Emotion-induced blindness reflects competition at early and late processing stages: An ERP study

Emotion-induced blindness (EIB) refers to impaired awareness of items appearing soon after an irrelevant, emotionally arousing stimulus. Superficially, EIB appears to be similar to the attentional blink (AB), a failure to report a target that closely follows another relevant target. Previous studies of AB using event-related potentials suggest that the AB results from interference with selection (N2 component) and consolidation (P3b component) of the second target into working memory. The present study applied a similar analysis to EIB and, similarly, found that an irrelevant emotional distractor suppressed the N2 and P3b components associated with the following target at short lags. Emotional distractors also elicited a positive deflection that appeared to be similar to the P_D component, which has been associated with attempts to suppress salient, irrelevant distractors (Kiss, Grubert, Petersen, & Eimer, 2012; Sawaki, Geng, & Luck, 2012; Sawaki & Luck, 2010). These results suggest that irrelevant emotional pictures gain access to working memory, even when observers are attempting to ignore them and, like the AB, prevent access of a closely following target.     

The distributed human neural system for face perception

Face perception, perhaps the most highly developed visual skill in humans, is mediated by a distributed neural system in humans that is comprised of multiple, bilateral regions. We propose a model for the organization of this system that emphasizes a distinction between the representation of invariant and changeable aspects of faces. The representation of invariant aspects of faces underlies the recognition of individuals, whereas the representation of changeable aspects of faces, such as eye gaze, expression, and lip movement, underlies the perception of information that facilitates social communication. The model is also hierarchical insofar as it is divided into a core system and an extended system. The core system is comprised of occipitotemporal regions in extrastriate visual cortex that mediate the visual analysis of faces. In the core system, the representation of invariant aspects is mediated more by the face-responsive region in the fusiform gyrus, whereas the representation of changeable aspects is mediated more by the face-responsive region in the superior temporal sulcus. The extended system is comprised of regions from neural systems for other cognitive functions that can be recruited to act in concert with the regions in the core system to extract meaning from faces.     

A Community's Response to Adverse Childhood Experiences: Building a Resilient,Trauma‐Informed Community

Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, may be mitigated by trauma‐informed social environments—programs, services, systems, communities—that offer responses to trauma that promote healing, recovery, and resilience. However, there is currently little empirical evidence to support the use of specific approaches to do so. Guided by a population health perspective, this paper describes a participatory community change process in response to ACEs that seeks to build a resilient, trauma‐informed community in Pottstown, PA. We examine the initial implementation phase of this change process, centered originally on the education sector and the social and behavioral health services sector, and then eventually expanding to 14 community sectors across two years. A variety of data sources and methods are used to track individual and organizational processes, as well as service system network processes. A central feature of this research is the use of data to generate hypotheses rather than test them. Data were also used to guide understanding and decision‐making during implementation. The results show that moving forward the community is well‐positioned to establish stronger inter‐agency and system supports for trauma‐informed practice in the service system and in the broader community. We discuss results for their implications for building resilient, trauma‐informed communities.     

Religious Experience,Development, and Diversity

Pastoral Psychology - Religious experience is a complex construct susceptible to various forms of influence. As religious experience is a very broad construct, this paper focuses primarily on one...     

Alternate Approaches to Understanding the Psychometric Properties of Assessment Centers: An analysis of the structure and equivalence of exercise ratings

The present study uses an alternate analytical framework to examine the degree to which performance is differentiated by dimensions in assessment center (AC) exercises and whether these performance dimensions are rated on the same scale across exercises. Confirmatory factor analysis likelihood ratio tests supported the presence of three broad latent performance dimensions in each of three AC exercises. Additional tests revealed that five of six manifest performance dimensions were rated on the same psychological scale across exercises. Taken together, our results support a multidimensional interpretation of AC exercises and provide empirical support to the notion that differences in AC performance across exercises reflect true performance, rather than a measurement artifact.     

Gadd45b knockout mice exhibit selective deficits in hippocampus-dependent long-term memory

Growth arrest and DNA damage-inducible β (Gadd45b) has been shown to be involved in DNA demethylation and may be important for cognitive processes. Gadd45b is abnormally expressed in subjects with autism and psychosis, two disorders associated with cognitive deficits. Furthermore, several high-throughput screens have identified Gadd45b as a candidate plasticity-related gene. However, a direct demonstration of a link between Gadd45b and memory has not been established. The current studies first determined whether expression of the Gadd45 family of genes was affected by contextual fear conditioning. Gadd45b, and to a lesser extent Gadd45g, were up-regulated in the hippocampus following contextual fear conditioning, whereas Gadd45a was not. Next, Gadd45b knockout mice were tested for contextual and cued fear conditioning. Gadd45b knockout mice exhibited a significant deficit in long-term contextual fear conditioning; however, they displayed normal levels of short-term contextual fear conditioning. No differences between Gadd45b knockout and wild-type mice were observed in cued fear conditioning. Because cued fear conditioning is hippocampus independent, while contextual fear conditioning is hippocampus dependent, the current studies suggest that Gadd45b may be important for long-term hippocampus-dependent memory storage. Therefore, Gadd45b may be a novel therapeutic target for the cognitive deficits associated with many neurodevelopmental, neurological, and psychiatric disorders.     

Standard Dominance Versus Creation of Interludes of Equalization of Power in the Psychoanalytic Situation: Discussion of Case Presentation by Joseph Newirth

Joseph Newirth tells us that it is his aim in the analytic work to facilitate a “symmetrical dialogue [that] involves an equalization of power, [and] a radical view of mutuality and of self-disclosure in the analytic relationship.” My thesis here is that the process falls short of that objective. Instead, it is characterized by an enactment in which the analyst is always dominant. Several examples of “power plays” are presented in which the analyst, in a manner partially institutionalized as standard psychoanalytic practice, repeatedly gains the upper hand in the analytic relationship. One important aspect of this enactment entails a systematic bias in favor of interpretations that attribute neurotic, primitive, or regressive motives to the patient at the expense of hearing and taking seriously the patient's more mature perceptions and judgments, including those focused on the analyst himself.     

Reconsidering the Equivalence of Multisource Performance Ratings: Evidence for the Importance and Meaning of Rater Factors

Purpose

The study specified an alternate model to examine the measurement invariance of multisource performance ratings (MSPRs) to systematically investigate the theoretical meaning of common method variance in the form of rater effects. As opposed to testing invariance based on a multigroup design with raters aggregated within sources, this study specified both performance dimension and idiosyncratic rater factors.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data was obtained from 5,278 managers from a wide range of organizations and hierarchical levels, who were rated on the BENCHMARKS^® MSPR instrument.

Findings

Our results diverged from prior research such that MSPRs were found to lack invariance for raters from different levels. However, same level raters provided equivalent ratings in terms of both the performance dimension loadings and rater factor loadings.

Implications

The results illustrate the importance of modeling rater factors when investigating invariance and suggest that rater factors reflect substantively meaningful variance, not bias.

Originality/Value

The current study applies an alternative model to examine invariance of MSPRs that allowed us to answer three questions that would not be possible with more traditional multigroup designs. First, the model allowed us to examine the impact of paramaterizing idiosyncratic rater factors on inferences of cross-rater invariance. Next, including multiple raters from each organizational level in the MSPR model allowed us to tease apart the degree of invariance in raters from the same source, relative to raters from different sources. Finally, our study allowed for inferences with respect to the invariance of idiosyncratic rater factors.     

Not Much More Than g? An Examination of the Impact of Intelligence on NFL Performance

The purpose of this study was to determine the efficiency and equity of general mental ability (GMA) in a nontraditional employment setting—professional football. The National Football League (NFL) uses a measure of GMA, the Wonderlic Personnel Test, to evaluate potential draftees in an assessment-style environment. A total of 762 NFL players, represented from three draft classes, were included in our sample. In terms of efficiency, results indicated that GMA was unrelated to (a) future NFL performance, (b) selection decisions during the NFL Draft, and (c) the number of games started in the NFL. In regards to equity, differential prediction analyses by race suggested only the existence of intercept bias. The implications of these findings to the NFL and the selection literature are further discussed.