Incidental memory of differently processed odors.

10 odors were presented to three different groups of 20 subjects each (10 men and 10 women) to investigate the relationships among encoding conditions and both immediate and delayed incidental recognition of odors. Subjects who were not told to memorize the material and not informed of the final recognition test had to evaluate the intensity of each odor (Task 1), to judge the similarity of each odor to mint (Task 2), or to score each odor for pleasantness and sourness (Task 3). The subjects had to recognize test odors, represented one at a time, together with some distractors, immediately thereafter (Immediate Test) and one week later (Delayed Test). Task 1 and Task 2 produced better performances (77% and 75% of items recognized immediately; 66% and 69% recognized after a week) than Task 1. The performance on Task 3, more conceptually driven, was the worst, both immediately (67%) and a week later (52%). Sex and task reliably interacted: women performed better than men on Tasks 1 and 3, men on Task 2. Accuracy did not vary by task but by test time (immediate or delayed). Better performance on Tasks 1 and 2 may depend not only on more effective storage but also on the better fit between the task and the test.

Figural and semantic factors in change in the Ebbinghaus illusion across four age groups of children.

Changes in the Ebbinghaus illusion across age groups have been studied with 80 children (ns = 20) from 4 to 8 yr. old. The distortion, whose magnitude increases across age groups, depends on active cognitive comparative processes. In fact, if some cues make the geometrically identical inducing elements semantically different from the central one, the illusion decreases as older children develop conceptual categories. Across ages 4 to 8 years not only the magnitude of the illusion changes but also the interfering role of the taxonomic organization.

Self-monitoring and identification of olfactory dimensions.

The basic categories of odors are not agreed on. Many classifications of odors have been proposed, but none has met widespread acceptance. The variability among qualitative judgments of odors which makes it difficult to construct reliable classifications may depend on cultural or personal idiosyncrasies. To check personality factors in odor evaluation, we asked 40 subjects, who had previously completed a personality questionnaire, to make qualitative judgments about 10 odors on 10 semantic differential scales. From comparison of two different self-monitoring groups, on the semantic differential, reliable differences did not emerge. While high self-monitoring subjects tended to maintain intermediate positions, for some odors, low self-monitors hazarded more polarized evaluations.

Recognition of nonexplicitly presented odors.

This research was designed to check to what extent naive subjects can recognize odors in a situation similar to those of daily life. The odors were presented nonexplicitly and without any warning to memorize them for a later recognition task. Different intensities of noise were used to verify whether these affect the olfactory recognition task by modifying arousal and check whether a situation made more unpleasant by a louder noise produces changes in subjects' evaluations of the pleasantness of the odors presented. Also, subjects' personality traits were measured on extraversion-introversion and self-monitoring questionnaires. The three odors (Eucalyptolus, linalile acetate, bornile acetate) were recognized just under 50% of the time and were recognized differently. The number of recognitions did not vary significantly by sex or noise conditions; the most intense noise affected only the number of false alarms. Pleasantness scores differed only among the different odors. High self-monitoring subjects tended to have fewer recognitions; scores on extraversion-introversion produced no significant effect.

Odour memory and odour hedonics in children.

The characteristics of olfactory memory during development were investigated and the hypothesis that the pleasantness of smells may be affected by previous associations with pleasant or unpleasant objects or events was tested. This type of emotional memory was compared in the immediate and long-term recognition of olfactory stimuli. Children from three different age groups (mean ages: 6 years 6 months; 8 years 9 months; and 10 years 5 months) were subdivided into two groups. One group was presented with six different odours, each with a slide depicting a pleasant picture. The other group was presented with the odours accompanied by unpleasant pictures. Immediately after stimulus presentation the subjects underwent a recognition test. One month later the subjects underwent a second recognition test, at the end of which they were required to give an evaluation of the pleasantness of each odour on a nine-point scale. At no age level did the pictures matched to the odours affect the recognition score. Olfactory memory varied with age, chiefly because memory decay increased with age, perhaps because of greater proactive interference. With increasing age more rapid decay was set against better immediate recognition. The hypothesis that the hedonic characteristics of odours are partially learned and are affected by events experienced in other modalities was supported.

Rarefaction and resolution, stimulus area and detection: an order of priority.

The aim of this research was to establish the priority of different effects between phenomenal variables in acuity tasks. The phenomenon we considered--observed at first by Vicario in 1971--is a good example of links between different percepts. In Exp. 1 the threshold of the resolution distance of square gratings having the same phenomenal frequencies (as observed in a 1985 experiment by Vardabasso and Zanuttini), although different areas, was checked. The distance at which the oblique lines, with the same phenomenal frequencies, are distinguished does not differ significantly for the two squares. In Exp. 2 we checked the effect of two different variables--the physical spacing between the lines and the area of the pattern--on detection thresholds on a task which allowed comparing the distance at which a gap in the diagonal of the squared gratings "small and large", "sparse and dense" was detected.

Subjective intensity of the lily-of-the-valley scent.

14 blind-folded subjects were requested to give numerical judgments of the perceived intensities of 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 4, 8, lily-of-the-valley bunches, according to a naturalistic approach. The psychophysical function conforms to a power law. The exponent, smaller than 1, is in the same range as those commonly found for smell.

Is target movement as well as target displacement a stimulus for saccadic eye movements?

The effects of visual movement on saccadic eye movement have been examined. In a classic apparent-movement demonstration with two successively exposed line-segment targets the quality of the movement is dependent on the relative orientation of the line segments. If saccadic eye movements are elicited between the targets in this situation, the configuration leading to optimal apparent movement also leads to the shortest-latency saccades. When a single line segment is succeeded by two line segments flanking it on opposite sides, and if one of these has the same orientation as the initial one and the other a different orientation, then apparent motion is seen between the two lines with the same orientation. However, the direction of saccades elicited in this configuration is not influenced by the relative orientations of the line segments. The two results together suggest that the effect of visual movement on saccadic eye movement is nonspecific.

Illusory dilatation of square surfaces.

The aim of the present research was to study illusory dilatation of surfaces isolating some factors contributing to this phenomenon. A series of displays (8.5 cm x 8.5 cm) was prepared: a white square card and five square cards with a uniform pattern of black dots, increasing gradually. The displays were presented to two different groups of subjects, according to the method of paired comparisons and according to the method of limits (under conditions of reduced viewing) respectively. The subjects were asked to evaluate the relative magnitude of the displays. The textured cards significantly differed from the white standard and also among themselves. Up to a threshold, as the dots increase, the surfaces expand as well.