Using the visual world paradigm to study language processing: a review and critical evaluation

We describe the key features of the visual world paradigm and review the main research areas where it has been used. In our discussion we highlight that the paradigm provides information about the way language users integrate linguistic information with information derived from the visual environment. Therefore the paradigm is well suited to study one of the key issues of current cognitive psychology, namely the interplay between linguistic and visual information processing. However, conclusions about linguistic processing (e.g., about activation, competition, and timing of access of linguistic representations) in the absence of relevant visual information must be drawn with caution.     

Psychosoziale Versorgung von Krebspatienten

Objectives

The aim of this study was to determine rates of psychooncological care for cancer inpatients and outpatients under routine conditions in a large University hospital. The percentage of patients who received care was analyzed and compared with self-rated and expert rated supportive care needs.

Methods

The percentage of inpatients who received psychooncological care was calculated by comparing the number of cancer patients treated at the hospital as documented by the local tumor registry (n=1,979) with the number of patients treated by a psychooncologist in that hospital as documented by the hospital??s psychooncological consultation liaison service. The percentage of outpatients who received psychooncological care was calculated by comparing the number of incident cancer cases as documented by the local tumor registry (n=5,886) with the number of patients who received at least one consultation at the local tumor counseling centre. Supportive care needs were estimated by analyzing data of a prospective patient survey in the same hospital (n=1,803) using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and single items to determine social burden and the wish for emotional support.

Results

The results showed that 11% of inpatients and outpatients (n=234 and n=638, respectively) received psychooncological care. Social care needs were prevalent in 37% and psychological care needs in 52% of the patients during the stay in hospital and in 42% (social and psychological) 6 months later. Of the patients 41% expressed the need to see a social worker and 29% to see a psychologist. Large differences were found between patients with different tumor entities.

Conclusion

Psychooncological care delivered to cancer patients under routine conditions was below the actual rate required as estimated by screening instruments and as expressed by the patients.     

Does an iPod make you happy? An exploration of the effects of iPod ownership on life satisfaction

The Apple iPod is currently the undisputed leading product in the global MP3 player market. This competitive advantage is due to the design, high functionality, and perhaps most importantly, the ‘cool factor’ which Apple has managed to obtain with its products. This study explores if owning an iPod (as opposed to another brand of MP3 player) makes a difference in the perception of general life satisfaction. Using Diener et al.'s generic satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) to measure the dependent variable life satisfaction, a model with the key concepts usage, benefits, peer influence, design, iPod phenomenon, and iPod bubble has been developed and tested in a variety of ways, including regression analysis. The sample consisted of a multinational sample of 240+ young adults, aged 18–35 years. The demographic profiles of iPod and non‐iPod owners were very similar, but for iPod owners, 23 per cent of the variance in overall life satisfaction is explained by the key concepts used in this research. Key influencing variables for iPod owners are peer influence and design. For non‐iPod owners, the amount of variance explained by the independent variables was negligible. iPod owners also considered their MP3 players to be much ‘cooler’ than did non‐iPod owners. This article considers the managerial implications of these findings for Apple and for competing brands. The social implications of these findings and their significance are also discussed, and several potential areas for further research are highlighted. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sources of individual differences in the speed of naming objects and actions: The contribution of executive control

We examined the contribution of executive control to individual differences in response time (RT) for naming objects and actions. Following Miyake et al., executive control was assumed to include updating, shifting, and inhibiting abilities, which were assessed using operation span, task-switching, and stop-signal tasks, respectively. Experiment 1 showed that updating ability was significantly correlated with the mean RT of action naming, but not of object naming. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2 using a larger stimulus set. Inhibiting ability was significantly correlated with the mean RT of both action and object naming, whereas shifting ability was not correlated with the mean naming RTs. Ex-Gaussian analyses of the RT distributions revealed that updating ability was correlated with the distribution tail of both action and object naming, whereas inhibiting ability was correlated with the leading edge of the distribution for action naming and the tail for object naming. Shifting ability provided no independent contribution. These results indicate that the executive control abilities of updating and inhibiting contribute to the speed of naming objects and actions, although there are differences in the way and extent these abilities are involved.     

The Incan Quipus

Quipus, knotted structures of woollen or cotton cords, were used as a bureaucratic tool in the Inca state. In the absense of a writing system, numerals and possibly other pieces of information were encoded on the quipus by tying knots into elaborately structured coloured cords. Though interpretation of the quipu contents is far from complete, some information on Inca mathematics can be deducted from the analysis of ancient specimen, especially when combined with the results of anthropological and linguistic research in contemporary Andean societies. In this paper, the quipus are introduced, their structure is explained, and some results on mathematical concepts of the Incas are presented based on a comparison of mathematical and anthropological literature on the subject.     

Der Einfluß der Darbietungsmodalität auf das kurzfristige Behalten

Zusammenfassung Ausgehend von der Zweikomponententheorie des menschlichen Gedächtnisses wird die bessere Behaltensleistung bei akustischer gegenüber optischer Darbietung diskutiert. Drei Erklärungsvorschläge dieses Modalitäts-effektes werden einander gegenübergestellt. Ein Experiment mit unimodaler und bimodaler Darbietungsweise bei freier Reproduktion unterstützt die Annahme zweier getrennter Speicher. Die Ergebnisse werden mit Markov-Modellen beschrieben. Abschließend wird vorgeschlagen, die Gedächtnistheorie flexibler zu gestalten.

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Effect of the mode of presentation on short-term memory

Summary The two-component theory of human memory is taken as the basis for a discussion on the effect of mode of presentation on recall probability. Three different explanations for this modality effect are compared. An experiment using auditory and visual and bimodal presentations with single-trial free recall supports the two-store hypothesis. The results are described with the aid of Markov models. It is suggested that the theory of human memory should be modified to allow for greater flexibility.

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Die Untersuchung wurde durch eine Sachmittelbeihilfe der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft an A.F. unterstützt. Wir danken Frau C. Klein und Herrn W. D. Müller für ihre Hilfe bei der Durchführung der Experimente.     

When spiders appear suddenly: spider-phobic patients are distracted by task-irrelevant spiders

Fear is thought to facilitate the detection of threatening stimuli. Few studies have examined the effects of task-irrelevant phobic cues in search tasks that do not involve semantic categorization. In a combined reaction time and eye-tracking experiment we investigated whether peripheral visual cues capture initial attention and distract from the execution of goal-directed eye movements. Twenty-one spider-phobic patients and 21 control participants were instructed to search for a color singleton while ignoring task-irrelevant abrupt-onset distractors which contained either a small picture of a spider (phobic), a flower (non-phobic, but similar to spiders in shape), a mushroom (non-phobic, and not similar to spiders in shape), or no picture. As expected, patients' reaction times were longer on trials with spider distractors. However, eye movements revealed that this was not due to attentional capture by spider distractors; patients more often fixated on all distractors with pictures, but their reaction times were delayed by longer fixation durations on spider distractors. These data do not support automatic capture of attention by phobic cues but suggest that phobic patients fail to disengage attention from spiders.     

Soziale Phobie

Social anxiety is characterised by overwhelming fears in social interactions or performance situations. Its life-time prevalence is high (about 13%) and relapses are quite common. Social anxiety disorder is a chronic disease with a high impairment for the persons afflicted. Cognitive-behavioural, psychodynamic and neurobiological models have promising implications for psychotherapy and pharmacological treatment. Neurobiological approaches have identified risk factors and possible somatic mechanisms. Cognitive-behavioural models explain the development of dysfunctional beliefs and the maintenance of social anxiety. Psychodynamic approaches refer to a disturbed self-concept and underline the importance of prior negative interpersonal relationships. Manualised treatments exist for the cognitive-behavioural approach and a manual for psychodynamic psychotherapy was recently developed. This paper presents the different approaches (neurobiological, cognitive-behavioural, psychodynamic) to social anxiety disorder and possible implications for therapy are discussed.     

Here is looking at you: emotional faces predominate in binocular rivalry

Two incompatible pictures compete for perceptual dominance when they are presented to one eye each. This so-called binocular rivalry results in an alternation of dominant and suppressed percepts. In accordance with current theories of emotion processing, the authors' previous research has suggested that emotionally arousing pictures predominate in this perceptual process. Three experiments were run with pictures of emotional facial expressions that are known to induce emotions while being well controlled in terms of physical characteristics. In Experiment 1, photographs of emotional and neutral facial expressions were presented of the same actor to minimize physical differences. In Experiment 2, schematic emotional expressions were presented to further eliminate low-level differences. In Experiment 3, a probe-detection task was conducted to control for possible response-biases. Together, these data clearly demonstrate that emotional facial expressions predominate over neutral expressions; they are more often the first percept and they are perceived for longer durations. This is not caused by physical stimulus properties or by response-biases. This novel approach supports that emotionally significant visual stimuli are preferentially perceived.