An investigation of repetition and language processing in a case of conduction aphasia

A study is reported of a single case of conduction aphasia. A battery of tasks designed to investigate the parameters of the patient's severe repetition deficit is supplemented by tests of several language functions. The results provide extensive information on a wide range of the patient's language abilities and are used to evaluate the adequacy of four models that have been offered to account for conduction aphasia. An argument is made in support of the suggestion that the syndrome of conduction aphasia should be divided into two subgroups based on patients' ability to select and realize phonemes in speech output. It is concluded that the best explanation for the disorder of patients with repetition deficit but without significant speech output problems is the hypothesis that repetition ability is compromised by a pathological limitation of auditory-verbal short-term memory. This hypothesis is extended to account for the pattern of results obtained in the language tasks.     

Structure of personality pathology in normal and clinical samples: Spanish validation of the DAPP-BQ

Given that the DSM taxonomy of personality disorders is flawed by severe classificatory problems, the development of alternative classificatory systems, such as the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ), has now become a priority. This study examined the internal consistency, second-order factor structure, and criterion validity of a Spanish translation of the DAPP-BQ in two samples: subjects with personality disorder (n = 155) and subjects from the general population (n = 300). Alpha coefficients ranged satisfactorily from .75 to .93. Four second-order factors of Emotional Dysregulation, Dissocial Behavior, Inhibitedness, and Compulsivity were obtained, which were replicable between samples and identical to those reported in the literature. Finally, disordered subjects scored significantly higher than normal subjects on 17 of the 18 DAPP-BQ traits. Some pending issues in the construction of an alternative taxonomy of personality disorders are discussed.     

A word-order constraint on phonological activation

Word-order rules impose major constraints on linguistic behavior. For example, adjectives appear before nouns in English, and after nouns in French. This means that constraints on word order must be language-specific properties upheld on-line by the language system. Despite the importance of these rules, little is known about how they operate. We report an influence of word order on the activation of phonological representations. Participants were presented with colored objects and asked to name either the colors or the objects; the phonological similarity between the object and color names was manipulated. French speakers showed a phonological congruency effect in color naming, but not in object naming. English participants yielded the opposite pattern: a phonological effect in object naming, but not in color naming. Differences in the typical order of nouns and adjectives in French and English provide a plausible account for this cross-linguistic contrast. More generally, these results provide direct evidence for the operation of word-order constraints during language production.     

Why Power Decreases Happiness in a Collectivist Context? A Qualitative Study

In the Western settings, power positively predicted happiness (e.g., Kifer et al. 2013). Though, this result may not be generalized across cultures as cultural psychologists recognized that interdependence is more important in collectivist cultures. Consistent with this conjecture, Datu and Reyes (2014) assessed the relations among power, relations, and happiness in the Philippine setting which revealed that power negatively predicted happiness. However, not much is known on why power could potentially reduce happiness in collectivist cultures. Thus, the current investigation employed qualitative research to offer in-depth explanations on why power may be associated with lower happiness in a collectivist setting. Findings revealed three major themes that characterized reasons on why power may decrease happiness in an interdependent context: a.) Power impairs relationship; b.) Power evokes negative judgments from others; and c.) Power comes with a great responsibility. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Typical predictive eye movements during action observation without effector-specific motor simulation

When watching someone reaching to grasp an object, we typically gaze at the object before the agent’s hand reaches it—that is, we make a “predictive eye movement” to the object. The received explanation is that predictive eye movements rely on a direct matching process, by which the observed action is mapped onto the motor representation of the same body movements in the observer’s brain. In this article, we report evidence that calls for a reexamination of this account. We recorded the eye movements of an individual born without arms (D.C.) while he watched an actor reaching for one of two different-sized objects with a power grasp, a precision grasp, or a closed fist. D.C. showed typical predictive eye movements modulated by the actor’s hand shape. This finding constitutes proof of concept that predictive eye movements during action observation can rely on visual and inferential processes, unaided by effector-specific motor simulation.     

How to combat the negative impact of discrimination in a collectivist context? The safeguarding function of peer-oriented hope

The objective of the study was to assess the moderating role of locus-of-hope on the relations between everyday discrimination and well-being outcomes in a collectivist setting. There were 444 Filipino undergraduate students who participated in the research. Findings showed that discrimination was negatively linked to subjective well-being and flourishing while loci-of-hope (internal, external-spiritual, external-family, and external-peers) were positively associated with well-being indices. Further, external-peer locus-of-hope moderated the relations between everyday discrimination and well-being outcomes such that for those who had higher external-peer locus-of-hope, everyday discrimination may still be linked to greater well-being. The theoretical and practical implications are elucidated.     

Lexical selection is not by competition: a reinterpretation of semantic interference and facilitation effects in the picture-word interference paradigm

The dominant view in the field of lexical access in speech production maintains that selection of a word becomes more difficult as the levels of activation of nontarget words increase--selection by competition. The authors tested this prediction in two sets of experiments. First, the authors show that participants are faster to name pictures of objects (e.g., "bed") in the context of semantically related verb distractors (e.g., sleep) compared with unrelated verb distractors (e.g., shoot). In the second set of experiments, the authors show that target naming latencies (e.g., "horse") are, if anything, faster for within--category semantically close distractor words (e.g., zebra) than for within--category semantically far distractor words (e.g., whale). In the context of previous research, these data ground a new empirical generalization: As distractor words become semantically closer to the target concepts--all else being equal--target naming is facilitated. This fact means that lexical selection does not involve competition, and consequently, that the semantic interference effect does not reflect a lexical level process. This conclusion has important implications for models of lexical access and interpretations of Stroop-like interference effects.     

Persistence Narrativism and the Determinacy of Personal Identity

Philosophia - We have a strong intuition that personal identity is a determinate relationship. Parfit famously challenged this intuition. In this paper I explain how narrative identity theories can...     

Entrevista con el professor Johannes C. Brengelmann

RESUMEN

Johannes C. Brengelmann dirige la sección de Psicología del instituto Max-Planck de Munich y es ampliamente conocido en España por su influencia directa o indirecta sobre algunos de los psicólogos que más han contribuido a la extensión de las técnicas de Modificación de Conducta en España. Tanto desde una perspectiva institucional como desde un punto de vista científico, su aportación al desarrollo de los procedimientos conductuales en Europa ha sido decisiva. En esta entrevista, el profesor Brengelmann, se refiere a las influencias recibidas en su formación, sus intereses actuales en la psicología clínica y medicina comportamental y la organización del trabajo en la sección de psicología del Instituto Max-Planck de psiquiatría. También evalúa críticamente el desarrollo de las terapias cognitivas y valora el desarrollo de la psicología española en el contexto de la Europea.