RESUMEN

A cylindrical vessel's fundamental resonant frequency increases as it fills with water. In Experiment 1, observers reliably identified water level rising, falling, or not changing. In Experiment 2, observers controlled filling well using only auditory information but less well than with multimodal information. Observers controlled fills to the brim better than to a drinking level, implying anticipation of fullness. In Experiment 3, blind and blindfolded sighted observers filled vessels to the brim using only auditory information. Fills tracked vessel height and flow rate well (R = .93, blind; R = .86, sighted). Experiment 4 tested sensitivity to acoustic time-to-full (TTF), analogous to optical tau. Estimated TTF to 3 fill levels at 3 rates tracked actual TTF (group R > .9; individual median R = .82). Results supported ecological perceptual theory: Changing acoustic information affords adaptive, prospective control of vessel filling.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Growth systematically changes the body proportions of both humans and animals so that the ratio of head height to body height decreases with age. Prior studies have demonstrated that body proportions provide effective information for age perception. To test the proposal that illustrators incorporate this information into their drawings, measurements were made of the head and body heights of 100 pairs of animals appearing in children's picture books. In 93 pairs, the animal intended to be perceived as older had a smaller head-to-body ratio than did the younger animal. Ratings collected for 25 of these pairs showed that both perceived age and cuteness are significantly correlated with body proportions. The magnitudes of the correlations were only modest, suggesting that other aspects of the drawings influenced perceived age and cuteness. In addition, observers reported that body proportions are only one of a variety of factors influencing age and cuteness perception. As has been found in other studies, perceived age and cuteness were negatively correlated.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

The relationship between the behavior of single-celled organisms and cognition in higher animals is explored. Recent research and theory in bacterial chemotaxis are presented, together with a discussion of the implications of chemotaxis for perceptual theory. A number of parallels between chemotaxis and perception in higher organisms are drawn. It is suggested that Koshland's model of the chemical processes controlling chemotaxis is an example of a mechanism for direct perception of change and can help elucidate Runeson's work on 'smart mechanisms' of perception. It is argued, more generally, that the growing body of knowledge about the perceptual activities of lower organisms should be used to broaden the factual base on which theories of perception are constructed: eg explication of perceptual parallels between humans and lower organisms should help clarify the nature of these phenomena in humans and, perhaps, help in the development of theories of greater generality. Also, the debate between direct and indirect theories of perception may be advanced by analysis of the specific mechanisms used by lower organisms. Contrasts to mediated perception are pointed out and arguments for the relative simplicity and explanatory power of theories of direct perception are provided.

Asunto(s)

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

One hundred and five college students made estimates of the lengths of freely swinging pendulums mounted in an apparatus that masked all but the top few inches of the pendulum string. The law of pendulum motion shows that visible aspects of pendulum motion uniquely specify the length of the pendulum. Thus, information is available in the display that does, if observers are able to use it, allow accurate estimation of length. In three studies estimates were found to be linear functions of actual lengths, though with wide differences in slopes among individual observers. These results, together with statements made during post-experimental interviews, are interpreted as showing that observers use a rule to the effect that length is a linear function of 'speed', where speed appears to be a function of both period and angular velocity.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Three experiments examine the perception of age level from computer-generated line drawings of a human body, a Martian, a robot, and a flower that were mathematically transformed using a model of human growth developed by P.B. Medawar. The results suggest that observers' age level judgments are related by a power function to the size of the head relative to the rest of the body but that the exponents of these functions vary systematically across the different body forms. These results are discussed in relation to other research on biological event perception.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

The primary purpose of this study was to determine list equivalency of Harris' revision of the CID Everyday Sentence Lists under three signal-to-noise ratios: O dB, --3 dB, and --6 dB. On the basis of list means, nonsignificant groupings of lists were found at each noise level; however, lists were not equivalent at any level on the basis of a +/- 10% standard error or measurement (95% confidence interval). It is concluded that Harris' revision of the CID Everyday Sentences should not be used in their present form for intraindividual comparisons.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Requirements that a vision system must meet to make Superman 's x-ray vision possible are stated, and two solutions are proposed. In one, emitted x-rays carry the information to Superman 's eyes; in the other, emitted rays make objects transparent to a second type of ray. Further subjects lending themselves to this type of research are superhearing , the biomechanics of leaping tall buildings, or being faster than a bullet.

Asunto(s)

Asunto(s)

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Previous work supports the hypothesis that cardioidal strain, a nonlinear topological transformation, offers a plausible mathematical model for the perceived global changes in human craniofacial morphology due to growth. Experiment 1 examined the generality of the effect of this growth transformation on relative age judgments by applying it to profiles of a dog, bird, and monkey. Experiment 2 investigated the abstractness of this transformation by looking at its effect on perceived age level of a Volkswagen "Beetle." In both experiments, cardioidal strain resulted in changes in the perceived age of the nonhuman profiles that were similar to those produced on human faces in earlier work. A second transformation, affine shear, failed to produce as significant an effect on perceived age as cardioidal strain when applied to the same structures. Because cardioidal strain produces changes in structures that do not share an isomorphism of rigid (Euclidian) local features or rigid feature configurations, this transformation seems both sufficiently general and abstract to specify what J.J. Gibson has called a "higher-order invariant of perceptual information.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Trains of brief clicks produced successively at 3 points in a horizontal array were not localized accurately. Observers reported clicks occurring in succession across the spaces between sources as well as at the sources themselves. The illusion is functionally related to interstimulus interval, number of clicks per speaker, and regularity of pulsing. It appears similar to Geldard and Sherrick's cutaneous "rabbit" illusion.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

A theory for the perception of events is proposed using the concepts of transformational and structural invariants. This approach involves the application of a method of spatial coordinate transformation to characterize the remodeling of faces by growth. By construing growing faces to the viscal-elastic events, the perception of the relative age level faces in made amenable to the proposed event perception analysis. Shear and strain transformation are compared as alternative formulations of growth-produced changes in the shape of human profiles. Thes studies indicate that profiles transformed by strain elicit more reliable rank-order age judgments than those transformed by shear, although shear had a small significant effect. It is also shown that subjects are highly sensitive to small changes in strain, and that perceived identity of a shape is preserved under the strain transformation. The explanatory adequacy of the event perception theory of age information is compared to that of more traditional feature analytic theories.

Asunto(s)

Asunto(s)