Eye gaze metrics reflect a shared motor representation for action observation and movement imagery

Action observation (AO) and movement imagery (MI) have been reported to share similar neural networks. This study investigated the congruency between AO and MI using the eye gaze metrics, dwell time and fixation number. A simple reach-grasp-place arm movement was observed and, in a second condition, imagined where the movement was presented from the first person perspective (1PP) and the third person perspective (3PP). Dwell time and number of fixations were calculated for whole scene and regions of interest (ROIs). For whole scene, no significant differences were found in the number of fixations for condition (AO, MI) or perspective. Dwell time, however, was significantly longer in AO than MI. For ROIs, the number of fixations was significantly greater in 1PP than 3PP. The data provide support for congruence between motor simulation states but also indicate some functional differences.     

The Role of Beliefs in Mother-Adolescent Conflict: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

This mixed method study applies components of the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980) to mother-adolescent conflict. We examine if three kinds of beliefs—behavioral, control, and normative—predict patterns of family conflict. Forty mother-adolescent dyads completed an open-ended interview, self-report measures of conflict, and an observational measure of family interaction. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that mothers’ and adolescents’ beliefs about the costs and benefits of conflict significantly predicted how they interacted and perceived conflict within dyads. Sex differences and differences between mothers and adolescents were identified. This work contributes to our understanding of the role of both general and specific beliefs in family conflict.     

The wrecking effects of race and social class on self and success

The literature on success neurosis has expanded in recent years to include a consideration of preoedipal as well as oedipal factors. Typically, success neurosis is considered to be a symptomatic result of complex intrapsychic phenomena, whether they be at the oedipal and/or preoedipal level. Having previously considered that success neurosis can also be determined by internalized representations of "real" factors, such as racism and poverty (Holmes, in press, b) the author here considers how these factors become primary intrapsychic building blocks of success neurosis through their negative impact on the components of success in the self and the ego.     

Sublexical and Lexical Influences on Gender Assignment in French

Two experiments showed that French native speakers rely on sublexical and lexical cues to allocate gender during word recognition. Sublexical cues were based on whether the word ending was typical for a particular gender rather than neutral with regard to gender. Lexical cues were based on whether the associated definite article was informative (for words beginning with a consonant) or uninformative (for words beginning with a vowel). Classification of single nouns and verification of grammatical combinations of indefinite article and noun led to longer times when both sublexical and lexical cues were uninformative compared with when one or both cues were informative. Verification of ungrammatical combinations of indefinite article and noun yielded separate effects of both cues, though only when monitoring for both semantic and syntactic unacceptability in meaningful phrases did people attend to both cues independently. It was argued that people became more cautious in their gender assignments as task requirements became deeper. If strategic changes as a function of task demands are incorporated, the results are compatible with connectionist models proposing that gender decisions are computed from strength of past associations of the word and gender-specifying elements.     

Haptic perception of texture gradients

To pick up 3-D aspects of pictures is arguably the most difficult problem concerning tactile pictorial perception by the blind. The aim of the experiments reported was to examine the potential utility of texture gradients in this context. Since there is no theoretical basis for predicting absolute values of 3-D properties from 2-D patterns read by the finger pads, the abilities of participants to perceive gradients lying between known maxima and minima were assessed. Experiment 1 involved blindfolded sighted participants making verbal magnitude estimations of texture-gradient magnitudes corresponding to plane surfaces at different slants. In experiment 2 the participants' task was to orient a surface at a slant corresponding to the texture gradients depicted tactually, and experiment 3 required early-blind participants to attempt the same task. The results revealed that participants can scale the magnitudes of texture gradients with high precision and that they can also accurately produce surface slants from depictions, providing the extreme conditions are clearly defined and there are opportunities for learning. Texture gradients appear as informative to the blind as they do to the sighted. To what extent these data can be generalised to other gradients and textures or to other projections of 3-D scenes remains to be investigated.     

Interpretive habit is strengthened by cognitive bias modification

We investigated the nature of the memory mechanisms underlying cognitive bias modification by applying Jacoby's (1991) process-dissociation procedure to responses during the transfer task. In the two training conditions (negative and benign), students imagined themselves in 100 ambiguous scenarios, most with potentially negative resolutions; the ambiguity was resolved in a consistently negative or benign direction by completing the fragment of a final word. Control participants completed non-ambiguous, non-emotional scenarios. Next all participants responded on a final training block, where half of the scenarios were completed negatively and half benignly. Transfer was assessed by examining choices in the completion of test scenarios when participants were instructed to respond in the same way as they had to a final-block training scenario that was situationally similar. Benign training facilitated correct responding to benign analogues and impaired correct responding to negative analogues. Performance in the negative-training and control conditions was similar. Process-dissociation procedures revealed that this newly established habit and not controlled recollection provided the basis for transfer.