Differential attentional allocation and subsequent recognition for young and older adult faces

Studies examining own-age recognition biases report inconsistent results and often utilize paradigms that present faces individually and in isolation. We investigated young and older adults' attention towards young and older faces during learning and whether differential attention influences recognition. Participants viewed complex scenes while their eye movements were recorded; each scene contained two young and two older faces. Half of the participants formed scene impressions and half prepared for a memory test. Participants then completed an old/new face recognition task. Both age groups looked longer at young than older faces; however, only young adults showed an own-age recognition advantage. Participants in the memory condition looked longer at faces but did not show enhanced recognition relative to the impressions condition. Overall, attention during learning did not influence recognition. Our results provide evidence for a young adult face bias in attentional allocation but suggest that longer looking does not necessarily indicate deeper encoding.     

Neuroethics,confidentiality, and a cultural imperative in early onset Alzheimer disease: a case study with a First Nation population

The meaningful consideration of cultural practices, values and beliefs is a necessary component in the effective translation of advancements in neuroscience to clinical practice and public discourse. Society’s immense investment in biomedical science and technology, in conjunction with an increasingly diverse socio-cultural landscape, necessitates the study of how potential discoveries in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease are perceived and utilized across cultures. Building on the work of neuroscientists, ethicists and philosophers, we argue that the growing field of neuroethics provides a pragmatic and constructive pathway to guide advancements in neuroscience in a manner that is culturally nuanced and relevant. Here we review a case study of one issue in culturally oriented neuroscience research where it is evident that traditional research ethics must be broadened and the values and needs of diverse populations considered for meaningful and relevant research practices. A global approach to neuroethics has the potential to furnish critical engagement with cultural considerations of advancements in neuroscience.     

Does the Chinese construct of guan export to the West?

This study reverses the usual process of assessing universality by examining whether a construct originating in non‐western cultures has functional relevance in the West. The construct of guan or “training” was proposed by Chao (1994) as reflecting important Chinese parenting practices also shared by other Confucian cultures. She proposed that this construct is more relevant to the understanding of outcomes among Asian‐American youth than constructs that have been developed in the West, such as “authoritative” parenting. The association among the behaviours incorporated in this construct and other “universal” parenting styles such as parental warmth has not been previously reported. Nor has there been a previous report of the prevalence and perceived desirability of guan behaviours from Western individuals. Participants in the present study were US (N = 118), Hong Kong (N = 171) and Pakistani (N = 98) nursing students. In all three cultures, guan items had adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas ranging from .69 to .76), associated positively with parental warmth (Pearsons' r ranging from .37 to .52), and were seen as attributes of ideal parents. Mothers in all three cultures were perceived as showing more guan than fathers show. The associations between parental guan and the outcomes of perceived health, relationship harmony and life satisfaction were significant for the Asian participants. Tests of guan's functional relevance in the West had equivocal results with weak associations to positive outcomes in the West compared to Asia. However, the differences between cultures did not reach statistical significance. When the cultures were merged, parental training perceptions predicted a significant proportion of the variance in outcomes. Mothers' guan predicted self‐esteem in their children, whereas fathers' guan predicted life satisfaction. Although guan may have emerged from a Chinese cultural context, it appears to function similarly in many cultural systems, and may represent the Asian face of authoritative parenting.     

A Defining Presidential Moment: 9/11 and the Rally Effect

Public approval ratings of George W. Bush surged after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. This study used a quasi–experimental, within–respondents design to investigate the relative contribution of five factors to this classic rally effect: the stimulus event itself, Bush's speech that evening, media exposure, partisan support, and gender effects. Respondents were pretested on the morning of the attacks; one group was posttested immediately after the speech, another group 41 hours later. Stability of effects was examined through an additional study of Bush's 20 September 2001 speech to a joint session of Congress. The findings indicate that Bush's 11 September speech was the critical factor in this rally effect; none of the other factors contributed significantly.     

MAKING COMMITMENTS, CREATING LIVES

This study examined the midlife personality implications of different long-term patterns of commitment to work¹ and family in a sample of educated women. Women with different work commitment patterns differed on both observer and self-report of instrumentality, and on observer report of interpersonal orientation and valuation of social norms. Women with different family-role commitment patterns differed only on self-report of valuation of social norms. Multivariate analyses also indicated that interpersonal orientation and instrumentality may not represent bipolar ends of the same personality continuum, and that interpersonal orientation as a broad personality domain may be comprised of distinct qualities (i.e., warmth vs. dependence). Taken together, these findings imply that when variations in the nature of women's work and family commitments are taken into account, a more comprehensive understanding of the similarities and differences in their personalities can result.     

Space flight: III. Isolation of perceptual variable in parabola flight sickness with countermeasure to lower gastric pH

Two factors of space sickness are discussed, one perceptual and the other physiological. Data from 2 adults on KC-135 airplane parabolic flights.