The role of top-down control in divergent creativity remains heavily debated. An outstanding question about the state dynamics of creativity concerns acute shifts between heightened and lowered creative states. Particularly, do transitions between creative states incur a "switch cost" as observed in other domains of cognition? Prior…

How the dual-task interference effects, observed when subjects attempted to simultaneously perform two simple tasks, are related to capacity limitations in perceptual processing of complex visual displays was studied. Results for a total of 110 undergraduates in 6 experiments support a 2-component theory of divided attention. (SLD)

Human recognition behavior is influenced by the phenomenon of shape constancy, which occurs when the shape of an object is correctly perceived regardless of the orientation of the object in space. The research reported here tests the validity of the shape-slant invariance hypothesis, a theoretical formulation of the phenomenon of shape constancy.…

This study examined the abilities of 18 adults with familial dyslexia to use steady state, dynamic, and temporal cues in synthetic speech continua. Although subjects were able to label and discriminate the continua, they did not necessarily use acoustic cues in the same manner as did normal readers, and their overall performance was less accurate.…

Three experiments examined characteristics of a stimulus-cueing retrieval from long-term memory for 3-month olds. Used mobiles displaying either Qs (feature-present stimuli) or Os (feature-absent stimuli) and tested 24 hours later. Findings indicated that target-distractor similarity constraints, whether or not a feature-present stimulus, would…

Examined recognition memory for photographs of faces in four experiments using students and adults. Results supported a feature (rather than Gestalt) model of facial recognition in which the two sides of the face are different in its memory representation. (JAC)

Evaluated effects of perceived freedom of choice on behavior change. Subjects were assigned to groups that varied in amount of perceived choice in determining training procedures. Subjects who perceived that they were given choice in training procedures improved significantly more than subjects who lost freedom of choice. (Author/BEF)

Measures differences in types of client needs perceived by various categories of counselors, the types of needs they attempted to help their clients gratify, and the needs that were viewed as gratified. (Author)

The description of, or formation of impressions about, persons are viewed as being dependent on situational context and the standard or reference point to which the persons are compared. A study is described in which different subject groups compared a target's score on a "cautiousness-boldness" or a "relaxation-alertness" test with either a…

A series of three studies found that increased age was associated with lower levels of performance on tests of spatial visualization by unselected adults and adults with extensive spatial visualization experience. Age-related effects for some aspects of cognitive functioning may be independent of experiential influences. (RH)

Discussion of performance improvement focuses on the effect of emotions on performance. Topics include the emotional intelligence of the performers; how people deal with emotional demands and the stress of their performance; and emotional states that affect attention, focus, perception, and time on task. (LRW)