The experience of feeling fat for women with anorexia nervosa: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

Feeling fat has been implicated as a maintenance factor in anorexia nervosa (AN), despite limited research into the experience. This study expanded the literature by exploring the lived experience of feeling fat for women with a diagnosis of AN. Seven women participated in this study and data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed to explore the participants’ experience of ‘feeling fat’ and its relevance for clinical treatment. Four main themes emerged from the data: ‘negative sense of self’, ‘feeling out of control’, ‘coping with feeling fat’, and ‘making sense of feeling fat is complex’. These results highlight feeling fat as a significant experience and maintenance factor for women with a diagnosis of AN. Implications for addressing feeling fat within psychological therapy are explored.     

Differences in the neurocognitive profiles of professional and semi-professional male South African rugby union players

This study investigated possible cognitive functioning profile differences between professional and semi-professional rugby players. Seventy-nine male rugby union players (professional = 55, semi-professional = 24; age range = 19–37 years) participated in the study. The players completed a battery of neuropsychological functioning tests covering the following domains: memory tasks, attention and behavioural tasks, sensory-motor tasks, executive functioning tasks, verbal tasks, and emotion identification tasks. Results following Fisher’s exact test comparisons revealed no significant group differences in the cognitive functioning profiles.     

Spatial balance of color triads in the abstract art of Piet Mondrian

We examined the interactive contribution of the color and size of the three areas occupied by the primary colors red, yellow, and blue in adaptations of abstract compositions by Mondrian to the perceived weight of the areas and the location of the balance centers of the compositions. Thirty-six art stimuli were created by experimentally changing the colors in the three areas of six original works so that the resulting five variations and the original constituted the six possible spatial arrangements of the three colors in the three locations. In experiment 1, design-trained and untrained participants determined the location of the balance center of each composition seen on a computer screen and rated the apparent weight or heaviness of each color area. In experiment 2, untrained participants determined the location of the balance centers of the compositions when projected to their actual size. It was found that, for both trained and untrained participants, the perceived weight of a color, especially red and yellow, varied as a function of the size of the area it occupied. Furthermore, participants in both experiments perceived shifts in the locations of the balance centers between the originals and their altered versions. Only the trained participants, however, perceived significant shifts in balance centers among the five variations of the compositions, demonstrating their superior sensitivity to the contribution of color to balance structure. Taken together, the findings demonstrate the existence of a color-area-weight relationship among color triads in abstract displays and the influence of this relationship on color balance in abstract compositions.     

Elemental operations in vision

Many cognitive tasks are serial in that they require several steps that have to be carried out in a sequence. Here, I outline a new theory of how these processing steps are implemented in vision by networks of neurons that span several areas of the cerebral cortex. The theory explains how individual neurons can contribute to the elementary processing steps, and also how several processing steps can be arranged in a sequence to form more complex visual routines, just as computer programs can be composed of sequences of instructions. Evidence in support of the theory comes from recent neurophysiological findings in monkeys engaged in complex visual tasks. It is likely that future work will allow these ideas to be generalized to other sensory modalities and cognitive functions.     

Influence of different modes of real time visual information on single aimed movements

This study shows that the difference in appearance between two types of computer generated real time visual information namely, cursor and trace feedback, becomes visible in the execution of aimed stylus movements. Movement execution was scrutinized by division into four relevant subsequent constituents on the basis of key kinematic events. As expected, the final section of a movement took more time and showed a larger number of adjustments in the cursor condition. Instead, the influence of trace feedback on movement execution became discernible in earlier sections of movement execution. When a combination of feedback types was employed, trace feedback seemed to dominate the impact on execution. Discussion focuses on the contribution of the present study to understanding the impact of specific features inherent to types of real time visual feedback, and the relevance of the present study's result to future research.     

Processing of emotional information in seasonal depression across different cognitive measures

This study examined memory for emotional material, endorsement of emotional adjectives, and negative attributional style (NAS) in seasonal affective disorder (SAD). SAD patients showed elevated NAS and increased endorsement of negative self-referent adjectives, but no memory bias for negative material, when compared with never-depressed controls. Longitudinal analyses revealed that none of these cognitive measures significantly predicted later symptom levels independent of initial symptom levels, in the SAD patients. The cross-sectional findings for adjective endorsement and memory were replicated in a second experiment. These data provide further evidence that depression-related memory effects in SAD are different from those found in nonseasonal depression. Accounts of these differences involving putative mood-repair processes and/or an absence of dysfunctional negative schemas in SAD are discussed.     

The stress and coping questionnaire for children (school version and asthma version): construction,factor structure,and psychometric properties

Based on Lazarus and Folkman's 1984 Stress-Coping Model, a self-report measure for children between 8 and 12 years of age was constructed. It is called the Stress and Coping Questionnaire for Children (School version and Asthma version) and measures children's emotional responses and coping strategies when they confront school-related and asthma-related stressors. The factor structure of this questionnaire was assessed and cross-validated in two samples, one of 392 primary school children without a chronic disease and one of 119 children with asthma. Five scales of coping strategies with regard to two school-related stressors and one asthma-related stressor were distinguished in a reliable way, Approach, Avoidance, Seeking Social Support, Aggression, and Crying.     

Improved calibration of color video projectors by means of computer animation

A computer animation for the calibration of color video projectors is described. The animation facilitates the calibration procedure and can be readily programmed on almost any graphics computer or played from a videotape.