The criteria used in performing mental rotation or mental folding tasks were studied with a parad... more The criteria used in performing mental rotation or mental folding tasks were studied with a paradigm that did not involve reaction times. The hypothesis was that, when perceptualorganizational factors come into conflict with the geometric features required for the correct execution of such tasks, it is the former that prevail. To verify this hypothesis two experiments were carried out. In experiment 1, subjects were asked to imagine quadrilaterals rotating round a rotation axis at different inclinations. Their responses were dependent both on the degree of tilt of the rotation axis and on the degree of tilt of the quadrilateral with respect to the rotation axis. Experiment 2 consisted of the mental execution of a folding task. In this case too, the responses depended on the degree of tilt of the folding axis and also on the complexity of the stimulus outline. In both experiments responses were divided into two groups: (i) geometrically correct responses and (ii) responses which, although incorrect, were based on perceptualorganizational criteria. In the light of the results, some theoretical implications regarding transformation operations executed by means of mental images are discussed.
The usage of the term “soul” was banned from the psychological dictionaries at least from Angell’... more The usage of the term “soul” was banned from the psychological dictionaries at least from Angell’s famous interdict (1911). However, in the last few years a renewed interest for it is risen, from two independent sources: 1. the “naive” concept of soul owned by laymen; 2. the concepts of life after death and (im)mortality in children. Bering (2006) proposes three cognitive mechanisms, producing “illusions of personal immortality, of teleological authorship in the design of individual souls, and of natural events as having symbolic meaning”, forming “an organized ‘system’” in the human evolution under selective pressures. What is missing is an adequate consideration of what the soul is in the different human cultures. 150 years the Seelenfrage posed by Fechner (1861) is still unsolved, One must question whether the “mind”, that replaced the soul, is i) better defined than “soul”; ii) is more able to capture the complexity of our psychological system.
In the Frohlich effect, the perceived onset of a moving stimulus is displaced in the direction of... more In the Frohlich effect, the perceived onset of a moving stimulus is displaced in the direction of the motion. Two experiments were conducted in order to verify if cognitive factors had an influence on the Frohlich effect. In the first one we studied the rule of the rectangular window in which the stimulus moves through three experimental conditions (without window condition, long window condition, short window condition), whereas in the second one we used an arrow as a stimulus instead of a rectangle. Our results not only replicated the Frohlich effect, but they also allowed us to control other factors that had an influence on our experimental setup: stimulus and window characteristics.
Two experiments are described. In Exp. 1, subjects compared the apparent numerosity of two kinds ... more Two experiments are described. In Exp. 1, subjects compared the apparent numerosity of two kinds of dot patterns, regular vs irregular, with two different exposures (160 vs 2000 msec). In Exp. 2, the subjects had to estimate the numerosity of the same patterns, presented one at a time. Analysis showed a relative overestimation of the regular patterns in Exp. 1 but not in Exp. 2. In general an overestimation occurred with an increase in exposure. Such results support our hypothesis of two separate processes as the basis of the two kinds of performance (estimating vs comparison).
In confirmatory analysis of whether data have a circumplex structure, Browne's (1992) model has p... more In confirmatory analysis of whether data have a circumplex structure, Browne's (1992) model has played a major role. However, implementation of this model requires a dedicated program, CIRCUM, because the analysis routine is not integrated in any of the most widely used statistical software packages. Hence, data entry and graphical representation of the results require the use of one or more additional programs. We propose a package for the R statistical environment, termed CircE, that can be used to enter or import data, implement Browne's confirmatory analysis, and graphically represent the results. Using this new software, we put forward a new approach to assess the sustainability of theoretical models when the analysis is carried out at the level of questionnaire items. The CircE package (for either Mac OS X or Windows) and additional files may be downloaded from http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.
The criteria used in performing mental rotation or mental folding tasks were studied with a parad... more The criteria used in performing mental rotation or mental folding tasks were studied with a paradigm that did not involve reaction times. The hypothesis was that, when perceptualorganizational factors come into conflict with the geometric features required for the correct execution of such tasks, it is the former that prevail. To verify this hypothesis two experiments were carried out. In experiment 1, subjects were asked to imagine quadrilaterals rotating round a rotation axis at different inclinations. Their responses were dependent both on the degree of tilt of the rotation axis and on the degree of tilt of the quadrilateral with respect to the rotation axis. Experiment 2 consisted of the mental execution of a folding task. In this case too, the responses depended on the degree of tilt of the folding axis and also on the complexity of the stimulus outline. In both experiments responses were divided into two groups: (i) geometrically correct responses and (ii) responses which, although incorrect, were based on perceptualorganizational criteria. In the light of the results, some theoretical implications regarding transformation operations executed by means of mental images are discussed.
The usage of the term “soul” was banned from the psychological dictionaries at least from Angell’... more The usage of the term “soul” was banned from the psychological dictionaries at least from Angell’s famous interdict (1911). However, in the last few years a renewed interest for it is risen, from two independent sources: 1. the “naive” concept of soul owned by laymen; 2. the concepts of life after death and (im)mortality in children. Bering (2006) proposes three cognitive mechanisms, producing “illusions of personal immortality, of teleological authorship in the design of individual souls, and of natural events as having symbolic meaning”, forming “an organized ‘system’” in the human evolution under selective pressures. What is missing is an adequate consideration of what the soul is in the different human cultures. 150 years the Seelenfrage posed by Fechner (1861) is still unsolved, One must question whether the “mind”, that replaced the soul, is i) better defined than “soul”; ii) is more able to capture the complexity of our psychological system.
In the Frohlich effect, the perceived onset of a moving stimulus is displaced in the direction of... more In the Frohlich effect, the perceived onset of a moving stimulus is displaced in the direction of the motion. Two experiments were conducted in order to verify if cognitive factors had an influence on the Frohlich effect. In the first one we studied the rule of the rectangular window in which the stimulus moves through three experimental conditions (without window condition, long window condition, short window condition), whereas in the second one we used an arrow as a stimulus instead of a rectangle. Our results not only replicated the Frohlich effect, but they also allowed us to control other factors that had an influence on our experimental setup: stimulus and window characteristics.
Two experiments are described. In Exp. 1, subjects compared the apparent numerosity of two kinds ... more Two experiments are described. In Exp. 1, subjects compared the apparent numerosity of two kinds of dot patterns, regular vs irregular, with two different exposures (160 vs 2000 msec). In Exp. 2, the subjects had to estimate the numerosity of the same patterns, presented one at a time. Analysis showed a relative overestimation of the regular patterns in Exp. 1 but not in Exp. 2. In general an overestimation occurred with an increase in exposure. Such results support our hypothesis of two separate processes as the basis of the two kinds of performance (estimating vs comparison).
In confirmatory analysis of whether data have a circumplex structure, Browne's (1992) model has p... more In confirmatory analysis of whether data have a circumplex structure, Browne's (1992) model has played a major role. However, implementation of this model requires a dedicated program, CIRCUM, because the analysis routine is not integrated in any of the most widely used statistical software packages. Hence, data entry and graphical representation of the results require the use of one or more additional programs. We propose a package for the R statistical environment, termed CircE, that can be used to enter or import data, implement Browne's confirmatory analysis, and graphically represent the results. Using this new software, we put forward a new approach to assess the sustainability of theoretical models when the analysis is carried out at the level of questionnaire items. The CircE package (for either Mac OS X or Windows) and additional files may be downloaded from http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.
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Papers by Riccardo Luccio