Inequality constrained analysis of variance: a Bayesian approach

Researchers often have one or more theories or expectations with respect to the outcome of their empirical research. When researchers talk about the expected relations between variables if a certain theory is correct, their statements are often in terms of one or more parameters expected to be larger or smaller than one or more other parameters. Stated otherwise, their statements are often formulated using inequality constraints. In this article, a Bayesian approach to evaluate analysis of variance or analysis of covariance models with inequality constraints on the (adjusted) means is presented. This evaluation contains two issues: estimation of the parameters given the restrictions using the Gibbs sampler and model selection using Bayes factors in the case of competing theories. The article concludes with two illustrations: a one-way analysis of covariance and an analysis of a three-way table of ordered means.     

Perceptual grouping and attention: Not all groupings are equal

We examined grouping under inattention using Driver, Davis, Russell, Turatto, & Freeman’s (2001) method. On each trial, two successive displays were briefly presented, each comprising a central target square surrounded by elements. The task was to judge whether the two targets were the same or different. The organization of the background elements stayed the same or changed, independently of the targets. In different conditions, background elements grouped into columns/rows by color similarity, a shape (a triangle/arrow, a square/cross, or a vertical/horizontal line) by color similarity, and a shape with no other elements in the background. We measured the influence of the background on the target same-different judgments. The results imply that background elements grouped into columns/rows by color similarity and into a shape when no segregation from other elements was involved and the shape was relatively “good.” In contrast, no background grouping was observed when resolving figure-ground relations for segregated units was required, as in grouping into a shape by color similarity. These results suggest that grouping is a multiplicity of processes that vary in their attentional demands. Regardless of attentional demands, the products of grouping are not available to awareness without attention.     

Effect of name agreement on prefrontal activity during overt and covert picture naming

In recent neuroimaging studies, various tasks have been used to examine prefrontal cortex involvement in semantic retrieval and selection. One such task, picture naming, has yielded inconsistent results across studies. One potential explanation for this inconsistency is that the magnitude of prefrontal activity during picture naming depends on the extent to which a given picture evokes a single reliable meaning. To test this hypothesis, fMRI activity in the prefrontal cortex was measured while subjects named pictures with either high or low name agreement. In Experiment 1, subjects named black-andwhite line drawings, either covertly or overtly. Across both modalities, we found more left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) activity when the subjects named low-agreement pictures than when they named high-agreement pictures. No significant difference in head movement was detected between the two modalities. In Experiment 2, we replicated the effect of name agreement on LIFG activity during picture naming, using black-and-white photographs. These results provide further support for the idea that the LIFG mediates selection among competing alternatives and suggest a means for understanding the naming deficits observed in nonfluent aphasia.     

The modulation of inhibition of return by objectinternal structure: Implications for theories of object-based attentional selection

Recently, Vecera, Behrmann, and McGoldrick (2000), using a divided-attention task, reported that targets are detected more accurately when they occur on the same structural part of an object, suggesting that attention can be directed toward object-internal features. We present converging evidence using the object-based inhibition of return (IOR) paradigm as an implicit measure of selection. The results show that IOR is attenuated when cues and targets appear on the same part of an object relative to when they are separated by a part boundary. These findings suggest that object-based mechanisms of selection can operate over shape representations that make explicit information about objectinternal structure.     

Developmental prosopagnosia: a review

This article reviews the published literature on developmental prosopagnosia, a condition in which the ability to recognize other persons by facial information alone has never been acquired. Due to the very low incidence of this syndrome, case reports are sparse. We review the available data and suggest assessment strategies for patients suffering from developmental prosopagnosia. It is suggested that developmental prosopagnosia is not a unitary condition but rather consists of different subforms that can be dissociated on the grounds of functional impairments. On the basis of the available evidence, hypotheses about the aetiology of developmental prosopagnosia as well as about the selectivity of deficits related to face recognition are discussed.     

Lost and Found: Reinvention of the Self Following Migration

Migration can impact on a person's identity and this assault can require reworking or establishing aspects of the self. The study involved a cross sectional design, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to establish the impact of migration on women from the United Kingdom (UK) and Eire (N = 154) now living in Australia. A major aim was to determine whether the impact of multiple loss (loss of home, major attachment figure, family, community, culture, and social networks) can cause a grief reaction and threatened a person's identity, and, if so, what strategies might be used to buffer this impact and assist reinvention of the self. Bowlby's grieving process was used as a theoretical framework. Women who successfully reached the final stage were able to reinvent themselves using social strategies, whereas those less able used solitary strategies. Women, unable to reach the final stage of grieving, suffered psychological distress. The study has implications for future migrants. Migrants who use appropriate strategies to enable settlement and reinvention are also likely to achieve a sense of belonging to the new place.     

The Demand-Control Model: Specific Demands, Specific Control, and Well-Defined Groups

The purpose of this study was to test the Demand-Control Model (DCM), accompanied by three goals. Firstly, we used alternative, more focused, and multifaceted measures of both job demands and job control that are relevant and applicable to today's working contexts. Secondly, this study intended to focus on particular demands in human services work and to incorporate these demands in the DCM. Finally, this occupation-based study investigated relatively large well-defined subgroups compared to a total sample. Workers from five human service sectors (n = 2,485) were included in a cross-sectional survey (i.e., health care, transport, bank/insurance, retail trade, and warehouse). Results showed that job demands and job control are able to show several interaction effects on employee well-being and health, but only in specific occupational groups. In conclusion, the current findings provide renewed empirical support for the view that high-strain jobs (high demand, low control) are conducive to ill health (i.e., emotional exhaustion, psychosomatic health complaints). Further, it appears that active jobs (high demands, high control) give rise to positive outcomes (i.e., job challenge, job satisfaction).     

Intensive Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy (ITAP): A case series study

Intensive Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy (ITAP) is a new therapeutic approach based on the integration of Transactional Analysis and brief psychodynamic approaches. ITAP is based on two key therapeutic tools—the intrapsychic triangle and the interpersonal triangle—which the therapist uses to focus patients’ attention on moment‐by‐moment therapy processes. The aim of the present study was to provide early empirical documentation of ITAP effectiveness. To this aim, six patients (four females, two males) were longitudinally evaluated using an A‐B‐A mixed quantitative and qualitative design, with evaluations at Baseline, Treatment and Follow‐up phases. Each patient received 16 50‐min weekly sessions of ITAP therapy over 4 months. For quantitative evaluations, patients filled out the Clinical Outcome in Routine Evaluation‐Outcome Measure (CORE‐OM) at each evaluation. Effects size values were estimated to evaluate quantitative changes comparing mean scores of Baseline, Treatment and Follow‐up phases. At the first follow‐up, the Change Interview was used to qualitatively evaluate patients’ perceived changes. In the quantitative data, four of the six patients reported a very good outcome, with large to very large effect sizes in Baseline versus Treatment and/or Baseline versus Follow‐up scores comparisons, whereas two patients reported variable fluctuations within the non‐clinical range of outcome scores. In the qualitative evaluations, all patients reported several moderately to extremely important perceived changes attributed to psychotherapy.     

Recognition memory and awareness: Occurrence of perceptual effects in remembering or in knowing depends on conscious resources at encoding, but not at retrieval

We report four experiments in which a remember-know paradigm was combined with a response deadline procedure in order to assess memory awareness in fast, as compared with slow,recognition judgments. In the experiments, we also investigated the perceptual effects of study-test congruence, either for picture size or for speaker's voice, following either full or divided attention at study. These perceptual effects occurred in remembering with full attention and in knowing with divided attention, but they were uninfluenced by recognition speed, indicating that their occurrence in remembering or knowing depends more on conscious resources at encoding than on those at retrieval. The results have implications for theoretical accounts of remembering and knowing that assume that remembering is more consciously controlled and effortful, whereas knowing is more automatic and faster.     

Speech perception deficits in Parkinson's disease: underestimation of time intervals compromises identification of durational phonetic contrasts

Besides motor, vegetative, and cognitive signs, patients suffering from Parkinson's disease (PD) may show distinct perceptual deficits such as underestimation of time intervals extending across several seconds. Assuming this impairment also to affect the domain of tens of milliseconds, disrupted encoding of the acoustic speech signal with respect to segment durations conveying linguistic information must be expected. To test this hypothesis, 10 PD patients and matched controls performed an identification task using a series of 10 stimuli derived from the utterance "Boten" (/bo:tn/, 'messengers'; produced with nasal plosion) by exclusive manipulation of occlusion length (110-20 ms in steps of 10 ms). Under these conditions, word-medial silence cues the voicing category of the respective stop consonant. Seven PD subjects showed normal identification curves, i.e., categorized the shortest and longest stimuli with high probability each as the minimal pair cognates "Boden" and "Boten," respectively. In contrast, the remaining three patients labeled all items across the complete range of occlusion lengths as "Boden." A subsequent experiment found a horizontal shift of the identification curves toward larger signal durations (> 120 ms) in these three subjects. Bilateral cerebellar degeneration has been found to yield a different response pattern, i.e., near-chance level of performance. Considering recent information-processing models of scalar interval timing, striatal disorders seem to slow down an oscillatory pacemaker, whereas cerebellar dysfunctions may impair comparison of measured durations with stored reference memory traces.