Anticipatory eye movements when approaching a curve on a rural road depend on working memory load

Where do drivers look when approaching curves on a winding road? Existing models on visual processes in curve driving have focused on path-controlling behavior. Another aspect in curve driving is the visual anticipation of potential oncoming vehicles, obstacles and road alignment. We define the occlusion point of a curve as the nearest point where the view of the road is blocked by some obstacle (e.g. vegetation). Monitoring the occlusion point is relevant for safe driving because potential oncoming vehicles or obstacles on the road will come into view on the occlusion point.In the current on-road study, 10 participants drove an instrumented car at their own pace on a low standard rural road while their eye-movements were recorded. We investigated anticipatory glances towards the occlusion point while approaching open sight curves and how anticipatory glances are affected by a cognitive secondary task without explicit visuo-spatial or motor components.The results demonstrate that drivers indeed look at the occlusion point while approaching open curves on rural roads, and that working memory load leads to a significant decrease in visual anticipation. Previously, it has been shown that cognitive secondary tasks lead to reduction of looking at the speedometer and mirrors and of safety critical visual scanning at street crossings. We show that the effect is also present in the anticipation of road curvature and hazards on rural roads.     

The ‘theory theory’ of mind and the aims of Sellars’ original myth of Jones

Recent proponents of the ??theory theory?? of mind often trace its roots back to Wilfrid Sellars?? famous ??myth of Jones?? in his 1956 article, ??Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind??. Sellars developed an account of the intersubjective basis of our knowledge of the inner mental states of both self and others, an account which included the claim that such knowledge is in some sense theoretical knowledge. This paper examines the nature of this claim in Sellars?? original account and its relationship to more recent debates concerning ??theory of mind??, in particular the theory theory. A close look reveals that Sellars?? original view embodied several distinctions that would enable more recent theory theorists to accommodate certain phenomenological objections that have been raised against that outlook. At the heart of the philosophical issue is an overlooked complexity involved in Sellars?? account of the ??theory/observation?? distinction, involving a conception of the distinction that is both independently plausible and a key to the issue in dispute.     

International Migration and Religious Selection

Migrants are selected by several characteristics (age, education, skill, health, and family migration experience). Often less examined is religious selection. Using Guatemalan data, this research note tests whether religious affiliation is significantly associated with migration to the United States, net of other competing factors. Results are robust, demonstrating that Protestants are more likely than other religious groups to migrate. Additionally, mediating factors (social networks, cultural norms, and ideological links) are tested to identify social mechanisms behind the Protestant effect. The research note concludes with implications of religious selection and how religious selection can be further examined in migration and religion studies.     

Addressing Challenges in Individual Psychotherapy with Delusional Patients: A Case Study

Although cognitive-behavioral treatments for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders demonstrate strong results in clinical trials, not all patients respond to these treatments. Common challenges in psychotherapy with delusional patients include a mismatch between the therapist’s and the patient’s expectations about the purpose of therapy, the patient’s lack of motivation to reduce delusional beliefs in service of other goals, and the patient’s dependence on the delusions in order to preserve an intact sense of self. This case highlights the value of integrating a psychodynamic perspective with cognitive-behavioral interventions to address challenges in psychotherapy with chronically delusional patients.     

Gender differences in self-conscious emotional experience: A meta-analysis

The self-conscious emotions (SCE) of guilt, shame, pride, and embarrassment are moral emotions, which motivate adherence to social norms and personal standards and emerge in early childhood following the development of self-awareness. Gender stereotypes of emotion maintain that women experience more guilt, shame, and embarrassment but that men experience more pride. To estimate the magnitude of gender differences in SCE experience and to determine the circumstances under which these gender differences vary, we meta-analyzed 697 effect sizes representing 236,304 individual ratings of SCE states and traits from 382 journal articles, dissertations, and unpublished data sets. Guilt (d = -0.27) and shame (d = -0.29) displayed small gender differences, whereas embarrassment (d = -0.08), authentic pride (d = -0.01), and hubristic pride (d = 0.09) showed gender similarities. Similar to previous findings of ethnic variations in gender differences in other psychological variables, gender differences in shame and guilt were significant only for White samples or samples with unspecified ethnicity. We found larger gender gaps in shame with trait (vs. state) scales, and in guilt and shame with situation- and scenario-based (vs. adjective- and statement-based) items, consistent with predictions that such scales and items tend to tap into global, nonspecific assessments of the self and thus reflect self-stereotyping and gender role assimilative effects. Gender differences in SCE about domains such as the body, sex, and food or eating tended to be larger than gender differences in SCE about other domains. These findings contribute to the literature demonstrating that blanket stereotypes about women's greater emotionality are inaccurate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The buried in treasures workshop: Waitlist control trial of facilitated support groups for hoarding

Hoarding is a serious form of psychopathology that has been associated with significant health and safety concerns, as well as the source of social and economic burden (Tolin, Frost, Steketee, & Fitch, 2008; Tolin, Frost, Steketee, Gray, & Fitch, 2008). Recent developments in the treatment of hoarding have met with some success for both individual and group treatments. Nevertheless, the cost and limited accessibility of these treatments leave many hoarding sufferers without options for help. One alternative is support groups that require relatively few resources. Frost, Pekareva-Kochergina, and Maxner (2011) reported significant declines in hoarding symptoms following a non-professionally run 13-week support group (The Buried in Treasures [BIT] Workshop). The BIT Workshop is a highly structured and short term support group. The present study extended these findings by reporting on the results of a waitlist control trial of the BIT Workshop. Significant declines in all hoarding symptom measures were observed compared to a waitlist control. The treatment response rate for the BIT Workshop was similar to that obtained by previous individual and group treatment studies, despite its shorter length and lack of a trained therapist. The BIT Workshop may be an effective adjunct to cognitive behavior therapy for hoarding disorder, or an alternative when cognitive behavior therapy is inaccessible.     

Morphological priming survives a language switch

In a long-lag morphological priming experiment, Dutch (L1)-English (L2) bilinguals were asked to name pictures and read aloud words. A design using non-switch blocks, consisting solely of Dutch stimuli, and switch-blocks, consisting of Dutch primes and targets with intervening English trials, was administered. Target picture naming was facilitated by morphologically related primes in both non-switch and switch blocks with equal magnitude. These results contrast some assumptions of sustained reactive inhibition models. However, models that do not assume bilinguals having to reactively suppress all activation of the non-target language can account for these data.