Visual crowding: a fundamental limit on conscious perception and object recognition

Crowding, the inability to recognize objects in clutter, sets a fundamental limit on conscious visual perception and object recognition throughout most of the visual field. Despite how widespread and essential it is to object recognition, reading and visually guided action, a solid operational definition of what crowding is has only recently become clear. The goal of this review is to provide a broad-based synthesis of the most recent findings in this area, to define what crowding is and is not, and to set the stage for future work that will extend our understanding of crowding well beyond low-level vision. Here we define six diagnostic criteria for what counts as crowding, and further describe factors that both escape and break crowding. All of these lead to the conclusion that crowding occurs at multiple stages in the visual hierarchy.     

Neurocognitive functioning of preschool children with uncomplicated epilepsy

Only few studies are available on the cognitive functioning of preschool children with uncomplicated epilepsy. The aim of this study was to describe the neurocognitive functioning of 3–6-year-old children with uncomplicated epilepsy. A subgroup of children with uncomplicated epilepsy from a population based cohort of preschool children with active epilepsy (N = 64) participated in the study. The neurocognitive functioning of these children (N = 13) was compared to that of matched healthy controls (N = 13). The Wechsler's Primary and Preschool Scale of Intelligence - Revised and the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment were administered. The intellectual functioning of the children with uncomplicated epilepsy was within normal range, but differed significantly from that of healthy controls, which was contrary to expectations. Statistically significant differences emerged between the study and the control group in Verbal IQ and Full Scale IQ, but no differences were found in Performance IQ. The children with uncomplicated epilepsy also had minor neurocognitive difficulties in verbal short-term memory (p <.01) compared to healthy children. The result suggests that uncomplicated epilepsy in preschool children may interfere with language and verbal short-term memory functions. Further studies with detailed neuropsychological assessments and follow-up time are needed to gain more insight into the developmental course of children with uncomplicated epilepsy. Also, because of the developmental risks reported in this study, psychological screening and detailed neuropsychological assessment are recommended in clinical practice.     

Dynamic time warping: a new method in the study of poor handwriting

Poor handwriting is a diagnostic criterion for developmental coordination disorder. Typical of poor handwriting is its low overall quality and the high variability of the spatial characteristics of the letters, usually assessed with a subjective handwriting scale. Recently, Dynamic Time Warping (DTW), a technique originally developed for speech recognition, was introduced for pattern recognition in handwriting. The present study evaluates its application to analyze poor handwriting. Forty children attending Dutch mainstream primary schools were recruited and based on their scores on the Concise Evaluation Scale for Children's Handwriting (Dutch abbreviation: BHK), 20 good and 20 poor writers (of whom 13 were scheduled for handwriting intervention) were identified. The groups were matched for age (7-9 years), school grade (grades 2 and 3) and handedness. The children subsequently wrote sequences of the letter "a" on a graphics tablet in three conditions (normal, fast, and accurate). Classical kinematics were obtained and for each individual letter DTW was used to calculate the distance from the mean shape. The DTW data revealed much higher variability in the letter forms of the poor writers that was independent of the kinematic results of larger trajectories, faster movements, and higher pen pressure. The current results suggest that DTW is a valid and objective technique for letter-form analysis in handwriting and may hence be useful to evaluate the rehabilitation treatments of children suffering from poor handwriting. In education research it may be exploited to explore how children (should) learn to write.     

Attribution bias: On the inconclusiveness of the cognition-motivation debate

Social psychologists have given considerable theoretical and research attention to whether motivational variables bias the attributions people make for behavior. Some theorists maintain that motivational constructs must be invoked to explain certain attributional phenomena; other theorists maintain that information-processing variables can adequately explain these phenomena. The present article critically examines existing cognitive and motivational approaches to attribution and analyzes the assumptions underlying the cognition-motivation debate. We argue that cognitive and motivational theories are currently empirically indistinguishable. In particular, its is possible to construct information-processing explanations for virtually all evidence for motivated bias. We conclude by examining the implications of this indeterminacy of cognitive and motivational explanations. Future research in the area can most profitably be addressed to improving the specificity of cognitive and motivational theories rather than to resolving the between-theory confrontation.     

Parental Perceptions of Separating Children

Newer models of familial interaction emphasize the importance of parental perceptions of the child as determinants for his self-image and interpersonal functioning. This paper examines this issue in detail as it bears on the developmental phase of separation and individuation in adolescence.     

A Polyvocal Body

This essay aims to elucidate how multiple voices and traditions should interact with one another in the practice of ethics. First, it explores some of the major ways in which questions of bodily autonomy function in secular feminist and Jewish bioethical discourses. It then uses case studies to illuminate ways each discourse's concepts of bodily autonomy can be deeply problematic, and argues that the strengths in each discourse can serve as important correctives for the weaknesses in the other. It suggests that some formal features of rabbinic texts can serve as a model for a discourse of constant and animated mutual correction. Finally, it examines two case studies in light of this model.     

A Puzzle about Knowing Conditionals

We present a puzzle about knowledge, probability and conditionals. We show that in certain cases some basic and plausible principles governing our reasoning come into conflict. In particular, we show that there is a simple argument that a person may be in a position to know a conditional the consequent of which has a low probability conditional on its antecedent, contra Adams’ Thesis. We suggest that the puzzle motivates a very strong restriction on the inference of a conditional from a disjunction.