Effects of stimulus synchrony on mechanisms of perceptual organization

When neurons adopt a synchronized, oscillatory response to stimulus Gestalten, the phase of those oscillations almost always varies relative to stimulus activity. This has been taken to indicate that form-coding mechanisms are synchronized by internal timing mechanisms, and/or may be sensitive to stimulus activity only via motion detectors. This proposal is problematic for interpreting recent demonstrations of the effects of stimulus synchrony particularly when stimuli are stationary. Here we offer an account of stimulus-driven synchronization supported by evidence that segmentation by stimulus synchrony can be relatively insensitive to explicit motion signals. The argument is made that qualitative similarities between the effects of phase-independent and phase-locked oscillations in the EEG, the effects of phase synchronization at the cellular level and evidence for phase-enhanced stimulus grouping should be considered as functionally equivalent. This argument emphasizes the flexibility of temporal synchrony as a code for perceptual organization.     

Contextual learning of multiple target locations in visual search

In visual search, detection of a target is faster when a layout of nontarget items is repeatedly encountered, suggesting that contextual invariances can guide attention. Moreover, contextual cueing can also adapt to environmental changes. For instance, when the target undergoes a predictable (i.e., learnable) location change, then contextual cueing remains effective even after the change, suggesting that a learned context is “remapped” and adjusted to novel requirements. Here, we explored the stability of contextual remapping: Four experiments demonstrated that target location changes are only effectively remapped when both the initial and the future target positions remain predictable across the entire experiment. Otherwise, contextual remapping fails. In sum, this pattern of results suggests that multiple, predictable target locations can be associated with a given repeated context, allowing the flexible adaptation of previously learned contingencies to novel task demands.     

The scenic function of the ego and its role in symptom and character formation1

The author argues that the scenic function of the ego permits the situationally appropriate representation of an unconscious, infantile configuration – that is, of a relatively stable, personality‐based drive scene having the same status as latent dream thoughts. The products of conflict elaboration (symptoms, etc.) are manifested in different ways in accordance with the conditions of the relevant situation. The contents of the drive scene are created by the psychical apparatus on the basis of infantile perceptions and are revealed in screen memories. The capacity for situationally appropriate representation is apparently bound up with the mobile drive, including its narcissistic transformations. Desexualization (in the sense of neutralization) renders scenic elaboration impossible. The drive derivatives withdrawn from the scenic configuration contribute to ego organization and the formation of character traits, which no longer vary according to the situation, but can only be modified by a change in personality structure itself. It is as yet unclear whether a process of resexualization can make them amenable once more to analytic work. The form of narcissistic libido that can assume a scenic configuration is closely related to primary narcissism. Its manifestations, which may likewise emerge in situation‐dependent symptom formations, appear accessible to analysis.     

On the relation between spontaneous perspective taking and other visuospatial processes

Common processes and representations engaged by visuospatial tasks were investigated by looking at four frequently used visuospatial research paradigms, the aim being to contribute to a better understanding of which specific processes are addressed in the different paradigms compared. In particular, the relation between spontaneous and instructed perspective taking, as well as mental rotation of body-part/non-body-part objects, was investigated. To this end, participants watched animations that have been shown to lead to spontaneous perspective taking. While they were watching these animations, participants were asked to explicitly adopt another perspective (Experiment 1), perform a mental object rotation task that involved a non-body-part object (Experiment 2), or perform a mental rotation of a body-part object (Experiment 3). Patterns of interference between the tasks, reflected in the reaction time patterns, showed that spontaneous and instructed perspective taking rely on similar representational elements to encode orientation. By contrast, no such overlap was found between spontaneous perspective taking and the rotation of non-body-part objects. Also, no overlap in orientation representation was evident with mental body-part rotations. Instead of an overlap in orientation representations, the results suggest that spontaneous perspective taking and the mental rotation of body parts rely on similar—presumably, motor—processes. These findings support the view that motor processes are involved in perspective taking and mental rotation of body parts.     

Early top-down control over saccadic target selection: Evidence from a systematic salience difference manipulation

Previous research on the contribution of top-down control to saccadic target selection has suggested that eye movements, especially short-latency saccades, are primarily salience driven. The present study was designed to systematically examine top-down influences as a function of time and relative salience difference between target and distractor. Observers performed a saccadic selection task, requiring them to make an eye movement to an orientation-defined target, while ignoring a color-defined distractor. The salience of the distractor was varied (five levels), permitting the percentage of target and distractor fixations to be analyzed as a function of the salience difference between the target and distractor. This analysis revealed the same pattern of results for both the overall and the short-latency saccades: When the target and distractor were of comparable salience, the vast majority of saccades went directly to the target; even distractors somewhat more salient than the target led to significantly fewer distractor, as compared with target, fixations. To quantify the amount of top-down control applied, we estimated the point of equal selection probability for the target and distractor. Analyses of these estimates revealed that, to be selected with equal probability to the target, a distractor had to have a considerably greater bottom-up salience, as compared with the target. This difference suggests a strong contribution of top-down control to saccadic target selection—even for the earliest saccades.     

Motherhood and Counselor Education: Experiences With Work–Life Balance

Female professors with children continue to experience institutional and cultural barriers in academia. This article situates the experiences of counselor educator mothers in the context of current trends in academia and research related to mothers in the workforce.     

Does Guilt Motivate Prayer?

We recruited 110 college students for an experimental investigation of the role of guilt in motivating religious behavior. We induced guilt in half of the participants before asking all subjects to indicate their current interest in prayer. Overall, participants in the guilt condition were more interested in praying, but this effect was not observed among those high in grandiose narcissism. Our findings make a contribution not only to the study of the role that emotions have in motivating religious behavior, but also to the study of narcissists’ susceptibility to guilt.     

Heartbeat perception in social anxiety before and during speech anticipation

According to current cognitive models of social phobia, individuals with social anxiety create a distorted image of themselves in social situations, relying, at least partially, on interoceptive cues. We investigated differences in heartbeat perception as a proxy of interoception in 48 individuals high and low in social anxiety at baseline and while anticipating a public speech. Results revealed lower error scores for high fearful participants both at baseline and during speech anticipation. Speech anticipation improved heartbeat perception in both groups only marginally. Eight of nine accurate perceivers as determined using a criterion of maximum difference between actual and counted beats were high socially anxious. Higher interoceptive accuracy might increase the risk of misinterpreting physical symptoms as visible signs of anxiety which then trigger negative evaluation by others. Treatment should take into account that in socially anxious individuals perceived physical arousal is likely to be accurate rather than false alarm.     

Reinforcement of inhibitory positional priming by spatial working memory contents

This study examined whether positional priming of pop-out is modulated by spatial working memory (WM). In Experiments 1A and 1B, observers were presented with a to-be-memorized item (Experiment 1A: triangle; Experiment 1B: circle) prior to performing a block of search trials, with triangular stimulus configurations (one target, two distractors) on an underlying elliptical frame. Each search block was followed by a memory test (i.e., memory conditions). In Experiment 1C, the presentation of the memory item (triangle) was immediately followed by the memory test, and the search block was performed after this test (i.e., no-memory condition). It was found that targets presented at a previous target were detected faster and targets presented at a previous distractor location slower, relative to a previous empty (‘neutral’) stimulus location, respectively. While facilitatory position priming was uninfluenced by the memory manipulation, inhibitory positional priming was larger in the memory than no-memory condition, but only when the memory stimulus (triangle) matched the (triangle) configuration formed by the three search items. This finding of larger inhibitory priming under memory conditions provides further evidence that positional priming, rather than being purely bottom-up determined, is open to top-down influences.