Recognition without picture identification: Geons as components of the pictorial memory trace

Participants viewed a list of black-and-white line drawings and were then presented with a picture fragment identification task in which half of the fragments corresponded to studied pictures and half corresponded to unstudied pictures. In addition to trying to identify each picture fragment, participants gave a rating to indicate the likelihood that the fragment came from a studied picture. When participants could not identify the picture fragments, they were still able to discriminate between fragments that came from studied pictures and fragments that came from unstudied pictures (as shown by their recognition ratings), but only when the fragments contained information about the geometric components (geons) that underlay the original pictures. No recognition without identification was found when the fragments contained only line segment information.     

Binocular shape constancy from novel views: the role of a priori constraints

We tested shape constancy from novel views in the case of binocular viewing, using a variety of stimuli, including polyhedra, polygonal lines, and points in 3-D. The results of the psychophysical experiments show that constraints such as planarity of surface contours and symmetry are critical for reliable shape constancy. These results are consistent with the results obtained in our previous psychophysical experiments on shape constancy from novel views in the presence of a kinetic depth effect (Pizlo & Stevenson, 1999). On the basis of these results, we developed a new model of binocular shape reconstruction. The model is based on the assumption that binocular reconstruction is a difficult inverse problem, whose solution requires imposing a priori constraints on the family of possible interpretations. In the model, binocular disparity is used to correct monocularly reconstructed shape. The new model was tested on the same shapes as those used in the psychophysical experiments. The reconstructions produced by this model are substantially more reliable than the reconstructions produced by models that do not use constraints. Interestingly, monocular (but not binocular) reconstructions produced by this model correlate well with both monocular and binocular performance of human subjects. This fact suggests that binocular and monocular reconstructions of shapes in the human visual system involve similar mechanisms based on monocular shape constraints.     

Cognitive development following early brain injury: evidence for neural adaptation

Over the past few decades a large body of work from developmental neurobiology has shown that mammalian brain development is the product of dynamic and adaptive processes operating within highly constrained, but continually changing, biological and environmental contexts. The recent study of children with prenatal focal brain injury supports this dynamic view of development for humans. Children's injuries often affect substantial portions of one cerebral hemisphere, resulting in damage that would compromise cognitive ability in adults. However, longitudinal behavioral studies of this population have revealed only mild deficits. It is suggested here that children's capacity for adaptation reflects normal developmental processes operating against a backdrop of serious neural perturbation. Data from three behavioral domains--linguistics, spatial cognition and affective development--illustrate this complex profile of change.     

The New Occupational Therapy Paradigm: Implications for Integration of the Psychosocial Core of Occupational Therapy in All Clinical Specialties

In this paper, it is argued that the new occupational therapy paradigm includes a core of psychosocial skills, consistent with the profession's historical roots in mental health. It is proposed that contrary to the declining presence of occupational therapy in mental health, psychosocial interventions should be explicitly integrated in all professional practice, such that occupational therapy will become the profession of choice in addressing psychosocial issues of all clients irrespective of clinical specialty. A case study is presented as an example to demonstrate how this explicit integration may be achieved in physical rehabilitation.     

The relationships between perfectionism,religious motivation,and mental health utilisation among latter-day saint students

The present study examined the influence of perfectionism and religious motivation on help-seeking and attitudes towards mental health services (ATMHS) in a Latter-Day Saint sample of 119 undergraduates. Increased levels of perfectionism significantly predicted more negative ATMHS. Higher intrinsic religious motivation was significantly and positively related to help-seeking from religious sources, but not from mental health professionals. Intrinsic religious motivation was also related to perfectionism, but only for adaptive subscales. The implications for focusing utilisation interventions towards religious populations are discussed.     

Assessing Specific Discipline Techniques: A Mixed-Methods Approach

This study explored, in a community sample of mothers of toddlers, parenting beliefs and values, to gain insight into the parent–child relationship. Acceptance of specific discipline techniques (DTs), and their actual use in daily life were examined. A mixed-methods approach comprising three different methods was used: (1) parenting beliefs and values were explored with Q-methodology; (2) acceptance of the DTs was assessed with the questionnaire Dimensions of Discipline Inventory; and (3) actual use of those DTs in daily-life incidents of discipline was documented using ecological momentary assessment for ten consecutive days. The results showed the mothers’ parenting beliefs and values reflected a warm parent–child relationship. The mothers rated explaining rules, timeout, removal of privileges, and social reinforcement as moderately to highly acceptable. However, planned ignoring received a low acceptance rating. Mothers’ high acceptability ratings of the DTs contrasted with moderate use when they were faced with their misbehaving child, with the exception of explaining rules, which was always manifested. Yelling and spanking received the lowest acceptance ratings. Nonetheless, in daily life, yelling was employed as often as timeout. These findings suggest the need for more attention to be paid to both acceptance and daily use of specific DTs in order to highlight DTs which parents may have difficulty implementing.