Posttraumatic Growth Following Trauma: Is Growth Accelerated or a Reflection of Cognitive Maturation?

Over the past two decades, there has been an exponential increase in studies investigating posttraumatic growth (PTG) in samples exposed to various traumatic experiences. The prevalence of PTG following trauma has been variable, and mixed findings have emerged pertaining to factors associated with PTG. To date, however, there has been a notable paucity of research that has considered the PTG phenomenon in relation to lifespan developmental, cognitive, and humanistic theories. The objective of this review is to evaluate the prominent theory of PTG proposed by Tedeschi and Calhoun (1996 Tedeschi, R. G. & Calhoun, L. G. (1996). The posttraumatic growth inventory: Measuring the positive legacy of trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9, 455–471.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in context of the theories of Erikson and Maslow, as well as Frankl's theory of meaning-making postadversity. Methodological issues are also considered to inform the advancement of future research in this field.     

Transfer Effects in Children's Recall of Arithmetic Facts

Predictions of the Identical Elements (IE) model of arithmetic fact representation (Rickard, 2005 Rickard, T. C. 2005. A revised identical elements model of arithmetic fact representation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31: 250–257. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Rickard & Bourne, 1996 Rickard, T. C. and Bourne, L. E. 1996. Some tests of an identical elements model of basic arithmetic skills. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 22: 1281–1295. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) about transfer between arithmetic facts were tested in primary school children. The aim of the study was to test whether the IE model, constructed to explain adult performance, also applies to children. The IE model predicts no positive transfer when the numerical elements of a test problem do not match exactly with those of a practice problem. In two experiments, children practiced addition or multiplication problems. A large positive transfer effect was found for problems with an operand order change; improvement was just as high as for practiced problems. Smaller transfer effects were found for problems where one operand was increased with one unit and for problems with operands more different from practice problems. Analogous results were found for addition and multiplication, suggesting that storage and retrieval processes in both domains are similar in children. The findings suggest that there is a gradual decrease in transfer as the test problems become more different from practice problems, indicating that a more sophisticated model than the IE model is needed to explain transfer effects in children's recall of arithmetic facts.     

A configural effect in visual short-term memory for features from different parts of an object

Previous studies have shown that change detection performance is improved when the visual display holds features (e.g., a colour and an orientation) that are grouped into different parts of the same object compared to when they are all spatially separated (Xu, 2002a Xu, Y. 2002a. Encoding colour and shape from different parts of an object in visual short-term memory. Perception and Psychophysics, 64: 1260–1280. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2002b Xu, Y. 2002b. Limitations of object-based feature encoding in visual short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 28: 458–468. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). These findings indicate that visual short-term memory (VSTM) encoding can be “object based”. Recently, however, it has been demonstrated that changing the orientation of an item could affect the spatial configuration of the display (Jiang, Chun, & Olson, 2004 Jiang, Y., Chun, M. M. and Olson, I. R. 2004. Perceptual grouping in change detection. Perception & Psychophysics, 66: 446–453.  [Google Scholar]), which may have an important influence on change detection. The perceptual grouping of features into an object obviously reduces the amount of distinct spatial relations in a display and hence the complexity of the spatial configuration. In the present study, we ask whether the object-based encoding benefit observed in previous studies may reflect the use of configural coding rather than the outcome of a true object-based effect. The results show that when configural cues are removed, the object-based encoding benefit remains for features (i.e., colour and orientation) from different parts of an object, but is significantly reduced. These findings support the view that memory for features from different parts of an object can benefit from object-based encoding, but the use of configural coding significantly helps enlarge this effect.     

Does Suppressing the Thought of a Self-Relevant Stigma Affect Interpersonal Interaction?

ABSTRACT

In the current study, we examined the effects of women's suppressing negative gender stereotypes while interacting with a male confederate. Compared with control participants, those who suppressed negative thoughts about women's ability experienced less self-confidence, lower self-esteem, and were more nonverbally submissive during the interaction, particularly if they were high in stigma consciousness (Pinel, 1999 Pinel, E. C. 1999. Stigma consciousness: The psychological legacy of social stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76: 114–128. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). These findings illustrate the negative intra- and interpersonal consequences of stigma suppression.     

An Item Response Theory Analysis of the Spiritual Assessment Inventory

Item response theory (IRT) was applied to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spiritual Assessment Inventory (SAI; Hall & Edwards, 1996 Hall, T. W. and Edwards, K. J. 1996. The initial development and factor analysis of the spiritual assessment inventory. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 24: 233–246. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2002 Hall, T. W. and Edwards, K. J. 2002. The spiritual assessment inventory: A theistic model and measure for assessing spiritual development. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41: 341–357. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The SAI is a 49-item self-report questionnaire designed to assess five aspects of spirituality: Awareness of God, Disappointment (with God), Grandiosity (excessive self-importance), Realistic Acceptance (of God), and Instability (in one's relationship to God). IRT analysis revealed that for several scales: (a) two or three items per scale carry the psychometric workload and (b) measurement precision is peaked for all five scales, such that one end of the scale, and not the other, is measured precisely. We considered how sample homogeneity and the possible quasi-continuous nature of the SAI constructs may have affected our results and, in light of this, made suggestions for SAI revisions, as well as for measuring spirituality, in general.     

Numerical representation: Abstract or nonabstract?

Until now it has been a commonly held view that numbers are represented abstractly in the human brain. However, a recent imaging study challenged the existence of an abstract representation at least of digits and number words, at the brain level, and argued that previous studies and paradigms were not sensitive enough to detect deviations from abstract representation at the behavioural level. The current study addressed this issue with an analysis of distance and sequential effects in magnitude classification. Previous studies that used this paradigm did not find deviation from abstract representation for digits and number words (e.g., Dehaene, 1996 Dehaene, S. 1996. The organization of brain activations in number comparison: Event-related potentials and the additive-factors method. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 8: 47–68. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Schwarz & Ischebeck, 2000 Schwarz, W. and Ischebeck, A. 2000. Sequential effects in number comparison. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26: 1606–1621. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, in the current study a short stimulus–response interval was used, which reduced subjective expectancy and increased automatic processing. The current results showed deviation from abstract representation in both reaction time and accuracy and therefore support the idea that nonabstract representations of numbers do exist.     

The own-age face recognition bias in children and adults

Children recognize children's faces more accurately than adult faces, and adults recognize adult faces more accurately than children's faces (e.g., Anastasi & Rhodes, 2005 Anastasi, J. S. and Rhodes, M. G. 2005. An own-age bias in face recognition for children and older adults. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 12: 1043–1047. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This is the own-age bias. Research has shown that this bias is at least partially based on experience since trainee teachers show less of an own-age bias than do other adults (Harrison & Hole, 2009 Harrison, V. and Hole, G. J. 2009. Evidence for a contact-based explanation of the own-age bias in face recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16: 264–269. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The present research tested the own-age bias in three groups of children (age 4–6, 7–9, 10–12 years) and a group of adults in the recognition of three age groups of faces (age 7–9, 20–22, and 65–90 years). Results showed an own-age bias for 7- to 9-year-old children and adults. Specifically, children could recognize faces more accurately if they were less than two years different from their own age than if they were more than two years older or younger. These results are discussed in terms of short-term experience with faces creating biases, and this rapidly changes with age.     

Further Evidence for Nonspecificity of Theory of Mind in Preschoolers: Training and Transferability in the Understanding of False Beliefs and False Signs

In a training study, the authors addressed whether or not preschoolers' difficulty with false belief is due to a domain-specific problem with mental states. Following Slaughter's (1998 Slaughter , V. ( 1998 ). Children's understanding of pictorial and mental representations . Child Development , 69 , 321 – 332 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) design, 57 children who failed a false-belief (FB) pretest received two sessions of training on either an FB, false sign (FS), or control task. All children were then posttested on theory-of-mind, FS, and control tasks. Results showed the FB and FS tasks were not only empirically tested as equivalent but also potentially transferable (i.e., FB training enhanced FS posttest performance, and FS training contributed to the understanding of one's own false belief), suggesting that understanding of false beliefs is an ability of representational understanding that is not restricted to mental states.     

Failure to Mentalize Self and Masochistic Functioning

Mentalization includes the ability to apprehend and reflect upon one's subjective state, as well as an appreciation of one's agency (Fonagy & Target, 2006 Fonagy, P. and Target, M. 2006. The mentalization-focused approach to self pathology. Journal of Personality Disorders, 20(6): 544–576. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Masochism is a character pattern that is traditionally defined as pleasure in pain or suffering (Million, 1996 Million, T. M. 1996. Disorders of personality: DSM-IV and beyond , 2nd, New York: John Wiley and Sons.  [Google Scholar]). In some cases the etiology of this character pattern may mirror failures on the part of the caregiving surround that contribute to deficits in the ability to mentalize self (Fonagy, Gergely, & Target, 2007 Fonagy, P., Gergely, G. and Target, M. 2007. The parent-infant dyad and the construction of the subjective self. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48(3/4): 288–328. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Benjamin, 1988 Benjamin, J. 1988. The bonds of love: Psychoanalysis, feminism, and the problem of domination, New York: Pantheon Books.  [Google Scholar]). When this occurs masochism may be more profitably understood as an inability to register pain, rather than pleasure in pain. A case example demonstrates that when a deficit in mentalization underlies masochistic functioning, treatment may include interventions aimed at helping the patient improve the ability to reflect upon his or her mental state, especially negative affect such as pain and anger, and connect to a sense of agency.     

Occupational stress and mental well-being in a cohort of Black South African teachers

This study explored levels of occupational stress and mental well-being of a cohort of Black South African teachers. 200 secondary school teachers completed the Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI: Boyle, Borg, Falzon, & Baglion, 1995), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28: Goldberg & Hillier, 1979 Goldberg, D. P., & Hillier, V. F. (1979). A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychological Medicine, 9, 139–145. doi: 10.1017/S0033291700021644[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF: Keyes, 2006 Keyes, C. L. M. (2006). Mental health in adolescence: Is America's youth flourishing? American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 76(3), 395–402. doi: 10.1037/0002-9432.76.3.395[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Correlations and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) were used to determine the levels of occupational stress and well-being of participants, and to establish the relation between these variables. A significant majority of the teachers reported high levels of mental health (flourishing) despite high levels of teacher stress. These results show teachers’ ability to withstand and cope with stress whilst maintaining their mental health. This suggests the presence of protective factors that mediate the effect of work-related stressors and, in so doing, contribute to the teachers’ levels of resilience.     

There goes the neighbourhood: Contextual control over the breadth of lexical activation when reading aloud

There are currently two computational accounts of how the time to read pseudohomophones (like BRANE) and their nonword controls (like FRANE) varies with changes in context. In Reynolds and Besner's (2005) account, readers vary the breadth of lexical activation in response to changes in context. A competing account proposed by Kwantes and Marmurek (2007 Kwantes, P. and Marmurek, H. 2007. Controlling lexical contributions to the reading of pseudohomophones. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14: 373–378. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and independently by Perry, Ziegler, and Zorzi (2007 Perry, C., Ziegler, J. C. and Zorzi, M. 2007. Nested incremental modeling in the development of computational theories: The CDP+ model of reading aloud. Psychological Review, 114: 273–315. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) has readers varying their response criterion in response to changes in context. The present work adjudicates between these two accounts by examining how the effect of neighbourhood density changes as a function of list context when reading pseudohomophones aloud. The results of an experiment and simulations from a leading computational model support the lexical breadth account, but are inconsistent with the response criterion account.     

“I'm Sorry,Please Don't Hurt Me”: Effectiveness of Apologies on Aggression Control

ABSTRACT

The author attempted to replicate Ohbuchi, Kameda, and Agarie's (1989 Ohbuchi, K., Kameda, M and Agarie, N. 1989. Apology as aggression control: Its role in mediating appraisal of and response to harm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56: 219–227. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) study which found that giving an apology, with or without harm removal, reduced aggressive responses among a sample of Japanese college women. The author found similiar results with a U.S. sample of college women. The results provide evidence for cross-cultural similiarity in the effectiveness of apologies in reducing aggressive responses.     

The Difference Between Being and Seeing: The Relative Contribution of Self-Perception and Priming to Behavioral Changes via Digital Self-Representation

Studies in the Proteus Effect (N. Yee & J. Bailenson, 2007 Yee, N. and Bailenson, J. 2007. The proteus effect: The effect of transformed self-representation on behavior. Human Communication Research, 33: 271–290. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) have shown that the appearance of avatars (i.e., digital representations of ourselves) can lead to behavioral changes in users. For example, participants in attractive avatars became friendlier to confederate strangers than participants in unattractive avatars. While the Proteus Effect is premised on self-perception theory (D. Bem, 1972 Bem, D. 1972. “Self-perception theory.”. In Advances in experimental social psychology Edited by: Berkowitz, L. Vol. 6, New York: Academic Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar])—the notion that we infer our own attitudes by observing ourselves as if from a third party—it is also possible that the previous findings were caused by priming (i.e., behavioral assimilation; J. Bargh, M. Chen, & L. Burrows, 1996 Bargh, J., Chen, M. and Burrows, L. 1996. The automaticity of social behaviour: Direct effects of trait concept and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71: 230–244. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In our study, we used immersive virtual environment technology to experimentally tease apart embodiment from perception of the same visual stimulus. Our results showed that embodiment produced significantly larger behavioral changes than mere observation of the same visual stimuli. These findings support the claim that our avatars provide a unique lever to behavioral change; however, more work is needed to pin down the exact mechanism behind the effect.     

Age Differences in Adults' Emotional Motivations for Exposure to Films

Participants in three age ranges (younger adults, 18–25, N = 188; middle adults, 26–49, N = 92; and older adults, 50 and over, N = 93) completed a questionnaire assessing motivations for everyday affective experiences as well as affective motivations for film viewing. In line with Arnett's (2000) Arnett, J. 2000. Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55: 469–480. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] view of emerging adulthood and Carstensen, Isaacowitz, and Charles's (1999) Carstensen, L., Isaacowitz, D. and Charles, S. 1999. Taking time seriously: A theory of socioemotional selectivity. American Psychologist, 54: 165–181. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] theory of socioemotional selectivity, younger adults expressed the greatest interest in experiencing negative emotions in their everyday lives, in viewing dark, creepy, or violent content, and in viewing media to escape boredom and for amusement; older adults were most interested in experiencing emotional stability and in viewing films with uplifting, heartwarming content. Results suggest that lifespan differences may help explain the allure of hedonically negative programming among some groups.     

Motivational Profiles and Psychological Skills Use within Elite Youth Sport

This study investigated associations between achievement goal orientations and reported psychological skill use in sport. Five hundred seventy three elite young athletes completed the Perceptions of Success Questionnaire (POSQ; Roberts, Treasure, & Balague, 1998 Roberts, G. C., Treasure, D. C. and Balague, G. 1998. Achievement goals in sport: The development and validation of the Perceptions of Success Questionnaire. Journal of Sport Sciences, 16: 337–347. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS; Thomas, Murphy, & Hardy, 1999 Thomas, P. R., Murphy, S. M. and Hardy, L. 1999. Test of performance strategies: Development and preliminary validation of comprehensive measure of athletes' psychological skills. Journal of Sports Sciences, 17: 697–711. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Cluster analysis revealed three distinct goal profile groups: Cluster 1—Higher-task/Moderate-ego (n = 260); Cluster 2—Lower-task/Higher-ego (n = 120); and Cluster 3—Moderate-task/Lower-ego (n = 119). A MANOVA revealed a significant multivariate effect, Pillai's Trace = .11, F(16, 1076) = 3.75, p = .001, η² = .05, with post hoc tests determining that higher-task/moderate-ego athletes reported using significantly more Imagery, Goal setting, and positive Self-talk skills when compared with Lower-task/Higher-ego and/or Moderate-task/Lower-ego athletes. These findings are discussed with respect to the potential role that achievement goals play in the application and development of psychological skills in youth sport.     

Why are there limits on theory of mind use? Evidence from adults' ability to follow instructions from an ignorant speaker

Keysar et al. (Keysar, Barr, Balin, & Brauner, 2000 Keysar, B., Barr, D. J., Balin, J. A. and Brauner, J. S. 2000. Taking perspective in conversation: The role of mutual knowledge in comprehension. Psychological Sciences, 11: 32–38. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Keysar, Lin, & Barr, 2003 Keysar, B., Lin, S. H. and Barr, D. J. 2003. Limits on theory of mind use in adults. Cognition, 89(1): 25–41. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) report that adults frequently failed to use their conceptual competence for theory of mind (ToM) in an online communication game where they needed to take account of a speaker's perspective. The current research reports 3 experiments investigating the cognitive processes contributing to adults' errors. In Experiments 1 and 2 the frequency of adults' failure to use ToM was unaffected by perspective switching. In Experiment 3 adults made more errors when interpreting instructions according to the speaker's perspective than according to an arbitrary rule. We suggest that adults are efficient at switching perspectives, but that actually using what another person knows to interpret what they say is relatively inefficient, giving rise to egocentric errors during communication.     

Local and global processing biases fail to influence face,object, and word recognition

Three studies investigated whether encouraging people to use either global or local processing using the Navon task (Navon, 1977 Navon, D. 1977. Forest before the trees: The precedence of global features in visual perception. Cognitive Psychology, 9: 353–383. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) influenced recognition memory for upright and inverted pictures of faces, objects, and words. Contrary to the striking results of Macrae and Lewis (2002 Macrae, C. N. and Lewis, H. L. 2002. Do I know you? Processing orientation and face recognition. Psychological Science, 13: 194–196. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), no effect of such cross-task processing biases were found. In particular, encouraging global processing did not improve the recognition of upright faces, whilst encouraging local processing failed to improve the recognition of words. These results suggest that using the Navon task to manipulate people's processing strategy typically does not have a large, consistent effect on recognition memory. Instead, prior performance of an unrelated task may only influence subsequent recognition memory under restricted circumstances. Therefore, the cross-task processing bias effect does not provide researchers with a powerful, reliable tool with which to investigate the relative importance of local versus global, configural processing of visual stimuli.     

Gaze Aversion During Children's Transient Knowledge and Learning

Looking away from an interlocutor's face during demanding cognitive activity can help adults and children answer challenging mental arithmetic and verbal-reasoning questions (Glenberg, Schroeder, & Robertson, 1998 Glenberg, A. M., Schroeder, J. L. and Robertson, D. A. 1998. Averting the gaze disengages the environment and facilitates remembering. Memory and Cognition, 26: 651–658. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Phelps, Doherty-Sneddon, & Warnock, 2006 Phelps, F., Doherty-Sneddon, G. and Warnock, H. 2006. Functional benefits of children's gaze aversion during questioning. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24: 577–588. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). While such “gaze aversion” (GA) is used far less by 5-year-old school children, its use increases dramatically during the first years of primary education, reaching adult levels by 8 years of age (Doherty-Sneddon, Bruce, Bonner, Longbotham, & Doyle, 2002 Doherty-Sneddon, G., Bruce, V., Bonner, L., Longbotham, S. and Doyle, C. 2002. Development of gaze aversion as disengagement from visual information. Developmental Psychology, 38: 438–445. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Furthermore, GA increases with increasing mental demands, with high levels signalling that an individual finds material being discussed challenging but remains engaged with it (Doherty-Sneddon et al., 2002 Doherty-Sneddon, G., Bruce, V., Bonner, L., Longbotham, S. and Doyle, C. 2002. Development of gaze aversion as disengagement from visual information. Developmental Psychology, 38: 438–445. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Doherty-Sneddon & Phelps, 2005 Doherty-Sneddon, G. and Phelps, F. 2005. Gaze aversion: A solution to cognitive or social difficulty?. Memory and Cognition, 33: 727–733. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In the current study we investigate whether patterns of gaze and gaze aversion during children's explanations can predict when they are in states of transient knowledge (Karmiloff-Smith 1992 Karmiloff-Smith, A. 1992. Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.  [Google Scholar]; Goldin-Meadow, Kim, & Singer, 1999 Goldin-Meadow, S., Kim, S. and Singer, M. 1999. What the teacher's hands tell the student's mind about math. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91: 720–730. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In Study 1, thirty-three 6-year-old children completed a balance beam task (Pine & Messer, 2000 Pine, K. J. and Messer, D. 2000. The effects of explaining another's actions on children's implicit theories of balance. Cognition and Instruction, 18: 37–54. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). Children who improved the representational level of their explanations (Karmiloff-Smith, 1992 Karmiloff-Smith, A. 1992. Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.  [Google Scholar]) of this task with training used more GA than those who did not. Practical implications for teaching and for recognizing transient knowledge states are discussed. In Study 2, fifty-nine 6-year-olds took part and completed a “Time Task” along with periodic teaching intervention to improve their comprehension of telling the time. Some children improved immediately, whereas others did so more gradually. The gradual improvers showed the highest levels of GA, particularly when they were at an intermediate level of performance.     

Categorical effects in visual search for colour

The role of categorization in visual search was studied in 3 colour search experiments where the target was or was not linearly separable from the distractors. The linear separability effect refers to the difficulty of searching for a target that falls between the distractors in CIE colour space (Bauer, Jolicoeur, & Cowan, 1996b Bauer, B., Jolicoeur, P. and Cowan, W. B. 1996b. Visual search for colour targets that are or are not linearly separable from distractors. Vision Research, 36: 1439–1465. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Observers performed nonlinearly separable searches where the target fell between the two types of distractors in CIE colour space. When the target and distractors fell within the same category, search was difficult. When they fell within three distinct categories, response times and search slopes were significantly reduced. The results suggest that categorical information, when available, facilitates search, reducing the linear separability effect.     

Homophonic context effects when naming Japanese kanji: evidence for processing costs?

The current study investigated the effects of phonologically related context pictures on the naming latencies of target words in Japanese and Chinese. Reading bare words in alphabetic languages has been shown to be rather immune to effects of context stimuli, even when these stimuli are presented in advance of the target word (e.g., Glaser & Düngelhoff, 1984 Glaser, W. R. and Düngelhoff, F. J. 1984. The time course of picture–word interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 10: 640–654. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Roelofs, 2003 Roelofs, A. 2003. Goal-referenced selection of verbal action: Modeling attentional control in the Stroop task. Psychological Review, 110: 88–125. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, recently, semantic context effects of distractor pictures on the naming latencies of Japanese kanji (but not Chinese hànzì) words have been observed (Verdonschot, La Heij, & Schiller, 2010 Verdonschot, R. G., La Heij, W. and Schiller, N. O. 2010. Semantic context effects when naming Japanese kanji, but not Chinese hànzì. Cognition, 115: 512–518. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In the present study, we further investigated this issue using phonologically related (i.e., homophonic) context pictures when naming target words in either Chinese or Japanese. We found that pronouncing bare nouns in Japanese is sensitive to phonologically related context pictures, whereas this is not the case in Chinese. The difference between these two languages is attributed to processing costs caused by multiple pronunciations for Japanese kanji.