Evaluation of iconic versus F-map microburst displays

Previous studies have shown graphical presentation methods of hazardous wind shear to be superior to textual or audible warnings alone. Positional information and the strength of the hazard were observed to be and were cited by pilots as the most important factors in a display. In this experiment the use of the three different graphical presentations of hazardous wind shear are examined. Airborne predictive detectors of wind shear enable the dissemination of varying levels of information. The effectiveness of iconic and mapping display modes of different complexities are addressed through simulation and analysis. Different positional and time-varying situations are presented in a 'part-task' Boeing 767 simulator using data from actual microburst events. Experienced airline pilots fly approach profiles using both iconic and F-map wind shear alerting displays. Microburst accompanied each event is also shown to the pilot. Mapping display types are expected to be found exceptionally efficient at conveying location comparison information while iconic displays simplify the threat recognition process. Preliminary results from the simulator study are presented. Recommendations concerning the suitability of multilevel iconic and mapping displays are made. Situational problems with current display prototypes are also addressed

Readout from iconic memory involves similar neural processes as selective spatial attention

Iconic memory and spatial attention are often considered as distinct topics, but may have functional similarities. Here we provide fMRI evidence for some common underlying neural effects. Participants judged three visual stimuli in one hemifield of a bilateral array comprising six stimuli. The relevant hemifield for partial report was indicated by an auditory cue, administered either before the visual array (pre-cues, spatial attention) or shortly after (post-cues, iconic memory). Pre- and post-cues led to similar activity modulations in lateral occipital cortex, contralateral to the cued side, indicating that readout from iconic memory can have similar neural effects to spatial attention. We also found common bilateral activation of a fronto-parietal network for post-cue and pre-cue trials. These neuroimaging data suggest that some common neural mechanisms underlie selective spatial attention and readout from iconic memory. Some differences were also found, with post-cues leading to higher activity in right middle frontal gyrus

Capacity limitations of visual memory in two-interval comparison of Gabor arrays

The capacity of short-term visual memory (VSTM) was assessed in a two-interval spatial frequency (SF) discrimination task. The cued Gabor target in a multi-element array either increased or decreased in SF across a 2s interstimulus interval (ISI). Distracters as well as target were made to change across ISI so that memory of the individual SF of Gabor elements was required to solve the discrimination. The dynamics of the information loss from visual memory were analysed by manipulating the timing of spatial cues and masks. Cueing the target position before the first display gave thresholds comparable with those for a single Gabor patch. Cues placed after the first display gave higher thresholds indicating some loss of information. Within the ISI there was little increase in threshold or set size effect with cue delay. However there was a sharp rise in thresholds for cue positions after the second display. Gabor masks placed before a mid-ISI cue were more effective than noise masks or Gabor masks placed after the cue. With a cue placed late in the ISI, preceded by a Gabor mask, the masking effect decreased with increasing delay of the mask after the first display. This suggests a selective, dynamic but increasingly durable representation of the initial stimulus is built up in memory, and there is a graded form of “overwriting” of this representation by new stimuli

Iconic store and partial report

The iconic store has recently been challenged on the grounds that data in its favor may have resulted from some procedural artifacts. The display-instruction compatibility and perceptual grouping hypotheses were reexamined in two experiments with the partial-report paradigm. When care was taken to rectify some procedural problems found in Merikle's (1980) study, it was established that the iconic store (as a hypothetical mechanism) can still be validly entertained. This report demonstrates one important procedural point in studying the iconic store with the partial-report task, namely, that subjects must be given more than token training on the partial-report task

The iconicity advantage in sign production: The case of bimodal bilinguals

Recent evidence demonstrates that pictures corresponding to iconic signs are named faster than pictures corresponding to non-iconic signs. The present study investigates the locus of the iconicity advantage in hearing bimodal bilinguals. A naming experiment with iconic and noniconic pictures in Italian Sign Language (LIS) was conducted. Bimodal bilinguals named the pictures either using a noun construction that involved the production of the sign corresponding to the picture or using a marked demonstrative pronoun construction replacing the picture sign. In this last condition, the pictures were colored and participants were instructed to name the pronoun together with the color. The iconicity advantage was reliable in the noun utterance but not in the marked demonstrative pronoun utterance. In a third condition, the colored pictures were presented as distractor stimuli and participants required to name the color. In this last condition, distractor pictures with iconic signs elicited faster naming latencies than non-iconic signs. The results suggest that the advantage of iconic signs in production arises at the level of semantic-tophonological links. In addition, we conclude that bimodal bilinguals and native signers do not differ in terms of the activation flow within the sign production system

Power Spectra of the Total Occupancy in the Totally Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process

As a solvable and broadly applicable model system, the totally asymmetric exclusion process enjoys iconic status in the theory of non-equilibrium phase transitions. Here, we focus on the time dependence of the total number of particles on a 1-dimensional open lattice, and its power spectrum. Using both Monte Carlo simulations and analytic methods, we explore its behavior in different characteristic regimes. In the maximal current phase and on the coexistence line (between high/low density phases), the power spectrum displays algebraic decay, with exponents -1.62 and -2.00, respectively. Deep within the high/low density phases, we find pronounced \emph{oscillations}, which damp into power laws. This behavior can be understood in terms of driven biased diffusion with conserved noise in the bulk.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

The Mystery as a Symbolic Idiom — A Buddhist Temple in South China

This essay explores a southern Chinese Buddhist temple as an assembly of symbolic spaces and of objects distributed over these spaces. The symbolic construction is regulated by explicit rules as to distinctions and directions. The objects fill the spaces with a Buddhist story line by clustering elements of Buddhist creeds that are largely unknown to worshippers. These objects have been provided with an artistic form. Taken together, beautiful things and the design of the halls form an aesthetic iconic vision which carries a nebulous moral message. In the temple, exclusive discourse is converted into inclusive iconic displays, theological speculations into demotic transcendental experiences

Determining what people feel and think when interacting with humans and machines

Any interactive software program must interpret the users’ actions and come up with an appropriate response that is intelligable and meaningful to the user. In most situations, the options of the user are determined by the software and hardware and the actions that can be carried out are unambiguous. The machine knows what it should do when the user carries out an action. In most cases, the user knows what he has to do by relying on conventions which he may have learned by having had a look at the instruction manual, having them seen performed by somebody else, or which he learned by modifying a previously learned convention. Some, or most, of the times he just finds out by trial and error. In user-friendly interfaces, the user knows, without having to read extensive manuals, what is expected from him and how he can get the machine to do what he wants. An intelligent interface is so-called, because it does not assume the same kind of programming of the user by the machine, but the machine itself can figure out what the user wants and how he wants it without the user having to take all the trouble of telling it to the machine in the way the machine dictates but being able to do it in his own words. Or perhaps by not using any words at all, as the machine is able to read off the intentions of the user by observing his actions and expressions. Ideally, the machine should be able to determine what the user wants, what he expects, what he hopes will happen, and how he feels

Spatial audio in small display screen devices

Our work addresses the problem of (visual) clutter in mobile device interfaces. The solution we propose involves the translation of technique-from the graphical to the audio domain-for expliting space in information representation. This article presents an illustrative example in the form of a spatialisedaudio progress bar. In usability tests, participants performed background monitoring tasks significantly more accurately using this spatialised audio (a compared with a conventional visual) progress bar. Moreover, their performance in a simultaneously running, visually demanding foreground task was significantly improved in the eye-free monitoring condition. These results have important implications for the design of multi-tasking interfaces for mobile devices

Iconic memory of icon?

The objectives of the present commentary are to show that (1) one important theoretical property of iconic memory is inconsistent with a retinotopic icon, (2) data difficult for the notion of an icon do not necessarily challenge the notion of an iconic store, (3) the iconic store, as a theoretical mechanism, is an ecologically valid one, and (4) the rationale of experimentation is such that the experimental task need not mimic the phenomenon being studied