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Eye-tracking study of inanimate objects

Author(s): Vanja Ković,Kim Plunkett,Gert Westermann / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2009

Unlike the animate objects, where participants were consistent in their looking patterns, for inanimates it was difficult to identify both consistent areas of fixations and a consistent order of fixations. Furthermore, in comparison to animate objects, inanimates received significantly shorter total looking time, shorter longest looks and a smaller number of overall fixations. However, as with animates, looking patterns did not systematically differ between the naming and non-naming conditions. These results suggested that animacy, but not labelling, impacts on looking behaviour in this paradigm. In the light of feature-based accounts of semantic memory organization, one could interpret these findings as suggesting that processing of the animate objects is based on the saliency/diagnosticity of their visual features (which is then reflected through participants eye-movements towards those features), whereas processing of the inanimate objects is based more on functional features (which cannot be easily captured by looking behaviour in such a paradigm).

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Development of the cardinality principle in Macedonian preschool children

Author(s): Ana Nikoloska / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2009

Cardinality principle refers to the fact that the last number tag used in counting determines the cardinality of a set. Macedonian kindergarten children were tested with the give-a-number task for understanding of this principle. It was found that Macedonian children, unlike their western counterparts, pass through an additional stage, 5-knowers, before they master the cardinality principle. Also, the age at which they pass through the individual stages is somewhat higher than the age of children coming from western samples. Possible explanations are offered and discussed.

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Osobine ličnosti, starost i pol kao prediktori sklonosti ka samohendikepiranju

Author(s): Petar Čolović,Snežana Smederevac,Dušanka Mitrović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 4/2009

Self-handicapping is one of the strategies people use when facing potential failure. Paper presents new scale for assessing self-handicapping tendency as relatively stable trait, as well as its relations with personality traits, sex and age. Self-handicapping questionnaire and shortened form of Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire were administered to 230 participants of both sexes, age 18 to 59. Confirmatory factor analysis shows that model with four latent dimensions, encompassed by a higher-order latent dimension, fits the data well. Those lower-order dimensions correspond to originally created scales: External handicaps in interpersonal area, Internal handicaps in interpersonal area, Internal handicaps in achievement area and External handicaps in achievement area. Results of MANCOVA shows that Neuroticism is predictor of all dimensions of self- handicapping. Impulsive sensation seeking predicts choice of external handicaps in interpersonal area, as well as internal handicaps in achievement area. Latter is predicted also by low Activity. Younger subjects show significantly higher tendency to use internal handicaps, and men in general show more self-handicapping tendency than women, except in choosing internal handicaps in achievement area, where sex shows no significant effect.

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The impact of ego-involvement in the creation of false childhood memories

Author(s): Iris Žeželj,Sofija Pajić,Neda Omanović,Jasmina Ninković,Julija Grčić / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2009

An experiment employed a "familiar-informant false-narrative procedure" to examine the effects of ego involvement manipulation on the creation of false memories for suggested events. Our main sample consisted of 54 Serbian adolescent students. During the pre-testing stage, students’ parents (N=54) provided details from their children childhoods, which were used to create stimuli for the subsequent stages. Half of the participants were given an ego-involving suggestion- a short written statement that claimed that people with higher intelligence have a better and more detailed memory of their childhood. We hypothesized that ego-involved group would recollect more childhood events in general, create more false memories and be more confident in its’ authenticity and clarity. Implanted event was recognized as autobiographic by 24% respondents in the testing stage and by 44.4% respondents in the retesting stage. There were significant qualitative differences between authentic and false memories: authentic memories were assessed as more reliable and clearer than the false ones. Ego-involvement manipulation had no impact on the frequency or quality of false memories reported by the participants. Even though the specific ego-involvement manipulation was not successful, our findings suggest that other motivating strategies we employed pushed the respondents into accepting false memory suggestion in the retesting stage. Future research could benefit from testing more elaborate ego-involving procedures.

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Odnos forme, prostorne organizacije i vizuelne pažnje u opažanju iluzornih kontura

Author(s): Vasilije Gvozdenović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2009

The aim of the study was the investigation of form, spatial set organization and visual attention in visual search of illusory contours. Three visual search experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, where the simple detection procedure was used, subject's task was to detect square among vertical and horizontal lines. Other experiments investigated visual search of illusory contours in four different set organizations. Introduction of set organization was the way of manipulation of target's eccentricity among other elements. Analysis showed different type of search of the regular and the illusory square figure. The search profile of the regular square proved to be parallel, while all the searches of the illusory squares remained serial. Set organization had important role in visual search of illusory contours. Regardless of serial profile, visual search was faster in cases where target figure was more salient due to the background elements organization.

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Shared and/or separate representations of animate/inanimate categories: An ERP study

Author(s): Vanja Ković,Kim Plunkett,Gert Westermann / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2009

This paper presents an ERP experiment examining the underlying nature of semantic representation of animate and inanimate objects. Time-locking ERP signatures to the onset of visual stimuli we found topological similarities in animate and inanimate object processing. Moreover, when mapping more general to more specific representation (auditory to visual stimuli) we found no difference between animates and inanimates in the N400 amplitude either. This study provides further evidence for the theory of unitary semantic organization, but no support for the feature-based prediction of segregated conceptual organization. Surprisingly, it was also found that the P600 component, which has been thus far mostly related to syntactic processing to be a sensitive index of conceptual processing. The most apparent difference regarding P600 component was found between animate and inanimate matches, whereby animate matches elicited more positive ERP signatures in comparison to inanimate matches.

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Priming of object categorization within and across levels of specificity

Author(s): Jasna Martinović,Thomas Gruber,Matthias M. Müller / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2009

Identification of objects can occur at different levels of specificity. Depending on task and context, an object can be classified at the superordinate level (as an animal), at the basic level (a bird) or at the subordinate level (a sparrow). What are the interactions between these representational levels and do they rely on the same sequential processes that lead to successful object identification? In this electroencephalogram study, a task-switching paradigm (covert naming or living/non-living judgment) was used. Images of objects were repeated either within the same task, or with a switch from a covert naming task to a living or non-living judgment and vice versa. While covert naming accesses entry-level (basic or subordinate), living/non-living judgments rely on superordinate classification. Our behavioural results demonstrated clear priming effects within both tasks. However, asymmetries were found when task-switching had occurred, with facilitation for covert naming but not for categorization. We also found lower accuracy and early-starting and persistent enhancements of event-related potentials (ERPs) for covert naming, indicating that this task was more difficult and involved more intense perceptual and semantic processing. Perceptual priming was marked by consistent reductions of the ERP component L1 for repeated presentations, both with and without task switching. Additional repetition effects were found in early event-related activity between 150-190 ms (N1) when a repeated image had been named at initial presentation. We conclude that differences in N1 indicate task-related changes in the identification process itself. Such enhancements for covert naming again emerge in a later time window associated with depth of semantic processing. Meanwhile, L1 reflects modulations due to implicit memory of objects. In conclusion, evidence was found for representational overlap; changes in ERP markers started early and revealed cross-task priming at the level of object structure analysis and more intense perceptual and semantic processing for covert naming.

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Recognition of briefly presented familiar and unfamiliar faces

Author(s): Božana Vereš-Injac,Malte Persike / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2009

Early processing stages in the perception of familiar and unfamiliar faces were studied in four experiments by varying the type of available facial information in a four alternative forced choice recognition task. Both reaction time and recognition accuracy served as dependent measures. The observed data revealed an asymmetry in processing familiar and unfamiliar faces. A markedly weak inversion effect and strong blurring effect suggest a limited usage of spatial relations within early processing stages of unfamiliar faces. Recognition performance for whole familiar faces did not deteriorate due to blurring or the presentation of isolated internal features, suggesting a low level of representation for featural properties of familiar faces. Based on the data we propose that recognition of familiar faces relies much more on spatial relations among features, particularly internal features, than on featural characteristics. In contrast, recognition of unfamiliar faces resorts mainly to featural information.

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Implicit vs. explicit learning in German noun plurals

Author(s): Vanja Ković,Gert Westermann,Kim Plunkett / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2008

Over the past few decades there has been a lot of debate about language learning and the opinion about the status of mental rule during the process of language learning is still divided between different researches. The present study examines learning morphology of German noun plurals based on rules, examples or on both, rules and examples. The results across these three experimental conditions suggest that the morphological patterns are learned more easily in the form of rules and thus, seem to be more easily captured by dual-route (which suggest that rules and exceptions are processed by two qualitatively different mechanisms) than single route theories (which suggest a singe mechanism for processing both rules and exceptions). However, a closer examination of error patterns across the five rules (-e, -n, -er, Ø, -s) revealed results confronting dual-route theories and suggest the existence of two rule-mechanisms (-n and -s) rather than one for learning regular inflection in German plural nouns. Moreover, the second rule (with plural ending –n) was the easiest one to be learned, although it is the fifth rule (with plural ending –s) which is considered as a default rule in German.

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Korisnički profili internet zavisnika u Srbiji

Author(s): Darko Hinić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 4/2008

This work was a part of a broader empirical study of Internet users with excessive and dysfunctional Internet use symptoms. The aim of this particular article was to describe user profiles of Internet addicts in Serbia. The study recruited 100 subjects in total, 50 in both the clinical and control group. The clinical group included the Internet users who asked for professional help due to the symptoms of the excessive Internet use and fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for Internet behaviour disorder proposed by the American Psychology Association. The results have shown that population with Internet addiction symptoms equally included both males and females, mostly adolescent and younger population, teenagers and university students, persons with higher income and users from economically more developed areas of Serbia. The user profile of this group is characterised by frequent logging on with intervals of several hours online at one time, mainly in the evening or at night, and also intensive negative reactions to any form of Internet access deprivation. By means of factor analysis, three dimensions of pathological use have been established: mixed type with particular need for up-to-date information, social interaction addiction and need for fun-seeking, namely pursuing hobbies online (cyberpornography, online games, music, art and so on).

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Pouke jednog eksperimentalnog zadatka čitanja sa razumevanjem

Author(s): Dejan Lalović,Sanda Stanković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 4/2008

Standardized reading comprehension tests (RCTs) are indispensable instruments in language abilities assessment. Nevertheless, we do not have such an instrument in Serbian. In the present paper, we attempted to verify the basic assumptions of the RCT conception we proposed: the reading material consisting of a relatively large selection of short newspaper articles followed by a single multiplechoice question each, displayed in temporal succession, not simultaneously. We argued that RCT consisting of such item form and content, as well as the administration procedure, should be of equal or even better construct validity than well-known RTCs in foreign languages, also possessing some other practical advantages. These assumptions were implemented in a computer-ran experimental reading comprehension task (ERCT), in a student sample. ERCT psychometric properties analyses showed good discriminability and somewhat less than preferable reliability. The structure and strength of ERCT x other intelligence tests correlations suggest ERCT belonging to the core of verbal abilities tests. Different strategies subjects employed showed no impact on major performance measure  number correct answers. Our findings obtained by ERCT implementation support the RCT conception we propose. We therefore suggest possible further research towards the construction of standardized RCT in Serbian.

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Dijaloška PISA: Razvijanje kompentenci kroz socijalnu interakciju u različitim kontekstima

Author(s): Aleksandar Baucal,Vitomir Jovanović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 4/2008

The main goal of the research was to study how children develop new competencies through social interaction in different contexts. The pre-post test experimental design was used. In the pre-test students were assessed by the PISA 2003 test of mathematics, and based on the results three equal groups for treatment phase were formed. In the treatment phase students from the three groups were solving 5 additional PISA items from the zone of proximal development (ZPD) under three different conditions: group IV - collaboration with an equally competent peer in the out-of-school setting with opportunity to consult others and to use available cultural tools (N=22), group IO - collaboration with an adult who deliver gradual levels of help (N=22), and group KG – individual item solving (N=25). The quantitative analysis showed that all three groups progressed, and group IV (children who collaborated with an equally competent peer in out-of-school setting) progressed more than other two groups. The qualitative analysis suggested that children who progressed most reported on the interview that they had the most symmetric collaboration and managed to rich consensus in spite of difficulties accompanied with the process of joint thinking (“discourse equality”). It shows also that children who were involved in collaboration where partner dominated interaction (“discourse inequality”) did not progress or even regressed. Results also show that wider social context made an effect on interaction between partners.

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Provera i validacija postupaka merenja opsega radne memorije pri čitanju

Author(s): Dejan Lalović,Dušan Vejnović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2008

The aim of the present study was to compare two most widely employed versions of the reading span task in Serbian speaking population, with respect to the procedure and validity. First step was to compare psychometric properties of several measures of reading span, derived from each task version. Second step was to compare predictive validity of memory span and processing measures, for each task version. Two task versions proved to be parallel, with small discrepancies, providing reliable and discriminative measures. The only exception was traditional reading span measure, which has not met any of psychometric standards. Therefore, we propose this measure to be abandoned. While processing measures showed better predictive validity with respect to criteria of verbal ability and reading comprehension, reading span measures independently contributed to prediction of the same criteria with only one exception. Results obtained suggest a small modifications of reading span tasks required in order to improve their psychometric properties. They also suggest combining processing and span measures might yield a better verbal working memory efficiency estimate.

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Vizuelna pretraga iluzornih kontura: Efekti indukovane forme i orijentacije

Author(s): Vasilije Gvozdenović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2008

Illusory contours are specific class of visual stimuli that represent stimuli configurations perceived as integral irrespective of the fact that they are given in fragmented uncompleted wholes. Due to their specific features, illusory contours gained much attention in last decade representing prototype of stimuli used in investigations focused on binding problem. On the other side, investigations of illusory contours are related to problem of the level of their visual processing. Neurophysiologic studies show that processing of illusory contours proceed relatively early, on the V2 level, on the other hand most of experimental studies claim that illusory contours are perceived with engagement of visual attention, binding their elements to whole percept. This research is focused on two experiments in which visual search of illusory contours are based on shape and orientation. The main experimental procedure evolved the task proposed by Bravo and Nakayama where instead of detection, subjects were performing identification of one among two possible targets. In the first experiment subjects detected the presence of illusory square or illusory triangle, while in the second experiment subject were detecting two different orientations of illusory triangle. The results are interpreted in terms of visual search and feature integration theory. Beside the type of visual search task, search type proved to be dependent of specific features of illusory shapes which further complicate theoretical interpretation of the level of their perception.

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Key psychological issues in the study of religion

Author(s): Olivera Petrović / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2007

The current article considers the role of scientific (experimental) psychology in the study of religion and argues that many of the questions central to the history, sociology and anthropology of religion are often psychological and hence require the use of appropriate psychological methods. Psychological study of religion differs from those other disciplines by virtue of its (a) definition of religion (in terms of individual mental states rather than culturally transmitted teachings and socially acquired behaviours), (b) methods of research (designed to elicit and examine relevant mental states), and (c) explanatory aims (concerned with the origin and development of specific cognitive events). Whilst the distinction between individual and social origin of concepts is central to psychological accounts of religion, non-psychological accounts of religion actually dwell on an interaction between the two. It is further argued that some of the key issues in the study of religion -- origin of religious concepts, core religious beliefs, and universality of religious beliefs -- can be most adequately tackled within the framework of cognitive-developmental psychology. Possible explanations are suggested for hitherto insufficient involvement of those psychological approaches in the study of religion.

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Stanje depresivnosti: sindrom ili raspoloženje?

Author(s): Zdenka Novović,Mikloš Biro,Tanja Nedimović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 3/2007

A State Depression Scale was developed in order to register variations of depressive mood. The Scale has satisfactory reliability, as shown by its internal homogeneity and temporal stability. Concurrent validity of the Scale indicated that the Scale correlates with a POMS-D scale (r = 0.41; p < 0.00), and with the Depressive Personality Scale (r = 0.36; p < 0.00). Divergent validity of the Scale was tested by Scale's correlation with the two measures of state anxiety (STAI-S and POMS-A) and was shown to be unsatisfactory since it was as high as the Scale's correlation with scales of depressive affect. Principal Component Analysis extracted four factors: two broader factors, which included depressive-affective contents combined with anxious and depressive-cognitive symptoms, respectively; and another two factors which related to motivational and behavioral characteristics. Sensitivity of the Scale was tested in an experimental setting involving induction of depressive and euphoric mood. The Scale showed high ability to register changes following induction of depressive mood.

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Relation between stages of change and motivation in the treatment of psychiatric patients

Author(s): Vesna Gavrilov Jerković / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2007

Main aim of this research was to investigate the relation between psychiatric patients’ motivation for their participation in treatment and a stage of change they were in. Hypothesis on relation quality of examined variables have been defined from the perspective of transtheoretical model created by Prochaska and associates. Decision balance, specific and general self-efficacy and inclination to relapse have been examined as indicators of motivation. One hundred and twenty-nine psychiatric patients with diagnosis of neurosis or personality disorders have been examined in this research. Results have shown that stages of changes are significantly related to inspected motivational variables. Patients in higher stages of readiness express specific motivational profile characterized by the proactive optimism, which means that they rely on their own resources and expect positive outcome of the treatment. Patients in lower stages of readiness express motivational profile characterized by passive resignation receptiveness, by inclination towards demoralization and low trust in their own strength. Results of this research are in conformity with the basic hypothesis of transtheoretical model of change.

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Perceptivne dimenzije stila u slikarstvu

Author(s): Slobodan Marković,Ana Jelić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2007

The main purpose of this study is to specify the basic perceptual dimensions underlying the judgments of the physical features which define the style in paintings (e.g. salient form, colorful surface, oval contours etc.). The other aim of the study is to correlate these dimensions with the subjective (affective) dimensions of the experience of paintings. In the preliminary study a set of 25 pairs of elementary perceptual descriptors were empirically specified, and a set of 25 bipolar scales were made (e.g. unicolored-multicolored). In the experiment 30 subjects judged 24 paintings (paintings were taken from the study of Radonjić and Marković, 2004) on 25 scales. Factor analysis revealed the four factors: form (scales: precise, neat, salient form etc.), color (color contrast, lightness contrast, vivid colors), space (volumi-nosity, depth and oval contours) and complexity (multicolored, ornate, detailed). Obtained factors reflected the nature of the phenomenological and neural segregation of form, color, depth processing, and partially of complexity processing (e.g. spatial frequency processing within both the form and color subsystem). The aim of the next step of analysis was to specify the correlations between two groups of judgments: (a) mean judgments of 24 paintings on perceptual factors and (b) mean judgments of the same set of 24 paintings on subjective (affective) experience factors, i.e. regularity, attraction, arousal and relaxation (judgments taken from Radonjić and Marković, 2005). The following significant correlatons were obtained: regularity-form, regularity-space, attraction-form and arousal-complexity (negative correlation). The reasons for the unexpected negative correlation between arousal and complexity should be specified in further studies.

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Veza između denotativnog i konotativnog značenja umetničkih slika

Author(s): Sandra Vasić,Slobodan Marković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2007

In this study the relationships between judgments of paintings denotative and connotative meanings was investigated. Denotative domain was defined as motif (represented object, e.g. portrait, landscape etc.) and message (information carried by paintings, e.g. celebration of patriotism). Connotative domain was defined as subjective experience, i.e. affective or metaphoric impression produced by painting (e.g. feeling of pleasure, impression of dynamics, and so on). In preliminary study the list of 39 motifs was specified empirically. The four dimensions of pictorial message were taken from the previous study (Marković, 2006): Subjectivism, Ideology, Decoration and Constructivism vs. Realism. The four dimensions of paintings subjective experience were taken from the previous study as well (Radonjić and Marković, 2005): Regularity, Attraction, Arousal and Relaxation. In Experiment 1 subjects were asked to associate 39 motifs with 18 paintings. In Experiment 2 subjects were asked to judge 24 paintings on four dimensions of pictorial message. Results form Experiment 1 have shown that dimensions of paintings subjective experience were significantly correlated with only five motifs (e.g. everyday life was negatively correlated with Arousal, battle was negatively correlated with Relaxation, and so on). Results from Experiment 2 have shown that Subjectivism and Constructivism are negatively correlated with Regularity, and positively correlated with Arousal. Decoration is negatively correlated with Arousal and positively with Attraction and Relaxation.

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Uticaj veličine derivacionog klastera na brzinu obrade imenica srpskog jezika

Author(s): Snežana Đerić,Aleksandar Kostić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2007

In two lexical decision experiments the effect of family size was investigated for Serbian nouns. In the first experiment there were 15 nouns of low and 15 nouns of high family size, while in the second experiment 50 nouns that cover the whole range of family size spectrum were presented. In both experiments family size accounts for significant proportion of explained variance of response latencies. In multiple regression the effect of family size is significant over and above word frequency and word length, while frequency and word length do not account for significant proportion of variance over and above family size.

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