Now you see it, now you don't: repetition blindness for nonwords

Repetition blindness (RB) for nonwords has been found in some studies, but not in others. The authors propose that the discrepancy in results is fueled by participant strategy; specifically, when rapid serial visual presentation lists are short and participants are explicitly informed that some trials will contain repetitions, participants are able to use partial orthographic information to correctly guess repetitions on repetition trials while avoiding spurious repetition reports on control trials. The authors first replicated V. Coltheart and R. Langdon's (2003) finding of RB for words but repetition advantage for nonwords (Experiment 1). When all participants were encouraged to utilize partial information in a same/different matching task along with an identification task, a repetition advantage was observed for both words and nonwords (Experiment 2). When guessing of repetitions was made detectable by including non-identical but orthographically similar items in the experiments, the repetition advantage disappeared; instead, RB was found for both words and nonwords (Experiments 3 and 4). Finally, when experiments did not contain any identical items, participants almost never reported repetitions, and reliable RB was found for orthographically similar words and nonwords (Experiments 5 and 6).     

Self-reported Magic Eye stereogram skill predicts stereoacuity

Autostereograms--commonly known as Magic Eye stereograms (MESs)--are two-dimensional images that support stereoscopic depth perception given an appropriate crossing or uncrossing of the eyes. We find that self-reported MES skill is highly predictive of stereoacuity as measured by a standard clinical test (r142 = 0.45, p < 0.0001; TNO test). Indeed, in our sample of 194 individuals, those who report poor MES skill have a five-fold increased risk of stereo impairment. Those who report poor MES skill also require on average five times greater binocular disparity to perceive stereoscopic depth than those who report good MES skill. Reported MES skill thus carries significant information about stereoacuity.     

Observing object motion induces increased generalization and sensitivity

Learning to recognize a new object requires binding together dissimilar images of that object into a common representation. Temporal proximity is a useful computational cue for learning invariant representations. We report experiments that demonstrate two distinct psychophysical effects of temporal association via observed object motion on object perception. First, we use an implicit priming criterion to demonstrate that observation of a dynamic object induces generalization over close temporal neighbors. Second, in contrast to predictions from previous work, we find that shape discrimination between images actually improves following the same training procedure. We suggest that these apparently conflicting sets of results, one demonstrating blurring and the other demonstrating sharpening of the perceived distinction between temporally proximate frames, are consistent with a highly redundant code for object appearance.     

The liberty principle and universal health care

A universal entitlement to health care can be grounded in the liberty principle. A detailed examination of Rawls's discussion of health care in Justice as Fairness shows that Rawls himself recognized that illness is a threat to the basic liberties, yet failed to recognize the implications of this fact for health resource allocation. The problem is that one cannot know how to allocate health care dollars until one knows which basic liberties one seeks to protect, and yet one cannot know which basic liberties to protect until one knows how health care dollars will be allocated. The solution is to design the list of basic liberties and the health care system in tandem so as to fit each other, such that every citizen is guaranteed a set of basic liberties and access to the health services needed to secure them.     

The Ohio Scales Youth Form: Expansion and Validation of a Self-Report Outcome Measure for Young Children

We examined the validity and reliability of a self-report outcome measure for children between the ages of 8 and 11. The Ohio Scales Problem Severity scale is a brief, practical outcome measure available in three parallel forms: Parent, Youth, and Agency Worker. The Youth Self-Report form is currently validated for children ages 12 and older. The Ohio Scales Problem Severity scale was administered to a clinical and comparison sample of children, ages 8–11, then readministered 1 week later to a subsample of children in order to examine test-retest reliability. The Ohio Scales demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and reliability. The Ohio Scales was significantly correlated with the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) across both samples, providing evidence for concurrent validity. Children of the clinical sample reporting higher scores (i.e., more symptomatic) than the children of the comparison sample on the Ohio Scales, thereby demonstrating construct validity.     

Immediate memory consequences of the effect of emotion on attention to pictures

Emotionally arousing stimuli are at once both highly attention grabbing and memorable. We examined whether emotional enhancement of memory (EEM) reflects an indirect effect of emotion on memory, mediated by enhanced attention to emotional items during encoding. We tested a critical prediction of the mediation hypothesis-that regions conjointly activated by emotion and attention would correlate with subsequent EEM. Participants were scanned with fMRI while they watched emotional or neutral pictures under instructions to attend to them a lot or a little, and were then given an immediate recognition test. A region in the left fusiform gyrus was activated by emotion, voluntary attention, and subsequent EEM. A functional network, different for each attention condition, connected this region and the amygdala, which was associated with emotion and EEM, but not with voluntary attention. These findings support an indirect cortical mediation account of immediate EEM that may complement a direct modulation model.     

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Across the Stages of Psychosis: Prodromal, First Episode, and Chronic Schizophrenia

Since the early 1990s, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been increasingly used as an adjunctive treatment for psychotic disorders. This paper describes the CBT of three cases, each at a different stage of psychotic disorder: at-risk mental state, first-episode psychosis, and chronic psychotic disorder. For the at-risk mental state, treament focused on anxiety and social phobia, whereas the treatment of first-episode psychosis focused on the development of a shared formulation of the factors leading to and maintaining psychotic symptoms. For the chronic case, treatment emphasized the possibility of improving strategies to prevent symptoms from interfering with life goals. The potential contribution of CBT to improve outcomes in psychotic disorders beyond those obtained through traditional pharmacotherapy is discussed.     

Heterosexual Attendance at Gay Events: The 2002 Parada Livre Festival in Porto Alegre,Brazil

This paper reports on a quantitative survey designed to characterize the public who attended Parada Livre 2002, a festival in Porto Alegre, Brazil organized around free sexual expression. Of particular interest was attendance at the event by heterosexual-identified individuals, a sub-population generally ignored in research to date on large-scale events of this sort. Questionnaires were completed by 176 Parada attendees. The questionnaires covered demographics, social movement participation, attitudes about HIV/AIDS and homosexuality, and motivations for attending the festival. Analysis gauged significant differences by gender and sexual orientation. Slightly more than half (52.1%) of the sample self-identified as heterosexual. Compared to attendees with non-normative sexual identities, heterosexuals were more likely to be women and less likely to be politically engaged in terms of social movement participation. Heterosexual attendees were slightly less gay-positive, but no less likely to know a lesbian, gay or travesti, or person with HIV/AIDS. Implications of study findings for scholarly understandings of cultural and political organization around sexual diversity in Brazil are discussed.

Human Foibles and Psychoanalytic Technique: Freud,Ferenczi, and Gizella Palos

This paper explores relations between human conundrums and psychoanalytic technique and theory through the relationship between Freud and Ferenczi. Rather than vilify (or lionize) either figure, the paper seeks to see into their struggles and conflicts, and to draw from correspondence and writings a portrait of a relationship. The paper describes not two dusty figures drawn from the closet of history but rather two live, flawed, and struggling human beings whose rational ideas about what they were doing could never keep step with their emotions. There is therefore much to be learned from their relationship: about transference and countertransference, about boundaries and friendship, about rivalry and despair, and about shame.