Global and local vision in natural scene identification

The results of previous studies have suggested that to optimize the decoding of visual information, global contents of a scene are analyzed before local features (global precedence hypothesis). Evidence supporting this hypothesis has been provided for identification of characters, faces, hybrid stimuli, and simple objects. In the present study, we examined identification of high- and low-pass filtered natural pictures. Despite the radical differences in the type of information conveyed by global and local features, confident and accurate identification was achieved on the basis of either kind of information when an intermediate range of spatial frequencies was preserved. The present data are consistent with the notion of global precedence in scene identification.     

The role of visuo-spatial working memory in map learning: new findings from a map drawing paradigm

Recently, increasing attention has been devoted to the study of the role of visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) in environmental learning and spatial navigation. The present research was aimed at investigating the role of VSWM in map learning using a map drawing paradigm. In the first study, a dual task methodology was used. Results showed that map drawing was selectively impaired by a spatial tapping task that was executed during the map learning phase, hence supporting the hypothesis that VSWM plays an essential role in learning from maps. In the second study, using a correlational methodology, it was shown that performance in simultaneous VSWM tasks, but not in sequential VSWM tasks, predicted map drawing skills. These skills “in turn” correlated with map learning abilities. Finally, in the third study, we replicated the results of the second study, by using a different map. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to find evidence that the simultaneous aspects of VSWM play a fundamental role in learning from maps.     

Ethical Naturalism and Moral Twin Earth

In order to rebut G. E. Moore’s open question argument, ethical naturalists adopt a theory of direct reference for our moral terms. T. Horgan and M. Timmons have argued that this theory cannot be applied to moral terms, on the ground that it clashes with competent speakers’ linguistic intuitions. While Putnam’s Twin Earth thought experiment shows that our linguistic intuitions confirm the theory of direct reference, as applied to ‘water’, Horgan and Timmons devise a parallel thought experiment about moral terms, in order to show that this theory runs against our linguistic intuitions about such terms. My claim is that the Horgan–Timmons argument does not work. I concede that their thought experiment is a good way to test the applicability of the theory of direct reference to moral terms, and argue that the upshot of their experiment is not what they claim it is: our linguistic intuitions about Moral Twin Earth are parallel to, not different from, our intuitions about Twin Earth.

Online mental health resources for adolescents: Overview of research and theory

Adolescents use the Internet at higher rates than any other age group. The Internet therefore offers an obvious opportunity for the provision of mental health information for them. Little is known, however, about adolescent behaviour online, especially access of age‐appropriate mental health resources. This review of the published literature examines theoretical and research studies to develop an understanding of adolescent mental health‐seeking behaviour on the Internet. It is clear that adolescents do seek health information online, but little is known about its content, nature or mode of delivery. There appears to be no research specific to mental health resources for adolescents online.     

Changing an unfavorable employer reputation: the roles of recruitment message‐type and familiarity with employer

An unfavorable employer reputation can impair an organization's ability to recruit job seekers. The present research used a 4 week longitudinal experimental design to investigate whether recruitment messages can positively change an existing unfavorable employer reputation. Two hundred and twenty‐two job seekers rated their perceptions of an organization before and after being randomly assigned to receive a series of high‐ or low‐information recruitment messages. As expected, job seekers receiving high‐information messages changed their perceptions more than job seekers who were exposed to low‐information messages. In addition, job seekers' initial familiarity with the employer was negatively related to change in their perceptions of employer reputation. Finally, there was some evidence that job seekers' familiarity with the employer influenced the impact of different recruitment messages. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Hot dogs and zavy cats: preschoolers' and adults' expectations about familiar and novel adjectives

In recent years, a growing body of research has begun to examine the processes that underlie young children's acquisition of adjectival meanings. In the present studies, we examined whether preschoolers' willingness to extend adjectives was influenced by the type of property labeled by familiar adjectives (Experiment 1) and by semantic information conveyed in the sentence used to introduce novel adjectives (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we examined preschoolers' and adults' expectations about the generalizability of familiar adjectives of three different types: emotional state terms, physiological state terms, and stable trait terms. On each trial, we labeled a target animal with one of the three different types of adjectives and asked whether these terms could apply to a subordinate-level match, a basic-level match, a superordinate-level match, or an inanimate object. Results indicated that 4-year-olds and adults extended the trait terms, but not the emotional or physiological terms, to members of the same basic-level category. In Experiment 2, we presented 4-year-olds and adults with novel adjectives in one of two verb frames: stable ("This X is very daxy") or transient ("This X feels very daxy"). Participants were more likely to extend the novel adjective to subordinate matches if they were in the Stable frame group than if they were in the Transient frame group. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for young children's expectations about familiar and novel adjectives.     

Psychometric properties of an adolescent version of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 for a sample of Italian high school students

The purpose of this study was to extend the development of the Italian version of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale for use with adolescents. The analyses which led to the development of this version were based on data from 563 high school students. The internal consistency was good (Cronbach alpha=.78). A confirmatory factor analysis identified six first-order factors which converged into two second-order factors, a General Impulsiveness factor and a Nonplanning Impulsiveness factor. The General Impulsiveness factor included motor and attention or cognition items. The second-order factors differed from those obtained with the adult Italian version as well as the American version. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed. The new version correlated significantly with self-report measures of aggression and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder as well as with frequency of alcohol use and cigarette smoking.     

Amygdala oscillations and the consolidation of emotional memories

The amygdala receives multi-modal sensory inputs and projects to virtually all levels of the central nervous system. Via these widespread projections, the amygdala facilitates consolidation of emotionally arousing memories. How the amygdala promotes synaptic plasticity elsewhere in the brain remains unknown, however. Recent work indicates that amygdala neurons show theta activity during emotional arousal, and various types of oscillations during sleep. These synchronized neuronal events could promote synaptic plasticity by facilitating interactions between neocortical storage sites and temporal lobe structures involved in declarative memory.     

Predicting borderline personality disorder features from personality traits, identity orientation, and attachment styles in Italian nonclinical adults: issues of consistency across age ranges

The aims of this study were to assess whether Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) features could be predicted by Big Five traits, impulsivity, identity orientation, and adult attachment patterns in a sample of 1,192 adult nonclinical participants, and to evaluate the consistency of these regression models across four age groups (<30 years, 30-39 years, 40-49 years, and >50 years, respectively). In the full sample, measures of neuroticism (N), impulsivity, and anxious insecure attachment were substantial predictors of BPD features (adjusted R(2) = .38, p < .001). Attachment scales were significant predictors of BPD features across all age groups, but different scales were relevant in different age groups. Our results suggest that in nonclinical populations, BPD may represent a complex constellation of personality traits and disturbed attachment patterns.     

Health anxiety,anxiety sensitivity,and attentional biases for pictorial and linguistic health‐threat cues

The study investigated attentional biases for pictorial and linguistic health‐threat stimuli in high and low health anxious individuals, who were selected from the upper and lower quartile ranges of a normal sample using a screening measure of health anxiety. Attentional bias was assessed using a visual probe task which presented health‐threat and neutral pictures and words at two exposure durations, 500 ms and 1250 ms. The prediction that the high health anxious group would show a greater attentional bias for health‐threat cues than the low health anxious group was not supported despite the groups being well‐differentiated on a general measure of health anxiety, the Illness Attitudes Scale (IAS). Instead, the results indicated that individuals with high levels of anxiety sensitivity showed a significantly greater initial attentional bias for threat pictures compared with those with low anxiety sensitivity, as assessed by the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI).