Mueller-Lyer illusion: effect of age, lightness contrast, and hue.

Mueller-Lyer figures produced by lightness contrast (white on black) and by hue contrast in the absence of lightness contrast (red, yellow, green, or blue on gray) were presented to subjects aged nine to adult. Contrary to Piagetian expectations, the illusion magnitudes resulting from the colored figures did not decline with age.

The effect of exposure to a condom script on attitudes toward condoms.

PIP: The effect of reading an erotic script that described condom placement on attitudes toward condom use was investigated in 102 male and 108 female US university students. It was hypothesized that, when integrated into an erotic script, condom use would become viewed as a pleasurable activity rather than just a means of avoiding pregnancy or disease. Controls received identical scripts except that the use of condoms was omitted or received no stories. Subjects who read the erotic accounts exhibited a positive change from pretest to posttest in attitudes toward condom use, but there was no difference in this outcome between condom story and no-condom erotic story conditions. In women, but not men, a high level of arousal induced by the script was associated with negative attitudes toward condoms, suggesting that males and females may require different reading materials. Given the finding, at least in women, of an inverse relationship between explicit eroticism/sexual arousal and condom attitude scores, a 2nd experiment involving less explicit stories written by college students was conducted. Here, 100 men and 100 women students received erotic stories that either featured or did not include condom use. Again, males who read stories incorporating condom placement held more positive attitudes toward condom use than same-sex controls, but women were not affected by the manipulation. For women, a positive attitude toward condom use was associated only with history of sexual activity. Helpful would be the preparation of erotic scripts that appeal to both sexes given the demonstrated effectiveness of this social learning technique with the male subjects in both experiments.^ieng

Do changes in the stereotypic depiction of a lesbian couple affect heterosexuals' attitudes toward lesbianism?

This study tested the hypothesis that heterosexuals with traditional sex role values would be less negative toward lesbians after reading a nonstereotypical description of a lesbian couple as opposed to a stereotypical description. Two experiments were conducted to assess stereotypes of lesbian couples and to test the hypothesis. Consistent with the hypothesis, traditional males showed significantly more positive attitudes toward lesbians as a result of exposure to less stereotypical depictions of couples. For nontraditional males treatments were ineffective, as expected. Counter to the hypothesis, exposure to nonstereotypical depictions of lesbian couples had no significant effect on traditional or nontraditional females' attitudes toward lesbians.

Configuration color vision tests: the interaction between aging and the complexity of figure-ground segregation.

A cross-sectional study comparing response time and the percentage of items correctly identified in three color vision tests (Pflügertrident, HRR-AO pseudoisochromatic plates, and AO pseudoisochromatic plates) was carried out on 72 women (12 in each decade) ranging from ages 20 to 79 years. Overall, time scores increased across the age groups. Analysis of the correctness scores indicated that the AO pseudoisochromatic plates requiring the identification of numbers was more difficult than the other tests which consisted of geometric forms or the letter E. This differential difficulty increased as a function of age. There was no indication of color defect per se which led to the conclusion that figure complexity may be the key variable determining performance. The results were similar to those obtained by Lee and Pollack (1978) in their study of the Embedded Figures Test.

The effect of lightness contrast on the colored Müller-Lyer illusion.

Two subjects estimated the length of the central line in red and blue Müller-Lyer figures that were viewed both foveally and parafoveally. The illusion figures were defined by either lightness and hue differences between figure and ground or by a hue difference alone. For both subjects, the figures defined solely by hue produced larger illusions. Since depth-cue scaling and other cognitive factors did not cause the enlargement, it was concluded that the robust, hue-produced illusions resulted from contour interactions generated within parvocellular channels that are specialized for coding color.

Factors predicting high-risk sexual behavior in heterosexual college females.

The purpose of this study was to determine which factors based in social cognitive theory are associated with risky sexual behavior in heterosexual college females. Results showed that negative attitudes toward condoms and toward involvement in a relationship were associated with less consistent condom use; frequent alcohol use preceding intercourse and low sexual satisfaction were associated with less consistent contraceptive use. Sex education on the college campus currently provides protection information only; these strategies have not proved successful. We encourage the development of more comprehensive educational strategies, which include discussion of the social cognitive factors shown here to be associated with risky sexual behavior.

The effects of age on perceptual problem-solving strategies.

Witkin's Embedded Figures Test (EFT) was used to measure the changes with age in field dependence and problem-solving ability Qualitative data concerning problem-solving strategies and quantitative data were collected. EFT was administered to 12 females in each of the following decades: 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60, 70s. All subjects were moderately to well educated, healthy, and relatively active members of the community. All had at least 20/33 corrected or uncorrected vision. An interview was held with each participant after completion of the EFT. ANOVA of time scores indicated that significantly (p less than 0.01) more time is needed to solve the items with an increase in age; a Tukey (a) test revealed a significant (p less than 0.05) increase between the 40s and 60s age groups. With an increase in age a significant (p less than 0.01) decline in the number of items solved was found. Partial correlations revealed that age is the most important factor, vis-á-vis general intelligence, visual acuity, and the personality factors measured by the Eysenck Personality Inventory. The relative stability of performance up through 49 and after 50 implies a decline in field independence rather than in higher-order cognitive processes.

The effects of color and preretinal aging on embedded figures test performance: a failure to replicate.

This study examined the hypothesis that preretinal aging may adversely affect performance in older adults. The relationship between preretinal aging and a perceptual variable (i.e., color) was also explored. Under standard testing procedures, the (a) normal, (b) light-attenuated, and (c) simulated aged performance of 90 young women was compared to the performance of 30 elderly women, using two forms (colored or noncolored) of the Embedded Figures Test (EFT). Results revealed that young women performed significantly better than elderly women on all measures, suggesting that neither the simulation of preretinal aging nor color was a significant factor in EFT performance. Inasmuch as the present study failed to replicate Ball and Pollack (1989), the critical age-related factors in cognitive/perceptual performance have yet to be identified.

The magnitude of the Mueller-Lyer illusion as a function of hue, saturation, fundus pigmentation, and simulated aging.

Ninety-six female college students were tested to determine the effects of hue, saturation, fundus pigmentation, and simulated aging on the magnitude of the Muller-Lyer illusion. In the first experiment, main effects for hue and saturation as well as an interaction effect between them were found to be significant. In the second experiment, filters served to simulate receptor aging by decreasing the visual sensitivity of young adults. A significant main effect of hue and an interaction effect between hue and saturation were found. However, there was no significant effect for fundus pigmentation in either experiment. Comparative analysis of the two experiments showed that only the magnitude of the illusion produced by an unsaturated blue figure decreased significantly when viewed through aging-simulation filters.

Simulated aged performance on the embedded figures test.

According to Labouvie-Vief (1985) the predominant explanatory mechanism for performance decline among the elderly incorporates a regression-oriented view of cognitive development: The present study tested the hypothesis that age-related performance decline may be explained by the quantitative changes in lower-level visual functions, such as those due to preretinal aging, which preclude the expression of intact cognitive (qualitative) processes. Thirty undergraduate female volunteers (18 to 25 years) viewed the Embedded Figures Test (EFT) under three conditions: no-filter viewing, .6 neutral-density filter viewing, and simulated-aged (yellow-filter plus .5 neutral-density filter) viewing. A one-way ANOVA revealed significant viewing condition effects for the number of items solved, the number of errors, and time-to-solution. Significant linear trends were found for levels of luminous transmittance. Results supported the hypothesis that preretinal aging appears to degrade EFT performance.

The life-span trend in the magnitude of the Mueller-Lyer illusion as a function of hue and age.

Mueller-Lyer illustrations produced by hue contrast were used to investigate age differences with participants ranging in age from 20 to 79 years. As expected, there was no age difference in the magnitude of the illusion when the Mueller-Lyer figure was produced by hue contrast. A significant main effect of hue was found, with no interaction between hue and age. These findings support Pollack's nondevelopmental explanation for age effects on Type I illusions.

Problem-solving as a function of age, sex and the role appropriateness of the problem content.

The purpose of this study was to investigate problem-solving ability as a function of age, sex and problem content by using 20 problems chosen from the problem-solving literature. The problems were administered without time limits to 8 males and 8 females in each of three age groups: 20--30, 40--50, 60--70. Analysis revealed that only age influenced performance with the middle-age group scoring significantly higher than the other groups. Analysis of the time required by each age group to solve the problems showed the young group required significantly less time than the other groups. Finally, the young group was seen to make more errors of commission while the older group made more errors of omission.

Visual acuity for single lines as a function of hue and age.

176 students in grades 2-12 were tested for visual acuity as a function of minimally resolvable red, yellow, green, and blue lines. A 3-way mixed analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the colors, with better acuity for longer wavelengths. Significant age effects as well as a sex X condition interaction were also found. Post hoc analysis revealed a significant quartic trend for age. It is argued that the differential acuity thresholds for hue and the curvilinear age trend may depend upon the coordination of the accommodation and refractive power of the eye, which are affected by differential growth rates of the lens and the axial length of the eye.