Recurrence quantification analysis of eye movements

Recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) has been successfully used for describing dynamic systems that are too complex to be characterized adequately by standard methods in time series analysis. More recently, RQA has been used for analyzing the coordination of gaze patterns between cooperating individuals. Here, we extend RQA to the characterization of fixation sequences, and we show that the global and local temporal characteristics of fixation sequences can be captured by a small number of RQA measures that have a clear interpretation in this context. We applied RQA to the analysis of a study in which observers looked at different scenes under natural or gaze-contingent viewing conditions, and we found large differences in the RQA measures between the viewing conditions, indicating that RQA is a powerful new tool for the analysis of the temporal patterns of eye movement behavior.     

Primary and Secondary Control Over Age-Related Changes in Physical Appearance

Beliefs about appearance-related changes due to aging were used to test the effects of perceived control and secondary control (acceptance) in a sample of 412 young, early-middle-age, and late-middle-age college-educated adults. Mean difference in aging-related appearance control and hypotheses regarding the adaptiveness of primary and secondary control were examined. Primary control over aging-related appearance was lower in older adults and secondary control was higher. In addition, the results indicated support for the Primacy/Back-Up Model that primary perceived control is important at all levels of actual control. Those with stronger beliefs in their primary control were less distressed. Secondary control served a back-up function in that it was related to less distress only for those who had medium or lower beliefs in primary control. The implications of these findings, that primary control may be advantageous even in low-control circumstances, are discussed.     

A BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION FOR IMPROVING VERBAL BEHAVIORS OF HEROIN ADDICTS IN A TREATMENT CLINIC

Positively reinforcing appropriate behaviors improved verbal behaviors of opioid-dependent patients in a buprenorphine treatment clinic. During B phases of an ABAB design, clients received stickers for engaging in appropriate verbal or nonverbal behaviors. Each sticker provided a chance of winning $25. No reinforcement was provided during the A phases. Appropriate verbal behaviors increased during reinforcement periods, and inappropriate verbal behaviors decreased.     

Offloading memory: Serial position effects

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Despite the long history and pervasiveness of cognitive offloading as a memory strategy, the memorial fate of offloaded information is not well understood....     

Mountains and valleys: binocular rivalry and the flow of experience

Binocular rivalry provides a useful situation for studying the relation between the temporal flow of conscious experience and the temporal dynamics of neural activity. After proposing a phenomenological framework for understanding temporal aspects of consciousness, we review experimental research on multistable perception and binocular rivalry, singling out various methodological, theoretical, and empirical aspects of this research relevant to studying the flow of experience. We then review an experimental study from our group explicitly concerned with relating the temporal dynamics of rivalrous experience to the temporal dynamics of cortical activity. Drawing attention to the importance of dealing with ongoing activity and its inherent changing nature at both phenomenological and neurodynamical levels, we argue that the notions of recurrence and variability are pertinent to understanding rivalry in particular and the flow of experience in general.     

Look again: Phenomenology and mental imagery

This paper (1) sketches a phenomenological analysis of visual mental imagery; (2) applies this analysis to the mental imagery debate in cognitive science; (3) briefly sketches a neurophenomenological approach to mental imagery; and (4) compares the results of this discussion with Dennett’s heterophenomenology.