The relationship between the frequency and the processing complexity of linguistic structure

In this paper the relative frequencies of the possible resolutions of ambiguities involving noun phrase attachment sites are compared to the results of off-line psycholinguistic measurements of syntactic complexity. A lack of correlation between the two is observed. It is therefore argued that the comprehension system is distinct from what is driving the frequencies in the corpora. A production heuristic separate from the comprehension system is proposed to account for the observed frequencies.We would like to thank Susanne Tunstall for providing linguistic judgments in the corpus analyses reported in Sec. 3.3. We also wish to thank the following people for helpful, comments and discussions on earlier presentations of this paper: the audience at the Eighth Human Sentence Processing Conference, in Tucson Arizona, Maria Babyonyshev, Tom Bever, Martin Corley, Danny Fox, Don Mitchell, Edson Miyamoto, Janet Nicol, Colin Phillips, Gregg Solomon, Michael Spivey-Knowlton, James Thomas, and Tom Wasow. All remaining errors are our own. The second author was supported by the Research Training Grant Language: Acquisition and Computation awarded by the National Science Foundation (U.S.) to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (DIR 9113607), and by a fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.     

Distress tolerance and duration of past smoking cessation attempts

The present study tested the hypothesis that limited ability to tolerate physical and psychological distress is associated with early relapse from smoking cessation. Specifically, the authors exposed 16 current smokers who had failed to sustain any previous quit attempt for more than 24 hr (immediate relapsers) and 16 smokers with at least 1 sustained quit attempt of 3 months or longer (delayed relapsers) to psychological (mental arithmetic) and physical (carbon dioxide inhalation-breath holding) stressors. Relative to delayed relapsers, immediate relapsers were characterized by higher baseline levels of affective vulnerability, by greater levels of dysphoria and urge to smoke after 12 hr of nicotine deprivation, and by less task persistence on the stressors, suggesting that these may be risk factors for early lapse in the context of quitting smoking.     

PTSD arousal and depression symptoms associated with increased right-sided parietal EEG asymmetry

Researchers have proposed that depression and particular types of anxiety are associated with unique patterns of regional brain activation. The authors examined the relationship among posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depressive symptoms and frontal, temporal, and parietal EEG alpha asymmetry in female Vietnam War nurse veterans. The results indicate that PTSD arousal symptoms are associated with increased right-sided parietal activation. However, the combination of arousal, depression, and their interaction explain more than twice the variance in parietal asymmetry compared with arousal alone. The results support the contention that the association between anxiety and right-sided posterior activation is specific to the anxious arousal subtype. These findings underscore the importance of isolating, both theoretically and statistically, emotional subcomponents in studies of regional brain activation.     

Manual asymmetries in the preparation and control of goal-directed movements

The primary purpose of this experiment was to determine if left hand reaction time advantages in manual aiming result from a right hemisphere attentional advantage or an early right hemisphere role in movement preparation. Right-handed participants were required to either make rapid goal-directed movements to small targets or simply lift their hand upon target illumination. The amount of advance information about the target for a particular trial was manipulated by precuing a subset of potential targets prior to the reaction time interval. When participants were required to make aiming movements to targets in left space, the left hand enjoyed a reaction advantage that was not present for aiming in right space or simple finger lifts. This advantage was independent of the amount or type of advance information provided by the precue. This finding supports the movement planning hypothesis. With respect to movement execution, participants completed their aiming movements more quickly when aiming with their right hand, particularly in right space. This right hand advantage in right space was due to the time required to decelerate the movement and to make feedback-based adjustments late in the movement trajectory.     

Confucius and Kierkegaard: A Compatibilist Account of Social Ontology,Acquired Selfhood,and the Sources of Normativity

Nearly all of the scant comparative work on Søren Kierkegaard and Confucius places the two starkly at odds with each other. Kierkegaard is pictured as the paradigmatic exemplar of the Western self: a discrete rights-bearing and volitional atom who is quite alone in the world, while Confucius, by contrast, is the paradigmatic exemplar of the Eastern self: a complex and irreducibly embedded communitarian bundle of relations and rich social roles. In this article, I challenge this oppositional approach, since it is both erroneous and obscures fruitful dialogue between the two on conceptually commensurate problems. I argue (1) that Kierkegaard offers a relational ontology of the self which moves in a Confucian direction, (2) that subjectivity and relational reciprocity are not fundamentally at odds in the two thinkers, (3) that both thinkers value a life of harmonious integration that entails right relation to others, and finally (4) that Confucius’ appeal to Heaven as a source of normativity allows for salutary social critique of prevailing ethical norms and practices, in a way that provides important comparative insights with Kierkegaardian theism.     

The effect of mirrored environments on self-presentational efficacy and social anxiety in women in a step aerobics class

ObjectiveThe present study examined the influence of mirrors on self-presentational efficacy (SPE) and state social anxiety (SSA) in a group exercise class in female undergraduate students.MethodFifty-one female university students completed measures of SPE and SSA prior to and following a step aerobics class. Twenty-nine participants completed the class in front of a mirror, while 22 participants completed the class without a mirror.ResultsA repeated measures MANOVA indicated no differences in SPE or SSA based on the presence or absence of mirrors. Regardless of the presence or absence of a mirror, SPE increased and SSA decreased following exercise.ConclusionsThe results suggest that, for this population, completing an exercise session may be more important than the presence or absence of mirrors in influencing self-presentational concerns.