Two methods of assessing candidates for coloured overlays were compared with the aim of determining which method had the most practical utility. 58 adults were assessed as potential candidates for coloured overlays, using two methods; a questionnaire which identified self reported previous symptoms, and a measure of perceptual distortions immediately prior to testing.Participants were classified as normal, Meares-Irlen sensitive, and borderline sensitive. Reading speed was measured with and without coloured overlays, using the Wilkins Rate of Reading Test and the change in speed was calculated. Participants classified as normal did not show any significant benefit from reading with an overlay. In contrast, a significant reading advantage was found for the borderline and Meares-Irlen participants. Current symptom rating was found to be a significant predictor of the change in reading speed, however the previous symptom rating was not found to be a reliable predictor. These data indicate that the assessment of perceptual distortions immediately prior to measuring colour preference and reading speed is the most meaningful method of assessing pattern glare and determining the utility of coloured overlays.3

Two experiments are reported that tested predictions derived from the framework of face, object, and word recognition proposed by Valentine, Brennen, and Bredart (1996). The findings were as follows: (1) Production of a celebrity's name in response to seeing the celebrity's face primed a subsequent familiarity decision to the celebrity's printed name. The degree of repetition priming observed was as great as that observed when a familiarity decision to the printed name was repeated in the prime and test phases of the experiment. (2) Makinga familiarity decision to an auditory presentation of a celebrity's name primed a familiarity decision to the same celebrity's name presented visually. The magnitude of cross-modality priming was as great as the magnitude of within-modality repetition priming. This result for people's names contrasted with the effects observed in lexical decision tasks, in which no reliable cross-modality priming was observed. The results cannot be accounted for by previous models of face and name processing. They show a marked contrast between processing people's names and processing words. The results support the framework proposed by Valentine et al. (1996).The implications for models of speech production, perception, and reading are discussed, together with the potential of the methodology to elucidate our understanding of proper name processing.Models offace recognition have been developed by analogy to models ofvisual word recognition. Hay and Young (1982) and Bruce and Young (1986) explicitly derived the notion ofa face recognition unit, which was postulated to mediate recognition ofa familiar face, by analogy to Morton's (1979) logogen model ofword recognition. A logogen is an entry in a mental lexicon that represents a specific known word. The logogen model included a single stage of lexical access for speech production (output logogens) that was separate from modality-specific representations for word recognition (input logogens). The assumption of separate lexical representations for recognition and production of words is typical ofcurrent models ofword recognition (see, e.g., Ellis & Young, 1988;Seidenberg, 1988). As a result ofthe analogy with visual word recognition, it has been assumed that production ofpeople's names involves a single stage ofaccess to a phonological representation that is separate from the representations required to recognize a printed or written name (see, e.g., Burton, Bruce, & Johnston, 1990;Valentine, Bredart, Lawson, & Ward, 1991).In contrast, models of speech production assume that lexical access involves two stages. The message to be articulated is formulated in a nonlexical conceptual system. This research was supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant R000234612). Correspondence should be addressed to T. Valentine, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, University of London, New Cross, London SEI4 6NW, England (e-mail: t.valentine@gold.ac.uk).-Accepted by previous editor, Geoffrey R. Loftus The first stage ofle...

Results of this and previous studies confirm that visual search measures may be helpful in the assessment of PRVS, but several important methodological issues may limit their application in this context.

Theoretical models of proper-name processing have been primarily derived from studies of people's names; however, they are thought to generalize to all classes of proper name. Five experiments are reported that use repetition priming to compare different classes of proper names. It was found that for people's names and landmark names, (a) production of a name in response to seeing a picture primed a subsequent familiarity decision to the same item's written name and (b) similarly, making a familiarity decision to an auditory presentation of a name primed a familiarity decision to the same item's written name. No comparable facilitation was found for the country-name stimuli. The presence of this specific facilitation was attributed to the nature of connectivity between conceptual and lexical representations. Theoretical views that proper names are unique, meaningless labels and that they are pure referencing expressions are evaluated.

Personality dimensions of participants who suffer from visual stress were compared with normal participants using the Eysenck Personality Inventory.Extraversion-Introversion scores showed no significant differences between the participants who suffered visual stress and those who were classified as normal. In contrast, significant differences were found between the normal participants and those with visual stress in respect of Neuroticism-Stability.These differences accord with Eysenck's personality theory which state that those who score highly on the neuroticism scale do so because they have a neurological system with a low threshold with their neurological system being easily activated by external stimuli. The findings also relate directly to the theory of visual stress proposed by Wilkins which postulates that visual stress results from an excess of neural activity. The data may suggest that the location of the excess activity is likely to be localised at particular neurological regions or neural processes.