Sound symbolism or the nonarbitrary link between language sound and meaning are commonly found across many languages of the world. A well-known example is the association between rounded vs. angular shapes and labels (i.e., the Bouba-kiki effect by Köhler, 1929/1947). Previous research has shown that sound symbolic words play facilitative role for preschool children’s novel verb learning (Imai,...

Amblyopic vision is characterized by reduced spatial resolution, and inhibitory spatial interactions ("crowding") that extend over long distances. The present paper had three goals: (1) To ask whether the extensive crowding in amblyopic vision is a consequence of a shift in the spatial scale of analysis. To test this we measured the extent of crowding for targets that were limited in their spat...

A mathematical model of orientation selectivity in a single hypercolumn of the primary visual cortex developed in a previous work [Ursino, M., & La Cara, G.-E. (2004). Comparison of different models of orientation selectivity based on distinct intracortical inhibition rules. Vision Research, 44, 1641-1658] was used to analyze the possible mechanisms underlying tilt aftereffect (TAE). Two altern...

Facilitatory Neural Dynamics for Predictive Extrapolation. (August 2006) Heejin Lim, B.S., Keimyung University; M.S., Keimyung University Chair of Advisory Committee: Yoonsuck Choe Neural conduction delay is a serious issue for organisms that need to act in real time. Perceptual phenomena such as the flash-lag effect (FLE) suggest that the nervous system may have mechanisms to compensate for de...