Timothy Jordan

Several studies have claimed that, when fixating a word, a precise split in foveal processing causes all letters to the left and right of fixation to project to different, contralateral hemispheres (split-fovea theory--SFT). In support of this claim, Lavidor et al. (2001; hereafter LES&B) reported that lexical decisions were affected by the number of letters to the left of fixation but not the right, and that this indicates a functional division in hemispheric processing at the point of fixation. Jordan, Paterson, and Stachurski (Cortex, 2009; hereafter JP&S) re-evaluated these claims over 3 experiments using LES&B's original stimuli and procedures and found no support for the findings of LES&B. Following LES&B, JP&S presented stimuli binocularly (i.e., as in normal viewing). However, this procedure has its own complications for SFT (and for assessing the validity of the theory) because the two eyes often do not fixate the same location. Consequently, we report two further experiments which used an eye-tracker to ensure fixation accuracy and monocular viewing to eliminate influences of fixation disparity. Experiment 1 used the same-sized typeface as JP&S, and Experiment 2 used a larger typeface to approximate normal reading size. In line with the findings of JP&S, neither experiment could replicate the findings of LES&B and both experiments showed simply that word recognition was easier when fixations were made towards the beginning of words. Thus, after a total of 5 separate experiments, using binocular and monocular viewing conditions and stimuli presented in a range of sizes, none of these experiments has been able to replicate the findings of LES&B or provide any evidence for a functional division in hemispheric processing at the point of fixation.

Several studies have claimed that hemispheric asymmetries affect word recognition right up to the point of fixation because each fovea is split precisely at its vertical midline and information presented either side of this midline projects unilaterally to different, contralateral hemispheres. To investigate this claim, four-letter words were presented to the left or right of fixation, either close to fixation entirely in foveal vision (0.15, 0.25, and 0.35 degrees from fixation) or further from fixation entirely in extrafoveal vision (2.00, 2.10, and 2.20 degrees from fixation). Fixation location and stimulus presentation were controlled using an eye-tracker linked to a fixation-contingent display and performance was assessed using a forced-choice task to suppress confounding effects of guesswork. A left hemisphere advantage was observed for words presented in extrafoveal locations but no hemisphere advantage (left or right) was observed for words presented in any foveal location. These findings support the well-established view that words encountered outside foveal vision project to different, contralateral hemispheres but indicate that this division for word recognition occurs only outside the fovea and provide no support for the claim that a functional split in hemispheric processing exists at the point of fixation.

It has been claimed that word recognition is affected fundamentally by the precise location at which a word is fixated because a precise split in hemispheric processing at the point of fixation causes all letters to the left and right of fixation to project to different, contralateral hemispheres. To assess this claim, 5-letter words (and nonwords) were presented for lexical decision when participants fixated the space immediately to the left (location 1) or right (location 6) of each stimulus, or one of the four possible inter-letter spaces (locations 2-5). Fixation location was controlled using an eye-tracker linked to a fixation-contingent display and all stimuli were presented entirely within foveal vision to avoid confounding influences of extrafoveal hemispheric projections. Performance was equally poorest when fixating locations 1 and 6 (when words were shown entirely to either the right and left of fixation), intermediate for location 5, and equally superior for locations 2, 3, and 4. Additional word-specific analyses also showed no evidence of the effects of fixation location on optimal word recognition predicted by split-fovea processing. These findings suggest that, while fixation location influences word recognition, word recognition is apparently not affected by a split in hemispheric processing at the point of fixation and does not depend critically on the precise location at which a word is fixated. Implications of these findings for the role of fixation location in word recognition are discussed.

... Leslie S. Smith ... contours), letters in words (but not letters in matched nonwords) are reported more accurately than the same letters presented alone (eg Carr, Davidson, & Hawkins, 1978; Holender, 1979; Johnston, 1978; 1981a; 1981b; Johnston & McClelland, 1973; 1974; 1980 ...

30 elderly subjects were matched with 30 young subjects and tested on a kinesthetic short-term memory task which required the replication of criterion moves after a variable retention interval under conditions of either rest, differing interpolated movement tasks, or mental activity. A visual control condition was used. Differing interference and temporal decrements were observed. Both old and young subjects differed significantly between sighted and blindfold conditions; however, there was no difference between the performance of the old and the young in the blindfold (kinesthetic) condition. These findings were discussed with respect to practical implications for the retraining of old subjects on certain motor tasks.

Background Case studies are often used to supplement lecture material to students of psychology. Recent research on the use of online support forums has been shown to be more effective in increasing student attainment of course learning objectives than the use of case studies. Objective The current research replicated two studies on the use of online support forums and extended this work to chronic pain and compared midterm exam scores from two different semesters when case studies and online support forums were used as a supplementary learning exercise. Method Following a lecture on chronic pain students were randomly assigned to either the case study or online support forum condition and asked to rate their experience based on four learning objectives. Results Students who took part in the online support forum learning exercise rated the four learning objectives higher and obtained higher marks on a midterm exam than students in the case study exercise. Conclusion Reading people’s personal accounts of their experience with chronic pain through online support forums is more effective in increasing student understanding of the effects of chronic pain than the traditional case study. Teaching Implications Implications for teaching material that is highly emotional are discussed.

Recent research compared the use of case studies to online discussion boards to teach about anxiety disorders. The current study extends this research to mood disorders, reports pretest and posttest scores on four learning outcomes, and compares midterm exam scores from Fall 2016 and Fall 2017 when case studies and online discussion boards were used as supplementary learning material, respectively. The results indicate students in the discussion board condition (DBC) rated their learning outcomes significantly higher than students in the case study condition, and midterm exam scores were significantly higher for students who took part in the DBC as a learning exercise. These findings provide evidence that the usefulness of online discussion boards extends to other types of disorders and may even surpass the use of traditional case studies as a pedagogical tool when teaching about psychological disorders.

This study compares the traditional use of case studies against the novel use of discussion boards to teach naive students in the United Arab Emirates about anxiety disorders. Sixty-six female students from an abnormal psychology class were randomly assigned to either the case study condition (CSC) or the discussion board condition (DBC). Students read about anxiety disorders and at the end of the class rated their experience based on four learning outcomes. In each instance, students in the DBC rated their learning outcomes significantly higher than students in the CSC. This suggests that incorporating discussion boards as a pedagogical tool can add a new dimension for engaging student interest, fostering knowledge development, and increasing empathy.

Previous studies conducted in the United States indicate that people associate numbers with gender, such that odd numbers are more likely to be considered male and even numbers considered female. It has been argued that this number gendering phenomenon is acquired through social learning and conditioning, and that male-odd/female-even associations reflect a general, cross-cultural human consensus on gender roles relating to agency and communion. However, the incidence and pattern of number gendering in cultures outside the United States remains to be established. Against this background, the purpose of this study was to determine whether people from a culture and country very different from the United States (specifically, native Arabic citizens living in the Arabic culture of the United Arab Emirates) also associate numbers with gender, and, if they do, whether the pattern of these associations is the male-odd/female-even associations previously observed. To investigate this issue,...

For many years, the Shroud of Turin has been famous for images of a body and face which many believe were formed during The Resurrection. More recently, however, claims have been made that the Shroud also contains evidence of other objects, and these claims have been used to support the view that the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus. However, these claims are based on marks that are barely visible and the psychological processes known to be involved in perceiving objects under data-limited conditions have been largely ignored. Here, we consider these processes and assess the claims that objects can be seen on the Shroud. We conclude that the viewing conditions provided by images of the Shroud are likely to lead to the illusory perception of objects, and knowing the psychological processes underlying these perceptions is crucial for accurately determining the provenance of the Shroud and other material artefacts.

The Hijab and other forms of Islamic veiling are important social, cultural, and religious symbols that are central to the identity of millions of Muslim women across the world. However, despite the large body of literature that exists on the political and socio-cultural aspects of Islamic veiling, little is known about how the appearance of women wearing the hijab is perceived by other Muslim women within their native Muslim country. To throw light on this important issue, the current study focussed on the effects of the hijab on female facial attractiveness perceived by practising Muslim Emirati women living in their native Muslim country (the United Arab Emirates) who themselves wore the hijab as everyday attire. Participants were shown frontal-head images of women in three different conditions: covered (heads fully covered by the hijab except for the face), partially covered (heads fully covered by the hijab except for the face and the hair around the forehead) and uncovered (he...

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the COVID-19 pandemic and psychological fatigue as a mental health issue among the population of Istanbul, Turkey. Participants and methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in Istanbul, Turkey, between March and June 2020, where a total of 4,700 persons were approached and 3,672 (78%) of participants (64.4% males and 35.6% females) completed the Knowledge Attitude Practices (KAP) and Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS) questionnaires. Results: In this study, 64.1% of participants were categorized as psychologically fatigued and 35.9% as normal. There was a significant difference between fatigued and normal participants with respect to age, educational level, occupational status, place of residence and number of family members ( p < .001). Other differences related to knowledge of COVID-19 were symptoms, treatment, ways of spreading ( p < .001), prevention by avoiding crowded places ( p = .008) and isola...

Previous research suggests that different typefaces can be perceived as having distinct personality characteristics (such as strength, elegance, friendliness, romance, and humor) and that these "print personalities" elicit information in the reader that is in addition to the meaning conveyed linguistically by words. However, research in this area has previously been conducted using only English stimuli and so it may be that typefaces in English, and other languages using the Latinate alphabet, lend themselves unusually well to eliciting perception of print personalities, and the phenomenon is not a language universal. But not all written languages are Latinate languages, and one language that is especially visually distinct is Arabic. In particular, apart from being read from right to left, Arabic is formed in a cursive script in which the visual appearance of letters contrasts strongly with those used for Latinate languages. In addition, spaces between letters seldom exis...

Printed words are complex visual stimuli containing a range of different spatial frequencies, and several studies have suggested that various spatial frequencies are effective for skilled adult reading. But while it is well known that the area of text from which information is acquired during reading extends to the left and right of each fixation, the effectiveness of spatial frequencies falling each side of fixation has yet to be determined. To investigate this issue, we used a spatial frequency adaptation of the gaze-contingent moving-window paradigm in which sentences were shown to skilled adult readers either entirely as normal or filtered to contain only low, medium, or high spatial frequencies except for a window of normal text around each point of fixation. Windows replaced filtered text either symmetrically 1 character to the left and right of each fixated character, or asymmetrically, 1 character to the left and 7 or 13 to the right, or 1 character to the right and 7 or 13 ...

The effectiveness of tablet computers to supplement or replace paper-based text in everyday life has yet to be fully revealed. Previous investigations comparing reading performance using tablets and paper have, however, reported inconsistent results. Furthermore, the interpretability of some previous findings is limited by lack of experimental control over variables like text display conditions. In the current study, we investigated reading performance for text presented on tablet and paper. Crucially, the levels of luminance and contrast were matched precisely across tablet and paper. The study used Arabic text which differs substantially from the languages used previously to investigate effects of tablet and paper on reading, thus offering a distinctive test of the influence of these two media on reading performance. The results suggest that when text display conditions are well-matched, there is no reliable difference in reading performance between the two media. Also, neither th...

Words are recognized most efficiently by young adults when fixated at an optimal viewing position (OVP), which for English is between a word's beginning and middle letters. How this OVP effect changes with age is unknown but may differ for older adults due to visual declines in later life. Accordingly, a lexical decision experiment was conducted in which short (5-letter) and long (9-letter) words were fixated at various letter positions. The older adults produced slower responses. But, crucially, effects of fixation location for each word-length did not differ substantially across age groups, indicating that OVP effects are preserved in older age. (PsycINFO Database Record

A major concern when using lateralized words to study hemispheric asymmetry is that the retinal eccentricity of targets is matched across visual hemifields. The standard technique is to fixate a point fixed at the centre of the visual field. However, the demands of this fixation task are substantial and so may confound performance with lateralized targets. To investigate this possibility, words were presented unilaterally in each visual hemifield and retinal eccentricity was controlled using (a) a fixed central point or (b) a window technique that permitted small shifts in fixation while maintaining accurate retinal eccentricity by using automatic adjustments to target location. Fixation errors and time to fixate indicated that the demands of the standard technique were considerable and far greater than those of the window technique. Nevertheless, both techniques produced the same pattern of visual field effects, indicating that the demands of fixating a fixed central point do not confound performance with lateralized words. However, the window technique was more efficient and easier for participants to use and so offers a new improved methodology for studying hemispheric asymmetry.

The authors investigated the effects of changes in horizontal viewing angle on visual and audiovisual speech recognition in 4 experiments, using a talker's face viewed full face, three quarters, and in profile. When only experimental items were shown (Experiments 1 and 2), identification of unimodal visual speech and visual speech influences on congruent and incongruent auditory speech were unaffected by viewing angle changes. However, when experimental items were intermingled with distractor items (Experiments 3 and 4), identification of unimodal visual speech decreased with profile views, whereas visual speech influences on congruent and incongruent auditory speech remained unaffected by viewing angle changes. These findings indicate that audiovisual speech recognition withstands substantial changes in horizontal viewing angle, but explicit identification of visual speech is less robust. Implications of this distinction for understanding the processes underlying visual and audiovisual speech recognition are discussed.

Text contains a range of different spatial frequencies but the effectiveness of spatial frequencies for normal variations in skilled adult reading ability is unknown. Accordingly, young skilled adult readers showing fast or slow reading ability read sentences displayed as normal or filtered to contain only very low, low, medium, high, or very high spatial frequencies. Reading times and eye movement measures of fixations and saccades assessed the effectiveness of these displays for reading. Reading times showed that, for each reading ability, medium, high, and very high spatial frequencies were all more effective than lower spatial frequencies. Indeed, for each reading ability, reading times for normal text were maintained when text contained only medium, high, or very high spatial frequencies. However, reading times for normal text and for each spatial frequency were all substantially shorter for fast readers than for slow readers, and this advantage for fast readers was similar for...

Abstract: Factors affecting the perceptibility of light emitting variable message signs (VMS) were investigated in this paper. The factors were contrast ratio of the sign, emitter size, spacing between the emitters, letter case, and age of the observer. Optimum levels for ...

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: It is well established that declining visual abilities are widespread amongst older adults (aged 65 years and over) and are known to have profound effects on processing a range of visual stimuli. However, the incidence of assessing the visual abilities of older adults participating in written language research using visually presented linguistic stimuli (text, words, letters) is unknown. All 240 articles investigating perception of visually presented linguistic stimuli (text, words, letters) by older participants, published 2000-2010 in the three foremost journals in aging research, Experimental Aging Research, The Journals of Gerontology, Series B, and Psychology and Aging, were examined. The majority of articles (68.0%) made no mention at all of participants' visual abilities (59.2%) or relied merely on participants' self-report (8.8%). Other articles (17.9%) reported participants' visual abilities without mentioning any assessment, and only 14.2% reported participants' visual abilities following appropriate assessment. The indications are that appropriate assessments of visual abilities are used rarely in language research investigating perception of visually presented linguistic stimuli by older participants. Much greater use and reporting of these assessments is needed to help reveal the processes underlying perception of written language in older populations.

Several reports suggest that images of the Shroud of Turin contain faint religious inscriptions that support the view that the Shroud has special religious significance. Against this background, we investigated effects of contextual information on detecting religious inscriptions using an image of plain modern linen with no religious provenance and containing no writing. The image was viewed in three contexts: In the Neutral Context, participants were told that the image was of a simple piece of linen; in the Religious Context, participants were told that the image was of an important religious artifact; and in the Religious Context + Options condition, participants were also given plausible word options. Very few words were detected in the Neutral Context, significantly more in the Religious Context, and most in the Religious Context+Options condition. Some implications of these findings for reports of inscriptions in the context-laden conditions surrounding the Shroud of Turin are...

The Shroud of Turin (hereafter the Shroud) is one of the most widely known and widely studied artifacts in existence, with enormous historical and religious significance. For years, the Shroud has inspired worldwide interest in images on its fabric which appear to be of the body and face of a man executed in a manner consistent with crucifixion, and many believe that these images were formed in the Shroud's fibers during the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. But, more recently, other reports have suggested that the Shroud also contains evidence of inscriptions, and these reports have been used to add crucial support to the view that the Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus. Unfortunately, these reports of inscriptions are based on marks that are barely visible on the Shroud, even when images are enhanced, and the actual existence of writing on the Shroud is still a matter of considerable debate. Here we discuss previous evidence concerning the psychological processes involved ge...

When reading from left to right, useful information acquired during each fixational pause is widely assumed to extend 14 to 15 characters to the right of fixation but just 3 to 4 characters to the left, and certainly no further than the beginning of the fixated word. However, this leftward extent is strikingly small and seems inconsistent with other aspects of reading performance and with the general horizontal symmetry of visual input. Accordingly, 2 experiments were conducted to examine the influence of text located to the left of fixation during each fixational pause using an eye-tracking paradigm in which invisible boundaries were created in sentence displays. Each boundary corresponded to the leftmost edge of each word so that, as each sentence was read, the normal letter content of text to the left of each fixated word was corrupted by letter replacements that were either visually similar or visually dissimilar to the originals. The proximity of corrupted text to the left of f...

A common assumption underlying laterality research is that visual field asymmetries in lateralized word perception indicate the hemispheric specialisation of processes generally available for the perception of words, including words viewed in a more typical setting (i.e. in the central visual field). We tested the validity of this assumption using a phenomenon (the word-letter effect) frequently reported for displays viewed in the central visual field, where letters in words are perceived more accurately than the same letters in isolation. Words and isolated letters were presented in the left visual field (LVF), right visual field (RVF) and central visual field (CVF), the Reicher-Wheeler task was used to suppress influences of guesswork, and an eye-tracker ensured central fixation. In line with previous findings, lateralized displays revealed a RVF-LVF advantage for words (but not isolated letters) and CVF displays revealed an advantage for words over isolated letters (the word-lett...

The finding that word length plays a fundamental role in determining where and for how long readers fixate within a line of text has been central to the development of sophisticated models of eye movement control. However, research in this area is dominated by the use of Latinate languages (e.g., English, French, German), and little is known about eye movement control for alphabetic languages with very different visual characteristics. To address this issue, the present experiment undertook a novel investigation of the influence of word length on eye movement behavior when reading Arabic. Arabic is an alphabetic language that not only is read from right to left but has visual characteristics fundamentally different from Latinate languages, and so is ideally suited to testing the generality of mechanisms of eye movement control. The findings reveal that readers were more likely to fixate and refixate longer words, and also that longer words tended to be fixated for longer. In additio...

In English and other alphabetic systems read from left to right, the useful information acquired during each fixational pause is generally reported to extend 14-15 character spaces to the right of each fixation, but only 3-4 character spaces to the left, and certainly no farther than the beginning of the fixated word. However, this leftward extent is remarkably small and seems inconsistent with the general bilateral symmetry of vision. Accordingly, in the present study we investigated the influence of a fundamental component of text to the left of fixation-interword spaces-using a well-established eyetracking paradigm in which invisible boundaries were set up along individual sentence displays that were then read. Each boundary corresponded to the leftmost edge of a word in a sentence, so that as the eyes crossed a boundary, interword spaces in the text to the left of that word were obscured (by inserting a letter x). The proximity of the obscured text during each fixational pause w...

When reading, low-level visual properties of text are acquired from central vision during brief fixational pauses, but the effectiveness of these properties may differ in older age. To investigate, a filtering technique displayed the low, medium, or high spatial frequencies of text falling within central vision as young (18-28 years) and older (65+ years) adults read. Reading times for normal text did not differ across age groups, but striking differences in the effectiveness of spatial frequencies were observed. Consequently, even when young and older adults read equally well, the effectiveness of spatial frequencies in central vision differs markedly in older age.

When observing a talking face, it has often been argued that visual speech to the left and right of fixation may produce differences in performance due to divided projections to the two cerebral hemispheres. However, while it seems likely that such a division in hemispheric projections exists for areas away from fixation, the nature and existence of a functional division in visual speech perception at the foveal midline remains to be determined. We investigated this issue by presenting visual speech in matched hemiface displays to the left and right of a central fixation point, either exactly abutting the foveal midline or else located away from the midline in extrafoveal vision. The location of displays relative to the foveal midline was controlled precisely using an automated, gaze-contingent eye-tracking procedure. Visual speech perception showed a clear right hemifield advantage when presented in extrafoveal locations but no hemifield advantage (left or right) when presented abu...

Developing readers often make anagrammatical errors (e.g. misreading pirates as parties), suggesting they use letter position flexibly during word recognition. However, while it is widely assumed that the occurrence of these errors decreases with increases in reading skill, empirical evidence to support this distinction is lacking. Accordingly, we compared the performance of developing child readers (aged 8-10 years) against the end-state performance of skilled adult readers in a timed naming task, employing anagrams used previously in this area of research. Moreover, to explore the use of letter position by developing readers and skilled adult readers more fully, we used anagrams which, to form another word, required letter transpositions over only interior letter positions, or both interior and exterior letter positions. The patterns of effects across these two anagram types for the two groups of readers were very similar. In particular, both groups showed similarly slowed respons...