Syllables as processing units in handwriting production

This research focused on the syllable as a processing unit in handwriting. Participants wrote, in uppercase letters, words that had been visually presented. The interletter intervals provide information on the timing of motor production. In Experiment 1, French participants wrote words that shared the initial letters but had different syllable boundaries. In Experiment 2, French- and Spanish-speaking participants wrote cognates and pseudowords with a letter sequence that was always intrasyllabic in French and intersyllabic in Spanish. In Experiment 3, French-Spanish bilinguals wrote the cognates and pseudowords with the same type of sequences. In the 3 experiments, the critical interletter intervals were longer between syllables than within syllables, indicating that word syllable structure constrains motor production both in French and Spanish.     

Cognitive processing specificity of anxious apprehension: impact on distress and performance during speech exposure

The present study examined the impact of different modes of processing anxious apprehension on subsequent anxiety and performance in a stressful speech task. Participants were informed that they would have to give a speech on a difficult topic while being videotaped and evaluated on their performance. They were then randomly assigned to one of three conditions. In a specific processing condition, they were encouraged to explore in detail all the specific aspects (thoughts, emotions, sensations) they experienced while anticipating giving the speech; in a general processing condition, they had to focus on the generic aspects that they would typically experience during anxious anticipation; and in a control, no-processing condition, participants were distracted. Results revealed that at the end of the speech, participants in the specific processing condition reported less anxiety than those in the two other conditions. They were also evaluated by judges to have performed better than those in the control condition, who in turn did better than those in the general processing condition.     

Place and summation coding for canonical and non-canonical finger numeral representations

Fingers can be used to express numerical magnitudes, and cultural habits about the fixed order in which fingers are raised determine which configurations become canonical and which non-canonical. Although both types of configuration carry magnitude information, it has been shown that the canonical ones are recognized faster and directly linked to number semantics. Here we tested whether this difference is a consequence of differences in the qualitative way of processing the two types of configurations. When participants named Arabic digits (Experiment 1) or verbal numerals (Experiment 2) primed by canonical and non-canonical finger configurations, qualitatively different priming patterns were observed for the two types of configurations. Canonical configurations activated a place coding representation, with priming spreading to close smaller and larger magnitudes as a function of the prime–target distance. Conversely, non-canonical configurations activated a summation coding representation priming smaller and equal magnitudes independently of the prime–target distance, and larger targets depending on this distance.     

Toward a multidimensional definition of sportsmanship

Abstract

One major problem with research conducted on sportsmanship is the absence of an accepted definition. The purpose of this study was to attempt to derive a definition of sportsmanship by applying premises from social psychological theories and research. A major assumption of this perspective is that sportsmanship meanings and labels attached to given behaviors are learned through interpersonal interactions with various sport participants and that eventually a consensual agreement develops regarding the nature of sportsmanship. It thus follows that a meaningful definition of sportsmanship should be obtained through the athletes themselves. In this study, 1056 male and female athletes completed a questionnaire which contained various items pertaining to sportsmanship. Results from a factor analysis revealed the presence of 5 factors corresponding to the respect and concern for: a) one's full commitment toward sport participation, b) the rules and officials. c) social conventions, d) the opponent, as well as e) a negative approach toward sport participation. Implications of this multidimensional definition for future sportsmanship research are drawn.     

Happy,sad, scary and peaceful musical excerpts for research on emotions

Three experiments were conducted in order to validate 56 musical excerpts that conveyed four intended emotions (happiness, sadness, threat and peacefulness). In Experiment 1, the musical clips were rated in terms of how clearly the intended emotion was portrayed, and for valence and arousal. In Experiment 2, a gating paradigm was used to evaluate the course for emotion recognition. In Experiment 3, a dissimilarity judgement task and multidimensional scaling analysis were used to probe emotional content with no emotional labels. The results showed that emotions are easily recognised and discriminated on the basis of valence and arousal and with relative immediacy. Happy and sad excerpts were identified after the presentation of fewer than three musical events. With no labelling, emotion discrimination remained highly accurate and could be mapped on energetic and tense dimensions. The present study provides suitable musical material for research on emotions.Keywords.     

Only your eyes tell me what you like: Exploring the liking effect induced by other's gaze

Our preferences are sensitive to social influences. For instance, we like more the objects that are looked-at by others than non-looked-at objects. Here, we explored this liking effect, using a modified paradigm of attention cueing by gaze. First, we investigated if the liking effect induced by gaze relied on motoric representations of the target object by testing if the liking effect could be observed for non-manipulable (alphanumeric characters) as well as for manipulable items (common tools). We found a significant liking effect for the alphanumeric items. Second, we tested if another type of powerful social cue could also induce a liking effect. We used an equivalent paradigm but with pointing hands instead of gaze cues. Pointing hands elicited a robust attention-orienting effect, but they did not induce any significant liking effect. This study extends previous findings and reinforces the view of eye gaze as a special cue in human interactions.     

Landmark Frames of Reference in Interactive Route Description Tasks

The current study investigated the use of frames of reference in an asymmetrical spatial dialogue task. Participants navigated through a real environment by following instructions provided by other participants guiding them over the phone. The dialogues were transcribed and analysed to locate the introduction of landmarks. We examined which frames of reference were used to introduce these landmarks and how far their use was determined by each participant's role within the dyads (i.e. guide vs. guided person). Results revealed that both partners contributed to the dialogue by introducing landmarks. However, the guides introduced more landmarks than the guided persons and were also more likely to use perspective taking when doing so. These results are discussed in the light of perspective taking and collaboration in dialogue. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Killing the dead: evolution of melancholic identifications underlying suicide attempts in adolescence

Psychic processes underlying suicidal behaviours during adolescence and their evolution are explored. A longitudinal study was conducted of thirty adolescent patients hospitalised following a suicide attempt. Clinical interviews were used combined with the Rorschach Test and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) a few days after the suicide attempt and one year later. Results initially showed common forms of psychic adjustment: melancholic identifications were linked to an excessive dependence on objects. One year later, these forms of psychic adjustment changed: for many adolescents, the melancholic identifications shifted and self-image improved. The emergence of representations of murder fantasies immediately after the suicidal behaviour allowed a possible transformation of violence into symbolisation. A case study illustrates these psychic changes.     

A PET meta‐analysis of object and spatial mental imagery

Neuroimaging studies have described the functional neuroanatomy of mental imagery. Taken separately, specific studies vary in the nature of the task used and are limited by statistical power and sensitivity. We took advantage of a multistudy PET database of 54 subjects acquired in our laboratory to reveal the neural bases of spatial versus object mental imagery tasks. Our first goal was to evaluate to what extent the activated foci elicited by both object and spatial studies overlap. A second aim was to compare activations elicited by spatial imagery tasks to those elicited by object imagery tasks. We also explored applying regression analyses to the relationships between the scores on the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) and changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) during spatial and object imagery tasks. This meta‐analysis yielded the following observations: (1) both spatial and object imagery tasks shared a common neural network composed of occipitotemporal (ventral pathway) and occipitoparietal (dorsal pathway) regions and also by a set of frontal regions (related to memory); (2) the superior parietal cortex was more strongly implicated during spatial imagery; (3) object imagery specifically engaged the anterior part of the ventral pathway, including the fusiform, parahippocampal, and hippocampal gyrus; (4) object imagery activated the early visual cortex, whereas spatial imagery induced a deactivation of the early visual cortex; (5) blood flow values in some of the regions noted above were positively correlated with scores on the MRT: the higher the subjects performed on the MRT, the more pronounced the rCBF was in these regions. These results may reconcile some of the apparent discrepancies among previous studies concerning the activation of early visual cortex in mental imagery. They also contribute to a better knowledge of the neural bases of object and spatial mental imagery.