Behavior and on‐line cognition in marital interaction

This research examined the relations among various distal variables and interactive behavior and on‐line cognition in a complete longitudinal design over 1 year. Fifty‐seven married couples had problem‐solving discussions that were videotaped. Interactive behavior was coded by observers, and on‐line cognitions were assessed using a tape‐review procedure (see Fletcher & Fitness, 1990). As predicted, the association between relationship satisfaction and both interactive behavior and on‐line cognition was generally mediated by negative attributions to the partner; however, depression obtained direct unmediated paths to interactive behavior and on‐line cognition. Cross‐lagged analyses suggested that the causal links between distal variables and problem‐solving interactive behaviors and on‐line cognition tend to go in both directions over time. Implications are discussed.     

Discriminability of differences in line slope and in line arrangement as a function of mask delay

Position uncertainty was used to guarantee that an S’s attention was distributed equally over a visual display. Diminishing discriminability through a masking flash, which controlled the time available to attend selectively to the individual figures in the display, increased the relative discriminability of figures differing in their line slope as compared to figures differing in their line arrangement. Diminishing discriminability through decreasing the clarity of a visual trace by reducing exposure duration did not increase the relative discriminability of figures differing in their line slopes. It is suggested that the discriminability of differences in line slope and in line arrangement varies with the distribution of attention. The results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that, under distributed attention in peripheral vision, the visual system is more sensitive to differences in line slope than to differences in line arrangement.     

Stimulus selection with duration as a relevant cue

To date, research has not explicitly examined how duration competes with other stimulus dimensions for control over responding. The present study investigated some familiar selective mechanisms of stimulus control over key pecking in pigeons, with duration and line tilt as discriminative stimuli in successive discrimination procedures. Specifically, pigeon's key pecking was reinforced with food or extinguished following compound stimuli comprising one of two line orientation stimuli presented for one of two different durations. Traditional experimental designs explored stimulus additivity, overshadowing, blocking, and learned irrelevance. Although stimulus additivity was observed, control by duration was masked by line tilt in extinction testing that followed facilitated acquisition with redundant, relevant cues. In addition, although prior training with duration relevant partially blocked subsequent acquisition of control by line tilt when both stimulus dimensions were relevant, there was a tendency for control by duration to decrease with continued compound training. It was suggested that the greater time required to distinguish duration on a trial—compared to more commonly studied stimulus dimensions, which can be distinguished almost immediately—puts duration at a competitive disadvantage in situations where other relevant dimensions are also available.     

Effects of head restraint on signal detectability in simultaneous and successive vigilance tasks

Dittmar, Warm, and Dember (1985) suggested that visual parallax may lead to declines in perceptual sensitivity over time in spatial vigilance tasks involving comparative judgments. The present study tested this possibility by restraining subjects' head movements during a 1-hr vigil in which comparative (simultaneous task) or absolute (successive task) judgments of line length were necessary for signal detection. Under free-viewing conditions, perceptual sensitivity declined over time with both types of tasks. Head restraint eliminated the sensitivity decrement in both cases. The results highlight signal quality as a crucial determinant of perceptual decrements in sustained attention.     

The Aesthetic Import of the Act of Knowledge and its European Roots in Merab Mamardašvili

What Mamardašvili meant by “process of knowledge” is not an all-embracing vision of reality accomplished “once-and-for-all”; it is not a step by step procedure of deduction; rather it is an anti-dialectical reconstruction of a constellation of signs put together over and over again by the subject by an act of non-premeditated genius. It is a kind of aesthetic act that makes the sense appear, like a vertical cut in the sequential line of space and time.     

Effects of Head Restraint on Signal Detectability in Simultaneous and Successive Vigilance Tasks

Dittmar, Warm, and Dember (1985) suggested that visual parallax may lead to declines in perceptual sensitivity over time in spatial vigilance tasks involving comparative judgments. The present study tested this possibility by restraining subjects' head movements during a 1-hr vigil in which comparative (simultaneous task) or absolute (successive task) judgments of line length were necessary for signal detection. Under free-viewing conditions, perceptual sensitivity declined over time with both types of tasks. Head restraint eliminated the sensitivity decrement in both cases. The results highlight signal quality as a crucial determinant of perceptual decrements in sustained attention.     

Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses

The popular Disney Princess line includes nine films (e.g., Snow White, Beauty and the Beast) and over 25,000 marketable products. Gender role depictions of the prince and princess characters were examined with a focus on their behavioral characteristics and climactic outcomes in the films. Results suggest that the prince and princess characters differ in their portrayal of traditionally masculine and feminine characteristics, these gender role portrayals are complex, and trends towards egalitarian gender roles are not linear over time. Content coding analyses demonstrate that all of the movies portray some stereotypical representations of gender, including the most recent film, The Princess and the Frog. Although both the male and female roles have changed over time in the Disney Princess line, the male characters exhibit more androgyny throughout and less change in their gender role portrayals.     

Transformational Growth and Poverty: An Evolutionary Approach for Inter-Country and Inter-Temporal Comparisons of Poverty Incidence

Within the development literature three accords seem to have taken place regarding poverty measurement. These relate to the relative or absolute measurement of poverty, the monetary versus basic needs measurement, and the existence of an international poverty line. In this paper, all three of these accords are challenged from an evolutionary perspective. A framework is presented to show how the poverty line (as well as the nature and characteristics of poverty) evolve as countries go through the process of changing consumption and production patterns that increases average income, i.e., transformational growth. Based on this framework, an answer to the problem of how to compare poverty rates through long periods of time is developed. It results in an absolute poverty line (rather than a relative one), which changes through time. This approach is shown to be better (because it is not mechanical) than the income-elasticity of the poverty line for inter-temporal comparisons. It is not mechanical because the poverty line is not adjusted by the change in average income but on the socially determined, evolving, acceptable minima to participate in society. It is also found to avoid the limitations of the currently used "international poverty lines.“ Finally, a similar approach is used to develop a method of adjusting the measurement of poverty based on basic needs, i.e., using a matrix of social deprivations rather than a monetary poverty line. This is done using the methodology developed by UNICEF, the University of Bristol, and the London School of Economics to measure child poverty based on deprivation of rights, which constitute poverty. This method has been applied in over 70 countries world-wide.     

A developmental-genetic analysis of aggressive behavior in mice (Mus musculus): III. Behavioral mediation by heightened reactivity or immobility?

This research was designed to investigate development and behavioral mediation in lines of ICR mice that have been selectively bred for aggressive behavior. General behavioral reactivity and behavioral immobility have been implicated as potential mediators by prior analyses of preattack interactions. To evaluate the separate roles of these dispositions, the emergence of attacks in genetically selected lines was tracked for 11 years by three levels of analysis: over successive generations, over development, and over dyadic interactions. Convergent outcomes were observed in all three levels with respect to two findings: (a) Robust line differences were obtained in attack behaviors, and (b) strong associations were found between line differences in attacks and line differences in behavioral immobility. Conversely, all three levels of analysis indicated a weak and inconsistent association between line differences in attacks and measures of social and nonsocial reactivity.     

Does attention follow the motion in the “shooting line” illusion?

When a line is presented in the vicinity of a recent luminance change (peripheral cue), it is perceived to be drawn over time away from its “cued” end even though the line is actually presented all at once. This study was designed to determine whether attention, exogenously attracted to the cue, would come under the exogenous control of this illusory motion and follow the drawing motion from the cued end to its terminus. Each trial began with the display of four small squares at the corners of an imaginary square centered about fixation. On the critical trials, one of the four squares brightened briefly, after which a horizontal line was presented joining either the two upper or the two lower squares. Shortly thereafter, the distribution of attention was determined by asking the observer to indicate the nature of a change that was equally likely to occur to one of the squares. Responses to targets presented at a noncued location that was at the end of an illusorily drawn line were as fast as those to targets at the cued location and were much faster than those to targets at the remaining noncued locations. This pattern was not shown when the line preceded the cue, strongly suggesting that attention follows the motion in this illusion.     

Does attention follow the motion in the "shooting line" illusion?

When a line is presented in the vicinity of a recent luminance change (peripheral cue), it is perceived to be drawn over time away from its "cued" end even though the line is actually presented all at once. This study was designed to determine whether attention, exogenously attracted to the cue, would come under the exogenous control of this illusory motion and follow the drawing motion from the cued end to its terminus. Each trial began with the display of four small squares at the corners of an imaginary square centered about fixation. On the critical trials, one of the four squares brightened briefly, after which a horizontal line was presented joining either the two upper or the two lower squares. Shortly thereafter, the distribution of attention was determined by asking the observer to indicate the nature of a change that was equally likely to occur to one of the squares. Responses to targets presented at a noncued location that was at the end of an illusorily drawn line were as fast as those to targets at the cued location and were much faster than those to targets at the remaining noncued locations. This pattern was not shown when the line preceded the cue, strongly suggesting that attention follows the motion in this illusion.     

Behaviors observed during S- in a simple discrimination learning task

Key pecking of pigeons was reinforced with food in the presence of a horizontal line and never reinforced in the presence of a vertical line. Highly stereotyped behaviors, as well as key pecking, were observed and recorded in the presence of both stimuli. Results showed that a high proportion of time spent in the presence of the horizontal line was occupied by key pecking, a high proportion of time in the presence of the vertical line was occupied by stereotyped nonkey-pecking behaviors, and intermediate proportions of time spent in the presence of intermediate stimuli were occupied by each class of behavior during generalization tests. Similar running rates (number of key pecks divided by observed key-pecking time) were obtained in the presence of all stimuli, indicating that changes in time rather than tempo accounted for the changes in overall rates of key pecking. An exception occurred in responding to the horizontal line as differential performance was developing. In addition to an increase in time spent key pecking, increased running rates occurred in seven of eight birds, suggesting that both time allocation and tempo play a role in behavioral contrast of overall rates of key pecking.     

Further explorations of common-sense representations of common illnesses

A simple method is presented for measuring people's illness cognitions--their common-sense representations of common illnesses. Data were collected from 1,628 different respondents who described a recent illness form 1 to 3 separate times over a 17-month period. A free-clustering task performed by a set of naive participants confirmed that these cognitions fall into the five components that have been previously noted: identity, time line, consequences, cause, and cure. These five components are found to be reasonably stable over time and across different illness episodes. Several consequences of these illness cognitions, in terms of changes in health-locus-of-control beliefs and different propensities to visit a doctor, are also noted. Specifically, controllable attributions for getting sick and personal responsibility attributions for getting better are associated with increased beliefs in Self-Control Over Health and decreased beliefs in Chance Health Outcomes; people with strong Identity and Cure components in their common-sense representations of common illnesses have a greater propensity to visit a doctor when feeling ill.     

Image memorability across longer time intervals

You may find some images easier to remember than others. Recent studies of visual memory have found remarkable levels of consistency for this inter-item variability across observers, suggesting that memorability can be considered an intrinsic image property. The current study replicated and extended previous results, while adopting a more traditional visual long-term memory task with retention intervals of 20 min, one day, and one week, as opposed to the previously used repeat-detection task, which typically relied on short retention intervals (5 min). Our memorability rank scores show levels of consistency across observers in line with those reported in previous research. They correlate strongly with previous quantifications and appear stable over time. Furthermore, we show that the way consistency of memorability scores increases with the number of responses per image follows the Spearman–Brown formula. Interestingly, our results also seem to show an increase in consistency with an increase in retention interval. Supported by simulated data, this effect is attributed to a decrease of extraneous influences on recognition over time. Finally, we also provide evidence for a log-linear, rather than linear, decline of the raw memorability scores over time, with more memorable images declining less strongly.     

Generational gains on the Draw-a-Person IQ scores: A three-decade comparison from Turkey

In 1977 Draw-a-Person test was administered to fifth grade school children in a city and its surrounding rural villages in Turkey. In 2010, more than thirty years later, the test was administered again to a corresponding group of fifth grade children in the same locations. It is rare that we get scores from the ‘same’ population over a period of more than three decades. This paper reports such a comparison over time and draws attention to continuities and changes that provide us with insights into the effects of social change and development on human performance. In line with the commonly reported increases in intelligence test scores over time, gains in the DAP scores were found. At the same time, the variations along the rural-urban and socio-economic development levels obtained in 1970s were maintained in 2010. The comparative results point to greater gains at the lower part of the IQ distribution, in the less developed areas, decreasing the overall variance among the different groups.     

Applying Theories of Communal Motivation to Sexuality

One important but challenging aspect of maintaining a satisfying romantic relationship is keeping the sexual spark alive. Research suggests the importance of a couple's sexual connection in the maintenance of their relationship, but sustaining high levels of desire for a partner over the course of time can be difficult. In the current review, we argue that one novel approach to understanding how couples might maintain desire and satisfaction over the course of time in their relationships is applying theories of communal motivation to the domain of sexuality. In this line of research, we have demonstrated that people high in sexual communal strength – those who are motivated to be non‐contingently responsive to their partners' sexual needs – are able to sustain higher sexual desire over the course of time and navigate sexual disagreements in a way that maintains both partners' relationship quality. Future research directions include broadening the view of sexual needs to include the need to decline or reject a partner's sexual advances and investigating how partners manage unmet sexual needs.     

Testing the Direction of Longitudinal Paths between Victimization,Peer Rejection,and Different Types of Internalizing Problems in Adolescence

The transition to secondary school is accompanied by the fragmentation of peer groups, while adolescents are also confronted with heightened incidents of bullying and increased levels of internalizing problems. Victimization, peer rejection, and internalizing problems are known to be interrelated, but how they influence each other over time remains unclear. We tested the direction of these associations by applying a cross-lagged path model among a large sample of Finnish adolescents (N = 5645; 49.1 % boys; M age at T1 = 14.0 years) after they transitioned to secondary school (grades 7–9). Self-reported depression, anxiety, and victimization and peer-reported rejection were measured 3 times over the course of 1 year. Results showed that depression was predictive of subsequent victimization for both boys and girls, in line with a symptoms-driven model; for girls, anxiety was reciprocally related to victimization, in line with a transactional model; for boys, victimization was related to subsequent anxiety, in line with an interpersonal risk model. Peer rejection was not directly related to depression or anxiety, but among girls peer rejection was bi-directionally related to victimization. Overall, our results suggest that associations between internalizing problems and peer relations differ between depression and anxiety and between genders. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.     

Is the focus of attention in working memory expanded through practice?

This article reinvestigates the claim by P. Verhaeghen, J. Cerella, and C. Basak (2004) that the focus of attention in working memory can be expanded from 1 to 4 items through practice. Using a modified version of Verhaeghen et al.'s n-back paradigm, Experiments 1 and 3 show that a signature of a one-item focus, the time cost for switching between items in working memory, persists over practice. Verhaeghen et al. reported a shift over practice from a step function to a linear slope of reaction times over set size and argued that it reflects the expansion of the focus. With an improved counterbalancing scheme, a continuously increasing slope was found even without practice in Experiment 2. The results question the hypothesis that the focus is expanded through practice. They are in line with predictions from a model that distinguishes a one-item focus from a direct-access region holding about 4 items.     

The differential effects of simultaneous and successive cueing on the detection of bilateral symmetry in dot patterns.

Corballis and Roldan (1975) obtained speeded judgements of whether dot patterns were bilaterally symmetrical about, or translated across, a line. Reaction times (RTs) were ordered V (vertical) > D (diagonal) > H (horizontal) where ">" means faster than. Similar results occurred with blocked axis orientations, suggesting subjects cannot prepare by rotating a mental frame of reference. Blocking trials may have been ineffective because blocking cannot provide incremental benefits over those already provided by axis lines. Four experiments show that the usual axis orientation ordering of V > H > D is markedly attentuated by simultaneous but not successive axis lines. Also, axis cue lines and axis blocking are not equivalent treatments. Instead, unblocked line cues require finite processing time whereas, under blocking, subjects can prepare for the expected orientation. There was no suggestion anywhere of the V > D > H axis ordering that Corballis and Roldan reported. Successive axis line cues may only direct attention to the orientation being cued, but simultaneous line cues may change the stimulus itself, thus providing an additional means of visual processing that facilitates symmetry detection at non-vertical axis orientations.     

Auditory psychomotor coordination and visual search performance

In Experiments 1 and 2, the time to locate and identify a visual target (visual search performance in a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm) was measured as a function of the location of the target relative to the subject's initial line of gaze. In Experiment 1, tests were conducted within a 260 degree region on the horizontal plane at a fixed elevation (eye level). In Experiment 2, the position of the target was varied in both the horizontal (260 degrees) and the vertical (+/- 46 degrees from the initial line of gaze) planes. In both experiments, and for all locations tested, the time required to conduct a visual search was reduced substantially (175-1,200 msec) when a 10-Hz click train was presented from the same location as that occupied by the visual target. Significant differences in latencies were still evident when the visual target was located within 10 degrees of the initial line of gaze (central visual field). In Experiment 3, we examined head and eye movements that occur as subjects attempt to locate a sound source. Concurrent movements of the head and eyes are commonly encountered during auditorily directed search behavior. In over half of the trials, eyelid closures were apparent as the subjects attempted to orient themselves toward the sound source. The results from these experiments support the hypothesis that the auditory spatial channel has a significant role in regulating visual gaze.