Differences between experts and non-experts in photographic perception and assessment

How professional skills and schemata do affect cognition, evaluative dimensions and aesthetic perception of pictures? And what about the effect of social elements like a smiling or serious subject pictured? The present study investigates the differences between Experts (photo professionals) and inexperienced individuals in perception and evaluation of photographs. Furthermore, it approaches the influence of different facial expressions (Reis et al. in Euro J Soc Psychol 20(3):259-267, 1990). People with well-developed schemes in photography should evaluate pictures through assessment, while inexperienced people should evaluate pictures through appraisal? N = 118, 60 Experts and 58 inexperienced people were asked to evaluate a set of stimulus pictures throughout: (a) 'The Circumplex Model of Affect' (PAQs) to measure 4 affective dimensions; and (b) a Semantic Differential made of 9 couples of bipolar adjectives to measure 2 evaluative dimensions (Aesthetics and Distinctive Features). Results partially confirmed the hypotheses: Experts differ significantly from Non-experts in picture evaluations. Smile arouses more positive evaluations, but only in the inexperienced group. No subject position effects were found. These results are in concordance with previous research about Expert and Non-expert evaluation, and they open new questions about facial expressions studies.     

Persistence of Traumatic Symptoms After Seven Years: Evidence from Young Individuals Exposed to the L’Aquila Earthquake

In this article, we investigated the presence of trauma-induced sequelae in a sample of 41 young individuals exposed to the L’Aquila earthquake who did not seek mental help in the aftermath of the disaster or in the ensuing months. We compared this group with 43 individuals, matched for age and education, who had not experienced an earthquake but had moved to and lived in L’Aquila after the earthquake and thus experienced the challenges of living in an earthquake-struck city. This study aimed to show that earthquake-exposed individuals scored significantly higher than nonexposed persons on certain scales of the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI) seven years after the event. Our results indicated that exposed individuals exhibited higher scores on the dissociation, intrusive experience, and defensive avoidance scales. Furthermore, a correlational analysis between specific conditions detected by the Earthquake Checklist L’Aquila (ECLA) and the TSI identified the influences of specific conditions, such as being trapped or injured under rubble during the earthquake, experiencing a persistent fear of aftershocks or a life-threatening feeling, and witnessing the death of a loved one. All of these experiences resulted in the persistence of trauma-related symptoms. Dissociative experiences during the trauma, cognitive and behavioral avoidance and reexperiencing were associated with negative effects and may hinder the natural process of recovery in trauma-exposed individuals. Knowledge of mid- and long-term psychological difficulties following a traumatic event may be useful for promoting interventions in mental health across exposed populations.     

Rapid naming deficits in dyslexia: a stumbling block for the perceptual anchor theory of dyslexia

According to a recent theory of dyslexia, the perceptual anchor theory, children with dyslexia show deficits in classic auditory and phonological tasks not because they have auditory or phonological impairments but because they are unable to form a ‘perceptual anchor’ in tasks that rely on a small set of repeated stimuli. The theory makes the strong prediction that rapid naming deficits should only be present in small sets of repeated items, not in large sets of unrepeated items. The present research tested this prediction by comparing rapid naming performance of a small set of repeated items with that of a large set of unrepeated items. The results were unequivocal. Deficits were found both for small and large sets of objects and numbers. The deficit was actually bigger for large sets than for small sets, which is the opposite of the prediction made by the anchor theory. In conclusion, the perceptual anchor theory does not provide a satisfactory account of some of the major hallmark effects of developmental dyslexia.     

Group processes in food choices: The role of ethnic identity and perceived ethnic norms upon intentions to purchase ethnical food products

A study tested an extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) model, inclusive of measures of ethnical identification and perceived ethnic group norms, in the ethnical food purchasing domain. One hundred and thirty‐five Jamaicans, living in the Brixton neighbourhood, London, were administered a self‐reported questionnaire measuring the classical TPB components (attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, behavioural intentions) plus three additional components: identification with the Jamaican group, perceived norms of the Jamaican group and past behaviour. Results of hierarchical multiple regressions showed that past behaviour, ethnical identification and perceived group norms explain an additional proportion of variance in intentions, independently of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived control. A two‐way interaction, between ethnical identification and perceived group norms, was detected. A stronger relation between group norms and intentions emerged among high ethnical identifiers. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Separating global and specific factors in developmental dyslexia

The general goal of the study was to identify global and specific components in developmental dyslexia using various manipulations based on the rapid automatization paradigm (RAN). In two experiments, we used both factor analysis and the Rate-and-Amount Model to verify if one (or more) global factor(s) and a variety of specific effects contribute to the naming (and visual search) deficits in children with dyslexia.

Results of Experiment 1 indicated the presence of three global components: pictorial naming, detailed orthographic analysis, and visual search. Pictorial naming is predicated by typical RAN tasks (such as naming colors or objects), independent of set size, but also from a variety of other tasks including Stroop interference conditions. The detailed orthographic analysis factor accounts for naming of orthographic stimuli at high set size. Visual search marked tasks requiring the scanning of visual targets.

Results of Experiment 2 confirmed the separation between the pictorial naming and detailed orthographic analysis factors both in the original sample and in a new group of children. Furthermore, specific effects of frequency, lexicality, and length were shown to contribute to the reading deficit.

Overall, it is proposed that focusing on the profile of both global and specific effects provides a more effective and, at the same time, simpler account of the dyslexics' impairment.     

Constitutionalism Out of a Positivist Mind Cast: The <Emphasis Type="Italic">Garantismo</Emphasis> Way

Among contemporary forms of constitutionalism, Luigi Ferrajoli’s Garantismo may be considered as the rather unfashionable attempt to build up a comprehensive and multi-layered theory, which still takes seriously the positivist heritage. This paper offers, in brief outline, a synthetic view of the social setting, the philosophical background, and the basic features of this conception of constitutionalism, when compared with legal positivism and other mainstream forms of (neo)constitutionalism.     

Separating global and specific factors in developmental dyslexia

The general goal of the study was to identify global and specific components in developmental dyslexia using various manipulations based on the rapid automatization paradigm (RAN). In two experiments, we used both factor analysis and the Rate-and-Amount Model to verify if one (or more) global factor(s) and a variety of specific effects contribute to the naming (and visual search) deficits in children with dyslexia. Results of Experiment 1 indicated the presence of three global components: pictorial naming, detailed orthographic analysis, and visual search. Pictorial naming is predicated by typical RAN tasks (such as naming colors or objects), independent of set size, but also from a variety of other tasks including Stroop interference conditions. The detailed orthographic analysis factor accounts for naming of orthographic stimuli at high set size. Visual search marked tasks requiring the scanning of visual targets. Results of Experiment 2 confirmed the separation between the pictorial naming and detailed orthographic analysis factors both in the original sample and in a new group of children. Furthermore, specific effects of frequency, lexicality, and length were shown to contribute to the reading deficit. Overall, it is proposed that focusing on the profile of both global and specific effects provides a more effective and, at the same time, simpler account of the dyslexics' impairment.