The word superiority effect overcomes crowding.

Crowding and the word superiority effect are two perceptual phenomena that influence reading. The identification of the inner letters of a word can be hindered by crowding from adjacent letters, but it can be facilitated by the word context itself (the word superiority effect). In the present study, strings of four-letters (words and non-words) with different inter-letter spacings (ranging from an optimal spacing to produce crowding to a spacing too large to produce crowding) were presented briefly in the periphery and participants were asked to identify the third letter of the string.

The role of memory color in visual attention.

The expected color of an object influences how it is perceived. For example, a banana in a greyscale photo may appear slightly yellow because bananas are expected to be yellow. This phenomenon is known as the memory color effect (MCE), and the objects with a memory color are called "color-diagnostic.

Effect of bilingualism on visual tracking attention and resistance to distraction.

Speaking more than one language has been associated with enhanced cognitive capacities. Here we evaluated whether bilingual individuals have advantages in visual tracking attention. Adult bilingual (n = 35) and monolingual (n = 35) participants were tested in the Multiple Object Tracking task (MOT).

Remote spatial and autobiographical memory in cases of episodic amnesia and topographical disorientation.

A number of theories have postulated that there is a strong relationship between episodic memory and spatial processes mediated by the hippocampus. Evidence for episodic amnesia following damage to the medial temporal lobes is extensive, but less is known about the types of spatial memory affected by damage to these regions. In this study, we compared episodic memory with detailed scene memory, landmark recognition and schematic (map-based) spatial memory in a group of individuals with amnesia related to damage to the medial temporal lobes (MTL) including the hippocampus.

Selective scene perception deficits in a case of topographical disorientation.

Topographical disorientation (TD) is a neuropsychological condition characterized by an inability to find one's way, even in familiar environments. One common contributing cause of TD is landmark agnosia, a visual recognition impairment specific to scenes and landmarks. Although many cases of TD with landmark agnosia have been documented, little is known about the perceptual mechanisms which lead to selective deficits in recognizing scenes.

A case study of topographical disorientation: behavioural intervention for achieving independent navigation.

This study introduces an intervention that enabled a man (LH) with acquired topographical disorientation (TD) to travel independently without fear of getting lost. Adapting an errorless method, LH learned to use a smartphone to find his routes accurately and reliably. A time-series design (A-B-A-B) was used: In all phases, LH was given a printed map on which city locations were indicated.

A comparative case study of face recognition: the contribution of configural and part-based recognition systems, and their interaction.

Understanding the interaction between the configural and part-based systems in face recognition is the major aim of this study. Specifically, we established whether configural representation of faces contribute to aspects of face recognition that depend on part-based processes, such as identifying inverted or fractured faces. Using face recognition tasks that require part-based or configural processing, we compared the results of CK--a man who has object agnosia and alexia [Moscovitch, M.

Attention and the subjective expansion of time.

During brief, dangerous events, such as car accidents and robberies, many people report that events seem to pass in slow motion, as if time had slowed down. We have measured a similar, although less dramatic, effect in response to unexpected, nonthreatening events. We attribute the subjective expansion of time to the engagement of attention and its influence on the amount of perceptual information processed.

Effect of aging on visual shape distortion.

Background: Individuals experience a visual illusion created by shape interaction: when two shapes are presented successively and briefly, the form of the second (test) shape appears distorted due to the form of the first (prime) shape; this shape interaction is called the shape distortion effect. While age-related deterioration in performance is found in various aspects of visual perception, the effect of aging on the shape distortion effect has not been evaluated.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of aging on the shape distortion effect.