Cognitive Processing of Drawing Abilities

This critical review examines constructional apraxia from a cognitive neuropsychological perspective. To our knowledge, van Sommers (1989) is the only researcher to present a global cognitive model of drawing abilities. He organizes it into two hierarchical systems: Marr's model of visual perception and a graphic production system. The latter comprises four hierarchically organized components: depiction decisions, production strategy, contingent planning, and articulatory and economic constraints. Van Sommers' model will be discussed in light of other models and on the basis of empirical neuropsychological studies (Farah, 1984; Kosslyn & Koenig, 1992; Roncato, Sartori, Masterson, & Rumiati, 1987; van Sommers, 1989). We find that: (1) the Kosslyn and Koenig visual perception model describes more accurately the perceptual components underlying copying than the visual perception system of van Sommers' drawing model, (2) Van Sommers' arguments in favor of a depiction processing as opposed to visual imagery are not convincing, (3) Van Sommers' assumption that a production strategy is a component is unclear, and (4) articulatory and economic constraints are not cognitive components, but constraints imposed during action programming. This literature review leads to a discussion of future research topics and the specificity of constructional apraxia.     

Imagery of errors in typing

Using a typing task we investigated whether insufficient imagination of errors and error corrections is related to duration differences between execution and imagination. In Experiment 1 spontaneous error imagination was investigated, whereas in Experiment 2 participants were specifically instructed to imagine errors. Further, in Experiment 2 we manipulated correction instructions (whether or not to correct errors) and controlled for visual feedback in executed typing (letters appearing on the screen or not). Participants executed and imagined typing proverbs of different lengths. Errors and error corrections explained a significant amount of variance of execution minus imagination differences in Experiment 1, and in Experiment 2 when participants were instructed to correct errors, but not when participants were instructed not to correct errors. In Experiment 2 participants corrected and reported more errors with than without visual feedback. However, the relation between execution − imagination duration differences and errors and error corrections was unaffected by visual feedback. The types of errors reported less often in imagination than in execution were related to processes in typing execution. We conclude that errors and error corrections are not spontaneously imagined during motor imagery, and that even when attention is drawn to their occurrence only some are imagined. This may be due to forward models not predicting all aspects of an action, imprecise forward models, or a neglect of monitoring error signals during motor imagery.     

Testing crossover effects in an actor–partner interdependence model among Chinese dual‐earner couples

The purpose of the present study is to examine the crossover effects from one partner's work–family interface (work–family conflict [WFC] and work–family enrichment [WFE]) to the other partner's four outcomes (psychological strain, life satisfaction, marital satisfaction and job satisfaction) in a sample of Chinese dual‐earner couples. Married couples (N = 361) completed a battery of questionnaires, including the work–family interface scale, the psychological strain scale, the life, marital, as well as job satisfaction scale. Results from the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) analyses showed that wives' WFE was negatively associated with husbands' psychological strain, and positively associated with husbands' life, marital and job satisfaction. Furthermore, husbands' WFC was negatively related to wives' marital satisfaction, whereas husbands' WFE was positively related to wives' marital satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed, and future research directions were provided.     

Surveys of community attitudes toward mental health facilities: Reflections or provocations?

This paper points out how political motives behind community research may affect the outcome. The case of public opposition to psychiatric halfway houses in Hong Kong is used as an illustration. These mass surveys related to the issue are reviewed to show how the different public opinions expressed may be affected by the objectives, context, sample, and content of the surveys.     

Maternal odor shapes rapid face categorization in the infant brain

To successfully interact with a rich and ambiguous visual environment, the human brain learns to differentiate visual stimuli and to produce the same response to subsets of these stimuli despite their physical difference. Although this visual categorization function is traditionally investigated from a unisensory perspective, its early development is inherently constrained by multisensory inputs. In particular, an early‐maturing sensory system such as olfaction is ideally suited to support the immature visual system in infancy by providing stability and familiarity to a rapidly changing visual environment. Here, we test the hypothesis that rapid visual categorization of salient visual signals for the young infant brain, human faces, is shaped by another highly relevant human‐related input from the olfactory system, the mother's body odor. We observe that a right‐hemispheric neural signature of single‐glance face categorization from natural images is significantly enhanced in the maternal versus a control odor context in individual 4‐month‐old infant brains. A lack of difference between odor conditions for the common brain response elicited by both face and non‐face images rules out a mere enhancement of arousal or visual attention in the maternal odor context. These observations show that face‐selective neural activity in infancy is mediated by the presence of a (maternal) body odor, providing strong support for multisensory inputs driving category acquisition in the developing human brain and having important implications for our understanding of human perceptual development.     

The Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory as a Culturally Relevant Personality Measure in Applied Settings

This paper introduces the development of the Cross‐Cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI) as a culturally relevant measure for personality assessment in collectivistic cultures. In addition to universal personality traits, the CPAI included indigenously derived scales that assessed the relational aspects of personality. We reported three studies that illustrated the usefulness of these indigenous scales in Chinese organizational settings. The Interpersonal Relatedness factor scales on the CPAI contributed additional value beyond scales from the universal factors of Social Potency and Dependability in profiling MBA students at senior‐level positions, in assessing hotel workers’ customer orientation, and in predicting senior executives’ leadership behaviors.     

The cognitive interview: is its benefit affected by the level of witness emotion?

This research investigated whether a witness's emotion could influence the accuracy of statements obtained by the use of a cognitive interview. A total of 70 first-year university students viewed a video depicting a road accident. Electrodes were attached to their arms in order to send fictitious electric shocks during the video (high-arousal condition) or to measure physiological signs (low-arousal condition). One week later, they were interviewed using either a cognitive interview (CI) or a structured interview (SI). It was hypothesised that the beneficial effect of the cognitive interview would be amplified by a high level of arousal, particularly concerning central aspects of the video. Results indicated that a CI elicited more correct central and peripheral details recalled, whatever the level of arousal inducted during the encoding of the to-be remembered event. Furthermore, high-arousal participants produced more accurate testimonies concerning peripheral details than participants exposed to a low level of arousal. No interaction between interview and emotion was found. The theoretical and practical implications for interviewing witnesses are described.     

Is this a good time? Political activism and other in the temenos

This paper discusses raciality and Africanist culture as elements of the analytical clinical experience. The history of American Jungian psychology, and its relationship with the African diaspora, is reviewed with a perspective that seeks to deepen understanding of racism as an aspect of psychoanalytical institutional life. An attempt to separate political activism from the clinical setting is explored with consideration of the necessary intertwining relationship between socialization, racial identity and racism. Diversity and inclusion are becoming cultural signature markers of clinical work with individuals who have oftentimes, within the psychoanalytical clinical setting, been described due to ethnicity, as other. Political activism such as the Black Lives Matter movement stretches consciousness towards an insistence that blackness matters, skin colour matters and the lives of Africanist individuals matter. This paper reflects on cultural racial identity, the influence of politics on the individual, and the effects of these on the analytical relationship.     

香港中学生人格特质的性别差异及其发展性分析

本文报告了新近发展的跨文化（中国人）个性测量表－青少年版（CPAI-A）对香港中学生人格特征的性别差异评估结果。CPAI-A是在CPAI-2（成人版）基础上发展而来的。研究发现性别是影响香港中学生人格特质的关键因素,并且性别差异在不同年龄组之间存在明显的延续性和发展性趋势。结合对已有研究的比较分析,文章从发展角度讨论了人格特质的性别差异特性在青少年不同年龄组之间的情形。文章还基于CPAI-2中国人常模的数据,比较分析了青少年与成人之间人格特征性别差异的特点。文章最后认为性别差异特征是体现人格特质在青少年期的不同年龄阶段,以及从青少年到成人阶段的发展性与稳定性的重要内容     

Prediction of performance facets using specific personality traits in the Chinese context

Recent research has shown that the contextual domain of job performance could be divided into an interpersonal and a personal facet. This study examined how personality variables relate differentially to these two distinct facets. Supervisory-level employees (N=187) completed the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI, Cheung et al., 1996) and provided their recent performance appraisal records. Results indicated that personality traits that relate to interpersonal orientation (e.g., Harmony and Leadership in the CPAI) better predict interpersonal versus personal contextual behaviors, whereas a trait associated with personal virtues such as moral obligation and loyalty to group (e.g., CPAI’s Veraciousness) predicts the personal but not the interpersonal domain. These results extend previous research findings that personality variables are valid predictors of the contextual domain of job performance, and demonstrate that the same personality variable differs in levels of predictive validity depending on the foci of the contextual behaviors.