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Children with Autism do not Show Sequence Effects with Auditory Stimuli
Categorization decisions that reflect constantly changing memory representations may be an important adaptive response to dynamic environments. We assessed one such influence from memory, sequence effects, on categorization decisions made by individuals with autism. A model of categorization (i.e. Memory and Contrast model, Stewart, Brown, & Chater, 2002) assumes that contextual influences in the form of sequence effects drive categorization performance in individuals with typical development. Difficulties with contextual processing in autism, described by the weak central coherence account (Frith, 1989; Frith & Happé, 1994) imply reduced sequence effects for this participant group. The experiment reported here tested this implication. High functioning children and adolescents with autism (aged 10 to 15 years), matched on age and IQ with typically developing children, completed a test that measures sequence effects (i.e. category contrast effect task, Stewart et al., 2002) using auditory tones. Participants also completed a pitch discrimination task to measure any potential confound arising from possible enhanced discrimination sensitivity within the ASD group. The typically developing group alone demonstrated a category contrast effect. The data suggest that this finding cannot be attributed readily to participant group differences in discrimination sensitivity, perseveration, difficulties on the associated binary categorization task, or greater reliance upon long term memory. We discuss the broad methodological implication that comparison between autism and control group responses to sequential perceptual stimuli may be confounded by the influence of preceding trials. We also discuss implications for the weak central coherence account and models of typical cognition
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Effects of classification context on categorization in natural categories
The patterns of classification of borderline instances of eight common taxonomic categories were examined under three different instructional conditions to test two predictions: first, that lack of a specified context contributes to vagueness in categorization, and second, that altering the purpose of classification can lead to greater or lesser dependence on similarity in classification. The instructional conditions contrasted purely pragmatic with more technical/quasi-legal contexts as purposes for classification, and these were compared with a no-context control. The measures of category vagueness were between-subjects disagreement and within-subjects consistency, and the measures of similarity based categorization were category breadth and the correlation of instance categorization probability with mean rated typicality, independently measured in a neutral context. Contrary to predictions, none of the measures of vagueness, reliability, category breadth, or correlation with typicality were generally affected by the instructional setting as a function of pragmatic versus technical purposes. Only one subcondition, in which a situational context was implied in addition to a purposive context, produced a significant change in categorization. Further experiments demonstrated that the effect of context was not increased when participants talked their way through the task, and that a technical context did not elicit more all-or-none categorization than did a pragmatic context. These findings place an important boundary condition on the effects of instructional context on conceptual categorization
VLF Tests Conducted by NEETRAC as Part of the CDFI
Presented at the Fall 2007 PES-ICC meeting.This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy under Award No DE-FC02-04CH1237 and CDFI
Ternary Mixed Magnetic Co/Mn/Ni Dichloride Dihydrate
Ternary mixed magnetic Co1-xMnyNix-yCl2 center dot 2H(2)O has as its components three well studied antiferromagnets. Each is characterized by MCl2MCl2M...chemical and structural chains, with intrachain exchange interactions antiferromagnetic for the Mn component but ferromagnetic for the other two components. Competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic intrachain exchange interactions occur in two different pairwise combinations. Reported here is the magnetic behavior of an equimolar mixture of the three components. One maximum appears in the magnetic susceptibility vs temperature, at 4.85 +/- 0.05 K, a quite interesting result since decidedly lower than the locations of susceptibility maxima in the pure components. A pronounced upturn in the susceptibility below 2.3 K also appears. Magnetization vs field isotherms display increasingly strong convex upward curvature and associated hysteresis with decreasing temperature. All of these characteristics differ markedly from those of the pure components
Feature integration in natural language concepts
Two experiments measured the joint influence of three key sets of semantic features on the frequency with which artifacts (Experiment 1) or plants and creatures (Experiment 2) were categorized in familiar categories. For artifacts, current function outweighed both originally intended function and current appearance. For biological kinds, appearance and behavior, an inner biological function, and appearance and behavior of offspring all had similarly strong effects on categorization. The data were analyzed to determine whether an independent cue model or an interactive model best accounted for how the effects of the three feature sets combined. Feature integration was found to be additive for artifacts but interactive for biological kinds. In keeping with this, membership in contrasting artifact categories tended to be superadditive, indicating overlapping categories, whereas for biological kinds, it was subadditive, indicating conceptual gaps between categories. It is argued that the results underline a key domain difference between artifact and biological concepts
Relative Equilibria in the Four-Vortex Problem with Two Pairs of Equal Vorticities
We examine in detail the relative equilibria in the four-vortex problem where
two pairs of vortices have equal strength, that is, \Gamma_1 = \Gamma_2 = 1 and
\Gamma_3 = \Gamma_4 = m where m is a nonzero real parameter. One main result is
that for m > 0, the convex configurations all contain a line of symmetry,
forming a rhombus or an isosceles trapezoid. The rhombus solutions exist for
all m but the isosceles trapezoid case exists only when m is positive. In fact,
there exist asymmetric convex configurations when m < 0. In contrast to the
Newtonian four-body problem with two equal pairs of masses, where the symmetry
of all convex central configurations is unproven, the equations in the vortex
case are easier to handle, allowing for a complete classification of all
solutions. Precise counts on the number and type of solutions (equivalence
classes) for different values of m, as well as a description of some of the
bifurcations that occur, are provided. Our techniques involve a combination of
analysis and modern and computational algebraic geometry
The WiFeS S7 AGN survey: Current status and recent results on NGC 6300
The Siding Spring Southern Seyfert Spectroscopic Snapshot Survey (S7) is a
targeted survey probing the narrow-line regions (NLRs) of a representative
sample of ~140 nearby (z<0.02) Seyfert galaxies by means of optical integral
field spectroscopy. The survey is based on a homogeneous data set observed
using the Wide Field Spectrograph WiFeS. The data provide a 25x38 arcsec
field-of-view around the galaxy centre at typically ~1.5 arcsec spatial
resolution and cover a wavelength range between ~3400 - 7100 at spectral
resolutions of ~100 km s and ~50 km s in the blue and red parts,
respectively. The survey is primarily designed to study gas excitation and star
formation around AGN, with a special focus on the shape of the AGN ionising
continuum, the interaction between radio jets and the NLR gas, and the nature
of nuclear LINER emission. We provide an overview of the current status of
S7-based results and present new results for NGC 6300.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, Refereed Proceeding of the "The Universe of
Digital Sky Surveys" conference held at the INAF - Observatory of
Capodimonte, Naples, on 25th-28th november 2014, to be published on
Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, edited by Longo, Napolitano,
Marconi, Paolillo, Iodic
Quantum Experimental Data in Psychology and Economics
We prove a theorem which shows that a collection of experimental data of
probabilistic weights related to decisions with respect to situations and their
disjunction cannot be modeled within a classical probabilistic weight structure
in case the experimental data contain the effect referred to as the
'disjunction effect' in psychology. We identify different experimental
situations in psychology, more specifically in concept theory and in decision
theory, and in economics (namely situations where Savage's Sure-Thing Principle
is violated) where the disjunction effect appears and we point out the common
nature of the effect. We analyze how our theorem constitutes a no-go theorem
for classical probabilistic weight structures for common experimental data when
the disjunction effect is affecting the values of these data. We put forward a
simple geometric criterion that reveals the non classicality of the considered
probabilistic weights and we illustrate our geometrical criterion by means of
experimentally measured membership weights of items with respect to pairs of
concepts and their disjunctions. The violation of the classical probabilistic
weight structure is very analogous to the violation of the well-known Bell
inequalities studied in quantum mechanics. The no-go theorem we prove in the
present article with respect to the collection of experimental data we consider
has a status analogous to the well known no-go theorems for hidden variable
theories in quantum mechanics with respect to experimental data obtained in
quantum laboratories. For this reason our analysis puts forward a strong
argument in favor of the validity of using a quantum formalism for modeling the
considered psychological experimental data as considered in this paper.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
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