Illusions of brightness, length, and now size: comparable effects derived from the Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet distributions

Analogous illusions of brightness, line length, and object size occur when stimulus distributions follow the Mach function. Similarly, analogous illusions of brightness and length are produced by stimulus distributions that follow the Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet function. In Exp. 1, object size is studied using Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet stimuli composed of 12 clip-art representations of candles, swords, forks, screwdrivers, or pens. Despite their equal dimensions, the three objects next to the taller gradient were judged larger than the three adjacent to the shorter gradient. In Exp. 2, variations of the sword and screwdriver figures having three separations of their constituent objects were used. The illusion produced in Exp. 1 was replicated and, for the figures composed of screwdrivers, increasing separation reduced the hypothesized mis-estimations. The relationship of these Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet size illusions to their brightness and length counterparts mirrors the relationships previously reported for Mach stimuli; moreover, these findings converge to suggest that the visual system registers size of objects with a frequency code and that illusions of size appear when interactions among neurons disrupt this code.     

‘Sometimes,it's not just about the food': The social identity dynamics of foodbank helping transactions

Food insecurity in developed countries has increased rapidly. Research has suggested that stigma may inhibit food-aid help-seeking, but has failed to determine how such barriers might be overcome. Adopting a social identity perspective, this study explored the processes involved in food-aid helping transactions and sought to identify conditions that facilitate positive helping outcomes. Interviews were conducted with 18 clients and 12 volunteers at two English foodbanks, and a theoretically guided thematic analysis was conducted. Two primary themes were identified: ‘Here to Help’ and ‘The Legitimate Recipient’. This article offers a distinct and novel contribution by applying a social identity perspective to foodbank helping transactions, thereby demonstrating how group dynamics and behaviours are integral to these interactions, and by moving beyond the typical ‘Social Curse’ focus on barriers to help-seeking to explore how such obstacles may be overcome. Suggestions for addressing stigma-laden helping transactions and promoting successful delivery of aid are provided.     

Confusing hope and optimism when prospects are good: A matter of language pragmatics or conceptual equivalence?

Motivation and Emotion - In psychology, the concepts of hope and optimism are often treated interchangeably or not clearly delineated from each other. We argue that hope and optimism are...     

The effect of the length of to-be-remembered lists and intervening lists on free recall: a reexamination using overt rehearsal

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated the effects of to-be-remembered (TBR) and intervening list length on free recall to determine whether selective rehearsal could explain the previous finding that recall was affected only by TBR list length. In Experiments 1 (covert rehearsal) and 2 (overt rehearsal), participants saw 5- and 20-word lists and had to recall the list prior to that last presented list. In Experiment 3, either 1 or 2 lists were presented, and recall of TBR list was postcued. Recall proportion decreased with increased TBR list length. Moreover, the authors found extended recency effects when recall was replotted by when words were last rehearsed (Experiments 2 and 3) and an effect of intervening list length when rehearsal was reduced (Experiment 3).     

Lesion analysis of the brain areas involved in language comprehension

The cortical regions of the brain traditionally associated with the comprehension of language are Wernicke's area and Broca's area. However, recent evidence suggests that other brain regions might also be involved in this complex process. This paper describes the opportunity to evaluate a large number of brain-injured patients to determine which lesioned brain areas might affect language comprehension. Sixty-four chronic left hemisphere stroke patients were evaluated on 11 subtests of the Curtiss-Yamada Comprehensive Language Evaluation - Receptive (CYCLE-R; Curtiss, S., & Yamada, J. (1988). Curtiss-Yamada Comprehensive Language Evaluation. Unpublished test, UCLA). Eight right hemisphere stroke patients and 15 neurologically normal older controls also participated. Patients were required to select a single line drawing from an array of three or four choices that best depicted the content of an auditorily-presented sentence. Patients' lesions obtained from structural neuroimaging were reconstructed onto templates and entered into a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM; Bates, E., Wilson, S., Saygin, A. P., Dick, F., Sereno, M., Knight, R. T., & Dronkers, N. F. (2003). Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping. Nature Neuroscience, 6(5), 448-450.) analysis along with the behavioral data. VLSM is a brain-behavior mapping technique that evaluates the relationships between areas of injury and behavioral performance in all patients on a voxel-by-voxel basis, similar to the analysis of functional neuroimaging data. Results indicated that lesions to five left hemisphere brain regions affected performance on the CYCLE-R, including the posterior middle temporal gyrus and underlying white matter, the anterior superior temporal gyrus, the superior temporal sulcus and angular gyrus, mid-frontal cortex in Brodmann's area 46, and Brodmann's area 47 of the inferior frontal gyrus. Lesions to Broca's and Wernicke's areas were not found to significantly alter language comprehension on this particular measure. Further analysis suggested that the middle temporal gyrus may be more important for comprehension at the word level, while the other regions may play a greater role at the level of the sentence. These results are consistent with those seen in recent functional neuroimaging studies and offer complementary data in the effort to understand the brain areas underlying language comprehension.     

Salamanders (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Plethodon cinereus</Emphasis>) go for more: rudiments of number in an amphibian

Techniques traditionally used in developmental research with infants have been widely used with nonhuman primates in the investigation of comparative cognitive abilities. Recently, researchers have shown that human infants and monkeys select the larger of two numerosities in a spontaneous forced-choice discrimination task. Here we adopt the same method to assess in a series of experiments spontaneous choice of the larger of two numerosities in a species of amphibian, red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus). The findings indicate that salamanders "go for more," just like human babies and monkeys. This rudimentary capacity is a type of numerical discrimination that is spontaneously present in this amphibian. Electronic Publication     

Perceptions of Social Support in Men with AIDS and ARC: Relationships with Distress and Hardiness1

Previous research has suggested that social support may act as a buffer against stress or in other ways may affect physiological adjustment, health, longevity, and sense of well-being. Perceptions of social support in persons newly diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and AIDS-related Complex (ARC) were examined as a part of an ongoing longitudinal study. Social support was examined in terms of emotionally-sustaining and problem-solving types of help, based on Gottlieb's content analysis of informal helping behaviors. Representative examples of each of the four major categories of help were assessed in terms of their perceived desirability, availability, frequency of use, and usefulness if used. These social support data were then examined in relation to other behavioral, cognitive, affective, and medical indices. For persons with AIDS only, increased physical distress was associated with perceiving less availability of support. For both persons with AIDS and ARC, the more available social support was perceived to be, the less hopelessness and depression were reported. While all types of help were rated as desirable by both persons with AIDS and ARC, emotionally-sustaining types of help were rated as more desirable, more available, more frequently used, and more useful when used than were problem-solving types of help. Social support measures were most consistently and strongly correlated with the Commitment subscale of Kobasa's Hardiness Scale.     

A visual representation and the control of manual aiming movements

Three experiments were conducted to determine if a representation of the movement environment is functional in the organization and control of limb movements, when direct visual contact with the environment is prevented. In Experiment 1, a visual rearrangement procedure was employed to show that a representation of the environment that provides inaccurate information about the spatial location of a target can disrupt manual target aiming. In Experiment 2, we demonstrated that spatial information about the position of a target can be destroyed by a visual pattern mask, supporting our claim that the representation is visual. A target-cuing procedure was used in Experiment 3 to show that representation of target position can be useful for premovement organization in a target-aiming task. Together our findings suggest that a short-lived visual representation of the movement environment may serve a useful role in the organization and control of limb movements.     

Child witnesses to violence between parents: Critical issues in Behavioral and social adjustment

This study examined the impact of exposure to family violence on children's adjustment. Two groups of residents of shelters for battered women (current and former residents) were compared to a nonviolent control group. All three groups of mothers completed interviews and selfreport questionnaires related to both their own and their children's adjustment. Children recently witnessing violence tended to have the lowest levels of social competence ratings, and their mothers reported the most health and emotional difficulties. Former residents of shelters experienced the highest level of family/social disadvantage. The results are discussed in the context of previous research findings, and implications for intervention programs are outlined.This research was supported by a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Service and the Ontario Mental Health Foundation. The authors wish to thank the staff of transition houses in Cambridge, Catham, Guelph, Kitchener, Sarnia, and Woodstock for their generous support of this project.     

Sleep Problems and Separation Anxiety in Preschool-Aged Children: A Path Analysis

Sleep problems occur frequently in young children, possibly causing detrimental effects on their development. Parental marital difficulties are known to put a burden on children’s sleep and adjustment. However, research concerning the relation between the parental relationship quality and children’s sleep difficulties is rare for preschool-aged children. This study aims to fill in the gap. Initially, caregivers of 94 preschoolers (41 girls and 53 boys, aged 2–6 years) filled in questionnaires providing information on their children’s sleep and anxiety as well as on their own sleep and relationship quality. A path model approach was used to examine two competing theoretical models linking these factors. The conducted path analysis indicated that children’s separation anxiety, β = ?.134, p = .017, as well as their anxiety in general, β = ?.177, p = .024, partially mediated the relation between the parental relationship quality and children’s sleep problems. Parental sleep problems correlated with the relationship quality, r = ?.371, p = .030, but had no significant influence on children’s sleep. The results of our study suggest that children growing up with parents who state a low relationship quality might thus be concerned about the stability of their family system. As a result children’s sleep quality might be compromised due to irritation and feelings of insecurity. The study highlights the importance of the parental relationship as an influence factor in children’s sleep quality.