Is this happiness I see? Biases in the identification of emotional facial expressions in depression and social phobia

The present study was designed to examine the operation of depression-specific biases in the identification or labeling of facial expression of emotions. Participants diagnosed with major depression and social phobia and control participants were presented with faces that expressed increasing degrees of emotional intensity, slowly changing from a neutral to a full-intensity happy, sad, or angry expression. The authors assessed individual differences in the intensity of facial expression of emotion that was required for the participants to accurately identify the emotion being expressed. The depressed participants required significantly greater intensity of emotion than did the social phobic and the control participants to correctly identify happy expressions and less intensity to identify sad than angry expressions. In contrast, social phobic participants needed less intensity to correctly identify the angry expressions than did the depressed and control participants and less intensity to identify angry than sad expressions. Implications of these results for interpersonal functioning in depression and social phobia are discussed.     

Can I see the real me? Leadership ability and the better-than-average effect

Military organizations typically emphasize the importance of leadership. The quality of military leadership might be inhibited because individuals tend to overestimate their respective leadership abilities. We hypothesized that military professionals generally overestimate how well they lead compared to their peers (Hypothesis 1). We also hypothesized that an egocentric bias, where self-ratings are weighted more strongly than other-ratings, contributes to this better-than-average effect (Hypothesis 2). The results obtained across two studies supported both hypotheses. Most notably, 242 of 251 United States Air Force Academy cadets and 31 of 34 United States Air Force officers rated themselves as above average compared to their peers. The obtained results have important implications for understanding the better-than-average effect generally and leadership in military and nonmilitary organizations.     

Is this a good time? Political activism and other in the temenos

This paper discusses raciality and Africanist culture as elements of the analytical clinical experience. The history of American Jungian psychology, and its relationship with the African diaspora, is reviewed with a perspective that seeks to deepen understanding of racism as an aspect of psychoanalytical institutional life. An attempt to separate political activism from the clinical setting is explored with consideration of the necessary intertwining relationship between socialization, racial identity and racism. Diversity and inclusion are becoming cultural signature markers of clinical work with individuals who have oftentimes, within the psychoanalytical clinical setting, been described due to ethnicity, as other. Political activism such as the Black Lives Matter movement stretches consciousness towards an insistence that blackness matters, skin colour matters and the lives of Africanist individuals matter. This paper reflects on cultural racial identity, the influence of politics on the individual, and the effects of these on the analytical relationship.     

Is the street-crossing behavior with a head-mounted display different from that behavior in a CAVE? A study among young adults and children

The use of virtual reality (VR) has become increasingly popular in the field of traffic psychology, where realistic traffic situations can be simulated and pedestrians‘ actual crossing behavior can be studied. There are two main kinds of pedestrian simulators: one uses a technology based on rear-projection screens (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, or CAVE); the other uses a head-mounted display (HMD). Despite their extensive use, it is yet to determine whether they are equally suitable for studying street crossing. The present study was aimed at comparing street-crossing behavior and subjective evaluations in an HMD-based (HTC vive pro) pedestrian simulator and a CAVE-like pedestrian simulator, among young adults and 12-year-old children. Thirty young adults and twenty-six children performed 36 street-crossing trials (combining different speeds, traffic conditions, and gap sizes) on each of the two simulators. The results indicated that, compared to the CAVE-condition participants, HMD-condition participants accepted more crossing trials (hence, shorter gaps), initiated their crossings sooner, crossed at a slower speed, had shorter safety margins, and caused more collisions. The main difference between the two devices was in crossing initiation, which occurred markedly earlier (1.72 s) with the HMD than in the CAVE: the perception–action coupling was less finely tuned in the CAVE, probably because visual information in front of the pedestrian was missing due the absence of ground projection and 3D rendering. A significant effect of vehicle-approach speed was observed for both devices, with more unsafe behaviors at 60 km/h than at 40 km/h. Children displayed riskier crossing behavior than young adults did, with more accepted crossings, slower crossing speeds, shorter safety margins, and higher collision rates, especially in the HMD. Compared to the CAVE, the HMD received higher ratings for level of presence and a preference for VR, but also higher simulator-sickness scores. No adverse effects of exposure to virtual reality was found on stereoacuity or postural balance. The suitability of using CAVE and HMD simulators is discussed, especially for studying child pedestrians.     

Reorientation in a two-dimensional environment: I. Do adults encode the featural and geometric properties of a two-dimensional schematic of a room?

Adults searched for a goal in images of a rectangular environment. The goal's position was constant relative to featural and geometric cues, but the absolute position changed across trials. Participants easily learned to use the featural cues to find the target, but learning to use only geometric information was difficult. Transformation tests revealed that participants used the color and shape of distinct features to encode the goal's position. When the features at the correct and geometrically equivalent corners were removed, participants could use distant features to locate the goal. Accuracy remained above chance when a single distant feature was present, but the feature farthest from the goal yielded lower accuracy than one closer. Participants trained with features spontaneously encoded the geometric information. However, this representation did not withstand orientation transformations.     

Is the acquisition of basic-colour terms in young children constrained?

We investigated whether the learning of colour terms in childhood is constrained by a developmental order of acquisition as predicted by Berlin and Kay [1969 Basic Color Terms (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press)]. Forty-three children, aged between 2 and 5 years and grouped according to language ability, were given two tasks testing colour conceptualisation. Colour comprehension was assessed in a spoken-word-to-colour-matching task in which a target colour was presented in conjunction with two distractor colours. Colour naming was measured in an explicit naming task in which colours were presented individually for oral naming. Results showed that children's knowledge of basic-colour terms varied across tasks and language age, providing little support for a systematic developmental order. In addition, we found only limited support for an advantage for the conceptualisation of primary (red, green, blue, yellow, black, white) compared to non-primary colour terms across tasks and language age. Instead, our data suggest that children acquire reliable knowledge of nine basic colours within a 3-month period (35.6 to 39.5 months) after which there is a considerable lag of up to 9 months before accurate knowledge of the final two colours (brown and grey) is acquired. We propose that children acquire colour term knowledge in two distinct time frames that reflect the establishment of, first, the exterior (yellow, blue, black, green, white, pink, orange, red, and purple) and, second, the interior structure (brown and grey) of conceptual colour space. These results fail to provide significant support for the order predicted by Berlin and Kay, and suggest, instead, that the development of colour term knowledge is largely unconstrained.     

Is anyone looking at me? Direct gaze detection in children with and without autism

Atypical processing of eye contact is one of the significant characteristics of individuals with autism, but the mechanism underlying atypical direct gaze processing is still unclear. This study used a visual search paradigm to examine whether the facial context would affect direct gaze detection in children with autism. Participants were asked to detect target gazes presented among distracters with different gaze directions. The target gazes were either direct gaze or averted gaze, which were either presented alone (Experiment 1) or within facial context (Experiment 2). As with the typically developing children, the children with autism, were faster and more efficient to detect direct gaze than averted gaze, whether or not the eyes were presented alone or within faces. In addition, face inversion distorted efficient direct gaze detection in typically developing children, but not in children with autism. These results suggest that children with autism use featural information to detect direct gaze, whereas typically developing children use configural information to detect direct gaze.     

Can you see me in the snow? Action simulation aids the detection of visually degraded human motion

Using a novel paradigm, we demonstrate that action simulation can directly facilitate ongoing perception of people's movements. Point-light actors (PLAs) representing common human motions were shown embedded in a visual noise reminiscent of “TV snow”. At first, the PLAs were perceived clearly, then occluded from view for a short duration, during which it was hypothesized that a real-time action simulation was generated tracking the motion's course. The PLA then reappeared in motion at variable visibility against the noise, whilst detection thresholds for the reappearance were measured. In the crucial manipulation, the test motion was either temporally congruent with the motion as it would have continued during occlusion, and thus temporally matching the simulation, or temporally incongruent. Detection thresholds were lower for congruent than for incongruent reappearing motions, suggesting that reappearing motion that temporally matched the internal action simulation was more likely to be detected.     

How accurately do young children and adults discriminate the gender of natural faces?

The effects of gender-relevant facial features and hairstyles on discrimination of sex of photographed men and women were examined. The stimuli were 36 photographs of natural faces: 9 masculine-males, 9 feminine-males, 9 masculine-females, and 9 feminine-females. Each of the nine faces had one of three hairstyles, hair concealed, short hair, or long hair. 33 children (M age=5:10) and 28 adults were asked to identify the sex of each stimulus. Children had difficulties with cross-gender faces and cross-gender hairstyles, such as a feminine-male face with long hair. Adults' discriminations were accurate except for masculine-female faces, while children's decisions depended both on hairstyle and internal facial features. Children's discriminations might be based both on their perceptual skill in detecting critical visual features and their knowledge of men and women.     

Can you see me in the snow? Action simulation aids the detection of visually degraded human motion

Using a novel paradigm, we demonstrate that action simulation can directly facilitate ongoing perception of people's movements. Point-light actors (PLAs) representing common human motions were shown embedded in a visual noise reminiscent of "TV snow". At first, the PLAs were perceived clearly, then occluded from view for a short duration, during which it was hypothesized that a real-time action simulation was generated tracking the motion's course. The PLA then reappeared in motion at variable visibility against the noise, whilst detection thresholds for the reappearance were measured. In the crucial manipulation, the test motion was either temporally congruent with the motion as it would have continued during occlusion, and thus temporally matching the simulation, or temporally incongruent. Detection thresholds were lower for congruent than for incongruent reappearing motions, suggesting that reappearing motion that temporally matched the internal action simulation was more likely to be detected.     

Is Humility a Virtue in the Context of Sport?

I define humility as a virtue that includes both proper self‐assessment and a self‐lowering other‐centeredness. I then argue that humility, so understood, is a virtue in the context of sport, for several reasons. Humility is a component of sportspersonship, deters egoism in sport, fuels athletic aspiration and risk‐taking, fosters athletic forms of self‐knowledge, decreases the likelihood of an athlete seeking to strongly humiliate her opponents or be weakly humiliated by them, and can motivate an athlete to achieve greater levels of excellence in her sport. In the context of team sports, humility can contribute to an athlete being a better teammate, foster unity amidst diversity within a team, and contribute to the overall moral and athletic excellence of a team. I also argue that an individual who is truly the world's greatest athlete can know and communicate this truth, while remaining humble.     

Is it possible to prepare the second component of a movement before the first one?

Experiment 1 utilized a choice reaction time paradigm to examine whether advance information about the second component of a movement has similar effects upon movement initiation and execution as advance information about the first component. Four stimuli were assigned to four goal keys. Subjects responded with the index finger of their preferred hand. They had to press on of two intermediate keys before pressing the assigned stimulus goal key. Advance information signaled one pair of goal keys in such a way that either the first or the second movement component was unequivocally specified before the response signal appeared. Shorter reaction times resulted when the first component was precued. Further control conditions showed that advance information about the second movement component could not be utilized for movement preparation. Experiment 2 ruled out a perceptual interpretation of this effect. Experiment 3 showed that preparation time for two-component movements are longer than for one-component movements. The study permits the conclusions that speeded two-component movements are controlled by motor programs and that advance information about the first movement component is required before the second movement component can be programmed.     

Decision-making competence in younger and older adults: which cognitive abilities contribute to the application of decision rules?

Older adults perform worse than younger adults when applying decision rules to choose between options that vary along multiple attributes. Although previous studies have shown that general fluid cognitive abilities contribute to the accurate application of decision rules, relatively little is known about which specific cognitive abilities play the most important role. We examined the independent roles of working memory, verbal fluency, semantic knowledge, and components of executive functioning. We found that age-related decline in applying decision rules was statistically mediated by age-related decline in working memory and verbal fluency. Our results have implications for theories of aging and decision-making.     

Do the Concepts of Grammar and Use in Wittgenstein Articulate a Theory of Language or Meaning?

The paper elucidates Wittgenstein's later conception of philosophy as devoid of theories or theses, comprehending this as an articulation of a strategy for avoiding dogmatism in philosophy. More specifically, it clarifies Wittgenstein's conception by using what he says about the concepts of meaning and language as an example and by developing an interpretation that purports to make plain that what Wittgenstein says about these issues does not constitute a philosophical thesis. Adopting Wittgenstein's approach, we can, arguably, have a richer view of meaning and language than a commitment to philosophical theses allows for. I conclude with remarks on the method of analysis in terms of necessary conditions.     

What Is a Conventional Object Function? The Effects of Intentionality and Consistency of Use

By preschool age, children have a sophisticated assumption about the conventional nature of various kinds of information. The present studies investigated the role of two cues in 2- and 3-year-olds' determination of what is conventional, namely the intentionality and intra-individual consistency in the use of objects. Overall, in Study 1, both 2- and 3-year-olds were more likely to say that the expected use and purpose of an object was a function intentionally and consistently demonstrated. In Study 2, 3-year-olds but not 2-year-olds generalized their expectation about the conventionality of an intentionally demonstrated function to another agent's learning of the function. These findings shed light on how children's assumption of what is conventional gets refined via children's intuitive interpretive dispositions regarding human actions.     

Let me count the ways in which I respect thee: does competence compensate or compromise lack of liking from the group?

Two studies examined the effects of competence‐based respect in relation to liking‐based respect from ingroup members. First, a pilot study confirmed the impact of competence feedback from ingroup members on affective and emotional reactions (membership esteem, feelings of pride and shame). The main studies orthogonally manipulated both liking‐ and competence‐based respect from other ingroup members in order to examine whether (high) competence‐based respect compensates for lack of liking, or compromises the subjective position in the group, on affective and emotional reactions to the feedback. Using a scenario methodology Study 1 produced no evidence for compensation, and indicated that liking was primary in this context. Study 2, using experimental groups, provided further evidence that those who were disliked by their fellow group members felt compromised by a favourable evaluation of their competence, while remaining committed to the group. These effects are related to the different properties and implications of competence and liking dimensions in group interaction. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is aversive learning a marker of risk for anxiety disorders in children?

Aversive conditioning and extinction were evaluated in children with anxiety disorders (n=23), at-risk for anxiety disorders (n=15), and controls (n=11). Participants underwent 16 trials of discriminative conditioning of two geometric figures, with (CS+) or without (CS-) an aversive tone (US), followed by 8 extinction trials (4 CS+, 4 CS-), and 8 extinction re-test trials averaging 2 weeks later. Skin conductance responses and verbal ratings of valence and arousal to the CS+/CS- stimuli were measured. Anxiety disordered children showed larger anticipatory and unconditional skin conductance responses across conditioning, and larger orienting and anticipatory skin conductance responses across extinction and extinction re-test, all to the CS+ and CS-, relative to controls. At-risk children showed larger unconditional responses during conditioning, larger orienting responses during the first block of extinction, and larger anticipatory responses during extinction re-test, all to the CS+ and CS-, relative to controls. Also, anxiety disordered children rated the CS+ as more unpleasant than the other groups. Elevated skin conductance responses to signals of threat (CS+) and signals of safety (CS-; CS+ during extinction) are discussed as features of manifestation of and risk for anxiety in children, compared to the specificity of valence judgments to the manifestation of anxiety.     

The mathematical form of measurement and the argument for Proposition I in Newton’s Principia

Newton characterizes the reasoning of Principia Mathematica as geometrical. He emulates classical geometry by displaying, in diagrams, the objects of his reasoning and comparisons between them. Examination of Newton??s unpublished texts (and the views of his mentor, Isaac Barrow) shows that Newton conceives geometry as the science of measurement. On this view, all measurement ultimately involves the literal juxtaposition??the putting-together in space??of the item to be measured with a measure, whose dimensions serve as the standard of reference, so that all quantity (which is what measurement makes known) is ultimately related to spatial extension. I use this conception of Newton??s project to explain the organization and proofs of the first theorems of mechanics to appear in the Principia (beginning in Sect. 2 of Book I). The placementof Kepler??s rule of areas as the first proposition, and the manner in which Newton proves it, appear natural on the supposition that Newton seeks a measure, in the sense of a moveable spatial quantity, of time. I argue that Newton proceeds in this way so that his reasoning can have the ostensive certainty of geometry.