Auditory motion aftereffects

Observers were adapted to simulated auditory movement produced by dynamically varying the interaural time and intensity differences of tones (500 or 2,000 Hz) presented through headphones. At lO-sec intervals during adaptation, various probe tones were presented for 1 sec (the frequency of the probe was always the same as that of the adaptation stimulus). Observers judged the direction of apparent movement (“left” or “right”) of each probe tone. At 500 Hz, with a 200-deg/sec adaptation velocity, “stationary” probe tones were consistently judged to move in the direction opposite to that of the adaptation stimulus. We call this result an auditory motion aftereffect. In slower velocity adaptation conditions, progressively less aftereffect was demonstrated. In the higher frequency condition (2,000 Hz, 200-deg/sec adaptation velocity), we found no evidence of motion aftereffect. The data are discussed in relation to the well-known visual analog-the “waterfall effect.” Although the auditory aftereffect is weaker than the visual analog, the data suggest that auditory motion perception might be mediated, as is generally believed for the visual system, by direction-specific movement analyzers.     

An empirical study of item-test regression

Certain questions about the shape of item-test regressions are answered on the basis of data obtained from 103,275 examinees. Ten of the regressions obtained are shown in illustrative plots.This work was supported in part by the College Entrance Examination Board.     

All new kids on the block? Impaired holistic processing of personally familiar faces in a kindergarten teacher with acquired prosopagnosia

Acquired prosopagnosia is primarily defined as a defect in recognizing familiar faces. Nonetheless, for practical and methodological reasons, studies of such rare patients typically use pictures of unfamiliar faces. Here, we report an extensive investigation (17 behavioural tasks grouped in nine experiments) with a homogenous set of personally familiar faces in patient PS (Rossion et al., 2003 Rossion, B., Caldara, R., Seghier, M., Schuller, A.-M., Lazeyras, F., &; Mayer, E. (2003). A network of occipito-temporal face-sensitive areas besides the right middle fusiform gyrus is necessary for normal face processing. Brain, 126, 2381–2395. doi: 10.1093/brain/awg241[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. A network of occipito-temporal face-sensitive areas besides the right middle fusiform gyrus is necessary for normal face processing.), a well-documented case of acquired prosopagnosia with intact object recognition. PS’s recognition of the face pictures of 3–4-year-old children of her kindergarten is severely impaired—both in terms of accuracy and speed of recognition—and differs qualitatively from her colleagues’ performance. Relative to these typical individuals, PS relies more on external features, colour and local details of faces. She is also specifically impaired at processing the eye region in two-alternative face matching tasks, as well as in a familiar face recognition task performed both with pre-defined isolated parts and with randomly placed apertures revealing selective parts (“Bubbles”, >20.000 trials) of the personally familiar faces. These observations indicate that the same impairment observed previously with unfamiliar faces for PS and other cases of acquired prosopagnosia is associated with a deficient long-term representation of the eye region. Various manipulations that differentially affect the processing of the eye region suggest that this impairment is a consequence of the inability to represent the multiple parts of the eye region, and of the whole familiar face, as a single unit. This impairment in holistic processing is further evidenced here across different paradigms with composite faces, wholes and parts, and configurally distorted faces, mirroring and strengthening previous observations made with unfamiliar faces in PS and other cases of acquired prosopagnosia. Altogether, these observations suggest that prosopagnosia following brain damage affects unfamiliar and familiar face processing in a qualitatively similar way.     

Affective Match in Leadership: Leader Emotional Displays,Follower Positive Affect,and Follower Performance1

Leader emotions may play an important role in leadership effectiveness. Extending earlier research on leader emotional displays and leadership effectiveness, we propose that the affective match between follower positive affect (PA) and leaders’ emotional displays moderates the effectiveness of leader emotional displays. Leader display of emotions has more positive effects on follower behavior if the match between the valence of leader emotion and follower PA is strong rather than weak. Support for this hypothesis was found in 2 experiments. Congruency between leader emotional displays and follower PA determined follower task performance and extra‐role compliance. Results from the second experiment indicated that this effect is a due to affective aspects of leader behavior and not to the valence of message content.     

Leader Affective Displays and Attributions of Charisma: The Role of Arousal

Research suggests that leader displays of positive affect are conducive to attributions of charisma. We qualify and extend this conclusion by arguing that this mainly holds for displays of positive affect that are associated with high levels of arousal. Results of a scenario experiment and a survey support this hypothesis, and show that besides the transfer of positive feelings per se, it is the transfer of arousal that mediates the relationship between leader affective displays and attributions of charisma.     

Book reviews

Hostility and Aggression by Dolf Zillmann Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1979, 422 pages, $24.95.

Sexually Abused Children by David Finkelhor New York: The Free Press, 1979, $13.95, cloth.

Damnation and Deviance: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Failure by Mordechai Rotenberg New York: The Free Press, 1978, 232 pages, $12.95.

Prison Sexual Violence by Daniel Lockwood New York, Elsevier, 1980,179 pages, $12.95, cloth.

Ethnic Drinking Subcultures by Andrew Greeley, William McGready, and Gary Theisen New York, Praeger, 1980,138 pages.     

Development of the Motivators of and Barriers to Health-Smart Behaviors Inventory

The Motivators of and Barriers to Health-Smart Behaviors Inventory (MB-HSBI) was developed for use in identifying self-reported motivators of and barriers to the following health-promoting behaviors (called health-smart behaviors) that should occur daily to help promote health and overcome illnesses/diseases: eating a healthy breakfast, eating healthy foods and snacks, drinking healthy drinks, and engaging in physical activity. The MB-HSBI was developed through several phases as part of a multisite study on modifying and preventing obesity. A central aspect of the larger study was to identify motivators of and barriers to the targeted health-smart behaviors among African American, Asian, Hispanic, and White adults. After establishing content validity and preliminary pilot testing, the MB-HSBI was administered to a national sample of 926 culturally diverse adults. Factor analyses and most of the internal consistency results supported multiple scales and subscales measuring motivators of and barriers to each of the targeted health-smart behavior domains. Scores correlated in expected directions with health self-efficacy and with importance of health-related behavioral goals. Pending further psychometric support of the MB-HSBI, this inventory or selected scales from it may serve as flexible and novel tools for (a) assessing motivators of and barriers to health-smart behaviors in community and clinical health promotion research studies and (b) developing assessment-based, culturally sensitive intervention programs that are customized to address the motivators of and barriers to health-smart behaviors identified in target communities, particularly those communities whose members are mostly racial/ethnic minorities and/or have low family incomes.     

Prior entry explains order reversals in the attentional blink

When two targets are presented in rapid succession, the first target (T1) is usually identified, but the second target (T2) is often missed. A remarkable exception to this "attentional blink" occurs when T2 immediately follows the first T1, at lag 1. It is then often spared but reported in the wrong order--that is, before T1. These order reversals have led to the hypothesis that "lag 1 sparing" occurs because the two targets merge into a single episodic representation. Here, we report evidence consistent with an alternative theory: T2 receives more attention than T1, leading to prior entry into working memory. Two experiments showed that the more T2 performance exceeded that for T1, the more order reversals were made. Furthermore, precuing T1 led to a shift in performance benefits from T2 to T1 and to an equivalent reduction in order reversals. We conclude that it is not necessary to assume episodic integration to explain lag 1 sparing or the accompanying order reversals.