The “Discovery” of New Territories Offered to the Jus Communicationis

This work suggests how much human sciences can learn from a booklet almost all cultures know, The Little Prince. It stimulates to read them in their anthropological aspects of behavior facing alterity, highlighting its value without proposing it as educational element to homogenize the different. The reflection is thus focused on the demolishing and lasting effects of European culture during its colonization of American and African people. The contribution ends with Ferraioli and De Vitoria's considerations on a society based on the axiom of the free circulation of men and goods, and the legitimization of thinking given by natural law.     

Expectativas de probabilidad teórica y de frecuencia empírica en juegos de azar

Resumen

La investigación explora la capacidad de tres escolares, de ocho a once años, para efectuar estimaciones de probabilidad de eventos aleatorios, y la conducta suya de predecir los resultados reales en estos mismos eventos, a lo largo de una secuencia de 21 experiencias, repetidas cada una tres veces. Se comparan de manera sistemática las estimaciones estadísticas subjetivas, la probabilidad estadística objetiva, la predicción empírica de los sujetos y los resultados reales de eventos aleatorios en ocasiones anteriores. El niño más pequeño realizó sus predicciones sobre la base de los resultados reales anteriores más que sobre la base de sus propias estimaciones de la probabilidad, mientras los dos mayores las realizaron por igual sobre una y otra base.     

The state version of the recovery experience questionnaire: A multilevel confirmatory factor analysis

Although many studies in the field of recovery from work utilize a quantitative diary design, little is known about the validity of the daily measures used in such studies. The present study analyses the factor structure of the state version of the Recovery Experience Questionnaire (REQ) on the between-person (trait) and within-person (state) levels. A total of 127 employees participated in the study. Most of them filled out the questionnaire on three consecutive workdays (N = 375 observations). Results of multilevel confirmatory factor analyses (MCFA) showed that a four-factor model fit the data better than alternative models at both levels of analysis (between and within). In addition, some factor loadings of the four recovery experience dimensions (particularly for relaxation and control) were lower on the day level as compared to the general level. Nevertheless, we conclude that both state and trait versions of the REQ show good psychometric properties. Implications for future research on recovery are discussed.     

Influence of Training in Artistic Skills on Mental Imaging Capacity

ABSTRACT

Artistic creation often involves the use of mental images. This investigation examined the influence of training in artistic skills on mental imaging capacity in a sample of 126 subjects aged between 18 and 23 years. First- and 5th-year fine arts students were compared with regard to their performance in 2 imaging capacity tests (the Visual Elaboration Scale and the Vividness of Visual Imagery Test) and 3 tests of drawing involving spatial representation, transformation of spatial relations, and memory. The students who had undergone a longer period of artistic training performed significantly better on all 5 tests, and all drawing tasks scores correlated with each other. These results indicate that artistic training may enhance imaging capacity.     

Vividness and Control of Mental Imagery and the Components of In-Depth Drawing

The aim of this study was to examine the associations of control and vividness of mental imagery on performance in several components of in-depth drawing in a sample of fine arts undergraduates. The sample consisted of 56 second-year undergraduates (44 women and 12 men, mean age = 21.18 years) from the Fine Arts Faculty of Vigo University, Pontevedra, Spain. Participants were required to undertake a plastic art assignment focusing on the pictorial representation of space. Participants scoring high on the image control test obtained higher scores on the spatial analysis and in the formal construction of a work than participants with poor image control. Further research involving spatial image performance tests and mental image rotation tests is proposed.     

Reply to Goldberg and Steinberg

In response to Peter Goldberg’s (this issue) critical remarks, the author proposes to differentiate between the semantic plane of communication and the semiotic plane, but to place both in the more general category of the symbolic. In humans, non-linguistic communication is always influenced indirectly, if not directly, by the common belonging to the realm of the symbolic and language. The second part of the text contains a commentary on the clinical vignette of Beth Steinberg from the point of view of the theory of the analytical field.     

Radial bisection of words and lines in right‐brain‐damaged patients with spatial neglect

The bisection of lines positioned radially (with the two ends of the line close and far, with respect to the participant's body) has been less investigated than that of lines placed horizontally (with their two ends left and right, with respect to the body's midsagittal plane). In horizontal bisection, patients with left neglect typically show a rightward bias for both lines and words, greater with longer stimuli. As for radial bisection, available data indicate that neurologically unimpaired participants make a distal error, while results from right‐brain‐damaged patients with left spatial neglect are contradictory. We investigated the bisection of radially oriented words, with the prediction that, during bisection, linguistic material would be recoded to its canonical left‐to‐right format in reading, with the performance of neglect patients being similar to that for horizontal words. Thirteen right‐brain‐damaged patients (seven with left spatial neglect) and fourteen healthy controls were asked to manually bisect 40 radial and 40 horizontal words (5–10 letters), and 80 lines, 40 radial and 40 horizontal, of comparable length. Right‐brain‐damaged patients with spatial neglect exhibited a proximal bias in the bisection of short radial words, with the proximal part corresponding to the final right part of horizontally oriented words. This proximal error was not found in patients without neglect and healthy controls. For bisection, short radial words may be recoded to the canonical orthographic horizontal format, unveiling the impact of left neglect on radially oriented stimuli.     

Dissociative Experiences and Vividness of Auditory Imagery

The relationship between dissociation and auditory imagery were assessed, 2 variables that sometime influence on artistic creativity. A total of 170 fine arts undergraduates (94 women and 76 men) received 2 dissociation questionnaires—the Dissociative Ability Scale (DAS), and the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES)—and 2 auditory imagery questionnaires—the Auditory Imagery Questionnaire (AIQ) and the Clarity of Auditory Imagery Scale (CAIS). Significant differences on the auditory imagery (CAIS) have been found between individuals scoring high or low on the DES and DAS. In this study, however, significant differences were only observed on the Auditory Imagery Questionnaire (AIQ) between individuals scoring high or low on the DAS. Moreover, conflicting results have been obtained on the influence of dissociative experiences on dissociative skills in 2 auditory imagery tests. The discrepancies in the results only lead to more questions being asked than answered. Several lines of research are proposed.     

Detrimental effects of using negative sentences in the autobiographical IAT

The autobiographical Implicit Association Test (aIAT) is a method that accurately identifies which one of two contrasting autobiographical events is true for the subject. The aIAT indexes the real autobiographical event (e.g. I was in Paris for Christmas) on the basis of the facilitating effect because it maps the real autobiographical event with true sentences (e.g. I am in front of a computer) on the same motor response. In this paper we focus on the conditions under which the autobiographical IAT accurately and reliably identifies autobiographical memories. A recent study showed a reduction in the accuracy of the aIAT when negative sentences are used. We have investigated the detrimental effect on aIAT accuracy of such negative sentence items, used to describe autobiographical events, compared with affirmative sentence items. While we highlight the reliability of the results obtained using negative sentences, we also show that the use of affirmative sentences in describing autobiographical events guarantees high accuracy and reliability of results in identifying the true autobiographical event. Finally, we summarise the criteria for preparing stimuli for an effective aIAT in order to maximise correct classifications of individual subjects.