Now you feel it, now you don't: frontal brain electrical asymmetry and individual differences in emotion regulation

Recent theoretical accounts of emotion regulation assign an important role in this process to the prefrontal cortex, yet there is little relevant data available to support this hypothesis. The current study assessed the relation between individual differences in asymmetric prefrontal activation and an objective measure of uninstructed emotion regulation. Forty-seven participants 57 to 60 years old viewed emotionally arousing and neutral visual stimuli while eyeblink startle data were collected. Startle probes were also presented after picture presentation to capture the persistence or attenuation of affect following the offset of an emotional stimulus. Subjects with greater relative left-sided anterior activation in scalp-recorded brain electrical signals displayed attenuated startle magnitude after the offset of negative stimuli. This relation between resting frontal activation and recovery following an aversive event supports the idea of a frontally mediated mechanism involved in one form of automatic emotion regulation.     

Flexibility versus generalizability in model selection

Which quantitative method should be used to choose among competing mathematical models of cognition? Massaro, Cohen, Campbell, and Rodriguez (2001) favor root mean squared deviation (RMSD), choosing the model that provides the best fit to the data. Their simulation results appear to legitimize its use for comparing two models of information integration because it performed just as well as Bayesian model selection (BMS), which had previously been shown by Myung and Pitt (1997) to be a superior alternative selection method because it considers a model's complexity in addition to its fit. In the present study, after contrasting the theoretical approaches to model selection espoused by Massaro et al. and Myung and Pitt, we discuss the cause of the inconsistencies by expanding on the simulations of Massaro et al. Findings demonstrate that the results from model recovery simulations can be misleading if they are not interpreted relative to the data on which they were evaluated, and that BMS is a more robust selection method.     

Posthypnotic suggestion and the modulation of Stroop interference under cycloplegia

Recent data indicate that under a specific posthypnotic suggestion to circumvent reading, highly suggestible subjects successfully eliminated the Stroop interference effect. The present study examined whether an optical explanation (e.g., visual blurring or looking away) could account for this finding. Using cyclopentolate hydrochloride eye drops to pharmacologically prevent visual accommodation in all subjects, behavioral Stroop data were collected from six highly hypnotizables and six less suggestibles using an optical setup that guaranteed either sharply focused or blurred vision. The highly suggestibles performed the Stroop task when naturally vigilant, under posthypnotic suggestion not to read, and while visually blurred; the less suggestibles ran naturally vigilant, while looking away, and while visually blurred. Although visual accommodation was precluded for all subjects, posthypnotic suggestion effectively eliminated Stroop interference and was comparable to looking away in controls. These data strengthen the view that Stroop interference is neither robust nor inevitable and support the hypothesis that posthypnotic suggestion may exert a top-down influence on neural processing.     

Phenomenology of Digital-Being

This paper explores the ontology of digital information or the nature of digital-being. Even though a digital-being is not a physical thing, it has many essential features of physical things such as substantiality, extensions, and thing-totality (via Heidegger). Despite their lack of material bases, digital-beings can provide us with perceivedness or universal passive pregivenness (via Husserl). Still, a digital-being is not exactly a thing, because it does not belong to objective time and space. Due to its perfect duplicability, a digital being can exist at multiple locations simultaneously – that is, it defies normal spatiotemporal constraints. With digital beings on the Internet, we can establish intercorporeal relationships. The World Wide Web opens up new possibilities of Dasein's being-able-to-be-with-one-another and new modes of Being-with-others (Mitsein). The new modes of communication based on digital-beings compel us to re-read Heidegger's basic concepts such as Dasein as Being-in-the-world, since Dasein becomes the Digi-sein as Being-in-the-World-Wide-Web. By exploring the ontological characteristics of digital-being, this paper suggests that we conceive digital-beings as res digitalis – a third entity which is located somewhere between res cogitans and res extensa.     

Body weight, self-esteem, and depression in Korean female

The purpose of this study was to examine whether body mass index (BMI) and perception of a body weight problem predict level of self-esteem and depression in Korean female adolescents. The sample consisted of 303 females, ranging in age from 15 to 19 years, who were attending four high schools located in Seoul, Korea. BMI and desired BMI were calculated based on self-reported weight and height. Self-perception of having a weight problem was evaluated by one question: "Do you see yourself as having a weight problem?" Self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Based on BMI, 18.2% of the females were underweight, 79.2% were of normal weight, and 2.6% were overweight. Based on desired BMI, 78.5% of the females desired to be underweight. Results showed that perception of a weight problem, but not BMI, contributed significantly to the prediction of level of self-esteem and depression. In addition, there was a significant positive correlation between BMI and perception of a weight problem.     

DNA Fingerprinting and the Offertory Prayer: A Sermon

This Christian sermon uses a DNA lab experience as a basis for theological reflection on ourselves and our offering. Who are we to God? What determines the self that we offer? Can the alphabet of DNA shed light for us on the Word of God in our lives? This first attempt to introduce the language and laboratory environment of genetic testing (represented by DNA fingerprinting) within a parish preaching context juxtaposes liturgical, scientific, and biblical language and settings for fresh insights.     

What’s in a name? Lexical knowledge drives infants’ visual preferences in the absence of referential input

Seventeen-month-old infants were presented with pairs of images, in silence or with the non-directive auditory stimulus ‘look!’. The images had been chosen so that one image depicted an item whose name was known to the infant, and the other image depicted an image whose name was not known to the infant. Infants looked longer at images for which they had names than at images for which they did not have names, despite the absence of any referential input. The experiment controlled for the familiarity of the objects depicted: in each trial, image pairs presented to infants had previously been judged by caregivers to be of roughly equal familiarity. From a theoretical perspective, the results indicate that objects with names are of intrinsic interest to the infant. The possible causal direction for this linkage is discussed and it is concluded that the results are consistent with Whorfian linguistic determinism, although other construals are possible. From a methodological perspective, the results have implications for the use of preferential looking as an index of early word comprehension.     

A computational and neuropsychological account of object-oriented behaviours in infancy

Infants under 7 months of age fail to reach behind an occluding screen to retrieve a desired toy even though they possess sufficient motor skills to do so. However, even by 3.5 months of age they show surprise if the solidity of the hidden toy is violated, suggesting that they know that the hidden toy still exists. We describe a connectionist model that learns to predict the position of objects and to initiate a response towards these objects. The model embodies the dual-route principle of object information processing characteristic of the cortex. One route develops a spatially invariant surface feature representation of the object whereas the other route develops a feature blind spatial–temporal representation of the object. The model provides an account of the developmental lag between infants’ knowledge of hidden objects and their ability to demonstrate that knowledge in an active retrieval task, in terms of the need to integrate information across multiple object representations using (associative) connectionist learning algorithms. Finally, the model predicts the presence of an early dissociation between infants’ ability to use surface features (e.g. colour) and spatial–temporal features (e.g. position) when reasoning about hidden objects. Evidence supporting this prediction has now been reported.     

Marines,medics, and machismo: Lack of fit with masculine occupational stereotypes discourages men's participation

Women have made substantial inroads into some traditionally masculine occupations (e.g., accounting, journalism) but not into others (e.g., military, surgery). Evidence suggests the latter group of occupations is characterized by hyper‐masculine ‘macho’ stereotypes that are especially disadvantageous to women. Here, we explore whether such macho occupational stereotypes may be especially tenacious, not just because of their impact on women, but also because of their impact on men. We examined whether macho stereotypes associated with marine commandos and surgeons discourage men who feel that they are ‘not man enough’. Study 1 demonstrates that male new recruits' (N = 218) perceived lack of fit with masculine commandos was associated with reduced occupational identification and motivation. Study 2 demonstrates that male surgical trainees' (N = 117) perceived lack of fit with masculine surgeons was associated with reduced identification and increased psychological exit a year later. Together, this suggests that macho occupational stereotypes may discourage the very men who may challenge them.     

Individual differences in vocal activity rhythm: Fourier analysis of cyclicity in amount of talk

Speakers in informal conversations tend to alternate regularly between lower and higher amounts of talking; the periods of these low/high activity cycles are on the order of 3, 6, and 15 minutes. Statistically significant periodicities occurred in 55% of the conversations studied. The periodograms that describe the partition of variance among periodic components whow consistent individual differences in the cyclic patterning of vocal activity. Discriminant analysis used the amount of variance accounted for by each of the 12 lowest-frequency periodic components as discriminating variables to see whether speakers could be identified on the basis of the cyclic patterns in vocal activity. Speakers were discriminated and classified at levels well above chance. This suggests that there are consistent individual differences among speakers in the length of cycles in amount of talk.We gratefully acknowledge support from the Central University Research Fund and from the office of the Dean of Liberal Arts at the University of New Hampshire.