Configural features in the context of upright and inverted faces

When faces are turned upside down, recognition is known to be severely disrupted. This effect is thought to be due to disruption of configural processing. Recently, Leder and Bruce (2000, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A 53 513-536) argued that configural information in face processing consists at least partly of locally processed relations between facial elements. In three experiments we investigated whether a local relational feature (the interocular distance) is processed differently in upside-down versus upright faces. In experiment 1 participants decided in which of two sequentially presented photographic faces the interocular distance was larger. The decision was more difficult in upside-down presentation. Three different conditions were used in experiment 2 to investigate whether this deficit depends upon parts of the face beyond the eyes themselves; displays showed the eye region alone, the eyes and nose, or the eyes and nose and mouth. The availability of additional features did not interact with the inversion effect which was observed strongly even when the eyes were shown in isolation. In experiment 3 all eyes were turned upside down in the inverted face condition as in the Thatcher illusion (Thompson, 1980 Perception 9 483-484). In this case no inversion effect was found. These results are in accordance with an explanation of the face-inversion effect in which the disruption of configural facial information plays the critical role in memory for faces, and in which configural information corresponds to spatial information that is processed in a way which is sensitive to local properties of the facial features involved.     

Stress and Gender in Unemployed Female and Male Managers

The purpose of this pioneering study was to investigate the overall impact of unemployment on female managers compared to their male counterparts, an area which to date has received no specific attention. A questionnaire was designed based on a review of the relevant literature and content analysis of in‐depth interviews with 40 unemployed managers. This was distributed to the 80 government run Executive Job Clubs located throughout England, and was used to gain quantitative data exploring respondents' experiences of unemployment in terms of sources of stress, stress moderators, and stress outcomes. Completed questionnaires were received from 115 female and 169 male unemployed managers registered at 46 Executive Job Clubs (return rate 47%). Multiple regression techniques were used to develop individual and comparative models of unemployment for unemployed female and male managers. The findings indicated that unemployed female managers encountered substantially greater sources of stress than their male counterparts in all aspects of unemployment. Increased stressors and less effective stress moderators resulted in female managers experiencing significantly poorer mental well‐being and greater negative physical effects during unemployment than their male counterparts. Recommendations are made to key organisations.     

Affective instability and suicidal ideation and behavior in patients with borderline personality disorder

This study employed an Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) to test whether various elements of affective instability can predict future suicide ideation in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and a history of recurrent suicidal behavior. Eighty-two individuals with BPD and a history of recurrent suicidal behavior were followed prospectively for one month during which time they recorded their current mood states, 6 times daily over three weeks. Accounting for a set of robust suicide risk factors in multiple regression analyses, only negative mood intensity was significantly related to intensity of self-reported suicide ideation and to number of suicidal behaviors over the past year. Other elements of affective instability examined (e.g., mood amplitude, dyscontrol, and reactivity) were not associated with future suicide ideation or with recent suicidal behavior. Affective instability in patients with BPD is highly variable from one individual to another and is characterized by high levels of intense negative mood. These negative mood states, versus other aspects of mood variability, seem to be more closely tied to the occurrence of suicidal ideation and behavior.     

Judging multi-minute intervals retrospectively

A total of 50 participants were asked to perform five different cognitive tasks lasting 120, 210, 300, 390 and 480 s, respectively. After completing the series of tasks, they were asked to estimate retrospectively the duration of each one. Psychophysical analyses linking psychological time to physical time revealed that the value of the power law exponent was about .47, but was .79 when the estimate of the total duration of the session was taken into account—a value lower than unity, indicating that shorter durations have been overestimated, and longer durations underestimated. The Weber fraction, or the ratio of variability to time, ranged from .59 (at 120 s) to .21 (at 480 s). Overall, the study shows that it is possible to make certain changes in the traditional retrospective timing method and thus adapt it for further investigations of the mechanisms involved in memory for the duration of past events.     

Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Factors Influencing Adolescents' Decisions About Having Sex: A Test of Sufficiency of the Theory of Planned Behavior1

This study tested the theory of planned behavior's (TPB) expectation that attitudes, social norms, and self‐efficacy would mediate other variables' effects on intention for having sex and probability of having sex. Longitudinal data were collected from 790 high‐school‐aged adolescents. In an intrapersonal variable model, sensation seeking, alcohol use, hard work, smoking, and moral beliefs had mediated effects, but the last 2 also had direct effects (on intention and behavior, respectively). In an interpersonal model, school attachment had mediated effects, pressure to have sex had a direct effect on behavior, and parent communication and number of sexually active friends had both. Intrapersonal variable effects were better described by the TPB than those of interpersonal variables. Targeting distal psychosocial factors may enhance intervention efficacy.     

Discrimination of time intervals presented in sequences: spatial effects with multiple auditory sources

This article discusses two experiments on the discrimination of time intervals presented in sequences marked by brief auditory signals. Participants had to indicate whether the last interval in a series of three intervals marked by four auditory signals was shorter or longer than the previous intervals. Three base durations were under investigation: 75, 150, and 225 ms. In Experiment 1, sounds were presented through headphones, from a single-speaker in front of the participants or by four equally spaced speakers. In all three presentation modes, the highest different threshold was obtained in the lower base duration condition (75 ms), thus indicating an impairment of temporal processing when sounds are presented too rapidly. The results also indicate the presence, in each presentation mode, of a 'time-shrinking effect' (i.e., with the last interval being perceived as briefer than the preceding ones) at 75 ms, but not at 225 ms. Lastly, using different sound sources to mark time did not significantly impair discrimination. In Experiment 2, three signals were presented from the same source, and the last signal was presented at one of two locations, either close or far. The perceived duration was not influenced by the location of the fourth signal when the participant knew before each trial where the sounds would be delivered. However, when the participant was uncertain as to its location, more space between markers resulted in longer perceived duration, a finding that applies only at 150 and 225 ms. Moreover, the perceived duration was affected by the direction of the sequences (left-right vs. right-left).     

The picture absurdities test in the evaluation of dementia

Recognition of picture absurdities was found to be significantly impaired in a group of patients with dementia of Alzheimer type compared to patients with dementia syndrome of depression and cerebrovascular dementia, even when matched for age, education, and dementia severity. None of the other neuropsychological measures investigated, including visual recent memory, Raven's progressive matrices, geographic orientation, and copying of geometric figures, resulted in a similar pattern. Although uncertainty remains as to what the picture absurdities test measures, normal performance likely depends on the integrity of many independently assessable variables, in addition to cognition and judgment utilizing visual data.     

Adaptive processing of fractions — Evidence from eye-tracking

Recent evidence indicated that fraction pair type determined whether a particular fraction is processed holistically, componentially or in a hybrid manner. Going beyond previous studies, we investigated how participants adapt their processing of fractions not only to fraction type, but also to experimental context. To examine adaptation in fraction processing, we recorded participants' eye-fixation behaviour in a fraction magnitude comparison task.