Relations among hand preference,craniofacial asymmetry,and ear advantage in young subjects

The relations for hand preference with craniofacial asymmetry and ear advantage, and between craniofacial asymmetry and ear advantage were investigated in young healthy subjects. Ear advantage was recorded as duration of hearing, craniofacial asymmetry by computerized tomography in 44 right-handed and 38 left-handed male and female high school students. Right-handers had a right ear advantage and a larger left craniofacial region, whereas left-handers had a left ear advantage and a larger right craniofacial region. These results are consistent with the speculation that hand preference may be related to craniofacial and consequently aural asymmetries.     

Optical flow and viewpoint change modulate the perception and memorization of complex motion

Participants observed a point-light character (PLC) performing a gymnastic movement. They either memorized the final PLC orientation from the initial viewpoint, to match it to a test posture (memory task), or judged whether the biological motion appeared continuous (perceptual task), despite a viewpoint change. The observer could be either static or virtually in motion (pan or track) while looking at the movement from the initial viewpoint. The presence of a spatial layout during virtual self-motion induced a global optical flow specifying the translational component of the PLC movement, rendering the event more predictable for the participants. A representational momentum effect was observed in the memory task, suggesting that when a visual stimulation, such as a PLC motion, is abruptly stopped, its dynamics survive. In contrast, structural and transformational invariants specifying the PLC motion were sufficient to solve the perceptual task accurately. Finally, both the remembering of the final posture and the perception of continuity degraded with an increase in viewpoint change due to tilt/slant posture orientation matching, indicating that orientation processes interfered with event perception.     

Environmental education and socioresponsive engineering

A recent initiative at Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad, India, has resulted in setting up a program called Centre for Environment Studies and Socioresponsive Engineering which seeks to involve undergraduate students in studying and solving environmental problems in and around the city of Hyderabad, India. Two pilot projects have been undertaken — one focusing on design and construction of an eco-friendly house, The Natural House, and another directed at improving environmental and general living conditions in a slum area. The paper describes our attempts and experience of motivating our students to take interest in such projects. In an interesting development we invited a member of a student-faculty team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) that is doing a project in Nepal on safe drinking water. We report in our paper how the presentation by the guest from M.I.T. served as a catalyst for generating interest among civil and mechanical engineering students in our own projects. The paper includes contributions from one of our students and the M.I.T. staff member, reporting on their experiences related to the slum development project. We also discuss the Natural House project and its international and educational significance as a means of inculcating sensitivity and interest in nature among engineering students. We propose a pledge for engineers similar to the Hippocratic Oath for medical professionals.     

Global optimality of the successive Maxbet algorithm

The Maxbet method is an alternative to the method of generalized canonical correlation analysis and of Procrustes analysis. Contrary to these methods, it does not maximize the inner products (covariances) between linear composites, but also takes their sums of squares (variances) into account. It is well-known that the Maxbet algorithm, which has been proven to converge monotonically, may converge to local maxima. The present paper discusses an eigenvalue criterion which is sufficient, but not necessary for global optimality. However, in two special cases, the eigenvalue criterion is shown to be necessary and sufficient for global optimality. The first case is when there are only two data sets involved; the second case is when the inner products between all variables involved are positive, regardless of the number of data sets.The authors are obliged to Henk Kiers for critical comments on a previous draft.     

Differential brain responses when applying criterion attribute versus family resemblance rule learning

Subsystems of category learning have been identified on the basis of general domains of content (e.g., tools, faces). The present study examined categories from the standpoint of internal structure and determined brain topography associated with expressing two fundamentally different category rule structures (criterion attribute, CA, and family resemblance, FR). CA category learning involves processing stimuli by isolated features and classifying by properties held by all members. FR learning involves processing stimuli by integral wholes and classifying on overall similarity among members without sharing identical features. fMRI BOLD response to CA and FR categorization was measured with pseudowords as stimuli. Category knowledge for both tasks was mastered prior to brain imaging. Areas of activation emerged unique to the structure of each category and followed from the nature of the rule abstraction procedure. CA categorization was implemented by strong target monitoring and expectation (medial parietal), rule maintenance in working memory, feature selection processes (inferior frontal), and a sensitivity to high frequency components of the stimulus such as isolated features (anterior temporal). FR categorization, consistent with its multi-featural nature, involved word-level processing (left extrastriate) that evoked articulatory rehearsal (medial cerebellar). The data suggest category structure is an important determinant of brain response during categorization. For instance, anterior temporal structures may help attune visual processing systems to high frequency components to support the learning of criterial, highly predictive rules.     

An Analysis of Federal Court Cases Involving Nine Selection Devices

A content analysis of US federal court cases was conducted to assess the relative frequency of litigation associated with nine selection devices: 1) unstructured interviews; 2) structured interviews; 3) biographical information blanks; 4) cognitive ability tests; 5) personality tests; 6) honesty tests; 7) physical ability tests; 8) work sample tests; and 9) assessment centers. The outcomes of the cases (whether the devices were ruled to be discriminatory) for each of the nine types of selection devices were also examined. The possible implications of the current findings for organizations and researchers are discussed.     

How Initial Fixation Position Influences Visual Word Recognition: A Comparison of French and Arabic

The position the eye initially fixates in a written word influences the ease with which this word is recognized. Prior research has shown that the function relating ease of word recognition and initial fixation position in the word is not symmetric. Word recognition is generally superior when the initial fixation is left rather than right of the center of the word. This asymmetry in the function relating initial fixation position to word identifiability could be due to (a) hemispheric specialization, (b) reading habits, or (c) variations in lexical constraint. The present experiments tested these alternative explanations by comparing the effects of initial fixation position in prefixed and suffixed words in French and Arabic. The results show that, contrary to both the hemispheric specialization and reading habit hypotheses, the average initial fixation curves for Arabic are asymmetric neither to the left nor to the right but depend on the morphological structure of the stimuli, thus lending support to the lexical constraint hypothesis.     

A self-contained,regulated, burst-firing constant-current ac shock generator

A line- and load-regulated constant-current ac shock generator has been designed for animal behavior experiments. The self-contained unit has four operating modes, amplitude adjustment, and a leakage current detection circuit. A unique feature of this generator is that the good load regulation achieved by using a high-voltage source is preserved without such problems as arcing and high current density effects. Circuit schematics, along with a discussion of selected circuits, are included. Experimental data are presented to demonstrate the utility of the device.     

Investigation of the factorial structure and psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 in patients with psychiatric disorders

The aims of this study were to assess the factor structure, validity, and reliability of the Persian translation of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) and to examine different models of the TAS-20 in Iranian patients with various psychiatric disorders. Participants were 839 patients with psychiatric disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (n = 80), schizophrenia (n = 82), bipolar disorder (BD) (n = 100), alcohol dependence (n = 81), major depressive disorder (MDD) (n = 95), psychosomatic disorders (n = 92), anxiety disorders (n = 85), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (n = 90), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (n = 55), and suicide attempts (n = 79). Results indicated that the three-factor TAS-16 fit the data well, after removing four items from the externally-oriented thinking (EOT) subscale. In addition, the total score and subscales had strong internal consistency and concurrent validity. An alternative three-factor model and a four-factor model, which both allow the reverse-coded EOT items to load on a separate factor, also had an acceptable fit. The results suggest that after deleting four items from the EOT subscale, the 16-item TAS is a reliable scale among Iranian psychiatric patients. Moreover, the alternative three-factor and four-factor structures may be appropriate to apply among Iranian patients.