Phonological ambiguity and lexical ambiguity: effects on visual and auditory word recognition

Three experiments in Serbo-Croatian were conducted on the effects of phonological ambiguity and lexical ambiguity on printed word recognition. Subjects decided rapidly if a printed and a spoken word matched or not. Printed words were either phonologically ambiguous (two possible pronunciations) or unambiguous. If phonologically ambiguous, either both pronunciations were real words or only one was, the other being a nonword. Spoken words were necessarily unambiguous. Half the spoken words were auditorily degraded. In addition, the relative onsets of speech and print were varied. Speed of matching print to speech was slowed by phonological ambiguity, and the effect was amplified when the stimulus was also lexically ambiguous. Auditory degradation did not interact with print ambiguity, suggesting that perception of the spoken word was independent of the printed word.     

Linear vection in the central visual field facilitated by kinetic depth cues.

Illusory self-motion (vection) is thought to be determined by motion in the peripheral visual field, whereas stimulation of more central retinal areas results in object-motion perception. Recent data suggest that vection can be produced by stimulation of the central visual field provided it is configured as a more distant surface. In this study vection strength (tracking speed, onset latency, and the percentage of trials where vection was experienced) and the direction of self-motion produced by displays moving in the central visual field were investigated. Apparent depth, introduced by using kinetic occlusion information, influenced vection strength. Central displays perceived to be in the background elicited stronger vection than identical displays appearing in the foreground. Further, increasing the eccentricity of these displays from the central retina diminished vection strength. If the central and peripheral displays were moved in opposite directions, vection strength was unaffected, and the direction of vection was determined by motion of the central display on almost half of the trials when the centre was far. Near centres produced fewer centre-consistent responses. A complete understanding of linear vection requires that factors such as display size, retinal locus, and apparent depth plane are considered.     

Perfectionism in depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and eating disorders

High levels of perfectionism have been observed in major depression, anxiety disorders and eating disorders. Though few studies have compared levels of perfectionism across these disorders, there is reason to believe that different dimensions of perfectionism may be involved in eating disorders than in depression or anxiety [Bardone-Cone, A. M. et al. (2007). Perfectionism and eating disorders: Current status and future directions. Clinical Psychology Review, 27, 84-405]. The present study compared patients with major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and eating disorders on dimensions of perfectionism. Concern over Mistakes was elevated in each of the patient groups while Pure Personal Standards was only elevated in the eating disorder sample. Doubts about Actions was elevated in both patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and eating disorders, but not in depressed patients. Analyses of covariance indicated that Concern over Mistakes accounted for most of the variance in the relationship of perfectionism to these forms of psychopathology.     

Lay counselors: Thoughts on the crossing of ecological frameworks and the use of lay counselors in the scale up of early infant mental health interventions

The recent call for the scale-up of evidence-based early childhood development interventions, in lower and middle-income countries and for minority groups in high-income countries, has seen numerous suggestions to train greater numbers of lay mental health workers to fulfill these functions. While studies have found that concepts from developed country settings, such as attachment, parental sensitivity, and containment, find purchase and relevance within developing settings, the management of contextual and cultural factors and the tensions of cultural interfacing in the rollout of these programs in developing country settings require consideration. Drawing on the experiences of two successful South African mother–infant home-visiting programs as examples, this article discusses some of the challenges in provision of attachment-based infant mental health programs and highlights the need for careful consideration of a number of factors pertaining to the recruitment, supervision, and management of lay mental health workers before large-scale rollout is conducted.     

Decision Making with Uncertain Information: Learning from Women in a High Risk Breast Cancer Clinic

Patients and practitioners may believe that clinically validated laboratory tests provide definitive information. Genetic counselors know this is not always so, and the possibility of inconclusive genetic test results is often discussed in the pretest counseling session. This added discussion topic prolongs the process of genetic counseling, but if there is inadequate patient understanding, patient frustration may be high when receiving a result of uncertain significance, and patients may make decisions about subsequent medical management based on incorrect assumptions. For patients/participants in a research setting, where the clinical validity of testing may be unclear, some patients/participants may still want to use test results to influence their medical management. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study wherein 15 women from the High Risk Breast Cancer Clinic at Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute discussed how uncertainty regarding results affected their decision making. The women were randomly selected from 3 categories--women with test results of uncertain significance; women without cancer who have a mutation; and women who are members of high-risk families, but for whom no mutation was found. Study findings will be used in future studies to better understand how to improve communication regarding uncertain results, especially in a research environment.     

Individual differences in metacognition: Evidence against a general metacognitive ability

Individual differences in metacognitive accuracy are generally thought to reflect differences in metacognitive ability. If so, memory monitoring performance should be consistent across different metacognitive tasks and show high test-retest reliability. Two experiments examined these possibilities, using four common metacognitive tasks: ease of learning judgments, feeling of knowing judgments, judgments of learning, and text comprehension monitoring. Alternate-forms correlations were computed for metacognitive accuracy (with a 1-week interval between tests). Although individual differences in memory and confidence were stable across both sessions and tasks, differences in metacognitive accuracy were not. These results pose considerable practical and theoretical challenges for metacognitive researchers.     

The quality of false memory over time: Is memory for misinformation “remembered” or “known”?

The conscious quality of eyewitness memory for misinformation after different retention intervals was investigated in two experiments. Participants viewed computer-projected slides depicting a crime (encoding phase), read a narrative containing misinformation, and took a recall test about the original event. Remember/know judgments were made for each response. A "remember" judgment indicated that the participant vividly recalled seeing a detail in the encoding phase. A "know" judgment indicated that the participant believed that a detail was presented but did not vividly remember it. Generally, misinformation was more likely to be associated with a know judgment than with a remember judgment after a short retention interval. This outcome suggests that, in many cases, misleading information is judged as having a different subjective quality than memory for actual events. However, over a relatively long retention interval, misinformation that simply added new information about the event was more often judged as remembered.     

Hoarding behaviors in a large college sample

Hoarding behaviors occur in many clinical syndromes but are most commonly linked to obsessive compulsive disorder. Surprisingly little empirical work has examined the nature of hoarding behaviors despite their association with significant distress and impairment. The current study examined hoarding in 563 unselected college students. Using principal components analysis, we identified four domains of hoarding behaviors as measured by the 26-item Saving Inventory-Revised: Difficulty Discarding, Acquisition Problems, Clutter, and Interference/Distress. All four domains and total hoarding behaviors were strongly related to hoarding beliefs and to obsessive compulsive (OC) symptoms. Hoarding behaviors were most strongly correlated with subscales of an OC disorder (OCD) measure assessing hoarding and obsessions and least strongly correlated with the washing subscale. Hoarding behaviors also showed significant, but more modest, correlations with social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and worry. However, worry was not found to contribute unique variance to the prediction of hoarding behaviors. Of greatest note, hoarding behaviors showed a surprisingly strong relationship with anxiety sensitivity, similar in magnitude to the relationship between hoarding and OCD symptoms. Results are interpreted and lines of future research are proposed, with particular emphasis on further elucidating the relationship between hoarding behaviors and anxiety sensitivity.