At first glance, transparency enhances assimilation

We investigated the role of transparency, perceptual grouping, and presentation time on perceived lightness. Both transparency and perceptual grouping have been found to result in assimilation effects, but only for ambiguous stimulus displays and with specific attentional instructions. By varying the presentation times of displays with two partly overlapping transparent E-shaped objects, we measured assimilation in unambiguous stimulus displays and without specific attentional instructions. The task was to judge which of two simultaneously presented E-shaped objects was darker. With unrestrained presentation times, if a transparency interpretation was possible, assimilation was not found. Inhibiting a transparency interpretation by occluding the local junctions between the two E-shaped objects, did lead to assimilation. With short presentation times, if a transparency interpretation was possible, assimilation was now also found. Thus, we conclude that, although transparency appears to enhance assimilation, with unambiguous stimulus displays and without specific attentional instructions, perceptual grouping is more important for assimilation to occur.     

The Impact of Home Ownership on Life Satisfaction in Urban China: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

China has implemented a series of socioeconomic reforms since 1978. One of the reforms allows urban residents to purchase their own houses rather than renting houses from state institutions which has resulted in a rapid increase in home ownership. This paper estimates the impact of home ownership on life satisfaction in urban China on the basis of the 2010 wave of the China General Social Survey. Special attention is paid to the methodological problem of confoundedness between the determinants of home ownership and life satisfaction. Propensity score matching (PSM) is applied to control it. The results show that PSM reduces upward estimation bias caused by confoundedness and that it is more appropriate to control confoundedness than ordered probit regression. The estimates furthermore indicate that home ownership has a significant positive impact on life satisfaction of medium- and high income urban residents. For low income urban residents, the impact is also positive, though insignificant. The outcomes connect to the objectives of national development policy and thus have several important policy implications. First, the central and local governments, especially in provinces where it is still low, may want to continue stimulating home ownership as it enhances life satisfaction. Secondly, specific programs may be designed to make home ownership financially affordable for low income groups. Thirdly, local governments may want to initiate or intensify urban (renewal) programs to improve poor public facilities including public transportation, green space and sports accommodations in the immediate vicinity of depressing low income neighborhoods.     

Assessing the Organizational Climate for Translational Research with a New Survey Tool

Science and Engineering Ethics - Promoting translational research as a means to overcoming chasms in the translation of knowledge through successive fields of research from basic science to public...     

Influence of generalized complexity of a musical event on subjective time estimation

This study examined the variations in the apparent duration of music events produced by differences in their generalized compositional complexity. Stimuli were the first 90 sec. of Gustav Mahler's 3rd Movement of Symphony No. 2 (low complexity) and the first 90 sec. of Luciano Bério's 3rd Movement of Symphony for Eight Voices and Orchestra (high complexity). Bério's symphony is another "reading" of Mahler's. On the compositional base of Mahler's symphony, Bério explored complexity in several musical elements--temporal (i.e., rhythm), nontemporal (i.e., pitch, orchestral and vocal timbre, texture, density), and verbal (i.e., text, words, phonemes). These two somewhat differently filled durations were reproduced by 10 women and 6 men with a stopwatch under the prospective paradigm. Analysis showed that the more generalized complexity of the musical event was followed by greater subjective estimation of the duration of this 90-sec. symphonic excerpt.     

“Why am I so stuck?”: A Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment Case Discussion

Assessors from 3 continents worked together on a single multimethod case study. Their goal was to hold the client at the center and forefront of their attitudes and thinking as each assessor focused on a specific measure or group of measures. The adult client requested a neuropsychological assessment and completed a full battery of cognitive measures as well as the MMPI–2, the Rorschach, and the Wartegg. A basic tenet of collaborative/therapeutic assessment holds that the client is a full partner in the assessment process; he or she is also seen as the final arbiter of the usefulness of the ideas derived. With that in mind, the client worked with the lead assessor to create 6 questions she wished answered by the assessment. Feedback and discussion occurred in a number of ways: through discussion sessions with the lead assessor that included extended inquiry; individualized letters from the other assessors, each addressing her 6 questions; a summary letter from the lead assessor; and a metaphorical, therapeutic story that stressed key findings from the assessment. Results converged powerfully, with similar findings from each assessor. The client stated that she felt heard and understood in the process, even by individuals who she had never met personally.     

From the Terrible Loneliness to the Wonderful Agreement of Human Beings

What would be the “terrible loneliness” and what would be the “wonderful agreement” in the present paper? The “terrible loneliness” is the only reality that a person perceives and/or thinks during the now going on. For the person, an enormous quantity of occurrences is in the present moment absent. A very small quantity of occurrences is present. The person is the only being in having this. And, this is only during a little moment. The person never thinks about his loneliness in this moment. On the contrary, he thinks he is plenty of people and full of occurrences. But, if he were thinking about reality, he would live in a terrible loneliness. How does he escape himself from this loneliness? He thinks that the probable occurrences are real occurrences. He may be right in a plenty of times. Going through what I call opening hypotheses—basic hypotheses and non-basic but important hypotheses—and going through what I call simply hypotheses he is able to sanction a wonderful agreement of human beings about the known parts of the Universe. However, they are hypotheses, not absolute realities.     

Full versus divided attention and implicit memory performance

Effects of full and divided attention during study on explicit and implicit memory performance were investigated in two experiments. Study time was manipulated in a third experiment. Experiment 1 showed that both similar and dissociative effects can be found in the two kinds of memory test, depending on the difficulty of the concurrent tasks used in the divided-attention condition. In this experiment, however, standard implicit memory tests were used and contamination by explicit memory influences cannot be ruled out. Therefore, in Experiments 2 and 3 the process dissociation procedure was applied. Manipulations of attention during study and of study time clearly affected the controlled (explicit) memory component, but had no effect on the automatic (implicit) memory component. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.