Recognizing moving faces: a psychological and neural synthesis

Information for identifying a human face can be found both in the invariant structure of features and in idiosyncratic movements and gestures. When both kinds of information are available, psychological evidence indicates that: (1) dynamic information contributes more to recognition under non-optimal viewing conditions, e.g. poor illumination, low image resolution, recognition from a distance; (2) dynamic information contributes more as a viewer's experience with the face increases; and (3) a structure-from-motion analysis can make a perceptually based contribution to face recognition. A recently proposed distributed neural system for face perception, with minor modifications, can accommodate the psychological findings with moving faces.     

Gender and age-related differences in attitudes toward traffic laws and traffic violations

The study examined gender and age-related differences in drivers’ normative motives for compliance with traffic laws and in gain–loss considerations related to driving. Two age groups of male and female students, totaling 181 respondents, completed a questionnaire measuring several normative motives for compliance with traffic laws, perceived gains and danger involved in the commission of traffic violations, and the frequency of committing various driving violations. The results show that younger drivers and male drivers express a lower level of normative motivation to comply with traffic laws than do female and older drivers. The lowest level of perceived importance of traffic laws relative to other laws was found among young male drivers. The commission of traffic violations was found to be related more to the evaluation of traffic laws among men and younger drivers, compared to women and older drivers. The perceived danger involved in the commission of a driving violation, however, was found to constitute much more of a factor among women than among men before the commission of traffic violations. Perceived gains involved in the commission of violations were more strongly pronounced among older drivers than among younger drivers. Results are discussed concerning different types of attitude–behavior relationships in the context of driving.     

Positive contrast obtained in reacquisition following interpolation of nonreinforced or partially reinforced trials

Two experiments investigated the effects of shifting from either nonreinforcement or partial reinforcement (PRF) to continuous reinforcement conditions (CRF). In the first experiment, three groups of rats were given food reinforcement under CRF conditions in a runway followed by regular extinction trials (RE), extinction trials where Ss were delayed for 30 sec before entering the empty goal box (DE), or CRF trials where Ss were delayed for 30 sec before entering the baited goal box (DF). Then all Ss were run on the delayed reinforcement condition (DF). In the final delayed reinforcement condition, group DE ran significantly faster than group DF, reflecting positive contrast. In the second experiment, four groups of rats were trained in a runway to receive either 4% or 18% sucrose reinforcers under either PRF or CRF conditions. Then all Ss were transferred to a Skinner box and bar presses were continuously reinforced, with each S continuing to receive the same sucrose concentration as before. The former PRF Ss, regardless of the reinforcer, bar pressed at a significantly higher rate in the Skinner box than the former CRF Ss. The evidence seemed to favor the view that the effectiveness of a reinforcer is not an absolute, unchanging quantity but rather depends on the historical context in which the reinforcer occurs.     

Difficulty and Degrees of Moral Praiseworthiness and Blameworthiness

In everyday life, we assume that there are degrees of blameworthiness and praiseworthiness. Yet the debate about the nature of moral responsibility often focuses on the “yes or no” question of whether indeterminism is required for moral responsibility, while questions about what accounts for more or less blameworthiness or praiseworthiness are underexplored. In this paper, I defend the idea that degrees of blameworthiness and praiseworthiness can depend in part on degrees of difficulty and degrees of sacrifice required for performing the action in question. Then I turn to the question of how existing accounts of the nature of moral responsibility might be seen to accommodate these facts. In each case of prominent compatibilist and incompatibilist accounts that I consider, I argue that supplementation with added dimensions is required in order to account for facts about degrees of blameworthiness and praiseworthiness. For example, I argue that the reasons‐responsiveness view of Fischer and Ravizza (1998) requires supplementation that takes us beyond even fine‐grained measures of degrees of reasons‐responsiveness in order to capture facts about degrees of difficulty (contrary to the recent attempt by Coates and Swenson (2013) to extend the reasons‐responsiveness view by appealing to such measures). I conclude by showing that once we recognize the need for these additional parameters, we will be in a position to explain away at least some of the appeal of incompatibilist accounts of moral responsibility.     

Using Scaling to Facilitate Ethical Decision-Making in Family Therapy

Ethical decision-making in family therapy is inherently complex, as it requires therapists to balance competing needs of multiple individuals and subsystems. Scaling offers a potential means of helping facilitate such decision-making, by encouraging attendance to the likely impact of various courses of action on individuals and subsystems as related to each of the core ethical principles underlying psychotherapeutic practice. This article explores the potential use of scaling in family therapists’ ethical decision-making through case examples. Benefits and risks of such an approach are reviewed.     

Decreasing influence of arbitrarily applicable verbal relations of recreational gamblers: A randomized controlled trial

Twenty‐one recreational gamblers were randomly assigned to two groups; one group was exposed to a conditional discrimination relational training task to bias choice allocation to a black machine presented concurrently with a red machine, and the other group underwent the same relational training task immediately followed by a defusion procedure, designed to expand upon the relations developed in the initial relational task. Both groups completed a simulated slot‐machine task before and after the relational training task, with or without the defusion procedure. Results showed that 9 of 11 participants in the relational training only group showed an increased bias toward the black machine, compared to only 4 of 10 in the relational training plus defusion group; this latter group also showed greater matched responding. Results suggest that expanding verbal–relational networks may reduce the influence of any single verbal relation on gambling choice behavior.     

Influence of in utero exposure to maternal depression and natural disaster-related stress on infant temperament at 6 months: The children of Superstorm Sandy

This study examined the effects of in utero exposure to maternal depression and Superstorm Sandy, a hurricane that hit metropolitan New York in 2012, on infant temperament at 6 months. Temperament was assessed using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised. Maternal depression was measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. The main effects and the interaction of maternal depression and Sandy exposure on infant temperament were examined using a multivariable generalized linear model. Results show that prenatal maternal depression was associated with lower emotion regulation and greater distress. Stratification and interaction analyses suggested that the adverse effects of prenatal maternal depression on problematic temperament were amplified by in utero Sandy exposure. This study underscores the importance of providing prenatal screening and treatment for maternal depression during pregnancy while also identifying high-risk families who may have suffered from disaster-related traumas to provide necessary services. As the frequency of natural disasters may increase due to climate change, it is important to understand the consequences of in utero stress on child development and to formulate plans for early identification.