Does a yellow filter improve visual object categorization in normal aging?

Previous studies have shown that a yellow filter (CPF450) can increase contrast, motion sensitivity, vergence, and accommodation. We investigated whether a yellow filter can reduce age-related visual deficits. We tested two groups of 60 observers (mean age 24 vs. 72) in an object categorization task. Grayscale photographs of natural objects and artifacts were displayed either centrally or peripherally (21°) at low (8%) or medium (30%) contrast. There were three filter conditions (no filter, placebo filter, and yellow filter). Both groups of observers performed similarly on central and medium-contrast pictures. The deleterious effects of reduced contrast and eccentricity were stronger in elderly individuals. Moreover, the yellow filter globally improved the speed of categorization for the elderly participants. The decrease in response time in the yellow filter condition was larger when the stimuli were displayed peripherally in both groups. A yellow filter should be considered as a potential means for visual improvement in normal aging.     

Bayesian inference for psychology. Part II: Example applications with JASP

Bayesian hypothesis testing presents an attractive alternative to p value hypothesis testing. Part I of this series outlined several advantages of Bayesian hypothesis testing, including the ability to quantify evidence and the ability to monitor and update this evidence as data come in, without the need to know the intention with which the data were collected. Despite these and other practical advantages, Bayesian hypothesis tests are still reported relatively rarely. An important impediment to the widespread adoption of Bayesian tests is arguably the lack of user-friendly software for the run-of-the-mill statistical problems that confront psychologists for the analysis of almost every experiment: the t-test, ANOVA, correlation, regression, and contingency tables. In Part II of this series we introduce JASP (http://www.jasp-stats.org), an open-source, cross-platform, user-friendly graphical software package that allows users to carry out Bayesian hypothesis tests for standard statistical problems. JASP is based in part on the Bayesian analyses implemented in Morey and Rouder’s BayesFactor package for R. Armed with JASP, the practical advantages of Bayesian hypothesis testing are only a mouse click away.     

Bayesian inference for psychology. Part I: Theoretical advantages and practical ramifications

Bayesian parameter estimation and Bayesian hypothesis testing present attractive alternatives to classical inference using confidence intervals and p values. In part I of this series we outline ten prominent advantages of the Bayesian approach. Many of these advantages translate to concrete opportunities for pragmatic researchers. For instance, Bayesian hypothesis testing allows researchers to quantify evidence and monitor its progression as data come in, without needing to know the intention with which the data were collected. We end by countering several objections to Bayesian hypothesis testing. Part II of this series discusses JASP, a free and open source software program that makes it easy to conduct Bayesian estimation and testing for a range of popular statistical scenarios (Wagenmakers et al. this issue).     

Aphemia after a penetrating brain wound: A case study

The speech of a patient with aphemia (pure anarthria) resulting from a penetrating brain wound was studied using linguistic and acoustic observations as well as electromyographic recordings from four labial muscles. The results are discussed in relation to phonetic disintegration's syndrome and apraxia of speech which, respectively, enhance linguistic disorders and motor programming disturbance.     

Maternal and Paternal Depressive Symptoms as Predictors of Toddler Adjustment

In this study we explored the relation between maternal and paternal depressive symptoms and toddler adjustment in a community sample, testing direct, additive, and interactive models of parental depressive symptoms and child adjustment. Participants were 49 families with 30-month-old children. Data were collected on maternal and paternal depressive symptoms and marital quality, as well as on toddler internalizing and externalizing behavior. The data supported an additive, but not interactive, model of prediction to externalizing behavior, such that maternal and paternal symptoms each accounted for unique variance in the prediction of toddler externalizing. Models predicting toddler internalizing were not significant. Maternal reports of marital quality, but not paternal reports of marital quality, reduced the magnitude of the relation between symptoms and child externalizing when entered as a covariate. Implications for depression screening of parents are discussed.     

Balint's Influence on Contemporary Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice

Invited by the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center in New York to lecture on my book Michael Balint: Le renouveau de l'Ecole de Budapest, Toulouse, Erès 2000, I first gave my personal and analytic motivations for writing this book. Then I stressed Balint's original contributions to analytical theory and practice: the object relation combined with the theory of instinct, the development of the infant, adolescent and even of old age, the basic fault, archaic defenses (such as ocnophilia and philobatism), as well as his idea about analytic treatment with its phases of regression and "new beginning". His style and his discretion in treatment and mainly the responsibility he recommended to the analysts seem to me very important not to forget. I have shown him as Ferenczi's heir and how he continued his work. His clinical approach and his style are evoked to alert contemporary analysts--who sometimes just know his method to train general practitioners through the Balint group--that they have been influenced unbeknown to them.     

An ecological approach to cognitive enhancement: Complex motor training

Cognitive training has received a lot of attention recently, yielding findings that can be conflicting and controversial. In this paper, we present a novel approach to cognitive training based on complex motor activities. In a randomized controlled design, participants were assigned to one of three conditions: aerobic exercise, working memory training or designed sport — an intervention specifically tailored to include both physical and cognitive demands. After training for eight weeks, the designed sport group showed the largest gains in all cognitive measures, illustrating the efficacy of complex motor activities to enhance cognition. Designed sport training also revealed impressive health benefits, namely decreased heart rate and blood pressure. In this period of skepticism over the efficacy of computerized cognitive training, we discuss the potential of ecological interventions targeting both cognition and physical fitness, and propose some possible applications.