The priming of face recognition after metric transformations

Four experiments were performed to test whether the perceptual priming of face recognition would show invariance to changes in size, position, reflectional orientation (mirror reversal), and picture-plane rotation. In all experiments, subjects recognized faces in two blocks of trials; in the second block, some of the faces were identical to those in the first, and others had undergone metric transformations. The results show that subjects were equally fast to recognize faces whether or not the faces had changed in size, position, or reflectional orientation between the first and second presentations of the faces. In contrast, subjects were slower to recognize both faces and objects when they were planar-rotated between the first and second presentations. The results suggest that the same metric invariances are shown by both face recognition and basic-level object recognition.     

Managerial Stress, Locus of Control, and Job Strain in Taiwan and UK: A Comparative Study

This study investigated managerial stress in Taiwan and UK using the Occupational Stress Indicator-2 (OSI-2) and the Work Locus of Control (WLCS) scale. Results showed that the reliability and validity of the measures used were acceptable and comparable in the two samples. There were similarities as well as differences in managerial stress in the two countries. Recognition and Managerial role were important predictors of strain for the Chinese managers, whereas Relationships, Organizational climate, and Personal responsibility were important predictors of strain for UK managers. There were consistent moderating (vulnerability) effects of internal control for the Taiwanese managers. Results corroborated some previous studies conducted in the West. However, caution was also suggested for generalizing Western-originated concepts and theories across cultural boundaries.     

Vagus nerve stimulation: a new form of therapeutic brain stimulation

Although the vagus nerve has traditionally been considered to perform efferent functions, in reality it performs significant afferent functions as well, carrying information from the body, head, and neck to the brain. Preliminary studies examining this afferent activity led to the theory that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) could successfully control seizure activity in persons who are refractory to antiepileptic medications. Unlike other forms of brain stimulation, VNS is unable to directly stimulate multiple discrete areas of the brain; however, through several pathways, it is able to relay sensory information to higher brain regions. An implantable VNS device known as the VNSTM NeuroCybernetic Prosthesis (NCP) System has been used in approximately 9,000 epilepsy patients in Europe and the United States since 1994. The implant has reduced seizure frequency by an average of 25% to 30%, with minimal side effects. Studies underway are also showing some degree of success in the management of treatment-refractory depression. The future efficacy of the implantable system in other disorders may depend on whether the implant can be more precisely focused to affect different brain regions. Research in this area is underway.     

Mean response times, variability, and skew in the responding of ADHD children: a response time distributional approach

Response time (RT) distributions from three fixed foreperiod conditions (2, 4, and 8 s) in a warned four-choice RT task were obtained for a group of boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, combined type (ADHD; n = 17) and for two groups of normal control boys (age-matched, n = 18, and younger-aged, n = 10). Quantitative measures of distributional shape were derived by fitting the ex-Gaussian distributional model to the individual RT data. Statistical results indicate that the ADHD distributions differ from the age-matched control distributions with respect to the size of the tail (larger for the ADHD boys), but differ from the younger control distributions with respect to the location of the leading edge (slower for the younger control boys). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) results reveal that the ex-Gaussian exponential component is highly diagnostic of the ADHD boys.     

Reaction of mock jurors to testimony of a court appointed expert

A study was conducted to assess the impact of court appointed experts on the judgments of mock jurors. A civil proceeding was adopted for the experiment. Mock jurors heard testimony about a plaintiff's injury in an automobile accident. In some conditions, medical testimony for the plaintiff and defendant was provided by experts hired by each side. In other conditions, a medical expert appointed by the court testified in addition to the two adversarial experts. In one of these conditions, the court expert sided with the plaintiff; in another, the expert sided with the defendant. The plaintiff in the case was always an individual. The defendant was sometimes a corporation and sometimes an individual. The results showed that mock jurors sided with the court appointed expert in every condition except when the expert favored a corporate defendant. The results were discussed in terms of heuristic processing of persuasive information.     

The role of inhibition in the regulation of sequential action

We investigated the regulation of sequential action using a new paradigm. Participants learned a sequence of seven stimulus categories and then monitored for them during successive displays. All displays were instances of these categories, presented in pseudorandom order. On each trial, participants monitored for an instance of Category 1, pressed a key on a computer keyboard, then monitored for an instance of Category 2, pressed a key on the keyboard, and so on for all seven categories. Thus, a perfect trial contained exactly seven responses. Intrusion errors were classified as a function of ordinal distance from the current serial position ( n ). Fewer intrusion errors were made at near serial positions than at far ones, suggesting a gradient of lateral inhibition. In addition, more intrusions were made on n + 1 categories than n − 1 categories, suggesting greater availability of intended than completed goals. In accord with current models of sequential action, the results indicate lateral and self-inhibition as important mechanisms in regulation of sequential action.     

Cocaine exposure is associated with subtle compromises of infants' and mothers' social-emotional behavior and dyadic features of their interaction in the face-to-face still-face paradigm

Prenatal cocaine and opiate exposure are thought to subtly compromise social and emotional development. The authors observed a large sample of 236 cocaine-exposed and 459 nonexposed infants (49 were opiate exposed and 646 nonexposed) with their mothers in the face-to-face still-face paradigm. Infant and maternal behaviors were microanalytically coded. No opiate-exposure effects were detected. However, mothers of cocaine-exposed infants showed more negative engagement than other mothers. The cocaine-exposed dyads also showed higher overall levels of mismatched engagement states than other dyads, including more negative engagement when the infants were in states of neutral engagement. Infants exposed to heavier levels of cocaine showed more passive-withdrawn negative engagement and engaged in more negative affective matching with their mothers than other infants. Although effect sizes were small, cocaine exposure, especially heavy cocaine exposure, was associated with subtly negative interchanges, which may have a cumulative impact on infants' later development and their relationships with their mothers.     

The human motor control system's response to mechanical perturbation: should it, can it, and does it ensure stability?

From among the diverse meanings of stability, the one the author adopts here is that the effects of a perturbation are opposed, and therefore small effects remain small. Except in linear systems, however, instability need not lead to unbounded motion and may actually be desirable when maneuverability is important. Moreover, properties of nerves, muscles, and tendons present serious challenges to stabilization. A review of observations from the motor control literature reveals that responses to perturbations in many common situations assist rather than resist the perturbation and are therefore presumably destabilizing. The observations encompass situations of position maintenance as well as impending or ongoing movement. The author proposes that the motor control system responds to a sudden perturbation by a pattern of muscle activity that mimics an accustomed voluntary movement, oblivious of stability considerations. What prevents runaway motion in the face of short-term instability appears to be voluntary intervention.     

Daily depression and cognitions about stress: evidence for a traitlike depressogenic cognitive style and the prediction of depressive symptoms in a prospective daily diary study

The authors examined the stability and dynamic structure of negative cognitions made to naturalistic stressors and the prediction of depressive symptoms in a daily diary study. Young adults reported on dispositional depression vulnerabilities at baseline, including a depressogenic cognitive style, dysfunctional attitudes, rumination, neuroticism, and initial depression, and then completed short diaries recording the inferences they made to the most negative event of the day along with their experience of depressive symptoms every day for 35 consecutive days. Daily cognitions about stressors exhibited moderate stability across time. A traitlike model, rather than a contextual one, explained this pattern of stability best. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed that individuals' dispositional depressogenic cognitive style, neuroticism, and their daily negative cognitions about stressors predicted fluctuations in daily depressive symptoms. Dispositional neuroticism and negative cognitive style interacted with daily negative cognitions in different ways to predict daily depressive symptoms.