The role of contour polarity,objectness, and regularities in haptic and visual perception

Regularities like symmetry (mirror reflection) and repetition (translation) play an important role in both visual and haptic (active touch) shape perception. Altering figure-ground factors to change what is perceived as an object influences regularity detection. For vision, symmetry is usually easier to detect within one object, whereas repetition is easier to detect across two objects. For haptics, we have not found this interaction between regularity type and objectness (Cecchetto & Lawson, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 43, 103–125, 2017; Lawson, Ajvani, & Cecchetto, Experimental Psychology, 63, 197–214, 2016). However, our studies used repetition stimuli with mismatched concavities, convexities, and luminance, and so had mismatched contour polarities. Such stimuli may be processed differently to stimuli with matching contour polarities. We investigated this possibility. For haptics, speeded symmetry and repetition detection for novel, planar shapes was similar. Performance deteriorated strikingly if contour polarity mismatched (keeping objectness constant), whilst there was a modest disadvantage for between-2objects:facing-sides compared to within-1object:outer-sides comparisons (keeping contour polarity constant). For the same task for vision, symmetry detection was similar to haptics (strong costs for mismatched contour polarity, weaker costs for between-2objects:facing-sides comparisons), but repetition detection was very different (weak costs for mismatched contour polarity, strong benefits for between-2objects:facing-sides comparisons). Thus, objectness was less influential than contour polarity for both haptic and visual symmetry detection, and for haptic repetition detection. However, for visual repetition detection, objectness effects reversed direction (within-1object:outer-sides comparisons were harder) and were stronger than contour polarity effects. This pattern of results suggests that regularity detection reflects information extraction as well as regularity distributions in the physical world.     

Life Satisfaction and Alcohol Consumption Among Young Adults at Social Gatherings

Although low life satisfaction is related to alcohol abuse among young adults, there is no clear evidence of a specific relationship between wellbeing indexes and alcohol consumption. Several studies have reported different nonlinear relationships. The role of other variables may explain the inconsistent relationships between life satisfaction and alcohol consumption. Concerning individual factors, people’s expectations regarding drinking alcohol (i.e., drinking motives) are considered the most proximal antecedents of alcohol use and may mediate the relationship between life satisfaction and drinking alcohol. Regarding relational factors, social relations are related to both wellbeing and alcohol consumption. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationships among life satisfaction, drinking motives, and alcohol consumption in a sample of young adults. The data were collected by means of a self-report questionnaire from a sample of 536 young adults (median age: 22 years). We tested a structural equation model, assuming the hypothesized relationships, simultaneously on males and females to investigate gender differences. The results showed the influence of social relations on life satisfaction, which in turn influenced participants’ expectations regarding drinking alcohol. Drinking motives were antecedents of alcohol use. Among women, low satisfaction increased coping expectation, which, in turn, increased alcohol consumption. The most dangerous expectation about drinking was that alcohol may enhance a person. Prevention campaigns should aim to deconstruct this idea.     

Variability in the “stereotyped” prey capture sequence of male cuttlefish (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sepia officinalis</Emphasis>) could relate to personality differences

Studies of animal personality have shown consistent between-individual variation in behaviour in many social and non-social contexts, but hunting behaviour has been overlooked. Prey capture sequences, especially in invertebrates, are supposed to be quite invariant. In cuttlefish, the attack includes three components: attention, positioning, and seizure. The previous studies indicated some variability in these components and we quantified it under the hypothesis that it could relate to personality differences. We, therefore, analysed predation sequences of adult cuttlefish to test their association with personality traits in different contexts. Nineteen subjects were first exposed to an “alert” and a “threat” test and then given a live prey, for 10 days. Predation sequences were scored for components of the attack, locomotor and postural elements, body patterns, and number of successful tentacle ejections (i.e. seizure). PCA analysis of predatory patterns identified three dimensions accounting for 53.1%, 15.9%, and 9.6% of the variance and discriminating individuals based on “speed in catching prey”, “duration of attack behaviour”, and “attention to prey”. Predation rate, success rate, and hunting time were significantly correlated with the first, second, and third PCA factors, respectively. Significant correlations between capture patterns and responsiveness in the alert and threat tests were found, highlighting a consistency of prey capture patterns with measures of personality in other contexts. Personality may permeate even those behaviour patterns that appear relatively invariant.     

On Sublimation

Although it encapsulates the Freudian theory of art, the theory of sublimation has become outmoded. What is more, since its inception there has always been something ill‐defined about it. Does it use sexualized or de‐sexualized drive energy? Is it a defence or an alternative to defence? Does it serve Eros or Thanatos? Is it useful in clinical work or is it unusable? The only, albeit uncertain, aid to a definition relies on the extrinsic criterion of concrete artistic realization. My aim here to revisit and possibly ‘reinvent’ sublimation in the light of certain principles of the pre‐Romantic aesthetics of the sublime. Both are theories of spiritual elevation, in other words, elevation that moves towards abstract thinking, and of man's ‘moral’ achievement; and both attempt to explain the mystery of aesthetic experience. On the one hand, the aesthetics of the sublime offers a modern myth that helps us articulate a series of factors occasionally referred to by various authors as constitutive of sublimation but which have not been incorporated into a single organic framework: loss and early mourning work; the earlier existence of a catastrophic factor – to be regarded, depending on the situation, as either traumatic or simply ‘negative’; the correspondence with a process of somatopsychic categorization which coincides with subjectivity. On the other hand, it also helps us grasp the experience of negative pleasure empathically, living it ‘from the inside’.     

The Anticipation of the Present: Phenomenology of déjà vu

This paper analyses the déjà-vu experience in order to deepen the understanding of the complex nature of time-consciousness from a phenomenological point of view. The paper is divided into two sections: the first section focuses on Bergson’s research on déjà vu in order to assess the validity of his position; the second section describes a specific form of déjà-vu experience from a phenomenological perspective. This investigation will question the widespread assumption according to which déjà vu should be conceived as a disturbance of the memory of the past. On the contrary, the author shows that the disturbance primarily pertains to the dimension of the future. In order to understand this phenomenon, it is necessary to focus on the coherent deformation of the immediate expectation of the imminent future.     

Human Rights and Religion: A Sociological Perspective

This essay aims to review mainstream literature and research perspectives on the sociology of human rights with the further focus on relationship between human rights and religion. We consider the challenges of late engagement of sociology with human rights and current narratives of the relationship of human rights and religion that encompass normativity as the central category of historically oriented sociology. We discuss the contribution of two empirical research mainstreams on human rights and religion and focus on a new field of study—sociology of religious freedom. A detailed new agenda for sociological research on human rights and religion is explored in the final part of our assessment.     

Already here: Metaverse in touch and sound

This commentary questions two common assumptions underlying discussions of how digital technology can enrich the consumer experience. First, broad conceptualizations tend to accommodate augmented reality and virtual reality under a single metaverse umbrella. This commentary draws attention to differences between the two and to the present-day prevalence of augmented reality experiences. Second, discussions of the metaverse tend to focus on visual experiences. This commentary draws attention to the impact that augmented reality is having through other senses. I argue that augmented reality experiences are ubiquitous because smartphones and wearables enrich our everyday life with haptic and sonic information.     

Happiness, Markets, and Democracy: Latin America in Comparative Perspective

The literature on subjective well-being highlights the role of relative income differences, an issue which is particularly salient for the emerging market countries. We explore the demographic determinants of happiness in 17 countries in Latin America, as well as the effects of macroeconomic trends and attitudes about the market on happiness. We provide comparative reference with data from Russia and the United States. We find that the determinants of happiness in Latin America are remarkably similar to those in the advanced industrial countries. We also find a marked and negatively skewed perceptions gap between individuals' objective economic situations and their subjective evaluations in both Latin America and Russia. That gap, in turn, has negative effects on happiness. Inflation and unemployment have negative effects on happiness in both contexts, while pro-market attitudes and preference for democracy have positive effects.     

Behaviors of Swiss-Webster and C57/BL/6N sin mice in a fear/defense test battery

When confronted by an approaching threat stimulus (experimenter or laboratory rat), Swiss-Webster mice show initial flight, followed by freezing and defensive vocalization and biting, the latter only when escape is blocked. These defense patterns resemble those of the wild rat, suggesting that mice of this strain do not show the reductions in flight and defensive threat/attack that are typical of laboratory rats. C57/BL/6N Sin strain mice showed fewer avoidances to an approaching predator, as well as reduced vocalization and defensive biting, a pattern more similar to that of laboratory rats. As with rats, female mice appeared to be more defensive to a predator. They showed greater reactivity to dorsal contact and more frequent defensive biting and jump attacks than males of the same strains. These patterns of defensive behaviors suggest that, although strain differences in defense are substantial, laboratory mice are suitable for, and may offer several advantages in, the study of the genetic, endocrine, and pharmacological basis of antipredator defense. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

The adaptive value of personality differences revealed by small island population dynamics

Whether differences in personality among populations really exist and, if so, whether they are only due to cultural and linguistic differences or have a genetically selected adaptive value, is a controversial issue. In this research, we compared three Italian populations living on three small archipelagos in the Tyrrhenian Sea (n = 993), with their corresponding neighbouring mainlanders (n = 598), i.e. sharing the same geographical origin, culture and language. We used an adjective‐based Big Five questionnaire in order to measure personality traits in four categories of individuals for each archipelago/mainland population: (1) original islanders; (2) non‐original islanders; (3) mainlanders and (4) immigrants to the islands. We further analysed original and non‐original islanders who had or had not emigrated from the islands. We found that islanders had different personality traits from mainlanders, the former being more conscientious and emotionally stable and less extraverted and open to experience. We also found that the subgroup of islanders whose ancestors had inhabited their island for about 20 generations in isolation (original islanders, n = 624) were less extraverted and open to experience than immigrants (n = 193). In contrast, immigrants retained the typical personality profile of the mainland populations. Lastly, emigrants from the islands (n = 209) were significantly more extraverted and open to experience than original and non‐original islanders who had never left their island (n = 741). We hypothesise that population differences in extraversion and openness to experience are more probably related to genetic differences which evolved rapidly, presumably through an active gene flow produced by selective emigration from the islands. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.