From theory to implementation: Building a multidimensional space for face recognition

The purpose of the present study was to empirically construct a multidimensional model of face space based upon Valentine’s [Valentine, T. (1991). A unified account of the effects of distinctiveness, inversion, and race in face recognition. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 43A, 161-204; Valentine, T. (2001). Face-space models of face recognition. In M. J. Wenger, & J. T. Townsend, (Eds.). Computational, geometric, and process perspectives on facial cognition: Contexts and challenges. Scientific psychology series (pp. 83-113). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum] metaphoric model. Two-hundred and ten participants ranked 200 faces on a 21-dimensional space composed of internal facial features. On the basis of these dimensions an index of distance from the center of the dimensional space was calculated. A factor analysis revealed six factors which highlighted the importance of both featural and holistic processes in face recognition. Testing the model in relation to facial distinctiveness and face recognition strengthened its validity by emphasizing the relevance of the constructed multidimensional space for face recognition. The data are discussed within the framework of theoretical models of face recognition.     

Perspective Taking and Intergroup Helping Intentions: The Moderating Role of Power Relations1

People are more willing to help those who belong to their own groups than to an out‐group. Research on perspective taking has shown that many forms of in‐group favoritism disappear when people are led to take the perspective of the other group. The current research explores the possibility of increasing the level of intergroup helping by a perspective‐taking manipulation. An experiment in a Polish‐Czech borderland community high school demonstrated that Polish students who were made to imagine that they became members of an out‐group (perspective‐taking manipulation) were more willing to help out‐group members. The moderating role of perceived power is discussed in the context of perspective‐taking theory.     

Effectiveness of instructor behaviours and their relationship to leadership

This study analysed qualitatively the nature of instructor behaviours and their relationship to leadership. The Critical Incident Technique was used to collect effective and ineffective incidents of instructor behaviour in military training from both instructors' and trainees' perspectives (total incidents = 1150, effective = 696, ineffective = 494), across the three UK Armed Services. Nine dimensions of instructor behaviour were developed with high inter‐ and intra‐coder reliability. No differences were found between instructor and trainee generated incidents or among the three Armed Services. About 82% of the incidents could be recoded with high inter‐coder reliability into categories of both transformational and transactional leadership. Strong relationships emerged between the following dimensions of both instructor behaviour and leadership respectively: Showing and Demonstrating, and Appropriate Role Model; Using Instructional Strategies and Intellectual Stimulation; Feedback, Practice and Adapting, and Individual Consideration; Forms of Punishment and Control, and Contingent and Non‐contingent Punishment. These results inform not only the relationships between instructor behaviours and leadership but also the future training of military instructors, particularly the balance between a traditional authoritarian approach and an individualised supportive one.     

Group norms and excessive absenteeism: The role of peer referent others

Drawing from social identity and social influence theory, we propose that the absence-related norms of an individual’s work-based referent others will have a significant effect on the likelihood of excessive absence behavior. We then develop and test a model of the social mechanisms potentially underlying the relationship between referent absence norms and the likelihood of excessive absence behavior. Our findings indicate that referent group norms significantly explain excessive absence behavior, even when taking into account the absence norms associated with the formal organizational units within which these referent groups are often nested. They also indicate that permissive referent group norms are likely to have a greater impact on the probability of target excessive absence when the target has a more conformist disposition. Finally, post-hoc findings suggest that the more negative targets’ perceptions of the consequences of absenteeism, the more attenuated the impact of permissive group norms on excessive absence behavior.     

Connection between Suicidal Ideation,Life Meaning,and Leisure Time Activities

This study is an examination of the links between adolescent suicidal ideation, life meaning, and the ways they spend their leisure time. The sample consisted of 450 students aged 15–18. Findings showed a significant negative correlation between suicidal ideation and sense of life meaning, encompassing factors such as age and gender. Adolescents with involvement in social activities demonstrated lower levels of suicidal ideation (total score), and lower levels of depression and anxiety, than the other two groups. The study discusses the research and practical implications of these findings. The findings suggest the possibility of establishing prevention, intervention, and therapy programs for adolescents based on life meaning.     

Magnetic stimulation studies of foveal representation

The right and left visual fields each project to the contralateral cerebral hemispheres, but the extent of the functional overlap of the two hemifields along the vertical meridian is still under debate. After presenting the spatial, temporal, and functional specifications of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), we show that TMS is particularly suitable to study the question of foveal representation as it allows one to study the effects of selective disruption of left or right hemisphere functions on the processing of centrally presented stimuli. Future strategies for the use of TMS in further tests of visual word recognition are suggested.     

Personal experience in professional narratives: the role of helpers' families in their work with terror victims

This article describes research on the narratives of social workers who help terror victims, focusing on the relationship between the helpers' families and their work. Qualitative analysis of three training groups of social workers who are responsible for helping in the event of terror attacks in different parts of Israel, and of three debriefing groups for social workers after terror attacks, reveals that the helpers' families play a role in the narratives constructed by the helpers. Two main themes were identified. The first centers on the interaction between work and the family, and shows that in the situation of a terror attack, the conflict between the two disappears and the family often serves as a support system for the helpers. The second theme refers to the family dimension alone, and focuses on the dichotomy between vitality and loss. The way that family life events affect helpers'professional intervention is described. The findings are discussed in light of Conservation of Resources Theory, the fight-flight response to threat, and the concept of the family as a source of safety and risk taking.     

Case alternation and length effects in lateralized word recognition: studies of English and Hebrew

Effects of CaSe AlTeRnAtIoN were studied in two lateralized visual lexical decision experiments. We manipulated word length and letter case (UPPER, lower and MiXeD) in both English (Exp. 1, N=60) and Hebrew (Exp. 2, N=60). The previously reported visual field and word length interaction was found for upper and lower case presentation, but not for MiXeD CaSe, where both fields were affected by word length. The effects of case alternation are discussed in light of a new lateralized word recognition theory.     

A 32-society investigation of the influence of perceived economic inequality on social class stereotyping

There is a growing body of work suggesting that social class stereotypes are amplified when people perceive higher levels of economic inequality—that is, the wealthy are perceived as more competent and assertive and the poor as more incompetent and unassertive. The present study tested this prediction in 32 societies and also examines the role of wealth-based categorization in explaining this relationship. We found that people who perceived higher economic inequality were indeed more likely to consider wealth as a meaningful basis for categorization. Unexpectedly, however, higher levels of perceived inequality were associated with perceiving the wealthy as less competent and assertive and the poor as more competent and assertive. Unpacking this further, exploratory analyses showed that the observed tendency to stereotype the wealthy negatively only emerged in societies with lower social mobility and democracy and higher corruption. This points to the importance of understanding how socio-structural features that co-occur with economic inequality may shape perceptions of the wealthy and the poor.