Extended multisensory space in blind cane users

In the present work, we investigated whether an auditory peripersonal space exists around the hand and whether such a space might be extended by a brief tool-use experience or by long-term experience using a tool in everyday life. To this end, we studied audio-tactile integration in the space around the hand and in far space, in blind subjects who regularly used a cane to navigate and in sighted subjects, before and after brief training with the cane. In sighted subjects, auditory peripersonal space was limited to around the hand before tool use, then expanded after tool use, and contracted backward after a resting period. In contrast, in blind subjects, peri-hand space was immediately expanded when they held the cane but was limited to around the hand when they held a short handle. These results suggest that long-term experience with the cane induces a durable extension of the peripersonal space.     

What Demonstrative Induction Can Do Against the Threat of Underdetermination: Bohr,Heisenberg, and Pauli on Spectroscopic Anomalies (1921–24)

In this paper I argue that demonstrative induction can deal with the problem ofthe underdetermination of theory by evidence. I present the historical case studyof spectroscopy in the early 1920s, where the choice among different theorieswas apparently underdetermined by spectroscopic evidence concerning the alkalidoublets and their anomalous Zeeman effect. By casting this historical episodewithin the methodological framework of demonstrative induction, the localunderdetermination among Bohr's, Heisenberg's, and Pauli's rival theories isresolved in favour of Pauli's theory of the electron's spin.     

School Sense of Community,Teacher Support,and Students’ School Safety Perceptions

This study examined the association between two characteristics of school climate (sense of community and teacher support, measured both at the individual and at the school level) and students’ feelings of being unsafe at school. The study involved a sample of 49,638 students aged 10–18 years who participated in the 2010–2012 California Healthy Kids Survey. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), our findings revealed that, at the individual level, students perceiving higher levels of sense of community and teacher support at school were less likely to feel unsafe within the school environment. At the school level, sense of community was negatively associated with unsafe feelings, whereas there was no association between school‐level teacher support and feelings of being unsafe at school.     

ERP components activated by the "GO!" and "WITHHOLD!" conflict in the random Sustained Attention to Response Task

The present study investigates the event related potential (ERP) components associated with the random version of the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). The random SART is a Go/No-Go task in which the No-Go target appears unpredictably and rarely. In the present experiment, the EEG was recorded from 58 electrodes with mastoids as reference. As expected, the N2 and P3 were larger in the No-Go trials compared to the Go trials, with the P3 more frontal for the No-Go trials compared to the Go trials. The functional role of the N2 and P3 in the No-Go trials is discussed comparing our results to the fixed SART results obtained by Dockree et al. [Dockree P. M., Kelly S. P., Robertson I. H., Reilly R. B., & Foxe J. J. (2005). Neurophysiological markers of alert responding during goal-directed behaviour: A high-density electrical mapping study. NeuroImage, 27, 587-601]. In addition, the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) was computed. The absence of an LRP in the No-Go trials suggests that a central inhibitory mechanism intervenes to prevent the preparation and execution of a dominant motor response.     

Social exclusion lowers working memory capacity in gay-men but not in heterosexual-men

Because sexual orientation is a crucial factor in social discrimination, this study assessed how the working memory capacity of gay-men and heterosexual-men is affected by a social exclusion event (N = 88). To manipulate the experience of social exclusion participants were included or excluded from a game of Cyberball. To assess working memory capacity, participants had to recall a series of letters while performing math problems in an automated version of the operation span task. The results of this small study, showed the sexual orientation of participants interacted with variations in belonging such that being ostracized (but not being included) lowered the working memory capacity of gay-men relative to heterosexual-men. Implications for research on belonging, social exclusion, and stereotype threat are discussed.     

Rhetorical Argumentation in Italian Academic Discourse

The recent trend in institutional communication research seems to foster the image of the University as a private organization significantly oriented towards a policy of customer satisfaction. Following the concept of organizational culture, institutional settings too are conceived as organizational contexts, where discourse is a privileged vehicle to convey and spread values, traditions and artifacts, both through internal and external communication practices. Thus, within academic discourse organizational culture is shaped and perpetuated by specific devices of rhetorical argumentation. The corpus of data consists of two different examples of academic discourse: the self promotional endorsement letters of the academic candidates to the chancellor’s position on occasion of the elections and the inaugural speeches proclaimed by the chancellors in charge during the opening celebration of the academic year. The first kind of academic discourse could be meant as an example of political discourse since the candidates use communication strategically and manipulate their academic membership as a rhetorical device to support their aims. On the other hand, the second example is a mere celebration of academic culture which through linguistic rituals recalls and perpetuates the basic values of this microcosm. The data have been analysed with the critical discourse analysis and diatextual analysis which pay particular attention to the context of speech. Moreover, attention has been focused on the metaphors and on the meta-discursive cues. The results show that although with different purposes academic discourse use similar discursive and rhetorical strategies as both belong to the same organization.     

Negative intergroup contact makes group memberships salient: explaining why intergroup conflict endures

Drawing from the intergroup contact model and self-categorization theory, the authors advanced the novel hypothesis of a valence-salience effect, whereby negative contact causes higher category salience than positive contact. As predicted, in a laboratory experiment of interethnic contact, White Australians (N = 49) made more frequent and earlier reference to ethnicity when describing their ethnic contact partner if she had displayed negative (vs. positive, neutral) nonverbal behavior. In a two-wave experimental study of retrieved intergenerational contact, American young adults (N = 240) reported age to be more salient during negative (vs. positive) contact and negative contact predicted increased episodic and chronic category salience over time. Some evidence for the reverse salience-valence effect was also found. Because category salience facilitates contact generalization, these results suggest that intergroup contact is potentially biased toward worsening intergroup relations; further implications for theory and policy making are discussed.     

‘Eppur si move’: The Association Between Electrophysiological and Psychophysical Signatures of Perceived Movement Illusions

Vibration applied to muscle tendons induces an illusory perception of movement by activating spindle receptors and Ia afferent fibers. While neural structures supporting such illusions are quite defined, functional and psychophysical correlates of their perception have not been deeply investigated. The authors aimed at exploring subjective perception of illusory movements thanks to a repeated-stimulation multimodal approach. The integrated analysis of electroencephalography, source data (standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography–sLORETA), and psychophysical evaluation pointed at the activation of a frontoparietal sensorimotor network, with prefrontal-medial regions mainly involved in supporting the awareness for illusory movements. Further, illusions showed consistency in terms of presence, vividness, and duration. Finally, superior parietal structures seemed to play an important role in self-attribution of agency and ownership during such experiences.     

Shrinkage estimation of the three-parameter logistic model

The three-parameter logistic model is widely used to model the responses to a proficiency test when the examinees can guess the correct response, as is the case for multiple-choice items. However, the weak identifiability of the parameters of the model results in large variability of the estimates and in convergence difficulties in the numerical maximization of the likelihood function. To overcome these issues, in this paper we explore various shrinkage estimation methods, following two main approaches. First, a ridge-type penalty on the guessing parameters is introduced in the likelihood function. The tuning parameter is then selected through various approaches: cross-validation, information criteria or using an empirical Bayes method. The second approach explored is based on the methodology developed to reduce the bias of the maximum likelihood estimator through an adjusted score equation. The performance of the methods is investigated through simulation studies and a real data example.