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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this study was to investigate tue effects of prolonged deficit in one sense modality (vision) on the development of perception in another sense modality (tactile-kinesthesis). Specifically, the absence of vision from early in life was hypothesized as having a retarding effect on the development of perception in the tactile-kinesthetic sense. A total of 244 children served as the subjects for the study: 144 children with normal vision and 100 congenitally blind children. They ranged in age from five through sixteen years. The two groups were matched for chronological age and verbal IQ. In order to investigate the hypothesis of developmental retardation, it was decided to look at performance in a tactile-kinesthetic task in which there were systematic changes w1th age. Part of the study was tnus concerned with establishing norms for such a task. Two types of tactile-kinesthetic tasks were individually administered to all subjects: a test of kinesthetic after-effect; and the size-weight illusion, administered in three different forms. In both sighted and congenitally blind subjects, significant differences with age were found in two out of the three forms of the size-weight illusion (the two measures involving the simultaneous use of both hands). In the third form (involving the use of only one hand), significant differences with age were found in the blind population and, while the differences with age in the sighted population were not significant, there was a graphic indication that systematic changes with age were taking place similar to those found in the other two forms of the illusion. [TRUNCATED] / 2999-01-01

Previous studies have indicated that concurrent multimodal stimulation can interfere with prenatal perceptual learning. However, the nature and extent of this interference is not well understood. This study further assessed this issue by exposing three groups of bobwhite quail embryos to (a) no unusual prenatal stimulation, (b) a bobwhite maternal call, or (c) a maternal call + light compound in the period prior to hatching. Experiments differed in terms of the types of stimuli presented during postnatal preference tests (Exp 1 = familiar call vs. unfamiliar call; Exp 2 = familiar compound vs. unfamiliar compound; Exp 3 = familiar compound verses unfamiliar call; Exp 4 = familiar call vs. unfamiliar compound). Embryos receiving no supplemental stimulation showed no preference between stimulus events in all testing conditions. Embryos receiving exposure to a unimodal call preferred the familiar call over the unfamiliar call regardless of the presence or absence of patterned light during testing. Embryos receiving concurrent audio-visual exposure showed no preference between stimulus events in Exp 1 and Exp 4, but did prefer the familiar call when it was paired with light during testing (Exp 2 and 3). These findings suggest that concurrent multimodal stimulation does not interfere with prenatal perceptual learning by overwhelming the young organism's limited attentional capacities. Rather, multimodal biases what information is attended to during exposure and subsequent testing. Results are discussed within an attentional-bias framework, which maintains that young organisms tend to initially process non-redundant compound events as integrative units rather than processing the components of the compound separately. / Master of Science

The present exploration of perceptual accuracy and bias in romantic relationships bridges a gap in the literature on the ability of partners to estimate one another’s level of relational and sexual satisfaction, and its impact on their own and their partner’s level of satisfaction. A sample of 50 couples, recruited internationally, in continuously monogamous relationships of at least six-months in length completed online assessments of their relationship. The degree of accuracy and bias of their perception was established by comparing actor’s estimates of their partner’s satisfaction with the partner’s actual, self-reported satisfaction scores. The actor-partner interdependence model (APIM; Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006) revealed significant partner effects (but no actor effects): the underestimation of perceived partner’s sexual and relational satisfaction predicted an increase in partner’s actual sexual and relational satisfaction. Overestimation of partner’s satisfaction, on the other hand, predicted a decrease in partner’s actual satisfaction. Authors hypothesize that under-perception of partner’s satisfaction motivates corrective relationship behaviors, which, in turn, increases the experience of satisfaction of the relationship partner.

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This thesis investigated the development and effectiveness of a perceptual training programmes for coaches and judges in gymnastics. Study one examined the variability of visual search for coaches and judges when viewing handspring vaults. The study found that there were no significant differences between the mean number of fixations, fixation duration and number of areas fixated across two time-points four weeks apart. In addtion, the natural range of variation of the number of fixations, fixation duration and number of area fixated was found to be 9/7%, 5.7% and 14.2% (expressed as coefficient of variation). Study two examined differences between expert and novice gymnastics coaches' and judges' visual search. Analysis of gaze behaviour showed that experts make significantly more fixations of significantly longer duration to significantly fewer areas than novies. There was no significant difference between the outcome juddgements made by the expert and novice coaches and judges. These findings suggest that visual search may be a contributing factor to expert performance in judgement formation. Study three explored the visual search pattern and knowledge used by expert coaches and judges when making decisions. Data were gathered through the used of eye-tracking and semi-structered interviews. Analyses established that experts tend to fixate on the torso and shoulders of gymnasts throughout the vault, and that there are three to four specific areas which are explored during each phase of a vault. Study four examined the effectiveness of a perceptual training programme for a perceptual traning and control group. Fixation number, fixation duration, number of areas fixated and outcome judgement were recorded at baseline, immediently after the programme and four weeks after it had been withdrawn. 2 (control vs. perceputal training) x 3 (intervention phase) ANOVA's with repeated measures showed that the perceptual training group produced significantly less error at the retention stage for number of fixations (F (2,6) = 12.57, p = 0.01, effect size n2 = .81), at the post-test for fixation duration (F (2,6) = 7.49, p = 0.02, effect size n2 = .71). However post-hoc analyses could not detect the difference for number of areas fixated. In study five, four participants that took part in the experiental condition watched a perceptual training DVD twice a week for six weeks. The case study data showed that the expert and novices who watched the perceptual training DVD made changes to their visual search variables and judgements and therefore became more analogous to the experts from study three to baseline to the post-test. However, only the novices retained the beneficial effects of the intervention. To conclude, this programme of research examinaed the development and effectiveness of a perceptual training programee for coaches' and judges' in gymnastics. This thesis suggests that a perceptual training programme based on the visual search and declarative knowledge of expert coaches and judges is effective at altering visual search and enhancing decision making for noveice coaches and judges. This research programme therefore promotes the use of perceptual training programmes for novice coaches and judges in sport.

The neurophysiological signals that are recorded in EEG (electroencephalography) and MEG (magnetoencephalography) originate from current flow perpendicular to the cortical surface due to the columnar organization of pyramidal cells in the cortical gray matter. These locations and directions have been used as anatomical constraints for dipolar sources in estimations of neural activity from MEG recordings. Here we extend anatomically constrained beamforming to EEG, which requires a more sophisticated forward model than MEG due to the blurring of the electric potential at tissue boundaries, but in contrast to MEG, EEG can account for both tangential and radial sources. Using computed tomography (CT) scans we create a realistic three-layer head model consisting of tessellated surfaces representing the tissue boundaries cerebrospinal fluid-skull, skull-scalp and scalp-air. The cortical gray matter surface, the anatomical constraint for the source dipoles, is extracted from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. EEG beamforming is implemented in a set of simulated data and compared for three different head models: single sphere, multi-shell sphere and realistic geometry multi-shell model that employs a boundary element method. Beamformer performance is also analyzed and evaluated for multiple dipoles and extended sources (patches). We show that using anatomical constraints with the beamforming algorithm greatly reduces computation time while increasing the spatial accuracy of the reconstructed sources of neural activity. Using the spatial Laplacian instead of the electric potential in combination with beamforming further improves the spatial resolution and allows for the detection of highly correlated sources. / by Vyacheslav Murzin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.