experiment 2 showed that the crowding effects were cancelled out in peripheral vision by the semantic relations between the target and adjacent letters. Target letters were better recognized when they were presented with adjacent letters as a word than when they were presented in isolation. The present results suggest that crowding is related with the shrinkage of visual span in peripheral vision, which may result in reading difficulty in peripheral vision.