The priming of face recognition after metric transformations

Four experiments were performed to test whether the perceptual priming of face recognition would show invariance to changes in size, position, reflectional orientation (mirror reversal), and picture-plane rotation. In all experiments, subjects recognized faces in two blocks of trials; in the second block, some of the faces were identical to those in the first, and others had undergone metric transformations. The results show that subjects were equally fast to recognize faces whether or not the faces had changed in size, position, or reflectional orientation between the first and second presentations of the faces. In contrast, subjects were slower to recognize both faces and objects when they were planar-rotated between the first and second presentations. The results suggest that the same metric invariances are shown by both face recognition and basic-level object recognition.     

Gesture is at the cutting edge of early language development

Children who produce one word at a time often use gesture to supplement their speech, turning a single word into an utterance that conveys a sentence-like meaning ('eat'+point at cookie). Interestingly, the age at which children first produce supplementary gesture-speech combinations of this sort reliably predicts the age at which they first produce two-word utterances. Gesture thus serves as a signal that a child will soon be ready to begin producing multi-word sentences. The question is what happens next. Gesture could continue to expand a child's communicative repertoire over development, combining with words to convey increasingly complex ideas. Alternatively, after serving as an opening wedge into language, gesture could cease its role as a forerunner of linguistic change. We addressed this question in a sample of 40 typically developing children, each observed at 14, 18, and 22 months. The number of supplementary gesture-speech combinations the children produced increased significantly from 14 to 22 months. More importantly, the types of supplementary combinations the children produced changed over time and presaged changes in their speech. Children produced three distinct constructions across the two modalities several months before these same constructions appeared entirely within speech. Gesture thus continues to be at the cutting edge of early language development, providing stepping-stones to increasingly complex linguistic constructions.     

Lateralization of squamous cell carcinomas in the head-neck region

Earlier studies have shown the lateralization of several immune disorders, including herpes zoster infection and breast cancer. We investigated whether there is lateralization of squamous cell carcinomas in the head-neck region and a relation of handedness with this cancer. Analysis showed right-sided lateralization of head-heck cancers in right-handed patients and vice versa in left-handed ones and a higher rate of left-handedness in patients with squamous cell cancer. Associations among left-handedness, squamous cell carcinoma, and its lateralization may result from a genetic togetherness.     

Getting the Big Picture in Community Science: Methods That Capture Context

Community science has a rich tradition of using theories and research designs that are consistent with its core value of contextualism. However, a survey of empirical articles published in the American Journal of Community Psychology shows that community scientists utilize a narrow range of statistical tools that are not well suited to assess contextual data. Multilevel modeling, geographic information systems (GIS), social network analysis, and cluster analysis are recommended as useful tools to address contextual questions in community science. An argument for increased methodological consilience is presented, where community scientists are encouraged to adopt statistical methodology that is capable of modeling a greater proportion of the data than is typical with traditional methods.     

Boundary extension: the role of magnification, object size, context, and binocular information

Boundary extension is a tendency to remember close-up scenes as if they extended beyond the occluding boundaries. The authors explored the contributing factors using brief retention intervals and computer-generated images. Boundary extension turns out to be more complex than previously thought and is not linked to the effects of image magnification and field-of-view changes. Although this is consistent with the idea that boundary extension is the product of the activation of a mental schema that provides information of what is likely to exist outside the picture boundaries, the authors also found that properties of the object at the center of the picture can affect boundary extension independently of the information at the boundaries. In a test of boundary extension using stereograms, the effect does not seem to depend on amount of perceived depth, suggesting a weaker link to perception of space than previously hypothesized.     

A study of 60- to 89-mo.-old children's skill at writing numerals

The skill of writing numerals necessitates a certain developmental maturity. Studying the age at which children start to develop this skill and assessing problems they encounter while writing numerals should give direction to their training. From 8 schools a total of 267 children, ages 60 to 89 mo., were asked to write the numerals 1 to 9. Analysis showed that 80% of the children wrote most of the numerals correctly, 15% wrote inverted numerals, 2.0% wrote some numerals as letters, and 4% did not write certain numerals at all. In addition, 64% of children ages 60 to 65 mo. gave correct responses, and the perception of correct responses increased across age groups until 95% were correct in the group who were 84 to 89 mo. There was no significant difference between girls and boys in these writing skills.     

Quality of life assessment in Turkish patients with schizophrenia and their relatives

Quality of life of first-degree relatives living in the same household with patients having schizophrenia has not been sufficiently explored. 30 patients with schizophrenia (16 women, 14 men), diagnosed using DSM-IV criteria, 31 of their relatives (15 women, 16 men), and 34 control subjects (21 women, 13 men) were included in the study. The mean age of the patients, their relatives, and the control subects were 39.8 +/- 10.9, 58.1 +/- 12.5 and 37.3 +/- 17.0, respectively. The World Health Oranization Quality of Life-Brief Form was administered to all subjects. Quality of life was worse for the patient group than for their relatives and control subjects, but relatives of the patients and control subjects were not significantly different on Quality of life. Quality of life was negatively correlated with the severity of psychopathology and extrapyramidal side effects induced by antipsychotic drugs in the patients.     

The relationship of self-concept and perceived athletic competence to physical activity level and gender among Turkish early adolescents

The purpose of this study was to examine the self-concept and perceived athletic competence of Turkish early adolescents in relation to physical activity level and gender. Self-concept was assessed using the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, and perceived athletic competence was assessed by means of the Athletic Competence subscale of Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Children. In addition, the Weekly Activity Checklist was used for assessing physical activity level. Males and females were assigned to low and high physical activity level groups based on their mean scores. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant main effects for gender and physical activity level, but there was no significant gender by physical activity interaction. Univariate analysis demonstrated a significant main effect for physical activity level on perceived athletic competence but not global self-concept. In addition, univariate analysis did not reveal a significant difference in either global self-concept or perceived athletic competence with respect to gender.     

Oscillatory brain dynamics, wavelet analysis, and cognition

On the basis of a systems theoretical approach it was hypothesized that event-related potentials (ERPs) are superpositions of stimulus-evoked and time-locked EEG rhythms reflecting resonance properties of the brain (Ba?ar, 1980). This approach led to frequency analysis of ERPs as a way of analyzing evoked rhythms. The present article outlines the basic features of ERP frequency analysis in comparison to ERP wavelet analysis, a recently introduced method of time-frequency analysis. Both methods were used in an investigation of the functional correlates of evoked rhythms where auditory and visual ERPs were recorded from the cat brain. Intracranial electrodes were located in the primary auditory cortex and in the primary visual cortex thus permitting "cross-modality" experiments. Responses to adequate stimulation (e.g., visual ERP recorded from the visual cortex) were characterized by high amplitude alpha (8-16 Hz) responses which were not observed for inadequate stimulation. This result is interpreted as a hint at a special role of alpha responses in primary sensory processing. The results of frequency analysis and of wavelet analysis were quite similar, with possible advantages of wavelet methods for single-trial analysis. The results of frequency analysis as performed earlier were thus confirmed by wavelet analysis. This supports the view that ERP frequency components correspond to evoked rhythms with a distinct biological significance.