Individual differences in visualization and childhood play preferences

Our research explored the structure of childhood visual play preferences, and examined different types of visual play in relation to individual differences in visualization and aptitudes in academic specializations requiring visualization skills. Principal component analysis dissociated visual-object play (e.g., exploring drawing media or decorative crafts) from visual-spatial play (e.g., assembling and disassembling mechanisms or playing with construction toys) preferences. Moreover, visual play preferences were dissociated from verbal play preferences (e.g., vocabulary games or making up stories). The structure of visual play preferences was consistent with object and spatial dimensions of individual differences in visualization. Visual-object and visual-spatial dimensions of play preferences were differentially related to measures of object visualization (processing pictorial appearances in terms of shape, texture, and color) versus spatial visualization (processing spatial relationships and spatial manipulations), as well as to aptitudes in artistic versus scientific domains. Furthermore, our research sheds new light on sex differences in play behavior: Previous studies commonly associated gender-specific play with visual versus verbal-social processing; our research demonstrated sex differences in play preferences across the two dimensions of visual play, where females preferred visual-object and males preferred visual-spatial play. Moreover, we found the object vs. spatial structure of visual play preferences was largely the same in both sexes, suggesting that differences in visual play preferences cannot be reduced to sex differences. Also, our questionnaire assessing visual-object, visual-spatial and verbal play preferences, developed for research purposes, demonstrated good reliability. Its two scales, assessing visual-object and visual-spatial play preferences, discriminatively correlated with assessments of individual differences in object and spatial visualization, respectively. This research creates a basis for further creation of comprehensive measures of visual play preferences, and should stimulate future studies examining visual play preferences and how they may create developmental opportunities for skills and preferences lasting into adulthood. © 2020 The Author

Boundary extension in face processing

Boundary extension is a common false memory error, in which people confidently remember seeing a wider angle view of the scene than was viewed. Previous research found that boundary extension is scene-specific and did not examine this phenomenon in nonscenes. The present research explored boundary extension in cropped face images. Participants completed either a short-term or a long-term condition of the task. During the encoding, they observed photographs of faces, cropped either in a forehead or in a chin area, and subsequently performed face recognition through a forced-choice selection. The recognition options represented different degrees of boundary extension and boundary restriction errors. Eye-tracking and performance data were collected. The results demonstrated boundary extension in both memory conditions. Furthermore, previous literature reported the asymmetry in amounts of expansion at different sides of an image. The present work provides the evidence of asymmetry in boundary extension. In the short-term condition, boundary extension errors were more pronounced for forehead, than for chin face areas. Finally, this research examined the relationships between the measures of boundary extension, imagery, and emotion. The results suggest that individual differences in emotional ability and object, but not spatial, imagery could be associated with boundary extension in face processing

Boundary extension in face processing

Boundary extension is a common false memory error, in which people confidently remember seeing a wider angle view of the scene than was viewed. Previous research found that boundary extension is scene-specific and did not examine this phenomenon in nonscenes. The present research explored boundary extension in cropped face images. Participants completed either a short-term or a long-term condition of the task. During the encoding, they observed photographs of faces, cropped either in a forehead or in a chin area, and subsequently performed face recognition through a forced-choice selection. The recognition options represented different degrees of boundary extension and boundary restriction errors. Eye-tracking and performance data were collected. The results demonstrated boundary extension in both memory conditions. Furthermore, previous literature reported the asymmetry in amounts of expansion at different sides of an image. The present work provides the evidence of asymmetry in boundary extension. In the short-term condition, boundary extension errors were more pronounced for forehead, than for chin face areas. Finally, this research examined the relationships between the measures of boundary extension, imagery, and emotion. The results suggest that individual differences in emotional ability and object, but not spatial, imagery could be associated with boundary extension in face processing

Curved vs. angular shapes set: unframed, square-framed, round-framed.

Perception of curved vs. angular shape