Learning to Recognize Patterns: Changes in the Visual Field with Familiarity

Two studies were conducted to investigate changes which take place in the visual information processing of novel stimuli as they become familiar. Japanese writing characters (Hiragana and Kanji) which were unfamiliar to two native English speaking subjects were presented using a moving window technique to restrict their visual fields. Study time for visual recognition was recorded across repeated sessions, and with varying visual field restrictions. The critical visual field was defined as the size of the visual field beyond which further increases did not improve the speed of recognition performance. In the first study, when the Hiragana patterns were novel, subjects needed to see about half of the entire pattern simultaneously to maintain optimal performance. However, the critical visual field size decreased as familiarity with the patterns increased. These results were replicated in the second study with more complex Kanji characters. In addition, the critical field size decreased as pattern complexity decreased. We propose a three component model of pattern perception. In the first stage a representation of the stimulus must be constructed by the subject, and restricting of the visual field interferes dramatically with this component when stimuli are unfamiliar. With increased familiarity, subjects become able to reconstruct a previous representation from very small, unique segments of the pattern, analogous to the informativeness areas hypothesized by Loftus and Mackworth [J. Exp. Psychol., 4 (1978) 565].Inquiries or requests for reprints may be directed to any of the authors. Authors’ current addresses are: James M. Bebko, Department of Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, North York, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3; Keiji Uchikawa, Imaging Science and Engineering Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226 Japan; Shinya Saida, Biosignaling Department, National Institute of Bioscience and Human-Technology, 1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305 Japan; Mitsuo Ikeda, Department of Architecture, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606 Japan.This research was conducted while the first author was supported by a Government of Japan Monbusho Research Fellowship at Tokyo Institute of Technology.     

WAVE CHARACTERISTICS OF CRUSTAL TECTONICS IN CONTINENTAL MARGINS

Continental margins are the transitional zone between continents and oceans. The tectonic deformation of crust in continental margins is very complex. This paper deals with the complex crust tectonics of continental margins in terms of the basic principle that elastic waves travel through semi-infinlte medium and the wave theory of crust. The continental margin off the North American coasts of the Atlantic used to be the active Pacifictype margin. At present, the crust movement in this margin tends to be stable; therefore it becomes the Atlantic type.     

线载和弹性支承作用面内运动薄板磁固耦合双重共振

针对磁场环境中具有线载荷和弹性支承作用的面内运动薄板,给出了系统的势能、动能及电磁力表达式,应用Hamilton变分原理,推得面内运动条形板的磁固耦合非线性振动方程.考虑边界为夹支 铰支的约束条件,利用变量分离法和Galerkin积分法,得到了含简谐线载力和电磁阻尼力项的两自由度非线性振动微分方程组.应用多尺度法对主 内联合共振问题进行解析求解,得到了双重联合共振下系统的一阶状态方程和共振响应特征方程.通过算例,得到了面内运动薄板的一阶和二阶共振幅值变化规律曲线图,分析了不同作用量和载荷位置对系统振动特性的影响.结果表明：系统发生主 内双重共振时,解的多值性和跳跃现象明显,弹性支承和线载荷位置对共振现象影响显著;一阶和二阶的共振多值解区域同时出现同时消失,体现了明显的内共振特征.