The interaction of perceived distance with the perceived direction of visual motion during movements of the eyes and the head

A horizontally moving target was followed by rotation of the eyes alone or by a lateral movement of the head. These movements resulted in the retinal displacement of a vertically moving target from its perceived path, the amplitude of which was determined by the phase and amplitude of the object motion and of the eye or head movements. In two experiments, we tested the prediction from our model of spatial motion (Swanston, Wade, & Day, 1987) that perceived distance interacts with compensation for head movements, but not with compensation-for eye movements with respect to a stationary head. In both experiments, when the vertically moving target was seen at a distance different from its physical distance, its perceived path was displaced relative to that seen when there was no error in pereived distance, or when it was pursued by eye movements alone. In a third experiment, simultaneous measurements of eye and head position during lateral head movements showed that errors in fixation were not sufficient to require modification of the retinal paths determined by the geometry of the observation conditions in Experiments 1 and 2.     

The interaction of perceived distance with the perceived direction of visual motion during movements of the eyes and the head.

A horizontally moving target was followed by rotation of the eyes alone or by a lateral movement of the head. These movements resulted in the retinal displacement of a vertically moving target from its perceived path, the amplitude of which was determined by the phase and amplitude of the object motion and of the eye or head movements. In two experiments, we tested the prediction from our model of spatial motion (Swanston, Wade, & Day, 1987) that perceived distance interacts with compensation for head movements, but not with compensation for eye movements with respect to a stationary head. In both experiments, when the vertically moving target was seen at a distance different from its physical distance, its perceived path was displaced relative to that seen when there was no error in perceived distance, or when it was pursued by eye movements alone. In a third experiment, simultaneous measurements of eye and head position during lateral head movements showed that errors in fixation were not sufficient to require modification of the retinal paths determined by the geometry of the observation conditions in Experiments 1 and 2.     

The effects of age on the contributions of head and eye movements to scanning behavior at intersections

The current study was aimed at evaluating the effects of age on the contributions of head and eye movements to scanning behavior at intersections. When approaching intersections, a wide area has to be scanned requiring large lateral head rotations as well as eye movements. Prior research suggests older drivers scan less extensively. However, due to the wide-ranging differences in methodologies and measures used in prior research, the extent to which age-related changes in eye or head movements contribute to these deficits is unclear. Eleven older (mean 67 years) and 18 younger (mean 27 years) current drivers drove in a simulator while their head and eye movements were tracked. Scans, analyzed for 15 four-way intersections in city drives, were split into two categories: eye-only (consisting only of eye movements) and head + eye (containing both head and eye movements). Older drivers made smaller head + eye scans than younger drivers (46.6° vs. 53°), as well as smaller eye-only scans (9.2° vs. 10.1°), resulting in overall smaller all-gaze scans. For head + eye scans, older drivers had both a smaller head and a smaller eye movement component. Older drivers made more eye-only scans than younger drivers (7 vs. 6) but fewer head + eye scans (2.1 vs. 2.7). This resulted in no age effects when considering all-gaze scans. Our results clarify the contributions of eye and head movements to age-related deficits in scanning at intersections, highlight the importance of analyzing both eye and head movements, and suggest the need for older driver training programs that emphasize the importance of making large scans before entering intersections.     

Facial disfigurement in patients with head and neck cancer: the role of social self-efficacy.

This study investigated the moderating role of social self-efficacy (i.e., the belief that one is capable of exercising control over the reactions and openness of other people) with respect to the link between facial disfigurement and psychological and n = 76) as well as their physicians. In line with the hypotheses, the results revealed that the degree of facial disfigurement, as judged by patients as well as their physicians, was positively related to psychological distress and distress in reaction to unpleasant behavior of others, but only when patients did not feel self-efficacious in social encounters. Furthermore, social self-efficacy mitigated the positive link between facial disfigurement as judged by patients and social isolation.     

Psychophysics of perceiving eye-gaze and head direction with peripheral vision: implications for the dynamics of eye-gaze behavior

Two psychophysical experiments are reported, one dealing with the visual perception of the head orientation of another person (the 'looker') and the other dealing with the perception of the looker's direction of eye gaze. The participant viewed the looker with different retinal eccentricities, ranging from foveal to far-peripheral viewing. On average, judgments of head orientation were reliable even out to the extremes of peripheral vision (90 degrees eccentricity), with better performance at the extremes when the participant was able to view the looker changing head orientation from one trial to the next. In sharp contrast, judgments of eye-gaze direction were reliable only out to 4 degrees eccentricity, signifying that the eye-gaze social signal is available to people only when they fixate near the looker's eyes. While not unexpected, this vast difference in availability of information about head direction and eye direction, both of which can serve as indicators of the looker's focus of attention, is important for understanding the dynamics of eye-gaze behavior.     

The challenges of long‐distance relationships: the effects of psychological distance between service provider and consumer on the efforts to recover from service failure

This paper presents a model of the effects of recovery level in terms of distributive, procedural, and interactional dimensions on consumer attitudes (satisfaction and trust) and their subsequent effects on behavioral intentions. Service medium (online and offline) is considered as a moderating variable in the perspective of psychological distance. Findings reveal that the effects of recovery levels on satisfaction and trust are greater in the offline medium than in the online medium. Moreover, in both low and high recovery situations, offline customers are more satisfied and have higher levels of trust than do online customers. As expected, satisfaction with service recovery plays a pivotal role in enhancing customer's trust and behavioral intentions.     

An integrative framework on the impact of allies: How identity-based needs influence intergroup solidarity and social movements

What impact do advantaged group allies have within social movements? Although solidarity between advantaged and disadvantaged group members is often encouraged to achieve long-term social change, allies run the risk of being ineffective or counterproductive, therefore making it important to shift our focus towards understanding the impact of allies. We propose an integrative theoretical framework describing the positive and negative impact of allies based on their distinct identity-based needs: advantaged group members’ need for moral acceptance and disadvantaged group members’ need for empowerment and respect. By consolidating extant literature and identifying gaps in prior research, we propose a set of hypotheses concerning (a) tensions that arise within intergroup solidarity efforts for social change between advantaged group allies and disadvantaged group members, and (b) the role of allies in influencing broader public opinion to advance the psychology of social change.     

The sick and the dead: The development of psychological theory on necrophilia from Krafft-Ebing to the present

Researchers dealing with necrophilia over the past century have conducted their investigations using a great variety of methodological strategies and theoretical formulations. The multiplicity of approaches has been partially responsible for the diverse nature of speculations on the etiology, essence, and evolution of necrophilia, and for the accumulation of case histories and an aggregation of data from which it is exceedingly difficult to draw generalizations. There are only two assumptions on which most of the investigators agree. One is that necrophilia is exceedingly rare. The other is that the literature on the subject is severely limited. This paper not only questions the first assumption but establishes that the second is demonstrably false. It also attempts to locate some measure of constancy among the several theoretical lines on necrophilia that have emerged since the time of Krafft-Ebing, to evaluate their effect on scholarship, and to provide some sense of the directions taken by more recent investigators.     

Effect of structuring the workspace on cognitive and sensorimotor distance estimation: no dissociation between perception and action

Independent processing of visual information for perception and action is supported by studies about visual illusions, which showed that context information influences overtjudgment but not reaching attempts. The objection was raised, however, that these two types of performance are notdirectly comparable, since they generally focus on different properties of the visual input. The goal of the present study was to quantify the influence of context information (in the form of a textured background) on the cognitive and sensorimotor processing of egocentric distance. We found that the subjective area comprising reachable objects (probed with a cognitive task) decreased, whereas the amplitude of reaching movement (probed with a sensorimotor task) increased in the presence of the textured background with both binocular and monocular viewing. Directional motor performance was not affected by the experimental conditions, but there was a tendency for the kinematic parameters to mimic trajectory variations. The similar but opposite effects of the textured background in the cognitive and sensorimotor tasks suggested that in both tasks the visual targets were perceived as closer when they were presented in a sparse environment. A common explanation for the opposite effects was confirmed by the percentage of background influence, which was highly correlated in the two tasks. We conclude that visual processing for perception and action cannot be dissociated from context influence, since it does not differ when the tasks entail the processing of similar spatial characteristics.     

Rocking to the beat: effects of music and partner's movements on spontaneous interpersonal coordination

People move to music and coordinate their movements with others spontaneously. Does music enhance spontaneous coordination? We compared the influence of visual information (seeing or not seeing another person) and auditory information (hearing movement or music or hearing no sound) on spontaneous coordination. Pairs of participants were seated side by side in rocking chairs, told a cover story, and asked to rock at a comfortable rate. Both seeing and hearing the other person rock elicited spontaneous coordination, and effects of hearing amplified those of seeing. Coupling with the music was weaker than with the partner, and the music competed with the partner's influence, reducing coordination. Music did, however, function as a kind of social glue: participants who synchronized more with the music felt more connected.     

How to save the wounded self: Power distance belief's moderation of self‐identity threat and status‐related consumption

There is ample evidence in the relevant literature to show that self‐identity threat affects consumers' behavior, psychological needs, purchasing behavior, and product choice. The present research takes self‐identity threat to another level with a focus on the moderating role of power distance belief (PDB) in the relation to self‐identity threat and status consumption. The research involves two studies. Study 1 shows that threatened participants with a high PDB prefer status goods to nonstatus goods. By contrast, the low‐PDB group is indifferent to the status of goods. Study 2 reexamines the results of Study 2 with different participants and goods and tests the moderated mediation of symbolic compensatory need in the status consumption of high‐PDB participants. The results and implications of our findings are presented in the Discussion section.     

究竟应该怎样认识马克思、恩格斯思想的关系?--兼评俞吾金先生的差异分析法

<哲学动态>2004年第12期刊载了俞吾金先生<运用差异分析法研究马克思的学说>(以下简称俞文)一文.俞先生的本意是通过提出一种新的研究方法,进一步加深对马克思和马克思主义学说的研究.不可否认,俞文中有一些有价值的思想,但俞文在马克思、恩格斯思想关系的问题上做出了许多值得商榷的结论.     

Inter-hemispheric remapping between arm proprioception and vision of the hand is disrupted by single pulse TMS on the left parietal cortex

Parietal cortical areas are involved in sensori-motor transformations for their respective contralateral hemifield/body. When arms of the subjects are crossed while their gaze is fixed straight ahead, vision of the hand is processed by the hemisphere ipsilateral to the arm position and proprioception of the arm by the contralateral hemisphere. It induces interhemispheric transfer and remapping. Our objective was to investigate whether a single pulse TMS applied to the left parietal cortical area would disturb interhemispheric remapping in a similar case, and would increase a simple reaction time (RT) with respect to a control single pulse TMS applied to the frontal cortical area. Two LED were superimposed and located in front of the subjects on the saggital axis. Subjects were asked to carefully fixate on these LED during each trial. The lighting of the red LED was used as a warning signal. Following the green one was illuminated after a variable delay and served as a go-signal. The hand for the response was determined before the start of each trial. TMS was applied to the left parietal, the left frontal cortical areas, or not applied to the subject. Results revealed that: (1) Irrespective of its location, single pulse TMS induced a non-specific effect similar to a startle reflex and reduced RT substantially (15 ms on average) with respect to a control condition without TMS (mean value = 153 ms). (2) Irrespective of TMS, RT were shorter when the right or the left hand was positioned in the right visual hemi-field (i.e. normal and crossed positions respectively). (3) Finally, RT increased when single pulse TMS was applied to the left parietal area and when hands were crossed irrespective of which hand was used. We concluded that interhemispheric sensori-motor remapping was disrupted by a single pulse TMS that was applied to the left parietal cortex. This effect was also combined with some visual attention directed towards the hand located on the right visual hemi-field.     

How to Deceive by Way of the Truth: Marx and the Critique of Political Theology

Four ways of deceiving, whether in individuals or structurally embodied in social practices, contribute to a generic notion of a performative contradiction – an intentional structure of behavior such that a person or a social practice in declaring something, p, does something to do which is to declare the contradictory of p. Such is the formal structure of “ideology” as Marx conceives of it, and in two successive and different assessments of Christianity, in 1843 (atheist and much influenced by Feuerbach) and 1844 post-atheist, he deems Christianity to be inherently and so unrescuably to possess that ideological form. Christian theologians need to deal with this meta-critique of Christianity before attempting any formulation of a political theology, affirmative or negative.     

Points of view analysis revisited: Fitting multidimensional structures to optimal distance components with cluster restrictions on the variables

Points of view analysis (PVA), proposed by Tucker and Messick in 1963, was one of the first methods to deal explicitly with individual differences in multidimensional scaling, but at some point was apparently superceded by the weighted Euclidean model, well-known as the Carroll and Chang INDSCAL model. This paper argues that the idea behind points of view analysis deserves new attention, especially as a technique to analyze group differences. A procedure is proposed that can be viewed as a streamlined, integrated version of the Tucker and Messick Process, which consisted of a number of separate steps. At the same time, our procedure can be regarded as a particularly constrained weighted Euclidean model. While fitting the model, two types of nonlinear data transformations are feasible, either for given dissimilarities, or for variables from which the dissimilarities are derived. Various applications are discussed, where the two types of transformation can be mixed in the same analysis; a quadratic assignment framework is used to evaluate the results.The research of the first author was supported by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW); the research of the second author by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO Grant 560-267-029). An earlier version of this paper was presented at the European Meeting of the Psychometric Society, Leuven, 1989. We wish to thank Willem J. Heiser for his stimulating comments to earlier versions of this paper, and we are grateful to the Editor and anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions.