Does Thompson's Thatcher Effect reflect a face-specific mechanism?

The Thatcher Illusion or Thatcher Effect (TE--Thompson 1980, Perception 9 483-484) reflects the difficulty in perceiving the local inversion of parts when the whole object, generally a face, is globally inverted. We tested the generality of the TE with a range of faces and nonface objects, and observed the TE with many non-face categories including cars, buildings, bikes, and letter strings. In terms of magnitude, the face TE is not exceptionally large compared to other object categories, and the magnitude of the TE can be predicted by performance on this task for upright stimuli, regardless of whether the object is a face or not. We did not observe evidence for a unique mechanism contributing to the TE for faces. We discuss factors that influence the magnitude of the TE, some common across domains and others more specific to a particular category.     

Conjunction errors and semantic transparency

Memory conjunction errors occur when aspects of two different events are falsely recognized or recalled as having occurred as parts of the same event. One theoretical account of conjunction errors is rooted in traditional dual-process models of recognition judgments, in which responses are based on an item’s familiarity or the retrieval of recollected details associated with the encoding of that item. We manipulated the familiarity of test probes by varying their semantic overlap with studied items, taking advantage of the inherent semantic transparency of compound words. Transparent compounds are those whose component parts (lexemes) are semantically related to the meaning of the entire word. In contrast, opaque compounds’ lexemes do not contribute directly to the meaning of the compound. We showed that the familiarity of semantically transparent assembly lures created from their lexemes (study dog and house, test on doghouse) is greater than the familiarity of opaque assembly lures (study back and draw, test on drawback). A response-signal experiment revealed no evidence for the use of a recall-to-reject process for either semantically transparent or opaque lures.     

Children’s Perceived Social Support After a Parent Is Diagnosed with Cancer

This study examined perceived social support among children of parents diagnosed with cancer. Twenty-nine participants, ages 18–38, who had been children when one of their parents was diagnosed with cancer provided demographic information and participated in an interview about the impact of their parent’s illness on their lives. Five common themes characterized participants’ perceived social support received during their parent’s illness: (a) listening and understanding; (b) encouragement and reassurance; (c) tangible assistance; (d) communication about cancer and treatment; and (e) engaging in normal life experiences. Depending on the circumstances, however, a given type of social support was perceived to be helpful to some, while perceived by others as ineffective or detrimental. Differences in respondents’ perceptions of the effects of specific forms of received social support speak to the need for individualized support for children of cancer patients based upon each child’s specific needs and circumstances.     

Balanced states of mind in psychopathology and psychological well-being

The balanced states of mind (BSOM) model proposes that coping with stress and psychological well-being is a function of the BSOM ratio of positive thoughts to the sum of positive and negative thoughts. Based on different BSOM ratios, different BSOM categories are constructed to quantitatively differentiate levels of coping with stress and psychological well-being. The cognitive content-specificity hypothesis states that there are unique themes of semantic content in self-reported automatic thoughts particular to depression or anxiety. This study investigated the BSOM model and its cognitive content-specificity for depression, anxiety, anger, stress, life satisfaction, and happiness, based on negative and positive automatic thoughts. Three hundred and ninety-eight college students from Singapore participated in this study. First, BSOM ratio and positive automatic thoughts were positively correlated with life satisfaction and happiness, and negatively correlated with stress, anxiety, depression, and anger. In contrast, negative automatic thoughts were positively correlated with stress, anxiety, depression, and anger, and negatively correlated with life satisfaction and happiness. Second, levels of psychopathology and psychological well-being were statistically differentiable among the BSOM categories for depression, happiness, perceived stress, and life satisfaction; and less statistically differentiable among the BSOM categories for anxiety and anger, as expected based on the BSOM model and cognitive content-specificity hypothesis. Third, the results were more supportive of the BSOM model for depression, followed by happiness, perceived stress, life satisfaction, anxiety, and anger in terms of percentage of variance accounted for by BSOM categories, as expected based on the cognitive content-specificity hypothesis. Taken together, the results suggested that the more moderately positive thoughts one has (balanced by negative thoughts), the better mental health outcomes one has. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.     

The relationship between clients' conformity to masculine norms and their perceptions of helpful therapist actions

T. J. G. Tracey et al.'s (2003) common factors model derived from therapists and psychotherapy researchers has provided a parsimonious structure to inform research and practice. Accordingly, the current authors used the 14 common factor categories identified in Tracey et al.'s model as a guide to code clients' perceptions of helpful therapist actions (e.g., intervention, way of being) in short-term psychotherapy. Next, they conducted a cluster analysis to establish meaningful subgroups of clients based on clients' perceptions of helpful therapist actions. Finally, they explored if clients in these subgroups differed in their report of conformity to masculine norms. Clients (N = 161) from a university counseling center were recruited for the current study. Results revealed 3 clusters of clients based on their perceptions of helpful therapist actions: Insight (44%), Relationship (30%), and Information (26%). In contrast, Tracey et al. found 3 clusters: Bond (which includes Insight and Relationship), Information, and Structure of therapy (not found in the current study). Clients in the Insight and Relationship clusters reported more conformity to masculine norms as compared with clients in the Information cluster. There were no sex differences across clusters.     

Repetitive Thinking in Social Anxiety Disorder: Are Anticipatory Processing and Post-Event Processing Facets of an Underlying Unidimensional Construct?

Existing literature suggests that anticipatory processing and post-event processing—two repetitive thinking processes linked to social anxiety disorder (SAD)—might be better conceptualized as facets of an underlying unidimensional repetitive thinking construct. The current study tested this by examining potential factor structures underlying anticipatory processing and post-event processing. Baseline data from two randomized controlled trials, consisting of 306 participants with SAD who completed anticipatory processing and post-event processing measures in relation to a speech task, were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. A bifactor model with a General Repetitive Thinking factor and two group factors corresponding to anticipatory processing and post-event processing best fit with the data. Further analyses indicated an optimal model would include only the General Repetitive Thinking factor (reflecting anticipatory processing and a specific aspect of post-event processing) and Post-event Processing group factor (reflecting another specific aspect of post-event processing that is separable), providing evidence against a unidimensional account of repetitive thinking in SAD. Analyses also indicated that the General Repetitive Thinking factor had moderately large associations with social anxiety and life interference (rs = .43 to .47), suggesting its maladaptive nature. The separable Post-event Processing group factor only had small associations with social anxiety (rs = .16 to .27) and was not related to life interference (r = .11), suggesting it may not, in itself, be a maladaptive process. Future research that further characterises the bifactor model components and tests their utility has the potential to improve the conceptualisation and assessment of repetitive thinking in SAD.     

Infant mental health home visiting in the context of an infant—toddler court team: Changes in parental responsiveness and reflective functioning

This article describes an infant–toddler court team in Michigan, the community-based participatory research approach to the implementation evaluation, and the resulting changes in parenting. Like other court teams, Michigan's Baby Court is led by a science-informed jurist, and all service providers are knowledgeable about the developmental needs of young children and engage in collaborative communication throughout the case. Relationship-based treatment in the form of infant mental health home-visiting was provided to families. Sixteen parents participated in pre- and posttest evaluation visits to assess changes in parents’ reflective functioning and interactions with their child. Findings suggest improvements in parents’ responsiveness, positive affect, and reflective functioning, with moderate effects. Higher risk parents demonstrated significant changes in reflective functioning, as compared to those at lower risk. These findings add to and support the limited literature on the effectiveness of infant–toddler court teams, which include relationship-based and trauma-informed services.     

Personality, Psychosocial Variables, and Life Satisfaction of Chinese Gay Men in Hong Kong

This study explored associations of life satisfaction with personality traits, life events, and social support among 187 Chinese gay men in Hong Kong. In general, participants were modestly satisfied with various aspects of their lives. Findings from a hierarchical regression analysis indicated that a high level of life satisfaction of Chinese gay men was related to weak borderline personality traits, disclosure of homosexual sexual orientation, and gay peer support. Results also showed that there was no interaction effect between personality and psychosocial variables in affecting life satisfaction. Limitations and implications of this study were also discussed.     

The development of children's preferences for equality and equity across 13 individualistic and collectivist cultures

A concern for fairness is a fundamental and universal element of morality. To examine the extent to which cultural norms are integrated into fairness cognitions and influence social preferences regarding equality and equity, a large sample of children (N 2,163) aged 4–11 were tested in 13 diverse countries. Children participated in three versions of a third‐party, contextualized distributive justice game between two hypothetical recipients differing in terms of wealth, merit, and empathy. Social decision‐making in these games revealed universal age‐related shifts from equality‐based to equity‐based distribution motivations across cultures. However, differences in levels of individualism and collectivism between the 13 countries predicted the age and extent to which children favor equity in each condition. Children from the most individualistic cultures endorsed equitable distributions to a greater degree than children from more collectivist cultures when recipients differed in regards to wealth and merit. However, in an empathy context where recipients differed in injury, children from the most collectivist cultures exhibited greater preferences to distribute resource equitably compared to children from more individualistic cultures. Children from the more individualistic cultures also favored equitable distributions at an earlier age than children from more collectivist cultures overall. These results demonstrate aspects of both cross‐cultural similarity and divergence in the development of fairness preferences.