Resource replacement and psychological well-being during unemployment: The role of family support

There is an established inverse relationship between unemployment and psychological wellbeing. However, little is known about the processes that underlie this relationship. Using latent deprivation, conservation of resources, and social capital to form a theoretical framework, this study explored the relationship between the latent benefits associated with employment, family support, and financial strain. In a sample of 174 unemployed individuals, latent benefits were shown to partially mediate the relationship between family support and psychological well-being. Additionally, this mediation was moderated by financial strain, with latent benefits being more related to psychological well-being in those with greater financial strain. These findings provide guidance in understanding how to better address the needs that contribute to psychological well-being in those who are unemployed.     

A cross-cultural study of the representation of shape: Sensitivity to generalized cone dimensions

Many of the phenomena underlying shape recognition can be derived from an assumption that the representation of simple parts can be understood in terms of independent dimensions of generalized cones, e.g., whether the axis of a cylinder is straight or curved or whether the sides are parallel or nonparallel. What enables this sensitivity? One explanation is that the representations derive from our immersion in a manufactured world of simple objects, e.g., a cylinder and a funnel, where these dimensions can be readily discerned independent of other stimulus variations. An alternative explanation is that genetic coding and/or early experience with extended contours—a characteristic of all naturally varying visual worlds—would be sufficient to develop the appropriate representations. The Himba, a seminomadic people in a remote region of Northwestern Namibia with little exposure to regular, simple artifacts, were virtually identical to western observers in representing generalized-cone dimensions of simple shapes independently. Thus immersion in a world of simple, manufactured shapes is not required for the development of a representation that specifies these dimensions independently.     

"Don't know" responding to answerable and unanswerable questions during misleading and hypnotic interviews

"Don't know" (DK) responses to interview questions are conceptually heterogeneous, and may represent uncertainty or clear statements about the contents of memory. A study examined the subjective intent of DK responses in relation to the objective status of information queried, in the context of memory distorting procedures. Participants viewed a video and responded to answerable and unanswerable questions phrased in misleading or nonmisleading formats, while hypnotized or not hypnotized. Subjective meanings of DK responses were queried, and a recognition measure assessed the contents of memory. Lower DK and accuracy rates were consistently associated with unanswerable and misleading questions. One-third of DK responses were statements that the information had no not presented. When these were recoded, accuracy estimates for answerable questions decreased and more so for hypnotized participants. These results demonstrate that DK responses convey different types of information, thus accuracy estimates in studies that permit DK responses may be misestimated. Robust risks associated with asking unanswerable questions and asking questions at all were observed. Implications for working with DK responses during interviews are discussed.     

17,000 years of depicting the junction of two smooth shapes

Competent realistic drawings preserve viewpoint-invariant shape characteristics of simple parts, such that a contour in the object that is straight or curved, for example, is depicted that way in the drawing. A more subtle invariant--a V-shaped singularity of the occluding boundary, containing a T-junction and a contour termination--is produced at the junction between articulated smooth surfaces, as with the leg joining the body of a horse. 45% of the drawings made in 2007 by individuals with only minimal art education correctly depicted such junctions, a proportion that is not reliably different from the incidence (42%) of correct depictions in a large sample of cave art made 17000 years ago. Whether a person did or did not include the invariant in their drawing, all agreed that it made for a better depiction.