The roles of categorical and coordinate spatial relations in recognizing buildings

Categorical spatial information is considered more useful for recognizing objects, and coordinate spatial information for guiding actions??for example, during navigation or grasping. In contrast with this assumption, we hypothesized that buildings, unlike other categories of objects, require both categorical and coordinate spatial information in order to be recognized. This hypothesis arose from evidence that right-brain-damaged patients have deficits in both coordinate judgments and recognition of buildings and from the fact that buildings are very useful for guiding navigation in urban environments. To test this hypothesis, we assessed 210 healthy college students while they performed four different tasks that required categorical and coordinate judgments and the recognition of common objects and buildings. Our results showed that both categorical and coordinate spatial representations are necessary to recognize a building, whereas only categorical representations are necessary to recognize an object. We discuss our data in view of a recent neural framework for visuospatial processing, suggesting that recognizing buildings may specifically activate the parieto-medial-temporal pathway.     

Psychosocial Factors Predicting SARS-Preventive Behaviors in Four Major SARS-Affected Regions

This multinational study examined intended and actual adoption of SARS-preventive behaviors in major SARS-affected regions: Guangdong (China), Hong Kong, Singapore, and Toronto (Canada). The theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) were adopted as theoretical frameworks. A measure was constructed to assess attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (PBC), knowledge of SARS, and SARS-preventive behaviors. Seventy-five working adults were recruited from each region. They completed the new measure in an initial study, and reported their actual behaviors 2 weeks later. Results provided cross-cultural generalizability of the TRA by showing that attitude and subject norm predicted SARS-preventive behaviors for all the groups. PBC was a statistically significant predictor for all participants except those from Guangdong, indicating that the TPB is applicable only to people from Hong Kong, Singapore, and Toronto. Knowledge of SARS also was found to be an independent predictor.     

SOCIOEMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS IN TODDLERS WITH LANGUAGE DELAY

Toddlers with language delay are at risk for persistent developmental and behavioral difficulties; however, the association between socioemotional/behavior problems and language in young children is not well understood. This study explored socioemotional/behavior problems in a unique sample of toddlers with language delays using a measure developed explicitly for this age group. Toddlers identified by 18 months with receptive and expressive language delay (LD; n = 30) or typical development (TD; n = 61) were evaluated at 18 and 24 months of age using the Infant‐Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (ITSEA) and the Mullen Scales of Early Learning. Compared to toddlers who had TD, toddlers with LD had significantly more concerning scores at 18 and 24 months on all ITSEA domains. The rate of “clinical concern” on most domains was not high in either group, except that >60% of LD toddlers were in the clinical concern range on the Competence domain. Socioemotional/behavioral problems were dimensionally related to receptive and expressive language, with greater language delay associated with more concerning ITSEA scores. Socioemotional and behavioral problems are related to receptive and expressive language abilities in 18‐ and 24‐month‐olds, indicating the need for screening of both types of concerns in toddlers identified with potential language delays.     

Baby steps: investigating the development of perceptual–motor couplings in infancy

There are cells in our motor cortex that fire both when we perform and when we observe similar actions. It has been suggested that these perceptual‐motor couplings in the brain develop through associative learning during correlated sensorimotor experience. Although studies with adult participants have provided support for this hypothesis, there is no direct evidence that associative learning also underlies the initial formation of perceptual–motor couplings in the developing brain. With the present study we addressed this question by manipulating infants’ opportunities to associate the visual and motor representation of a novel action, and by investigating how this influenced their sensorimotor cortex activation when they observed this action performed by others. Pre‐walking 7–9‐month‐old infants performed stepping movements on an infant treadmill while they either observed their own real‐time leg movements (Contingent group) or the previously recorded leg movements of another infant (Non‐contingent control group). Infants in a second control group did not perform any steps and only received visual experience with the stepping actions. Before and after the training period we measured infants’ sensorimotor alpha suppression, as an index of sensorimotor cortex activation, while they watched videos of other infants’ stepping actions. While we did not find greater sensorimotor alpha suppression following training in the Contingent group as a whole, we nevertheless found that the strength of the visuomotor contingency experienced during training predicted the amount of sensorimotor alpha suppression at post‐test in this group. We did not find any effects of motor experience alone. These results suggest that the development of perceptual–motor couplings in the infant brain is likely to be supported by associative learning during correlated visuomotor experience.     

Freud: objects and structure

This paper, part of a series exploring the development of Freud's object concept, deals with the concepts of objects and psychic structure in the period from 1915 to 1938. In connection with the increased prominence of object loss and hostility in his clinical material, the role of objects in the building of psychic structure via identification assumed increased importance from 1917 on. After introduction of the ego-id-superego model, Freud asserted for the first time that object choice does take place as early as the oedipal period, and interpolated the phallic-oedipal phase into his sequence of developmental phases. The prominence of structure formation through identification continued, but no new object concepts are discerned.     

EVALUATION OF RAPE VICTIM BY MEN AND WOMEN WITH HIGH AND LOW BELIEF IN A JUST WORLD

Men with high belief in a just world evaluated a videotaped rape victim more negatively than did men with low belief in a just world. Women with high belief in a just world were less negative toward the rape victim than women with low belief in a just world. Participants with low belief in a just world recommended significantly longer prison sentences for the rapist. Evaluations of the rapist and rape victim were not influenced by information about the outcome of the case (the rapist was never caught, the rapist was caught and sentenced to either 1 or 15 years in prison). Implications for just-world beliefs of jurors in rape trials were discussed.     

Learning techniques for alcohol abuse

Eighteen month follow-up data are presented for two projects evaluating the effectiveness of learning techniques for treating alcohol abuse and achieving moderation using three groups of subjects-inpatient alcoholics, outpatient alcoholics and problem drinkers. Subjects received various combinations of the following procedures: videotape self-confrontation of drunken comportment, blood alcohol concentration discriminating training, aversion training for overconsumption, avoidance practice, behavior counseling and alternatives training, and alcohol education. While the loss of subjects was considerable between 12 and 18 months follow-up, the data were very similar. Subjects in all groups improved in terms of reductions in alcohol intake and on drinking-related variables. Significant between-groups differences in favor of subjects whose training included actual experience in drinking moderately were found only for the inpatient alcoholics. In this research, the best candidate for moderation was the less chronic. younger drinker with a relatively lower alcohol intake, a more stable vocational record and no history of hospitalization for alcohol abuse or physical deterioration from drinking. We believe that the techniques with the greatest potential for the prevention and treatment of alcohol abuse are videotape self-confrontation, blood alcohol discrimination training, and alcohol education/alternatives training.     

Team-Track: A tool for investigating tracking performance in teams

Team performance and coordination have gained considerable interest in disparate fields (e.g., aviation, process control, medicine, and wartime operations). Team-Track, a C program that allows controlled experimental manipulation of team conditions, was developed to meet the research needs resulting from this interest. Using Team-Track, one can manipulate task interdependence, team staffing, relative contributions of team members, communications, and informational displays in a low-cost environment. The dependent measure of performance generated by the program is the absolute tracking error along each dimension. The program is ideal for investigating team interactions as it allows for orthogonal manipulation of team variables, therefore accommodating a multitude of research paradigms.     

The psychoanalytic view of phobias. Part I: Freud's theories of phobias and anxiety.

This paper initiates a series of communications on psychoanalytic and current psychiatric approaches to the understanding and treatment of phobic syndromes with a review and discussion of Freud's evolving ideas on phobias and anxiety. A list of issues that any theory of phobic syndromes must address is compiled on the basis of Freud's work.     

Gender-Role Differences in Susceptibility to the Influence of Support Availability on Depression

Previous gender-role research on depression has revealed a consistent inverse relationship between masculinity and depression, but a non-significant relationship between femininity and depression. In light of the stronger affiliative needs for feminine individuals, received social support was speculated to moderate the relationship between femininity and depression in the present research. In a longitudinal study of a sample of Hong Kong college students, the relationships among gender-role orientation, received social support, and depression were examined. Consistent with previous findings, masculinity and androgyny were inversely related to depression. Moreover, the present study supplemented previous research by revealing that femininity was related to depression through its interaction with received social support. When the amount of received social support was increased, femininity was associated with a reduction in depression level over time. In contrast, when the amount of received social support was decreased, depression tended to increase with femininity over time. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the gender-role literature.