Race-based perceptual asymmetries underlying face processing in infancy

Adults process other-race faces differently than own-race faces. For instance, a single other-race face in an array of own-race faces attracts Caucasians’ attention, but a single own-race face among other-race faces does not. This perceptual asymmetry has been explained by the presence of an other-race feature in other-race faces and its absence in own-race faces; this difference is thought to underlie race-based differences in face processing. We examined the developmental origins of this mechanism in two groups of Caucasian 9-month-olds. Infants in the experimental group exhibited a preference for a pattern containing a single Asian face among seven Caucasian faces over a pattern containing a single Caucasian face among seven Asian faces. This preference was not driven by the majority of elements in the images, because a control group of infants failed to exhibit a preference between homogeneous patterns containing eight Caucasian versus eight Asian faces. The results demonstrate that an other-race face among own-race faces attracts infants’ attention but not vice versa. This perceptual asymmetry suggests that the other-race feature is available to Caucasians by 9 months of age, thereby indicating that mechanisms of specialization in face processing originate early in life.     

Manager personality, manager service quality orientation, and service climate: test of a model

This article conceptually and empirically explores the relationships among manager personality, manager service quality orientation, and climate for customer service. Data were collected from 1,486 employees and 145 managers in grocery store departments (N = 145) to test the authors' theoretical model. Largely consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that core self-evaluations were positively related to managers' service quality orientation, even after dimensions of the Big Five model of personality were controlled, and that service quality orientation fully mediated the relationship between personality and global service climate. Implications for personality and organizational climate research are discussed.     

Neural developmental changes in processing inverted faces

We explored developmental changes in neural substrates for face processing, using fMRI. Children and adults performed a perceptual-matching task with upright and inverted face and animal stimuli. Behaviorally, inversion disrupted face processing more than animal processing for adults and older children. In line with this behavioral pattern, the left middle occipital gyrus showed a stronger face than animal inversion effect in adults. Moreover, a superior aspect of this region showed a greater face inversion effect in older than in younger children, indicating a developmental change in the processing of inverted faces. The visual regions recruited for inverted face processing in adults also overlapped more with brain regions involved in the viewing of upright objects than with regions involved in the viewing of upright faces in an independent localizer task. Hence, when faces are inverted, adults recruit regions normally engaged for recognizing objects, possibly pointing to a role for the featural processing of inverted faces.     

Learning perceptual organization in infancy

It has been demonstrated that older infants (6- to 7-month-olds), but not younger infants (3- to 4-month-olds), use form similarity to organize stimuli consisting of X and O elements. We investigated whether utilization of form similarity is governed by maturation or experience by contrasting how infants perform when familiarized with a single exemplar versus multiple exemplars depicting a particular organization. In Experiment 1, 3- to 4-month-olds failed to organize alternating columns or rows of squares and diamonds or Hs and Is, respectively. In Experiment 2, same-aged infants familiarized with all three patterns (X-O, square-diamond, H-I) displayed evidence of organization. The results suggest that 3- to 4-month-olds can use form similarity to organize visual patterns in a concept-formation task. The findings imply that perceptual organization based on form similarity is learned through experience with multiple patterns depicting a common arrangement, rather than immediately apprehended in an individual pattern.     

Stimulation seeking and intelligence: a prospective longitudinal study

The prediction that high stimulation seeking 3-year-olds would have higher IQs by 11 years old was tested in 1,795 children on whom behavioral measures of stimulation seeking were taken at 3 years, together with cognitive ability at 11 years. High 3-year-old stimulation seekers scored 12 points higher on total IQ at age 11 compared with low stimulation seekers and also had superior scholastic and reading ability. Results replicated across independent samples and were found for all gender and ethnic groups. Effect sizes for the relationship between age 3 stimulation seeking and age 11 IQ ranged from 0.52 to 0.87. Findings appear to be the first to show a prospective link between stimulation seeking and intelligence. It is hypothesized that young stimulation seekers create for themselves an enriched environment that stimulates cognitive development.     

Development of form similarity as a Gestalt grouping principle in infancy

Given evidence demonstrating that infants 3 months of age and younger can utilize the Gestalt principle of lightness similarity to group visually presented elements into organized percepts, four experiments using the familiarization/novelty-preference procedure were conducted to determine whether infants can also organize visual pattern information in accord with the Gestalt principle of form similarity. In Experiments 1 and 2, 6- to 7-month-olds, but not 3- to 4-month-olds, presented with generalization and discrimination tasks involving arrays of X and O elements responded as if they organized the elements into columns or rows based on form similarity. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that the failure of the young infants to use form similarity was not due to insufficient processing time or the inability to discriminate between the individual X and O elements. The results suggest that different Gestalt principles may become functional over different time courses of development, and that not all principles are automatically deployed in the manner originally proposed by Gestalt theorists.     

The dynamics of standing balance

The control of standing is a complicated task that involves the action of muscles distributed over the whole body. Forces arising from gravity, external events or our own actions all tend to disturb the unstable equilibrium that preserves posture. For the central nervous system the problem of standing can be cast in terms of finding appropriate relations among body segments to maintain the desired position of the body as a whole with respect to the environment. In this review we evaluate some recent discoveries on the effects of predictable and unpredictable perturbations, and the role of perceptual information, attention and cognitive processes in the control of upright stance.     

Pressure-induced structural transition in UGa2

High-pressure X-ray diffraction has been performed on UGa₂ up to 20?GPa using a diamond anvil cell. UGa₂ exhibits the AlB₂-type structure with space group P6/mmm at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. At about 16?GPa a reversible structural transformation to a tetragonal phase was observed. The bulk modulus of the AlB₂-type phase has been determined to be ～100?GPa, which is comparable to rare earth digallides like TmGa₂ and HoGa₂.     

Applicability of Scheil–Gulliver solidification model in real alloy: a case study with Cu-9wt%Ni-6wt%Sn alloy

The present work explores the possibilities of the application of Scheil–Gulliver equation in modelling the solidification of a real alloy. For this study, Cu-9 wt%Ni-6 wt%Sn alloy was chosen which exhibits profuse micro-segregation during solidification, and hence easy to quantify experimentally. Also, this alloy is spinodally strengthened high strength copper alloy and has industrial importance. In this study, thermodynamic assessment using Scheil–Gulliver solidification model was carried out. Subsequently, the assessed result was compared with the experimentally obtained results from energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis, and a good agreement was observed between these results. Therefore, it could be concluded that the solidification of this particular alloy system can be modelled using Scheil–Gulliver equation.