New Reflections on the Mirror: the Interests Proximity Bias Solution

Philosophia - We worry about becoming non-existent, but not about coming into being. But both events are similarly bad according to Deprivationism; hence, it seems that we should display symmetric...     

Numeracy,Health Numeracy,and Older Immigrants’ Primary Language: An Observation-Oriented Exploration

Health information is often provided in number formats not equally present in all languages. We explored the relation between immigrants’ primary language and comprehension of context-free and health numeric information presented in English. The study compared speakers of Kikuyu (Kenya) and Mandarin (China), two languages that differ in the quantity of numeric concepts in their structures. Observation-oriented analysis was performed to determine how accurately the observed data conform to language group. We show how such analysis compares to standard statistical analysis. We argue that primary language contributes to some of the differences in numeracy and health numeracy.     

Measuring "negative body image": validation of the Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire in a nonclinical population

Despite numerous measures of facets of the body image construct, no single assessment broadly measures a continuum of body image disturbance. Accordingly, this study developed the Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire (BIDQ), derived from the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Questionnaire. Participants were 220 college women and 75 college men who completed an online survey containing this new assessment and established measures of body image and psychosocial functioning. Results confirmed that the Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire was internally consistent and free of impression-management response bias. For both sexes, the measure converged appropriately with other body image indices (evaluation, affect, investment, and impact), was positively correlated with depression, social anxiety, and eating disturbance. Scores on this assessment also predicted psychosocial functioning above and beyond body dissatisfaction as a predictor. Greater body image disturbance was observed among women than men, among heavier than lighter women, and among White than African American women. Limitations and future research implications are discussed.     

The impact of mediodorsal thalamic lesions on olfactory attention and flavor perception

Olfactory attention may be important in generating odor-induced tastes - an arguably universal form of synesthesia - by ensuring that the taste concurrent is captured by the nose and olfaction, not by the mouth and gustation (oral-capture). To examine the role of olfactory attention in generating odor-induced tastes and oral capture we tested a small sample (n = 4) of participants with likely impairments in olfactory attention - individuals with mediodorsal thalamic nucleus (MDNT) lesions. These participants were compared to two sets of controls on tests of olfactory attention, oral capture, odor and flavor perception, and control tasks. MDNT participants demonstrated impaired olfactory attention and enhanced oral capture. Greater oral capture was associated with greater olfactory attentional impairment. These findings imply that olfactory attention may be important in attributing odor-induced tastes to the olfactory modality. However, unlike for visual binding and for the neurodevelopmental synesthesias, where attention may be necessary to demonstrate both phenomena, olfactory attention deficits did not impair flavor binding or the experience of odor-induced tastes.     

Principal Congruences on Semi-De Morgan Algebras

In this paper we use Hobby's duality for semi-De Morgan algebras, to characterize those algebras having only principal congruences in the classes of semi-De Morgan algebras, demi-pseudocomplemented lattices and almost pseudocomplemented lattices. This work extends some of the results reached by Beazer in [3] and [4].     

Flanker compatibility effects in patients with Parkinson's disease: impact of target onset delay and trial-by-trial stimulus variation

Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and healthy controls were administered a flanker task that consisted of the presentation of colored targets and distractors. Participants were required to attend to the center target and identify its color. The stimulus displays were either congruent (i.e., the target and flankers were the same color) or incongruent. The time between the onset of the flanker and the target color (the target onset delay) was either short or long. Results indicated that PD patients and controls did not differ in the magnitude of the flanker effect within individual trials in that both groups demonstrated a typical flanker effect at the short target onset delay and neither group demonstrated a flanker effect at the longer delay. However, when performance was examined on a trial-by-trial basis, PD patients demonstrated a slowing of reaction time relative to controls when having to make the same response across consecutive trials at longer inter-trial intervals when the flankers were incongruent across consecutive trials and the display on the second of two trials was incongruent. These results indicate that PD patients are impaired in inhibiting the distractors over an extended delay and that this deficit may impact motor responding in these patients, suggesting that the basal ganglia contribute to the interface of attention and action.     

Predictors of Media Effects on Body Dissatisfaction in European American Women

This study involved a sample of 81 European American women viewing either appearance-related or non-appearance-related magazine advertisements. Participants completed measures of demographics and objectified body consciousness prior to viewing these images and a measure of body dissatisfaction prior to and after viewing the images. Body dissatisfaction scores worsened after viewing images of women who exemplified cultural standards of the thin beauty ideal. Neither objectified body consciousness nor body mass index predicted degree of change in body dissatisfaction after viewing the images. In other words, the impact of viewing the images was the same for all women, despite varying body mass index levels and varied degrees of objectified body consciousness. Implications are discussed.