Face processing at birth: a Thatcher illusion study

The present study was aimed at exploring newborns’ ability to recognize configural changes within real face images by testing newborns’ sensitivity to the Thatcher illusion. Using the habituation procedure, newborns’ ability to discriminate between an unaltered face image and the same face with the eyes and the mouth 180° rotated (i.e. thatcherized) was investigated. Newborns were able to discriminate an unaltered from the thatcherized version of the same face when stimuli were presented in the canonical upright orientation (Experiment 1), but failed to discriminate the same stimuli when they were presented upside‐down (Experiment 2). The results indicate that sensitivity to fine spatial information (defined as second‐order relational information) in processing upright faces is already present at birth.     

Support vector machines categorize the scaling of human grip configurations

In previous work (Cesari & Newell, 2002), we used a graphical dimensional analysis to show that grip transitions obey the body-scaled relation K = lnL(o) + InM(o)h/(a + bM(h) + cL(h)), where L. and Mo are the object's length and mass, and Lh and Mh the length and mass of the grasper's hand. However, the generality of the equation was limited by the ad hoc graphical method that defined the lines for grip separation and by the assumption that these lines be negatively sloped and parallel to one another. This article reports an independent test of this relation by the geometrical and statistical categorization of body-scaled invariants for the transition of human grip configurations through support vector machines (SVMs). The SVM analysis confirmed the fit of linear, negatively sloped, and approximately parallel transition boundaries in the scaling of human grip configuration within a single hand. The SVM analysis has provided a theoretical refinement to the scaling model of human grip configurations.     

Effects of task difficulty on use of advice

Although prior studies have found that people generally underweight advice from others, such discounting of advice is not universal. Two studies examined the impact of task difficulty on the use of advice. In both studies, the strategy participants used to weigh advice varied with task difficulty even when it should not have. In particular, the results show that people tend to overweight advice on difficult tasks and underweight advice on easy tasks. This pattern held regardless of whether advice was automatically provided or whether people had to seek it out. The paper discusses implications for the circumstances under which people will be open to influence by advisors. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transformation processes upon the visual code

Seven experiments investigated whether orientation-dependent latency functions for the visual code resemble those observed in studies of mental rotations of visual images. The subjects were required to perform “same-different” classifications of two simultaneously presented letters. The dependent variables considered were reaction time IRT and accuracy. Experiments 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 showed that subjects could correctly classify two different letters on the basis of the visual code without preceding transformations. Experiments 1, 2, and 7 showed orientationdependent effects for “same“ responses. It appeared, however, that orientation functions for the visual cede were clearly different from those previously observed for visual images. In addition, the findings of Experiments 4, 5, and 6 indicated that a frame that jointly rotated with the disoriented letters could eliminate the orientation-dependent effects for “same” responses. Experiment 7 showed that the results of Experiments 4, 5, and 6 must be attributed to the structural characteristics of the frame and not to a directional cue. The results of Experiment 3 seemed to demonstrate that transformations did not occur when the subjects used the phonetic code to classify the letters. Overall, the results of the seven experiments were considered to provide a demonstration of the importance of the distinction between the operations on visual images and those on the visual code.     

Sex in the Media,Sex on the Mind: Linking Television Use,Sexual Permissiveness,and Sexual Concept Accessibility in Memory

The present study explores the interrelationships between emerging adults’ exposure to sexual depictions on mainstream television, their attitudes toward sexually permissive behaviors, and the salience (accessibility) of concepts related to sexual activity in their implicit memory. Findings indicate a small but significant relationship between increased exposure to sex on television and increased favoring of sexually permissive behaviors, when taking sexual concept accessibility into account. When taking television exposure into account, young adults who held stronger sexually permissive attitudes found it easier to access concepts of sexual activity in memory, suggesting these ideas were top-of-mind for these participants, compared to participants scoring lower on permissiveness. However, there was no direct connection between exposure to sex on television and accessibility of sexual activity in memory when accounting for permissive attitudes, suggesting that sexual permissiveness is at the center of any link between exposure and accessibility. Implications for examining sexual permissiveness as a lens for structuring sexual information in memory, as well as implications for designing sexual health messages are discussed in light of the findings.     

Stress-induced salivary cortisol secretion during hypobaric hypoxia challenge and in vivo urinary thromboxane production in healthy male subjects

Few studies have assessed the effects of stress on in vivo platelet activation. In the present study, hypobaric hypoxia induced by rapid decompression during high-altitude simulated flight in a hypobaric chamber was used to evaluate the effects of environmental stress on salivary cortisol and urinary thromboxane metabolite (TXM) excretion, a noninvasive marker of in vivo platelet function. Twenty-one male aviators (mean ± SD age = 36 ± 7 years) experiencing hypoxia by removing their oxygen mask for 4-5 min during a simulated flight to 25,000 ft (7,620 m; pO(2) = 59.17 mmHg) and a matched control group of thirteen flying instructors wearing oxygen masks during the challenge, were studied. Hypobaric hypoxia induced a transient significant increase (P < 0.001) in the aviators' salivary cortisol concentration; the overall pattern of diurnal cortisol fluctuation was maintained in both groups. Urinary TXM showed a significant ～30% reduction (P < 0.01) after the chamber session in aviators exposed to hypobaric hypoxia, but not in controls. A significant inverse correlation was found between salivary cortisol and urinary TXM in aviators (r = - 0.64, P = 0.0015). Salivary cortisol was a significant predictor (P < 0.001) for urinary TXM concentrations in aviators. In conclusion, here we observed that an acute stress-induced salivary cortisol increase was associated with reduced urinary thromboxane biosynthesis, providing the first indirect evidence for an inhibitory effect of acute stress on in vivo platelet function.     

Contextual conditioning in rats as an animal model for generalized anxiety disorder

Animal models of psychiatric disorders are important translational tools for exploring new treatment options and gaining more insight into the disease. Thus far, there is no systematically validated animal model for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a severely impairing and difficult-to-treat disease. In this review, we propose contextual conditioning (CC) as an animal model for GAD. We argue that this model has sufficient face validity (there are several symptom similarities), predictive validity (it responds to clinically effective treatments), and construct validity (the underlying mechanisms are comparable). Although the refinement and validation of an animal model is a never-ending process, we want to give a concise overview of the currently available evidence. We suggest that the CC model might be a valuable preclinical tool to enhance the development of new treatment strategies and our understanding of GAD.     

Understanding Continuity to Recognize Discontinuity

In this paper the author comments on the contribution by António P. Ribeiro and Miguel M. Gonçalves (in this journal) that offer a creative and unique perspective on maintenance and transformation of problematic self-narrative. From here the author contributes to the topic through the exploration of some issues: a) the relation, in the dialogical process of self-narrative construction, between semiotic processes that give voice to the semantic opposition and semiotic processes that give voice to the contradictory; b) the relation between sameness and ipseity in the self-narrative process; c) the role of a pathemic axis of meaning in the generation process of self-narratives. A final reflection is done on narrative as a device of clinical intervention in which the author makes a distinction between methods based on the recognition and extension of variability and methods based on the recognition of permanency so to get to variability.