Mereotopological Connection

The paper outlines a model-theoretic framework for investigating and comparing a variety of mereotopological theories. In the first part we consider different ways of characterizing a mereotopology with respect to (i) the intended interpretation of the connection primitive, and (ii) the composition of the admissible domains of quantification (e.g., whether or not they include boundary elements). The second part extends this study by considering two further dimensions along which different patterns of topological connection can be classified – the strength of the connection and its multiplicity.     

FEMALE AND MALE PERCEPTIONS OF IDEAL BODY SHAPES: Distorted Views Among Caucasian College Students

Recent studies have demonstrated that women overestimate male preferences for thin female figures. This study examined whether women also overestimate the desirability of thin figures among female peers. Using body silhouettes employed by Fallon and Rozin (1985), 87 college women and 118 college men indicated the size of their own body figure, their ideal figure, the figure most attractive to other-sex peers, and the figure most attractive to same-sex peers. As predicted, the female silhouette that women selected as most attractive to same-sex peers was significantly thinner than the silhouette that women actually selected as most desirable. College men also misjudged the body preference of same-sex peers, exaggerating the extent to which other men perceived large physiques as ideal and desirable.     

Stimulus control of cocaine self-administration

Environmental stimuli that set the occasion wherein drugs are acquired can "trigger" drug-related behavior. Investigating the stimulus control of drug self-administration in laboratory animals should help us better understand this aspect of human drug abuse. Stimulus control of cocaine self-administration was generated here for the first time using multiple and chained schedules with short, frequently-alternating components--like those typically used to study food-maintained responding. The procedures and results are presented along with case histories to illustrate the strategies used to produce this stimulus control. All these multicomponent schedules contained variable-interval (VI) components as well as differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior (DRO) or extinction components. Schedule parameters and unit dose were adjusted for each rat to produce stable, moderate rates in VI components, with minimal postreinforcement (infusion) pausing, and response cessation in extinction and DRO components. Whole-body drug levels on terminal baselines calculated retrospectively revealed that all rats maintained fairly stable drug levels (mean, 2.3 to 3.4 mg/kg) and molar rates of intake (approximately 6.0 mg/kg/hr). Within this range, no relation between local VI response rates and drug level was found. The stimulus control revealed in cumulative records was indistinguishable from that achieved with food under these schedules, suggesting that common mechanisms may underlie the control of cocaine- and food-maintained behavior.     

Deciphering the enigmatic face: the importance of facial dynamics in interpreting subtle facial expressions

Most studies investigating the recognition of facial expressions have focused on static displays of intense expressions. Consequently, researchers may have underestimated the importance of motion in deciphering the subtle expressions that permeate real-life situations. In two experiments, we examined the effect of motion on perception of subtle facial expressions and tested the hypotheses that motion improves affect judgment by (a) providing denser sampling of expressions, (b) providing dynamic information, (c) facilitating configural processing, and (d) enhancing the perception of change. Participants viewed faces depicting subtle facial expressions in four modes (single-static, multi-static, dynamic, and first-last). Experiment 1 demonstrated a robust effect of motion and suggested that this effect was due to the dynamic property of the expression. Experiment 2 showed that the beneficial effect of motion may be due more specifically to its role in perception of change. Together, these experiments demonstrated the importance of motion in identifying subtle facial expressions.     

Infant affective responses to mother's still face at 6 months differentially predict externalizing and internalizing behaviors at 18 months

This study investigated (a) stability and change in infant affective responses to the still-face interaction, (b) whether maternal depression affected infant responses, and (c) whether responses to the still-face interaction predicted toddler problem behaviors. Infants (63 girls and 66 boys) of European American mothers (67 depressed and 62 nondepressed) were observed in the still-face interaction at 2, 4, and 6 months. Affect and gaze were coded on a 1-s time base. There were stable individual differences in gazing away and in rates of negative affect. Developmental change occurred only for gazing away, which increased. At 18 months, infants who failed to smile at 6 months in the still-face interaction showed more externalizing-type behaviors than did other toddlers. Infants who failed to cry at 6 months showed fewer internalizing-type behaviors. Mothers' current depressive symptoms and infants' earlier responses to the still-face interaction made independent, comparable contributions to problem behaviors at 18 months.     

Visual Narrative Structure

Narratives are an integral part of human expression. In the graphic form, they range from cave paintings to Egyptian hieroglyphics, from the Bayeux Tapestry to modern day comic books ( Kunzle, 1973 ; McCloud, 1993 ). Yet not much research has addressed the structure and comprehension of narrative images, for example, how do people create meaning out of sequential images? This piece helps fill the gap by presenting a theory of Narrative Grammar. We describe the basic narrative categories and their relationship to a canonical narrative arc, followed by a discussion of complex structures that extend beyond the canonical schema. This demands that the canonical arc be reconsidered as a generative schema whereby any narrative category can be expanded into a node in a tree structure. Narrative “pacing” is interpreted as a reflection of various patterns of this embedding: conjunction, left‐branching trees, center‐embedded constituencies, and others. Following this, diagnostic methods are proposed for testing narrative categories and constituency. Finally, we outline the applicability of this theory beyond sequential images, such as to film and verbal discourse, and compare this theory with previous approaches to narrative and discourse.     

Adolescent Decisional Autonomy Regarding Participation in an Emergency Department Youth Violence Interview

Much attention has been given to determining whether an adolescent patient has the capacity to consent to research. This study explores the factors that influence adolescents' decisions to participate in a research study about youth violence and to determine positive or negative feelings elicited by being a research subject. The majority of subjects perceived their decision to participate to be free of coercion, and few felt badly about having participated. However, adolescents who were alone in the room during the assent process were more likely to report that they chose freely to be a research subject. This study may influence the ways physicians communicate with adolescent patients around research assent within a clinical care environment.     

Deriving Training Strategies for Spatial Knowledge Acquisition From Behavioral,Cognitive, and Neural Foundations

While much has been made of the potential uses for virtual environment (VE) technologies as training aids, there are few guidelines and strategies to inform system development from the user’s perspective. Assumptions are that a human factors-based evaluation will ensure optimal performance, transferring training from virtual to real worlds; however, there are complex, yet unexplored, issues surrounding system optimization and employment. A comprehensive investigation into the foundations of training, traversing levels of performance analysis, from overt behavioral responses to the less explicit neuronal patterns, is proposed from which optimal training strategies can be inferred and system development guidelines deduced.     

Prediction,events, and the advantage of Agents: The processing of semantic roles in visual narrative

Agents consistently appear prior to Patients in sentences, manual signs, and drawings, and Agents are responded to faster when presented in visual depictions of events. We hypothesized that this “Agent advantage” reflects Agents’ role in event structure. We investigated this question by manipulating the depictions of Agents and Patients in preparatory actions in wordless visual narratives. We found that Agents elicited a greater degree of predictions regarding upcoming events than Patients, that Agents are viewed longer than Patients, independent of serial order, and that visual depictions of actions are processed more quickly following the presentation of an Agent vs. a Patient. Taken together these findings support the notion that Agents initiate the building of event representation. We suggest that Agent First orders facilitate the interpretation of events as they unfold and that the saliency of Agents within visual representations of events is driven by anticipation of upcoming events.     

Delineating potential mechanisms of implicit alcohol cognitions: drinking restraint, negative affect, and their relationship with approach alcohol associations

Problem drinkers may use alcohol to avoid negative mood states and may develop implicit cognitive associations between negative emotional states and reinforcing properties of drinking. It is paradoxical that attempts to control drinking, such as among those high in drinking restraint, may inadvertently increase desire to drink and subsequent alcohol consumption, and this may be exaggerated under times of emotional distress when urges to drink are high. We examined whether individuals who are high on drinking restraint would demonstrate stronger alcohol-related thoughts elicited by stimuli that represent the desire to use alcohol, in response to stronger versus weaker negative mood arousal. Seventy hazardous drinkers completed measurements of drinking restraint, alcohol consumption, and consequences of use. After being randomized to view negative or positive pictures sets, participants completed an Implicit Association Task (IAT) to test differences in the strength of the association between desire to approach or avoid alcohol or water cues, and then a measurement of subjective craving following the IAT. Regression analyses showed that trait restriction not temptation was positively related to IAT scores, after controlling for relevant covariates and explained 7% of the total variance. Trait temptation not IAT predicted subjective craving. Negative affect was unrelated to IAT scores, singly or in conjunction with measures of drinking restraint, contrary to predictions. In sum, implicit alcohol cognitions are related to attempts to restrict drinking not temptation to drink and are less strongly influenced by mood state.