Familiarity and environmental representations of a city: a self-report study

"Sense of direction" is usually assessed by self-report. Several internal factors contribute to proficiency in navigation: spatial cognitive style, respondent's sex, and familiarity with the environment; however, questionnaires assessing sense of direction do not include all these factors. In a recent study, Nori and Piccardi reported that environmental familiarity was crucial for topographical orientation. Regardless of a person's spatial cognitive style (i.e., landmark, route, or survey), the greater their familiarity with the environment, the better their performance. In this study, a questionnaire was used, the Familiarity and Spatial Cognitive Style Scale, to measure 208 women's sense of direction and knowledge of their city of residence. Analysis showed that Spatial Cognitive Style predicted sense of direction but not town knowledge. By contrast, familiarity played a crucial role in both areas, confirming the importance of having a tool to assess this factor.     

The body in clinical cognitive theory: from beck to mindfulness

Working with the body in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is often seen as a ‘means to an end’; that is, a vehicle for diverting attention from negative thought patterns, thereby fostering a detached metacognitive awareness of problematic thinking. The MBCT literature, however, accords the body a more central role. The literature expresses both the idea that the body is integral to a basic level of meaning creation experienced as a ‘bodily felt sense of something’ and that direct sensory or bodily awareness can contribute to a critical change in the felt sense of emotional difficulties. Tracing the development of the concept of the body in clinical cognitive theory, the paper concludes that these ideas of the body are anticipated in earlier revisions to Beck's schema theory. The paper concludes that research into the psychological mechanisms behind bodily awareness would be a fruitful supplement to the current research focus on metacognitive awareness.     

Contributions of visual and embodied expertise to body perception

Recent research has demonstrated that our perception of the human body differs from that of inanimate objects. This study investigated whether the visual perception of the human body differs from that of other animate bodies and, if so, whether that difference could be attributed to visual experience and/or embodied experience. To dissociate differential effects of these two types of expertise, inversion effects (recognition of inverted stimuli is slower and less accurate than recognition of upright stimuli) were compared for two types of bodies in postures that varied in typicality: humans in human postures (human-typical), humans in dog postures (human-atypical), dogs in dog postures (dog-typical), and dogs in human postures (dog-atypical). Inversion disrupts global configural processing. Relative changes in the size and presence of inversion effects reflect changes in visual processing. Both visual and embodiment expertise predict larger inversion effects for human over dog postures because we see humans more and we have experience producing human postures. However, our design that crosses body type and typicality leads to distinct predictions for visual and embodied experience. Visual expertise predicts an interaction between typicality and orientation: greater inversion effects should be found for typical over atypical postures regardless of body type. Alternatively, embodiment expertise predicts a body, typicality, and orientation interaction: larger inversion effects should be found for all human postures but only for atypical dog postures because humans can map their bodily experience onto these postures. Accuracy data supported embodiment expertise with the three-way interaction. However, response-time data supported contributions of visual expertise with larger inversion effects for typical over atypical postures. Thus, both types of expertise affect the visual perception of bodies.     

Cognitive maps as orienting schemata

A "point-to-unseen-targets" task was used to test two theories about the nature of cognitive mapping. The hypothesis that a cognitive map is like a "picture in the head" predicts that (a) the cognitive map should have a preferred orientation and (b) all coded locations should be equally available. These predictions were confirmed in Experiments 1 and 3 when targets were cities in the northeastern United States and learning was from a map. The theory that a cognitive map is an orienting schema predicts that the cognitive map should have no preferred orientation and that targets in front of the body should be localized faster than targets behind the body. These predictions were confirmed in Experiments 1 and 2 when targets were local landmarks that had been learned via direct experience. In Experiment 3, when cities in the Northeast were targets and geographical knowledge had been acquired, in part, by traveling in the Northeast, the observed latency profiles were not as predicted by either theory of cognitive mapping. The results suggest that orienting schemata direct orientation with respect to local environments, but that orientation with respect to large geographical regions is supported by a different type of cognitive structure.     

A comparison of two psychological treatments for bulimia nervosa: Implications for models of maintenance

In an effort to elucidate the role of cognitive factors in the maintenance of bulimia nervosa, the efficacy of two psychological treatments was examined in a randomised control trial: cognitive behaviour therapy in the absence of explicit exposure instructions was compared with exposure and response prevention treatment in the absence of cognitive restructuring procedures. In the short term both treatments were successful at effecting substantial improvement in both the specific and the non-specific psychopathology of the disorder. However, at a one year follow up, whilst improvements were well maintained for those who had received the cognitive-behavioural treatment, virtually all of those who had responded to the purely behavioural treatment had relapsed. This provides some support for the cognitive model of the maintenance of bulimia nervosa. Nevertheless, the two treatment groups could not be distinguished on post-treatment measures of cognitive disturbance and neither was it the case that residual levels of cognitive disturbance, as assessed, predicted relapse. This may suggest that the level at which the necessary cognitive change takes place may not be accessible by conventional assessment procedures.     

Aspects of body self-calibration

The representation of body orientation and configuration is dependent on multiple sources of afferent and efferent information about ongoing and intended patterns of movement and posture. Under normal terrestrial conditions, we feel virtually weightless and we do not perceive the actual forces associated with movement and support of our body. It is during exposure to unusual forces and patterns of sensory feedback during locomotion that computations and mechanisms underlying the ongoing calibration of our body dimensions and movements are revealed. This review discusses the normal mechanisms of our position sense and calibration of our kinaesthetic, visual and auditory sensory systems, and then explores the adaptations that take place to transient Coriolis forces generated during passive body rotation. The latter are very rapid adaptations that allow body movements to become accurate again, even in the absence of visual feedback. Muscle spindle activity interpreted in relation to motor commands and internally modeled reafference is an important component in permitting this adaptation. During voluntary rotary movements of the body, the central nervous system automatically compensates for the Coriolis forces generated by limb movements. This allows accurate control to be maintained without our perceiving the forces generated.     

青少年重复创伤暴露与创伤后应激障碍的关系:安全感与认知重评的中介作用

采用创伤暴露程度问卷、生活事件量表、安全感量表、情绪调节策略问卷和修订后的DSM-5的PTSD核查表对汶川地震8.5年后的1156名中学生进行调查,考察其重复创伤暴露、安全感和认知重评与PTSD之间的关系。结果发现,在控制初次地震暴露后,重复创伤暴露可以直接正向预测PTSD,也可以通过确定控制感和人际安全感分别间接地正向预测PTSD,还可以通过人际安全感经认知重评的多重中介作用来正向预测PTSD。不过,重复创伤暴露不能直接经过认知重评对PTSD发挥显著的预测作用,也不能通过确定控制感经认知重评来对PTSD发挥显著的多重间接预测作用。     

Father absence,sociosexual orientation,and same-sex sexuality in women and men

A recent evolutionary theory of female sexual fluidity suggests that women may not have sexual orientations in the same sense that men do, and that women's apparent sexual orientation may instead be a byproduct of their sociosexual orientation. One developmental factor that has consistently been shown to influence sociosexual orientation is father absence in childhood. Consistent with the prediction of the theory, the analyses of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) data show that father absence significantly increases women's, but not men's, same-sex sexuality in adulthood, whether it is measured by self identity, sexual behaviour, or romantic attraction. Further consistent with the theory, the association between father absence and same-sex sexuality in women is entirely mediated by their sociosexual orientation.     

Virtually driving: are the driving environments "real enough" for exposure therapy with accident victims? An explorative study.

There is a small but growing body of research supporting the effectiveness of computer-generated environments in exposure therapy for driving phobia. However, research also suggests that difficulties can readily arise whereby patients do not immerse in simulated driving scenes. The simulated driving environments are not "real enough" to undertake exposure therapy. This sets a limitation to the use of virtual reality (VR) exposure therapy as a treatment modality for driving phobia. The aim of this study was to investigate if a clinically acceptable immersion/presence rate of >80% could be achieved for driving phobia subjects in computer generated environments by modifying external factors in the driving environment. Eleven patients referred from the Accident and Emergency Department of a general hospital or from their General Practitioner following a motor vehicle accident, who met DSM-IV criteria for Specific Phobia-driving were exposed to a computer-generated driving environment using computer driving games (London Racer/Midtown Madness). In an attempt to make the driving environments "real enough," external factors were modified by (a) projection of images onto a large screen, (b) viewing the scene through a windscreen, (c) using car seats for both driver and passenger, and (d) increasing vibration sense through use of more powerful subwoofers. Patients undertook a trial session involving driving through computer environments with graded risk of an accident. "Immersion/presence" was operationally defined as a subjective rating by the subject that the environment "feels real," together with an increase in subjective units of distress (SUD) ratings of >3 and/or an increase of heart rate of >15 beats per minute (BPM). Ten of 11 (91%) of the driving phobic subjects met the criteria for immersion/presence in the driving environment enabling progression to VR exposure therapy. These provisional findings suggest that the paradigm adopted in this study might be an effective and relatively inexpensive means of developing driving environments "real enough," to make VR exposure therapy a viable treatment modality for driving phobia following a motor vehicle accident (MVA).     

Selective visual attention for ugly and beautiful body parts in eating disorders

Body image disturbance is characteristic of eating disorders, and current treatments use body exposure to reduce bad body feelings. There is however little known about the cognitive effects of body exposure. In the present study, eye movement registration (electroculography) as a direct index of selective visual attention was used while eating symptomatic and normal control participants were exposed to digitalized pictures of their own body and control bodies. The data showed a decreased focus on their own 'beautiful' body parts in the high symptomatic participants, whereas inspection of their own 'ugly' body parts was given priority. In the normal control group a self-serving cognitive bias was found: they focused more on their own 'beautiful' body parts and less on their own 'ugly' body parts. When viewing other bodies the pattern was reversed: high symptom participants allocated their attention to the beautiful parts of other bodies, whereas normal controls concentrated on the ugly parts of the other bodies. From the present findings the hypothesis follows that a change in the processing of information might be needed for body exposure to be successful.     

身体姿势识别倒置效应量的连续性变化

以生理机制上整体可能身体姿势、整体不可能身体姿势和碎片身体姿势作为材料,系统操纵两个角度差为零的身体姿势偏离其竖直状态的角度,对错误率和反应时进行线性拟合。结果发现:(1)整体可能身体姿势、整体不可能身体姿势的识别错误率和反应时与其偏离直立状态角度之间可以拟合显著的线性关系,而碎片身体姿势的识别错误率和反应时与其偏离直立状态角度之间无法拟合显著的线性关系;(2)整体身体姿势(可能身体姿势和不可能的身体姿势)识别均出现了显著的倒置效应,而碎片身体姿势识别未出现倒置效应。这些结果表明身体姿势识别倒置效应量的延续性依赖于整体布局加工。     

个人权力感对进谏行为的影响机制：权力认知的视角

基于权力的情境聚焦理论, 研究从权力认知的视角探讨了在中国背景下, 政府组织中员工个人权力感知与他/她对上级的进谏行为的关系及其作用机制和边界条件。通过对苏南等地区政府组织的306名机关工作人员及其直接上级配对成组取样, 采用层级回归等数据分析方法。研究结果发现, 员工的个人权力感知与其进谏行为之间成正相关, 并且这种关系是以认知灵活性和心理可得性为中介起作用的。个人权力感知与中介变量之间的关系又受到员工的权力距离倾向的正向调节影响, 即权力距离倾向越大, 这种正向关系越强。文章还讨论了所得结果的意义及未来研究。     

A look at how we look at others: Orientation inversion and photographic negation disrupt the perception of human bodies

Although disproportionate inversion effects have often been considered manifestations of the special processes recruited by upright faces, several papers using sequential matching tasks have reported that body postures also produce sizeable inversion effects. However, comparison of inversion effects observed with transient body postures and effects elicited by judgements of facial structure is complicated by qualitative differences between the stimuli and the tasks. Here we report a series of experiments that use attractiveness judgements to provide a better comparison of the effect of inversion as well as contrast negation on face and body perception. Significant effects of inversion and negation were observed for both face and body stimuli. While the magnitude of the inversion effects was broadly comparable, the negation effect was considerably larger for faces. These effects converge with evidence from cognitive neuroscience to suggest that both faces and bodies recruit similar orientation-specific processes distinct from processes used for generic objects.     

A self‐determination model of childhood exposure,perceived prevalence,justification, and perpetration of intimate partner violence

The present research was designed to evaluate self‐determination theory as a framework for integrating factors associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. The proposed model suggests that childhood exposure to parental violence may influence global motivational orientations which, in turn, results in greater cognitive biases (overestimating the prevalence of IPV and justification of IPV) which, in turn, contribute to an individual's decision to use abusive behavior. Participants included 124 men who had engaged in abusive behavior toward an intimate partner. Results provided reasonable support for the proposed model and stronger support for a revised model suggesting that controlled orientation, rather than autonomy orientation, appears to play a stronger role in the association between childhood exposure to parental violence and cognitive biases associated with abusive behavior.     

基于认知机制的有条件自动驾驶接管中的人因问题

自动驾驶能在很大程度上缓解现代交通问题并提升驾驶舒适度。有条件自动驾驶下, 驾驶员可执行非驾驶相关任务但需要在系统无法处理的状况下接管车辆。在这一关键过程中, 驾驶员需要进行注意转换并获得情境意识以成功接管。已有研究表明, 接管请求、非驾驶相关任务、驾驶情景及驾驶员因素是影响接管过程重要因素。未来可从认知机制角度研究各因素对接管过程产生的影响, 以及探究接管过程中各因素之间可能存在的交互作用。     

Alignment effect: primary-secondary learning and cognitive styles

The degree to which the way of learning spatial information (primary/secondary learning) and spatial cognitive style (landmark/route/survey) affect orientation specificity (alignment effect) is studied. We think that the most important factor explaining the absence of the alignment effect is the spatial cognitive style. We hypothesise that while landmark participants show an alignment effect after both primary and secondary learning, route participants show this effect only after secondary learning, and survey participants do not show it at all. Participants performed three tasks in order to distinguish their cognitive style; they were then randomly assigned to primary or secondary learning and submitted to directional judgment tasks to verify whether the alignment effect was present. The results confirm our hypothesis.     

The Thatcher illusion: rotating the viewer instead of the picture

Faces are difficult to recognise when presented upside down. This effect of face inversion was effectively demonstrated with the 'Thatcher illusion' by Thompson (1980 Perception 9 483-484). It has been tacitly assumed that this effect is due to inversion relative to retinal coordinates. Here we tested whether it is due to egocentric (i.e. retinal) inversion or whether the orientation of the body with respect to gravity also influences the face-inversion effect. A 3-D human turntable was used to test subjects in 5 different body-tilt (roll) orientations: 0 degree, 45 degrees, 90 degrees, 135 degrees, and 180 degrees. The stimuli consisted of 4 'normal' and 4 'thatcherised' faces and were presented in 8 different orientations in the picture plane. The subjects had to decide in a yes-no task whether the faces were 'normal' or 'thatcherised'. Analysis of the d' values revealed a significant effect of stimulus orientation and body tilt. The significant effect of body tilt was due to a drop in d' values in the 135 degrees orientation. This result is compared to findings of studies on the subjective visual vertical, where larger errors occurred in body-tilt orientations between 90 degrees and 180 degrees. The present findings suggest that the face-inversion effect relies mainly on retinal coordinates, but that in head-down body-tilt orientations around 135 degrees the gravitational reference frame has a major influence on the perception of faces.     

Are faces perceived as configurations more by adults than by children?

Abstract

Adult face recognition is severely hampered by stimulus inversion. Several investigators have attributed this vulnerability to the effect of orientation on encoding relational aspects of faces. Previous work has also demonstrated that children are less sensitive to orientation of faces than are adults. This has been interpreted as reflecting an increasing reliance on configural aspects of faces with increasing age and expertise.

Young, Hellawell, and Hay (1987) demonstrated that for adults the encoding of relations among facial parts is, indeed, sensitive to orientation. When chimeric faces are upright, the top half of one face fuses with the bottom half of the other, making the person depicted in the top half difficult to recognize. This effect (the composite effect) is not seen when the faces are inverted. The present study obtained the composite effect for 6-year-old and 10-year-old children, just as for adults. The composite effect was found to an equal degree at all ages tested and was seen both in tasks involving highly familiar faces and in those involving newly learned, previously unfamiliar faces. Thus, these data provided no support for the hypothesis of increasing reliance on configural aspects of faces with increasing age, at least in the sense tapped by this procedure.

However, the data did confirm an Age X Orientation interaction. In recognizing both familiar and previously unfamiliar faces, 6-year-olds were less affected by inversion than were 10-year-olds, who, in turn, were less affected than were adults. Increasing vulnerability to inversion of faces with age was independent of the composite effect. Apparently, there are two distinct sources to the large effect of inversion that characterizes adult face encoding: one seen throughout development and one acquired only with expertise.     

Upright versus upside-down faces: How interface attractiveness varies with orientation

A choice experiment is reported in which all pairs and triples of faces from a set of eight moderately attractive faces were presented, both upright and upside down, to 103 subjects. In each orientation, the subjects had to select the face that appeared more (pairs) or most (triples) attractive to them. For each orientation, the preference probabilities that arose from the pair and triple comparisons could be described by the BTL rule (Luce, 1959). Thus, each face was represented by two scores, one reflecting its attractiveness in the upright orientation and the other reflecting its attractiveness in the inverted orientation. Orientation affected the preference probabilities. Qualitatively, score ratios between faces decreased from upright to inverted orientation, suggesting that the faces became less discriminable by inversion. Quantitatively, the effect of inversion could be described by a simple rule that assumes a face’s two attractiveness scores to be affinely related across orientations. This result indicates that inversion affected all faces about equally. The present findings are discussed with respect to faces’ first- and second-order relational properties, a distinction emphasized in current theories of face perception. They suggest that the processing of first- and secondorder relational properties is impaired by inversion to roughly the same degree.     

Consciousness-Body-Time: How Do People Think Lacking Their Body?

War captivity is an extreme traumatic experience typically involving exposure to repeated stressors, including torture, isolation, and humiliation. Captives are flung from their previous known world into an unfamiliar reality in which their state of consciousness may undergo significant change. In the present study extensive interviews were conducted with fifteen Israeli former prisoners of war who fell captive during the 1973 Yom Kippur war with the goal of examining the architecture of human thought in subjects lacking a sense of body (disembodiment) as a result of confinement and isolation. Analysis of the interviews revealed that threats to a normal sense of body often lead to a loss of the sense of time as an objective dimension. Evidence suggests that the loss of the sense of body and the loss of the sense of time are in fact connected; that is, they collapse together. This breakdown in turn results in a collapse of the sense of self.