Priming global and local processing of composite faces: revisiting the processing-bias effect on face perception

We used the composite-face illusion and Navon stimuli to determine the consequences of priming local or global processing on subsequent face recognition. The composite-face illusion reflects the difficulty of ignoring the task-irrelevant half-face while attending the task-relevant half if the half-faces in the composite are aligned. On each trial, participants first matched two Navon stimuli, attending to either the global or the local level, and then matched the upper halves of two composite faces presented sequentially. Global processing of Navon stimuli increased the sensitivity to incongruence between the upper and the lower halves of the composite face, relative to a baseline in which the composite faces were not primed. Local processing of Navon stimuli did not influence the sensitivity to incongruence. Although incongruence induced a bias toward different responses, this bias was not modulated by priming. We conclude that global processing of Navon stimuli augments holistic processing of the face.     

Squeezing, striking, and vocalizing: Is number representation fundamentally spatial?

Numbers are fundamental entities in mathematics, but their cognitive bases are unclear. Abundant research points to linear space as a natural grounding for number representation. But, is number representation fundamentally spatial? We disentangle number representation from standard number-to-line reporting methods, and compare numerical estimations in educated participants using line-reporting with three nonspatial reporting conditions (squeezing, bell-striking, and vocalizing). All three cases of nonspatial-reporting consistently reproduced well-established results obtained with number-line methods. Furthermore, unlike line-reporting—and congruent with the psychophysical Weber–Fechner law—nonspatial reporting systematically produced logarithmic mappings for all nonsymbolic stimuli. Strikingly, linear mappings were obtained exclusively in conditions with culturally mediated elements (e.g., words). These results suggest that number representation is not fundamentally spatial, but builds on a deeper magnitude sense that manifests spatially and nonspatially mediated by magnitude, stimulus modality, and reporting condition. Number-to-space mappings—although ubiquitous in the modern world—do not seem to be rooted directly in brain evolution but have been culturally privileged and enhanced.     

The self-concept of traumatized children and adolescents with or without PTSD

This study compared the Piers-Harris 2 scores of youth with PTSD (n=30) to the scores of traumatized youth without PTSD (n=60) and a non-traumatized comparison group (n=39). In the absence of major comorbid disorders, youth with PTSD evidenced significantly lower scores than the traumatized PTSD negatives and controls on five of six Piers-Harris 2 scales. With the exception of scores on an index of perceived parental acceptance of child behavior, trauma exposure in the absence of PTSD was not associated with lower Piers-Harris 2 scores.     

Category-Specific Naming Deficit for Medical Terms after Dominant Thalamic/Capsular Hemorrhage

Postmortem, retrograde degeneration, and electrical stimulation studies have implicated the anterior pulvinar in language processing. We examined a patient who, after a hemorrhage affecting the dominant pulvinar and internal capsule, exhibited a circumscribed anomia for medical items and conditions. No other language disturbance was noted. Five category-specific word lists, matched for word frequency, were administered in a naming-to-definition format. Results indicated that the patient exhibited a significant category-specific naming deficit for medical items and conditions compared to matched control subjects. Although medical item lists were found to differ from nonmedical item lists in imageability and abstractness, B.C.'s category-specific deficit did not seem to be caused by word frequency, concept familiarity, imageability, or abstractness. Nor could the patient's performance be explained on the basis of deficits in broader semantic classifications (i.e., animate vs inanimate or man-made vs natural). The patient was unable to retrieve medical items even when given phonemic cues for those he could not name. Findings indicate that subtotal damage in the dominant pulvinar may create category-specific deficits.     

How clinical trials really work rethinking research ethics

Despite prevalent concerns about the ethical conduct of clinical trials, little is known about the day-to-day work of trials and the ethical challenges arising in them. This paper reports on a study designed to fill this gap and demonstrates a need to refine the oversight system for trials to reflect an understanding of this day-to-day work. It also illuminates ethical challenges that cannot be addressed by the oversight system and so necessitate a rethinking of the ethics of clinical trials.     

College women with eating disorders: self-regulation,life satisfaction,and positive/negative affect

The authors examined the self-regulatory strategies and subjective well-being of students recently diagnosed with eating disorders, at-risk students, and individuals without eating disorders. Fifty-six college students were individually interviewed regarding their use of self-regulatory strategies to lose and maintain their weight; they also completed the Extended Satisfaction with Life Scale (V. C. Alfonzo, D. B. Allison, D. E. Rader, & B. S. Gorman, 1996) and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (D. Watson, L. A. Clarck, & A. Tellegen, 1988). As hypothesized, students with eating disorders reported more self-regulated strategies for managing their weight, a lower level of life satisfaction, and higher levels of negative affect than did at-risk students or individuals with normal weights. At-risk students reported higher levels of self-regulation and negative affect than did the students with normal weights. These findings may be useful for parents and health practitioners providing care to college students, who must be made aware of the signs and symptoms of these disorders.     

From Wishing to Intending: Differences in Salience of Positive versus Negative Consequences

ABSTRACT Goal ratings by 345 subjects in seven data samples supported a functional distinction between two types of positive incentive value, one based on approaching positive affect (positive-based value or PBV), the other on avoiding negative affect (negative-based value or NBV). Ratings of PBV were more related to ratings of earlier action-phases of motivation (“wishing”), whereas ratings of NBV tended to be more related to factors entailed in later action-phases (“urgency/priority” and “intention”). These findings and previous ones are consistent with the proposal that this distinction parallels distinctions in Maslow's motivation theory. If the parallel is accepted, the findings support predictions from Maslow's theory. Results also indicate that purportedly unidimensional rating scales of motivation can reflect more than one underlying attribute.     

Middle school students' perceptions of school climate,bullying prevalence,and social support and coping

The aim of this exploratory study was to examine middle school students’ (N = 88) perceptions of bullying, school climate and social support and coping. Data were collected using online surveys (n = 80) and face-to-face interviews (n = 8). Quantitative analyses revealed that prevalence of teasing, victimization, and bullying experiences significantly predicted perceptions of school climate. Qualitative findings provided further insight into student perceptions of bullying indicating several overlapping themes, when examining victimization, verbal and social bullying, causes of bullying, coping, and frustration with school resources dealing with aggressive behavior. Recommendations for addressing potential detrimental outcomes of bullying behavior and for improving perceptions of school climate are provided.     

Review of Zaatar days, Henna nights: adventures, dreams, and destinations across the Middle East, by Maliha Masood, (Seal Press 2007)

Zaatar Days, Henna Nights Adventures, Dreams, and Destinations Across the Middle East, by Maliha Masood, (Seal Press 2007) Travel can be transformative. Change was certainly on Maliha Masood’s mind when she set out on a 10-month journey through the crescent of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey. Perhaps the souqs, mosques and nightclubs would hold a key to her conflicted existence as a Muslim American Gen-Xer. At the start of her reflective tale Maliha is two distinct and dissatisfied people: a Pakistani-born 28 year old coming unmoored from her Eastern roots and faith, and a depressed dot-commer bored of living in her parents’ suburban Seattle basement. By the end she’s bruised from love and battered by cultural missteps but also a blossoming writer, a proponent of the Middle East, and a woman newly confident in both Islamic faith and feminist philosophies. The most intriguing thread of Zaatar Days is the essential conflict of Masood’s identity. It causes trouble everywhere she goes – for her, and for people unable to categorize Maliha or grasp her idiosyncrasies as a Westernized Easterner.