<p> Boundary extension is a perceptual phenomenon in which people remember more of a scene than they actually saw. This effect is very robust, found in subjects of all ages, and observed as rapidly as 1/20th of a second after scene onset. Due to several factors, including the rapid onset, boundary extension is thought to be an automatic process. However, some studies have indicated that attentional factors may influence the effect. This study examined the idea that differences in attention may alter the degree of boundary extension. Specifically, the current study investigated the automaticity of boundary extension by altering the attentional resources allocated to an image. This was manipulated in two ways. First, the location of the objects in the scene were placed either centrally or peripherally. Second, the categorical distinctiveness of the objects in the scene was manipulated such that half of the images contained a single distinctive object while the other half contained none. Including distinctive objects in the picture plane should entice participants to more deeply process the images, thus attenuate boundary extension. Individual differences in need for cognition and field dependence/independence were also considered. These additional scales allowed for the examination of individual differences in information processing styles in relation to the boundary extension error. Results indicate the relationship between these factors is complex, but that in general, increased attention reduces the degree of reported boundary extension. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:1592397 |
| Date | 18 February 2016 |
| Creators | Kline, Valerie A. |
| Publisher | University of Louisiana at Lafayette |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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