Right—left prevalence effect with horizontal and vertical effectors

We investigated the right-left prevalence effect in spatial compatibility tasks by assessing subjects’ performance on a two-dimensional task in which both the horizontal and vertical spatial dimensions were task relevant. Two experiments were performed, in which stimulus-response mappings were one-dimensional (Experiment 1) and two-dimensional (Experiment 2). The subjects responded by using either horizontal or vertical effectors to stimuli appearing in four possible locations. With the one-dimensional mapping, the spatial compatibility effect was present only in the dimension relevant to the mapping. With the two-dimensional mapping, the horizontal compatibility effect was always present, whereas the vertical compatibility effect was present only when vertical effectors were used. This pattern of results indicates that horizontal coding takes place with either horizontal or vertical effectors, whereas vertical coding takes place only when vertical effectors are used.     

Integrating vocational interests, competencies, and interpersonal dispositions in middle school children

Vocational interests and interpersonal dispositions have been well researched in adults from the perspectives of Holland's RIASEC (1997) model of interests and the Interpersonal Circumplex (IPC), respectively. Few studies have applied either model to children and no studies have examined their overlap in children. A vector fitting procedure was applied to data from adults to demonstrate the intersection of vocational interests and interpersonal dispositions from the perspective of the IPC. The same procedure was then applied to interests and competencies and interpersonal dispositions in a sample of sixth grade children. Plotting the vocational variables within interpersonal space defined by the IPC showed the specific interpersonal aspects of vocational interests in young adults and interests and competencies in late childhood. Half of the interests had associations with the IPC that were consistent across adults and children, while the remaining interests had associations that were unique to children.     

Optimism and Hope After Multiple Disasters: Relationships to Health-Related Quality of Life

Natural and technological disasters are devastating events for individuals and communities. The authors examined the role of optimism and hope in predicting health indicators in a sample of disaster survivors who were exposed to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Participants were noncoastal residents, current coastal residents, and current coastal fishers who were also economically impacted by the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. All participants completed measures of optimism, hope, and the SF-36 Health Survey, which provides summary scores for mental and physical health. Logistic regressions indicated that optimism and hope were independently and positively associated with better mental health (OR = 1.21; 95% CI: 1.10, 1.32 and OR = 1.11; 95% CI: 1.05, 1.17 respectively). Neither optimism nor hope were significantly associated with physical health when considered alone. However, optimism interacted with prior lifetime trauma, where optimism only significantly predicted physical health for those with higher previous trauma scores. These results provide new evidence of optimism and hope as protective factors that may positively impact mental health after multiple disasters.     

The effect of sampling rate and lowpass filters on saccades – A modeling approach

The study of eye movements has become popular in many fields of science. However, using the preprocessed output of an eye tracker without scrutiny can lead to low-quality or even erroneous data. For example, the sampling rate of the eye tracker influences saccadic peak velocity, while inadequate filters fail to suppress noise or introduce artifacts. Despite previously published guiding values, most filter choices still seem motivated by a trial-and-error approach, and a thorough analysis of filter effects is missing. Therefore, we developed a simple and easy-to-use saccade model that incorporates measured amplitude-velocity main sequences and produces saccades with a similar frequency content to real saccades. We also derived a velocity divergence measure to rate deviations between velocity profiles. In total, we simulated 155 saccades ranging from 0.5° to 60° and subjected them to different sampling rates, noise compositions, and various filter settings. The final goal was to compile a list with the best filter settings for each of these conditions. Replicating previous findings, we observed reduced peak velocities at lower sampling rates. However, this effect was highly non-linear over amplitudes and increasingly stronger for smaller saccades. Interpolating the data to a higher sampling rate significantly reduced this effect. We hope that our model and the velocity divergence measure will be used to provide a quickly accessible ground truth without the need for recording and manually labeling saccades. The comprehensive list of filters allows one to choose the correct filter for analyzing saccade data without resorting to trial-and-error methods.     

BRIEF REPORT: ENABLING BLIND PERSONS WITH SEVERE OR PROFOUND MENTAL RETARDATION TO OPERATE AN ACOUSTIC ORIENTATION SYSTEM INDEPENDENTLY

The aim of this study was to assess new technology for enabling two blind persons affected by severe or profound mental retardation to operate an acoustic orientation system independently. By operating this system, the subjects could move to different activity destinations within an occupational setting and carry out activities free from external assistance. The results showed that both subjects learned to operate the system on their own. The high level of independence they achieved is reviewed in relation to the new technology and the simplified responding it requires     

Intergroup threat and experienced affect: the distinct roles of causal attributions, ingroup identification, and perceived legitimacy of intergroup status

Across three studies, it was predicted and found that in the case of intergroup threat, low ingroup identifiers experience greater negative affect when they make an ingroup-internal rather than an outgroup-internal attribution, and high ingroup identifiers experience greater negative affect when they make an outgroup-internal rather than an ingroup-internal attribution. These effects were mediated by the perceived legitimacy of ingroup- outgroup status differences that results from their reflecting social reality (i.e., actual differences in the groups' standing on a relevant comparison dimension). Combining the findings of two distinct literatures, the current work provides new insights into the yet-unexplored distinct roles played by intergroup attributions as a predictor and ingroup identification as a moderator of the affective responses produced by social identity threat.     

The clinical overlap between the corticobasal degeneration syndrome and other diseases of the frontotemporal spectrum: three case reports

The corticobasal degeneration syndrome has been suggested to be part of a complex of conditions (including the different subtypes of frontotemporal dementia and progressive supranuclear palsy), which reflect a spectrum of pathological substrates. This concept is supported by the frequent clinical overlap that can be observed among patients diagnosed with these conditions. We report three clinical cases, characterized by the overlap of the clinical features of corticobasal degeneration syndrome with, respectively, nonfluent progressive aphasia, progressive supranuclear palsy and semantic dementia. Current diagnostic criteria emphasize differences in clinical presentation, which probably reflect the preferential location of pathology in the early stages of disease. However, with disease progression, a considerable clinical overlap can be expected among the different syndromes. This concept should be extended not only to the cognitive and behavioural features of the frontotemporal dementia subtypes, but also to the movement disorders of corticobasal degeneration and supranuclear palsy.     

Cross-dimension-ambivalent in-group stereotypes: the moderating roles of social context of stereotype endorsement and in-group identification

In this study, the authors examined in-group stereotypes that are cross-dimensionally ambivalent-simultaneously (a) positive in cognition-related content dimensions and negative in affect-related content dimensions or (b) negative in cognition-related content dimensions and positive in affect-related content dimensions-to establish whether endorsement of such in-group stereotypes depends on whether this process occurs in an intragroup versus intergroup context. Drawing on social identity theory, the authors predicted that (a) endorsement of cross-dimension-ambivalent in-group stereotypes would be greater in an intragroup, relative to an intergroup, context and (b) this would hold for high but not low in-group identifiers. Confirming these hypotheses, results showed that endorsement of cross-dimension-ambivalent in-group stereotypes may vary as a function of their contribution to securing a positive social identity.