Rapid resumption of interrupted visual search. New insights on the interaction between vision and memory

A modified visual search task demonstrates that humans are very good at resuming a search after it has been momentarily interrupted. This is shown by exceptionally rapid response time to a display that reappears after a brief interruption, even when an entirely different visual display is seen during the interruption and two different visual searches are performed simultaneously. This rapid resumption depends on the stability of the visual scene and is not due to display or response anticipations. These results are consistent with the existence of an iterative hypothesis-testing mechanism that compares information stored in short-term memory (the perceptual hypothesis) with information about the display (the sensory pattern). In this view, rapid resumption occurs because a hypothesis based on a previous glance of the scene can be tested very rapidly in a subsequent glance, given that the initial hypothesis-generation step has already been performed.     

Hard presentism

Presentists believe that only present things exist. Their theories, at first glance, seem to offer many admirable features: a simple ontology, and a meaningful, objective status for key temporal phenomena, such as the present moment and the passage of time. So intuitive is this theory that, as John Bigelow puts it, presentism was “believed by everyone...until at least the nineteenth century” (1996, p. 35). Yet, in the last 200 years presentism has been beset by criticisms from both physicists and metaphysicians. One of the most significant criticisms is that presentists cannot provide an acceptable system of truthmaking. If there is no past, how can there still be truths about the past? In this paper, I introduce a new theory of presentism, which addresses this problem in a novel way: by simply denying that there are any truths about the past. While prima facie an unintuitive position, I will argue that a sensible presentist philosophy of this kind can be described, so long as it is accompanied by an appropriate system of physics. I will also indicate at certain points that adopting presentism could allow us to understand fundamental physics in new, more intuitive ways. By the end of the paper, I hope to not only show that hard presentism is a defensible theory of time, but also that it could offer a number of advantages to the physicist and the philosopher alike.

     

Individual differences in flow proneness are linked to a dopamine D2 receptor gene variant

Flow is a special mental state characterized by deep concentration that occurs during the performance of optimally challenging tasks. In prior studies, proneness to experience flow has been found to be moderately heritable. In the present study, we investigated whether individual differences in flow proneness are related to a polymorphism of the dopamine D2 receptor coding gene (DRD2 C957T rs6277). This polymorphism affects striatal D2 receptor availability, a factor that has been shown to be related to flow proneness. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the association between this trait and a specific gene variant. In a sample of 236 healthy Hungarian adults, we found that CC homozygotes report higher flow proneness than do T allele carriers, but only during mandatory activities (i.e., studying and working), not during leisure time. We discuss implications of this result, e.g., the potential mediators of the relationship.     

IS LIBERAL NATIONALISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH GLOBAL DEMOCRACY?

Abstract: To respond to globalization-related challenges, many contemporary political theorists have argued for forms of democracy beyond the level of the nation-state. Since the early 1990s, however, political theory has also witnessed a renewed normative defense of nationhood. Liberal nationalists have been influential in claiming that the state should protect and promote national identities, and that it is desirable that the boundaries of national and political units coincide. At first glance, both positions—global democracy and nationalism—seem to contradict each other. We do not share this oppositional picture. Developing a more harmonic picture of nationalist ideals and cosmopolitan visions is the aim of this essay.     

Parents' perceptions of parenting

Much has been written about parenting practices from a theoretical perspective, but we know very little about what parents believe about parenting. This article begins with an overview of parenting theory, reviews briefly studies that have attempted to identify parenting characteristics, and provides a rationale for the use of the scaling techniques known as Q-methodology for rank-ordering statements of parenting behavior.     

A Non-factualist defense of the Reflection principle

Are there plausible synchronic constraints on how a subject thinks of herself extended over time? At first glance, Bas van Fraassen’s principle of Reflection seems to prescribe the sort of epistemic authority one’s future self should be taken by one to have over one’s current epistemic states. (The gist of this principle is that I should now believe what I’m convinced I will believe tomorrow.) There has been a general consensus that, as a principle concerning epistemic authority, Reflection does not apply to epistemically non-ideal agents. I agree with this, but argue here that it misses the point of Reflection. Rather than an epistemic principle concerning reasons for belief, Reflection concerns the semantics of belief avowal. I present a non-factual interpretation of Reflection, argue that the principle provides a constraint on the ways in which one can reflectively endorse one’s future epistemic self, and say something about the logic governing such an interpretation.     

Putting concepts into context

At first glance, conceptual representations (e.g., our internal notion of the object “lemon”) seem static; we have the impression that there is something that the concept lemon “means” (a sour, yellow, football-shaped citrus fruit) and that this meaning does not vary. Research in semantic memory has traditionally taken this “static” perspective. Consequently, only effects demonstrated across a variety of contexts have typically been considered informative regarding the architecture of the semantic system. In this review, we take the opposite approach: We review instances of context-dependent conceptual activation at many different timescales—from long-term experience, to recent experience, to the current task goals, to the unfolding process of conceptual activation itself—and suggest that the pervasive effects of context across all of these timescales indicate that rather than being static, conceptual representations are constantly changing and are inextricably linked to their contexts.     

Both Freud and Hoffman are right: Anxious-aggressive and empathic dimensions of guilt

The purpose of the study was to confirm a model which proposed two basic dimensions in the subjective experience of guilt, one anxious-aggressive and the other empathic, as well as another dimension associated but not intrinsic to it, namely, the associated negative emotions dimension. Participants were 360 adolescents, young adults and adults of both sexes. They were asked to relate one of the situations that most frequently caused them to experience feelings of guilt and to specify its intensity and that of 9 other emotions that they may have experienced, to a greater or lesser extent, at the same time on a 7-point scale. The proposed model was shown to adequately fit the data and to be better than other alternative nested models. This result supports the views of both Freud and Hoffman regarding the nature of guilt, contradictory only at a first glance.     

Early development of gaze following into distant space in juvenile Greylag geese (Anser anser)

Visual co-orientation with another's gaze direction (gaze following) may provide important information about the location of food, social interactions or predators. Gaze following has been shown in a variety of mammals, but only in few bird species, and has not been tested in precocial birds at all. It has been suggested that gaze following is an anti-predator behaviour, and in Common ravens (Corvus corax) and rooks (C. frugilegus), it emerges shortly after fledging, at a time when young birds leave the predator-safe nest. However, if gaze following is adaptive, the developmental pattern should differ between altricial and precocial birds. Greylag geese (Anser anser) are highly social birds with a precocial development. Goslings move and feed independently within 24 h post-hatching, and they are highly vulnerable to aerial predators. We therefore predicted that greylag geese are capable of gaze following and that they develop this skill already pre-fledging. We experimentally tested 19 hand-raised greylag goslings for their ability to follow a conspecific's gaze when they were between 10 days and 6 weeks old. In line with our predictions, first responses were already detectable in 10-day-old goslings. Our results therefore not only demonstrate that greylag geese follow the gaze of conspecifics into distant space, but that they also develop this ability much earlier than altricial birds.     

Dependent origination and the dual‐nature of the Japanese aesthetic

As most commentators on Japanese aesthetics agree, the Japanese aesthetic is pervaded by a profound affirmation of things in their suchness or original uniqueness, and at the same time is tinged with an element of sadness or melancholy. While the responses of affirmation and melancholy seem rather subjective and may—at first glance—appear inconsistent with Buddhist notions like anatman, or non‐self and the Buddhist demand for non‐attachment, I shall argue that a more careful reading of certain Buddhist doctrines, specifically the doctrine of dependent origination or pratitya‐samutpāda, reveals that the basic tenets of Buddhism are not only consistent with these sorts of subjective responses, but in fact serve to help explain the dual nature of the Japanese aesthetic. Accordingly, I shall suggest that given the undeniable influence Buddhism has had on Japanese culture, it seems likely that the doctrine of dependent origination is not only compatible with, but also contributed to the formation of what we regard as the Japanese aesthetic.     

Daily Work Stress and Relationship Satisfaction: Detachment Affects Romantic Couples’ Interactions Quality

Psychologically detaching from work in the private setting is crucial to recover from work stress and promotes well-being. Moreover, broad evidence documents negative effects of stress on relationship quality. However, the interpersonal consequences of detachment have barely been studied. We seek to investigate, in daily life, whether and how detachment affects the interaction quality with the romantic partner. We propose that stress impedes detaching from work, and that detachment in turn, promotes individuals’ ability to engage in positive interactions at home, which increases individual and relational well-being. In a first experience sampling study, involving 106 dual-earner couples with young children, detachment mediated the association between work stress and not only the stressed individual’s, but also their partner’s relationship quality. However, positive (affectionate) behaviors did not play a significant role in this process. In a second experience sampling study, involving 53 dual-earner couples with preschool children, detachment was associated with more affectionate interactions, which in turn, predicted lower actor, but not partner evening strain. These results suggest that detachment from work not only affects the working individual’s, but also their close partner’s the perception of their interactions, showing that detachment plays an important mediating role in the stress spillover and crossover process. This emphasizes the relevance of addressing interpersonal processes in the association between detachment and well-being.     

Psychoanalytischer Raum und alltägliche Welt

The differentiation of an inner analytical space with its immanent fictionality from the real world with its communications and interactions poses the following questions: What have the two worlds in common and how is the transfer from the as-if of the psychoanalytical situation to the real world going on? The apparently exclusive verbal treatment, which at first glance differs explicitly from body therapies but also from behavior therapies leads many nonanalytical people to the incorrect assessment of psychoanalysis as a therapy method being just a verbal exercise, which has nothing to do with real conflicts. In the following paper it will be demonstrated, that language, which in fact transports beside the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic contents intentions, has always a crucial emotive function in a psychoanalytical sense. According to the model of the Polish linguist Roman Jakobson and the ideas of the Argentine/American psychoanalyst Ana-Maria Rizzuto the importance of the emotive function—beside the five other functions—or the mutative actions in the analytic situation will be demonstrated from an interdisciplinary perspective. The question of the transformations and transfers from psychoanalytical situation to the real world allows and requires therefore a greater differentiation.     

Development of the Brain’s Functional Network Architecture

A full understanding of the development of the brain’s functional network architecture requires not only an understanding of developmental changes in neural processing in individual brain regions but also an understanding of changes in inter-regional interactions. Resting state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) is increasingly being used to study functional interactions between brain regions in both adults and children. We briefly review methods used to study functional interactions and networks with rs-fcMRI and how these methods have been used to define developmental changes in network functional connectivity. The developmental rs-fcMRI studies to date have found two general properties. First, regional interactions change from being predominately anatomically local in children to interactions spanning longer cortical distances in young adults. Second, this developmental change in functional connectivity occurs, in general, via mechanisms of segregation of local regions and integration of distant regions into disparate subnetworks.     

The Practice of Wisdom: A Contribution to Clinical Philosophy

A general theory of treatment and cure of persons is proposed that might be called clinical philosophy, in contrast to clinical medicine, which concerns the treatment and cure of bodies.

Freud was more a philosopher than is apparent at first glance. He recognized that dreams were not the opposite of reality but transcended the distinction between reality and nonreality. In doing so, he discarded the distinction between truth and fiction and created a new reality that he called psychic reality. Thus the relationship between a psychoanalyst and an analysand can be regarded as a virtual one, it being really metaphorical and existing only within the context and in the service of the treatment.

Remembering is a repetition. Something happening in the present. If the memory is a thought, the thought remembered refers to something in the past that is not present, but when one remembers in the form of an emotion, one actually reexperiences that emotion in the present. These are so-called emotional memories. In the context of the psychoanalytic encounter, they are interpreted as transferences.     

The use of experimenter-given cues by South African fur seals (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Arctocephalus pusillus</Emphasis>)

Dogs can use a variety of experimenter-given cues such as pointing, head direction, and eye direction to locate food hidden under one of several containers. Some authors have proposed that this is a result of the domestication process. In this study we tested four captive fur seals in a two alternative object choice task in which subjects had to use one of the following experimenter-given cues to locate the food: (1) the experimenter pointed and gazed at one of the objects, (2) the experimenter pointed at only one of the objects, (3) the experimenter gazed at only one of the objects, (4) the experimenter glanced at only one of the objects, (5) the experimenter pointed and gazed at one of the objects but was sitting closer to one object than to the other, (6) the experimenter pointed only with the index finger at one of the objects, (7) the experimenter presented a replica of one of the objects. The fur seals were able to use cues which involved a fully exposed arm or a head direction, but failed to use glance only, the index finger pointing and the object replica cues. The results showed that a domestication process was not necessary to develop receptive skills to cues given by an experimenter. Instead, we hypothesize that close interactions with humans prior to testing enabled fur seals to use some gestural cues without formal training. We also analyzed the behavior of the seals depending on the level of difficulty of the task. Behavioral signs of hesitation increased with task difficulty. This suggests that the fur seals were sensitive to task difficulty.     

Revelation without presentation: Counterfeit study list yields robust revelation effect

This study explores the revelation effect, a recognition memory phenomenon that occurs when test items (or related items) are specially processed before recognition judgment. These revealed items, whether targets or lures, receive a positive response bias. Although the effect occurs across various conditions, it has not been shown to occur when participants make judgments unrelated to episodic memory. We investigated whether the effect would occur when a recognition decision was nominally one of episodic memory, but when a complete episodic event had not occurred. Specifically, participants listened to noise that allegedly masked a list of words (in fact, no words existed). A revelation effect occurred with this pseudo-subliminal procedure, suggesting that the revelation effect need not rely on stimuli recalled through episodic memory but only a specific event to recall. The effect did not occur when participants simply guessed whether words were on an unheard list or made semantic judgments.     

Bicyclists’ visual strategies when conducting self-paced vs. system-paced smartphone tasks in traffic

Visual distraction among cyclists interacting with their mobile phones is a growing concern. Yet, very little research has actually investigated how cyclists apply visual strategies and adapt task execution depending on the traffic situation. The aim of this study is to investigate visual behaviour of cyclists when conducting self-paced (initiated by the cyclist) vs. system-paced (initiated by somebody else) smartphone tasks in traffic.Twenty-two cyclists completed a track in real traffic while listening to music, receiving and making calls, receiving and sending text messages, and searching for information on the internet. The route and the types of tasks were controlled, but the cyclists could choose rather freely when and where along the route to carry out the tasks, thus providing semi-naturalistic data on compensatory behaviour.The results show that the baseline and music conditions were similar in terms of visual behaviour. When interacting with the phone, it was found that glances towards the phone mostly came at the expense of glances towards traffic irrelevant gaze targets and also led to shortened glance durations to traffic relevant gaze targets, while maintaining the number of glances. This indicates that visual “spare capacity” is used for the execution of the telephone tasks. The task type influenced the overall task duration and the overall glance intensity towards the phone, but not the mean nor maximum duration of individual glances. Task pacing was the factor that influenced visual behaviour the most, with longer mean and maximum glance durations for self-paced tasks.In conclusion, the cyclists used visual strategies to integrate the handling of mobile phones into their cycling behaviour. Glances directed towards the phone did not lead to traffic relevant gaze targets being missed. In system-paced scenarios, the cyclists checked the traffic more frequently and intensively than in self-paced tasks. This leads to the assumption that cyclists prepare for self-initiated tasks by for example choosing a suitable location. Future research should investigate whether these strategies also exists amongst drivers and other road user groups.     

The time course of attentional bias to cues of threat and safety

It is well known that relative to neutral stimuli, attention is biased towards processing stimuli that convey threat. In a previous study in which a particular stimulus (e.g. a blue diamond) was associated with the delivery of an electrical shock, the presence of the fear-conditioned stimulus interfered with the execution of voluntary eye movements to other locations. Here, we show that this effect not only occurs early in time, but remains present long after the fear-conditioned stimulus was removed from the screen. In a subsequent experiment, we associated the presence of a particular stimulus with safety, that is, when this stimulus was present it was certain that no electrical shock would be delivered. The presence of the safety signalling stimulus also interfered with the execution of voluntary saccades, but only when the time between stimulus and cue presentation was relatively long. The results indicate that both signals of threat and signals of safety interfere with execution of a saccade long after the source of threat or safety has been removed. However, only threatening stimuli affect saccade execution early in time, suggesting that threatening stimuli drive selection exogenously.     

Evaluating pedestrian interaction preferences with a game theoretic autonomous vehicle in virtual reality

Localisation and navigation of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in static environments are now solved problems, but how to control their interactions with other road users in mixed traffic environments, especially with pedestrians, remains an open question. Recent work has begun to apply game theory to model and control AV-pedestrian interactions as they compete for space on the road whilst trying to avoid collisions. But this game theory model has been developed only in unrealistic lab environments. To improve their realism, this study empirically examines pedestrian behaviour during road crossing in the presence of approaching autonomous vehicles in more realistic virtual reality (VR) environments. The autonomous vehicles are controlled using game theory, and this study seeks to find the best parameters for these controls to produce comfortable interactions for the pedestrians. In a first experiment, participants’ trajectories reveal a more cautious crossing behaviour in VR than in previous laboratory experiments. In two further experiments, a gradient descent approach is used to investigate participants’ preference for AV driving style. The results show that the majority of participants were not expecting the AV to stop in some scenarios, and there was no change in their crossing behaviour in two environments and with different car models suggestive of car and last-mile style vehicles. These results provide some initial estimates for game theoretic parameters needed by future AVs in their pedestrian interactions and more generally show how such parameters can be inferred from virtual reality experiments.