Measures of Subjective Variables in Visual Cognition

当人们被要求做一些认知任务时， 视觉，如对物体成像或搜索特定的 对象在一个大的视觉阵列，这是众所周知的，某些 显示器的物理可测量的“客观”方面， 因为它的复杂性，影响人们如何完成任务。 在 此外，主观方面，无法衡量的方面 身体上的，如熟悉程度或意义，也会影响 人的表现。 很少有实验将目标 从主观变量中充分判断出 决定性的是哪些是特定实验效应的基础。 本研究项目中的实验将分离主观 变量，并将审查的作用， 一系列基于视觉的认知行为中的主观变量 任务，包括图像任务，搜索任务和感知任务， 逆转任务。 这些任务都可能受到 观察者关于形状结构的知识 想象或操纵。 这项研究的出发点是， 视觉认知中的主观效应是由 观众对特定组件的结构知识 形状的相对位置 这些组件;结构知识越多， 更快的图像可以被操作、搜索和扫描， 因此观众的表现就越有效。 的 实验将测试这一概念，并在此过程中，将 试图将结构知识的构建与 即整体加工， 空间注意力和结构知识之间的关系。 最后，本研究将发展一个功能分类的任务 来识别产生主观性的处理类型 方面的影响. 假设这些效应会发生在 任务允许心理操纵可分类的，基本的- 水平形状，而不是需要操作的详细 特别的形状。 这种任务分类法， 结构知识的构建，可能有助于识别 视觉认知的“功能词汇”， 在需要速度和准确性的现实任务中。

When people are asked to do a number of cognitive tasks involving vision, such as imaging an object or searching for a particular object in a large visual array, it is well known that certain physically measurable, "objective" aspects of the display, such as its complexity, influence how people do the tasks. In addition, subjective aspects, ones that cannot be measured physically, such as familiarity or meaning, also influence people's performance. Few experiments have separated objective from subjective variables sufficiently that one can tell conclusively which ones underly particular experimental effects. The experiments in this research project will isolate subjective variables from objective variables and will examine the role of subjective variables in a series of visually-based cognitive tasks, including imagery tasks, search tasks, and perceptual reversal tasks. These tasks are all potentially influenced by the viewer's knowledge regarding the structure of the shape to be imagined or manipulated. The research flows from the notion that subjective effects in visual cognition are mediated by the viewer's structural knowledge regarding the particular components from which a shape is constructed and the relative locations of these components; the greater the structural knowledge, the faster images can be manipulated, searched, and scanned, and hence, the more efficient the viewer's performance. The experiments will test this notion and, in the process, will attempt to separate the construct of structural knowledge from that of wholistic processing and to examine the interaction between spatial attention and structural knowledge. Finally, the research will develop a functional taxonomy of tasks to identify the types of processing that yield subjective effects. The hypothesis is that these effects will occur when tasks permit the mental manipulation of categorizable, basic- level shapes rather than requiring manipulation of detailed particular shapes. This taxonomy of tasks, together with the construct of structural knowledge, may be useful in identifying the "functional vocabulary" of visual cognition that is employed in real-world tasks requiring speed and accuracy.