Miller (1956) identified his famous limit of 7 ± 2 items based in part on absolute identification—the ability to identify stimuli that differ on a single physical dimension, such as lines of different length. An important aspect of this limit is its independence from perceptual effects and its application across all stimulus types. Recent research, however, has identified several exceptions. We investigate an explanation for these results that reconciles them with Miller’s work. We find support for the hypothesis that (...) the exceptional stimulus types have more complex psychological representations, which can therefore support better identification. Our investigation uses data sets with thousands of observations for each participant, which allows the application of a new technique for identifying psychological representations: the structural forms algorithm of Kemp and Tenenbaum (2008). This algorithm supports inferences not possible with previous techniques, such as multidimensional scaling. (shrink)

To explore the number of latent variables underlying recognition of own- and other-race faces for Chinese observers, we conducted a study-recognition task where orientation, stimuli type, and duration were manipulated in the study phase and applied state trace analysis as a statistic method. Results showed that each state trace plot on each pair of stimuli types matched a single monotonic curve when stimuli type was set to state factor, but separate curves between face and non-face showed up (...) when the state factor was orientation. The results implied that at least two latent variables affected recognition performance in the inversion paradigm. Besides, the unidimensional structure between own- and other-race faces regardless of the state factor suggested that Chinese participants used the same recognition mechanism for unfamiliar own- and other-race faces in the inversion paradigm. (shrink)

Many now consider “instinct” and “learning” opposite poles of a unidimensional continuum. An alternative model with two independently varying parameters predicts different selective pressures. Behavioral adaptation matches the organism's utilizations of stimuli and responses to their ecological validities: the mean validity over evolutionary time specifies the optimal initial potency of the prepared association; the variance specifies the optimal prepared plasticity.

A first order theory T of power λ is called unidimensional if any twoλ+-saturated models of T of the same cardinality are isomorphic. We prove here that such theories are superstable, solving a problem of Shelah. The proof involves an existence theorem and a definability theorem for definable groups in stable theories, and an analysis of their relation to regular types.

We characterize the non-modular models of a unidimensional first-order theory of modules as the elementary submodels of its prime pure-injective model. We show that in case the maximal non-modular submodel of a given model splits off this is true for every such submodel, and we thus obtain a cancellation result for this situation. Although the theories in question always have models whose maximal non-modular submodel do split off, they may as well have others where they don't. We present a (...) corresponding example. (shrink)

Linear structural equation models with latent (unmeasured) variables are used widely in sociology, psychometrics, and political science. When such models have a unidimensional..

Unconscious stimuli can influence participants’ motor behavior but also more complex mental processes. Recent research has gradually extended the limits of effects of unconscious stimuli. One field of research where such limits have been proposed is spatial cueing, where exogenous automatic shifts of attention have been distinguished from endogenous controlled processes which govern voluntary shifts of attention. Previous evidence suggests unconscious effects on mechanisms of exogenous shifts of attention. Here, we applied a cue-priming paradigm to a spatial cueing (...) task with arbitrary cues by centrally presenting a masked symmetrical prime before every cue stimulus. We found priming effects on response times in target discrimination tasks with the typical dynamic of cue-priming effects indicating that central symmetrical stimuli which have been associated with endogenous orienting can modulate shifts of spatial attention even when they are masked. Prime–Cue Congruency effects of perceptual dissimilar prime and cue stimuli suggest that these effects cannot be entirely reduced to perceptual repetition priming of cue processing. In addition, priming effects did not differ between participants with good and poor prime recognition performance consistent with the view that unconscious stimulus features have access to processes of endogenous shifts of attention. (shrink)

A countable unidimensional theory without the omitting types order property (OTOP) has prime models over pairs and is hence classifiable. We show that this is not true for uncountable unidimensional theories.

We extend the dichotomy between 1-basedness and supersimplicity proved in Shami :309–332, 2011). The generalization we get is to arbitrary language, with no restrictions on the topology [we do not demand type-definabilty of the open set in the definition of essential 1-basedness from Shami :309–332, 2011)]. We conclude that every hypersimple unidimensional theory that is not s-essentially 1-based by means of the forking topology is supersimple. We also obtain a strong version of the above dichotomy in the case where (...) the language is countable. (shrink)

Let A be the category of all reduced compact complex spaces, viewed as a multi-sorted first order structure, in the standard way. Let U be a sub-category of A, which is closed under the taking of products and analytic subsets, and whose morphisms include the projections. Under the assumption that Th(U) is unidimensional, we show that Morley rank is equal to Noetherian dimension, in any elementary extension of U. As a result, we are able to show that Morley degree (...) is definable in Th(U), when Th(U) is unidimensional. (shrink)

We prove that any countable simple unidimensional theory T is supersimple, under the additional assumptions that T eliminates hyperimaginaries and that the $D_\phi-ranks$ are finite and definable.

Transient changes in DNA torsional tension are generated by environmental stimuli and transcriptional activity. In eukaryotic cells, these changes can only be accommodated by a chromatin structure that is flexible. This property of chromatin may be essential to the regulation of eukaryotic gene activity.

The anchoring effect is a form of cognitive bias in which exposure to some piece of information affects its subsequent numerical estimation. Previous studies have discussed which stimuli, such as numbers or semantic priming stimuli, are most likely to induce anchoring effects. However, it has not been determined whether anchoring effects will occur when a number is presented alone or when the semantic priming stimuli have an equivalent dimension between a target and the stimuli without a (...) number. We conducted five experimental studies using stimuli to induce anchoring effects. We found that anchoring effects did not occur when a number was presented alone or when phrases to induce semantic priming were used without presenting a number. These results indicate that both numerical and semantic priming stimuli must be presented for anchoring effects to occur. Our findings represent a substantial contribution to the literature on anchoring effects by offering insights into how these effects are generated. (shrink)

It has become customary in modern behavioristics to speak of stimuli as though they elicit responses from organisms. But logically this is absurd, for analysis of the grammatical roles of stimulus and response concepts shows that stimuli and responses differ in logical type from causes and effects. The "S elicits R" formula thus stands revealed as elliptical for a more complicated form of assertion. The trouble with this ellipsis, however, is that by suppressing vital components of formal structure (...) in behavioral principles, it has led to gratuitous assumptions about the environmental antecedents of behavior and seriously undermined the ability of behavior theory to assimilate the "higher mental processes.". (shrink)

O presente trabalho constrói uma ponte teórica entre Hegel e Marcuse, com intento de demonstrar a possibilidade de transformações históricas concretas, oferecida pela experiência estética. Tendo como paradigma a sociedade administrada, procurou-se estabelecer, a partir de Marcuse e Hegel, um caminho que demonstra como o indivíduo plasma a razão na história, o que pressupõe uma ação libertadora consciente. Todavia, em uma sociedade unidimensional, não há abertura para outras dimensões e, portanto, a razão unidimensional se torna totalitária, paralisando a (...) história. Nesse sentido, buscou-se demonstrar a saída para a dimensão estética, que propicia uma negação da unidimensionalidade da razão moderna. O indivíduo bidimensional, ie, que está aberto para a realidade e para a dimensão estética, pode plasmar a razão na história e, portanto, transformar o mundo. (shrink)

A fetish is a specific emotionally loaded object, body part, or situation that draws our attention and desire, and sexual fetishism is the sexual arousal that a person experiences when in contact with such a loaded object. Until now, psychology has had trouble understanding the distinctive lust objects and the orchestration of urges in the world of fetishism, so fetishism has therefore fallen into the category of perversions and abnormal behavior. In this study, fetishism is moved to the field of (...) aesthetics, and a new theory is presented: Fetishism is the attraction to certain species-specific key stimuli that are perceived as especially beautiful and exciting. A topic or an object that contains important key stimuli automatically becomes apower object or a fetish.Therefore, we have to look into the innate sensibilities on which our aesthetics are based and into the micro-processes of the aesthetic impulse to understand why something captivates and fascinates us in a fetishist way. (shrink)

Upon consideration of the unconditioned and particularly the conditioned stimuli that have been proposed to participate in the generation of incentive motivational states and, by extension, of extraversion, the nature of the contribution of NAS DA becomes less clear. Different kinds of conditioned stimuli can also exert strong control over the expression of behavioral sensitization. How might such stimuli affect the ability of experience-dependent processes to introduce stable individual differences in the development and expression of extraversion trait (...) levels? (shrink)

Recently there has been a great deal of argument about what justifies references to representational states in explanations of behavior. I discuss Jerry Fodor's claim that it is necessary to ascribe representational states to organisms that respond to "nonnomic properties" of stimuli. Zenon Pylyshyn's (apparently equivalent) claim that it is necessary to ascribe representational states to organisms that respond to "nonprojectable properties" of stimuli and Fodor's claim that an organism's ability to respond to nonnomic properties of stimuli (...) is a criterion of its having representational states. I argue that if Fodor's account of how organisms respond to nonnomic properties of stimuli is correct, we could always replace explanations that appeal to nonnomic properties of stimuli with explanations that appeal only to nomic properties of stimuli. I also argue that, according to Fodor's account, we could not determine whether an organism is responding to nonnomic properties of stimuli unless we already knew whether the explanation of the response includes a reference to a representational state. Thus, given Fodor's account, there is no noncircular way of arguing that it is necessary to ascribe representational states to organisms because they respond to nonnomic properties of stimuli. Finally, I argue that Fodor has not actually provided an account of how organisms respond to nonnomic properties of stimuli and I discuss the prospects of a different strategy for linking the nonnomic properties of stimuli to representational states. (shrink)

In two experiments, we examined the impact of color on cognitive performance by asking participants to categorize stimuli presented in three different colors: red, green, and gray (baseline). Participants were either asked to categorize the meaning of words as related to the concepts of “go” or “stop” (Experiment 1) or to indicate if a neutral verbal stimulus was a word or not (lexical decision task, Experiment 2). Overall, we observed performance facilitation in response to go stimuli presented in (...) green (vs. red or gray) and performance inhibition in response to go stimuli presented in red. The opposite pattern was observed for stop‐related stimuli. Importantly, results also indicated that color might also be used to categorize neutral stimuli. Overall, these findings provide support to the green‐go and red‐stop color associations and test the potential functional autonomy acquired by these colors and the boundary conditions to their effects on stimuli categorization. (shrink)

Engagement of integrins and other adhesion receptors can induce tyrosine phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK), a tyrosine kinase present in focal adhesions. Furthermore, in addition to adhesion receptors, a surprising variety of stimuli, acting either on specific surface receptors or on intracellular molecules, such as PKC or Rho, can induce also tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK. I suggest that a potential mechanism by which such distinct factors may modulate the tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK is the promotion of integrin or (...) other adhesion receptor clustering at focal adhesions. BioEssays 21:1069–1075, 1999. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (shrink)