The importance of eyes: how infants interpret adult looking behavior

Two studies assessed the gaze following of 12-, 14-, and 18-month-old infants. The experimental manipulation was whether an adult could see the targets. In Experiment 1, the adult turned to targets with either open or closed eyes. Infants at all ages looked at the adult's target more in the open- versus closed-eyes condition. In Experiment 2, an inanimate occluder, a blindfold, was compared with a headband control. Infants 14- and 18-months-old looked more at the adult's target in the headband condition. Infants were not simply responding to adult head turning, which was controlled, but were sensitive to the status of the adult's eyes. In the 2nd year, infants interpreted adult looking as object-directed--an act connecting the gazer and the object.     

The priming of face recognition after metric transformations

Four experiments were performed to test whether the perceptual priming of face recognition would show invariance to changes in size, position, reflectional orientation (mirror reversal), and picture-plane rotation. In all experiments, subjects recognized faces in two blocks of trials; in the second block, some of the faces were identical to those in the first, and others had undergone metric transformations. The results show that subjects were equally fast to recognize faces whether or not the faces had changed in size, position, or reflectional orientation between the first and second presentations of the faces. In contrast, subjects were slower to recognize both faces and objects when they were planar-rotated between the first and second presentations. The results suggest that the same metric invariances are shown by both face recognition and basic-level object recognition.     

A replication of Rorschach and MMPI-2 convergent validity

We replicated prior research on Rorschach and MMPI-2 convergent validity by testing 8 hypotheses in a new sample of patients. We also extended prior research by developing criteria to include more patients and by applying the same procedures to 2 self-report tests: the MMPI-2 and the MCMI-II. Results supported our hypotheses and paralleled the prior findings. Furthermore, 3 different tests for methodological artifacts could not account for the results. Thus, the convergence of Rorschach and MMPI-2 constructs seems to be partially a function of how patients interact with the tests. When patients approach each test with a similar style, conceptually aligned constructs tend to correlate. Although this result is less robust, when patients approach each test in an opposing manner, conceptually aligned constructs tend to be negatively correlated. When test interaction styles are ignored, MMPI-2 and Rorschach constructs tend to be uncorrelated, unless a sample just happens to possess a correlation between Rorschach and MMPI-2 stylistic variables. Remaining ambiguities and suggestions for further advances are discussed.     

Size of the neocerebellar vermis is associated with cognition in healthy elderly men

Cerebellar volumes show small positive correlations with cognitive ability in young adults, but no studies have examined this relationship in older adults. Furthermore, no studies have examined relationships between sizes of subareas of the cerebellum and cognitive ability. We hypothesized that size of the two areas of the neocerebellar vermis would correlate with a battery of eight cognitive tests in 50 men aged 65-70. Size of the neocerebellar areas of the vermis correlated positively with several cognitive tests (r's=.29-.37, p<.05), whilst sizes of other parts of the vermis did not correlate with any cognitive tests. Total cerebellar volumes correlated significantly with a test of nonverbal reasoning (r=.030, p=.42). These findings suggest a specific association of neocerebellar vermis size with variations in cognitive ability in older adults.     

The specificity of memory enhancement during interaction with a virtual environment

Two experiments investigated differences between active and passive participation in a computer-generated virtual environment in terms of spatial memory, object memory, and object location memory. It was found that active participants, who controlled their movements in the virtual environment using a joystick, recalled the spatial layout of the virtual environment better than passive participants, who merely watched the active participants' progress. Conversely, there were no significant differences between the active and passive participants' recall or recognition of the virtual objects, nor in their recall of the correct locations of objects in the virtual environment. These findings are discussed in terms of subject-performed task research and the specificity of memory enhancement in virtual environments.     

Do Background Stressors Influence Reactivity to and Recovery From Acute Stressors?1

This review examines the effect of background stressors with acute stressor reactivity and recovery in the 19 available studies. Background stressors were associated with increased acute stressor reactivity in slightly over half of the studies of ongoing stressors. However, a substantial minority of studies demonstrated reduced acute stressor reactivity, suggesting habituation for certain people in certain situations. Background stressors were associated with delayed blood-pressure and immunological recovery from acute stressor events, but were not associated with delayed heart-rate recovery. Possible mechanisms underlying the association between background stressors and acute stressor reactivity and recovery are discussed. Background stressors should be measured thoroughly in future acute stress research to understand the meaning of the acute stress responses.     

Electrodermal responses to sources of dual-task interference

There is a response selection bottleneck that is responsible for dual-task interference. How the response selection bottleneck operates was addressed in three dual-task experiments. The overlap between two tasks (as indexed by the stimulus onset asynchrony [SOA]) was systematically manipulated, and both reaction time and electrodermal activity were measured. In addition, each experiment also manipulated some aspect of the difficulty of either task. Both increasing task overlap by reducing SOA and increasing the difficulty of either task lengthened reaction times. Electrodermal response was strongly affected by task difficulty but was only weakly affected by SOA, and in a different manner from reaction time. A fourth experiment found that the subjectively perceived difficulty of a dual-task trial was affected both by task difficulty and by SOA, but in different ways than electrodermal activity. Overall, the results were not consistent with a response selection bottleneck that involves processes of voluntary, executive attention. Instead, the results converge with findings from neural network modeling to suggest that the delay of one task while another is being processed reflects the operation of a routing mechanism that can process only one stream of information for action at a time and of a passive, structural store that temporarily holds information for the delayed task. The results suggest that conventional blocked or event-related neuroimaging designs may be inadequate to identify the mechanism of operation of the response selection bottleneck.     

Group therapy for refugees and torture survivors: treatment model innovations

The paper discusses varieties of group therapies with refugees and torture survivors and the logic behind enhancing traditional group therapies to fit the unique experiences of refugees and torture survivors. It discusses some lessons learned from practice and from empirical research and some recommended adaptations. Finally, it discusses the Center for Torture and Trauma Survivors' therapy group model for torture survivors and describes two of its variants: The Bashal group for African and Somali women and the Bhutanese multi-family therapy group. Group therapies, in this model, extend to community healing. One of the essential and innovative features of the model is that it focuses not only on treating individual psychopathology but also extends to community healing by promoting the development of social clubs and organizations that promote the values and culture of the graduates of the therapy group and the continuation of social support. New graduates from the group join the club and become part of the social advocacy process and of group and community support and healing. This model adds an ecological dimension to the traditional group therapy.