Sex differences in righting from supine to prone in rats (Rattus norvegicus): a masculinized skeletomusculature is not required

Previous research has shown that sex differences exist in the composition of lateral movements (E. F. Field, I. Q. Whishaw, & S. M. Pellis, 1996, 1997a, 1997b; see also records 1996-06132-009, 1997-05322-015, and 1997-04722-005). An unresolved question is whether sex differences are present in other movements, such as rotation around the longitudinal axis, and whether this difference is dependent on a feminine or masculine skeletomusculature. Female rats (Rattus norvegicus) first rotate their forequarters and then their hindquarters in the same direction. Male rats exhibit rotation of the hindquarters counter to the direction of forequarter rotation. Males with the testicular feminized mutation, who have a feminized skeletomusculature and masculinized central nervous system, are similar to male controls. This study provides evidence that sex differences in movement integration are not restricted to the lateral plane, are not solely due to sex differences in skeletomusculature, and thus are likely mediated by the central nervous system.     

Gesture production and text structure

In the present pilot study, we examined the relationship between gesture and verbal production. Subjects were asked to read a story and then to narrate what they remembered. We analyzed verbal production according to Kintsch's procedure and obtained a list of hierarchically organized propositions that represented the meaning of subject's narration. Propositions were subdivided into High- and Low-level propositions. Further, we analyzed gesture production by identifying hand or arm movement that accompanied subject's narration. Each gesture was associated with the word simultaneously produced, and then with the proposition to which the word belonged. Analysis showed subjects were more likely to produce gestures in association with High- rather than with Low-level propositions. High-level propositions may elicit the production of gestures which, in turn, mark the importance of verbal meaning conveyed simultaneously.     

Age-related Differences in the Production of Textual Descriptions

Narratives produced by 69 healthy Italian adults were analyzed for age-related changes of microlinguistic, macrolinguistic and informative aspects. The participants were divided into five age groups (20-24, 25-39, 40-59, 60-74, 75-84). One single-picture stimulus and two cartoon sequences were used to elicit three stories per subject. Age-related differences were found with respect to semantic paraphasias, paragrammatisms, syntactic complexity, degree of both local and global coherence, local coherence errors (like ambiguous referencing), and in the level of informativeness conveyed by the stories. The results showed some null effects of age, some effects with a sharp drop in performance in the oldest group, and several effects suggesting a gradual decrease in performance across age groups. No age differences were found with respect to phonological selection and noun-verb ratio. In the proportion of details vs. main themes, the results indicated a possibly better story construction ability in the middle aged (40-59) and young elderly (60-74) groups compared to the younger or the oldest group. Story-type (single picture vs. picture sequence) had a significant influence on some macrolinguistic and informativeness measures.     

Test of the Ratio Judgment Hypothesis

The hypothesis that we are capable of judging ratios of subjective intensities is widely used in psychology. Here, experimental results are reported that more stringently verify prior findings that people respond to sensory intensity differences while they execute the task of judging sensory intensity ratios. This verification was made on brightness and heaviness and for verbal and matching responses, suggesting that the results may be general for both sensory intensive dimensions and response systems. The results have implications for the comparisons of scores on evaluation scales based on ratio judgment.     

How do visual and postural cues combine for self-tilt perception during slow pitch rotations?

Self-orientation perception relies on the integration of multiple sensory inputs which convey spatially-related visual and postural cues. In the present study, an experimental set-up was used to tilt the body and/or the visual scene to investigate how these postural and visual cues are integrated for self-tilt perception (the subjective sensation of being tilted). Participants were required to repeatedly rate a confidence level for self-tilt perception during slow (0.05°·s^− 1) body and/or visual scene pitch tilts up to 19° relative to vertical. Concurrently, subjects also had to perform arm reaching movements toward a body-fixed target at certain specific angles of tilt. While performance of a concurrent motor task did not influence the main perceptual task, self-tilt detection did vary according to the visuo-postural stimuli. Slow forward or backward tilts of the visual scene alone did not induce a marked sensation of self-tilt contrary to actual body tilt. However, combined body and visual scene tilt influenced self-tilt perception more strongly, although this effect was dependent on the direction of visual scene tilt: only a forward visual scene tilt combined with a forward body tilt facilitated self-tilt detection. In such a case, visual scene tilt did not seem to induce vection but rather may have produced a deviation of the perceived orientation of the longitudinal body axis in the forward direction, which may have lowered the self-tilt detection threshold during actual forward body tilt.     

Correction to: From aesthetics to ethics: Testing the link between an emotional experience of awe and the motive of quixoteism on (un)ethical behaviour

Motivation and Emotion -     

Why and when cognitive job insecurity relates to affective job insecurity? A three-study exploration of negative rumination and the tendency to negative gossip

ABSTRACT

The job insecurity literature distinguishes between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity where cognitive job insecurity reflects perceptions regarding the likelihood of total job loss or job features loss and affective job insecurity refers to emotional reactions to that potential loss. Indeed, affective job insecurity is demonstrated to be an affective reaction to cognitive job insecurity. However, the relationship between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity may be neither direct nor unconditional. Drawing from cognitive appraisal theory, this research takes a nuanced approach to exploring the mediating role of negative work rumination and the moderating role of the tendency to negative gossip in the relationship between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity. We examined our hypotheses using three time-lagged survey studies with employees recruited from the U.S. and China. These studies found that negative work rumination mediated the relation between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity (Studies 1–3) and the tendency to negative gossip attenuated the positive relation between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity (Studies 1 and 2). Thus, this research advances the job insecurity literature by identifying a mediator and a moderator in the process of how employees may experience job insecurity.