Illusory 3-D rotation induced by dynamic image shading

Observers' perceptions of the three-dimensional structure of smoothly curved surfaces defined by patterns of image shading were investigated under varying conditions of illumination. In five experiments, observers judged the global orientation and the motion of the simulated surfaces from both static and dynamic patterns of image shading. We found that perceptual performance was more accurate with static than with dynamic displays. Dynamic displays evoked systematic biases in perceptual performance when the surface and the illumination source were simulated as rotating in opposite directions. In these conditions, the surface was incorrectly perceived as rotating in the same direction as the illumination source. Conversely, the orientation of the simulated surfaces was perceived correctly when the frames making up the apparent-motion sequences of the dynamic displays were presented as static images. In Experiment 6, moreover, the results obtained with the computer-generated displays were replicated with solid objects.     

Description and First Steps Toward the Empirical Validation of the Plan Formulation Method for Couples

The aim of this paper is to empirically assess the reliability of the plan formulation method for couples, a procedure for formulating the case, planning, and monitoring the couple therapies according to control-mastery theory. We hypothesized that when couples are looking for couple therapy, they have an unconscious couple’s plan for the therapy, which includes the couple’s goals; the pathogenic beliefs that the partners want to disprove; the traumas from which these beliefs originated and that the partners want to master; the vicious relational circles that make the couple suffer and that the couple wants to break; the virtuous relational circles that are expressions of the couple’s resources and that the couple wants to fuel; and the relational insights that may help the couple get better. Our study involved 15 couples treated by four experienced therapists. Four raters independently formulated each couple’s plan based on the first three sessions following a standard procedure, and we calculated the intraclass correlation for pooled judges’ ratings. For a subsample of three couples—who before and after treatment had completed the dyadic adjustment scale (DAS) and the outcome questionnaire-45.2 (OQ-45.2)—the compatibility of the therapists’ interventions with the couples’ and partners’ plans was assessed. The relationship between the ratings of compatibility, DAS and OQ-45.2, was assessed. The results showed excellent interjudge reliability for each couple’s plan formulation (average ICC?=?0.82), attesting to the validity of the procedure; and preliminary data on the therapeutic process suggested that therapists’ interventions compatible with couple’s plans could help partners achieve good outcomes.

     

Short-Term Inpatient DBT Combined with Metacognitive Interventions for Personality Disorders: A Pilot Acceptability and Effectiveness Study

This study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of an intensive 1-month residential treatment course in an Italian psychiatric unit for patients meeting criteria for personality disorders (PD). This study involved 189 patients consecutively admitted to the unit and assessed at admission and discharge. The inpatient program was based on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) combined with Metacognitive interventions. Primary outcome was a reduction of general symptom severity (as measured by SCL-90-R). Secondary outcomes were reduction in depression (BDI), interpersonal problems (IIP-47). Other outcomes were impulsivity (BIS-11), aggressiveness (AQ), and dissociation (DES). We found a significant reduction in symptom severity, as well as in depression, interpersonal problems, dissociation, impulsivity and aggressiveness. The size of this benefit was predicted mostly by number of criteria met at SCID-II and intake scores mostly for impulsiveness and dissociation. In conclusion, intensive 1-month residential DBT combined with metacognitive interventions can be effective in treating patients with any PD presenting with severe global suffering, prominent self-harm and suicidal risk.

     

The Effect of Evidential Impact on Perceptual Probabilistic Judgments

In a series of three behavioral experiments, we found a systematic distortion of probability judgments concerning elementary visual stimuli. Participants were briefly shown a set of figures that had two features (e.g., a geometric shape and a color) with two possible values each (e.g., triangle or circle and black or white). A figure was then drawn, and participants were informed about the value of one of its features (e.g., that the figure was a “circle”) and had to predict the value of the other feature (e.g., whether the figure was “black” or “white”). We repeated this procedure for various sets of figures and, by varying the statistical association between features in the sets, we manipulated the probability of a feature given the evidence of another (e.g., the posterior probability of hypothesis “black” given the evidence “circle”) as well as the support provided by a feature to another (e.g., the impact, or confirmation, of evidence “circle” on the hypothesis “black”). Results indicated that participants’ judgments were deeply affected by impact, although they only should have depended on the probability distributions over the features, and that the dissociation between evidential impact and posterior probability increased the number of errors. The implications of these findings for lower and higher level cognitive models are discussed.     

Individual cognitive style affects flood-risk perception and mitigation intentions

Risk perception of natural hazards has been widely studied as one of the potential determinants of people's behaviors and behavioral intentions. However, individual differences can also affect risk perception. The present work focused on the link between an individual cognitive mindset (i.e., level of holism) and flood-risk perception. It also assessed the consequences of such a link on public and personal mitigation intentions, taking into account the sense of connection with the environment, the psychological distance from the adverse event, and the role played by previous personal experience with flooding. Our study (N = 191) showed that the individual cognitive style predicted risk perceptions and personal (for both experienced and no-experience groups) and public (only for experienced group) mitigation intentions, through the mediation of the sense of connection with the environment and the psychological distance from the adverse event. Results are discussed in terms of their practical implications for public communication and policies about environmental hazards.     

Sensitivity to Inflectional Morphemes in the Absence of Meaning: Evidence from a Novel Task

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - A number of studies in different languages have shown that speakers may be sensitive to the presence of inflectional morphology in the absence of verb meaning...     

Conceptual development and conversational understanding

Children's understanding of the implications of conversation can influence their responses on tasks designed to measure conceptual development. These responses are in keeping with developmental changes in the ability to recognize and resolve ambiguity in communicative contexts, as shown, for example, in children's ability to compute "scalar implicatures". Examining steps children take to overcome difficulties in processing the relevant features of tasks and in correctly interpreting task instructions promise to illuminate mechanisms of conceptual development. We review recent research in this area, focussing on early knowledge of the appearance-reality distinction and knowledge of cosmological concepts.     

Substance P antagonists: meet the new drugs,same as the old drugs? Insights from transgenic animal models

Antidepressants that primarily target the reuptake of monoamines have been highly successful treatments. However, therapies with these drugs still have several drawbacks, namely severe side effects, delays in the onset of action, and a significant percentage of non-responders. Recently, non-peptidic antagonists of the neurokinin 1 receptor, or substance P antagonists, have emerged as a novel class of drugs with antidepressant efficacy that is comparable to current drugs, but a potentially reduced side effect profile. This review summarizes the pre-clinical evidence derived from pharmacological and transgenic animal studies that suggests an important role for the substance P/neurokinin 1 system in anxiety and depression. Also, potential mechanisms by which substance P antagonists may produce their therapeutic effects are discussed.     

Laterality effects in the spinning dancer illusion: The viewing‐from‐above bias is only part of the story

The ‘silhouette illusion’, representing the silhouette of a female dancer pirouetting about her vertical axis, is a bistable stimulus created by Japanese web designer Nobuyuki Kayahara. Although the dancer can be perceived as spinning either clockwise or counterclockwise, the clockwise rotation is usually preferred. Troje and McAdam (i‐Perception, 2010, 1, 143) showed that this clockwise bias can be attributed to the tendency to assume a viewpoint from above rather than from below, given that the dancer is portrayed from a vantage point that is not perpendicular to the axis of rotation. Here, we tested whether another possible factor contributing to the observers’ interpretation of this bistable stimulus might be the tendency to perceive movements of the right rather than the left foot. We confirmed both the viewing‐from‐above bias and our hypothesis. The bias to perceive movements of the right leg might be a generalization to lower limbs of a perceptual frequency effect already observed for upper limbs. Such a perceptual and attentional bias towards the right hand/foot could account for the greater ability to predict the outcome of sport actions when observing right‐ rather than left‐limbed movements, and thus the left‐handers' and left‐footers' advantage observed in a variety of interactive sports.