Eye tracking research and technology: Towards objective measurement of data quality

Two methods for objectively measuring eye tracking data quality are explored. The first method works by tricking the eye tracker to detect an abrupt change in the gaze position of an artificial eye that in actuality does not move. Such a device, referred to as an artificial saccade generator, is shown to be extremely useful for measuring the temporal accuracy and precision of eye tracking systems and for validating the latency to display change in gaze contingent display paradigms. The second method involves an artificial pupil that is mounted on a computer controlled moving platform. This device is designed to be able to provide the eye tracker with motion sequences that closely resemble biological eye movements. The main advantage of using artificial motion for testing eye tracking data quality is the fact that the spatiotemporal signal is fully specified in a manner independent of the eye tracker that is being evaluated and that nearly identical motion sequence can be reproduced multiple times with great precision. The results of the present study demonstrate that the equipment described has the potential to become an important tool in the comprehensive evaluation of data quality.     

A rapid effect of stimulus quality on the durations of individual fixations during reading

We developed a variant of the single fixation replacement paradigm (Yang & McConkie, 2001, 2004) in order to examine the effect of stimulus quality on fixation duration during reading. Subjects' eye movements were monitored while they read passages of text for comprehension. During critical fixations, equal changes to the luminance of the background produced either an increase (Up-Contrast) or a decrease (Down-Contrast) of the contrast of the text. The durations of critical fixations were found to be lengthened in the Down-Contrast but not the Up-Contrast condition. Ex-Gaussian modelling of the distributions of fixation durations showed that the reduction in stimulus quality lengthened the majority of fixations, and a survival analysis estimated the onset of this effect to be approximately 141 ms following fixation onset. Because the stimulus quality of the text during critical fixations could not be predicted or parafoveally previewed prior to foveation, the present effect can be attributed to an immediate effect of stimulus quality on fixation duration.     

Personal Growth of Mothers of Preterms: Objective Severity of the Event,Subjective Stress,Personal Resources,and Maternal Emotional Support

This prospective study investigated the personal growth of Israeli mothers of premature babies at two medically defined risk levels (infants at low risk, n = 42; infants at moderate-high risk, n = 52), examining the contribution to the five dimensions of personal growth of objective event characteristics (baby’s risk level), perceived levels of mother’s stress (linear and curvilinear associations), and mother’s personal resources (self-esteem, attachment styles, perceived emotional support from her own mother). In addition, the role of the event severity as a moderator of the association between perceived maternal emotional support and personal growth was explored. Findings indicate that mothers in the two risk groups did not differ in level of perceived stress. Mothers of infants at moderate-high risk, however, experienced more spiritual change. In addition, consistent curvilinear associations emerged between perceived levels of stress and personal growth for three dimensions of growth: new possibilities, personal strength, and relations with others (with a similar trend for appreciation of life). Thus, mothers reporting moderate stress levels experienced the highest personal growth. Finally, risk group played a moderating role in the association between perceived maternal emotional support and personal growth on the dimensions of new possibilities, personal strength, and relations with others. On these dimensions, only among mothers of low-risk babies were higher levels of maternal emotional support associated with greater personal growth. The results highlight the importance of the subjective experience and the value of maternal emotional support for the personal growth of mothers of preterms. These findings may help in designing measures to identify populations at risk and developing appropriate interventions, as well as impact on the working procedures and support currently offered in most neonatal intensive care units.     

The perceived helpfulness of rendering emotional first aid via email

The present research examined the perceived helpfulness of an increasingly widespread mode of psychological assistance, namely, emotional first aid via email. The sample comprised 62 naturally occurring email interactions between distressful clients and trained volunteers operating within the framework of the Israeli Association for Emotional First Aid. Data were gathered by means of a structured questionnaire and open-ended questions so as to examine the clients' motivation to seek help via email and evaluate their satisfaction with the responses obtained. The results revealed a preference for written communication and the accessibility of assistance to be the most frequent reasons for clients to choose the medium of email. Most clients found the responses to be helpful in providing emotional support, enhancing cognitive change and suggesting practical ways of coping. Women perceived the assistance to be more helpful than men did. The results are discussed in terms of the unique value of email as an agent of mental health assistance.     

Go with the flow: How the consideration of joy versus pride influences automaticity

Recently, we have shown that the consideration of joy, without the actual experience of the emotion, impaired performance on the antisaccade task (Katzir, Eyal, Meiran, & Kessler, 2010). We interpreted this finding as indicating inhibitory control failure. However, impaired antisaccade performance may result from either the weakening of inhibitory control, the potentiation of the competing automatic response, or both. In the current research we used a task switching paradigm, which allowed us to assess cognitive control more directly, using Backward Inhibition, Competitor Rule Suppression, and Competitor Rule Priming as cognitive-control indices as well as assessing the Task Rule Congruency Effect (TRCE) which, like the antisaccade, is influenced by both control and automaticity. We found that considering joy compared to pride did not influence any of the cognitive control indices but increased the TRCE. We interpret this finding as evidence that joy consideration leads to increased reliance on automatic tendencies, such as short-term desires.     

Consistent constructs in individuals’ risk taking in decisions from experience

The current research evaluates the consistency of different constructs affecting risk taking in individuals’ experiential decisions across different levels of risk. Specifically, we contrast three major views concerning the psychological constructs that underlie risk taking behavior. The first is the classical economic approach which views risk as the sensitivity to differences in variance. The second is the latent-components approach suggesting the importance of sensitivity to losses and diminishing sensitivity to marginal increases in payoffs. The third approach, risk acceptance, relates to the willingness to accept probable outcomes over certainty. The results of three studies indicate that (1) Individuals do not exhibit consistency in their sensitivity to variance. (2) Consistent diminishing sensitivity is found within the gain and loss domains, but across these domains individuals seem to be consistent only when deciding between constant versus probable outcomes, suggesting that they reliably differ in their risk acceptance. (3) Risk acceptance appears to entail different psychological constructs when the decision problem involves co-occurring gains and losses.     

Reflections on Janine Puget's Paper

In my discussion of Janine Puget's deeply thought-provoking paper, I focus on her central argument that the subject's interior world and the world of intersubjective relationships answer to different logics and evolve along separate developmental paths. Puget's argument hinges on a notion of the other, and of otherness as disruptive and traumatic to the subject. My discussion aims to problematize this notion on two fronts. First, I suggest that otherness is not only external to the subject. I point to some ways in which psychoanalysis conceives of otherness and of the other as integral to the constitution and development of the subject. Further, I argue that individuals sometimes desire and actively seek otherness. I engage in this context the question of social displacement and immigration, Puget's other main concern in her paper. Life tourists, as Puget calls them, are a paradox of will and necessity, where the prospect of confronting otherness and being othered is both a threat and a life-affirming recourse. Yet there seems to be more involved in immigration than the psychology of individuals or their relationships. Drawing on my personal and clinical experience as an immigrant working with other immigrants, I suggest that beyond the self-other relation, we can recognize otherness on a third dimension, that of collective, socio-political, normative discourse. Looking at the psychoanalytic notion of Oedipus, I suggest the possibility that Puget's view of the subjective and intersubjective as disparate captures the effect this third, social dimension of human life on the construction of subjectivity and of human relating. I argue that the fault line Puget recognizes may be understood as the effect, within subjectivity, of social power.     

I Am Yourself: Subjectivity and the Collective

This paper suggests that social and historical forces play an unconscious yet decisive role in our lives. Telling the story of a conversation between Israeli parents about the prospect of their children becoming soldiers, and of an analytic relationship between two Israelis, the paper aims to bring to light a hidden balance of power between family bonds and collective attachments. The paper uses ideas developed by Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari in the field of critical theory to examine the ways in which families function as social agents, that is, as socializing institutions. It suggests that, as a result, in some situations, families may face a conflict of identifications, a dilemma between responsibility to kin and responsibility to the collective. If the dilemma commonly persists unheeded, it becomes painfully evident in extreme situations. Such is the case when parents are asked to allow their children to become soldiers, or when individuals strive to care for themselves against a binding ethics of communal and intergenerational responsibility. The paper examines the effect of the collective trauma underlying the dominant discourse of the Israeli society, and the hypercollectivity of the Israeli Kibbutz, in generating powerful unconscious conflicts that haunt subjective and family life. The paper argues that collective affiliations and consequently, collective politics are inseparable from individual psychology and interpersonal relations. It suggests that, for this reason, political awareness and political exchange can play a crucial, liberating role in the therapeutic relationship, and life in general.     

Direct control of fixation times in scene viewing: Evidence from analysis of the distribution of first fixation duration

Participants' eye movements were monitored in two scene viewing experiments that manipulated the task-relevance of scene stimuli and their availability for extrafoveal processing. In both experiments, participants viewed arrays containing eight scenes drawn from two categories. The arrays of scenes were either viewed freely (Free Viewing) or in a gaze-contingent viewing mode where extrafoveal preview of the scenes was restricted (No Preview). In Experiment 1a, participants memorized the scenes from one category that was designated as relevant, and in Experiment 1b, participants chose their preferred scene from within the relevant category. We examined first fixations on scenes from the relevant category compared to the irrelevant category (Experiments 1a and 1b), and those on the chosen scene compared to other scenes not chosen within the relevant category (Experiment 1b). A survival analysis was used to estimate the first discernible influence of the task-relevance on the distribution of first-fixation durations. In the free viewing condition in Experiment 1a, the influence of task relevance occurred as early as 81 ms from the start of fixation. In contrast, the corresponding value in the no preview condition was 254 ms, demonstrating the crucial role of extrafoveal processing in enabling direct control of fixation durations in scene viewing. First fixation durations were also influenced by whether or not the scene was eventually chosen (Experiment 1b), but this effect occurred later and affected fewer fixations than the effect of scene category, indicating that the time course of scene processing is an important variable mediating direct control of fixation durations.