Specificity of learning in a video-aiming task: modifying the salience of dynamic visual cues

The authors investigated whether the salience of dynamic visual information in a video-aiming task mediates the specificity of practice. Thirty participants practiced video-aiming movements in a full-vision, a weak-vision, or a target-only condition before being transferred to the target-only condition without knowledge of results. The full- and weak-vision conditions resulted in less endpoint bias and variability in acquisition than did the target-only condition. Going from acquisition to transfer resulted in a large increase in endpoint variability for the full-vision group but not for the weak-vision or target-only groups. Kinematic analysis revealed that weak dynamic visual cues do not mask the processing of other sources of afferent information; unlike strong visual cues, weak visual cues help individuals calibrate less salient sources of afferent information, such as proprioception.     

Visual search for object orientation can be modulated by canonical orientation

The authors studied the influence of canonical orientation on visual search for object orientation. Displays consisted of pictures of animals whose axis of elongation was either vertical or tilted in their canonical orientation. Target orientation could be either congruent or incongruent with the object's canonical orientation. In Experiment 1, vertical canonical targets were detected faster when they were tilted (incongruent) than when they were vertical (congruent). This search asymmetry was reversed for tilted canonical targets. The effect of canonical orientation was partially preserved when objects were high-pass filtered, but it was eliminated when they were low-pass filtered, rendering them as unfamiliar shapes (Experiment 2). The effect of canonical orientation was also eliminated by inverting the objects (Experiment 3) and in a patient with visual agnosia (Experiment 4). These results indicate that orientation search with familiar objects can be modulated by canonical orientation, and they indicate a top-down influence on orientation processing.     

Learning to optimize speed, accuracy, and energy expenditure: a framework for understanding speed-accuracy relations in goal-directed aiming

Over the last century, investigators have developed a number of models to explain the relation between speed and accuracy in target-directed manual aiming. The models vary in the extent to which they stress the importance of feedforward processes and the online use of sensory information (see D. Elliott, W. F. Helsen, & R. Chua, 2001, for a recent review). A common feature of those models is that the role of practice in optimizing speed, accuracy, and energy expenditure in goal-directed aiming is either ignored or minimized. The authors present a theoretical framework for understanding speed-accuracy tradeoffs that takes into account the strategic, trial-to-trial behavior of the performer. The strategic behavior enables individuals to maximize movement speed while minimizing error and energy expenditure.     

The puzzle of language evolution

Linguistics must again concentrate on the evolutionary nature of language, so that language models are more realistic with respect to human natural languages and have a greater explanatory force. Multi-agent systems are proposed as a possible route to develop such evolutionary models and an example is given of a concrete experiment in the origins and evolution of word-meaning based on a multi-agent approach.     

Loneliness and depressive symptoms: the mediating and moderating role of uncontrollable ruminative thoughts

Although feelings of loneliness often are accompanied by depressive symptoms, little is known about underlying mechanisms in this association. The present study sampled 370 college freshmen and investigated whether rumination (and its components of Uncontrollability, Causal Analysis, and Understanding) functioned as a mediator or moderator in the relationship between 2 types of loneliness (as experienced in the relationship with parents and with peers, respectively) and depressive symptoms. Results indicated that rumination partially mediated the relationship between peer-related loneliness and depressive symptoms and moderated the relationship between parent-related loneliness and depressive symptoms. In addition, the uncontrollable nature, rather than the content, of these ruminative thoughts about parent- and peer-related loneliness was particularly harmful in the development of depressive symptoms. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Reliability and validity evidence of the Out-group Threat Perception Scale (OTPS)

This study aimed to analyze the psychometric properties of a new scale: the Out-group Threat Perception Scale (OTPS). The OTPS was designed to measure the perception of out-group threat, an important psychosocial variable that is closely related to negative attitudes towards out-groups. Three hundred and two Spanish participants responded to the OTPS in reference to the following out-groups: Moroccans (N= 102), Romanians (N= 101) and Ecuadorian immigrants (N= 99). The reliability and item analyses showed that the scale had good internal consistency. Factor analyses yielded two independent dimensions: Realistic Threat and Symbolic Threat. Correlational analyses showed that the OTPS correlated significantly with several psychosocial variables. The present findings suggest that the OTPS is a reliable and valid measure, and it can be a useful instrument to study intergroup relationships in our country.     

Different sources of loneliness are associated with different forms of psychopathology in adolescence

The present study investigated associations between loneliness in different social relationships and indicators of psychopathology in adolescence. A nationally representative sample of 1009 high school students completed measures of three types of loneliness and six indicators of psychopathology. Results indicated that peer-related and family-related loneliness were associated with depression, anxiety, and suicide ideation, whereas peer-related and romantic loneliness were associated with social phobia. In contrast, only family-related loneliness was associated with deliberate self-harm and eating disorders. It is important, therefore, to distinguish between experiences of loneliness in different social relationships, in particular the peer versus the family setting, when investigating loneliness and psychopathology in adolescence.