Color Eliminativism and Color Experience

Anyone who is a color eliminativist-i.e., believes that the physical world is colorless-must explain how our sense experience of color can be so systematically illusory. As it turns out, it is difficult to do this without committing oneself to dualism. In this paper I explore the options available to the color eliminativist in this regard, and argue that his/her prospects are more promising, though still far from certain, if s/he adopts the position that sense experience is strictly intentional.     

Preventing Suicide at Suicide Hotspots: A Case Study from Australia

The Gap Park Self‐Harm Minimisation Masterplan project is a collaborative attempt to address jumping suicides at Sydney's Gap Park through means restriction, encouraging help‐seeking, and increasing the likelihood of third‐party intervention. We used various data sources to describe the Masterplan project's processes, impacts, and outcomes. There have been reductions in reported jumps and confirmed suicides, although the trends are not statistically significant. There has been a significant increase in police call‐outs to intervene with suicidal people who have not yet reached the cliff's edge. The collaborative nature of the Masterplan project and its multifaceted approach appear to be reaping benefits.     

Thought suppression and memory biases during and after depressive moods

Previous research indicates that formerly depressed individuals engage in high levels of thought suppression that can mask depressive cognitions. However, suppression may also ironically foster a vigilance for unwanted thoughts that promotes uncertainty about ambiguous information and distorts memory. The present study tested this possibility. Formerly dysphoric, currently dysphoric, and never-dysphoric participants listened to a series of statements describing life events that were positive, negative, or ambiguous. In a subsequent recognition phase, participants reviewed a series of statements and rated each for the likelihood that it had been presented earlier. The recognition list included positive and negative disambiguated versions of the original items. Compared to the never-dysphoric group, formerly dysphoric individuals were more likely to endorse negative disambiguations. As predicted, this bias was associated with higher levels of thought suppression and greater uncertainty about the meaning of ambiguous situations, suggesting an ongoing conflict between positive and negative thoughts.     

Adolescents Exposed to Suicidal Behavior of Others: Prevalence of Self‐Harm and Associated Psychological,Lifestyle, and Life Event Factors

Exposure to suicidal behavior of others was examined among 3,881 Irish adolescents in the Child and Adolescent Self‐harm in Europe (CASE) study. One third of the sample had been exposed to suicidal behavior, and exposed adolescents were eight times more likely to also report own self‐harm. Exposed adolescents shared many risk factors with those reporting own self‐harm. Those reporting both exposure and own self‐harm presented the most maladaptive profile on psychological, life event, and lifestyle domains, but neither anxiety nor depression distinguished this group. Exposed adolescents are burdened by a wide range of risk factors and in need of support.     

Expanding Echo: Coordinated Head Articulations as Nonmanual Enhancements in Sign Language Phonology

Echo phonology was originally proposed to account for obligatory coordination of manual and mouth articulations observed in several sign languages. However, previous research into the phenomenon lacks clear criteria for which components of movement can or must be copied when the articulators are so different. Nor is there discussion of which nonmanual articulators can echo manual movement. Given the prosodic properties of echoes (coordination of onset/offset and of dynamics such as speed) as well as general motoric coordination of various articulators in the human body, we expect that the mouth is not the only nonmanual articulator involved in echo phonology. In this study, we look at a fixed set of lexical items across 36 sign languages and establish that the head can echo manual movement with respect to timing and to the axis/axes of manual movement. We propose that what matters in echo phonology is the visual percept of temporally coordinated movement that repeats a salient movement property in such a way as to give the visual impression of a copy. Our findings suggest that echoes are not obligatory motor couplings of two or more articulators but may enhance phonological distinctions that are otherwise difficult to see.