Psychoanalysis Listening to Love: Passion and Bonds,by Simonetta Diena,Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2018, 206 pp.

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

What goes around comes around: The integrated role of emotions on consumer ethical decision‐making

The current study aims to further our understanding of the integrated role of emotions on consumer decision‐making involving ethical issues, by considering the influence of both positive and negative emotions on ethical decision‐making process. It considers not only the emotions experienced prior to ethical decision‐making (pre‐decision emotions) but also those resulting from the course of action chosen (post‐decision emotions). Scenarios are used, and the results of the structural modelling analyses support the proposed relationships between current emotions, consumers' ethical decision‐making, post‐decision emotions and future ethical behavioural intentions. The data suggest the possible existence of a “virtuous ethical cycle”, whereby positive emotions lead to more ethical consumer decisions and behaviours; and these in turn lead to more positive (post‐decision) emotions, which have a positive and significant effect on future ethical behavioural intentions. In addition, happiness emerges as exerting a pivotal role in predicting consumer ethical decisions.     

Repeatability of mae-geri-keage in traditional karate: a three-dimensional analysis with black-belt karateka

In karate, performance also depends on a correct body shape, and the repeatability of standardized movements conditions the effectiveness of techniques. The execution of mae-geri-keage (frontal snap kick) was studied in 13 karateka (1st-5th dan). The 3D trajectories of 13 body landmarks were analyzed by an optoelectronic instrument while each karateka performed 10 repetitions of the movement. For each karateka and repetition, the standard deviations of the spatial coordinates x, y, z for each landmark were computed. A total standard deviation of the single participant was also calculated. Two experienced karateka performed with the best repeatability (smaller standard deviation) while executing the studied kick. Generally, the best repeatability was observed in the horizontal plane. The lower variability was observed in hips and head. Ankle and knee of the dominant limb had the worse. The method could detect athletes particularly gifted for the discipline. Moreover, it could help in the identification of those parts of body that do not repeat the movement with the desired precision.     

Interparental conflict and risk behaviors among Mexican American adolescents: a cognitive-emotional model

This study used a cognitive-emotional model to examine the relations between multiple dimensions of interparental conflict and health risk behaviors among young adolescents. Participants were 151 Mexican American adolescents and their parents. At initial individual interviews, parents reported on conflict with their spouses, and adolescents reported on their parents' conflict, their appraisals of the conflict, their emotional distress, and their acculturation level. At 6-month follow-ups, adolescents reported on their risk behaviors, including substance use and sexual activity. In general, adolescents' acculturation level was not related to their risk behaviors. More frequent conflict, more conflict about the adolescent, more adolescent involvement in the conflict, and poor conflict resolution were related to greater emotional distress. More conflict about the adolescent, mothers being more demanding/dominating during conflict, and more adolescent involvement in the conflict were related to greater risk behaviors. Adolescents' cognitions mediated the link between two dimensions of parental conflict, frequency and resolution, and emotional distress. Adolescents' emotional distress mediated the association between adolescent involvement in parental conflict and adolescents' risk behaviors.     

Cross-modal re-mapping influences the Simon effect

Tagliabue, Zorzi, Umiltà, and Bassignani (2000) showed that one's practicing of a spatially incompatible task influences performance in a Simon task even when the interval between the two tasks is as long as 1 week. In the present study, three experiments were conducted to investigate whether such an effect could be found in a cross-modal paradigm, whereby stimuli in the two tasks were presented in different modalities. Subjects performed either compatible or incompatible mappings in an acoustic spatial compatibility task and, after an interval of 5 min, 24 h, or 7 days, performed a visual Simon task. Results show that the spatially incompatible mapping task affected performance in the Simon task: The Simon effect was absent for all three intervals. This pattern is similar to the results of the Tagliabue et al. study, in which both tasks were performed in the same (visual) modality. Our findings disprove possible explanations based on episodic/contextual effects and support the hypothesis of a long-lasting spatial remapping that is not modality specific.     

Response strategies and the Simon effect

The study investigated whether the Simon effect, and its facilitation and interference components, shows up in reaction time (RT) or in movement time (MT), depending on the response strategy. Experiment 1 replicated a study by Hietanen and Rämä. Subjects had to press one of two lateralised keys in response to one of two stimuli. The stimuli were presented in the center (neutral condition) or to the left or right side (corresponding or non-corresponding conditions). To press the response key, a reaching movement was necessary, and both RT and MT were recorded. One group of subjects showed an RT facilitation effect and an MT interference effect. Another group of subjects showed both MT facilitation and MT interference effects. It was hypothesized that the two groups used different response strategies. In Exps. 2 and 3, the subjects were explicitly instructed to use the two strategies that were hypothesized for Exp. 1. The results showed that whether facilitation and interference manifest themselves in RT or MT depends on the response strategy adopted by the subjects.     

Boundary extension: the role of magnification, object size, context, and binocular information

Boundary extension is a tendency to remember close-up scenes as if they extended beyond the occluding boundaries. The authors explored the contributing factors using brief retention intervals and computer-generated images. Boundary extension turns out to be more complex than previously thought and is not linked to the effects of image magnification and field-of-view changes. Although this is consistent with the idea that boundary extension is the product of the activation of a mental schema that provides information of what is likely to exist outside the picture boundaries, the authors also found that properties of the object at the center of the picture can affect boundary extension independently of the information at the boundaries. In a test of boundary extension using stereograms, the effect does not seem to depend on amount of perceived depth, suggesting a weaker link to perception of space than previously hypothesized.     

Artificial Intelligence &; Games: Should Computational Psychology be Revalued?

The aims of this paper are threefold: To show that game-playing (GP), the discipline of Artificial Intelligence (AI) concerned with the development of automated game players, has a strong epistemological relevance within both AI and the vast area of cognitive sciences. In this context games can be seen as a way of securely reducing (segmenting) real-world complexity, thus creating the laboratory environment necessary for testing the diverse types and facets of intelligence produced by computer models. This paper aims to promote the belief that games represent an excellent tool for the project of computational psychology (CP).  To underline how, despite this, GP has mainly adopted an engineering-inspired methodology and in doing so has distorted the framework of cognitive functionalism. Many successes (i.e. chess, checkers) have been achieved refusing human-like reasoning. The AI has appeared to work well despite ignoring an intrinsic motivation, that of creating an explanatory link between machines and mind.  To assert that substantial improvements in GP may be obtained in the future only by renewed interest in human-inspired models of reasoning and in other cognitive studies. In fact, if we increase the complexity of games (from NP-Completeness to AI-Completeness) in order to reproduce real-life problems, computer science techniques enter an impasse. Many of AI’s recent GP experiences can be shown to validate this.  The lack of consistent philosophical foundations for cognitive AI and the minimal philosophical commitment of AI investigation are two of the major reasons that play an important role in explaining why CP has been overlooked.