Comparative assessment of handedness for a coordinated bimanual task in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) and orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

Hand preferences for a coordinated bimanual task were assessed in a sample of 31 captive gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) and 19 captive orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and were compared with chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) hand preferences in subjects that were matched on the basis of age, sex, and rearing history. The task required that the apes remove food from the inside edges of a symmetrical polyvinyl chloride pipe presented to them in their home cages. The results indicate significant species differences with chimpanzees showing population-level right-handedness and orangutans showing population-level left-handedness. The gorillas showed a nonsignificant trend toward right-handedness. The results are discussed in terms of possible ecological or biomechanical factors that may influence hand preferences in different ape species.     

Enhancing picture naming with transcranial magnetic stimulation

The enhancement of cognitive function in healthy subjects by medication, training or intervention yields increasing political, social and ethical attention. In this paper facilitatory effects of single-pulse TMS and repetitive TMS on a simple picture naming task are presented. A significant shortening of picture naming latencies was observed after single-pulse TMS over Wernicke's area. The accuracy of the response was not affected by this speed effect. After TMS over the dominant motor cortex or over the non-dominant temporal lobe, however, no facilitation of picture naming was observed. In the rTMS experiments only rTMS of Wernicke's area had an impact on picture naming latencies resulting in a shortening of naming latencies without affecting the accuracy of the response. rTMS over the visual cortex, Broca's area or over the corresponding sites in the non-dominant hemisphere had no effect. Single-pulse TMS is able to facilitate lexical processes due to a general preactivation of language-related neuronal networks when delivered over Wernicke's area. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over Wernicke's area also leads to a brief facilitation of picture naming possibly by shortening linguistic processing time. Whether TMS or rTMS can be used to aid linguistic therapy in the rehabilitation phase of aphasic patients should be subject of further investigations.     

Verb subcategorization frequencies: American English corpus data, methodological studies, and cross-corpus comparisons.

Verb subcategorization frequencies (verb biases) have been widely studied in psycholinguistics and play an important role in human sentence processing. Yet available resources on subcategorization frequencies suffer from limited coverage, limited ecological validity, and divergent coding criteria. Prior estimates of verb transitivity, for example, vary widely with corpus size, coverage, and coding criteria This article provides norming data for 281 verbs of interest to psycholinguistic research, sampled from a corpus of American English, along with a detailed coding manual. We examine the effect on transitivity bias of various coding decisions and methods of computing verb biases.     

Cooling the heat of temptation: Mental self‐control and the automatic evaluation of tempting stimuli

The present research investigated whether mental self‐control strategies can reduce the automatic positivity elicited by tempting stimuli. In two studies employing chocolate as the temptation of interest, we found that participants instructed to imagine a chocolate product in a nonconsummatory manner exhibited significantly less automatic positivity with regard to the product as compared to participants instructed to imagine the hedonic, consummatory aspects of the product and control participants engaged in a neutral task. These findings were replicated in a second study. Additionally, in Study 2 we found that automatic evaluations of chocolate were lowest for participants instructed to form implementation intentions to refrain from consumption. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that mental self‐control strategies such as nonconsummatory transformation and implementation intentions extend to the level of automatic processing by reducing the positivity of automatically activated affective responses. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive control of ideomotor effect anticipations

According to ideomotor theory, voluntary actions are selected and initiated by means of anticipated action effects. Prior experiments yielded evidence for these effect anticipations with response-effect (R-E) compatibility phenomena using blocked R-E relations. Daily actions, however, typically evoke different effects depending on the situational context. In the present study, we accounted for this natural variability and investigated R-E compatibility effects by a trial-by-trial variation of R-E compatibility relations. In line with recent observations regarding ideomotor learning, R-E compatibility influenced responding only when participants responded in free choice trials assuming that participants then adopted an intention-based action control mode. In contrast, R-E compatibility had no impact when participants responded according to imperative stimuli throughout the experiment, thus when participants adopted a stimulus-based action control mode. Interestingly, once an intention-based mode was established because of free choice trials within an experimental block, we observed response compatibility effects in free as well as forced choice trials. These findings extend and refine theoretical assumptions on different action control modes in goal-directed behavior and the specific contribution of ideomotor processes to intention-based action control.     

Principle‐Based Integrative Therapy with Couples: Theory and a Case Example

The Principle‐Based Integrative Therapy (PBIT) framework harnesses the principles of change underlying each theoretical model within integrative couple therapy treatments. PBIT has commonalities with other integrative approaches, and additional advantages stemming from its four tenets that guide therapists in combining strengths across models and overcoming each of their deficiencies. Tenet 1 advises that each model adds a core principle or mechanism of action that other models do not automatically address. Tenet 2 focuses on how techniques of one model may actualize the principles of other models. Tenet 3 ensures complementarity and a lack of conflict across principles. A case study and common case considerations are presented to illustrate how Tenets 1–3 can work in integrating Cognitive‐Behavioral, Multicultural, and Emotionally Focused Therapy models in working with a couple. Finally, Tenet 4 advocates for the use of models and empirically supported principles that also have received empirical support with diverse populations. Prerequisites and training implications for PBIT, and future clinical and research directions to further the utility of PBIT are discussed.     

The Divine Child

The divine child of this article is not a concrete person, but rather a part of one’s inner self, a part that is with us from birth, but often unknown to us until some later critical moment in life brings it into our awareness, often as an image in a vivid dream or fantasy. This figure can reveal, and bring with it, an amazing energy, and make felt desires never before known to us, which are now pressing for our awareness—and along with this awareness, a need to live an expanded, more conscious life.     

The Path

This brief biography tells of subjectively important events of my life, from childhood to old age. These happenings are mainly interior ones, such as the exposure to the bloody death of a rabbit when I was 5, and the prolonged conflict about the need for late-life retirement.     

Healing through Renewal

The need for change can be seen on many levels: political, personal/psychological, spiritual, and even in the forms of nature. The urge to change, to heal one’s ills, to move forward, and the opposing resistance to altering what is familiar are considered through a psychological lens and in a classic myth of the South African Bushman.