Hemispheric functions in the processing of agent-patient information

Segalowitz, Norman; Hansson, P

doi:10.1016/0093-934x(79)90039-7

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…When considering only viewing times, one might come to the conclusion that there was no difference in the processing of agents and patients in our experiments. Although previous research found a faster visual processing of agents than patients (Segalowitz, 1982; Segalowitz & Hansson, 1979), goal changes caused by agents were not processed faster than goal changes caused by patients in our experiments. However, when also considering the results obtained from the action descriptions, it is evident that the actions were represented with an agent bias.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…There is also evidence that the processing of agents is prioritized compared with the processing of patients in visual perception. For example, observers are faster at identifying the agent than the patient when presented with still images showing two fish with one biting the other (Segalowitz, 1982; Segalowitz & Hansson, 1979). Likewise, when viewing pictures showing a collision of a truck and a car, participants are faster in identifying the agent of the action than the patient of the action (Olson & Filby, 1972).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Action goal changes caused by agents and patients both induce global updating of event models.

Papenmeier¹,

Boss²,

Mahlke³

2019

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Observers represent everyday actions in event models along multiple dimensions such as space, time, or goals. Whenever new information along those dimensions is perceived, the event model is updated accordingly. In 3 experiments, we investigated event model updating associated with goal changes during ongoing actions that involved both an agent performing the action and a patient receiving the action. We presented short action clips showing goal-directed actions-such as handing over a book-as self-paced slideshows. Those action sequences contained either no goal change or a goal change caused by either the agent or the patient of the action. We measured viewing times (Experiments 1-3) and verbal action descriptions (Experiment 3). The action descriptions revealed that patients causing a goal change turned into agents in the event model. Despite the updating of the additional dimension (protagonist) for goal changes caused by patients, goal changes caused by agents and patients were associated with a similar updating effort as indicated by the viewing times and a similar increase in the complexity of the represented event structure as indicated by the number of clauses used in the action descriptions. Thus, updating was global rather than incremental in our experiments. We conclude that goal changes cause a global updating of event models independent of the source of the goal change. (PsycINFO Database Record

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Action goal changes caused by agents and patients both induce global updating of event models.

Papenmeier¹,

Boss²,

Mahlke³

2019

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The majority of face perception studies show a right hemisphere advantage, whereas the Paivio and Ernest study showed no hemispheric difference in object identification. Segalowitz and Hansson (1979) also found equivalent reaction times for the two hemispheres when subjects had to make a relational decision about two pictured objects that were presented unilaterally. The differential effects were demonstrated in a single experiment by St.…”

Section: Lateralized Stimulus Presentationmentioning

confidence: 76%

Imagery, memory, and the brain.

Paivio¹,

Linde²

1982

Canadian Journal of Psychology / Revue canadienne de psychologi

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article is a selective review of research literature that may provide clues to brain mechanisms underlying episodic and semantic memory functions of nonverbal imagery. Brain functions are inferred from effects of lateralized presentation of different materials or tasks to one or the other cerebral hemisphere of normal subjects and patients who have undergone cerebral commissurotomy, as well as from performance deficits resulting from focal brain lesions. Inferences about imagery are based primarily on the effects of relevant stimulus attributes and task variables. The findings suggest that the two hemispheres and different cortical areas within each hemisphere are differentially involved in episodic and semantic memory functions of imagery. The results have implications for neuropsychological models of imagery, dual coding theory, and the episodicsemantic memory distinction.

show abstract

“…The agent-patient order of mention is far more common across the world's languages than is the reverse (Steele, 1978). One avenue for speculation of why this is so may be suggested by the present results (see also Segalowitz & Hansson, 1979). Perhaps it is indeed generally true that the encoding of non linguistic agent information occurs more rapidly than the encoding of patient information.…”

Section: Semantic Relanons In Pictures 387mentioning

confidence: 84%

The perception of semantic relations in pictures

Segalowitz

1982

Mem Cogn

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Three picture processing experiments are reported that present evidence of an "agent advantage effect," that is, faster processing of the performer of the action depicted (the agent of the action) than of the element acted upon (the patient). Experiment 1 demonstrated the effect in a paradigm in which reaction time to manually indicate the location of a target (agent or patient) was faster for agent targets. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the critical time required for subjects to encode the agent was shorter than the time required for encoding patients. Experiment 3 again demonstrated the agent advantage effect in a directed attention paradigm. Together, the results of the experiments indicated that subjects were able to encode agent information faster than patient information. The results also indicated that subjects did not adopt a strategy whereby encoding of patient information was necessarily dependent upon encoding agent information.

show abstract

Hemispheric functions in the processing of agent-patient information

Cited by 7 publications

References 15 publications

Action goal changes caused by agents and patients both induce global updating of event models.

Action goal changes caused by agents and patients both induce global updating of event models.

Imagery, memory, and the brain.

The perception of semantic relations in pictures

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About