The visual perception of distance ratios outdoors

We conducted an experiment to evaluate the ability of 32 younger and older adults to visually perceive distances in an outdoor setting. On any given trial, the observers viewed 2 environmental distances and were required to estimate the distance ratio—the length of the (usually) larger distance relative to that of the shorter. The stimulus distance ratios ranged from 1.0 (the stimulus distances were identical) to 8.0 (1 distance interval was 8.0 times longer than the other). The stimulus distances were presented within a 26 m × 60 m portion of a grassy field. The observers were able to reliably estimate the stimulus distance ratios: The overall Pearson r correlation coefficient relating the judged and actual distance ratios was 0.762. Fifty-eight percent of the variance in the observers’ perceived distance ratios could thus be accounted for by variations in the actual stimulus ratios. About half of the observers significantly underestimated the distance ratios, while the judgments of the remainder were essentially accurate. Significant modulatory effects of sex and age occurred, such that the male observers’ judgments were the most precise, while those of the older males were the most accurate.     

Imaging the Impact of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure on the Structure of the Developing Human Brain

Prenatal alcohol exposure has numerous effects on the developing brain, including damage to selective brain structure. We review structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of brain abnormalities in subjects prenatally exposed to alcohol. The most common findings include reduced brain volume and malformations of the corpus callosum. Advanced methods have been able to detect shape, thickness and displacement changes throughout multiple brain regions. The teratogenic effects of alcohol appear to be widespread, affecting almost the entire brain. The only region that appears to be relatively spared is the occipital lobe. More recent studies have linked cognition to the underlying brain structure in alcohol-exposed subjects, and several report patterns in the severity of brain damage as it relates to facial dysmorphology or to extent of alcohol exposure. Future studies exploring relationships between brain structure, cognitive measures, dysmorphology, age, and other variables will be valuable for further comprehending the vast effects of prenatal alcohol exposure and for evaluating possible interventions.     

A Review of Family Therapy as an Effective Intervention for Anorexia Nervosa in Adolescents

This review examines family therapy as an effective intervention for Anorexia Nervosa (AN) in adolescents. An electronic and manual literature search was conducted. Studies pertaining to family therapy in the treatment of AN and specifically, the Maudsley Method/Family-Based Treatment were identified. A limited number of randomized control trials exist implicating family therapy. Of the existent studies, methodological limitations pertaining to small, homogeneous sample sizes are evident. Despite the limited number of studies, family therapy appears to illustrate probable efficacy. Additional research and funding are necessary to fully support family therapy in the treatment of AN in adolescents.     

Bien-être à la retraite selon le genre et l’âge : lien avec la perception du travail ancien

We focused on the direct relationship between job satisfaction experienced during working life and life-satisfaction after retirement. Also we wonder on differences about aspects of the former work evoked as pleasant. These questions are treated by differentiating women and men perceptions, and the perceptions according to age. Data on 396 French subjects, 182 men and 214 women (age range 66 to 98) were used to examine how life-satisfaction in retirement is linked to the perception of former job satisfaction. Other indications of adaptation are retained, as self-esteem or conversely boredom. Results show a) that job satisfaction is a predictable variable for life-satisfaction after retirement, b) that this impact is weaker for youngest, c) a strong similarity between men and women, whatever is their age. We discuss observed links.     

Nonverbal channel use in communication of emotion: how may depend on why

This study investigated the hypothesis that different emotions are most effectively conveyed through specific, nonverbal channels of communication: body, face, and touch. Experiment 1 assessed the production of emotion displays. Participants generated nonverbal displays of 11 emotions, with and without channel restrictions. For both actual production and stated preferences, participants favored the body for embarrassment, guilt, pride, and shame; the face for anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness; and touch for love and sympathy. When restricted to a single channel, participants were most confident about their communication when production was limited to the emotion's preferred channel. Experiment 2 examined the reception or identification of emotion displays. Participants viewed videos of emotions communicated in unrestricted and restricted conditions and identified the communicated emotions. Emotion identification in restricted conditions was most accurate when participants viewed emotions displayed via the emotion's preferred channel. This study provides converging evidence that some emotions are communicated predominantly through different nonverbal channels. Further analysis of these channel-emotion correspondences suggests that the social function of an emotion predicts its primary channel: The body channel promotes social-status emotions, the face channel supports survival emotions, and touch supports intimate emotions.     

Body Awareness: a phenomenological inquiry into the common ground of mind-body therapies

Enhancing body awareness has been described as a key element or a mechanism of action for therapeutic approaches often categorized as mind-body approaches, such as yoga, TaiChi, Body-Oriented Psychotherapy, Body Awareness Therapy, mindfulness based therapies/meditation, Feldenkrais, Alexander Method, Breath Therapy and others with reported benefits for a variety of health conditions. To better understand the conceptualization of body awareness in mind-body therapies, leading practitioners and teaching faculty of these approaches were invited as well as their patients to participate in focus groups. The qualitative analysis of these focus groups with representative practitioners of body awareness practices, and the perspectives of their patients, elucidated the common ground of their understanding of body awareness. For them body awareness is an inseparable aspect of embodied self awareness realized in action and interaction with the environment and world. It is the awareness of embodiment as an innate tendency of our organism for emergent self-organization and wholeness. The process that patients undergo in these therapies was seen as a progression towards greater unity between body and self, very similar to the conceptualization of embodiment as dialectic of body and self described by some philosophers as being experienced in distinct developmental levels.     

The Meaning of a Scientific Image: Case Study in Nanoscience a Semiotic Approach

This paper proposes a new approach for analysing daily activities in a laboratory. The case study presented is an analysis of shop-talk around a microscope. In addition to the classical approaches, such as ethnomethodology and anthropology of science, I argue that a microsemiotic approach could be useful to better understand what is at stake. The semiotic approach I shall use here was proposed by a group of Belgian semioticians: Groupe μ. This semiotic approach leads to a constructivist point of view: the meaning of a visual representation is progressively constructed and is very context-dependent. This semiotic approach is fruitful because it allows a very precise analysis of shop-talk recorded data, and gives a better account of the materiality of visual representations.     

An empirical examination of sex differences in scoring preschool children's aggression

Sex differences in adults’ observations and ratings of children’s aggression was studied in a sample of preschool children (N = 89, mean age = 44.00 months, SD = 8.48). When examining the direct observations made by trained observers, male observers, relative to female observers, more frequently recorded aggressive bouts, especially of boys. On rating scales assessing aggression, trained male raters also gave higher aggressive ratings than female raters. Lastly, we compared the ratings of trained female raters and female teachers on the same scale and found no differences. Results are discussed in terms male raters’ and observers’ prior experiences in activating their experiential schemata where males’ greater experience in aggression, relative to that of females, leads them to perceive greater levels of aggression.     

The development of children’s early memory skills

A multitask battery tapping nonverbal memory and language skills was used to assess 60 children at 18, 24, and 30 months of age. Analyses focused on the degree to which language, working memory, and deliberate memory skills were linked concurrently to children’s Elicited Imitation task performance and whether the patterns of association varied across the different ages. Language ability emerged as a predictor of immediate Elicited Imitation performance by 24 months of age and predicted delayed performance at each age. In addition to the contributions of language, children’s abilities to search for and retrieve toys in the deliberate memory task were associated with their immediate Elicited Imitation performance at each age. In addition to language, working memory was positively associated with aspects of both immediate and delayed performance at all ages. The extent to which it was possible to replicate and extend previous cross-sectional work in this longitudinal study is discussed.