Search

While the purpose of academic research is to obtain new knowledge and understanding, there is an increasing concern that many scholars value work based upon where it is published rather than on its intrinsic quality. We argue that the degree to which journal ranking lists affect research has an important field-specific component. Using a large-scale survey of UK business academics and underpinned with a conceptual framework inspired by Bourdieu, we examine the attitudes towards journal ranking lists of individuals working within 22 ‘fields’ operating under the umbrella of business and management in the Academic Journal Guide (AJG). We show that scholars in economics and finance at one end of the spectrum, and in organisational studies at the other, systematically differ from accounting scholars in how they relate to the list. While the empirical evidence suggests that finance and economics are more insular than other fields, members of these two fields are the ones who are significantly less likely to consider that journal lists create a ‘research monoculture’, foster ‘technically well-executed but boring research’, or ‘encourage work that is not of interest to practitioners/policy makers’. On the other hand, scholars in organisational studies show the highest agreement with these concerns about journal ranking lists. Our findings have important implications for the evolution of accounting as a field that spans both a critical, interpretive paradigm with a strong focus on organisational context as well as a positivist, financial and capital markets-based research paradigm. If accounting scholars of these two approaches attach different authority to journal ranking lists and the value of publications in highly ranked journals, these perception differences could lead to tensions within the field and could have distortive effects on resource allocations and the career prospects of accounting scholars working in the respective sub-fields.

We examine shifts in British income inequality and their causes from 1911–1949. Using newly rediscovered Inland Revenue income distribution estimates, we show that Britain had an unusually high concentration of personal incomes in 1911 compared to other industrial nations. We also find that Britain’s substantial inequality reduction over the next four decades was largely driven by a collapse in top capital incomes. This parallels findings for France, the United States, and other western countries, that reduced inequality was mainly caused by declining top unearned incomes, owing to economic shocks, policy responses, and non-market mechanisms associated with the retreat from globalization.

Wage inequality has increased across most developed nations; this has been manifested in a wide range of organisations and sectors, with implications for well‐being and sustainability; within UK universities, this has become increasingly visible. There is increasing pressure on universities to deliver social and economic impact in an increasingly market‐driven and metric‐driven environment. In the UK context, increasing financial pressure has led to both an escalation of student fees and constrained wage growth for faculty. In contrast, most Vice Chancellors have secured substantive pay packages raising concerns that regulatory failures may be contributing to the rise. We show that Vice Chancellors use their internal power within organisations to extract a disproportionate amount of the value created by the institution. However, we encountered much diversity according to the quality of governance, highlighting the extent to which not only contextual but also internal dynamics drive wage inequality.

From the mid-1950s to the early 1980s the Treasury and Bank of England successfully advocated a policy of restricting both private and public sector house-building, as a key but covert instrument of their wider ‘stop-go’ macroeconomic policy framework. While the intensity of restrictions varied over the economic cycle, private house-building was restricted (through limiting mortgage availability) for almost all this period. This was achieved by keeping building society interest rates low relative to other interest rates and thus starving the building society movement of mortgage funds. Mortgage restriction was never publicly discussed and sometimes operated alongside ambitious housing targets and well-publicised policy initiatives to boost housing demand. This paper outlines the evolution of house-building restriction, together with its impacts on the housing sector and the wider economy. We review the evolution of the policy framework and its consequences, compare the level and stability of British house-building during this period - historically and relative to other countries, and undertake time-series econometric analysis of its impacts on both house-building and house prices. Finally, implications for debates regarding stop-go policy, Britain’s housing problem, and the distributional consequences of government macroeconomic policy are discussed.

The development of the Association of Business Schools’ (ABS) list in 2007 and its rapid adoption by UK business schools has had a profound effect on the nature of business and management academics’ ways of working. Using a large-scale survey of UK business academics, we assess the extent to which individuals use the Academic Journal Guide (AJG/ABS) list in their day-to-day professional activities. In particular, we explore how their perceptions of the list, the academic influence of their research, academic rank and organizational context drive the varied use. Building on prior research on the importance of univalent attitudes in predicting behaviour, we find those who have either strong positive or negative views of the list are more extensive users than those who are ambivalent. We also find that the extent of use of the AJG/ABS list is greatest among those academics who have lower academic influence, in the middle or junior ranks within Business Schools and in middle and low-status universities. We explore the implications of these findings for the value of journal rankings and for the management of business schools.

The global outbreak of COVID-19 led to a rapid shift to Working from Home (WFH). In Universities and other of the education sector, on-line teaching and assessment becoming mandatory. We use research from a representative large-scale (n=2,287) survey of business, management and economics academics in the UK to examine how prior on-line experience, learning during the ‘lockdown’, and work engagement, impacted their perceptions of on-line education. Results show that: (1)experience of on-line activity prior to the lockdown was substantially positively related to perceptions of working virtually, though perceptions differed by seniority; (2) While experience of working on-line during lockdown did not enhance academic’s views of on-line delivery or any bias against on-line delivery, it did increase positive attitudes towards on-line marking; (3) Those able to maintain mental resilience and energy are considerably more likely to perceive on-line activity positively; but being more ‘dedicated’ or more ‘ensconced in work’ did not play a role. We explore the implications of these findings for the future of on-line work.

The marked increase in the use of metrics, such as journal lists, to assess research has had a profound effect on academics’ working lives. While some view the diffusion of rankings as beneficial, others consider their diffusion as a malicious development, which further acerbates a tendency towards managerialism in academia, and undermine the integrity and diversity of academic research. Using data from a large-scale survey and a re-grading of journals in a ranking used by Business and Management UK scholars—the Academic Journal Guide—as a pseudo-experiment, we examine what determines negative and positive perceptions of rankings. We find that the individuals who published in outlets that were upgraded were less hostile to the ranking than those who did not benefit from these changes, and that individuals were also less hostile to the ranking if outlets in their field had benefited from re-grading in the new list. We also find that the individuals who published in outlets that were upgraded were more positive to the ranking than those who did not benefit from these changes, and that individuals were also more positive to the ranking if outlets in their field had benefited from re-grading in the new list.

We examine the early marketing and distribution of entertainment radio sets. Manufacturers used distribution networks to both maximize profits and create barriers to entry. Lacking the market power of auto manufacturers, they developed cooperative strategies with authorized distributors and dealers. Dealers often complained about the costly activities manufacturers required of them. However, these underpinned the dominant quality and branding competition model of the 1920s, while the Depression-era switch to a simpler radio format, sold on price, proved catastrophic for the specialist retailer.

The papers included in this volume address the role of institutions in international business strategy and their links with the performance of firms and countries. Section 1 delves into the issues of how institutions and business strategies are intertwined, with special emphasis on socially (ir)responsible activities and corporate wrongdoing. Section 2 looks at the links between institutions and the economic performance of both firms and countries, especially in emerging market contexts. Section 3 investigates MNE subsidiary strategies and their role in host country economic development. Finally, the group of contributions that make up Section 4 concentrates on aspects such as the degree and direction of multinationality and its subsequent effects on firm performance.

Background Cancer and chronic disease are leading causes of death in the US with an estimated cost of $46 billion. Methods We analyzed 11 million cause-specific deaths of US workers age 18–64 years in 30 states during 1985–1999, 2003–2004, and 2007 by occupation, industry, race, gender, and Hispanic origin. Results The highest significantly elevated proportionate leukemia mortality was observed in engineers, protective service, and advertising sales manager occupations and in banks/savings l and wholesale farm supplies, agricultural chemical, synthetic rubber, and agricultural crop industries. Conclusions Significantly elevated risks for acute myocardial infarction and leukemia were observed across several occupations and industries that confirm existing reports and add new information. Interested investigators can access the NOMS website at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/NOMS/. Am. J. Ind. Med. 58:123–137, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

I evaluate the voluntary export restraint placed on Japanese automobile exports from 1977 to 1999 by the UK. I show that the policy failed to assist the British domestic car industry. Instead, UK-based US multi-nationals and Japanese manufacturers were the primary beneficiaries, at a substantial cost to UK consumers. Whilst there are a number of caveats, the policy was on balance damaging to the UK economy in welfare terms.

The early twentieth century constituted the heyday of the ‘breadwinner–homemaker’ household, characterized by a high degree of intra-household functional specialization between paid and domestic work according to age, gender, and marital status. This article examines the links between formal workforce participation and access to resources for individualized discretionary spending in British working-class households during the late 1930s, via an analysis of household leisure expenditures. Leisure spending is particularly salient to intra-household resource allocation, as it constitutes one of the most highly prioritized areas of individualized expenditure, especially for young, single people. Using a database compiled from surviving returns to the Ministry of Labour's national 1937/8 working-class expenditure survey, we examine leisure participation rates for over 600 households, using a detailed set of commercial leisure activities together with other relevant variables. We find that the employment status of family members other than the male breadwinner was a key factor influencing their access to commercial leisure. Our analysis thus supports the view that the breadwinner–homemaker household was characterized by strong power imbalances that concentrated resources—especially for individualized expenditures—in the hands of those family members who engaged in paid labour.

To date there has been no systematic study of the relationship between individuals’ opinions of different institutions and their perceptions of world affairs. This article tries to fill this gap by using a large cross-country data set comprising nine EU members and seven Asian nations and instrumental variable bivariate probit regression analysis. Controlling for a host of factors, the article shows that individuals’ confidence in multilateral institutions affects their perceptions of whether or not their country is being treated fairly in international affairs. This finding expands upon both theoretical work on multilateral institutions that has focused on state actors’ rationale for engaging in multilateral cooperation and empirical work that has treated confidence in multilateral institutions as a dependent variable. The article also shows that individuals’ confidence in different international organizations has undifferentiated effects on their perceptions of whether or not their country is being treated fairly in international affairs, though individuals more knowledgeable about international affairs exhibit slightly different attitudes. Finally, the article demonstrates significant differences in opinion across Europe and Asia.

We examine the strategies interwar working-class British households used to “smooth” consumption over time and guard against negative contingencies such as illness, unemployment, and death. Newly discovered returns from the U.K. Ministry of Labour's 1937/38 Household Expenditure Survey are used to fully categorize expenditure smoothing via nineteen credit/savings vehicles. We find that households made extensive use of expenditure-smoothing devices. Families' reliance on expenditure-smoothing is shown to be inversely related to household income, while households also used these mechanisms more intensively during expenditure crisis phases of the family life cycle, especially the years immediately after new household formation.

Department stores represented one of the most advertising-intensive sectors of American interwar retailing. Yet it has been argued that a competitive spiral of high advertising spending, to match the challenge of other local department stores, contributed to an inflation of operating costs that eroded long-term competitiveness. We test these claims, using both qualitative archival data and establishment-level national data sets. The quantitative analysis confirms that the relationship between advertising expenditure and sales deteriorated markedly over the period, but indicates that the growing negative impact of retaliatory advertising by rival department stores was less important than contemporaries perceived.

The 1930s witnessed an intense struggle between gas and electricity suppliers for the working class market, where the incumbent utility--gas--was also a reasonably efficient (and cheaper) General Purpose Technology for most domestic uses. Local monopolies for each supplier boosted substitution effects between fuel types--as alternative fuels constituted the only local competition. Using newly-rediscovered returns from a major national household expenditure survey, we employ geographically-determined instrumental variables, more commonly used in the industrial organization literature, to show that gas provided a significant competitor, tempering electricity prices, while electricity demand was also responsive to marketing initiatives. Copyright 2011 Oxford University Press 2011 All rights reserved, Oxford University Press.

Promotional activity proved key to the success of department stores in fending off competition from the expanding chain stores, by drawing in customers to their large, central premises. This article uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative archival data to examine the promotional methods of interwar British department stores, variations in the promotional mix between types of store, and returns to promotional activities. A number of distinct regional promotional strategies are identified, shaped by variations in the types of consumer markets served. We also find considerable policy convergence among stores towards using promotional activity primarily as a means of imprinting a strong institutional brand image in the minds of the consuming public.

Biofilms are heterogeneous functional consortia of microbial cells that grow on surfaces. This review discusses how biofilms form and why dental unit water systems (DUWS) are susceptible to biofilms composed of environmental (e.g. Moraxella spp. and Flavobacterium spp.) and opportunistic pathogens (e.g. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Legionella pneumophila and Mycobacterium spp.). DUWS have narrow-bore tubing, slow flow and long stagnant periods that encourage biofilm growth. To control the microbial loading of DUWS, surgeries have used filtration, ultraviolet light and flushing. Dental practitioners are now being encouraged to retrofit independent water supplies that enable the practitioner to apply control strategies using chemicals such as sodium hypochlorite, chlorine dioxide, peroxides, peracetic acid and citric acid. Owing to the recognition of the public health significance of microbially contaminated DUWS, a vast range of chemical and non-chemical products have been developed in the last 3 years. With an increasing number of immuno-compromised dental patients presenting at dental surgeries, practitioners are now being given the mechanisms with which to control biofilms and maintain microbial numbers below the European Union drinking water guidelines and American Dental Association DUWS standard of 100 and 200 CFU ml −1 , respectively.

This study examines if and how gender relates to research evaluation via panel assessment and journal ratings lists. Using data from UK business schools we find no evidence that the proportion of women in a submission for panel assessment affected the score received by the submitting institution. However, we do find that women on average receive lower scores according to some journal ratings lists. There are important differences in the rated quality of journals that men and women publish in across the sub-disciplines with men publishing significantly more research in the highest rated accountancy, information management and strategy journals. In addition, women who are able to utilise networks to co-author with individuals outside their institution are able to publish in higher-rated journals, although the same is not true for men; women who are attributed with “individual staff circumstances” (e.g. maternity leave or part-time working) have lower scores according to journal ratings lists.

Dental-unit water systems (DUWS) harbor bacterial biofilms, which may serve as a haven for pathogens. The aim of this study was to investigate the microbial load of water from DUWS in general dental practices and the biofouling of DUWS tubing. Water and tube samples were taken from 55 dental surgeries in southwestern England. Contamination was determined by viable counts on environmentally selective, clinically selective, and pathogen-selective media, and biofouling was determined by using microscopic and image analysis techniques. Microbial loading ranged from 500 to 10 5 CFU · ml −1 ; in 95% of DUWS water samples, it exceeded European Union drinking water guidelines and in 83% it exceeded American Dental Association DUWS standards. Among visible bacteria, 68% were viable by Bac Light staining, but only 5% of this “viable by Bac Light” fraction produced colonies on agar plates. Legionella pneumophila , Mycobacterium spp., Candida spp., and Pseudomonas spp. were detected in one, five, two, and nine different surgeries, respectively. Presumptive oral streptococci and Fusobacterium spp. were detected in four and one surgeries, respectively, suggesting back siphonage and failure of antiretraction devices. Hepatitis B virus was never detected. Decontamination strategies (5 of 55 surgeries) significantly reduced biofilm coverage but significantly increased microbial numbers in the water phase (in both cases, P < 0.05). Microbial loads were not significantly different in DUWS fed with soft, hard, deionized, or distilled water or in different DUWS (main, tank, or bottle fed). Microbiologically, no DUWS can be considered “cleaner” than others. DUWS deliver water to patients with microbial levels exceeding those considered safe for drinking water.

Decontamination and disinfection are essential in hospitals to protect patients and control healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs). Historically, specialists such as Alexander Gordon, Ignaz Semmelweis, and Florence Nightingale recognized the importance of hand hygiene and cleanliness. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile cause thousands of fatalities per year in our hospitals but strategies implemented by the Department of Health (England) have reduced HAI rates. The emergence of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) prompted a reappraisal of the treatment of surgical instruments in contact with high-risk tissues to prevent transmission. Prions and emerging infections such as Ebola and Candida auris demonstrate that there are still major challenges in the world of decontamination and disinfection and as healthcare professionals it is our duty to remain vigilant against future disease threats. HAI and particularly antibiotic-resistant microorganisms will continue to be a major threat to patients in our hospitals.

Panel research assessment and the use of metrics in evaluating the quality of academics and the institutions in which they work has become an increasingly ubiquitous activity. The assessment of new knowledge derived via research is controversial, and how that evaluation occurs may have important impacts on individuals and groups, with the impact on women being a key element of that debate. That women are not disadvantaged is a pressing policy issue in higher education, especially since legislation requires the public sector to take proactive steps to promote equality rather than simply prevent discrimination. Using data from the UK we find that while the proportion of men in a school has some effects on peer review derived measured research quality at the aggregate level, there is evidence that women are disadvantaged by the use of journal ratings rather than peer-based assessment. Women who are able to utilise networks to co-author with individuals outside their institution do better than those who do not. Additionally, women who are attributed with “individual staff circumstances” (e.g. maternity leave or part-time working) are negatively impacted by metrics while men are not. We also observe important differences in the quality of journals that men and women publish in across the sub-disciplines within the field. Finally, we show that when we allow for a range of relevant factors there is no evidence of panel biases in favour of leading universities. Overall, our results imply that the decision to eschew metrics in the Research Excellence Framework in favour of peer review to evaluate output quality was a sensible one.

Due to the presence of extended narrow bore tubing and long periods of stagnation, dental unit water systems (DUWs) can be prone to relatively high levels of microbial contamination, including the formation of biofilm and the presence of opportunistic pathogens, irrespective of the source and quality of the inflowing water. Whilst the European Union (EU) has yet to set a definitive microbiological guideline, the American Dental Association (ADA) has set a maximum of200 colony forming units (cfu)/ml for DUWs water in the USA. The objective of this review is to discuss why microbial contamination and biofilms are so prevalent in DUWs, as well as the role of disinfectants and their potential for achieving microbial water quality levels recommended by the ADA.The review outlines the principal factors responsible for biofilm formation in DUWs and a number of mechanisms used for microbial control.The source material contained in this review is taken from the peer-reviewed literature.A variety of disinfectants are available for use, but controlled laboratory and clinical studies have shown that they can vary markedly in their efficacy and suitability for use. Some products have been shown to successfully remove biofilm and consistently reduce the microbial load of out-flowing water to200 cfu/ml.The effective delivery of approved disinfectants can control the level of microorganisms in DUWs at acceptable levels.

The recent industrial action taken by the Association of University Teachers (AUT) has given the issue of academic pay high prominence in the UK press. There appears to be a remarkable consensus that higher education academic salaries are too low, relative to other groups of workers in the UK, and that this is leading to an academic 'brain drain'. There is concern that this in turn will result in lower quality higher education, as universities fail to attract the 'brightest and the best'. To rise above the rhetoric, there is a pressing need for robust evidence on relative academic salaries. In this paper, we compare the salaries of Higher Education teaching professionals in the United Kingdom with those of other comparable professionals. We offer evidence on relative salaries in HE academia over the last decade or so and we compare academic salaries to a range of different comparator groups, including some specific occupational groupings that one might view as more similar, in terms of unobserved characteristics, to academics. We then consider the extent to which the gap between the earnings of HE academics and that of other occupations is attributable to differences in the characteristics of academics, for example the fact that they are more highly educated on average, or to differences in the price paid for a given set of characteristics. We conclude that HE teaching professionals earn somewhat lower earnings than most public sector graduates and do particularly poorly compared to most other comparable professionals; they also work longer hours than most. In particular, academic earnings compare poorly to those in the legal professions, consultants physicians and dental practitioners (across both the public and private sectors). On the other hand, there are groups of public sector workers that do worse than HE academics, and in particular FE academics earn significantly less.

Water delivered by dental unit water systems (DUWS) in general dental practices can harbor high numbers of bacteria, including opportunistic pathogens. Biofilms on tubing within DUWS provide a reservoir for microorganisms and should be controlled. This study compared disinfection products for their ability to meet the American Dental Association's guideline of −1for DUWS water. Alpron, BioBlue, Dentosept, Oxygenal, Sanosil, Sterilex Ultra, and Ster4Spray were tested in DUWS (n= 134) in Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, The Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Weekly water samples were tested for total viable counts (TVCs) on yeast extract agar, and, where possible, the effects of products on established biofilm (TVCs) were measured. A 4- to 5-week baseline measurement period was followed by 6 to 8 weeks of disinfection (intermittent or continuous product application). DUWS water TVCs before disinfection ranged from 0 to 5.41 log CFU · ml−1. Disinfectants achieved reductions in the median water TVC ranging from 0.69 (Ster4Spray) to 3.11 (Dentosept) log CFU · ml−1, although occasional high values (up to 4.88 log CFU · ml−1) occurred with all products. Before treatment, 64% of all baseline samples exceeded American Dental Association guidelines, compared to only 17% following commencement of treatment; where tested, biofilm TVCs were reduced to below detectable levels. The antimicrobial efficacies of products varied (e.g., 91% of water samples from DUWS treated with Dentosept or Oxygenal met American Dental Association guidelines, compared to 60% of those treated with Ster4Spray). Overall, the continuously applied products performed better than those applied intermittently. The most effective products were Dentosept and Oxygenal, although Dentosept gave the most consistent and sustained antimicrobial effect over time.

A white hourglass moving laterally across a black surface appears to bend in such a way that the narrow portion lags behind its true position, but only when a stationary point is fixated. Visually tracking the moving hourglass eliminates the apparent distortion. However, visually tracking an object moving in front of a stationary white hourglass produces the illusory bending, although saccadic eye movements across the hourglass do not. A black hourglass, moving or stationary, presented against a white background produces no illusory bending. These effects are explained in terms of the differential visual persistence of the wide and narrow portions of the hourglass figure.

Placing a neutral-density filter in front of one eye produces two kinds of distortion in the perceived slant of a binocularly viewed rotating disk: (1) the top or the bottom of a disk rotating in a frontoparallel plane appears displaced toward or away from the observer, depending on the direction of rotation and whether the left or right eye is filtered; and (2) the left or right side of such disk—rotating or stationary—appears closer, depending on whether the left or right eye is filtered. The Pulfrich phenomenon accounts for the first variety of apparent slant, and the Venetian blind effect accounts for the second. Viewing the apparent slant of the rotating disk produces an aftereffect of slant in the third dimension which is greater than the aftereffect of viewing an objective slant of the same direction and magnitude.

This article demonstrates the value of microdata for understanding the effect of wages on life cycle fertility dynamics. Conventional estimates of neoclassical economic fertility models obtained from linear aggregate time series regressions are widely criticized for being nonrobust when adjusted for serial correlation. Moreover, the forecasting power of these aggregative neoclassical models has been shown to be inferior when compared with conventional time series models that assign no role to wages. This article demonstrates that, when neoclassical models of fertility are estimated on microdata using methods that incorporate key demographic restrictions and when they are properly aggregated, they have considerable forecasting power.

The Bourdon illusion consists of the apparent bending of a straight visual contour in the direction of a bent induction contour located nearby. The bent contour also appears partially straightened, or unbent, in the direction of the straight contour. These mutual attraction or assimilation effects are stronger between the edges of a solid figure than between the lines of an outline figure, whether the edges and.lines consist of real or subjective contours. The present results are equally consistent With a cognitive model and a feature-detection model of these apparent displacement effects.

Visual capture is the resolution of visual-tactual conflicts in favor of vision. In each previous demonstration of this phenomenon, a distorted optic array, or some mechanical analog for a distorted optic array, has produced a conflict between erroneous visual information and presumably veridical tactual information. The present experiments demonstrate visual capture in the Muller-Lyer and Ponzo illusions in the absence of any distortions of the optic array.

In left-right comparisons of perceived length, objects on the left were slightly overestimated by vision alone but not by touch alone. This conflict between vision and touch occurred in the absence of any experimentally induced distortion or illusion. Judgments made with concurrent vision and touch were similar to those made with vision alone regardlesa of whether the Os were judging which objectfelt longer,looked longer, orwas longer. The resolution of a natural conflict between vision and touch is an example of natural visual capture.

College men and women who were father deprived for at least 1 year from birth to 18 years of age or non-deprived were compared on the Spatial Relations Test of the Differential Aptitude Tests (DAT), the Identical Blocks Test (IBT) and the Water Level Test (WLT). There was a significant sex difference favoring men—as expected—on the IBT and WLT but not on the DAT. There was no significant effect of father deprivation on the mean performance on any test but there was a correlation between years of deprivation and WLT performance for men (r = 0.48,P

The Bourdon illusion is a contour-attraction effect in which a straight edge of a solid figure appears bent in the same direction as an objectively bent edge located nearby. This illusion is stronger in subjective contours than in real contours. A feature-detection model accounts for these findings and other aspects of the Bourdon illusion.

This study was designed to assess the effects of organization, luminance contrast, sector angle, and orientation on a new, highly ambiguous Cs-keyhole figure. Organization and contrast were the most important factors, and sector angle also influenced figure-ground relationships. There was no significant effect of orientation, nor was there any significant interaction between any of the factors. Several new measures of figure-ground organization were developed, such as ambiguity ratios based on reaction times and on ratings of the strength of perceived organizations, providing new quantitative measures of figure-ground relationships. Distances measured across figural regions appeared smaller than equal distances across the ground in the new reversible figure, and also in Rubin’s classic vase-face figure presented in real and subjective contours. Inducing a perceptual set to see a particular organization in a reversible figure influenced the apparent distance across that organization. Several possible explanations of the observed effects are considered: (1) an instance of Emmert’s law, based on the difference in apparent depth of figure and ground; (2) an aspect of the Muller-Lyer illusion; (3) a feature-detector model of contour attraction; (4) a natural set or predisposition to see a figure as smaller; and (5) framing effects. The first two explanations appear the most promising.

If high ability in visual spatial perception is determined by an X-linked recessive major gene, then the following pattern of correlations is expected across the four groups of parents and children, this is, the mother-son, father-daughter, mother-daughter, and father-son groups: rMS=rFD greater than rMD greater than rFS=0. In a sample of 129 adolescents and their parents, the Spatial Relations Test of the Differential Aptitude Test and the Identical Blocks Test showed the pattern of correlations expected under the above hypothesis, but the Water Level Test did not. The present results provide but limited support for the X-linked recessive hypothesis.

The Bourdon illusion is a contour-attraction effect in which two colinear test edges of a plane figure appear displaced toward a bent induction edge located nearby. This illusion and related effects are stronger in subjective contours than in real contours. In Bourdon figures combining both varieties of contours, real induction contours produced a strong illusion in subjective test contours, but subjective induction contours produced no illusion in real test contours. Thus, interactions between real and subjective contours were asymmetrical. Luminance contrast between real and subjective contours weakened the Bourdon illusion.

If a partially open Venetian blind is lighted by the sun, or by diffuse light from the sky, then the upper portion of each slat will be brightly lighted and the lower portion shaded. If an observer moves the head downward while viewing a dark object silhouetted against the sky, then the object displays a reversal of brightness, appearing brighter than the sky while the head is moving downward. Moving the head upward produces no brightness reversal. These observations in the natural visual environment are consistent with earlier laboratory demonstration under several conditions.

A solid white bow tie moving horizontally across a black background appears distorted when the observer fixates a stationary spot: The points on the trailing half of the bow tie develop prominent “fins,” and the trailing half appears longer in the horizontal dimension than the leading half of the moving figure. Visually tracking the moving bow tie eliminates these effects. A black bow tie moving across a white background does not produce these distortions. These effects are due in part to the differential visual persistence of the narrower and wider portions of the moving white display.

This article describes a factorial experiment that is useful as a laboratory exercise in a research methods course. In the Howard–Dolman depth perception apparatus, two vertical rods are adjusted, using binocular or monocular vision, so they appear equidistant from the observer. The two rods can also be oriented horizontally, which allows a factorial design combining the factors of Viewing Condition (binocular and monocular) and Rod Orientation (vertical and horizontal). The exercise illustrates the nature of an interaction and the necessity of an additional analysis of simple main effects. It also provides a basis for understanding a perceptual problem in the real world—the difficulty of localizing horizontally extended stimuli such as power lines.