TY - JOUR
T1 - Functional significance of stimulus orientation
T2 - Effects on orientation discrimination
AU - Ryan, Ann Stoy
AU - Schulte, Ann
AU - Klatzky, Roberta L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The research reported here was partially funded by NIMH Grant 25090 to the third author. Requests for reprints should be sent to Roberta L. Klatzky, Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Calif. 93 106. The second author is currently at the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin. The authors wish to thank Debbie Wilson for her assistance in data collection.
PY - 1979/6
Y1 - 1979/6
N2 - Children (6- and 9-year-olds) and adults were required to discriminate identical pairs of visual stimuli from mirror images. It was hypothesized that a key factor in performance would be the extent to which orientation was a functionally significant attribute of the stimuli. Two variables were manipulated, type of orientation discrimination and stimulus class. The first variable refers to the fact that the mirror images could be produced by either left/right or top/bottom reversals. Three classes of stimuli, varying in the extent to which a particular orientation was emphasized, were used: mobile objects (for which left/right orientation is assumed to be important); stationary objects (which lack comparable relevance for left/right orientation); and novel, abstract forms. The prediction was that if the discrimination task involved left/right reversals, as contrasted with top/bottom reversals, subjects would show an advantage for mobile objects, producing an interaction between stimulus class and orientation discrimination. In the first study, the subjects were children and performance was measured in terms of error rates. In the second study adults were tested, and reaction times were measured. Both studies manifested the predicted interaction. Results are discussed in terms of an information-processing framework, in which the incorporation of orientation-related features in the code representing a stimulus varies with the functional significance of the orientation to the stimulus class.
AB - Children (6- and 9-year-olds) and adults were required to discriminate identical pairs of visual stimuli from mirror images. It was hypothesized that a key factor in performance would be the extent to which orientation was a functionally significant attribute of the stimuli. Two variables were manipulated, type of orientation discrimination and stimulus class. The first variable refers to the fact that the mirror images could be produced by either left/right or top/bottom reversals. Three classes of stimuli, varying in the extent to which a particular orientation was emphasized, were used: mobile objects (for which left/right orientation is assumed to be important); stationary objects (which lack comparable relevance for left/right orientation); and novel, abstract forms. The prediction was that if the discrimination task involved left/right reversals, as contrasted with top/bottom reversals, subjects would show an advantage for mobile objects, producing an interaction between stimulus class and orientation discrimination. In the first study, the subjects were children and performance was measured in terms of error rates. In the second study adults were tested, and reaction times were measured. Both studies manifested the predicted interaction. Results are discussed in terms of an information-processing framework, in which the incorporation of orientation-related features in the code representing a stimulus varies with the functional significance of the orientation to the stimulus class.
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U2 - 10.1016/0022-0965(79)90040-7
DO - 10.1016/0022-0965(79)90040-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 448282
AN - SCOPUS:0018484119
SN - 0022-0965
VL - 27
SP - 512
EP - 526
JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
IS - 3
ER -