Individual Differences In Processing Research Articles

Individual differences in cognitive processes.

Individual differences in cognitive processes.

Alternative processes in the identification of familiar pictures

Individual differences in perceptual processing were investigated in a task requiring subjects to match words (either general or specific category names) with simultaneously presented pictures. Based on the results of previous research, individual differences in processing were inferred from the effect, on "same" reaction time, of rotating the pictures into an unfamiliar orientation. For subjects inferred to emphasize an analytic mode of processing, word-picture matches were faster for general than for specific category names, supporting the hypothesis that analytic subjects would attend to the minimal number of features necessary to infer the categorical identity of the pictures. For subjects inferred to emphasize a structural mode of processing, there was little difference in word-picture matching time between specific and general category names, supporting the hypothesis that structural subjects would attend to all the information in the pictures, regardless of the category level specified by the word.

The effect of familiarity on rotational transformation

Familiarity, established by preliminary reproduction training with unfamiliar dot patterns, decreased “same” reaction time in a same-different comparison task. The familiarity effect was significantly greater when the pairs of patterns were in different orientations (transformational matches), as opposed to the same orientation (exact matches). This interaction between familiarity and the type-of-match supported the hypothesis that familiarity would facilitate the mental rotation of the patterns. In addition, a significant correlation between the effects of symmetry (symmetrical vs. asymmetrical patterns) and rotation (familiar vs. rotated familiar patterns) was obtained for exact matches, replicating Hock’s (1973) findings. This evidence for individual differences in processing was the. basis for concluding that familiarity had facilitated mental rotation, and not just attention to the orientationally invariant distinctive features of the patterns.

Individual differences in the detection of embedded figures

The individual differences in processing obtained by Hock (1973) were extended to two experiments in which the embedded figures test was recast into the form of a yes-no reaction time task. Ss emphasizing analytic processes detected the embedded figures more rapidly than Ss emphasizing structural processes, supporting the hypothesis that attention to the parts of the embedded figures was the strategy most appropriate for the task. Based on the interaction between familiarity (normal vs rotated orientation) and embeddedness (intact vs embedded figures), it was concluded in both experiments that familiarity facilitated the detection of the embedded figures for analytic Ss. For structural Ss, familiarity was similarly found to facilitate the detection of the embedded figures, but only when a template-matching strategy was possible (when the target figure and the embedded figure were physically identical).