Visual Similarity of Words Alone Can Modulate Hemispheric Lateralization in Visual Word Recognition: Evidence From Modeling Chinese Character Recognition

In Chinese orthography, the most common character structure consists of a semantic radical on the left and a phonetic radical on the right (SP characters); the minority, opposite arrangement also exists (PS characters). Recent studies showed that SP character processing is more left hemisphere (LH) lateralized than PS character processing. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether this is due to phonetic radical position or character type frequency. Through computational modeling with artificial lexicons, in which we implement a theory of hemispheric asymmetry in perception but do not assume phonological processing being LH lateralized, we show that the difference in character type frequency alone is sufficient to exhibit the effect that the dominant type has a stronger LH lateralization than the minority type. This effect is due to higher visual similarity among characters in the dominant type than the minority type, demonstrating the modulation of visual similarity of words on hemispheric lateralization.     

Do age and linguistic background alter the audiovisual advantage when listening to speech in the presence of energetic and informational masking?

We examined how the type of masker presented in the background affected the extent to which visual information enhanced speech recognition, and whether the effect was dependent on or independent of age and linguistic competence. In the present study, young speakers of English as a first language (YEL1) and English as a second language (YEL2), as well as older speakers of English as a first language (OEL1), were asked to complete an audio (A) and an audiovisual (AV) speech recognition task in which they listened to anomalous target sentences presented against a background of one of three masker types (noise, babble, and competing speech). All three main effects were found to be statistically significant (group, masker type, A vs. AV presentation type). Interesting two-way interactions were found between masker type and group and between masker type and presentation type; however, no interactions were found between group (age and/or linguistic competence) and presentation type (A vs. AV). The results of this study, while they shed light on the effect of masker type on the AV advantage, suggest that age and linguistic competence have no significant effects on the extent to which a listener is able to use visual information to improve speech recognition in background noise.     

高尿酸血症与2型糖尿病的关系探讨

高尿酸血症与2型糖尿病关系密切,大量文献报道高尿酸血症是2型糖尿病的危险因素,且2型糖尿病易合并高尿酸血症,本文就二者之间的相互关系进行分析,旨在为2型糖尿病的防治探索新的研究方向。     

Proper bootstrapping

According to a much discussed argument, reliabilism is defective for making knowledge too easy to come by. In a recent paper, Weisberg aims to show that this argument relies on a type of reasoning that is rejectable on independent grounds. We argue that the blanket rejection that Weisberg recommends of this type of reasoning is both unwarranted and unwelcome. Drawing on an older discussion in the philosophy of science, we show that placing some relatively modest restrictions on the said type of reasoning suffices to block the anti-reliabilist argument.     

Does tailoring matter? Meta-analytic review of tailored print health behavior change interventions

Although there is a large and growing literature on tailored print health behavior change interventions, it is currently not known if or to what extent tailoring works. The current study provides a meta-analytic review of this literature, with a primary focus on the effects of tailoring. A comprehensive search strategy yielded 57 studies that met inclusion criteria. Those studies-which contained a cumulative N = 58,454-were subsequently meta-analyzed. The sample size-weighted mean effect size of the effects of tailoring on health behavior change was found to be r = .074. Variables that were found to significantly moderate the effect included (a) type of comparison condition, (b) health behavior, (c) type of participant population (both type of recruitment and country of sample), (d) type of print material, (e) number of intervention contacts, (f) length of follow-up, (g) number and type of theoretical concepts tailored on, and (h) whether demographics and/or behavior were tailored on. Implications of these results are discussed and future directions for research on tailored health messages and interventions are offered.     

Presurgical MMPI-2 Cluster Profiles Predict 1-Year Low-Back Surgery Outcomes

The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether empirically derived cluster profiles based on scores from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) predicted outcomes of surgery at 1 year for patients with low-back pain. On the basis of hierarchical cluster analysis of presurgery MMPI-2 scores for 60 patients, three interpretable and significant subgroups were formed. These consisted of a pathological/neurotic type, a double V-code type, and a normal type. The patents in the normal type were significantly more likely to report beneficial outcomes of surgery in terms of disability and pain than those in the other 2 types. These findings extend previous research and suggest (1) low-back surgery candidates are heterogeneous in their psychological profiles, and (2) MMPI-2 profiles are predictive of low-back surgery outcome. Future research should focus on identifying physiological substrates for these distinct profiles and investigating the effectiveness of presurgical psychological interventions based on profile type.     

The Mediating Role of Peritraumatic Dissociation and Thought Control Strategies on Posttraumatic Stress in Women Survivors of Child Sexual and Physical Abuse

This study examined the link between cognitive coping strategies, type of abuse, and posttraumatic stress symptomatology. In a sample of 294 undergraduate women, several key findings emerged: (a) reported use of cognitive coping strategies significantly differed based on the type of abuse; (b) some differences in posttraumatic stress symptomatology emerged based on the type of abuse; (c) once the cognitive coping strategies were accounted for, the type of abuse was no longer associated with posttraumatic stress symptomatology. These findings suggest that peritraumatic dissociation, punishment, and social control significantly mediated the relationship between the type of abuse and posttraumatic stress symptomatology. This is important information for interventionists striving to help their clients maximize already-occurring adaptive strategies (e.g., social control).     

Sulcus topography of the parietal opercular region: an anatomic and MR study

The study describes the sulcal and gyral topography, variability, and left-right asymmetry of the parietal operculum. Eighty postmortem hemispheres as well as sagittal magnetic resonance images from 20 health volunteers (40 hemispheres) were evaluated. Four different types of parietal opercular sulcus topography were recognized. Most frequently, and conforming with the anatomic "textbook pattern", the inferior postcentral sulcus (POCS) is the sulcus anterior to the posterior ascending ramus (PAR) of the Sylvian fissure (type 1). Variations were the following: lack of a PAR (type 2), interposition of an intermediate opercular sulcus and gyrus between PAR and POCS (type 3), and direct transition of PAR into POCS with subsequent lack of a classical supramarginal gyrus (type 4). Inconstancy of the sulcal standard arrangement was especially pronounced among left hemispheres, where the patterns differed from type 1 in one third of the cases. Types 2 and 3 were significantly more frequent in left hemispheres, whereas type 4 occurred significantly more frequently in right hemispheres. Upon intraindividual left-right comparison, a remarkable 38% of the brains showed gross asymmetry of the parietal opercular sulcus patterns, characterized by a left type 2 or 3 and/or a right type 4; another 5% exhibited a reverse type of asymmetry. The findings supplement previous data on gross variability and left-right asymmetry of the posterior Sylvian fissure and its lower bank. They indicate that the Sylvian fissure is an unreliable landmark with respect to inferior parietal structures especially in left hemispheres. Individual mapping of perisylvian topography may contribute to studies on structural-functional relationship.     

The Marital System of the Hysterical Individual

The purpose of the present article is to supplement the considerable body of clinical literature that focuses on hysterical behavior from an individual perspective. Based on findings from a total sample of 16 couples, this paper accomplishes this task in a threefold manner. First, the characteristic type of individual who selects and is selected by the hysterical individual as a life partner is described. Second, the type of relationship these two individuals typically develop, which promotes and reinforces severely maladaptive behavior on the part of both is delineated. Third, a number of specific recommendations regarding psychotherapy for this type of relationship are proffered.     

Stranger Danger: The Role of Perpetrator and Context in Moderating Reactions to Sexual Harassment

The majority of research on sexual harassment focuses on achievement contexts where the perpetrator of the harassment is known to the victim. More recent work has begun to explore sexual harassment perpetrated by strangers in public places. The current work sought to bridge the gap between research on sexual harassment in achievement contexts and stranger harassment. In doing so, the current work manipulated factors related to three important distinctions between these topics: the relationship between the perpetrator and victim, the location, and the type of sexually harassing behavior. The current study provides evidence that stranger harassment elicits more negative reactions than harassment from a coworker. Additionally, harasser type interacted with harassment type, with situations involving strangers making physical contact eliciting the most negative reactions. Thus, the current work suggests a need for more research on stranger harassment, as well as on additional factors that may operate differently depending on harasser type.     

Energy Constraints

Building on research in anthropology and philosophy, one can make a distinction between type I and type II energy ethics as a framework for advancing public debate about energy. Type I holds energy production and use as a fundamental good and is grounded in the assumption that increases in energy production and consumption result in increases in human wellbeing. Conversely, type II questions the linear relationship between energy production and progress by examining questions of equity and human happiness. The type I versus type II framework helps to advance public debates about energy that address broad questions of profitability, regulation, and the environment, and in the process poses fundamental questions about the reverence for energy growth in advanced technological societies.     

A comparison of two methods for the administration of paradoxical intention

Recent research in the treatment of insomnia by paradoxical intention has utilized two different methods of instruction. Studies utilizing the random assignment of subjects to treatment groups employ a procedure in which clients are provided with a straight-forward explanation based on the present authors' understanding of the use of paradoxical intention with insomnia (type A administration). In contrast, controlled case studies have employed reframing, a procedure which explains the need for the paradoxical intention in a manner which best suits the specific understanding of the individual client (type B administration). The present study employed the type B method in a design employing the random assignment of clients to groups. Three additional groups (type A administration, placebo control, no-treatment control) completed the design. The results indicated that the type A method was superior to the type B procedure when the same method for administering paradoxical intention was applied to a randomized group of individuals.     

The influence of Japanese mothers' styles of emotional expression on thirteen-month-old infants' reactions to a stranger

The present study investigated the hypothesized influence of mothers' styles of emotional expression on infants' responses to the stranger in Episode 3, the Ainsworth Strange Situation. One hundred and thirty-five mothers volunteered for this experiment with their 13-month-olds. The mothers' answers on an expression style questionnaire (EESQ) were factor analysed. According to their mothers' factor scores, infants were divided into four groups, those having (a) expressive type mothers (N = 40), (b) suppressive type mothers (N = 39), (c) positive expressive type mothers (N = 31), and (d) negative expressive type mothers (N = 25). The infants' behaviours were analysed in 5-sec intervals. The infants having expressive type mothers showed a strong interest in the stranger and interacted with her willingly. The infants having suppressive type mothers exhibited less smiling and much freezing behaviour. The infants having positive expressive type mothers reacted with more smiling, much bodily contact behaviour with the mother and less crying. The infants having negative expressive type mothers showed more often crying and frequent head orientation towards the stranger.     

Typ-Ken (an Amalgam of Type and Token) Drives Infosphere

Floridi’s infosphere consisting of informational reality is estimated and delineated by introducing the new notion of Typ-Ken, an undifferentiated amalgam of type and token that can be expressed as either type or token dependent on contingent ontological commitment. First, we elaborate Floridi’s system, level of abstraction (LoA), model, and structure scheme, which is proposed to reconcile ontic with epistemic structural reality, and obtain the duality of type and token inherited in the relationship between LoA and model. While we focus on the ontological commitment that can negotiate and emphasize the discrepancy between type and token, we show that most research focusing on different hierarchical layers (type and token) has converged onto the flattened perspective of type and token to clarify the role of ontological commitment. We propose the idea of Typ-Ken to avoid this flattening. In addition, we elaborate Taddeo and Floridi’s criticism of approaches to the symbol grounding problem and show that their criticism based on the zero semantical commitment condition is specific to the agents affected by the flattening. We then take bird flocks as a metaphor for the living infosphere as if it had one mind. The knowledge recently yielded by image analysis indicates that it is difficult for previous flock models based on agents equipped with the flattening of local (token) and global (type) to show the special feature of a flock of the scale-free proportion (SFP). We show here that agents based on the Typ-Ken can reveal the SFP, which is the essential characteristic of the living infosphere. In other words, Typ-Ken is an expression for informational reality (LoA and model with ontological commitment) that can reveal seamless local and global interactions in the functioning of a flock or infosphere.     

Oculomotor programming disturbances in the dementia syndrome

Three types of oculomotor programming disturbances are described in patients with the dementia syndrome. This report describes two of these abnormalities, poorly regulated gaze patterns and a programming type of gaze perseveration. All patients showed poorly regulated gaze patterns in contrast to the normal controls, whereas on the whole only the moderately affected patients showed the programming type of gaze perseveration. The third type of oculomotor programming disturbance is efferent perseveration of gaze (a hypokinetic, "staring" type of gaze pattern) and can be seen with severe dementia. The possible significance of these findings is discussed.     

Detection of cryptic prey: search image or search rate?

Animals' improvement in capturing cryptic prey with experience has long been attributed to a perceptual mechanism, the specific search image. Detection could also be improved by adjusting rate of search. In a series of studies using both naturalistic and operant search tasks, pigeons searched for wheat, dyed to produce 1 conspicuous and 2 equally cryptic prey types. Contrary to the predictions of the search-rate hypothesis, pigeons given a choice between the 2 cryptic types took the type experienced most recently. However, experience with 1 cryptic type improved accuracy on the other cryptic type, a result inconsistent with a search image specific to 1 prey type. Search image may better be thought of as priming of attention to those features of the prey type that best distinguish the prey from the background.     

异常心理的哲学四要素

异常心理的哲学四要素主要指异常心理的谱与类、质与度.根据现代心理哲学、哲学及谱系学的观点,提出了异常心理的谱、类、质与度的概念,认为偏离正态分布曲线左侧的是目前公认的个体异常心理,而偏离正态曲线右侧的异常心理的性质、类型、范围、程度等却是一个悬而未绝的重大理论问题.因此,在对异常心理的谱与类、质与度界定的基础上,提出了超常心理存在的可能性并进一步论述了超常心理的本质、范围和特征.     

Effects of dilemma type,language, and emotion arousal on utilitarian vs deontological choice to moral dilemmas in Chinese–English bilinguals

The present study examines how dilemma type (personal or impersonal moral dilemma), language (native or foreign) and emotion arousal to a dilemma could affect Chinese–English bilinguals' deontological vs utilitarian moral choices regarding 39 moral dilemmas. How emotion arousal plays a mediating role in the effects of dilemma type and language on moral choices is also investigated. As shown in multilevel analyses, participants made fewer utilitarian choices for personal dilemmas than impersonal dilemmas. Although emotion arousal of dilemmas significantly mediated this effect of dilemma type, the indirect effect of dilemma type through arousal on moral choices was inconsistent with the direct effect of dilemma type on moral choices. For the effect of language, participants made more utilitarian choices in the Footbridge (personal) dilemma that was presented in foreign language than in native language. However, this effect was not mediated by arousal, suggesting that it could not be attributed to the emotion‐reducing effect of foreign language. Moreover, there was no language effect on moral choices in analyses that included all 39 dilemmas or only 22 personal dilemmas, indicating the need in future research for further identifying the potential mediators that trigger the foreign language effect on moral choices.     

A typology of religious attitudes among young people in Germany

Issues like faith and Church, religion and religiousness are not valued particularly highly among the young. At the same time a search for the meaning of life and an orientation in one’s own behaviour still seem to be significant and transcendent focal points are being sought to deal with these issues. This article questions the value that religion, faith and the Church have for young people on the basis of empirical data. Five types of religious orientation of young people are identified: a churchly Christian type, an autonomously Christian type, a conventionally religious type, an autonomously religious type and, finally, a non‐religious type. The empirical data are taken from a study of about 800 pupils in the Grade 11 (age 16–17 years) from grammar schools (Gymnasien) in Germany.