Plunging into the pool of death: imagining a dangerous outcome influences distance perception

We examined whether manipulating the imagined consequences of falling would influence the perception of height, distance, and size. In experiment 1, height and size perception were measured when participants stood at a short height (0.89 m) or a medium height (1.91 m) above either an empty pool or a pool filled with a bed of nails. Participants who viewed the bed of nails and imagined falling into it estimated both the height as taller and the size of the bed of nails as larger than participants who imagined falling into an empty pool. In a second experiment, participants overestimated the horizontal ground distance to and across the bed of nails after being told to imagine jumping over it. Overall, these experiments suggest that costs associated with imagined actions can influence the perception of both vertical and horizontal extents that are not inherently dangerous.     

The Fabric of Thought: Priming Tactile Properties During Reading Influences Direct Tactile Perception

The present studies examined whether implied tactile properties during language comprehension influence subsequent direct tactile perception, and the specificity of any such effects. Participants read sentences that implicitly conveyed information regarding tactile properties (e.g., Grace tried on a pair of thick corduroy pants while shopping) that were either related or unrelated to fabrics and varied in implied texture (smooth, medium, rough). After reading each sentence, participants then performed an unrelated rating task during which they felt and rated the texture of a presented fabric. Results demonstrated that the texture properties implied in sentences influence direct tactile perception. Specifically, after reading about a smooth or rough texture, subsequent fabric ratings became notably smoother or rougher, respectively. However, we also show that there was some specificity to these effects: Fabric‐related sentences elicited more specific and interactive effects on subsequent ratings. Together, we demonstrate that under certain circumstances, language comprehension can prime tactile representations and affect direct tactile perception. Results are discussed with regard to the nature and scope of multimodal mental simulation during reading.     

Help Me Play! Parental Behaviors,Child Temperament,and Preschool Peer Play

Social competence is a critical developmental milestone for preschoolers. Because play is the primary activity through which preschoolers interact socially with peers, it serves as an excellent indicator of social competence. The development of social competence in preschoolers is complex and multifaceted. In order to capture this complexity, we used Belsky’s differential susceptibility hypothesis as a framework for examining the contributions of child temperament and parenting styles in the prediction of peer interactive play behaviors. Using parent ratings of a sample of 44 preschool-age children, we hypothesized that child temperament (specifically, reactivity and regulation) acts as a susceptibility factor in the relationship between parenting styles (authoritarian and authoritative) and child peer play behaviors (disruptive and interactive). Our findings indicated that child reactivity moderated the relationship between authoritarian parenting style and both play outcomes, suggesting that reactivity serves as a potential susceptibility factor. More specifically, children with high reactivity who had more authoritarian parents demonstrated higher levels of disruptive play and lower levels of interactive play. Regulation did not act as a susceptibility factor in our sample. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for practice and in terms of an approach that considers temperament (specifically reactivity) and parenting behaviors in preschool assessment and intervention efforts. Additionally, we discuss how our findings partially support the differential susceptibility hypothesis.     

the inventory of recent life experiences for cancer patients (IRLE-C): A decontaminated measure of cancer-based hassles

Abstract

Cancer is recognized to have multifaceted stressful impact on all areas of a patient's life. Researchers commonly use self-report questionnaires, intended to measure stressors objectively. However, the item-content and response-format of such scales often tap physical and mental responses to stress, thereby contaminating prediction of adverse impact. This article reports the development and validation of English and French versions of the Inventory of Recent Life Experiences for Cancer Patients (IRLE-C) which is designed to minimize such “criterion-contamination”. This entailed (1) avoiding items reflecting physical or subjective distress; (2) rating stressors for degree of exposure only; and (3) use of an innocuous scale title. The initial item pool was administered serially to a sample of 100 Francophone breast-cancer and prostate-cancer patients. To guard against inflating reliability and validity estimates through capitalizing on chance, we administered the 30-item final scale to an independent sample of 96 Francophone breast-cancer and prostate-cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment. Following the item-selection step, factorial structure and validity analyses were performed using the combined French-speaking sample (n= 196). Second, we administered the English version of the scale to an English-speaking sample of 127 cancer patients (various cancer sites and stages). The measure showed good internal consistency (.94 and .89 for the Francophone and Anglophone samples respectively) and met criteria for a 2-week test-retest reliability (r= .70 for the item-selection subsample and .80 for the cross-replication sub-sample). Correlations between the IRLE-C and the POMS Total Mood Disturbance were around .60 for both the Francophone and Anglophone samples. Avoiding contamination (through content and format) without losing its relationship to subjective distress, the IRLE-C appears a useful instrument for applying the stress-process model in oncology to establish clear distinctions among stressors, mediators, reactions, and consequences.     

Strategies of text retrieval: a criterion shift account.

This study scrutinized people's ability to apply different strategies to randomly intermixed immediate and delayed test items. In three experiments, participants first read one set of stories. Later, they read more stories, and after each one, answered intermixed questions about that story and one of the earlier ones. The experiments cumulatively manipulated amount of delay, test probe plausibility, probe relation (explicit, paraphrase, inference), and testing procedure (mixed versus uniform delay). Using signal detection response criterion as the index of strategy, we contrasted the single criterion hypothesis, according to which one text retrieval criterion is applied to all test items, and a multiple-criterion hypothesis. The results consistently favoured the multiple-criterion hypothesis. The results also indicated that the presence of immediate and delayed probes mutually influence one another: Less extreme signal detection criteria were adopted under mixed than uniform testing. It was concluded that text retrieval strategy is continually calibrated with reference to the quality of the test probes.     

Conceptual clarity in international collaborations: A point of departure for policy-relevant research on discrimination

A workshop was conducted as part of the International Metropolis Conference held in Vienna, Austria in September 2003. The Metropolis Project is meant to facilitate research in the area of migration that can optimally inform policy. In this context, a workshop was conducted with the objective of discussing how policy-relevant research on discrimination could be conducted internationally. Four broad areas were addressed: ‘key stakeholder’ involvement, obtaining ethical and other forms of approval, international, national and local funding opportunities, and qualitative and quantitative methodology and questionnaire development. Viewpoints represented included those of non-governmental organizations, researchers, health professionals, and policy-makers/implementers. Countries represented in the discussions included Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Key conceptual differences included how best to define discrimination, societal acknowledgement of discrimination, the meaning of ‘race’, ‘racism’, ‘national’, and ‘migrant’, and perceptions of national identity.     

Is egocentric space automatically encoded?

Using the criteria defined by Hasher and Zacks [Hasher, L., & Zacks, R. T. (1979). Automatic and effortful processes in memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 108(3), 356-388], three studies examined the effects of intent of memorization, dual task interference, old age, practice and individual differences on memory for egocentric positions. Results showed that dual task interference and old age slightly influenced memory for egocentric positions. Small but significant individual differences were also observed. However, intent of memorization and practice had no influence on accuracy. The findings demonstrate that encoding of egocentric space works rather automatically but nevertheless requires minimal attentional resources.     

The effect of old age on the learning of supraspan sequences

Two experiments examined age-related differences in sequence learning using computerized versions of the D. O. Hebb (1961) paradigm. In this learning task, the participant executes immediate serial recall of 24 supraspan sequences. Without the participants' knowledge, 1 sequence is presented several times. Repetition leads to improved recall of this repeated sequence relative to random sequences. Results showed a dissociation in age-related learning deficits depending on the nature of the to-be-remembered material. The effect of repetition is similar for younger and older adults with familiar and unfamiliar verbal material (words and pseudowords) but is significantly reduced in older adults when learning is assessed with a visuospatial version of Hebb's supraspan learning task (P. M. Corsi, 1972).     

Manual pointing to remembered targets...but also in a remembered visual context

In this paper we investigated whether visual background information available during target presentation influences manual pointing to remembered targets. Younger and older participants manually pointed with their unseen hands to remembered or visible targets that were presented or not over a structured visible background. The results indicated that a structured visual background biased movement planning processes, but did not influence motor control processes, regardless of the fact that target location and the background were visible or remembered. How one uses visual background information for movement planning is not modified by aging.