Presence as determined by fractal perceptual-motor dynamics.

This paper presents a tentative model of the role of perceptual-motor dynamics in the emergence of the feeling of presence. A new method allowing the measure of how gaze probes three-dimensional space in immersion is used to support this model. Fractal computations of gaze behavior are shown to be more effective than standard computations of eye movements in predicting presence.     

Surface‐ and deep‐level dissimilarity effects on social integration and individual effectiveness related outcomes in work groups: A meta‐analytic integration

Prior research linking demographic (e.g., age, ethnicity/race, gender, and tenure) and underlying psychological (e.g., personality, attitudes, and values) dissimilarity variables to individual group member's work‐related outcomes produced mixed and contradictory results. To account for these findings, this study develops a contingency framework and tests it using meta‐analytic and structural equation modelling techniques. In line with this framework, results showed different effects of surface‐level (i.e., demographic) dissimilarity and deep‐level (i.e., underlying psychological) dissimilarity on social integration, and ultimately on individual effectiveness related outcomes (i.e., turnover, task, and contextual performance). Specifically, surface‐level dissimilarity had a negative effect on social integration under low but not under high team interdependence. In return, social integration fully mediated the negative relationship between surface‐level dissimilarity and individual effectiveness related outcomes under low interdependence. In contrast, deep‐level dissimilarity had a negative effect on social integration, which was stronger under high and weaker under low team interdependence. Contrary to our predictions, social integration did not mediate the negative relationship between deep‐level dissimilarity and individual effectiveness related outcomes but suppressed positive direct effects of deep‐level dissimilarity on individual effectiveness related outcomes. Possible explanations for these counterintuitive findings are discussed.     

Development and evaluation of the psychometric properties of the parents' Perceptions of Physical Activity Importance and their Children's Ability Questionnaire (PPPAICAQ)

ObjectivesThe purpose of the present study was to develop and psychometrically evaluate a new measure of parental perceptions grounded in the Eccles' parental socialization framework: the Parents' Perceptions of Physical Activity Importance and their Children's Ability Questionnaire (PPPAICAQ).DesignCross-sectional with self-reported questionnaires.MethodThe total sample comprised 1100 parents of children (6–11 years old) and was randomly divided in third (one calibration and two validation samples). Data were analyzed with reliability, confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), multi-group CFAs as well as with correlational analyses.ResultsResults of the initial confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) of the 2-factor 12-item model on the calibration sample resulted in a poor fit to the data. Re-estimation of the PPPAICAQ resulted in the deletion of 4 initial items. The 2-factor 8-item model revealed a good fit to the data for the three samples. Results of two multiple-group CFAs showed that the final model was partially invariant across the father and mother as well as the boy and girl samples. The patterns of relationships between parents' motivation, parents' support and the PPPAICAQ subscales provided evidence for the criterion-related validity of the PPPAICAQ.ConclusionThis study provided support for the reliability and validity of the PPPAICAQ. The PPPAICAQ is an instrument that will be useful for theoretically-driven research on parental socialization influence on children’ PA.     

How long to get to the “gist” of real-world natural scenes?

This study aimed at assessing the processing time of a natural scene in a fast categorization task of its context or “gist”. In Experiment 1, human subjects performed 4 go/no-go categorization tasks in succession with colour pictures of real-world scenes belonging to 2 natural categories: “Sea” and “mountain”, and 2 artificial categories: “Indoor” and “urban”. Experiment 2 used colour and grey-level scenes in the same tasks to assess the role of colour cues on performance. Pictures were flashed for 26 ms. Both experiments showed that the gist of real-world scenes can be extracted with high accuracy (>90%), short median RT (400-460 ms) and early responses triggered with latencies as short as 260-300 ms. Natural scenes were processed faster than artificial scenes. Categories for which colour could have a diagnostic value were processed faster in colour than in grey. Finally, processing speed is compared for scene and object categorization tasks.     

Functional connectivity changes in second language vocabulary learning

Functional connectivity changes in the language network (Price, 2010), and in a control network involved in second language (L2) processing (Abutalebi & Green, 2007) were examined in a group of Persian (L1) speakers learning French (L2) words. Measures of network integration that characterize the global integrative state of a network (Marrelec, Bellec et al., 2008) were gathered, in the shallow and consolidation phases of L2 vocabulary learning. Functional connectivity remained unchanged across learning phases for L1, whereas total, between- and within-network integration levels decreased as proficiency for L2 increased.The results of this study provide the first functional connectivity evidence regarding the dynamic role of the language processing and cognitive control networks in L2 learning (Abutalebi et al., 2005, Altarriba and Heredia, 2008, Leonard et al., 2011, Parker-Jones et al., 2011). Thus, increased proficiency results in a higher degree of automaticity and lower cognitive effort (Segalowitz & Hulstijn, 2005).     

Visual Perception Modifies Goal-directed Movement Control: Supporting Evidence from a Visual Perturbation Paradigm

It is well known that dynamic visual information influences movement control, whereas the role played by background visual information is still largely unknown. Evidence coming mainly from eye movement and manual tracking studies indicates that background visual information modifies motion perception and might influence movement control. The goal of the present study was to test this hypothesis. Subjects had to apply pressure on a strain gauge to displace in a single action a cursor shown on a video display and to immobilize it on a target shown on the same display. In some instances, the visual background against which the cursor moved was unexpectedly perturbed in a direction opposite to (Experiment 1), or in the same direction as (Experiment 2) the cursor controlled by the subject. The results of both experiments indicated that the introduction of a visual perturbation significantly affected aiming accuracy. These results suggest that background visual information is used to evaluate the velocity of the aiming cursor, and that this perceived velocity is fed back to the control system, which uses it for on-line corrections.     

Achieving a Maximum Level of Vaccination for Medical Students: a Rigourous Ethical and Legal Framework Procedure

The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) of the University of Sherbrooke has observed year after year, that certain students have not started and or completed their immunizations for common infectious diseases, which in effect makes them inadmissible for their clinical internships in healthcare establishments. The program administrators have posed a series of questions on the best way to proceed with these students as, a certain number remain reluctant to vaccination. They are often confronted with ethical dilemmas, are not necessarily comfortable with their rights and responsibilities and wish to be guided throughout the process. This article aims to put forth a procedure that would be put in place to support the administrators in a way for them to obtain a more favorable vaccination level for all of their students in the most reasonable amount of time possible. The interest of the procedure is to move forward in a few simple and well defined steps that are supported by a rigorous legal framework, while respecting the rights and freedoms of the students. It is also designed so that it could be replicated in other faculties of medicine.     

Getting a tool gives wings: overestimation of tool-related benefits in a motor imagery task and a decision task

Two experiments examine whether people overestimate the benefits provided by tool use in motor tasks. Participants had to move different quantities of objects by hand (two at a time) or with a tool (four at a time). The tool was not within reach so participants had to get it before moving the objects. In Experiment 1, the task was performed in a real and an imagined situation. In Experiment 2, participants had to decide for each quantity, whether they preferred moving the objects by hand or with the tool. Our findings indicated that people perceive tool actions as less costly in terms of movement time than they actually are (Experiment 1) and decide to use a tool even when it objectively provides less time-based benefits than using the hands (Experiment 2). Taken together, the data suggest that people overestimate the benefits provided by tool use.     

Parental Knowledge/Monitoring and Depressive Symptoms During Adolescence: Protective Factor or Spurious Association?

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Parental knowledge/monitoring is negatively associated with adolescents’ depressive symptoms, suggesting monitoring could be a target for...     

The use of event‐related potentials in the study of early cognitive development

The article by Guillaume Thierry is a welcome one, alerting the field to the exciting ways in which event‐related potentials (ERPs) can be used to study cognitive development. It is also timely: there is great interest in the brain sciences, and in how neuroscience can be applied to cognitive development and indeed to education. In my view, however, the article is perhaps too cautious. It does not seem necessary to delay the use of ERPs in cognitive work until all in the field have agreed on the sound characterization of ERP components. It should be possible for further characterization to proceed hand‐in‐hand with data gathering on applied questions. In fact, as partly noted by Thierry, in the auditory domain well‐characterized ERP components are already available, even for infants (e.g. Cheour et al., 1997; Leppänen and Lyytinen, 1997). Furthermore, it is of developmental interest to study older children as well as infants. If ERPs are seen as a tool to complement existing behavioural investigations, rather than as a stand‐alone method to be used independently, then auditory ERPs can certainly be used in current cognitive‐developmental work. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.