Structural stability of W2B5 under high pressure

High-pressure structural stability studies have been carried out on tungsten boride W₂B₅ up to maximum pressure of 36 GPa using a Mao-Bell diamond-anvil cell at beamline BR-12 of the ELETTRA synchrotron facility (λ = 0.68881 Å). The hexagonal phase (S.G:P6₃/mmc) of W₂B₅ is stable up to the maximum pressure studied. The bulk modulus is estimated to be ~347 GPa using the Birch–Murnaghan equation of state. The variation of lattice parameters and bond lengths B–B and W–B have been studied and the c-axis is seen to be marginally more compressible than the a-axis.     

Neuroimaging of mental imagery: An introduction

Adaptive mechanisms to protect cognitive performance under stressors through compensation in energy investment have previously received much research attention. However, stressors have also often been found to substantially reduce both performance and investment. The mechanisms underlying this dual negative effect are still unclear. This study tested the hypothesis that stressors can immediately hamper performance, which in turn reduces energy investment in later phases. In an experiment (N=103), we compared control and stressor conditions (noise or time pressure), investigating the effects of stressors on performance and information-sampling investment (as behavioural measure of energy investment) in two phases of a judgement task. The results showed an instant negative effect of stressors on performance and a delayed negative effect on information-sampling investment. Furthermore, impaired initial performance predicted the decline in investment over time. Finally, the effects of stressors on investment decline were partially mediated through initial performance level. The present findings contribute to theories aiming to explain the relationship between hampered performance and motivational losses.     

Interaction in the psychoanalytic situation

In psychoanalytic psychotherapy we are primarily interested in psychic change and how to facilitate it for the better. Change is a universal property of matter, living or inanimate: everything in nature is influenced by everything else; interaction is ubiquitous. In the early years of psychoanalysis, the prevailing view was that therapeusis was essentially informational—insight and awareness would bring about changes in the ways one would experience events and respond to them. Over time, there has been a subtle shift from the informational perspective to the transformational, where insight is often retrospective rather than the active agent. The growing awareness of the need to be deeply recognized and responded to by another human being is reflective of this shift and has loomed ever larger in the interactive arena known as psychoanalysis. This paper focuses on a single facet of the need for recognition by another—the role of enacted response in effecting psychic change. It also addresses another level of the meaning of interaction: Whereas the internal interaction between perception and response has tended to be looked upon, in psychoanalysis, as unidirectional, the present discussion draws attention to the complexity of the bidirectional interaction between perception and response.     

Wish,Need, Drive: Motive in the Light of Dynamic Systems Theory and Edelman's Selectionist Theory

Almost all psychoanalytic theorizing posits some basic and presumably built-in motivational thrusts. The goal of this paper is to present an alternative way of thinking about the beginnings of motivation. I go into some detail about recent contributions from two areas of research: dynamic systems theory as applied by Esther Thelen to infantile motor development and Gerald Edelman's (1992) theory of “Neural Darwinism.” What emerges are two interlocking hypotheses: The first is that what we infer as drives or other versions of “basic” motivations are already a late development of motivational organizations that started out from a collection of rather primitive biases. The second hypothesis, based on dynamic systems thinking or complexity theory, is that a great many developmental features that appear to be driven by a built-in genetic program or design, are, in fact, the spontaneously emergent, and therefore the never completely predictable, resultant of the interplay of embedded, embodied, and environmental elements. It is also hypothesized that, just as motivational systems lead to the emergence of new capacities and functions, so too do new capacities beget new motivational derivatives in an ever-more complex developmental spiral. Early experience plays an enormously important and highly individual role in the creation of conative patterns that eventually crystalize into what we, as observers and theoreticians, begin to categorize into systems of motivation. Depending on the observer and his or her frame of reference, certain motivational systems are held to be superordinate to others; these then are held up as basic motives. As psychoanalysts we currently find ourselves in a situation of competing organizational systems vying for prominence. The multiplicity of such systems speaks to our uncertainty and the need for further study to clarify the many questions that this line of thinking evokes. The second section of this paper explores the relations among need, wish, impulse, and defense as varieties of motivational systems that have already crystalized out of the early beginnings of motivation.     

Experts and laymen grossly underestimate the benefits of argumentation for reasoning

Many fields of study have shown that group discussion generally improves reasoning performance for a wide range of tasks. This article shows that most of the population, including specialists, does not expect group discussion to be as beneficial as it is. Six studies asked participants to solve a standard reasoning problem—the Wason selection task—and to estimate the performance of individuals working alone and in groups. We tested samples of U.S., Indian, and Japanese participants, European managers, and psychologists of reasoning. Every sample underestimated the improvement yielded by group discussion. They did so even after they had been explained the correct answer, or after they had had to solve the problem in groups. These mistaken intuitions could prevent individuals from making the best of institutions that rely on group discussion, from collaborative learning and work teams to deliberative assemblies.     

The Impact of a Pre-Vocational Program on Cognition,Symptoms, and Work Re-Integration in Schizophrenia

This study measured the effects of a pre-vocational program on cognition, symptoms, and integration to work in schizophrenia. Twelve participants, receiving pharmacological treatment only, were compared to 14 participants, who were part of a pre-vocational program and who received pharmacological treatment on pre and post measures. The work skills training group was offered by an occupational therapist. Results showed statistically significant differences in negative and general symptoms, visual attention, learning, and integration to work when comparing the two groups in favor of the program. These results provide evidence of the positive effects of occupational therapy interventions in mental health.     

A case of prosopagnosia with some preserved covert remembrance of familiar faces

This paper presents the detailed analysis of a case of prosopagnosia in a 54-year-old male farmer following bioccipital vascular disease. In-depth clinical investigations confirmed the diagnosis of prosopagnosia and revealed the absence of any associated defect, except for a slight aspecific disturbance of the short-term memory. Further study of this case indicated that the trouble was not concerned with the class of complex visual stimuli, was not even concerned with facial expressions or unknown faces, was not a perceptual defect, but was related mainly to the operation of individualization. The memory hypothesis was thus retained and supported. Moreover, exploration of the difficulty indicated that the deficiency was limited to defective access to conscious information concerning faces and information associated with these faces (name, context, etc.), effectively stored in memory.     

Subliminal speech perception and auditory streaming

Current theories of consciousness assume a qualitative dissociation between conscious and unconscious processing: while subliminal stimuli only elicit a transient activity, supraliminal stimuli have long-lasting influences. Nevertheless, the existence of this qualitative distinction remains controversial, as past studies confounded awareness and stimulus strength (energy, duration). Here, we used a masked speech priming method in conjunction with a submillisecond interaural delay manipulation to contrast subliminal and supraliminal processing at constant prime, mask and target strength. This delay induced a perceptual streaming effect, with the prime popping out in the supraliminal condition. By manipulating the prime-target interval (ISI), we show a qualitatively distinct profile of priming longevity as a function of prime awareness. While subliminal priming disappeared after half a second, supraliminal priming was independent of ISI. This shows that the distinction between conscious and unconscious processing depends on high-level perceptual streaming factors rather than low-level features (energy, duration).