Familiarity effects in visual comparison tasks and their implications for studying human intelligence.

Abstract

Two experiments were carried out to study the effect of prior knowledge on cognitive processes related to human intelligence by examining its role in defining task novelty. In Experiment 1, Ss performed a letter-matching task involving same-different judgments based on 4 rules of sameness: physical identity, form, system, and name. When the stimuli were unfamiliar, performance on the name classification task was correlated with measures of fluid abilities, whereas when the stimuli were familiar, performance on this task was not correlated with measures of fluid abilities. In Experiment 2, Ss performed 3 different forms of a mental rotation task. When the stimuli were unfamiliar, the slope of the rotation function was correlated with a test of fluid ability, whereas when the stimuli were familiar, the slope of the rotation function was not correlated with a test of fluid ability. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the nature of task complexity and the way knowledge and processing interact in the development of skilled performance.

Independent Deficits of Visual Word and Motion Processing in Aging and Early Alzheimer's Disease

“…1). Inverted and mirrored letters were used because they dissociate letter familiarity from their visuospatial orientation [22]. False fonts were used because they are unfamiliar but look like letters from a foreign language [23].…”

Two Speed Factors of Visual Recognition Independently Correlated with Fluid Intelligence

“…Median and inter-quartile range of a determination coefficient of linear fittings ( r 2 ) were 0.313 and 0.195–0.398, respectively. The responses in the different trials were excluded from these analyses because a previous study has reported a departure from linearity of those data [28]. Indeed, our present data showed a determination coefficient significantly lower in different than same trials ( t (45)  = 12.6, p <0.001).…”

“…Some studies found a significant correlation of intelligence with MR measures [39], [40], while others did not [41]. Another study showed that MR measures were significantly correlated with intelligence when task stimuli were unfamiliar to subjects although they were not correlated when the stimuli were familiar [28]. These confusing results could be partly attributed to the difference of the MR measures.…”

The Effects of Geographic Familiarity and Map Complexity on Mental Rotation

“…Bethell-Fox and Shepard (1988) found that with newly learned familiar stimuli, participants are able to holistically mentally rotate the internal representation of the integrated whole stimuli. Tetewsky (1992) found that these results hold true with images learned through long-term practice. Finally, Koriat and Norman (1985) found that familiar letters produced a quadratic mental rotation function, while reflected letters (unfamiliar stimuli) produced a linear rotation function.…”

“…The effects of map complexity and geographic familiarity on the rate of mental rotation, as well as workload associated with performing a mental rotation task during simulated flight were examined. Geographically familiar maps should, according to theory, be rotated holistically, while those that are unfamiliar should require piecemeal rotation (Bethell-Fox & Shepard, 1988;Tetewsky, 1992).…”