Advancing paternal age and simplex autism

De novo events appear more common in female and simplex autism spectrum disorder (ASD) cases and may underlie greater ASD risk in older fathers' offspring. This study examined whether advancing paternal age predicts an increase in simplex (n = 90) versus multiplex ASD cases (n = 587) in 677 participants (340 families). Whether or not controlling for maternal age, results support a significant interaction of linear paternal age and sex of the child on simplex family type. Female ASD cases were significantly more likely to be simplex as paternal age increased, but the increase for males was not significant. Findings suggest that ASD arising from non-familial, de novo events may be far less prominent in males than in females, even if more prevalent in males, due to the substantially larger number of male cases attributable to other, more strongly male-biased risk factors.     

Holistic person processing: faces with bodies tell the whole story

Faces and bodies are typically encountered simultaneously, yet little research has explored the visual processing of the full person. Specifically, it is unknown whether the face and body are perceived as distinct components or as an integrated, gestalt-like unit. To examine this question, we investigated whether emotional face-body composites are processed in a holistic-like manner by using a variant of the composite face task, a measure of holistic processing. Participants judged facial expressions combined with emotionally congruent or incongruent bodies that have been shown to influence the recognition of emotion from the face. Critically, the faces were either aligned with the body in a natural position or misaligned in a manner that breaks the ecological person form. Converging data from 3 experiments confirm that breaking the person form reduces the facilitating influence of congruent body context as well as the impeding influence of incongruent body context on the recognition of emotion from the face. These results show that faces and bodies are processed as a single unit and support the notion of a composite person effect analogous to the classic effect described for faces.     

Stay focussed - muffle that resonant bass!

Increased rhythmic brain activity in the high frequency range and decreased rhythmic activity in the low frequency range is a hallmark of cognitive function and ability. A novel study links these findings to the cholinergic theory of attention, demonstrating that attention-induced rebalancing of brain rhythms is augmented by acetylcholine.     

Out of sight,out of mind: Occlusion and eye closure destabilize moving bistable structure-from-motion displays

Our brain constantly tries to anticipate the future by using a variety of memory mechanisms. Interestingly, studies using the intermittent presentation of multistable displays have shown little perceptual persistence for interruptions longer than a few hundred milliseconds. Here we examined whether we can facilitate the perceptual stability of bistable displays following a period of invisibility by employing a physically plausible and ecologically valid occlusion event sequence, as opposed to the typical intermittent presentation, with sudden onsets and offsets. To this end, we presented a bistable rotating structure-from-motion display that was moving along a linear horizontal trajectory on the screen and either was temporarily occluded by another object (a cardboard strip in Exp. 1, a computer-generated image in Exp. 2) or became invisible due to eye closure (Exp. 3). We report that a bistable rotation direction reliably persisted following occlusion or interruption only (1) if the pre- and postinterruption locations overlapped spatially (an occluder with apertures in Exp. 2 or brief, spontaneous blinks in Exp. 3) or (2) if an object’s size allowed for the efficient grouping of dots on both sides of the occluding object (large objects in Exp. 1). In contrast, we observed no persistence whenever the pre- and postinterruption locations were nonoverlapping (large solid occluding objects in Exps. 1 and 2 and long, prompted blinks in Exp. 3). We report that the bistable rotation direction of a moving object persisted only for spatially overlapping neural representations, and that persistence was not facilitated by a physically plausible and ecologically valid occlusion event.     

Self-regulatory strategy and executive control: implementation intentions modulate task switching and Simon task performance

Two tasks where failures of cognitive control are especially prevalent are task-switching and spatial Simon task paradigms. Both tasks require considerable strategic control for the participant to avoid the costs associated with switching tasks (task-switching paradigm) and to minimize the influence of spatial location (Simon task). In the current study, we assessed whether the use of a self-regulatory strategy known as "implementation intentions" would have any beneficial effects on performance in each of these task domains. Forming an implementation intention (i.e., an if-then plan) is a self-regulatory strategy in which a mental link is created between a pre-specified future cue and a desired goal-directed response, resulting in facilitated goal attainment (Gollwitzer in European Review of Social Psychology, 4, 141-185, 1993, American Psychologist, 54, 493-503, 1999). In Experiment 1, forming implementation intentions in the context of a task-switching paradigm led to a reduction in switch costs. In Experiment 2, forming implementation intentions reduced the effects of spatial location in a Simon task for the stimulus specified in the implementation intention. Results supported the prediction that the need for high levels of cognitive control can be alleviated to some degree by making if-then plans that specify how one responds to that critical stimuli.     

Creative innovation or crazy irrelevance? The contribution of group norms and social identity to creative behavior

This paper develops an analysis of innovative behavior and creativity that is informed by the social identity perspective. Two studies manipulated group norms and analyzed their impact on creative behavior. The results of Study 1 show that when people are asked to make a creative product collectively they display conformity to ingroup norms, but that they deviate from ingroup norms when group members make the same products on their own. A parallel result was found in group members’ private perceptions of what they consider creative. In Study 2, the social identity of participants was made salient. Results showed conformity to group norms even when group members worked on their own creations. Findings suggest that innovative behavior is informed by normative context, and that in contexts in which people operate as members of a group (either physically through collective action, or psychologically through social identity salience) innovation will respect normative boundaries.     

An Egalitarian Plateau? Challenging the Importance of Ronald Dworkin’s Abstract Egalitarian Rights

Ronald Dworkin’s work on the topic of equality over the past twenty-five years or so has been enormously influential, generating a great deal of debate about equality both as a practical aim and as a theoretical ideal. The present article attempts to assess the importance of one particular aspect of this work. Dworkin claims that the acceptance of abstract egalitarian rights to equal concern and respect can be thought to provide a kind of plateau in political argument, accommodating as it does a number of well-known ethical theories of social arrangement from utilitarianism to libertarianism. The article explores the moral foundations of these egalitarian rights and critically examines five specific reasons for supposing they matter in political debate. It is argued that though these reasons are perhaps less constructive than they might be reasonably expected to be, there is another more fundamental question we can ask about the scope of egalitarian rights the answer to which might ultimately help to explain their fundamental nature and importance. That question is: equality among whom?     

Body Composition And Human Sleep

It has been reported that fit atheletes have more slow wave sleep (SWS), sleep longer and have shorter sleep onset latencies than unfit individuals. However, we have shown that these differences are not a direct consequence of physical fitness. This suggests that the effect is due to more enduring characteristics of individuals. We report two experiments designed to test the hypothesis that individual differences in sleep are related to differences in body composition. The hypothesis was tested in two different experiments, each comparing independent groups of fit athletes with unfit non-athletes. In each experiment both sleep and a number of anthropometric variables were measured. Twenty-five fit and 22 unfit subjects were run in Experiment 1 and 17 fit and 17 unfit in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1 percentage fat was estimated from a skin fold method, while in Experiment 2 lean body mass (LBM) was estimated from 24 h. urinary creatinine. The results showed that percentage LBM was negatively related to SWS in fit subjects, while the amount of LBM and weight were negatively related in the unfit groups. When all subjects were combined within each experiment, significant negative correlations were found between SWS and both LBM and percentage LBM in Experiment 2. The results suggest that body composition influences SWS levels, but not other components of sleep.     

A note on the consistency of estimators in the analysis of moment structures

This paper is concerned with the consistency of estimators in the analysis of moment structures. An example is given where in spite of identifiability of the parameters the associated estimator is inconsistent. Consistency is shown to hold under the additional condition of compactness of the parameter space.