A standardized set of 260 pictures for Modern Greek: Norms for name agreement, age of acquisition, and visual complexity

The appropriate selection of both pictorial and linguistic experimental stimuli requires a previous languagespecific standardization process of the materials across different variables. Considering that such normative data have not yet been collected for Modern Greek, in this study normative data for the color version of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart picture set (Rossion & Pourtois, 2004) were collected from 330 native Greek adults. Participants named the pictures (providing name agreement ratings) and rated them for visual complexity and age of acquisition. The obtained measures represent a useful tool for further research on Greek language processing and constitute the first picture normative study for this language. The picture norms from this study and previous ones may be downloaded from brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

The effect of varying the number of response alternatives in rating scales: Experimental evidence from intra-individual effects

Despite a hundred years of questionnaire testing, no consensus has been reached on the optimal number of response alternatives in rating scales. Differences in prior research may have been due to the use of various psychometric models (classical test theory, item factor analysis, and item response theory) and different performance criteria (reliability, convergent/discriminant validity, and internal structure of the questionnaire). Furthermore, previous empirical studies on this issue have tackled the experimental design from a between-subjects perspective, thus ignoring intra-individual effects. In contrast with this approach, we propose a within-subjects experimental design and a comprehensive statistical methodology using structural equation models for studying all of these aspects simultaneously, therefore increasing statistical power. To illustrate the method, two personality questionnaires were examined using a repeated measures design. Results indicated that as the number of response alternatives increased, (1) internal consistency increased, (2) there was no effect on convergent validity, and (3) goodness of fit worsened. Finally, the article assesses the practical consequences of this research for the design of future personality questionnaires.     

The United States Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (2006): New challenges to balancing patient rights and physician responsibilities

Advance health care directives and informed consent remain the cornerstones of patients' right to self-determination regarding medical care and preferences at the end-of-life. However, the effectiveness and clinical applicability of advance health care directives to decision-making on the use of life support systems at the end-of-life is questionable. The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA) has been revised in 2006 to permit the use of life support systems at or near death for the purpose of maximizing procurement opportunities of organs medically suitable for transplantation. Some states have enacted the Revised UAGA (2006) and a few of those have included amendments while attempting to preserve the uniformity of the revised Act. Other states have introduced the Revised UAGA (2006) for legislation and remaining states are likely to follow soon.     

Subtyping and social consensus: the role of the audience in the maintenance of stereotypic beliefs

Two studies investigated the effect of stereotypes held by a prospective audience on participants' reactions to a stereotype‐disconfirming member. In Study 1, participants formed an impression of a positive disconfirming gay in order to communicate it to an audience known to hold a negative versus positive stereotype about gays. As predicted, participants subtyped the deviant more in the former than in the latter case. Moreover, participants' stereotype at the end of the study mirrored the audience's assumed stereotypes about gays. In Study 2, participants learned about a stereotype allegedly held by an ingroup or an outgroup audience about Belgians and then received information about a Belgian who disconfirmed the stereotype. As predicted, the deviant was seen as less typical when he violated the stereotype held by an ingroup than by an outgroup audience. Also, participants' stereotype about Belgians was more similar to the one held by the ingroup audience. A mediational analysis confirmed that participants subtyped the disconfirming member in order to embrace the stereotype advocated by the ingroup audience. Results are discussed in light of recent models of stereotype change. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Separate mechanisms recruited by exogenous and endogenous spatial cues: evidence from a spatial Stroop paradigm

The present experiments tested whether endogenous and exogenous cues produce separate effects on target processing. In Experiment 1, participants discriminated whether an arrow presented left or right of fixation pointed to the left or right. For 1 group, the arrow was preceded by a peripheral noninformative cue. For the other group, the arrow was preceded by a central, symbolic, informative cue. The 2 types of cues modulated the spatial Stroop effect in opposite ways, with endogenous cues producing larger spatial Stroop effects for valid trials and exogenous cues producing smaller spatial Stroop effects for valid trials. In Experiments 2A and 2B, the influence of peripheral noninformative and peripheral informative cues on the spatial Stroop effect was directly compared. The spatial Stroop effect was smaller for valid than for invalid trials for both types of cues. These results point to a distinction between the influence of central and peripheral attentional cues on performance and are not consistent with a unitary view of endogenous and exogenous attention.     

The development of specialized brain systems in reading and oral-language.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine differences between children (9-12 years) and adults (21-31 years) in the distribution of brain activation during word processing. Orthographic, phonologic, semantic and syntactic tasks were used in both the auditory and visual modalities. Our two principal results were consistent with the hypothesis that development is characterized by increasing specialization. Our first analysis compared activation in children versus adults separately for each modality. Adults showed more activation than children in the unimodal visual areas of middle temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus for processing written word forms and in the unimodal auditory areas of superior temporal gyrus for processing spoken word forms. Children showed more activation than adults for written word forms in posterior heteromodal regions (Wernicke's area), presumably for the integration of orthographic and phonologic word forms. Our second analysis compared activation in the visual versus auditory modality separately for children and adults. Children showed primarily overlap of activation in brain regions for the visual and auditory tasks. Adults showed selective activation in the unimodal auditory areas of superior temporal gyrus when processing spoken word forms and selective activation in the unimodal visual areas of middle temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus when processing written word forms.     

Reduction of mental stress with lavender odorant.

The effect of the lavender odorant on a Japanese version of Cox and Mackay's stress/arousal adjective checklist for three groups was studied. One group of 14 was placed into a (2 x 2- x 3 m) sound protected room for 20 min without the presentation of an odor, an analogous group of 15 received the odor oil, and one group of 13 received a nonstressful condition. Analysis suggested that lavender odorants were associated with reduced mental stress and increased arousal rate.     

Spatial property of motion visual evoked potentials.

The cortical evoked response to drifting patterns (motion visual evoked potentials) was investigated. When the direction of motion of the stimulus pattern was reversed upward or downward at intervals, the cortical evoked response was triggered at the moment when the pattern changed direction. The polarity reversal of the main negative component occurred between upper and lower visual field stimulations as seen in pattern reversal visual evoked potentials. Our study indicates these potentials have a compound property reflecting the visual field.