Aesthetics of streetscapes: influence of fundamental properties on aesthetic judgments of urban space

This experiment was designed to investigate the relationship between the fundamental visual, spatial properties of existing complex streetscapes and aesthetic judgments. Participants performed aesthetic judgments over 35 photographs of typical spatial situations taken along the Meissner Strasse in Radebeul, Germany. In a modified Q-Sort procedure, the participants assigned the pictures to five categories, including 1 (beautiful) and 5 (not beautiful). Vegetation, Stylistic Uniformity, Homogeneity of Scale, and Symmetry were identified as primary components of aesthetic judgment by using principal component analysis. Stimuli, photographically edited according to these factors, were then tested using the same Q-Sort procedure, which confirmed these determinants. These results are intended to help the development of the theoretical understanding of the link between the influence of selected spatial properties and the aesthetic judgment of the visual quality of urban spaces.     

Microsaccadic modulation of response times in spatial attention tasks

Covert shifts of attention are usually reflected in RT differences between responses to valid and invalid cues in the Posner spatial attention task. Such inferences about covert shifts of attention do not control for microsaccades in the cue-target interval. We analyzed the effects of microsaccade orientation on RTs in four conditions, crossing peripheral visual and auditory cues with peripheral visual and auditory discrimination targets. Reaction time was generally faster on trials without microsaccades in the cue-target interval. If microsaccades occurred, the target-location congruency of the last microsaccade in the cue-target interval interacted in a complex way with cue validity. For valid visual cues, irrespective of whether the discrimination target was visual or auditory, target-congruent microsaccades delayed RT. For invalid cues, target-incongruent microsaccades facilitated RTs for visual target discrimination but delayed RT for auditory target discrimination. No reliable effects on RT were associated with auditory cues or with the first microsaccade in the cue-target interval. We discuss theoretical implications on the relation about spatial attention and oculomotor processes.     

Midlife decline in declarative memory consolidation is correlated with a decline in slow wave sleep

Sleep architecture as well as memory function are strongly age dependent. Slow wave sleep (SWS), in particular, decreases dramatically with increasing age, starting already beyond the age of 30. SWS normally predominates during early nocturnal sleep and is implicated in declarative memory consolidation. However, the consequences of changes in sleep across the life span for sleep-associated memory consolidation have not been evaluated so far. Here, we compared declarative memory consolidation (for word-pair associates) during sleep in young and middle-aged healthy humans. The age groups (18–25 vs. 48–55 yr) did not differ with regard to learning performance before retention periods that covered, respectively, the first and second half of nocturnal sleep. However, after early retention sleep, where the younger subjects showed distinctly more SWS than the middle-aged (62.3 ± 3.7 min vs. 18.4 ± 7.2 min, P < 0.001), retrieval of the word pairs in the middle-aged was clearly worse than in the young (P < 0.001). In contrast, declarative memory retention did not differ between groups after late sleep, where retention was generally worse than after early sleep (P = 0.005). Retention of declarative memories was the same in both age groups when sleep periods containing equal amounts of SWS were compared, i.e., across late sleep in the young and across early sleep in the middle-aged. Our results indicate a decline in sleep-associated declarative memory consolidation that develops already during midlife and is associated with a decrease in early nocturnal SWS.     

Microsaccades keep the eyes' balance during fixation

During fixation of a stationary target, small involuntary eye movements exhibit an erratic trajectory-a random walk. Two types of these fixational eye movements are drift and microsaccades (small-amplitude saccades). We investigated fixational eye movements and binocular coordination using a statistical analysis that had previously been applied to human posture control. This random-walk analysis uncovered two different time scales in fixational eye movements and identified specific functions for microsaccades. On a short time scale, microsaccades enhanced perception by increasing fixation errors. On a long time scale, microsaccades reduced fixation errors and binocular disparity (relative to pure drift movements). Thus, our findings clarify the role of oculomotor processes during fixation.     

Eye movements and behavioral responses to threatening and nonthreatening stimuli during visual search in phobic and nonphobic subjects

Spider-phobic and nonphobic subjects searched for a feared/fear-relevant (spider) or neutral target (mushroom) presented in visual matrices of neutral objects (flowers). In half of the displays, the mushroom target was paired with a spider distractor, or a spider target was paired with a mushroom distractor. Although all subjects responded faster to the neutral target than to the feared/fear-relevant target, phobics were slower to respond than nonphobics when a mushroom target was presented with a spider distractor. Their eyes appeared to be drawn to the feared distractor before fixating neutral targets. A further experiment indicated no group differences when subjects merely judged the homogeneity of matrices. Thus, threat seems to capture the attention of phobics only when it is part of a background that subjects are explicitly instructed to ignore.     

Exploring the validity of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) with established emotions measures

Emotions measures represent an important means of obtaining construct validity evidence for emotional intelligence (EI) tests because they have the same theoretical underpinnings. Additionally, the extent to which both emotions and EI measures relate to intelligence is poorly understood. The current study was designed to address these issues. Participants (N = 138) completed the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), two emotions measures, as well as four intelligence tests. Results provide mixed support for the model hypothesized to underlie the MSCEIT, with emotions research and EI measures failing to load on the same factor. The emotions measures loaded on the same factor as intelligence measures. The validity of certain EI components (in particular, Emotion Perception), as currently assessed, appears equivocal.     

The general self-efficacy scale: multicultural validation studies

General self-efficacy is the belief in one's competence to cope with a broad range of stressful or challenging demands, whereas specific self-efficacy is constrained to a particular task at hand. Relations between general self-efficacy and social cognitive variables (intention, implementation intentions, outcome expectancies, and self-regulation), behavior-specific self-efficacy, health behaviors, well-being, and coping strategies were examined among 1,933 respondents in 3 countries: Germany (n = 633), Poland (n = 359), and South Korea (n = 941). Participants were between 16 and 86 years old, and some were dealing with stressful situations such as recovery from myocardial events or tumor surgery. Perceived self-efficacy was measured by means of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (R. Schwarzer & M. Jerusalem, 1995). Meta-analysis was used to determine population effect sizes for four sets of variables. Across countries and samples, there is consistent evidence for associations between perceived self-efficacy and the variables under study confirming the validity of the psychometric scale. General self-efficacy appears to be a universal construct that yields meaningful relations with other psychological constructs.