Principles of contour information: Reply to Lim and Leek (2012)

Lim and Leek (2012) presented a formalization of information along object contours, which they argued was an alternative to the approach taken in our article (Feldman & Singh, 2005). Here, we summarize the 2 approaches, showing that--notwithstanding Lim and Leek's (2012) critical rhetoric--their approach is substantially identical to ours, except for the technical details of the formalism. Following the logic of our article point by point, Lim and Leek (a) defined probabilistic expectations about the geometry of smooth contours (which they based on differential contour geometry, while we used a discrete approximation--the only essential difference in their approach), (b) assumed that information along the contour was proportional to the negative logarithm of probability, following standard information theory, and then (c) extended this formulation to closed contours. We analyze what they described as errors in our approach, all of which rest on mathematical misunderstandings or bizarre misreadings of our article. We also show that their extension to 3-dimensional surfaces and their "modified minima rule" contain fatal deficiencies.     

Some Aspects of Empathy in the Process of Psychotherapy: Learning from Indian Tradition

This article focuses on some practices in Indian tradition as interventions for enhancing empathy among aspiring psychotherapists. In this venture, author after briefly looking into the evolution of pro-social behavior, it defines basic nature of bond formation between therapist and client, and then summarizes findings of studies on Eastern meditational practices in the context of empathy. Since there is not much convincing evidence that meditational practices enhanced empathy in psychotherapists, the suggestion is to explore other processes in the Indian tradition. Intuition (pratibha) and holistic learning (vyutpatti) are among those processes, respectively, for journeys into the inner world and interventions at community level. They are pragmatic ways to sensitize the aspiring psychotherapists.     

Curved apparent motion induced by amodal completion

We investigated whether amodal completion can bias apparent motion (AM) to deviate from its default straight path toward a longer curved path, which would violate the well-established principle that AM follows the shortest possible path. Observers viewed motion sequences of two alternating rectangular tokens positioned at the ends of a semicircular occluder, with varying interstimulus intervals (ISIs; 100-500?ms). At short ISIs, observers tended to report simple straight-path motion-that is, outside the occluder. But at long ISIs, they became increasingly likely to report a curved-path motion behind the occluder. This tendency toward reporting curved-path motion was influenced by the shape of tokens, display orientation, the gap between tokens and the occluder, and binocular depth cues. Our results suggest that the visual system tends to minimize unexplained absence of a moving object, as well as its path length, such that AM deviates from the shortest path when amodal integration of motion trajectory behind the curved occluder can account for the objective invisibility of the object during the ISI.     

‘So people know I'm a Sikh’: Narratives of Sikh masculinities in contemporary Britain

This article examines British-born Sikh men's identification to Sikhism. In particular, it focuses on the appropriation and use of Sikh symbols amongst men who define themselves as Sikh. This article suggests that whilst there are multiple ways of ‘being’ a Sikh man in contemporary post-colonial Britain, and marking belonging to the Sikh faith, there is also a collectively understood idea of what an ‘ideal’ Sikh man should be. Drawing upon Connell and Messerschmidt's discussion of locally specific hegemonic masculinities (2005. “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept.” Gender and Society 19 (6): 829–859), it is suggested that an ideal Sikh masculine identity is partly informed by a Khalsa discourse, which informs a particular performance of Sikh male identity, whilst also encouraging the surveillance of young men's activities both by themselves and by others. These Sikh masculinities are complex and multiple, rotating to reaffirm, challenge and redefine contextualised notions of hegemonic masculinity within the Sikh diaspora in post-colonial Britain. Such localised Sikh masculinities may both assert male privilege and reap patriarchal dividends (Connell, W. 1995. Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press), resulting in particular British Sikh hegemonic masculinities which seek to shape the performance of masculinity, yet in another context these very same performances of masculinity may also signify a more marginalised masculinity vis-à-vis other dominant hegemonic forms.     

Ethical selfhood and the status of the secular: Muslim identity in Mumbai

As part of a larger project, this essay contributes to the current anthropological rethinking of categories such as ‘religion’, ‘secularism’ and ‘politics’ in relation to social processes and subjects: a series of ventures that are related, in the Indian context, to modernity and liberal conceptions of statehood, sovereignty and personhood. In discussing everyday phenomena such as piety and religious authority, gender and childraising, and political and professional pursuits in Mumbai, I demonstrate that the ostensibly ‘religious’ domain of Islam is not necessarily the only, or even primary, basis for achieving a self-consciously ethical selfhood for even those who identify as observant and devout Muslims. I argue that the religious domain of Islam in this context is defined as such and intersected by discourses and practices of the self as a political and economic agent defined largely in terms of political modernity.     

Object Perception,Attention, and Memory 2005 Conference Report

Currently one in five adults is still unable to read despite a rapidly developing world. Here we show that (il)literacy has important consequences for the cognitive ability of selecting relevant information from a visual display of nonlinguistic material. In two experiments we compared low to high literacy observers on both an easy and a more difficult visual search task involving different types of chicken. Low literates were consistently slower (as indicated by overall response times) in both experiments. More detailed analyses, including eye movement measures, suggest that the slowing is partly due to display wide (i.e., parallel) sensory processing but mainly due to postselection processes, as low literates needed more time between fixating the target and generating a manual response. Furthermore, high and low literacy groups differed in the way search performance was distributed across the visual field. High literates performed relatively better when the target was presented in central regions, especially on the right. At the same time, high literacy was also associated with a more general bias towards the top and the left, especially in the more difficult search. We conclude that learning to read results in an extension of the functional visual field from the fovea to parafoveal areas, combined with some asymmetry in scan pattern influenced by the reading direction, both of which also influence other (e.g., nonlinguistic) tasks such as visual search.     

Social support and work–family conflict: A test of an indirect effects model

Most work–family research on social support is based on matching domain relationships, that is, social support in the work domain is related to work interfering with family conflict (WIF) and social support in the family domain is related to family interfering with work conflict (FIW). In this research, based on the conservation of resources (COR) model, we examined the cross domain indirect relationship between social support in the work domain and FIW and the cross domain indirect relationship between social support in the family domain and WIF. We tested this model across three samples in two studies. In Study 1, we examined the cross domain influence of supervisory and spouse support on work–family conflict using two large random samples (N = 1130; N = 2769). In Study 2, we tested an expanded model of social support to include both generic and work–family specific support, and examined the cross domain indirect relationships between these two types of support on work–family conflict using a sample of 435 employees. Specifically, we proposed that social support systems in the work domain such as family friendly organizational policies, family supportive organizational climate, perceived organizational support, and perceived supervisory support will be indirectly and negatively related to FIW via WIF and that spouse/partner support will be indirectly and negatively related to WIF via FIW. Results for Study 1 provided support for the cross domain indirect effects model and results for Study 2 provided support for the cross domain indirect effects for work–family specific social support systems. We discuss implications of these results for the theory and practice of managing work–family conflict.     

Problem Anger in Psychotherapy: An Emotion-Focused Perspective on Hate, Rage, and Rejecting Anger

This paper explores applies emotion-focused theory, for the first time, to the emotions of hate, rage, and destructive anger. The general case formulation proposed in this paper is that these emotions are always an elaboration of secondary anger. The body of the paper describes three clinical case formulations. First, problem anger is described in terms of an individual’s self-criticism. Second, we present a form of secondary anger, in which hostility and rage are reactive feelings to avoid more vulnerable (primary) experiences. An unfortunate example of this is has been described as a common underlying process in domestic violence. A alternate manifestation of secondary anger results from the deterioration of what may have initially been adaptive anger; thus, excessive arousal and the loss of meaning or focus that one’s anger embodied also leads to rage or destructive anger. Finally, the experience and expression of hate is described as a primary maladaptive and/or instrumental anger. This appears in-session particularly among those with certain personality disorders. The paper highlights implications for research and practice.     

‘Cost in Transliteration’: The neurocognitive processing of Romanized writing

Romanized transliteration is widely used in internet communication and global commerce, yet we know little about its behavioural and neural processing. Here, we show that Romanized text imposes a significant neurocognitive load. Readers faced greater difficulty in identifying concrete words written in Romanized transliteration (Romanagari) compared to L1 and L2. Functional neuroimaging revealed that the neural cost of processing transliterations arose from significantly greater recruitment of language (left precentral gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule) and attention networks (left mid-cingulum). Additionally, transliterated text uniquely activated attention and control areas compared to both L1 (cerebellar vermis) and L2 (pre-supplementary motor area/pre-SMA). We attribute the neural effort of reading Romanized transliteration to (i) effortful phonological retrieval from unfamiliar orthographic forms and (ii) conflicting attentional demands imposed by mapping orthographic forms of one language to phonological-semantic representations in another. Finally, significant brain-behaviour correlation suggests that the left mid-cingulum modulates cognitive-linguistic conflict.