Focusing attention on overlapping and non-overlapping figures with subjective contours

In a series of five experiments we investigated whether observers could focus attention on a restricted visual area that was demarcated by Kanizsa-like subjective contours, and whether this effect also occurred in the case of overlapping figures. The task was a simple reaction time to a luminance increment and the basic finding was that reaction time was faster when the imperative stimulus fell inside the focus of attention than when it fell outside. The first two experiments showed that the extent of the attentional focus could be adapted to a region that was demarcated by subjective contours, thus extending the results of previous studies that used regions demarcated by real contours. The last three experiments showed that, regardless of the type of margins, focusing was more efficient for the figure that was perceived as lying in front in a pair of overlapping figures. Received: 21 December 1999  / Accepted: 23 August 2000     

Psychological essentialism and the differential attribution of uniquely human emotions to ingroups and outgroups

According to the psychological essentialism perspective, people tend to explain differences between groups by attributing them different essences. Given a pervasive ethnocentrism, this tendency implies that the human essence will be restricted to the ingroup whereas outgroups will receive a lesser degree of humanity. Therefore, it is argued that people attribute more uniquely human characteristics to the ingroup than to the outgroup. The present article focuses on secondary emotions that constitute such characteristics. Study 1 showed that members of high‐ and low‐status groups attribute more positive secondary emotions to the ingroup than to the outgroup. Study 2 verified that the differential attribution extended also to negative secondary emotions. No exemplars of emotions were provided in Study 3. Instead, participants had to estimate the means of two distributions of numbers that supposedly represented characteristics of the ingroup and of the outgroup. The results of this third experiment illustrated the reluctance to attribute secondary emotions to the outgroup. The findings are discussed from the perspective of psychological essentialism. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrating Dimensional and Discrete Theories of Emotions: A New Set of Anger- and Fear-Eliciting Stimuli for Children

The selection of appropriate stimuli for inducing specific emotional states has become one of the most challenging topics in psychological research. In the literature there is a lack of affective picture database specifically suited to investigate emotional response in children. Here the authors present the methodology that led us to create a new database (called Anger- and Fear-Eliciting Stimuli for Children) of affective stimuli inducing experiences of 3 target emotions (neutral, anger, and fear) to use in experimental session involving children. A total of 84 children were asked to (a) indicate the perceived emotion and its intensity and (b) rate the three affective dimensions of the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). Based on concordance between labeled and expected target emotion, the authors decided to select 15 stimuli to be included in Multivariate modeling techniques were applied to evaluate the association between expected target emotion and SAM ratings. The authors found that the hit rate for the neutral pictures was good (greater than 81%), for fear-eliciting pictures it was greater than 64%, and for anger-eliciting pictures it was moderate (between 45% and 56%). The study results reveal also an age effect only in the arousal scale. However, the authors did not find significant gender-related differences in SAM ratings.     

Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire—Body Image: Psychometric Properties and Its Incremental Power in the Prediction of Binge Eating Severity

Given the clinical usefulness of the CFQ-BI (Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire—Body Image; the only existing measure to assess the body-image-related cognitive fusion), the present study aimed to confirm its one-factor structure, to verify its measurement invariance between clinical and non-clinical samples, to analyze its internal consistency and sensitivity to detect differences between samples, as well as to explore the incremental and convergent validities of the CFQ-BI scores in Brazilian samples. This was a cross-sectional study, which was conducted in clinical (women with overweight or obesity in treatment for weight loss) and non-clinical samples (women from the general population). The one-factor structure was confirmed showing factorial measurement invariance across clinical and non-clinical samples. The CFQ-BI scores presented an excellent internal consistency, were able to discriminate clinical and non-clinical samples, and were positively associated with binge eating severity, general cognitive fusion, and psychological inflexibility. Furthermore, body-image-related cognitive fusion scores (CFQ-BI) presented incremental validity over a general measure of cognitive fusion in the prediction of binge eating symptoms. This study demonstrated that CFQ-BI is a short scale with reliable and robust scores in Brazilian samples, presenting incremental and convergent validities, measurement invariance, and sensitivity to detect differences between clinical and non-clinical groups of women, enabling comparative studies between them.     

Gender differences in reaction to psychological pressure: evidence from tennis players

Using data on about 35,000 professional tennis matches, we test whether men and women react differently to psychological pressure arising from the outcomes of sequential stages in a competition. We show that, with respect to men, women losing the first set are much more likely to play poorly the second set. This suggests that women are more discouraged when facing the pressure of falling behind and receiving negative feedback. The gender differential is stronger in high-stake matches. On the other hand, when players are tied in the third set we do not find any gender difference in players’ reactions suggesting that women are as able as men to handle pressure if they do not lag behind. These results are robust controlling for measures of abilities and fitness of players, such as players’ rankings, players’ ex-ante winning probability, players’ rest, monetary prizes, players’ and tournaments’ fixed effects.     

On the control of visual spatial attention: evidence from human electrophysiology

We used electrophysiological methods to track the deployment of visual spatial attention while observers were engaged in concurrent central attentional processing, using a variant of the attentional blink paradigm. Two visual targets (T₁, T₂) were presented at a stimulus onset asynchrony of either 200 ms or 800 ms. T₁ was a white digit among white letters presented on a dark background using rapid serial visual presentation at fixation. T₂ was another digit that was presented to the left or right of fixation simultaneously with a distractor digit in the opposite visual field, each followed by a pattern mask. In each T₂ display, one digit was red and one was green. Half of the subjects reported the red digit and ignored the green one, whereas the other half reported the green digit and ignored the red one. T₁ and T₂ were reported in one block of trials, and only T₂ in another block (order counterbalanced across subjects). Accuracy of report of T₂ was lower at short SOA than at long SOA when both T₁ and T₂ were reported, but was similar across SOA when only T₂ was reported. The electrophysiological results focused on the N2pc component, which was used as an index of the locus of spatial attention. N2pc was reduced in amplitude when subjects reported T₁, and particularly so at the short SOA. The results suggest that attention to T₁ interfered with the deployment of visual spatial attention to T₂.     

Assessing the automaticity of intramodal and crossmodal spatial attentional orienting

Clark and Chalmers (1998) have argued that mental states can be extended outside an organism's skin. In response to some worries about the availability, reliability and portability of such extended resources, Clark (2005) offers a set of rough criteria that non-biological objects must fulfil to legitimately ground mental states. One such criterion is that the information retrieved from these non-biological sources be (more or less) automatically endorsed. But Sterelny (2003, 2005) has persuasively argued that the extended sphere is epistemologically opaque: a domain of contested truth and deliberate deception. As such, retrieving information from this domain requires the deployment of social guards for the information to remain reliable. But deploying such guards would seem to endanger endorsability by increasing cognitive load. Here I demonstrate that deploying social guards does not increase cognitive load if the guards are implemented in a highly distributed connectionist economy or off-loaded to the external environment.     

When "macrocefalo (macrocephalous)" is read "minicervello (minibrain)": evidence from a single case study

We report the case of a patient who showed a marked deficit in compound reading after almost complete recovery from his aphasic disturbances. Omission of one of the two compound components was his most frequent type of error. The patient also produced many paraphasias, which always respected the compound structure of the target. Similar errors were found on tasks of naming and writing to dictation. A deficit in retrieving the verb component of verb-noun compounds was also observed, consistent with the patient's residual agrammatism, and with decomposition at some point in processing. We suggest that this pattern of performance is compatible with a dual route model that hypothesises two stages of compound retrieval, a whole word stage followed by a decomposition into two constituent morphemes.     

Cognitive changes following subthalamic nucleus stimulation in two patients with Parkinson disease

The limits of a drug therapy in severe forms of Parkinson disease have led to refining neurosurgery on the basal ganglia. Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus has been recognized as one of the most promising techniques to decrease "off" motor symptoms and motor fluctuations, allowing a reduction of drug therapy and limiting side effects of the drugs. There is still open debate on the possible consequences of chronic subthalamic stimulation in other ways, apart from motor symptoms, of general cognitive performance. We examined and followed two patients with Parkinson disease for 9 mo. after surgery for deep stimulation, studying their cognitive performances. There is a general amelioration of cognitive performances, in particular as far as linguistic capabilities is concerned. We discuss the possible significance of these results, reminding strenuously that only two patients were involved, so the potential for generalization is seriously limited.