Index of suspicion: feeling not believing

Throughout the U.S., state laws require professionals who work with children to report cases of suspected child abuse to child protection services. Both practically and conceptually, however, significant problems arise from a lack of clarity regarding the threshold that has been set for reporting. Specifically, there is no consensus as to what constitutes reasonable suspicion, and little direction for how mandated reporters should gauge their legal and professional responsibilities when they harbor suspicion. In this paper we outline the context of the problem, discuss the nature and scope of its conceptual underpinnings, and offer recommendations for moving towards a concrete, practical solution.     

Does color synesthesia pose a paradox for early-selection theories of attention?

Abstract— P.M. is a synesthete who experiences colors when viewing alphanumeric symbols. Her search for a target differing from distractors by a synesthetic color feature takes the form of a pop-out search. Thus, it would seem that synesthesia can occur preattentively. However, discrepancies between the regression functions of response times observed in target-present trials and target-absent trials, and the fact that fast response times occur only when the target is within a few degrees of visual angle from fixation, indicate that P.M.'s synesthesia does not occur preattentively, but rather is within the focus of attention. We conclude that synesthesia is a genuine perceptual phenomenon that can have substantial influence on visual processing.     

Perceiving action identity: how pianists recognize their own performances

Can skilled performers, such as artists or athletes, recognize the products of their own actions? We recorded 12 pianists playing 12 mostly unfamiliar musical excerpts, half of them on a silent keyboard. Several months later, we played these performances back and asked the pianists to use a 5-point scale to rate whether they thought they were the person playing each excerpt (1 = no, 5 = yes). They gave their own performances significantly higher ratings than any other pianist's performances. In two later follow-up tests, we presented edited performances from which differences in tempo, overall dynamic (i.e., intensity) level, and dynamic nuances had been removed. The pianists' ratings did not change significantly, which suggests that the remaining information (expressive timing and articulation) was sufficient for self-recognition. Absence of sound during recording had no significant effect. These results are best explained by the hypothesis that an observer's action system is most strongly activated during perception of self-produced actions.     

Senior capstone design and ethics: A bridge to the professional world

A senior level capstone design experience has been developed and offered with a particular emphasis on many of the professional issues raised in Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) Engineering Criterion IV. The course has sought to develop student awareness of the ethical foundation of the engineering profession, the global and societal framework within which engineers practice, and the environmental impact on engineering. The capstone design course also focused upon improving the technical communications skills of the graduating senior class with both extensive instruction in writing and multiple workshops dealing with the art of making an effective oral presentation. The effectiveness of the design course was assessed using Kirkpatrick’s model for evaluating training programs. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the “Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology” meeting, New Orleans, 2003.     

Does imminent threat capture and hold attention?

According to models of attention and emotion, threat captures and holds attention. In behavioral tasks, robust evidence has been found for attentional holding but not for attentional capture by threat. An important explanation for the absence of attentional capture effects is that the visual stimuli used posed no genuine threat. The present study investigated whether visual cues that signal an aversive white noise can elicit attentional capture and holding effects. Cues presented in an attentional task were simultaneously provided with a threat value through an aversive conditioning procedure. Response latencies showed that threatening cues captured and held attention. These results support recent views on attention to threat, proposing that imminent threat captures attention in everyone.     

Comments on "Rapid motor adaptations to subliminal frequency shifts during syncopated rhythmic sensorimotor synchronization" by Michael H. Thaut and Gary P. Kenyon (Human Movement Science 22 [2003] 321-338)

Thaut and Kenyon [Human Movement Sci. 22 (2003) 321] have shown that, in a task requiring tapping in antiphase with a metronome, the response period adapts rapidly to a small (+/-2%) change in the stimulus period, whereas the relative phase between stimulus and response returns to its pre-change value only very gradually. On the basis of these and earlier findings, Thaut and Kenyon argue that period adaptation is rapid and subconscious, whereas phase adaptation is slow and dependent on awareness of a phase error. This interpretation is at variance with results in the literature suggesting that phase correction is rapid and subconscious, whereas period correction is slow and dependent on awareness of a period mismatch. Although differences in terminology (adaptation versus correction) play a role in this conflict, it primarily reflects different conceptions of sensorimotor synchronization and different interpretations of empirical findings. By excluding from their model a central timekeeper or oscillator with a flexible period, Thaut and Kenyon have omitted an essential component of human timing control that is needed for a proper explanation of their results.     

Learning and production of movement sequences: behavioral, neurophysiological, and modeling perspectives

A wave of recent behavioral studies has generated a new wealth of parametric observations about serial order behavior. What was a trickle of neurophysiological studies has grown to a steady stream of probes of neural sites and mechanisms underlying sequential behavior. Moreover, simulation models of serial behavior generation have begun to open a channel to link cellular dynamics with cognitive and behavioral dynamics. Here we review major results from prominent sequence learning and performance tasks, namely immediate serial recall, typing, 2 x N, discrete sequence production, and serial reaction time. These tasks populate a continuum from higher to lower degrees of internal control of sequential organization and probe important contemporary issues such as the nature of working-memory representations for sequential behavior, and the development and role of chunks in hierarchical control. The main movement classes reviewed are speech and keypressing, both involving small amplitude movements amenable to parametric study. A synopsis of serial order models, vis-a-vis major empirical findings leads to a focus on competitive queuing (CQ) models. Recently, the many behavioral predictive successes of CQ models have been complemented by successful prediction of distinctively patterned electrophysiological recordings. In lateral prefrontal cortex, parallel activation dynamics of multiple neural ensembles strikingly matches the parallel dynamics predicted by CQ theory. An extended CQ simulation model--the N-STREAMS neural network model--exemplifies ongoing attempts to accommodate a broad range of both behavioral and neurobiological data within a CQ-consistent theory.     

Failure to construct and transfer correct representations across probability problems

Previous studies carried out on "purely random" situations (with dice or poker chips) show the difficulties encountered by people in such situations, however simple they may be. In fact, in this type of situation, prior knowledge guides spontaneous representations, and the "errors" observed could be explained by the activation of "implicit models" which form the basis of erroneous representations. 42 statistically na?ve undergraduates were given several variants of a probability problem on which errors are common. In a learning phase, subjects were given four problems involving geometric figures which were pairwise related by complementarity and equivalence relations. In a subsequent transfer phase, they were given a fifth problem involving poker chips, which was structurally isomorphic to the fourth geometric-figures problem. The findings show that people do not realize the relations between problems, and that transfer occurred only for the subset of subjects who performed correctly on the training problems of the learning phase. These results appear to have some significant implications in teaching mathematical concepts.     

Perceptions of Ethical Behaviour among Business Faculty in Canada

Faculty members at Canadian business schools were surveyed regarding their ethical perceptions of behaviours related to undergraduate instruction. Fifty-five behavioural statements were listed and respondents were asked to rate the extent to which they felt each behaviour was ethical or unethical. The only item that respondents endorsed as unequivocally unethical (90% indicated it was definitely unethical) was Becoming sexually involved with an undergraduate in one of your classes. We also compared the results of our sample to those of an American sample. Overall, an interesting pattern of differences emerged between the responses obtained in Canada and the U.S. In general, the direction of the significant differences was such that Canadian professors viewed the behaviours in question as less ethical than did their American counterparts.