Children's and adolescents' perception of the authenticity of smiles

Recently, Thibault and colleagues described the Duchenne marker as a cultural dialect for the perception of smile authenticity. The current study had the goal to follow up on this finding and to investigate the cues that French Canadian children use to evaluate the authenticity of smiles from members of three ethnic groups. The authenticity of six smiles differing in intensity and presence of orbicularis oculi (Duchenne marker) was rated by 1206 children from 4 to 17 years of age. No differences were found as a function of encoder group. All children perceived medium Duchenne smiles as more authentic than equally intense medium non-Duchenne smiles. Furthermore, results suggest a decrease in the reliance on intensity across the age span. Younger children use the intensity marker along the whole continuum to infer authenticity. In contrast, older children (14- to 17-year-olds) rated all smiles that did not contain the Duchenne marker as roughly equally low in authenticity.     

Comparison of perceptual and motor latencies via anticipatory and reactive response times

To compare the timing of perceptual and motor decisions, distinct tasks have been designed, all of which have yielded systematic differences between these two moments. These observations have been taken as evidence of a sensorimotor dissociation. Inasmuch as the distinction between perceptual and motor decision moments is conceptually warranted, this conclusion remains debatable, since the observed differences may reflect the dissimilarity between the stimulations/tasks used to assess them. Here, we minimize such dissimilarities by comparing response time (RT) and anticipatory RT (ART), an alternative technique with which to infer the relative perceptual decision moments. Observers pressed a key either in synchrony with the third of a sequence of three stimuli appearing at a constant pace (ART) or in response to the onset of this third stimulus presented at a random interval after the second (RT). Hence, the two stimulation sequences were virtually identical. Both the mean and the variance of RT were affected by stimulus intensity about 1.5 times more than were the mean and the variance of ART. Within the framework of two simple integration-to-bound models, these findings are compatible with the hypothesis that perceptual and motor decisions operate on the same internal signal but are based on distinct criteria, with the perceptual criterion lower than the motor one.     

Generalizations of Paradoxical Results in Multidimensional Item Response Theory

Maximum likelihood and Bayesian ability estimation in multidimensional item response models can lead to paradoxical results as proven by Hooker, Finkelman, and Schwartzman (Psychometrika 74(3): 419–442, 2009): Changing a correct response on one item into an incorrect response may produce a higher ability estimate in one dimension. Furthermore, the conditions under which this paradox arises are very general, and may in fact be fulfilled by many of the multidimensional scales currently in use. This paper tries to emphasize and extend the generality of the results of Hooker et al. by (1) considering the paradox in a generalized class of IRT models, (2) giving a weaker sufficient condition for the occurrence of the paradox with relations to an important concept of statistical association, and by (3) providing some additional specific results for linearly compensatory models with special emphasis on the factor analysis model.     

EEG source imaging during two Qigong meditations

Experienced Qigong meditators who regularly perform the exercises "Thinking of Nothing" and "Qigong" were studied with multichannel EEG source imaging during their meditations. The intracerebral localization of brain electric activity during the two meditation conditions was compared using sLORETA functional EEG tomography. Differences between conditions were assessed using t statistics (corrected for multiple testing) on the normalized and log-transformed current density values of the sLORETA images. In the EEG alpha-2 frequency, 125 voxels differed significantly; all were more active during "Qigong" than "Thinking of Nothing," forming a single cluster in parietal Brodmann areas 5, 7, 31, and 40, all in the right hemisphere. In the EEG beta-1 frequency, 37 voxels differed significantly; all were more active during "Thinking of Nothing" than "Qigong," forming a single cluster in prefrontal Brodmann areas 6, 8, and 9, all in the left hemisphere. Compared to combined initial-final no-task resting, "Qigong" showed activation in posterior areas whereas "Thinking of Nothing" showed activation in anterior areas. The stronger activity of posterior (right) parietal areas during "Qigong" and anterior (left) prefrontal areas during "Thinking of Nothing" may reflect a predominance of self-reference, attention and input-centered processing in the "Qigong" meditation, and of control-centered processing in the "Thinking of Nothing" meditation.     

The Impact of Type of Examples on Originality: Explaining Fixation and Stimulation Effects

There are obstacles to creativity: one of them is called fixation effect, the fact that some knowledge about existing or obvious solutions is spontaneously activated and constrains the generation of new solutions. Converging evidence in cognitive psychology has indicated that the ability to generate original ideas can be limited by recently activated knowledge, such as examples of solutions. On the other hand, neuroimaging studies have recently demonstrated that exposure to examples could, on the contrary, have a stimulating effect on originality. To make sense of what seems to be contradictory studies, we hypothesized that two types of examples could have opposite effects on originality: (1) restrictive examples—within the fixation effect—could lead to a reduction in the originality of the solutions, whereas (2) expansive examples—outside the fixation effect—could provoke solutions of higher originality. Results from a total of 160 participants confirmed that the solutions proposed by the group exposed to restrictive examples were less original than those given by the group exposed to expansive examples.     

Clinical and psychopathological research on attachment: the contribution of the psychic envelopes model

This paper proposes to put into perspective the attachment model (Bowlby) and that of psychic envelopes (Anzieu) so as to grasp the contribution of attachment theory to the field of psychopathology. Having laid the foundations of the epistemological debate between these two models, relying on a discussion of the stakes inherent in the psychoaffective development approach, the author refers to current forms of psychopathology, which draw massively on the borderline and narcissistic concepts, in order to discuss the sense and benefits of the “skin–ego” model as an alternative and complement to attachment theory. Beyond altering reference models in psychopathology, this debate and related inputs lead to consider therapeutic applications through a combination of the notion of “caregiving group” – a group version of the attachment figure – and the notion of therapeutic offer as a necessary alternative to the ideology of demand.     

IS EPISTEMIC AGENCY POSSIBLE?

There are mental actions, and a number of epistemic attitudes involve activity. But can there be epistemic agency? I argue that there is a limit to any claim that we can be epistemic agents, which is that the structure of reasons for epistemic attitudes differs fundamentally from the structure of reasons for actions. The main differences are that we cannot act for the wrong reasons although we can believe for the wrong reasons, and that reasons for beliefs are exclusive in a sense in which our reasons for actions are not. Epistemic agency is possible in the weak sense that we can be active, but not in the strong one in which we could have some elbow room for our epistemic reasons in reasoning leading to beliefs and other epistemic states.     

II. Rejoinder to Gray and Wolfe

This rejoinder to J. Patrick Gray's and Linda Wolfe's ‘The Loving Parent Meets the Selfish Gene’ (Inquiry, this issue), which in turn was in response to the author's ‘Human Tragedy and Natural Selection’ (Inquiry, Vol. 21, No. 4), briefly addresses their major objections and suggests that in many instances they have misunderstood the point of that paper. They argue that many of the traits referred to are more cultural than genetic. That this is not the central issue is made clearer by stressing certain aspects of the view underlying the original article, chiefly concerning the extent of human irrationality and insensitivity.     

Empty Depth,Empty Breadth,and the Forging of a Therapeutic Alliance

This paper describes a case in which analyst and analysand became interlocked in battles that drew out the 'mad' parts of each other. It explores how the extreme conflict may have actually been an integral part of what has become a truly therapeutic process for both. Theoretically, the dialectical movement of becoming through contradiction is used to help explicate how mutually destructive enactments were necessary building blocks of genuine intimacy.