Immersiveness and physiological arousal within panoramic video-based virtual reality.

In this paper, we discuss findings from a study that used panoramic video-based virtual environments (PVVEs) to induce self-reported anger. The study assessed "immersiveness" and physiological correlates of anger arousal (i.e., heart rate, blood pressure, galvanic skin response [GSR], respiration, and skin temperature). Results indicate that over time, panoramic video-based virtual scenarios can be, at the very least, physiologically arousing. Further, it can be affirmed from the results that hypnotizability, as defined by the applied measures, interacts with group on physiological arousal measures. Hence, physiological arousal appeared to be moderated by participant hypnotizability and absorption levels.     

Obsessive Passion: A Compensatory Response to Unsatisfied Needs

The present research investigated the role of two sources of psychological need satisfaction (inside and outside a passionate activity) as determinants of harmonious (HP) and obsessive (OP) passion. Four studies were carried out with different samples of young and middle‐aged adults (e.g., athletes, musicians; total N = 648). Different research designs (cross‐sectional, mixed, longitudinal) were also used. Results showed that only a rigid engagement in a passionate activity (OP) was predicted by low levels of need satisfaction outside the passionate activity (in an important life context or in life in general), whereas both OP and a more favorable and balanced type of passion, HP were positively predicted by need satisfaction inside the passionate activity. Further, OP led to negative outcomes, and HP predicted positive outcomes. These results suggest that OP may represent a form of compensatory striving for psychological need satisfaction. It appears important to consider two distinct sources of need satisfaction, inside and outside the passionate activity, when investigating determinants of optimal and less optimal forms of activity engagement.     

Gender Differences in Being Thanked for Performing a Favor

We examined gender differences in how one responds to being thanked for a favor. Using experimental passages, we manipulated who requested the favor and the manner in which the favor is asked. Male and female participants received a set of scenarios in which social status, gender and directness of the request were orthogonally varied. Although male and female participants had very similar perceptions of whether the favor was a command or not, male but not female participants, generated more accommodating and fewer non-accommodating acknowledgments when thanked. The effect was strongest when the request was made by a boss (relative to a peer), especially if the boss was male, and made the request in a direct manner. These data are consistent with the notion that, for males, more than so for females, interactions that make salient one’s dominance status is relevant to gender-identity, and is linguistically reflected in a basic social exchange.     

Men Play,Women Break the Town: Gender and Intergenerational Asymmetry in Sexual and Reproductive Worldview Among the Ga of Ghana

A contemporary critique levelled against sexual and reproductive (SR) behavioral studies in Africa is the dominance of Western theories and perspectives, with the main language through which SR categories and concepts are developed and investigated being Western or colonial, which rarely correspond with local and ethnic conceptualizations. In this paper, we conduct an ethnolinguistic analysis of gender and intergenerational constructions of sexual and reproductive behaviors (SRB) among the Ga of Ghana. Ethnographic approaches were used to collect and analyze two data sources from seventy-two respondents; first, a lexicon of common words, phrases, terminologies and coinages on SR activities and relationships. Second, narratives on respondents’ major SR experiences, through a biography of respondents’ body methodological framework. Respondents reflected a high degree of conceptual baggage, underpinned by their own gendered SR experiences, in their selection and interpretation of the terminologies/words. Younger respondents were more likely to use flippant coinages for risky SRB, which resonate with their narratives on their casual and unrestrained SR behaviours. We discuss the SR health threats and opportunities of our findings.     

What determines the speed of lexical access: homophone or specific-word frequency? A reply to Jescheniak et al. (2003)

A. Caramazza, A. Costa, M. Miozzo, and Y. Bi (2001) reported a series of experiments showing that naming latencies for homophones are determined by specific-word frequency (e.g., frequency of nun) and not homophone frequency (frequency of nun + none). J. D. Jescheniak, A. S. Meyer, and W. J. M. Levelt (2003) have challenged these studies on a variety of grounds. Here we argue that these criticisms are not well founded and try to clarify the theoretical issues that can be meaningfully addressed by considering the effects of frequency on homophone production. We conclude that the evidence from homophone production cannot be considered to provide support to 2-layer theories of the lexical system.     

Does Hiv or Poverty Cause Aids? Biomedical and Epidemiological Perspectives

This paper contrasts biomedical and epidemiological approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of disease, and uses Collingwood's "principle of the relativity of causes" to show how different approaches focus on different causal factors reflecting different interests. By distinguishing between the etiology of a disease and an epidemic, the paper argues that, from an epidemiological perspective, poverty is an important causal factor in the African AIDS epidemic and that emphasizing this should not be considered incompatible with recognizing the causal necessity of HIV for the AIDS disease.     

Infants' perception of depth from cast shadows

Five- and 7-month-old infants viewed displays in which cast shadows provided information that two objects were at different distances. The 7-month-olds reached preferentially for the apparently nearer object under monocular-viewing conditions but exhibited no reaching preference under binocular-viewing conditions. These results indicate that 7-month-old infants perceive depth on the basis of cast shadows. The 5-month-olds did not reach preferentially for the apparently nearer object and, therefore, exhibited no evidence of sensitivity to cast shadows as depth information. In a second experiment, 5-month-olds reached preferentially for the nearer of two objects that were similar to those used in the first experiment but were positioned at different distances from the infant. This result indicated that 5-month-olds have the motor skills and motivation necessary to exhibit a reaching preference under the conditions of this study. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that depth perception based on cast shadows first appears between 5 and 7 months of age.