Naming faces and naming names: Exploring an interactive activation model of person recognition

Abstract

In this paper we present an interactive activation and competition (LAC) model of name recognition. This is an extension of a previous account of name retrieval (Burton & Bruce, 1992) and is based on a functional model due to Valentine, Bredart, Lawson, and Ward (1991). Several empirical effects of name recognition are simulated: (1) names that are known are read faster than names that are unknown; (2) common names are read faster than rare names; and (3) rare names are recognised as familiar faster than common names. The simulations demonstrate that these complex effects can arise as a natural consequence of the architecture of the LAC model. Finally, we explore a modification of the Valentine et al. functional model, and conclude that the model as originally proposed is best able to account for the available data.     

Building the Better Mental Training Mousetrap: Is Periodization a More Systematic Approach to Promoting Performance Excellence?

Over the past two decades, mental skills training (MST) has experienced a tremendous surge in popularity, yet MST is not without its critics, including some athletes and coaches. Additionally, a number of concerns have arisen about mental training effectiveness, and its ability to maximize athlete development, performance, and peaking. Periodization is a systematic program development and implementation strategy that holds promise for enhancing mental training effectiveness and combating some of the problems currently limiting MST interventions. Thus, the purpose of this conceptual paper was threefold. First, periodization concepts are introduced by demonstrating how they are utilized to systematically guide physical training. Second, strategies to adapt periodization concepts to enhance mental training programs are examined, along with techniques to integrate physical and mental training, including: mental training tool and skill periodization plans and mental training drill menus. Finally, a case study is presented to illustrate how an integrated approach to periodized training that targets both physical and mental skill development can enhance the effectiveness of MST while minimizing implementation problems.     

Sex Differences in Relationships between Verbal Fluency and Personality

The Thurstone Verbal Fluency Test, Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test, and NEO-FFI personality test were administered to 182 university participants (126 female, 56 male). The men scored higher than the women on the spatial test, and the women scored higher than the men for the verbal fluency test, as reported by others. Women reported more extraversion and agreeableness than men. Extraversion was correlated with verbal fluency for both sexes. For the men, verbal fluency was also positively associated with agreeableness, and for the women, verbal fluency was associated with openness and conscientiousness. No relationships between personality and spatial ability were found. Thus, the relationships between cognitive variables and personality factors differed between the sexes. These findings are discussed in terms of the common frontal neural substrate of verbal fluency and these aspects of personality, as well as the inherently social nature of language as a communication tool.     

Functions of Clinical Psychological Service in California Juvenile and Adult Courts

Subjects provided free responses to six concepts representing varying degrees of involvement. Responses were obtained from each subject under normal and negative affect conditions. Group data were used. Under negative affect conditions, significant correlations were found between concept involvement and type/token ratio (TTR), tokens per type, response variation index (RVI), and total types. Correlations were in the direction of increased redundancy as involvement decreased and, conversely, increased response variation as involvement increased. These relationships held only under negative affect conditions. Implications were discussed for the problems of communication under negative affect conditions and the assessment of individuals’ internal states from verbal behavior. Finally, a sociolinguistic view of the “language community” concept was offered.     

The health benefits of writing about positive experiences: The role of broadened cognition

This study tested the potential to elicit a broadened attentional focus through writing about a positive life experience and to derive health benefits from such writing. Participants (n = 38) wrote for 20 min each day for 3 consecutive days about either a positive life experience or a control topic. Writing about positive experiences led to improved physical health (measured 4–6 weeks after writing) compared to control and higher levels of global cognitive focus after writing mediated this effect. Notably, while the positive writing condition was more broadened than control, positive affect was not responsible for this difference. Implications for disclosive writing and the broaden and build model are discussed.     

Refocusing on the Learning in “Integration of Faith and Learning"

The purpose of this study was to assess student perceptions of the faith-learning integration process in instructional methods courses taught by a single professor. Thirty-one students were asked by the professor to complete an open-ended questionnaire at the end of their course experience. Results indicated that students in this study described or defined the integration of faith and learning in ways reflective of the content of the courses, which was teaching methods. While not all students said integration of faith and learning occurred in the classes, all students did provide examples of integrative moments. Most students described faith-learning integration in terms of teacher actions rather than student actions. Thus, it appears that these students were describing integration of faith and teaching more so than integration of faith and learning.     

Maternal Knowledge and Behaviors Regarding Discipline: The Effectiveness of a Hands-on Education Program in Positive Guidance

This study examined which method is most effective in supporting parents to use positive guidance techniques, a lecture-based only parent training series or a lecture-based plus hands-on parent training series. Maternal characteristics of depression, stress level, and attitudes towards positive guidance were explored as possible moderators. In this sample of 49 mother–child dyads, results indicated that the cognitive understanding of the use of positive guidance over time of the participants in the lecture-based only versus the lecture-based plus hands-on groups did not significantly differ. However, both groups improved in their cognitive understanding of positive guidance over time. Results also indicated that the behavioral use of positive guidance over time of the participants in both groups significantly differed. Further investigation revealed that, although the two groups did not differ in their behavioral use of positive guidance before the program, the lecture-based plus hands-on group improved over time whereas the lecture-based only group did not. Depression, stress level, and attitudes towards positive guidance did not moderate the effects of being in either group on participants’ behavioral use of positive guidance. Findings showed that all participants gained a better understanding of effective parenting techniques, but a hands-on component in parent training programs may be necessary for parents to incorporate these strategies into their parenting behaviors. The results have implications for early childhood professionals working with parents to address children’s behavior issues, as well as for the design of parent-support programs.     

A review of: “Acquiring a concept of mind: A review of psychological research and theory”

Peter Mitchell (1996) Acquiring a Concept of Mind: A Review of Psychological Research and Theory, Basingstoke: Taylor & Francis Psychology Press, $29.95     

Word recognition across orthographies: Another look at the interaction between context and degradation

Abstract

The performance of English and Spanish subjects was examined in two experiments using a lexical decision task in which the effects of semantic priming and stimulus degradation were systematically varied. The Orthographic Depth Hypothesis predicts that priming and degradation will interact in the orthographically “deep” language (English) but not in the “shallow” one (Spanish). In the first experiment, the two factors were found to interact in a similar way in both English and Spanish groups. In the second experiment, in which only Spanish subjects participated, the interaction was again present but only in those subjects who showed an overall facilitation effect on primed words. The results are consistent with the use of the so-called “direct” route in Spanish and are at variance with other previous findings which have suggested that reading in shallow orthographies occurs via the “indirect” phonological route. There was also evidence that nonword rejection times were slower in Spanish subjects and that the performance of the two groups was affected differently by the different types of neutral baseline primes (asterisks or unrelated words). Possible interpretations of these performance variations are briefly discussed.