Change blindness: size matters

It is easy to detect a small change between two sequential presentations of a visual stimulus, but, if they are separated by a blank interval, performance is around chance. This change blindness (CB) can be rectified, or improved, by cueing the spatial location of the change either in the first stimulus or the interval; however, no advantage is conferred when the cue appears during the second presentation of the stimulus. This supports the idea that a representation of the first stimulus is formed and persists through the course of the interval before being 'overwritten' by the second presentation of the stimulus (Landman et al, 2003 Vision Research 43 149 - 164). We were interested in the time course of the cueing effect during the interval. Following Landman et al, our first stimulus was an array of eight rectangles defined by texture and there was a 50% chance that one of the rectangles would change orientation in the second stimulus. Five cues were used, one within the first stimulus, three across the interval, and one in the second stimulus. Only one of these cues appeared in each trial. The cued rectangle was the one that would change between the first and second stimulus when a change occurred. The cue was a yellow line. Eighty-five observers showed the characteristic cueing performance supporting 'overwriting', but performance decreased over the duration of the interval suggesting that the initial representation of the first stimulus fades over time. However, when the size of the rectangles was increased, performance across the interval improved significantly. We consider two possible explanations: one is that simply by increasing rectangle size we raise the storage capacity for the number of rectangles in our representation, the other is that storage is related to task difficulty

Alien Registration- Telfer, John R. (Bangor, Penobscot County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/13952/thumbnail.jp

Satellite monitoring of sea surface pollution

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

An Evaluation of Cockpit Resource Management Training in Qantas

This study reports an evaluation of a Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) training program at Qantas Airlines in Australia. Four sets of survey data were gathered: Two from crew involved in CRM and a specific Line Oriented Flight Training (LOFT) scenario conducted in a simulator; and two from instructors, one from the LOFT instructors, the other from the CRM instructors. The crew results showed that CRM was perceived to have improved teamwork and leadership and that LOFT was viewed favorably. The instructor results showed generally successful implementation of the decision-making strategies but indicated that certain groups were not sufficiently assertive in communicating their preferred options. The instructors were generally positive in their evaluation of the CRM program. Implications are discussed

Epidemiology and fitness effects of wood mouse herpesvirus in a natural host population

Rodent gammaherpesviruses have become important models for understanding human herpesvirus diseases. In particular, interactions between murid herpesvirus 4 and Mus musculus (a non-natural host species) have been extensively studied under controlled laboratory conditions. However, several fundamental aspects of murine gammaherpesvirus biology are not well understood, including how these viruses are transmitted from host to host, and their impacts on host fitness under natural conditions. Here, we investigate the epidemiology of a gammaherpesvirus in free-living wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) and bank voles (Myodes glareolus) in a 2-year longitudinal study. Wood mouse herpesvirus (WMHV) was the only herpesvirus detected and occurred frequently in wood mice and also less commonly in bank voles. Strikingly, WMHV infection probability was highest in reproductively active, heavy male mice. Infection risk also showed a repeatable seasonal pattern, peaking in spring and declining through the summer. We show that this seasonal decline can be at least partly attributed to reduced recapture of WMHV-infected adults. These results suggest that male reproductive behaviours could provide an important natural route of transmission for these viruses. They also suggest that gammaherpesvirus infection may have significant detrimental effects in wild hosts, questioning the view that these viruses have limited impacts in natural, co-evolved host species