William M. Smith

Analysis of Performance in Televised Visual Fields: Preliminary Report:

This report describes preliminary observations which have been made on performance in which the visual component of that performance was presented on a television display. The report indicates in an introductory way the application of closed-circuit television in the analysis of psychological problems of perception, motion, and general behavior. Analytic methods of studying perceptual organization and perceptual control of behavior have utilized numerous procedures for altering the visual field with respecr to the position of the body and its parts. Common methods of alteration are, of course, those which employ mirrors, prisms, and lenses to reverse, invert, and otherwise distort the visual field. Closed-circuit television provides an elaborate but operationally more useful method for the experimental analysis of the effects of visual rearrangement upon numerous aspects of behavior. Potentially, it offers control of visual feedback of possibly unlimited significance in research on both perception and behavior.

A preliminary experiment on the effect of dial graduation and dial size on the speed and accuracy of dial reading

Tliis is a report of a preliminary experiment on the effect of dial size and dial graduation on the speed and accuracy of obtaining quantitative information from dial type instruments. The purpose of the experiment was to determine approximately the range within which the results of further and more complete studies might fall. These studies on factors influencing dial reading are being made at Princeton University under contract with the Aero Medica1 Laboratory, Wright Field. FIGURE 1 shows the apparatus as viewed from the subject’s side. The subject sits in a three-sided enclosure, four feet square. He puts his head against a cushioned head-rest which keeps his eyes a t a reading distance of twenty-eight inches from the test material. The single dial at eye height on the panel is a sample dial. This dial, like a11 the sample dials used, has no pointer. The particular sample which is presented in the panel aperture before each trial indicates to the subject the kind of dial which he will have to read on the next test card. When the subject is ready, the experimenter slides the test card into position and illuminates it. Every test card has twelve dials of identical design which the subject reads row by row, from left to right. Actually, the subject never sees the sample dial and the test dials a t the same time, as might be assumed from the figure. Two small projectors, not shown in the picture, are used to illuminate the sample dial and the test card independently. On the experimenter’s side of the apparatus, there is (i) a supply bin containing test cards, (2) a slide mechanism for moving the test cards into position before the subject, (3) a second slide for presenting the sample dials, (4) a pair of stop clocks for timing the subject’s performance, and ( 5 ) a storage bin into which test cards are placed as they are used. The experimenter inserts a test card in the sliding panel and moves it into place in front of the subject. Next, he throws a control switch to change from sample dial illumination to test card iiiumination. This starts tlie two stop clocks. The subject begins reading immediately. As the first reading is called out, the experimenter stops the first clock. At the eleventh reading, the second clock is turned off. Illumination goes back to the sample dial after the twelfth reading. Although the subject makes twelve readings on every card, the experimental analysis is based only upon his readings of the central set of ten dials on each card. Eight dial designs were used in the expenment. These designs are shown in FIGURE 2. There were 100’s dials ( i e . , dials reading from O to i00), 200’s dials, 400’s dials, and 600’s dials. For each scale length, there were dials graduated by fives, shown in the top row, and others graduated by tens, shown in the lower row. Further, for each type

Book Reviews : Theories of Perception and the Concept of Structure, by F. H. Allport. New York: John Wiley and Sons, I955. xxii + 709 pp.

crepancy scores were intercorrelated and were correlated with performance scores. This complex statistical design further complicates the problem of interpreting the findings. It is hardly surprising that senior supervisors report that their behavior conforms to what they &dquo;ought to do.&dquo; They also conform to the expectations of immediate juniors. When they deviate from their own role expectations it is in the direction of the expectations of the juniors. This is interpreted as supporting the hypothesis of reciprocal influence between superiors and subordinates. The investigators believe that the results should be useful in developing theories of organization as well as in improving the adminietratnr~e h111tv tn r1P~ I UT1th nrnhlpme in hie n«vn nr(J’~ni7~t-if&dquo;Bn