You heard it here first: Readers mentally simulate described sounds

The present experiments examined whether readers spontaneously simulate implied auditory elements of sentences. Participants read sentences that implicitly conveyed details that could provoke auditory imagery (e.g., The engine clattered as the truck driver warmed up his rig.), and then performed an unrelated sound categorization task during which they classified sounds as real (occurring in the world) or fake (computer generated). In Experiment 1 these two tasks were performed in sequence; in Experiment 2 they were separated into three experimental blocks to rule out the possibility that readers strategically formed auditory imagery as a result of task demands. In both studies, readers were faster to correctly categorize sounds as ‘real’ when the sounds had been implied by a preceding sentence. These results suggest that readers mentally simulate the implied auditory characteristics of sentences, even in the absence of tasks that promote mental simulation. Mentally simulating described events is not limited to visual and action-based modalities, further demonstrating the multimodal nature of the perceptual symbols spontaneously activated during reading.     

Experiential and rational processing styles,emotional intelligence and wellbeing

This research examined a model specifying precursors of emotional intelligence and subjective wellbeing. The model proposes that experiential and rational processing styles influence level of trait emotional intelligence, which in turn influences subjective wellbeing. One hundred and fifty‐four adult Australian participants completed measures of preference for rational and experiential processing, trait emotional intelligence, and indicators of subjective wellbeing (affect and life satisfaction). Structural equation path analysis identified a model for predicting wellbeing. Preference for experiential and rational processing both significantly predicted higher levels of emotional intelligence, which in turn predicted greater subjective wellbeing. Emotional intelligence fully mediated the effect of rational processing on wellbeing, and partially mediated the effect of experiential processing.     

An 8-year follow-up of treated obese children: Children’s, process and parental predictors of successful outcome

Objective

This study presents an 8-year outcome of overweight children who were treated in an outpatient program and aims to identify child and familial variables associated with long-term weight regulation.

Methods

A total of 90 children participated with a mean age of 10.1 years ± 2.6 at baseline and a mean adjusted BMI (actual BMI/50th percentile of BMI for age and gender × 100) of 153.1 ± 20.7% at baseline participated in the 8-year follow-up (retrieval rate 71%; response rate 89%). Children’s and parental factors, administered at baseline and at follow-up were related to the success of the treatment.

Results

The children obtained a mean reduction of 8% in adjusted BMI at the 8-year follow-up. A total of 59 children (66%) were successful in obtaining weight control (i.e. maintaining their original % adjusted BMI); 40% even decreased their adjusted BMI by 10% or more. Analyses revealed that the child’s age, the degree of overweight at baseline and the child’s global self-worth were positive predictors of long-term weight loss 8 years after treatment, whereas psychopathology in the mother was a negative predictor. The total explained variance was R² = 35%.

Discussion

Treatment of childhood obesity by means of a multidisciplinary cognitive-behavioural program enables the majority of children to control their weight in the long term. In order to predict the success of the treatment, it is recommended to take into account the child’s age, its degree of overweight, its global self-worth and the occurrence of maternal psychopathology.     

An empirical typology of perfectionism in early-to-mid adolescents and its relation with eating disorder symptoms

Although the association between perfectionism and eating disorder (ED) symptoms is well-established, debate remains about the relative contribution of two central dimensions of perfectionism, that is, Personal Standards (PS) perfectionism and Evaluative Concerns (EC) perfectionism, in the prediction of ED symptoms. This study used cluster analysis to establish naturally occurring combinations of PS and EC perfectionism in early-to-mid adolescents (N = 656; M age = 13.9 years). Evidence was obtained for four perfectionism profiles: (1) maladaptive perfectionism (high PS and high EC), (2) pure evaluative concerns perfectionism (high EC only), (3) adaptive perfectionism (high PS, low EC), and (4) non-perfectionism (low on both PS and EC). A comparison of participants in these four clusters in terms of ED symptoms suggests that a combination of high personal standards and evaluative concerns (rather than the presence of one of these two dimensions alone) is most strongly related to ED symptoms.     

On intuitional stability: The clear,the strong,and the paradigmatic

Skepticism about the epistemic value of intuition in theoretical and philosophical inquiry has recently been bolstered by empirical research suggesting that people’s concrete-case intuitions are vulnerable to irrational biases (e.g., the order effect). What is more, skeptics argue that we have no way to “calibrate” our intuitions against these biases and no way of anticipating intuitional instability. This paper challenges the skeptical position, introducing data from two studies that suggest not only that people’s concrete-case intuitions are often stable, but also that people have introspective awareness of this stability, providing a promising means by which to assess the epistemic value of our intuitions.     

Use of geometry for spatial reorientation in children applies only to symmetric spaces

Proponents of the geometric module hypothesis argue that following disorientation, many species reorient by use of macro‐environment geometry. It is suggested that attention to the surface layout geometry of natural terrain features may have been selected for over evolutionary time due to the enduring and unambiguous location information it provides. Paradoxically, however, tests of the hypothesis have been exclusively conducted in symmetric (hence ‘unnatural’ and geometrically ambiguous) environments. The present series of studies examines reorientation by 18‐month–3‐year‐old children in a rectangular versus irregular quadrilateral enclosure (Study 1), a rectangular versus irregular quadrilateral array (Study 2) and an isosceles versus irregular triangular array (Study 3). Children were successful in symmetric but not asymmetric environments, casting doubt on the functional argument for an empirical basis of the geometric module hypothesis.     

Differential outcomes facilitate same/different concept learning

Commonly recognized, the training procedure one employs often affects the results they obtain. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that abstract-concept learning is affected by employing a differential-outcomes procedure. The differential-outcome effect has been shown to occur for item-specific strategies but has not been established for relational strategies. To test whether different-outcome expectancies can facilitate a relational strategy, eight pigeons were trained and tested in a two-item same/different task with pictures. After pecking an upper picture, they pecked a lower picture if the pictures were the same or a white rectangle if the pictures were different. Two groups of pigeons were rewarded with either different outcomes (sounds and food amounts) or same outcomes. Both groups were trained to criterion with successively larger picture sets (8–1,024 items) and were transfer tested with novel pictures following each acquisition. With the smallest training sets, neither group showed any novel-stimulus transfer. But after acquiring the task with 32 pictures, the different-outcomes group responded more accurately to novel pictures than the same-outcome group. As the training set-size increased, both groups’ transfer performance converged and became equivalent to training performance. These results show for the first time that training with different outcomes facilitates abstract-concept learning.     

Recognizing famous people

In daily life, face identification requires that the observer select a single representation from hundreds if not thousands in memory. This breadth of choice is nearly impossible to replicate in the laboratory using newly learned faces, especially in the context of a Bubbles experiment (Gosselin & Schyns, 2001). In this study, we obviated this concern by studying the performance of observers in a face-naming task using 210 faces of celebrities. On each trial, we presented a face randomly sampled with Bubbles. We performed least-square multiple linear regressions on the location of the samples and on accuracy to pinpoint the facial features that were used effectively in this task. Correct face identification relied primarily on the eye areas in spatial frequency bands ranging from 4.37 to 70 cycles per face (cpf) and on the mouth and the nose in a spatial frequency band ranging from 8.75 to 17.5 cpf. A comparison with other studies (Caldara et al., 2005; Schyns, Bonnar, & Gosselin, 2002) in which Bubbles was used with a set of 10 newly learned faces revealed that although the eye areas were useful across studies, the mouth area and higher spatial frequencies gained in importance when few newly learned faces were used.     

Making the sour sweet? Upcoming food-pellet reinforcement produces positive induction when rats press a lever for unsweetened lemon juice

Research has suggested that rats increase their response rate for a low-valued reinforcer when a high-valued reinforcer will soon be available (i.e., positive induction) because the value of the low-valued substance has increased. The present study tested if such a procedure could be used to increase rats’ responding for a non-reinforcing food. Rats pressed a lever for unsweetened lemon juice in the first half of a 50-min session and, in treatment conditions, for food pellets in the second half. Experiment 1 demonstrated that rates of responding for the lemon juice generally varied directly with the upcoming rate of food-pellet reinforcement and that responding in lemon juice-only sessions did not differ significantly from that observed during extinction. Experiment 2 demonstrated that rats consumed more lemon juice following a condition in which they were displaying positive induction than following a condition in which they only responded for lemon juice. The present results are consistent with the increase in value account of positive induction. More importantly, they may indicate that certain environmental conditions can increase food-directed behavior for a non-reinforcing food, a finding which may have implications for our understanding of eating behavior and dysfunctions (e.g., overeating).