Spatial attention and conscious perception: the role of endogenous and exogenous orienting

Attention has often been considered to be a gateway to consciousness (Posner, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 91(16), 7398–7403, 1994). However, its relationship with conscious perception (CP) remains highly controversial. While theoretical models and experimental data support the role of attention in CP (Chica, Lasaponara, Lupiáñez, Doricchi, &; Bartolomeo, NeuroImage, 51, 1205–1212, 2010; Dehaene, Changeux, Naccache, Sackur, &; Sergent, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 204–211, 2006; Mack &; Rock, Inattentional blindness, 1998), recent studies have claimed that at least some forms of attention—endogenous or top-down spatial attention—are neither sufficient nor necessary for CP (Koch &; Tsuchiya, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 16–22, 2007). In the present experiments, we demonstrate the importance of exogenously triggered attention for the modulation of CP. Weak or null effects were instead observed when attention was triggered endogenously. Our data are discussed in the framework of recent neuropsychological models (Dehaene et al., Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 204–211, 2006), postulating that activity within reverberating frontoparietal networks, as colocalized with spatial--orienting systems, is the brain correlate of consciously processed information.     

First and second language vowel perception in early bilinguals

Previous research has shown that the perception of speech sounds is strongly influenced by the internal structure of maternal language categories. Specifically, it has been shown that stimuli judged as good exemplars of a phonemic category are more difficult to discriminate from similar sounds than bad exemplars from equally similar sounds. This effect seems to be restricted to phonemes present in the maternal language, and is acquired in the first months of life. The present study investigates the malleability of speech acquisition by analysing the discrimination capacities for L2 phonemes in highly proficient Spanish-Catalan bilinguals born in monolingual families. In Experiment I subjects were required to give goodness of fit judgments to establish the best exemplars corresponding to three different vowel categories (Catalan /e/ and /ε/ Spanish /e/). In Experiments 2 and 3, bilinguals were asked to perform a discrimination task with materials in their maternal language (Exp. 2) and in their second language (Exp. 3). Results reveal that bilinguals show a reduced discrimination capacity only for good exemplars of their maternal language, but not for good exemplars of their second language. The same pattern of results was obtained in Experiment 4, using a within-subjects design and a bias-free discrimination measure (d'). These findings support the hypothesis that phonemic categories are not only acquired early in life, but under some circumstances, the acquisition of new phonemic categories can be seriously compromised, in spite of early and extensive exposure to L2.     

The role of perceptual salience during the segmentation of connected speech

Statistical learning allows listeners to track transitional probabilities among syllable sequences and use these probabilities for subsequent speech segmentation. Recent studies have shown that other sources of information, such as rhythmic cues, can modulate the dependencies extracted via statistical computation. In this study, we explored how syllables made salient by a pitch rise affect the segmentation of trisyllabic words from an artificial speech stream by native speakers of three different languages (Spanish, English, and French). Results showed that, whereas performance of French participants did not significantly vary across stress positions (likely due to language-specific rhythmic characteristics), the segmentation performance of Spanish and English listeners was unaltered when syllables in word-initial and word-final positions were salient, but it dropped to chance level when salience was on the medial syllable. We argue that pitch rise in word-medial syllables draws attentional resources away from word boundaries, thus decreasing segmentation effectiveness.     

Nature over nurture: temperament, personality, and life span development

Temperaments are often regarded as biologically based psychological tendencies with intrinsic paths of development. It is argued that this definition applies to the personality traits of the five-factor model. Evidence for the endogenous nature of traits is summarized from studies of behavior genetics, parent-child relations, personality structure, animal personality, and the longitudinal stability of individual differences. New evidence for intrinsic maturation is offered from analyses of NEO Five-Factor Inventory scores for men and women age 14 and over in German, British, Spanish, Czech, and Turkish samples (N = 5,085). These data support strong conceptual links to child temperament despite modest empirical associations. The intrinsic maturation of personality is complemented by the culturally conditioned development of characteristic adaptations that express personality; interventions in human development are best addressed to these.     

The development and validation of Spanish versions of the State and Trait Food Cravings Questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: We developed and tested the psychometric properties of Spanish versions of the Trait and State Food Cravings Questionnaires (FCQ-T and FCQ-S respectively). METHOD: The instruments were translated and adapted to Spanish and administered to undergraduate students from a Southern university in Spain (N = 271). The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis to compare the factor structure of the English and Spanish versions of both questionnaires. RESULTS: The factors structure of both questionnaires obtained excellent fit indices across their Spanish versions with the one exception that some factors of the FCQ-S were more highly intercorrelated among the Spanish sample than the American. DISCUSSION: This study supports the conceptualization of food cravings as universal multidimensional motivational states that can be reliably measured and supports the use of the Spanish versions of the FCQ.     

Adaptation to time-compressed speech: phonological determinants

Perceptual adaptation to time-compressed speech was analyzed in two experiments. Previous research has suggested that this adaptation phenomenon is language specific and takes place at the phonological level. Moreover, it has been proposed that adaptation should only be observed for languages that are rhythmically similar. This assumption was explored by studying adaptation to different time-compressed languages in Spanish speakers. In Experiment 1, the performances of Spanish-speaking subjects who adapted to Spanish, Italian, French, English, and Japanese were compared. In Experiment 2, subjects from the same population were tested with Greek sentences compressed to two different rates. The results showed adaptation for Spanish, Italian, and Greek and no adaptation for English and Japanese, with French being an intermediate case. To account for the data, we propose that variables other than just the rhythmic properties of the languages, such as the vowel system and/or the lexical stress pattern, must be considered. The Greek data also support the view that phonological, rather than lexical, information is a determining factor in adaptation to compressed speech.     

MMPI-A performance of African and Mexican American adolescent first-time offenders

54 African and Mexican American adolescent first-time offenders were examined with the MMPI-A to evaluate ethnic differences. Multivariate analyses by ethnicity and MMPI-A scales (validity, clinical, content, and supplementary scales) were not significant; however, there was a significant univariate difference where African American adolescents scored significantly higher on the Repression scale than the Mexican American group. A greater percentage of within-normal-limits profiles were African American (50%) than Mexican American (25%). Research and clinical implications for using the MMPI-A with these groups are discussed.     

Maintaining global coherence in reading: The role of sentence boundaries

In four experiments, we examined the reinstatement of backgrounded information in locally coherent passages, investigating the influence of syntactic boundaries, such as periods, on the time course of this process. In Experiment 1, using a line-by-line reading paradigm, readers were delayed in noticing a contradiction on a target line when the sentence continued onto a posttarget line. Consistent with this, in Experiments 2A and 2B, the results of a recognition probe demonstrated that relevant concepts from long-term memory were not integrated immediately unless the contradiction was followed by a period. Experiment 3 demonstrated that sentence boundaries are sufficient to facilitate the integration of related background information but are not necessary; additional time served the same purpose. Consistent with a memory-based text-processing framework, it appears that the reactivation of related information is initiated automatically but that an integration stage is influenced by such factors as syntactic boundaries.     

A study of temperament and personality in anorexia and bulimia nervosa

Although temperament and personality traits could influence the development and course of eating disorders, only a few studies examined the similarities and differences in personality between anorexia and bulimia nervosa. We compared 72 patients with DSM-IV eating disorders and 30 healthy controls. Dimensions of personality and personality disorders were evaluated with the Eysenck's EPQ, Cloninger's TCI, and the SCID-II questionnaires. The rates of impulsivity and clinical features were evaluated using specific rating scales. A comorbid personality disorder was found in 61.8% of patients with eating disorder. Avoidant personality disorder appeared was relatively common in anorexia nervosa restricting type; borderline personality disorder was most frequent in bulimia nervosa and the binge eating-purging type of anorexia nervosa. From a dimensional perspective, anorexic patients presented high scores in the dimension of persistence. Higher harm avoidance and impulsivity was found in bulimic patients. The overall eating disorders group presented high scores in neuroticism and low scores in self-directedness. Eating disorder patients have heterogeneous features of temperament and personality traits. Cluster C personality disorders seem more common in anorexia nervosa restricting type and impulsive personality features are associated with bulimic symptoms. Impulsivity seems to be a key aspect of temperament of bulimic patients, whereas anorexic symptoms are linked to persistent temperament traits.     

Familial multiple sclerosis with repetitive relapses of manic psychosis in two patients (mother and daughter)

The clinical presentation of multiple sclerosis (MS) with psychiatric symptoms is uncommon but it is believed that MS patients are twice as likely to be afflicted with bipolar disorder as the general population. We report two cases (mother and daughter) of MS presenting with bipolar disorder in the form of recurrent manic psychosis and whose outcome was favourable with neuroleptics and corticosteroids. In both cases we found multiple hypersignal lesions on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), especially in the right frontal lobe where we observed signs of activity. Apart from clinical and radiological concordance, the patients exhibited similar class I HLA alleles and identical class II HLA alleles. We focused discussion on whether there may be a common genetic susceptibility to both illnesses or whether MS caused psychiatric manifestations. The coincidence of psychiatric and neurological symptoms in most relapses supports the second hypothesis.