Quiet eye duration,expertise, and task complexity in near and far aiming tasks

. Skilled (n = 12) and less skilled (n = 12) billiards players participated in 2 experiments in which the relationship between quiet eye duration, expertise, and task complexity was examined in a near and a far aiming task. Quiet eye was defined as the final fixation on the target prior to the initiation of movement. In Experiment 1, skilled performers exhibited longer fixations on the target (quiet eye) during the preparation phase of the action than their less skilled counterparts did. Quiet eye duration increased as a function of shot difficulty and was proportionally longer on successful than on unsuccessful shots for both groups of participants. In Experiment 2, participants executed shots under 3 different time-constrained conditions in which quiet eye periods were experimentally manipulated. Shorter quiet eye periods resulted in poorer performance, irrespective of participant skill level. The authors argue that quiet eye duration represents a critical period for movement programming in the aiming response.     

Making a life worth living: neural correlates of well-being

Despite the vast literature that has implicated asymmetric activation of the prefrontal cortex in approach-withdrawal motivation and emotion, no published reports have directly explored the neural correlates of well-being. Eighty-four right-handed adults (ages 57-60) completed self-report measures of eudaimonic well-being, hedonic well-being, and positive affect prior to resting electroencephalography. As hypothesized, greater left than right superior frontal activation was associated with higher levels of both forms of well-being. Hemisphere-specific analyses documented the importance of goal-directed approach tendencies beyond those captured by approach-related positive affect for eudaimonic but not for hedonic well-being. Appropriately engaging sources of appetitive motivation, characteristic of higher left than right baseline levels of prefrontal activation, may encourage the experience of well-being.     

Healing after Columbine: reflections of psychoanalytic responders to community trauma

Following the shootings at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, the Denver Psychoanalytic Society provided both immediate and long-term interventions to those closely impacted by the tragedy. In this effort, analytically trained volunteers faced many personal challenges and role adjustments. To address these issues a reflective study group was formed twenty months after the traumatic event. Group discussions revealed a surprising number of residual symptoms from secondary trauma, as well as opportunities for shared coping among analysts. Little has been written about the very human and subjective responses of analysts in such circumstances. These experiences may be helpful to others in today's world of terrorism and unexpected violent events.     

Color opponency in synaesthetic experiences

Grapheme-color synaesthesia is a rare condition in which perception of a letter or a digit is associated with concurrent perception of a color. Synaesthetes report that these color experiences are vivid and realistic. We used a Stroop task to show that synaesthetically induced color, like real color, is processed in color-opponent channels (red-green or blue-yellow). Synaesthetic color produced maximal interference with the perception and naming of the real color of a grapheme if the real color was opponent to the synaesthetic color. Interference was reduced considerably if the synaesthetic and real colors engaged different color channels (e.g., synaesthetic blue and real red). No dependence on color opponency was found for semantic conflicts between shape and color (e.g., a blue lemon). Thus, the neural representation of synaesthetic colors closely resembles that of real colors. This suggests involvement of early stages of visual processing in color synaesthesia and explains the vivid and realistic nature of synaesthetic experiences.     

Strength-based criterion shifts in recognition memory

In manipulations of stimulus strength between lists, a more lenient signal detection criterion is more frequently applied to a weak than to a strong stimulus class. However, with randomly intermixed weak and strong test probes, such acriterion shift often does not result. A procedure that has yieldeddelay-based within-list criterion shifts was applied to strength manipulations in recognition memory for categorized word lists. When participants made semantic ratings about each stimulus word, strength-based criterion shifts emerged regardless of whether words from pairs of categories were studied in separate blocks (Experiment 1) or in intermixed blocks (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, the criterion shift persisted under the semantic-rating study task, but not under rote memorization. These findings suggest that continually adjusting the recognition decision criterion is cognitively feasible. They provide a technique for manipulating the criterion shift, and they identify competing theoretical accounts of these effects.