Eye movements and bisection behavior in spatial neglect syndrome: representational biases induced by the segment length and spatial dislocation of the stimulus

The present study explored behavioral and eye-movement measures in unilateral neglect patients in response to online bisection task (unfilled gap line). Two different tasks supported the bisection performance, a pointing and a grasping strategy. It was explored whether these different strategies may influence subjects' behavioral and eye-movement measures in response to different segment features: segment length (from shorter to longer) and segment spatial dislocation (from right to left spatial location). Consistent spatial biases were found for both bisection responses, fixation count, and duration, as well as for the first fixation count in case of pointing task. An "extreme-left" gradient effect was suggested and discussed, with patients' behavioral and eye measures more impaired. On the contrary, the patients' performance overlaps with the controls' one in case a grasping task. The direct link of visual pointing and grasping strategy, respectively, with the two cortical ventral and dorsal pathways was adduced to explain our results.     

Eye movements and bisection behavior in spatial neglect syndrome: representational biases induced by the segment length and spatial dislocation of the stimulus

The present study explored behavioral and eye-movement measures in unilateral neglect patients in response to online bisection task (unfilled gap line). Two different tasks supported the bisection performance, a pointing and a grasping strategy. It was explored whether these different strategies may influence subjects’ behavioral and eye-movement measures in response to different segment features: segment length (from shorter to longer) and segment spatial dislocation (from right to left spatial location). Consistent spatial biases were found for both bisection responses, fixation count, and duration, as well as for the first fixation count in case of pointing task. An “extreme-left” gradient effect was suggested and discussed, with patients’ behavioral and eye measures more impaired. On the contrary, the patients’ performance overlaps with the controls’ one in case a grasping task. The direct link of visual pointing and grasping strategy, respectively, with the two cortical ventral and dorsal pathways was adduced to explain our results.     

Modification of EEG power spectra and EEG connectivity in autobiographical memory: a sLORETA study

The aim of the present study was to explore the modifications of scalp EEG power spectra and EEG connectivity during the autobiographical memory test (AM-T) and during the retrieval of an autobiographical event (the high school final examination, Task 2). Seventeen healthy volunteers were enrolled (9 women and 8 men, mean age 23.4 ± 2.8 years, range 19–30). EEG was recorded at baseline and while performing the autobiographical memory (AM) tasks, by means of 19 surface electrodes and a nasopharyngeal electrode. EEG analysis was conducted by means of the standardized LOw Resolution Electric Tomography (sLORETA) software. Power spectra and lagged EEG coherence were compared between EEG acquired during the memory tasks and baseline recording. The frequency bands considered were as follows: delta (0.5–4 Hz); theta (4.5–7.5 Hz); alpha (8–12.5 Hz); beta1 (13–17.5 Hz); beta2 (18–30 Hz); gamma (30.5–60 Hz). During AM-T, we observed a significant delta power increase in left frontal and midline cortices (T = 3.554; p < 0.05) and increased EEG connectivity in delta band in prefrontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital areas, and for gamma bands in the left temporo-parietal regions (T = 4.154; p < 0.05). In Task 2, we measured an increased power in the gamma band located in the left posterior midline areas (T = 3.960; p < 0.05) and a significant increase in delta band connectivity in the prefrontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital areas, and in the gamma band involving right temporo-parietal areas (T = 4.579; p < 0.05). These results indicate that AM retrieval engages in a complex network which is mediated by both low- (delta) and high-frequency (gamma) EEG bands.     

Arrows,Balls and the Metaphysics of Motion

The arrow paradox is an argument purported to show that objects do not really move. The two main metaphysics of motion, the At–At theory of motion and velocity primitivism, solve the paradox differently. It is argued that neither solution is completely satisfactory. In particular it is contended that there are no decisive arguments in favor of the claim that velocity as it is constructed in the At–At theory is a truly instantaneous property, which is a crucial assumption to solve the paradox. If so the At–At theory faces the threat that most of our physical theories turn out to be non-Markovian. Finally it is considered whether all those threats and paradoxes are dispelled if only a new metaphysics of persistence is taken into account, namely four-dimensionalism.     

Methods of Cheating and Deterrents to Classroom Cheating: An International Study

This study examines the methods students use to cheat on class examinations and suggests ways of deterring using an international sample from Australia, China, Ireland, and the United States. We also examine the level of cheating and reasons for cheating that prior research has highlighted as a method of demonstrating that our sample is equivalent to those in prior studies. Our results confirm the results of prior research that primarily employs students from the United States. The data indicate that actions such as having multiple versions of the examination and scrambling the questions on these versions would deter cheating. In addition, given the increased level of cheating and students' increased perception of the social acceptability of cheating in college, the data provided by our international sample also suggest that some relatively simple precautions by instructors could dramatically reduce the level of cheating on in-class examinations.     

Relating badly to brands

Our commentary focuses on the negative pole of Park et al.'s Attachment–Aversion continuum. We argue that the distinction between positively- and negatively-valenced relationships matters, and open opportunities to further our knowledge about what makes a brand relationship “bad.” Two theoretical extensions are offered: (1) additional negativity dimensions beyond brand–self distance including pathology, power, and self- versus brand-focused emotionality; and (2) distinctions between neutrality and variations of emotional ambivalence “in the middle” of the Attachment–Aversion spectrum. Our call is for a science of negative relationships concerning the negative outcomes, processes, states, and attributes of consumers' relationships with brands.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

This article reports on a comparison of the views of teachers in Italy and the United Kingdom on their profession in relation to other professions. Common constructs about their profession are discussed for each national group, followed by a commentary on the similarities and differences between the groups related to their embedding culture. For example, both groups perceive teachers as having much in common with social workers and the clergy in terms of high demand for emotional involvement and creativity, while both express concern over low income for effort conjoined with erosion of professional autonomy. This latter concern is more pronounced in the data from Italy, reflecting the more centralized control of curriculum, a policy only currently being initiated in the United Kingdom

Although we are sympathetic to the reservations of Yorke (1987) about their utility in the study of teachers' thinking (as noted in Pope [1981] and Denicolo [1985]), we found the grid procedure to be a useful vehicle for exploring the issues in this study. Thus we have avoided treating the grid data in an essentially positivistic manner and did use notes made during the conversations that occurred during grid completion to shed light on the personal meaning to the participant of the words used to denote each construct. Within this article the details of personal meanings of each participant are omitted, although the analysis and discussion took account of these, since our particular goal here is to present the group data for the two countries.

The focus had been on the teachers' constructs regarding the teaching profession. The same data could be used to illuminate their views on any of the professions discussed in the study. In addition to developing insights into teachers' thinking about their profession, the study helped to strengthen the developing spirit of international collaboration in research in teacher education from the perspective of personal construct psychology.     

Lateralized reaching as dynamical symmetry breaking in the bushbaby (Otolemur garnettii): preliminary evidence

Eight bushbabies were subjected to an extensive series of hand preference trials in which they were required to reach for a raisin from a rotating platform approaching from the right- or left-hand side of their visual field. Three principal types of behavior were observed. Several individuals known to be stable in hand preference continued to show a strong preference for a single hand. Another group, including some previously categorized as stable, exhibited "ambidextrous" cross-body reaching behavior. One individual exhibited far more complex behavior, being ambidextrous at low and very high speeds but lateralized at intermediate speeds. A straightforward adaptation of the dynamical neural field theory of Sch?ner et al. (1997) provides a model allowing each type of behavior, except possibly the shift from lateralized behavior to ambidextrous behavior at high speed, which might nonetheless be accommodated with minor modification.     

Measurement and Application of Egoistic and Moralistic Self‐enhancement

Five studies were conducted to develop and validate the Egoistic and Moralistic Self‐enhancement (EMS) scale, a new self‐report measure of egoistic and moralistic self‐enhancement. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence for a two‐factor structure comprising the tendencies to promote agentic (egoistic) and communal (moralistic) qualities (Study 1). Construct validity was supported by significant correlations with established measures of socially desirable responding, such as the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (Study 2) and the Impression Management scale of the 16 Personality Factors (Study 3). When the EMS scale has been applied in organizational settings, we found that job applicants were more inclined than nonapplicants to promote their own agentic and communal qualities, although differences were more pronounced for egoistic self‐enhancement (Study 4). Findings also suggested that exaggeration of agentic qualities decrease the criterion‐related validity of conscientiousness in predicting job performance (Study 5). Taken together, findings suggest that the EMS scale provides a valid and reliable measure that can be fruitfully used for both theoretical and applied research.