Bias-free improvement in wine discrimination.

Over three test sessions alternated with two training sessions, accuracy of 'same'/'different' judgments of four dry, white wines improved 14%. Confidence ratings were obtained so that the area under the isosensitivity curve could be computed as a bias-free measure of accuracy while the wine used for same pairs was held constant. An initial bias for 'different' judgments persisted, rather than disappearing as Walk found. While perceptual learning did occur, the problem of attending to irrelevant differences was not overcome.     

Rapid reacquisition of native phoneme contrasts after disuse: you do not always lose what you do not use

Infants attune to their birth language during the second half of infancy. However, internationally adopted children are often uniquely required to attune to their birth language, and then reattune to their adoptive language. Children who were adopted from India into America at ages 6-60 months (N = 8) and had minimal further exposure to their birth languages were compared to age-matched American non-adopted controls. Without training, neither group could discriminate a phonemic contrast that occurs in their birth language but not in English. However, after training on the contrast, the adopted group (N = 8) improved significantly and discriminated the contrast more accurately than their non-adopted peers. While English had explicitly replaced the birth language of the adopted sample, traces of early exposure conferred privileges on subsequent learning. These findings are consistent with behavioral and neurophysiological data from animals that have identified some of the mechanisms underlying such a 'retention without further use' phenomenon.     

Do psychosocial and study skill factors predict college outcomes? Comment on Robbins et al. (2004)

Evidence is cited in support of the claim that the results of the meta-analyses conducted by S. B. Robbins et al. (2004) are not generalizable to either baccalaureate-granting commuter institutions or certain demographically identified subgroups of students.     

College students, tattoos, and sexual activity

This research examined the association of having a tattoo and engaging in premarital sexual intercourse. Data gathered from a convenience sample of 450 college students indicated that tattooed respondents were substantively and significantly more likely to be sexually active than nontattooed college students. Tattooed men became sexually active at a significantly earlier age than nontattooed men but no such difference was found between tattooed and nontattooed college women.     

FMRI of two measures of phonological processing in visual word recognition: ecological validity matters

Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have investigated the role of phonological processing by utilizing nonword rhyming decision tasks (e.g., Pugh et al., 1996). Although such tasks clearly engage phonological components of visual word recognition, it is clear that decision tasks are more cognitively involved than the simple overt naming tasks, which more closely map onto normal reading behavior. Our research aim for this study was to examine the advantages of overt naming tasks for fMRI studies of word recognition processes. Process models are presented to highlight the similarities and differences between two cognitive tasks that are used in the word recognition literature, pseudohomophone naming (e.g., pronounce BRANE) and rhyming decision (e.g., do LEAT and JEAT rhyme?). An fMRI study identified several differences in cortical activation associated with the differences observed in the process models. Specifically, the results show that the overt naming task involved the insular cortex and inferior frontal gyrus, whereas the rhyming decision task engaged the temporal-parietal regions. It is argued that future fMRI research examining the neuroanatomical components of basic visual word recognition utilize overt naming tasks.     

Exploring the similarities and differences between person-centred and psychodynamic therapy

Person-centred therapy is compared to the psychodynamic approach defined by Hans Strupp and Jeffrey Binder. Their broad-based time-limited version is chosen because it is a precise manual ofhow to practise that has been assembled from 30 years of research and practice experience. It is demonstrated that person-centred practice and theory are psychodynamic in a general psychoanalytic sense because they refer to unconscious processes. Furthermore, it is proposed that person-centred practice could be enriched by reconsidering the differences to and similarities with psychodynamic therapy, thereby establishing greater clarity about each form of practice and further defining the boundary between these similar forms of relationship and feeling-oriented work.     

Oculomanual Coordination in Tracking of Pseudorandom Target Motion Stimuli

Oculomanual coordination was investigated in 9 healthy subjects during tracking of pseudorandom motion stimuli. Each subject was required to track visual stimuli under eye-hand (EH) and eye-alone (EA) conditions. Subjects were exposed to 3 types of mixed sinusoidal stimulus with varying frequency or amplitude of the highest frequency component, or various degrees of irregularity. Progressive degradation in tracking performance was nonlinearly induced by an increase in either (a) the highest frequency component or (b) its amplitude, but not by stimulus irregularity. No significant difference was found in eye velocity gain and phase under the EH and EA conditions. Eye and hand responses were found to be highly correlated in gain and phase when compared across frequencies and motion stimuli. The results suggest that frequency and amplitude are dominant factors controlling the breakdown of oculomanual performance in response to pseudorandom stimuli. Frequency responses of smooth pursuit eye movements are not affected by the hand motion in pursuit of unpredictable stimuli. Eye and hand motor systems appear to share common nonlinear drive mechanisms when pursuing pseudorandom target motion stimuli.