Cluster: A program for the identification of eye-fixation-cluster characteristics

Innovations in software for the analysis of eye movements have not kept pace with the development of hardware for collecting samples of eye position (Scinto & Barnette, 1986). Eye fixation and duration have been the primary measures for gleaning knowledge of subjects’ performance while the subjects are engaged in cognitive visual tasks. The program Cluster was developed as a means of investigating the dynamics of target examination characteristics that do not lend themselves to traditional methods of eye-movement analysis. This tool has proved to be a valuable means of assessing visual activity at a micro level, in comparison with the gross measures of distribution of visual attention in various areas of the visual field. In this report, we describe the history surrounding the development of Cluster as an analytical tool, the source of input required for its execution, the mechanics of the execution as an interactive process, the replicability of raters’ judgments, the program’s products of visual displays and data file output, and the potential application of such a tool for analyzing visual activity.     

“TANCRED’S WOUND”:

A recent debate over trauma theory in Holocaust studies has implications for writing by the “generation after.” This article looks at Anne Karpf’s The War After (1996) and the 1998 movie Left Luggage (based on a novel by Carl Friedman), as well as David Grossman’s See Under: Love (1985), as examples of how traumatic knowledge is accessed through literary narratives and the imagination, rather than the historical events. In particular, the trope of “autism” serves to symbolize the difficulty of communicating repressed traumatic memory, while images of containment symbolize the unspeakable contents of the psychic envelope.     

In vivo functional assessment and multi-element interventions for problem behaviors of students with disabilities in classroom settings

Persons with developmental disabilities often do not follow instructions or complete tasks in educational settings, thus further disadvantaging themselves as they try to lead more normalized lives. The purpose of this paper was to address the problems of three persons referred for not following instructions and for engaging in associated behavior problems (e.g., crying, hitting, throwing materials) when given instructions. A functional assessment was conducted in the natural school setting without any prescribed conditions as in analogue functional assessments. Results of the assessments showed that problem behaviors for two subjects occurred much more in demand conditions requiring active responses than in demand conditions requiring passive responses. The results for a third subject showed problem behaviors were associated with toileting demands, less so with other demand conditions, but not with conditions in which there were an absence of demands. Individualized multi-element interventions were based on the negative reinforcement hypothesis and were intended to make tasks less aversive and to make instructions easier to understand. Results of the interventions showed increases in task engagement and decreases in problem behaviors during the active tasks and toileting tasks for which interventions were programmed, as well as for the passive tasks and other demand conditions for which no interventions were programmed. Results were discussed in terms of the value of functional assessments in directing therapists to base interventions on hypotheses of the function of the presenting problem.     

DISCRIMINATION TRAINING FOR PERSONS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES: A COMPARISON OF THE TASK DEMONSTRATION MODEL AND THE STANDARD PROMPTING HIERARCHY

A comparison was made between two procedures for teaching persons with severe handicaps: (a) the task demonstration model, which is based upon a fading procedure and general case programming, and (b) the standard prompting hierarchy, a least-to-most intrusive prompting procedure commonly used to teach these individuals. Five phases were used in comparing the procedures: pretesting, training, two generalization tests, and a 6-month maintenance test. Eight students learned two discrimination tasks by each procedure, with each task involving two- or three-digit numbers. Results showed that under the task demonstration model all 8 subjects had more unprompted correct responses (about 1.5 times as many) in training, all 8 subjects had fewer errors (about 0.6 times as many) in training, all 8 subjects had more correct responding in the generalization test with untrained stimuli in the training room, 6 of 8 subjects had more correct responding with untrained stimuli in another room, a 7th had equivalent amounts, and 7 of 8 subjects had more correct responding on a 6-month maintenance test. Thus, the task demonstration model proved superior to the standard prompting hierarchy in 29 of 32 tests of correct responding. Results are discussed in terms of implications for stimulus control training strategies.     

How the Consideration of Positive Emotions Influences Persuasion: The Differential Effect of Pride Versus Joy

Although pride and joy are both positive emotions, we expected their consideration to affect persuasion differently because of the different perspectives (near vs. distant) and level of abstractness they involve, with pride being more abstract than joy. Therefore, we predicted that when the attitude object is construed at a high level rather than a low level, the consideration of pride is likely to promote more persuasion than the consideration of joy. In three studies, we found that the consideration of pride, when featured in the persuasion message (Studies 1a and 1b) or incidentally (Study 2), increased persuasion more than did the consideration of joy, when the persuasion object was temporally distant compared with temporally near (Studies 1a and 1b) or construed as a high‐level category compared with a more concrete individual (Study 2). These findings advance our understanding of the ways in which specific emotions may affect persuasion, beyond valence. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The production and fading of entoptic images

A new apparatus, suitable for obtaining reliable reports of entoptic images, was developed. Basically, this apparatus moved a small light across the S’s eyelid (transcleral illumination). While the light was moving, Ss reported the appearance of the three entoptic phenomena of interest-retinal blood vessels, foveal images, and background illumination. After initial training with this apparatus, 12 Ss were tested for the differential disappearance (fading) of the entoptic images after the light source stopped moving but continued its transcleral illumination of the retina. Results indicated that although the background image did fade to a dark field, this background fade time ( \(\bar X\) = 1.3 sec) is faster than that reported for externally stabilized images, which may take 2 to 4 sec to fade, and was significantly slower than the very rapid fade times for blood vessels and foveal images. Furthermore, there was no reappearance of these entoptic images.