Region-based shielding of visual search from salient distractors: Target detection is impaired with same- but not different-dimension distractors

Shielding visual search against interference from salient distractors becomes more efficient over time for display regions where distractors appear more frequently, rather than only rarely Goschy, Bakos, Müller, & Zehetleitner (Frontiers in Psychology 5: 1195, 2014). We hypothesized that the locus of this learned distractor probability-cueing effect depends on the dimensional relationship of the to-be-inhibited distractor relative to the to-be-attended target. If the distractor and target are defined in different visual dimensions (e.g., a color-defined distractor and orientation-defined target, as in Goschy et al. (Frontiers in Psychology 5: 1195, 2014), distractors may be efficiently suppressed by down-weighting the feature contrast signals in the distractor-defining dimension Zehetleitner, Goschy, & Müller (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 38: 941–957, 2012), with stronger down-weighting being applied to the frequent- than to the rare-distractor region. However, given dimensionally coupled feature contrast signal weighting (cf. Müller J, Heller & Ziegler (Perception & Psychophysics 57:1–17, 1995), this dimension-(down-)weighting strategy would not be effective when the target and the distractors are defined within the same dimension. In this case, suppression may operate differently: by inhibiting the entire frequent-distractor region on the search-guiding master saliency map. The downside of inhibition at this level is that, although it reduces distractor interference in the inhibited (frequent-distractor) region, it also impairs target processing in that region—even when no distractor is actually present in the display. This predicted qualitative difference between same- and different-dimension distractors was confirmed in the present study (with 184 participants), thus furthering our understanding of the functional architecture of search guidance, especially regarding the mechanisms involved in shielding search from the interference of distractors that consistently occur in certain display regions.

     

Psychometric properties of the Hawaiian Culture Scale--Adolescent Version

This article reports on the psychometric properties of a newly constructed Hawaiian Culture Scale--Adolescent Version. A total of 2,272 Native Hawaiian and 1,170 non-Hawaiian adolescents were administered this 50-item inventory that measures the source of learning the Hawaiian way of life, how much Hawaiian beliefs are valued and important to maintain, how much non-Hawaiian beliefs are valued, Hawaiian blood quantum, and specific cultural traditions (seven subscales = Lifestyles, Customs. Activities, Folklore, Causes-Locations, Causes-Access, and Language Proficiency). The results strongly supported the internal consistency and validity of the measures for both the Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian groups. On the basis of the demographic data, partial support was offered for cross-cultural theories of ethnic identity. More consistent support was found for multiculturalism in Hawai'i's adolescents. Further research is needed to link these measures with indicators of psychological adjustment (e.g., depression, anxiety, substance use).     

Cross Talk Between Native and Second Languages: Partial Activation of an Irrelevant Lexicon

Bilingualism provides a unique opportunity for exploring hypotheses about how the human brain encodes language. For example, the "input switch" theory states that bilinguals can deactivate one language module while using the other. A new measure of spoken language comprehension, headband-mounted eyetracking, allows a firm test of this theory. When given spoken instructions to pick up an object, in a monolingual session, late bilinguals looked briefly at a distractor object whose name in the irrelevant language was initially phonetically similar to the spoken word more often than they looked at a control distractor object. This result indicates some overlap between the two languages in bilinguals, and provides support for parallel, interactive accounts of spoken word recognition in general.     

Interventions with video feedback and attachment discussions: Does type of maternal insecurity make a difference?

Parents' insecure representations of attachment are associated with lower parental sensitivity and insecure infant–parent attachment relationships, leading to less optimal conditions for the children's socio-emotional development. Therefore, two types of short-term intervention were implemented in a group of lower middle-class mothers with an insecure representation of attachment as assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview. In one group of mothers, the intervention efforts were directed at promoting maternal sensitivity by means of written information about sensitive parenting and personal video feedback. In the other group, additional discussions about the mothers' early attachment experiences took place, aiming at affecting the mothers' attachment representation. The interventions were implemented during four home visits between the 7th and the 10th month after the baby's birth. Preliminary results on 30 mothers pointed at an intervention effect: Mothers in both intervention groups were more sensitive at 13 months than mothers in a control group, t(28) = −2.3, effect size d = .87, p = .01. Mothers who were classified as insecure dismissing tended to profit most from video feedback, whereas mothers who were classified as insecure preoccupied tended to profit most from video feedback with additional discussions about their childhood attachment experiences, F(1,16) = 1.9, d = .65, p = .19. © 1998 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

MacIntyre on Tradition,Rationality, and Relativism

MacIntyre’s critique of liberalism relies crucially on a distinctive moral particularism, for which morality and rationality are fundamentally tradition-constituted. In light of this, some have detected in his work a moral relativism, radically in tension with his endorsement of a Thomist universalism. I dispute this reading, arguing instead that MacIntyre is a consistent universalist who pays due attention to the moral-epistemic importance of traditions. Analysing his teleological understanding of rational enquiry, I argue that this approach shows how it is possible, dialectically, to reconcile the particularity of our starting-points with the assertion of universal truths. What MacIntyre offers, I contend, is a moral universalism that avoids the pitfalls of its liberal counterpart, and invites an important meta-theoretical shift with respect to the scope for toleration and social critique and toleration in contemporary pluralist society.     

Equivalencies regarding the measurement and constructs of self-esteem and major life events in an Asian/Pacific islander sample

Construct, scalar, and functional measurement equivalencies of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and Major Life Events checklist (MLE) and the constructs assessed were investigated across groups differentiated on Hawaiian/part-Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian (e.g., Caucasian, Filipino, Hispanic, Japanese, and mixed/2 or more) ethnicity and gender. Initial results from maximum likelihood factoring with promax rotation showed that RSES negatively worded Item 5 loaded with the positively worded Items 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7 on 1 of 2 factors for Hawaiian/part-Hawaiian female participants. Similarly, negatively worded Item 8 and the same positively worded items comprised 1 of 2 factors for non-Hawaiian male participants. For the other 2 Ethnicity x Gender groups, factors were respectively comprised of the 5 positively and 5 negatively worded RSES items. Construct equivalence or simple (2-factor) structure underlying the RSES was indicated across the 4 groups after Items 5 and 8 were excluded from a subsequent factoring procedure. Simple structure showed that Factor 1 comprised the positively worded Items 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7, and the remaining negatively worded Items 3, 9, and 10 loaded on Factor 2. Scalar equivalence of the self-esteem and major life events measures was supported by the statistical nonsignificance of the Major Life Events x Ethnicity x Gender interaction effect in multiple regression models. The consistency in the absolute size and direction of the intercorrelations between overall self-esteem, self-esteem Factors 1 and 2, and major life events variables indicated the functional equivalence of respective measures and constructs assessed. Measurement equivalency findings concerning the RSES and MLE, the constructs measured, and their utility versus caution against their use in multiethnic studies were discussed.     

The Cleveland Scale for Activities of Daily Living (CSADL): Its Reliability and Validity

This study evaluated the reliability and validity of the Cleveland Scale for Activities of Daily Living (CSADL), a scale designed to measure in detail specific activities of daily living in individuals with dementia. Administered to knowledgeable informants by trained examiners, the CSADL demonstrated good reliability in terms of interrater agreement and internal consistency. The validity of CSADL total scores was shown by its sensitivity to degree of cognitive impairment: All comparisons between means of the healthy elderly group and three groups of AD patients differing in severity were statistically significant. The CSADL was highly correlated with the Blessed–Roth Dementia Scale (DS-ADL) and more highly correlated with Mini-Mental State Exam scores than was the DS-ADL.     

Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: a meta-analytic study

This meta-analysis of 172 studies (N = 2,263 anxious,N = 1,768 nonanxious) examined the boundary conditions of threat-related attentional biases in anxiety. Overall, the results show that the bias is reliably demonstrated with different experimental paradigms and under a variety of experimental conditions, but that it is only an effect size of d = 0.45. Although processes requiring conscious perception of threat contribute to the bias, a significant bias is also observed with stimuli outside awareness. The bias is of comparable magnitude across different types of anxious populations (individuals with different clinical disorders, high-anxious nonclinical individuals, anxious children and adults) and is not observed in nonanxious individuals. Empirical and clinical implications as well as future directions for research are discussed.     

Language context guides memory content

The relationship between language and memory was examined by testing accessibility of general knowledge across two languages in bilinguals. Mandarin-English speakers were asked questions such as “name a statue of someone standing with a raised arm while looking into the distance” and were more likely to name the Statue of Liberty when asked in English and the Statue of Mao when asked in Mandarin. Multivalent information (i.e., multiple possible answers to a question) and bivalent information (i.e., two possible answers to a question) were more susceptible to language dependency than univalent information (i.e., one possible answer to a question). Accuracy of retrieval showed language-dependent memory effects in both languages, while speed of retrieval showed language-dependent memory effects only in bilinguals’ more proficient language. These findings suggest that memory and language are tightly connected and that linguistic context at the time of learning may become integrated into memory content.