The spatial gradient of visual masking by object substitution

AbstractA mask that has a common onset but delayed offset with the target produces substitution masking, which can be distinguished from pattern masking and metacontrast masking. This study tests the spatial properties of substitution masking: specificity to the target location and asymmetry to the central and the peripheral sides of the target. Results revealed that substitution declined gradually as the mask moved away from the target. Masking was stronger and its gradient declined more slowly as the eccentricity of the target increased. Substitution was asymmetric, stronger for peripheral than central masks. Results are consistent with a refined model of object substitution based on reentrant visual processing

An Empirical Study of Affective Instruction in Comprehensive English Class for English Majors in China

The research aims at exploring that application of affective instruction in English as a foreign language class in China is conducive to students’ cognitive development and target language acquisition. The study involves both quantitative approach depending on the statistical data and qualitative approach to analyze the investigation results. The subjects are 64 sophomores of English majors from School of Foreign Languages at a university in southwestern China. The instruments of the investigation are questionnaires and tests for English majors. The results of the experiments (Research subjects were required to finish questionnaires and testing papers in Sep. 2006 and Jan. 2007 respectively.) indicated that in the pretest the students from two classes are approximately well-matched concerning affective factors and English proficiency, while in the posttest there are changes of students’ affective state between the students from the experimental class and the control class (t=3.405, P<0.001) and some differences of the two classes in English proficiency (t=3.239, P<0.01). Based on these research results, the conclusion is drawn that affective instruction contributes to cultivating students’ positive affect, and positive affect in turn helps students enhance their target language acquisition

Redundancy effects in the processing of emotional faces

AbstractHow does the visual system represent the ensemble statistics of visual objects? This question has received intense interest in vision research, yet most studies have focused on the extraction of mean statistics rather than its dispersion. This study focuses on another aspect of ensemble statistics: the redundancy of the sample. In two experiments, participants were faster judging the facial expression and gender of multiple faces than a single face. The redundancy gain was equivalent for multiple identical faces and for multiple faces of different identities. To test whether the redundancy gain was due to increased strength in perceptual representation, we measured the magnitude of facial expression aftereffects. The aftereffects were equivalent when induced by a single face and by four identical faces, ruling out increased perceptual strength as an explanation for the redundancy gain. We conclude that redundant faces facilitate perception by enhancing the robustness of representation of each face

A Survey Study: The Correlation between Introversion/Extroversion and Oral English Learning Outcome

Introversion/extroversion is generally considered to be one of the most important factors affecting the success of foreign language learning, especially spoken language. Extroverts are usually thought to be better at learning a foreign spoken language than introverts. With the intention of finding out whether extroverts are better learners of spoken English (learned as a foreign language in China) than introverts, this study investigated 117 English majors’ personality types (in terms of introversion and extroversion) in Chongqing (a municipality city in China), and their spoken English performance through a spoken English test. With the data collected, this paper analyzes the correlation between introversion/extrusion and spoken English performance. The result shows that the two are not correlated. The author discusses factors leading to this phenomenon from various aspects of learning environment, motivation, language intake and output, culture, and concludes that introversion/ extroversion is not a key factor contributing to the success of spoken English learning. The research result is of great significance to both English teachers and learners, especially those who are concerned about their personality (introversion) being a barrier to their oral English learning. What matters most in spoken English learning probably are the strategies that learners employ to improve it, which is well worth researching

Nonlinear Control of Large Disturbances in Magnetic Bearing Systems

In this paper, the nonlinear operation of magnetic bearing control methods is reviewed. For large disturbances, the effects of displacement constraints and power amplifier current and di/dt limits on bearing control system performance are analyzed. The operation of magnetic bearings exhibiting self-excited large scale oscillations have been studied both experimentally and by simulation. The simulation of the bearing system has been extended to include the effects of eddy currents in the actuators, so as to improve the accuracy of the simulation results. The results of these experiments and simulations are compared, and some useful conclusions are drawn for improving bearing system robustness

Application of neural network in control of a ball-beam balancing system

Neural networks can be considered as a massively parallel distributed processing system with the potential for ever improving performance through dynamical learning. The power of neural networks is in their ability to learn and to store knowledge. Neural networks purport to represent or simulate simplistically the activities of processes that occur in the human brain. The ability to learn is one of the main advantages that make the neural networks so attractive. The fact that it has been successfully applied in the fields of speech analysis, pattern recognition and machine vision gives a constant encouragement to the research activities conducted in the application of neural networks technique to solve engineering problems. One of the less investigated areas is control engineering. In control engineering, neural networks can be used to handle multiple input and output variables of nonlinear function and delayed feedback with high speed. The ability of neural networks to control engineering processes without prior knowledge of the system dynamic very appealing to researchers and engineers in the field. The present work concerns the application of neural network techniques to control a simple ball-beam balancing system. The ball-beam system is an inherent unstable system, in which the ball tends to move to the end of the beam. The task is to control the system so that the ball can be balance at an location of the beam within a short period of time, and the beam be kept at an horizontal position. The state of the art of neural networks and their application in control engineering has been reviewed. The computer simulation of the control system has been performed, using both the conventional Bass-gura (chapter 3) method and the neural network method. In the conventional method the system equations were established using the Lagrangian vanational principle, and Euler method has been used to integrate the equations of movement

Multiple Object Tracking in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Difficulties in visual attention are often implicated in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) but it remains unclear which aspects of attention are affected. Here, we used a multiple object tracking (MOT) task to quantitatively characterize dynamic attentional function in children with ASD aged 5–12. While the ASD group performed significantly worse overall, the group difference did not increase with increased object speed. This finding suggests that decreased MOT performance is not due to deficits in dynamic attention but instead to a diminished capacity to select and maintain attention on multiple targets. Further, MOT performance improved from 5 to 10 years in both typical and ASD groups with similar developmental trajectories. These results argue against a specific deficit in dynamic attention in ASD.Ellison Medical FoundationSimons Foundatio

Global/Local Processing in Autism: Not a Disability, but a Disinclination

It is widely suggested that ASD is characterized by atypical local/global processing, but the published findings are contradictory. In an effort to resolve this question, we tested a large group of children on both a free-choice task and an instructed task using hierarchical local–global stimuli. We find that although children with autism showed a reduced preference to report global properties of a stimulus when given a choice, their ability to process global properties when instructed to do so is unimpaired. These findings support prior claims that people with ASD show a disinclination, not a disability, in global processing, and highlight the broader question of whether other characteristics of autism may also reflect disinclinations rather than disabilities.Ellison Medical FoundationSimons Foundatio