Some considerations about the biological appearance of pacing stimuli in visuomotor finger-tapping tasks

Sensorimotor synchronization is a crucial function for human daily activities, which relies on the ability of predicting external events. Synchronization performance, as assessed in finger-tapping (FT) tasks, is characterized by an anticipation tendency, as the tap generally precedes the pacing event. This synchronization error (SE) depends on many factors, in particular on the features of the pacing stimulus. Interest is growing in the facilitation effect that action observation has on motor execution. So far, neuroimaging and neurophysiology studies of motor priming via action observation have mainly employed tasks requiring single action instances. The impact of action observation on motor synchronization to periodic stimuli has not yet been tested; to this aim, a synchronization FT task may be an eligible probing task. The purpose of this study was to characterize a biological pacer at the behavioral level and provide information for those interested in studying the brain processes of continuous observation/execution coupling in timed actions using FT tasks. We evaluated the influence of the biological appearance of a pacer (a tapping finger) on SE, when compared to an abstract, kinematically equivalent pacer (a tilting hinged bar) and a more standard stimulus (a pulsating dot). We showed that the continuous visual display of a biological pacer yields comparable results to the abstract pacer, and a more robust performance and larger anticipations than a traditional pulsating stimulus.     

Newborns' preference for goal-directed actions

The central role of sensory-motor representations in cognitive functions is almost universally accepted. However, determining the link between motor execution and its sensory counterpart and when, during ontogenesis, this link originates are still under investigation. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether at birth this link is already present and 2-day-old newborns are able to discriminate between visual cues indicating goal-directed or non-goal-directed actions. Here, with a preferential looking technique, a hand grasping a ball was the observed movement and we orthogonally manipulated the three factors necessary to successfully reach the goal: (a) presence of the ball, (b) direction of the arm movement, and (c) hand shaping. Results indicated that newborns orient more frequently and look longer at a hand shape for whole hand prehension but only when the movement is directed away from the body and toward the external world. In addition, newborns prefer the away from the body movement only when the object is present. We argue that newborns prefer a movement directed toward the external world only when it may develop into a purposeful movement because of the presence of the to-be-grasped object. Overall, our results support the existence of primitive sensory-motor associations since the first days after birth.     

Dimensions of acculturation: associations with health risk behaviors among college students from immigrant families

In the present study, we examined a bidimensional model of acculturation (which includes both heritage and U.S. practices, values, and identifications) in relation to hazardous alcohol use, illicit drug use, unsafe sexual behavior, and impaired driving. A sample of 3,251 first- and second-generation immigrant students from 30 U.S. colleges and universities completed measures of behavioral acculturation; cultural values (individualism, collectivism, and self-construal); ethnic and U.S. identity; and patterns of alcohol and drug use, engagement in potentially unsafe sexual activities, and driving while (or riding with a driver who was) intoxicated. Results indicate that heritage practices and collectivist values were generally protective against health risk behaviors, with collectivist values most strongly and consistently protective. Nonetheless, heritage identifications were positively associated with sexual risk taking for Hispanics. U.S. practices, values, and identifications were not consistently related to risk behavior participation. Results are discussed in terms of bidimensional approaches to acculturation, the immigrant paradox, and implications for counseling practice.     

Voices of Experienced Meditators: The Impact of Meditation Practice on Intimate Relationships

Using a qualitative methodology, we explored advanced meditators’ understandings of the effect of the meditation traits on close relationships. Seven participants were interviewed. The meditative traits that the participants identified were (1) awareness of body sensations and emotions; (2) disidentification from emotions and thoughts; (3) acceptance of situations, oneself, and others; and (4) compassion and loving kindness for oneself and others. The relational effects of these traits were (1) less reactivity in relationships; (2) greater freedom and safety in relationships; and (3) a new understanding of the nature of connection between people, marked by unity, separation, intimacy and independence. Implications for further research and for clinical practice are proposed.     

Professional efficacy,exhaustion, and work characteristics among police officers: A longitudinal test of the learning‐related predictions of the demand—control model

The present study addressed the relationships among professional efficacy, emotional exhaustion, and job characteristics (job demands and job control) in the context of a two‐wave panel study among 828 Dutch police officers. Based on the demand–control model, we expected that high demands/high control would be positively related to professional efficacy, and that high demands/low control would be related to high levels of exhaustion. Moreover, we hypothesized that high levels of exhaustion would lead to lower levels of professional efficacy and that high levels of efficacy would lead to low levels of exhaustion. Structural equation modelling largely supported these predictions. High demands were longitudinally related to high levels of efficacy and high levels of exhaustion; high control was longitudinally related to high levels of efficacy. Further, efficacy and exhaustion were indeed mutually related. Finally, high levels of exhaustion were longitudinally related to high levels of demands. We conclude that there are complex, yet theoretically, and practically interpretable relations among efficacy, strain and work characteristics.     

How does attention spread across objects oriented in depth?

Previous evidence suggests that attention can operate on object-based representations. It is not known whether these representations encode depth information and whether object depth, if encoded, is in viewer- or objectcentered coordinates. To examine these questions, we employed a spatial cuing paradigm in which one corner of a 3-D object was exogenously cued with 75% validity. By rotating the object in depth, we can determine whether validity effects are modulated by 2-D or 3-D cue-target distance and whether validity effects depend on the position of the viewer relative to the object. When the image of a 3-D object was present (Experiments 1A and 1B), validity effects were not modulated by changes in 2-D cue-target distance, and shifting attention toward the viewer led to smaller validity effects than did shifting attention away from the viewer. When there was no object in the display (Experiments 2A and 2B), validity effects increased linearly as a function of 2-D cue-target distance. These results demonstrate that attention spreads across representations of perceived objects that encode depth information and that the object’s orientation in depth is encoded in viewer-centered coordinates.     

Proverb interpretation changes in aging

Recent investigations have emphasized the involvement of fronto-subcortical networks to proverb comprehension. Although the prefrontal cortex is thought to be affected by normal aging, relatively little work has been carried out to investigate potential effects of aging on proverb comprehension. In the present investigation participants in three age groups were assessed on a proverb comprehension task and a range of executive function tasks. The older group showed impairment in selecting correct interpretations from alternatives. They also showed executive function deficits, as reflected by reduced working memory and deficient set shifting and inhibition abilities. The findings of the present investigation showed proverb comprehension deficits in normal aging which appeared to be related to reduced executive skills.     

Processing of the Müller-Lyer illusion by a Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus)

Alex, a Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) who identifies the bigger or smaller of two objects by reporting its color or matter using a vocal English label and who states "none" if they do not differ in size, was presented with two-dimensional Müller-Lyer figures (Brentano form) in which the central lines were of contrasting colors. His responses to "What color bigger/ smaller?" demonstrated that he saw the standard length illusion in the Müller-Lyer figures in 32 of 50 tests where human observers would also see the illusion and reported the reverse direction only twice. He did not report the illusion when (a) arrows on the shafts were perpendicular to the shafts or closely approached perpendicularity, (b) shafts were 6 times thicker than the arrows, or (c) after being tested with multiple exposures conditions that also lessen or eliminate the illusion for human observers. These data suggest that parrot and human visual systems process the Müller-Lyer figure in analogous ways despite a 175-fold difference in the respective sizes of their brain volumes. The similarity in results also indicates that parrots with vocal abilities like Alex's can be reliably tested on visual illusions with paradigms similar to those used on human subjects.     

A comparison of backward and forward spatial spans

The standard Corsi blocks task is frequently used to measure the capacity of visuospatial working memory, but the implications of the use of both forward and backward recall are still unclear. In the present study, we showed that the backward Corsi task is particularly powerful in discriminating between low- and high-spatial-ability individuals and involves different processes from those involved in the forward task. From a sample of 425 participants we selected one group of 20 high-spatial-ability participants and one of 20 low-spatial-ability participants. The results demonstrated that a backward spatial span offers specific information not available from a forward spatial span, and that there was no facilitation due to a descending format. In particular, in the low-spatial-ability group, performance was generally poorer, but backward Corsi recall was lower than forward recall, and participants did not show any advantage following the descending presentation format—which in some contexts is considered to reduce proactive interference. We conclude that the backward Corsi task has specific value and that the assumption of fully parallel verbal and visuospatial working-memory systems can lead to a variety of misunderstandings.