“Ghosts in the Nursery:” Infant sleep and sleep‐related cognitions of parents raised under communal sleeping arrangements

In an experiment of nature, a normal cohort of parents who were raised under communal sleeping arrangements (CSA) in Israeli kibbutzim are raising their infants at home under home‐based family sleeping arrangements. The present study focused on exploring the links between the early sleep experiences of CSA parents and their present sleep‐related beliefs and behaviors. In particular, the study assessed whether the cognitions of CSA parents regarding infant sleep differ from cognitions of parents who were raised under home‐based family sleeping arrangements. Furthermore, parental soothing methods and infant sleep patterns were compared. One hundred forty‐one families participated in this study. The children's ages ranged between 4.5 to 30 months. Parental cognitions were evaluated by two questionnaires. Infant sleep was assessed by a questionnaire and by daily parental reports. As expected, CSA parents were more likely than were control parents to: (a) interpret infant night wakings as a sign of distress and (b) actively soothe their infants at bedtime, co‐sleep with them, and report more night wakings of their infants. These findings support the hypothesis that early childhood sleep‐related experiences of parents (“Ghosts in the Nursery”) influence their parental sleep‐related cognitions that in turn affect infant sleep patterns.     

Integrating haptic-tactile feedback into a video-capture-based virtual environment for rehabilitation.

Video-capture virtual reality (VR) systems are gaining popularity as intervention tools. To date, these platforms offer visual and audio feedback but do not provide haptic feedback. We contend that adding haptic feedback may enhance the quality of intervention for various theoretical and empirical reasons. This study aims to integrate haptic-tactile feedback into a video capture system (GX VR), which is currently applied for rehabilitation. The proposed multi-modal system can deliver audio-visual as well as vibrotactile feedback. The latter is provided via small vibratory discs attached to the patient's limbs. This paper describes the system, the guidelines of its design, and the ongoing usability study.     

The development of memory for own- and other-race faces

This study demonstrates that experience and development interact to influence the "cross-race effect." In a multination study (n=245), Caucasian children and adults of European ancestry living in the United States, Norway, or South Africa, as well as biracial (Caucasian-African American) children and adults living in the United States, were tested for recognition of Asian, African, and Caucasian faces. Regardless of national or biracial background, 8- to 10-year-olds, 12- to 14-year-olds, and adults recognized own-race faces more accurately than other-race faces, and did so to a similar extent, whereas 5- to 7-year-olds recognized all face types equally well. This same developmental pattern emerged for biracial children and adults. Thus, early meaningful exposure did not substantially alter the developmental trajectory. During young childhood, developmental influences on face processing operate on a system sufficiently plastic to preclude, under certain conditions, the cross-race effect.     

Equality in the division of household labor: a comparative study of Jewish women and Arab Muslim women in Israel

In this study, the author compared perceptions of gender-based equality in the division of household labor among Jewish women (n = 60) and Arab Muslim women (n = 62) from dual-earner families in Israel. Guided by theories regarding the division of household labor, the author also explored the impact of 3 sets of variables--resources, gender-role attitudes, and job flexibility (flextime)--on perceived equality in the division of household labor. The findings revealed that the Jewish women tended to perceive the division of household labor as more egalitarian than did their Arab Muslim counterparts. Furthermore, the Jewish women had more egalitarian gender-role attitudes and more job flexibility than did the Arab Muslim women. However, all 3 sets of variables predicted perceived equality in the division of household labor to the same extent for both groups of women. Moreover, for both groups, education level correlated with attitudes toward household labor and with extent of job flexibility. Overall, the findings suggest that education may contribute to improving women's quality of life in both traditional and modem sociocultural contexts.     

Repetition blindness: The survival of the grouped

The repetition blindness (RB) effect demonstrates that people often fail to detect the second presentation of an identical object (e.g., Kanwisher, 1987). Grouping of identical items is a well-documented perceptual phenomenon, and this grouping generally facilitates perception. These two effects pose a puzzle: RB impairs perception, while perceptual grouping improves it. Here, we combined these two effects and studied how they interact. In a series of three experiments, we presented repeated items in a simultaneous string, while manipulating the organization of the repeated items in groups within a string. We observed an interaction between RB and grouping that we summarize with a rule that we call “the survival of the grouped”: In essence, the ability to group repeated elements protects them from RB. These findings are discussed within the framework of the object file theory.     

New data analysis of the stroop matching task calls for a reevaluation of theory

In Stroop matching tasks, participants indicate whether the color of an object matches the meaning of a color word printed in color. Previously in this journal, Luo (1999) concluded that interference between two incongruent representations of the same attribute (ink color) occurs prior to the response stage. However, this conclusion was based on questionable data analysis. We suggest analyzing the data by separating "same" and "different" responses and then analyzing three congruency conditions within the "different" responses: (a) congruence between word color and word meaning, (b) congruence between word color and object color, and (c) incongruence between word color, word meaning, and object color. In an experiment similar to Luo's, such an analysis revealed that responding was slowest in the first condition. This pattern of results does not fit with previous conclusions regarding this task, but rather indicates that task conflict and response competition contribute to interference. This analysis has implications for matching tasks other than the Stroop matching task.     

Transient spatial attention degrades temporal resolution

To better understand the interplay between the temporal and spatial components of visual perception, we studied the effects of transient spatial attention on temporal resolution. Given that spatial attention sharpens spatial resolution, can it also affect temporal resolution? To assess temporal resolution, we measured the two-flash fusion threshold When two flashes of light are presented successively to the same location, the two-flash fusion threshold is the minimal interval between the flashes at which they are still perceived as two flashes, rather than a single flash. This assessment of temporal resolution was combined with peripheral precuing--a direct manipulation of transient spatial attention. This allowed us to demonstrate, for the first time, that spatial attention can indeed affect temporal resolution. However, in contrast to its effect on spatial resolution, spatial attention degrades temporal resolution. Two attentional mechanisms that could account for both attentional effects--enhanced spatial resolution and reduced temporal resolution--are discussed.     

Children's Gender Orientation and Perceptions of Female,Male, and Gender-Ambiguous Animal Characters

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of preadolescent children's gender orientation on their social perception of animal characters whose gender was clearly female, clearly male, or gender-ambiguous. Nine- to 12-year-old middle-class Israeli children who had completed a Hebrew version of Boldizar's scale for gender orientation in children assigned gender to the animal characters and indicated their degree of liking for them. Children's gender orientation did not influence their perceptions of the gender of animal characters that are clearly female and clearly male, but did impact on their perceptions of the gender of ambiguous animal characters. Second, children's liking for animal characters of different apparent gender interacted with gender orientation such that children with an androgynous gender orientation did not evidence differential liking of animal characters on the basis of their apparent gender. Children's liking of the animal characters was only partly mediated by their perceptions of the gender of these animal characters. Finally, gender orientation interacted with gender in determining degree of liking for the animal characters. The findings are discussed in terms of the impact of gender stereotyping in social perception.     

The cause of the within-language Stroop superiority effect and its implications

This study examines the causes for the within-language Stroop superiority effect (WLSSE; larger Stroop effect for words appearing in the response language than in another language). Participants named in their first language (L1) or second language (L2) the colour of colour-words or colour-associated words appearing in L1 or in L2. The WLSSE was limited for colour-words. It was concluded that for colour-words, the cause for the WLSSE is that words appearing in the within-language condition belong to the response set, whereas words in the between-language condition do not. This finding challenges previous suggestions that a nonrelevant stimulus language can be suppressed.