Inhibitory tagging in inhibition of return: Evidence from flanker interference with multiple distractor features

Fuentes, Vivas, and Humphreys (1999) proposed a distinction betweeninhibition of return (IOR) and inhibitory processing taking place at a location subject to IOR. This latter mechanism,inhibitory tagging (IT), would act at a late level of processing related to response selection. In the present study, we examined whether IT was applied only to the target-relevant properties of the stimuli (e.g., to its color) or whether it was applied to other features of the stimulus as well (e.g., to its shape). Both when the task was to respond to the target’s color (Experiment 1) as well as when it was to respond to the target’s shape (Experiment 2), there was evidence of IT (reversal of the typical flanker effect at the cued location, relative to the uncued location) only to task-relevant features of the target. These findings suggest that IT is a central process of control constrained by task demands and current goals.     

Expectations of efficacy,social influence and age as predictors of helmet-use in a sample of Spanish adolescents

Despite the proven effectiveness of helmets in avoiding or reducing the severity of brain injuries and the law requiring their compulsory use, both by drivers and passengers of motorcycles, approximately 20% of Spanish adolescent motorcycle users do not wear them. This study analysed the pattern of motorcycle and helmet-use in a sample of Spanish adolescents (age range 14–17; n = 874) and the relationship this safety measure has with belief in its effectiveness and its use by friends and relatives. Overall more males than females ride motorcycles and this difference increased with age. Motorcycle drivers and passengers who always wear helmets consider them to be more effective than those who do not use a helmet all of the time. The best predictors of helmet-use among motorcycle drivers were their beliefs regarding the helmet-use of their friends and relatives. In the case of passengers, knowing that their friends always wear them and age were the best predictors of helmet-use. Programmes and campaigns promoting helmet-use must take into account the modelling effect of close referents or other role models in order to increase their effectiveness.     

Use of the Labour-Intensive Method in the Repair of a Rural Road Serving an Indigenous Community in Jocotán (Guatemala)

This paper reports the results obtained in an aid project designed to improve transport in the municipal area of Jocotán (Guatemala). The rural road network of an area occupied by indigenous people was analysed and a road chosen for repair using the labour-intensive method-something never done before in this area. The manpower required for the project was provided by the population that would benefit from the project; the involvement of outside contractors and businesses was avoided. All payment for labour went into the pockets of the local people. The small earth movements made and the use of local materials guaranteed the project's environmental sustainability, while the on-site training of the local community prepared its members for the continued maintenance of the road, thus investing the project with social sustainability.     

On familiarity deficits in mild cognitive impairment: A reply to Migo and Westerberg

In this brief response to Migo and Westerberg we explain why we think that their criticism of our previous research showing familiarity deficits in mild cognitive impairment patients (MCI) is not sound. More concretely, we have replicated the effect several times previously, and we justify statistically the fact that in the previous paper we had to combine two MCI samples to demonstrate a reliable familiarity deficit. We note that there are several studies showing conflicting results. However, although the basis for these discrepancies remains uncertain, a new report has replicated the presence of deficits in familiarity, and more importantly, demonstrated its correlation with structural imaging biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease.     

Body image distortions in healthy adults

Distortions of body image have often been investigated in clinical disorders. Much of this literature implicitly assumes healthy adults maintain an accurate body image. We recently developed a novel, implicit, and quantitative measure of body image — the Body Image Task (BIT). Here, we report a large-scale analysis of performance on this task by healthy adults. In both an in-person and an online version of the BIT, participants were presented with an image of a head as an anchoring stimulus on a computer screen, and told to imagine that the head was part of a mirror image of themselves in a standing position. They were then instructed to judge where, relative to the head, each of several parts of their body would be located. The relative positions of each landmark can be used to construct an implicit perceptual map of bodily structure. We could thus measure the internally-stored body image, although we cannot exclude contributions from other representations. Our results show several distortions of body image. First, we found a large and systematic over-estimation of width relative to height. These distortions were similar for both males and females, and did not closely track the idiosyncrasies of individual participant's own bodies. Comparisons of individual body parts showed that participants overestimated the width of their shoulders and the length of their upper arms, relative to their height, while underestimating the lengths of their lower arms and legs. Principal components analysis showed a clear spatial structure to the distortions, suggesting spatial organisation and segmentation of the body image into upper and lower limb components that are bilaterally integrated. These results provide new insight into the body image of healthy adults, and have implications for the study and rehabilitation of clinical populations.     

Examining adversarial growth in illness: The factor structure of the silver lining questionnaire (SLQ-38)

The Silver Lining Questionnaire (SLQ-38) is purported to measure 10 aspects of adversarial growth in illness. To date however, no empirical evidence exists to support this claim. Hence the aim of this study was to investigate the factor structure of the SLQ-38 in a sample of 560 individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS), cancer, cardiac, and renal disease. The results demonstrate that 24 SLQ-38 items can be factored into five subscales: improved personal relationships, greater appreciation for life, positive influence on others, personal inner strength and changes in life philosophy, all of which are in accordance with the literature on adversarial growth. Individuals with MS experienced lower adversarial growth compared to other illness groups. Gender, age and time since diagnosis were unrelated to adversarial growth in illness. The utility of the revised SLQ-38 is discussed along with suggestions for future research on the convergent and divergent validity of this revised instrument.     

Acquisition and generalization of action effects

Three experiments studied the acquisition of action-contingent events (action effects). In a first, acquisition phase participants performed free-choice reactions with each keypress leading to the presentation of either a particular category word (e.g., animal or furniture) or an exemplar word (e.g., dog or chair). In the test phase, choice responses were made to category or exemplar words by using a word-key mapping that was either compatible or incompatible with the key-word mapping during acquisition. Compatible mapping produced better performance than incompatible mapping if the words in the practice and the test phase were the same (e.g., animal M animal), if they had a subordinate-superordinate relationship (e.g., dog M animal), belonged to the same category (e.g., dog M cat), or referred to visually related concepts (e.g., orange M circle). The findings support the assumption that action effects are acquired and integrated with the accompanying action automatically, so that perceiving the effect leads to the priming of the associated response. And, most importantly, they demonstrate that effect acquisition generalizes to other, feature-overlapping events.     

Recipients' affective responses to affirmative action interventions: A cross-cultural perspective

This study investigated whether individualism-collectivism (cultural) differences would account for the observed relationship between ethnic group status and affective responses to and fairness perceptions of affirmative action interventions. Forty-nine international (Latin America and East Asia), 116 minority, and 106 majority participants from a major southwestern university and its community provided fairness and affective response ratings to an affirmative action scenario. Implementation policy and qualification of the recipient were also manipulated. Though ethnicity was related to individualism-collectivism, the latter did not explain any variance in affective response ratings. Minority and international participants reported more positive affect and higher agreement and fairness levels than did majority participants. Participants in the preferential treatment and equally qualified conditions had more favorable responses than those in the reverse-discrimination and less qualified conditions.