Focusing attention on overlapping and non-overlapping figures with subjective contours

In a series of five experiments we investigated whether observers could focus attention on a restricted visual area that was demarcated by Kanizsa-like subjective contours, and whether this effect also occurred in the case of overlapping figures. The task was a simple reaction time to a luminance increment and the basic finding was that reaction time was faster when the imperative stimulus fell inside the focus of attention than when it fell outside. The first two experiments showed that the extent of the attentional focus could be adapted to a region that was demarcated by subjective contours, thus extending the results of previous studies that used regions demarcated by real contours. The last three experiments showed that, regardless of the type of margins, focusing was more efficient for the figure that was perceived as lying in front in a pair of overlapping figures. Received: 21 December 1999  / Accepted: 23 August 2000     

Normalisation Versus Medicalisation of Sexual Disturbances During Menopause: A Qualitative Research in the Italian Context

Past research has found consistent correlations between menopause and increase in sexual disturbances, but very little research has inquired into the attribution of meanings to this change from the womens’ own perspectives and the role of the negotiating between sexes in the social-construction of the problem. This study aims to investigate how professionals, women diagnosed with hypoactive sexual desire disorder and ordinary people, both men and women, signify this phenomenon in the Italian context. Interviews were conducted by asking participants whether or not they considered the decrease in sexual desire to be a problem, and what this was dependent on. The analysis of the 146 participants’ answers revealed that women with sexual deficit emphasized the need for treating the biological changes of menopause; specialists considered both the gynecological and the psychological components, while ordinary people seemed to ‘normalise’ the problem, encoding it as the effect of menopause; they did not seem to be inclined to turn the situation into a call for help, suggesting the importance of sharing the problem within the relationship and underestimating the organic level of the question. The negotiation between sexes seems to transform a sexual problem into normality.     

Adjective Checklist to Assess the Big Five Personality Factors in the Argentine Population

The aim of this work was to develop an adjective checklist to assess the Big Five personality factors in the Argentine population. The new instrument was administered to pilot (n= 112), validation (n= 372), and replication (n= 309) samples. The final version of the checklist included 67 adjectives encompassing its 5 dimensions. Factor analysis results were consistent with the Five-factor model. Internal consistency of scales was very good and convergent correlations with the Big Five Inventory (BFI; John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991) were substantial. Face validity, as evaluated by 2 independent raters, was good. Preliminary evidence of validity for the checklist is presented. Finally, the Adjective Checklist for Personality Assessment and BFI are compared, taking into consideration their psychometric properties in our cultural context. Study limitations and future research are discussed.     

Tiger salamanders’ (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Ambystoma tigrinum</Emphasis>) response learning and usage of visual cues

We explored tiger salamanders’ (Ambystoma tigrinum) learning to execute a response within a maze as proximal visual cue conditions varied. In Experiment 1, salamanders learned to turn consistently in a T-maze for reinforcement before the maze was rotated. All learned the initial task and executed the trained turn during test, suggesting that they learned to demonstrate the reinforced response during training and continued to perform it during test. In a second experiment utilizing a similar procedure, two visual cues were placed consistently at the maze junction. Salamanders were reinforced for turning towards one cue. Cue placement was reversed during test. All learned the initial task, but executed the trained turn rather than turning towards the visual cue during test, evidencing response learning. In Experiment 3, we investigated whether a compound visual cue could control salamanders’ behaviour when it was the only cue predictive of reinforcement in a cross-maze by varying start position and cue placement. All learned to turn in the direction indicated by the compound visual cue, indicating that visual cues can come to control their behaviour. Following training, testing revealed that salamanders attended to stimuli foreground over background features. Overall, these results suggest that salamanders learn to execute responses over learning to use visual cues but can use visual cues if required. Our success with this paradigm offers the potential in future studies to explore salamanders’ cognition further, as well as to shed light on how features of the tiger salamanders’ life history (e.g. hibernation and metamorphosis) impact cognition.     

Error monitoring is related to processing internal affective states

Detecting behavioral errors is critical for optimizing performance. Here, we tested whether error monitoring is enhanced in emotional task contexts, and whether this enhancement depends on processing internal affective states. Event-related potentials were recorded in individuals with low and high levels of alexithymia—that is, individuals with difficulties identifying and describing their feelings. We administered a face word Stroop paradigm (Egner, Etkin, Gale, & Hirsch, 2008) in which the task was to classify emotional faces either with respect to their expression (happy or fearful; emotional task set) or with respect to their gender (female or male; neutral task set). The error-related negativity, a marker of rapid error monitoring, was enhanced in individuals with low alexithymia when they adopted the emotional task set. By contrast, individuals with high alexithymia did not show such an enhancement. Moreover, in the high-alexithymia group, the difference in the error-related negativities between the emotional and neutral task sets correlated negatively with difficulties identifying their own feelings, as measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. These results show that error-monitoring activity is stronger in emotional task contexts and that this enhancement depends on processing internal affective states.     

Bound Together: How Psychoanalysis Diminishes Inter-generational DNA Trauma

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis - The concept of intergenerational transmission of trauma plays a fundamental role in psychoanalysis. While it is known that intergenerational trauma can be...