Rapid processing of closure and viewpoint-invariant symmetry: behavioral criteria for feedforward processing

To pin down the processing characteristics of symmetry and closure in contour processing, we investigated their ability to activate rapid motor responses in a primed flanker task. In three experiments, participants selected as quickly and accurately as possible the one of two target contours possessing symmetry or closure. Target pairs were preceded by prime pairs whose spatial arrangement was consistent or inconsistent with respect to the required response. We tested for the efficiency and automaticity of symmetry and closure processing. For both cues, priming effects were present in full magnitude in the fastest motor responses consistent with a simple feedforward model. Priming effects from symmetry cues were independent of skewing and the orientation of their symmetry axis but sometimes failed to increase with increasing prime-target interval. We conclude that closure and (possibly) viewpoint-independent symmetry cues are extracted rapidly during the first feedforward wave of neuronal processing.     

When do employees cross boundaries? Individual and contextual determinants of career mobility

This study investigates the joint effects of individual characteristics and the labour market on career mobility. We propose that level of education, openness to experience, and a favourable labour market relate positively to employees crossing organizational, industrial, and occupational boundaries. Management programme alumni (N = 503) provided information through an online survey about their career histories, their level of education, and their openness to experience. Additionally, we used the unemployment rate as an indicator for yearly changes in the labour market. The results of our cross-classified multilevel analysis indicate that both individual characteristics and the labour market are determinants of career mobility. Level of education had a positive effect on organizational and industrial boundary crossing, and changes in the labour market related to organizational boundary crossing. Against our assumptions, openness to experience had no effect on career mobility, and none of the predictors were related to occupational boundary crossing. Our results demonstrate the importance of investigating career mobility from a boundary perspective combined with a focus on both individual and contextual characteristics. The dominance of education compared to personality and the difficulty of explaining occupational mobility open new research avenues and yield practical implications for employees, career counsellors, and organizations.     

Tracking independence and merging of prosodic and phonemic processing across infancy

Recent evidence suggests division of labor in phonological analysis underlying speech recognition. Adults and children appear to decompose the speech stream into phoneme‐relevant information and into syllable stress. Here we investigate whether both speech processing streams develop from a common path in infancy, or whether there are two separate streams from early on. We presented stressed and unstressed syllables (spoken primes) followed by initially stressed early learned disyllabic German words (spoken targets). Stress overlap and phoneme overlap between the primes and the initial syllable of the targets varied orthogonally. We tested infants 3, 6 and 9 months after birth. Event‐related potentials (ERPs) revealed stress priming without phoneme priming in the 3‐month‐olds; phoneme priming without stress priming in the 6‐month‐olds; and phoneme priming, stress priming as well as an interaction of both in 9‐month‐olds. In general the present findings reveal that infants start with separate processing streams related to syllable stress and to phoneme‐relevant information; and that they need to learn to merge both aspects of speech processing. In particular the present results suggest (i) that phoneme‐free prosodic processing dominates in early infancy; (ii) that prosody‐free phoneme processing dominates in middle infancy; and (iii) that both types of processing are operating in parallel and can be merged in late infancy.     

Eye blink detection for different driver states in conditionally automated driving and manual driving using EOG and a driver camera

In this article, we examine the performance of different eye blink detection algorithms under various constraints. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the performance of an electrooculogram- and camera-based blink detection process in both manually and conditionally automated driving phases. A further comparison between alert and drowsy drivers was performed in order to evaluate the impact of drowsiness on the performance of blink detection algorithms in both driving modes. Data snippets from 14 monotonous manually driven sessions (mean 2 h 46 min) and 16 monotonous conditionally automated driven sessions (mean 2 h 45 min) were used. In addition to comparing two data-sampling frequencies for the electrooculogram measures (50 vs. 25 Hz) and four different signal-processing algorithms for the camera videos, we compared the blink detection performance of 24 reference groups. The analysis of the videos was based on very detailed definitions of eyelid closure events. The correct detection rates for the alert and manual driving phases (maximum 94%) decreased significantly in the drowsy (minus 2% or more) and conditionally automated (minus 9% or more) phases. Blinking behavior is therefore significantly impacted by drowsiness as well as by automated driving, resulting in less accurate blink detection.     

Acceptability,Feasibility, and Effectiveness of Internet-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in New York

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), consisting of exposure and response prevention (EX/RP), is both efficacious and preferred by patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), yet few receive this treatment in practice. This study describes the implementation of an Internet-based CBT program (ICBT) developed in Sweden in individuals seeking OCD treatment in New York. After translating and adapting the Swedish ICBT for OCD, we conducted an open trial with 40 adults with OCD. Using the RE-AIM implementation science framework, we assessed the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of ICBT. The Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) was the primary outcome measure. Of 40 enrolled, 28 participants completed the 10-week ICBT. In the intent-to-treat sample (N = 40), Y-BOCS scores decreased significantly over time (F = 28.12, df = 2, 49, p < . 001). Depressive severity (F = 5.87, df = 2, 48, p < . 001), and quality of life (F = 12.34, df = 2, 48, p < . 001) also improved. Sensitivity analyses among treatment completers (N = 28) confirmed the intent-to-treat results, with a large effect size for Y-BOCS change (Cohen’s d = 1.38). ICBT took less time to implement than face-to face EX/RP and participants were very to mostly satisfied with ICBT. On a par with results in Sweden, the adapted ICBT program reduced OCD and depressive symptoms and improved quality of life among individuals with moderate to severe OCD. Given its acceptability and feasibility, ICBT deserves further study as a way to increase access to CBT for OCD in the United States.     

States of grace: Eureka moments and the recognition of the unthought known

In this paper we consider states of grace in analysis. These encompass a range of phenomena which share an experience of something being received or revealed rather than produced by the ego. It feels that they are events that happen rather than events that are made to occur. They are marked by a profound sense of transformation of feeling tone. The quality of relatedness in the analytic dyad is also heightened. Some of these phenomena have been referred to as experiences of the self, synchronicities, moments of meeting, the unthought known and Eureka moments. The latter are experiences of sudden realization where a meaningful thought or image emerges which results in a dramatic shift in direction of the analysis and a transcendence of impasse. Although many authors describe these phenomena, we find that a Jungian approach provides a loom on which these threads can be woven together. Jung's concept of the transcendent function and his understanding of the gift of grace are particularly illuminating here. We also consider the conditions which allow grace to be experienced and how these inform our analytic practice.     

Filling a gap in the semantic gradient: Color associates and response set effects in the Stroop task

In the Stroop task, incongruent color associates (e.g., LAKE) interfere more with color identification than neutral words do (e.g., SEAT). However, color associates have historically been related to colors in the response set. Response set membership is an important factor in Stroop interference, because color words in the response set interfere more than color words not in the response set. It has not been established whether response set membership plays a role in the ability of a colorassociate to interfere with color identification. This issue was addressed in two experiments (one using vocal responses and one using manual responses) by comparing the magnitude of interference caused by color associates related to colors in the response set with that of interference caused by color associates unrelated to colors in the response set. The results of both experiments show that color associates unrelated to colors in the response set interfered with color identification more than neutral words did. However, the amount of interference was less than that from color associates that were related to colors in the response set. In addition, this pattern was consistent across response modalities. These results are discussed with respect to various theoretical accounts of Stroop interference.