Show me your eyes: Evidence from Williams syndrome

The present paper reports two experiments that investigate the critical features of an object shape that automatically elicit recognition. Silhouettes of real objects (targets) and meaningless patterns (fillers) in both canonical and non-canonical formats were presented to subjects, in an attempt to test whether information about the global shape of an object was sufficient for automatic object identification. In Experiment 1, target-filler discriminability was evaluated by means of a reality-decision task. In Experiment 2, subjects had to perform an elongationdecision task, previously shown to be sensitive to the influence of automatically activated object identities (Dell'Acqua & Job, 1998). Contrary to the previous findings, the present study shows that, although silhouettes were identified with surprising good accuracy in the reality-decision task, effects of object identity on the elongation-decision task were negligible.     

Better the Devil You Know? High-Risk Individuals’ Anticipated Psychological Responses to Genetic Testing for Melanoma Susceptibility

Purpose: The psychological consequences of genetic testing for mutations among individuals at increased risk of developing melanoma remain unexamined. The present study aimed to explore anticipated emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and familial responses to hypothetical genetic testing for melanoma susceptibility. Methods: Forty semi-structured interviews were undertaken with affected (n=20) and unaffected (n=20) individuals at either high or average risk of developing melanoma due to family history. Results: In-depth thematic analysis revealed that, in response to being identified as a mutation carrier, most participants with a family history anticipated calmly accepting their increased risk; either increasing precaution adoption or maintaining already vigilant behavioral practices; perceiving such information as important and valuable; and communicating genetic test results to family members, despite the acknowledgement of potential difficulties. In response to being identified as a non-carrier, the majority of participants expected to feel relieved; to maintain current precautionary health practices; to still perceive themselves at some risk of developing melanoma; and to be wary of the potential negative behavioral consequences of disclosing such information to family members. Women appeared more likely than men to acknowledge the potential for depression and worry following genetic testing. In contrast, more males than females expected to carry a gene mutation, and viewed their current preventive practices as optimum. Conclusion: Genetic testing for melanoma risk is likely to elicit a complex array of emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and familial responses for both testees and their family members, and these responses are likely to bear subtle differences for males and females.     

Differences in the perception and time course of syntactic and semantic violations

A reading time and an ERP experiment conducted in Italian investigated the parser's responses to a syntactic violation (subject-verb number agreement) and to a semantic violation (subject-verb selectional restriction), examining the time course of comprehension processes until sentence end. The reading-time data showed that the syntactic violation was detected earlier than the semantic one and that the two violations differed in the time-course. The ERP data fully supported the reading time data: Syntactic anomalies elicited a left anterior negativity (LAN) and a P600. Semantic anomalies elicited a N400 centred on the parietal sites which started 90 ms later (latency 430 ms) than the LAN. Furthermore, the N400 evoked by the words that followed the target word continued and increased until sentence end. The results are discussed with respect to the hypotheses that the parser constructs distinct syntactic and semantic analyses of a sentence and that this characteristic holds cross-linguistically. The appropriateness of different methodologies to the study of sentence processing is also evaluated.     

On recognizing proper names: the orthographic cue hypothesis

Five experiments investigated the recognition of proper names and common nouns using the lexical decision paradigm. In Experiments 1-3 the case of the initial letter of written stimuli was systematically varied. An advantage was consistently found for proper names written with the first letter in capital. Crucially, response times to proper names with the first letter in lowercase and to common nouns irrespective of the case of the first letter did not differ from each other. No difference between proper names and common nouns emerged in Experiment 4 where the stimuli were presented auditorily, and in Experiment 5 where a visual lexical decision task was performed with illegal non-words. The pattern of results shows that the proper name advantage is orthographic in nature and rules out an account in terms of semantic, morphological or other lexical variables. A model is proposed in which information about the case of the first letter is specified in the abstract multidimensional orthographic representation mediating written word recognition.     

Children's use of conversational rules in a referential communication task

Three experiments investigating first-grade children's comprehension, of referentially ambiguous messages are reported. In the first one children were shown to interpret a literally ambiguous message by means of the strategy based on the conversational Maxim of Antecedent rather than that based on the more appropriate Maxim of Quantity. The results of the second experiment suggest that the Maxim of Quantity can be used by children, provided the situation is quite simple; they also suggest that after having used such a maxim in a simple situation, children can apply it in a more complex situation. This generalization to new situations, however, is not a mere perseveration since, as shown in the third experiment, children can adjust their comprehension strategy to the situation requirements. The results are discussed with reference to the recent proposals on referential ambiguity and children communication failures.     

Some observations on the universality of the late-closure strategy

Two questionnaire studies and a reading time experiment investigated the application of the late-closure principle in Italian, a Romance language which contrasts with English with respect to several linguistic properties. All the studies addressed interpretation preferences in sentences containing a complex NP followed by a relative clause (e.g....the son of the woman who arrived yesterday...). While the questionnaires investigated final preferences, the reading time experiment addressed also the principle governing the initial attachment of a relative clause to a complex NP. Furthermore, through a manipulation of the type of preposition within the complex NP, we investigated the role of the thematic structure of the complex NP in initial and final parsing. The results showed that the late-closure principle applies in Italian to the initial parsing without being affected by the thematic structure of the complex NP. Final interpretation instead shows an effect of pragmatic preference and an effect of thematic structure on syntactic revisions. The results are discussed in terms of a parsing model that adopts syntactic parsing strategies and makes modular use of linguistic information. Some implications for the relationship between syntactic theories and the human parser are also addressed.     

New evidence for the perceptual precedence of global information

Two experiments are reported investigating the order in which global and local information of visual forms is processed. Subjects were presented with compound stimuli and were asked to identify the local level, always consisting of small letters. At the global level, the stimuli could be either large letters, consistent or inconsistent with the local level, or meaningless patterns derived from the large letters by modifying the spatial relations among segments. Results showed that inconsistent stimuli were responded to more slowly than both consistent stimuli and meaningless patterns, which did not differ from each other. This was true both when letters and patterns were presented intermixed, as in experiment 1 or separately, as in experiment 2. The pattern obtained accords well with predictions derived from the perceptual precedence hypothesis which states that global information becomes available at a faster rate than local information. No support for the alternative, post-perceptual, hypothesis was found.     

Diversity and Complexity of Religion and Spirituality in Iran: Relationships With Self-Compassion and Self-Forgiveness

This study examined religious-spiritual types in Iran by comparing seminary and university students on self-compassion, self-forgiveness, and other measures of religious and psychological functioning. Islamic seminarians (N = 198) more frequently self-identified as both religious and spiritual or as religious only. University students (N = 302) more commonly described themselves as spiritual only or as neither spiritual nor religious. The both religious and spiritual type was highest in religious commitment, self-compassion, and psychological adjustment, with the neither religious nor spiritual type tending to score lowest. The religious-only type displayed the lowest self-forgiveness. Seminarians were also lower in self-forgiveness, but otherwise higher than university students in their mental health. In correlations, self-compassion was compatible, but self-forgiveness was incompatible with Muslim commitments. Muslim spirituality moderated Muslim attitude relationships. These data documented the diversity and complexity of religion, spirituality, and perspectives on the self in Iranian Muslims.     

Automatic affective-motivational regulation processes underlying supportive dyadic coping: the role of increased implicit positive attitudes toward communal goals in response to a stressed relationship partner

Background and objectives: We examined the implicit affective mechanisms underlying provision of support in intimate dyads. Specifically, we hypothesized that in individuals with high relationship satisfaction, the perception that one’s partner is stressed leads to increased implicit positive attitudes toward communal goals. In turn, this change in implicit attitudes facilitates supportive behavior.

Design and methods: In two studies, we induced partner stress by instructing participants to either recall a situation where their partner was highly stressed (Study 1; N?=?47 university students) or imagine a specific stressful event (excessive workload; Study 2; N?=?85 university students). Subsequently, implicit attitudes toward communal goals were assessed with an Implicit Association Test.

Results: In both studies, we found that among participants with high relationship satisfaction partner stress increases preferences for communal goals. In addition, implicit preferences for communal goals predicted stronger inclinations to engage in supportive dyadic coping (Study 2).

Conclusions: The current findings provide important insights into the implicit cognitive-affective mechanics of dyadic coping. Moreover, they can explain how people manage to avoid experiencing motivational conflicts between partner-oriented and self-oriented goals in situations characterized by high partner stress.