1,720,986 research outputs found
THE EFFECT OF ILLUSTRATIVE DETAILS ON THE RECALL OF MAIN POINTS IN SIMPLE FICTIONAL AND FACTUAL PASSAGES
No full textIn a passage containing main points and illustrative details, do the details facilitate the memorization of the main points? Previous studies on this question suggest that the answer depends on the nature of the passage: For short simple stories, main points were remembered better as more details were added; for longer, more difficult, factual passages, instead, main points were better conveyed by summaries in which the details had been removed. The aim of the experiment reported here is to find out whether this difference is due to the fact/fiction variable. Six simple two‐paragraph passages were used, each passage existing in three versions (short, medium, long) in which the main points were illustrated by varying numbers of details. The results showed that for fictional and factual passages of this kind, the addition of details improves recall of main points. Some possible explanations of this finding, and of the earlier contrary finding, are suggested
Testing additivity of kinship information in complementary facial regions
No full textAllocentric kin recognition - recognition that individuals are close genetic relatives - plays an important role in social organization and kin selection (Hamilton, 1964). Facial judgments - including kin recognition - are typically modeled as a form of cue combination but with the identity of cues currently unknown. In two experiments, we examined human ability to classify pairs of children as siblings or not siblings and tested whether kinship information in different facial regions combined as statistically independent cues. We used complementary masks to occlude a face region or present it in isolation (Exp. 1 eye region; Exp. 2: mouth region) and tested whether we could predict performance with the unmasked face from performance in the two masked conditions
Kin recognition and the perceived facial similarity of children
No full textWe examine the connection between a hypothetical kin recognition signal available in visual perception and the perceived facial similarity of children. One group of observers rated the facial similarity of pairs of children portrayed in photographs. Half of the pairs were siblings but the observers were not told this. A second group classified the pairs as siblings or non-siblings. An optimal Bayesian classifier, given the similarity ratings of the first group, was as accurate in judging siblings as the second group. Mean rated similarity was also an accurate linear predictor (R2 = 0.96) of the log-odds that the rated pair portrayed were, in fact, siblings. Surprisingly, mean rated similarity did not vary with the age difference or gender difference of the pairs, both of which were counterbalanced across the stimuli. We conclude that the perceived facial similarity of children is little more than a graded kin recognition signal and that this kin recognition signal is effectively an estimate of the probability that two children are close genetic relatives
Talis pater, talis filius: perceived resemblance and the belief in genetic relatedness
Full text linkPeople hardly ever realize that their belief in their high rate of success in detecting family resemblances is affected by their knowledge of the actual genetic link between individuals. In the three studies reported here, 100 men and 100 women were requested to estimate the facial resemblance of photographically portrayed child-adult pairs, while being given either truthful or deceitful information, or no information, about their relatedness. Believing that the members of a pair were parent and offspring was the main predictor of the perceived similarity between them. Men and women agreed in judging children as more similar to female than to male adults, except when the pair members were believed to be related; in this case, men judged the child as resembling the alleged parents equally. Common remarks on family resemblance thus appear to ensue less from a conscious desire to please or reassure the parents than from general hypothesis-testing biases in human reasoning, made perhaps more specific in men by a concern with the problem of uncertain paternity
Effects of CSCW on Organizations
No full textWe consider the potential impact of computer supported cooperative work, with special reference to large technically advanced projects involving several organizations. It is vital that such projects are managed efficiently, without delays, since a product that reaches the market a few months earlier than its competitors enjoys a great advantage. Traditional methods of coordinating large projects, based on hierarchical communication, tend to produce delays, since technicians at remote sites are obliged to solve coordination problems by passing them up the hierarchy. It would be better if such problems were solved by improvising conferences among the technicians; computer supported cooperative work will provide the technical means of implementing this heterarchical style of management without losing control of the project. The use of computers as a social medium raises methodological and ethical issues which are discusse
The information about age, gender, and genetic relatedness contained in ratings of facial similarity
No full textSuppose that you are told that two children — whom you have never seen — are very similar in appearance. Do you now imagine that they are more likely to be siblings? More likely to be close in age? More likely to be the same gender?
What objective information about age, gender, and genetic relatedness is conveyed by a rating of similarity?
We asked observers to rate the facial similarity of pairs of children depicted in photographs. Observers were not instructed to consider the ages, genders, or possible relatedness of the children: they were told only to rate facial similarity. We estimated the Shannon information (“bits”) about relatedness, age difference, and gender difference contained in these ratings of facial similarity.
The stimuli were 48 pairs of color photographs of children (3 to 12 years of age) from two provinces of northern Italy. Each photograph depicted the child from the shoulders to the top of the head with his or her face clearly visible. Half of the 96 children were male, and half female. In half of the pairs, the children were siblings, in the other half, the children were not related. Age difference, gender difference, and relatedness were counterbalanced across the pairs. Thirty observers rated the similarity of the 48 pairs on a scale of 0 to 10.
The maximum possible Shannon information that can be conveyed concerning a binary choice is 1 bit. The estimated Shannon information conveyed by a similarity rating was 0.171 bits (relatedness), 0.091 (gender difference), and 0.015 (age difference). The first two values are significantly greater than 0 (p 0.05). We conclude that the observers incorporate information about relatedness and gender difference into their ratings, but include little information relevant to age difference. In particular, the observers discounted the large physical changes in appearance that occur as children grow in forming a judgment of facial similarity
From 834 to Eighty Thirty Four: The reading of Arabic numerals by seven-year-old children
No full textA group of seven-year-old Italian children was asked to transcode from arabic numerals to verbal numerals. The stimuli were written arabic numerals such as 365; the responses were spoken Italian numerals such as tre cento sessanta cinque. Several regular error patterns were observed. The less-advanced subjects fragmented complex stimuli, so that 365 would be transcoded by a numeral of the form thirty six five, or ignored part of the stimulus. Children who had just learned the word cento often used it in initial position, so that 200 was transcoded as cento due. Later, they experimented with various ways of subdividing the digit string and introducing a multiplicand, producing such errors as 834 eighty thirty four, 803 eighty thousand and three. The development of transcoding ability was explained by an asemantic model using production rules
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