Knowledge that Transforms

A number of important models of information processing depend on whether processing is serial or parallel. However, many of the studies purporting to settle the case use weak experimental paradigms or results to draw conclusions. A brief history of the issue is given along with examples from the literature. Then a number of promising methods are presented from a variety of sources with some discussion of their potential. A brief discussion of the topic with regard to overall issues of model testing and applications concludes the paper.

Recognition that organisms have a developmental history, exhibit behavior that is uniquely suited to or constrained by features of their immediate environment, and adapt to new environments is central to current psychobiological thought. Unfortunately, these concepts have in the past been restricted largely to the study of postnatal behavioral development. However, recent extension of these concepts to the fetus as an active and interactive organism that resides within a specialized, intrauterine niche is proving to be a profitable approach toward understanding the origins of behavioral organization during development.

Scientists and philosophers have searched for centuries for a parsimonious answer to the question of what constitutes beauty. We approached this problem from both an evolutionary and information-processing rationale and predicted that faces representing the average value of the population would be consistently judged as attractive. To evaluate this hypothesis, we digitized samples of male and female faces, mathematically averaged them, and had adults judge the attractiveness of both the individual faces and the computer-generated composite images. Both male (three samples) and female (three samples) composite faces were judged as more attractive than almost all the individual faces comprising the composites. A strong linear trend also revealed that the composite faces became more attractive as more faces were entered. These data showing that attractive faces are only average are consistent with evolutionary pressures that favor characteristics close to the mean of the population and with cognitive processes that favor prototypical category members.