The Face of Time: Temporal Cues in Facial Expressions of Emotion

Results of studies reported here indicate that humans are attuned to temporal cues in facial expressions of emotion. The experimental task required subjects to reproduce the actual progression of a target person"s spontaneous expression (i.e., onset to offset) from a scrambled set of photographs. Each photograph depicted a segment of the expression that corresponded to approximately 67 ms in real time. Results of two experiments indicated that (a) individuals could detect extremely subtle dynamic cues in a facial expression and could utilize these cues to reproduce the proper temporal progression of the display at above-chance levels of accuracy; (b) women performed significantly better than men on the task designed to assess this ability; (c) individuals were most sensitive to the temporal characteristics of the early stages of an expression; and (d) accuracy was inversely related to the amount of time allotted for the task. The latter finding may reflect the relative involvement of (error-prone) cognitively mediated or strategic processes in what is normally a relatively automatic, nonconscious process.     

NEUROCHEMICAL AND ENDOCRINOLOGICAL STUDIES OF MICE SELECTIVELY BRED FOR AGGRESSIVENESS

L agerspetz , K. Y. H., T irri , R. & L agerspetz , K. M. J. Neurochemical and endocrinological studies of mice selectively bred for aggressiveness. Scand.J. Psychol ., 1968, g, 157–160.—Several neurochemical and endocrinological variables were studied in male albino mice from two strains, selectively bred for aggressiveness and non-aggressiveness. Differences were found in the weight and the serotonin content of the forebrain, in the catecholamine contents of the brain stem and of the adrenal gland as well as in the weight of the testis. The results indicate that mice selectively bred for aggressiveness show physiological signs of higher orthosympathetic activity than the mice selectively bred for non-aggressiveness.     

The visual basis of category effects in object identification: evidence from the visual hemifield paradigm

The basis for the category specific living things advantage in object recognition (i.e., faster and more accurate identification of living compared to nonliving things) was investigated in two experiments. It was hypothesised that the global shape of living things on average provides more information about their basic level identity than the global shape of nonliving things. In two experiments subjects performed name-picture or picture-name verification tasks, in which blurred or clear images of living and nonliving things were presented in either the right or the left visual hemifield. With blurred images, recognition performance was worst for nonliving things presented to the right visual field/left hemisphere, indicating that the lack of visual detail in the stimulus combined with a left hemisphere bias toward processing high frequency visual elements proved detrimental for processing nonliving stimuli in this condition. In addition, an overall living things advantage was observed in both experiments. This advantage was considerably larger with blurred images than with clear. These results are compatible with the global shape hypothesis and converge with evidence using other paradigms.     

Career Decision‐Making Intervention With Unemployed Adults: When Good Intentions Are Not Effective

This study adapted existing empirically supported interventions to explore options for serving large numbers of unemployed adults. Participants included 150 unemployed adults (72 experimental group, 78 control group) seeking employment office services to maintain U.S. federal unemployment compensation. A 1‐hour workshop was offered to the 72 experimental group participants. The same career development variables were assessed during data collection for both groups. Results revealed the workshop had no impact on negative career thinking and potentially increased career decision‐making difficulties in the experimental group. Intervention effectiveness issues, implications for future research, and intervention options with unemployed adults are discussed.     

Children's attributions for peer victimization: A social comparison approach

A social comparison framework was used to examine the relations between children's attributions for victimization and adjustment. In Study One, 192 nine-to ten-year-old children were asked why someone may pick on them. Results revealed attributions reflecting five causes of victimization that could be reliably sorted by direction of social comparison: (a) jealous peer (downward), (b) mutual antipathy (horizontal), (c) being different from each other (horizontal), (d) personal behavior (upward) and (e) being uncool (upward). Children's responses were used to create an attribution measure that was administered to 206 eight-to eleven-year-old children. Results were consistent with the social comparison hypothesis such that peer jealousy was uniquely associated with lower levels of loneliness and greater acceptance whereas personal behavior and not being uncool were correlated with greater loneliness and lower perceived acceptance and self-esteem. Findings supported the usefulness of a social comparison framework for understanding associations among attributions and adjustment.     

Variability and Noise in Continuous Force Production

In the present 3 experiments, the authors examined the hypothesis, derived from information theory, that increases in the variability of motor responses result from increases in perceptual-motor noise. Three different groups of participants (Ns = 10, 9, and 10, respectively, in Experiments 1, 2, and 3) produced continuous isometric force under either low, intermediate, or high target force levels. When considered together, the results showed that force variability (SD) increased exponentially as a function of force level. However, an index of information transmission (M/SD), as well as measures of noise in both the time (approximate entropy) and the frequency (power spectrum) domains, changed according to an inverted-U-shaped function over the range of force levels. The findings provide further evidence that increased information transmission is related to increases, and not to decreases, in the noisiness of the structure of force output.     

Intrusive thoughts and avoidance in breast cancer: Individual differences and association with psychological distress

Abstract

Eighty-five women with newly diagnosed breast cancer were classified on the basis of high and low levels of cancer-related intrusive thoughts and avoidance at diagnosis, and their psychological adjustment was studied prospectively at 3 and 6 months post diagnosis. Patients who initially reported high levels of both intrusive thoughts and avoidance and those who reported high levels of intrusive thoughts but low avoidance experienced the highest levels of anxiety and depression symptoms, and continued intrusive thoughts and avoidance. Patients who were high in avoidance but low in intrusive thoughts also experienced adjustment problems, including increased intrusive thoughts, when compared with patients who were low in both types of symptoms. The findings highlight the value of considering subgroup differences in patterns of intrusion and avoidance as predictors of subsequent psychological adjustment to breast cancer.     

Functional Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Children with Anxiety Disorders

This study examined the incidence and correlates of functional gastrointestinal symptoms in children with anxiety disorders. Participants were 6–13 year old children diagnosed with one or more anxiety disorders (n?=?54) and non-clinical control children (n?=?51). Telephone diagnostic interviews were performed with parents to determine the presence and absence of anxiety disorders in children. Parents completed a questionnaire that elicited information about their child’s gastrointestinal symptoms associated with functional gastrointestinal disorders in children, as specified by the paediatric Rome criteria (Caplan et al., Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition, 41, 296–304, 2005a). Parents and children also completed a symptom severity measure of anxiety. As expected, children with anxiety disorders were significantly more likely to have symptoms of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID), compared to children without anxiety disorders. That is, 40.7 % of anxious children had symptoms of a FGID compared to 5.9 % of non-anxious control children. Children with anxiety disorders were significantly more likely to have symptoms of functional constipation, and showed a trend for a higher incidence of irritable bowel syndrome symptoms compared to non-anxious control children. Furthermore, higher anxiety symptom severity was characteristic of anxious children with symptoms of FGID, compared to anxious children without FGID symptoms and non-anxious control children. Also, children with anxiety disorders, regardless of FGID symptoms, were more likely to have a biological family member, particularly a parent or grandparent, with a gastrointestinal problem, compared to non-anxious control children. The high incidence of FGID symptoms in children with anxiety disorders warrants further research on whether gastrointestinal symptoms reduce following psychological treatments for childhood anxiety disorders, such as cognitive behavioural therapy.     

Two-phase driver education models applied in Finland and in Austria – Do we have evidence to support the two phase models?

Finnish and Austrian driver education models were analysed in order to find out existing and new evidence to support obligatory 2nd phase driver education. Earlier findings showed that the safety benefits of the 2nd phase education courses are contradictory. Furthermore, the goal and the content of the 2nd phase education have changed from simple slippery track practices to preventive risk awareness education. In addition, it has been suggested that the timing of the second phase education should not be too far from the 1st phase of the education.The empirical part of this study consisted of two separate questionnaires to the Finnish and the Austrian novice drivers. The candidates that had completed the Austrian 2nd phase education reported less traffic offences and accidents than the not completed participants. The ANCOVA-models indicated that the Finnish participants, who completed early the 2nd phase education, reported having benefited only of the economical driving training but not of the safety related driving competency areas. For the Austrian participants the ANOVA-models did not show any self-assessed safe driving benefits. Implications of the findings to the driving education were discussed.