Probabilistic inference in human semantic memory

The idea of viewing human cognition as a rational solution to computational problems posed by the environment has influenced several recent theories of human memory. The first rational models of memory demonstrated that human memory seems to be remarkably well adapted to environmental statistics but made only minimal assumptions about the form of the environmental information represented in memory. Recently, several probabilistic methods for representing the latent semantic structure of language have been developed, drawing on research in computer science, statistics and computational linguistics. These methods provide a means of extending rational models of memory retrieval to linguistic stimuli, and a way to explore the influence of the statistics of language on human memory.     

Culture, ethnicity, and children's facial expressions: a study of European American, Mainland Chinese, Chinese American, and adopted Chinese girls

This investigation extends previous research documenting differences in Chinese and European American infants' facial expressivity. Chinese girls adopted by European American families, nonadopted Mainland Chinese girls, nonadopted Chinese American girls, and nonadopted European American girls responded to emotionally evocative slides and an odor stimulus. European American girls smiled more than Mainland Chinese and Chinese American girls and scored higher than Mainland Chinese girls for disgust-related expressions and overall expressivity. Adopted Chinese girls produced more disgust-related expressions than Mainland Chinese girls. Self-reported maternal strictness, aggravation, positive expressiveness, and cultural identification correlated with children's facial responses, as did number of siblings and adults in the home. Results suggest that culture and family environment influences facial expressivity, creating differences among children of the same ethnicity.     

From fear to love: individual differences in implicit spider associations

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to investigate automatic fear associations in fear of spiders. Fear associations toward spiders were measured among spider fearful and nonfearful participants (Experiment 1) as well as among nonfearfuls and spider enthusiasts (Experiment 2). It was shown that the IAT is sensitive to personal automatic fear associations and therefore distinguishes between high-fearful, nonfearful, and enthusiastic participants. Moreover, implicit spider associations measured by the IAT predicted avoidance behavior beyond self-reports. The results of Experiment 2 provide additional support for the argument that implicit spider associations are different from general stereotypes or knowledge about spiders.     

Interactive effects of APOE and CHRNA4 on attention and white matter volume in healthy middle-aged and older adults

In the present study, we investigated age-related changes in interactions between efficiency of neuronal repair mechanisms and efficiency of cholinergic neurotransmission in the context of attentional orienting. In addition, we explored white matter volume changes as possible neuronal underpinnings. A sample of 230 healthy middle-aged (53–64 years) and older (65–75 years) adults was genotyped for polymorphisms of APOE and CHRNA4, a nicotinic receptor subunit gene. Participants were administered a visuospatial attention task involving letter discrimination with location cues of varying validity. Genotype effects on white matter volume were also investigated in a subset of participants who received MRI scans. APOE interacted with CHRNA4, such that APOE-ε4 carriers who were also CHRNA4 TT homozygotes showed disproportionately slowed reaction time (RT) following invalid location cues. The interaction was stronger in the middle-aged participants than in the older participants. There was also a trend for individuals with combined APOE-ε4/CHRNA4 TT genotypes to show both lower white matter volume and slower overall RT on the attention task. The interaction of a neurotransmission gene (CHRNA4) and a susceptibility gene (APOE) suggests that the efficiency of neuronal repair mechanisms may modulate the cholinergic system to influence attentional function.     

"In the storminess": multi-disciplinary approaches to scriptural images representing ethical challenges in the pastor-congregant relationship

In this qualitative study the authors examine the Scriptural images that 10 Lutheran pastors employed in describing the ethical challenges in the pastor-congregant relationship. The analysis of Scriptural images is part of a larger study on pastors' experiences of a mandatory workshop, "Crossing the Boundaries (CTB),"which is required of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) seminarians. The pastors' images were analyzed from the four perspectives of depth psychology, theology, social ethics, and sociology. In commenting on tensions in the pastors' Scriptural images the authors note commonalities among the four theoretical perspectives and discuss implications for practice and future research.     

List of Conferences

Conferences

List of Conferences     

DSM-defined anxiety disorders symptoms in South African youths: Their assessment and relationship with perceived parental rearing behaviors

This study investigated DSM-defined anxiety symptoms in South African youths. Children and adolescents (N = 701) from various cultural groups completed the SCARED and a questionnaire measuring perceived parental rearing behaviors. Results indicated that the psychometric properties of the SCARED were satisfactory in the total sample of South African youths, and acceptable in colored and black children and adolescents. Further, colored and black youths displayed higher SCARED scores than white youths, and there were also differences in the perceived parental rearing behaviors of the cultural groups. White youths generally rated their parents' rearing behaviors as less anxious, overprotective, and rejective, but more emotionally warm than colored and black youths. Finally, positive correlations were found between anxious rearing, overprotection, and rejection and anxiety symptoms. The clinical and research implications of these findings are briefly discussed.     

The heart of the matter: a proposal for placing the self of the therapist at the center of family therapy research and training

As it faces the transition marked by the death or retirement of most of its first-generation founders, the field of family therapy finds itself still unable to answer the critical question of what it is that makes family therapy work. The two dominant approaches to answering this question, the common-factors perspective and the model-specific factors perspective, remain divided at this juncture by a fundamental difference of emphasis between the two. This article proposes a way of integrating the two perspectives via the hypothesis that therapists achieve maximum effectiveness by committing themselves to a family therapy model of proven efficacy whose underlying worldview closely matches their own personal worldview. The implications of this hypothesis for the training of family therapists are examined.     

Clinicians' judgments of clinical utility: a comparison of the DSM-IV and five-factor models

Clinical utility, or the usefulness of a diagnostic system in clinical practice, has been identified as an important construct in proposed revisions to the diagnostic nomenclature and a significant limitation of dimensional models of personality disorder, such as the 5-factor model (FFM). Only 1 study to date has addressed explicitly the clinical utility of the FFM, and the findings suggested significant limitations. In the current study, 245 practicing psychologists described 3 historic cases using both the FFM and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) and then rated each model on 6 aspects of clinical utility. In contrast to prior research, the psychologists in this study considered the FFM to have greater clinical utility than the existing diagnostic categories.     

Evidence for strong dissociation between emotion and facial displays: the case of surprise

Eight experiments examined facial expressions of surprise in adults. Surprise was induced by disconfirming a previously established schema or expectancy. Self-reports and behavioral measures indicated the presence of surprise in most participants, but surprise expressions were observed only in 4%-25%, and most displays consisted of eyebrow raising only; the full, 3-component display was never seen. Experimental variations of surprise intensity, sociality, and duration/complexity of the surprising event did not change these results. Electromyographic measurement failed to detect notably more brow raisings and, in one study, revealed a decrease of frontalis muscle activity in the majority of the participants. Nonetheless, most participants believed that they had shown a strong surprise expression.