Meaning from environmental sounds: types of signal-referent relations and their effect on recognizing auditory icons

This article addresses the learnability of auditory icons, that is, environmental sounds that refer either directly or indirectly to meaningful events. Direct relations use the sound made by the target event whereas indirect relations substitute a surrogate for the target. Across 3 experiments, different indirect relations (ecological, in which target and surrogate coexist in the world; metaphorical, in which target and surrogate have similar appearance or function, and random) were compared with one another and with direct relations on measures including associative strength ratings, amount of exposure required for learning, and response times for recognizing icons. Findings suggest that performance is best with direct relations, worst with random relations, and that ecological and metaphorical relations involve distinct types of association but do not differ in learnability.     

Specialist musical training and the octave illusion: analytical listening and veridical perception by pipe organists

The octave illusion is a useful tool for investigation of the contribution of specialist training to auditory perception. The stimulus that induces the illusion involves two tones with a frequency ratio of 2:1, presented dichotically, and with ear of presentation reversed every 250 ms. Most listeners report hearing a single tone that alternates from high in the right ear to low in the left ear [Scientific American 233 (1975) 92-104]. The first experiment investigated the hypothesis that musical training contributes to veridical perception of an ambiguous stimulus. As hypothesized, participants with the highest level of musical training were more likely to perceive the stimulus veridically. Exploring the effects of specialist training, Experiment 2 contrasted expert pipe organists with other instrumentalists. As hypothesized, participants expert in playing pipe organ--an instrument with harmonic and spatial features similar to those of the octave illusion--were more likely to perceive the stimulus veridically. The results have implications for plasticity of the auditory system and the analytical listening that accompanies specialist, intensive training and rehearsal.     

The relationship between early recruitment-related activities and the application decisions of new labor-market entrants: a brand equity approach to recruitment

Theory and research from the marketing literature on customer-based brand equity were used to predict how positive exposure to 4 early recruitment-related activities-publicity, sponsorships, word-of-mouth endorsements, and advertising-may affect the application decisions of engineering students. Similar to prior marketing findings, the results suggested that early recruitment-related activities were indirectly related to intentions and decisions through 2 dimensions of employer brand image: general attitudes toward the company and perceived job attributes. The relationships between word-of-mouth endorsements and the 2 dimensions of brand image were particularly strong. In addition, it was found that early recruitment-related activities interacted with one another such that employer brand image was stronger when firms used publicity in conjunction with other early recruitment-related activities.     

A review of adult ADHD: a neuropsychological and neuroimaging perspective

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder which effects an estimated 3% to 5% of children. Despite estimates that ADHD persists in 30% to 70% of adults having had the disorder in childhood, ADHD in adulthood remains controversial. This report summarizes current thinking in the diagnosis and etiology of adult ADHD. Most theories posit that ADHD is related to anomalies in frontal lobe function and dopaminergic transmission. However, there is debate as to whether ADHD is a unitary disorder with different manifestations, a syndrome, or multiple disorders. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, classifies ADHD into inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and combined subtypes. Although problems with cognition are core ADHD symptoms, self-reporting has not been a reliable predictor of neuropsychological test performance. Nevertheless, we suggest that a performance-based diagnosis, including empirically derived, age-sensitive neuropsychological tests, provides the best hope of dissociating ADHD from psychiatric disorders with similar symptoms. We also describe the promise of new neuroimaging technologies, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, in elucidating the pathophysiology of ADHD and similar psychiatric disorders.     

Hypochondriacs' estimation of negative outcomes: domain-specificity and responsiveness to reassuring and alarming information

Based on hypochondriacal patients' tendency to overestimate the seriousness of bodily sensations and health risks [Barsky, A. J., Wyshak, G. & Klerman, G. L. (1990). The Somatosensory Amplification Scale and its relationship to hypochondriasis. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 24, 323-334; Warwick, H. M. C., & Salkovskis, P. M. (1990). Hypochondriasis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28, 105-117], we investigated whether hypochondriacal individuals (n = 20) are inclined to report higher estimates of negative outcomes than healthy controls (n = 20) when interpreting ambiguous health-related and nonhealth-related events. In addition, we explored the influence of additional reassuring and alarming information on hypochondriacs' estimates of negative outcomes. Following the cognitive-behavioural model of hypochondriasis [Warwick, H. M. C. & Salkovskis, P. M. (1989). Hypochondriasis. In J. Scott, J. M. G. Williams & A. T. Beck (Eds.), Cognitive therapy in clinical practice: an illustrative casebook. (pp. 78-102). London: Routledge] we hypothesized that hypochondriacal individuals would be more responsive to alarming information and less responsive to reassuring information than healthy controls. Yet, hypochondriacs were neither found to be immune for reassuring information, nor to be hypersensitive to alarming information. Meanwhile, irrespective of the additional alarming or reassuring information, hypochondriacs clearly showed a domain-specific bias towards higher estimates of negative outcomes in ambiguous health-related situations.     

Predictive validity of the overvalued ideas scale: outcome in obsessive-compulsive and body dysmorphic disorders

Overvalued ideas have been theoretically implicated in treatment failure for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Until recently, there have not been valid assessments for determining severity of overvalued ideas. One recent scale, the Overvalued Ideas Scale (OVIS; Neziroglu, McKay, Yaryura-Tobias, Stevens & Todaro, 1999, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, 881-902) has been found to validly measure overvalued ideas. However, its predictive utility has not been determined. Two studies were conducted to examine the extent to which the OVIS predicts treatment response. Study 1 examined the response to behavioral therapy in a group of participants diagnosed with OCD. Residual gain scores showed a significant correlation between treatment outcome for compulsions and pretreatment OVIS scores (28.1% variance accounted). Pretreatment OVIS scores were not significantly correlated with residual gains in obsessions (1.7% variance accounted). The predictive utility of the OVIS was superior to a single item assessment of overvalued ideas available on the Yale-Brown Obsessive Scale in predicting outcome for compulsions. For this item, the variance accounted for compulsions was 6.3% and for obsessions was 3.9%. Study 2 examined the response to behavioral therapy in a group of participants diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a condition ostensibly linked to OCD and presumed to present with higher levels of overvalued ideas. Residual gains scores showed a significant relationship between obsessions and OVIS (accounting for 34.8% of the variance), but not for compulsions (10.2% variance accounted). As in Study 1, the predictive utility of the OVIS was superior to the single item assessment (with 0.2% variance accounted for compulsions, 2.4% variance accounted for obsessions). Taken together, the studies reported here show that this OVIS is predictive of treatment outcome, and the predictive value depends on which symptoms are used to assess outcome. Further, the scale is more effective in predicting outcome than a widely used single item assessment.     

The Potential of Paradox in States of Exile: Discussion of “States of Exile and Marginalization”

This commentary paper engages with Gillian Straker’s “States of Exile and Marginalization,” (this issue) in which she analyzes Tracey Moffatt’s film Night Cries through a Lacanian register. In addition, it surfaces certain aspects of Moffatt’s interpretation of her social world through the representational medium of her film. Tracing Straker’s themes of marginality and continued trauma as exilic consequences of colonization and coloniality, it also suggests that there are generative possibilities in the multiple states of exile that occur under such conditions, where the unknowability and irresolvability of trauma and its many associated states of exile are precisely what paradoxically allow for the emergence of productive alternatives to trauma repetition.     

Planning to reach for an object changes how the reacher perceives it

Three experiments assessed the influence of the Ebbinghaus illusion on size judgments that preceded verbal, grasp, or touch responses. Prior studies have found reduced effects of the illusion for the grip-scaling component of grasping, and these findings are commonly interpreted as evidence that different visual systems are employed for perceptual judgment and visually guided action. In the current experiments, the magnitude of the illusion was reduced by comparable amounts for grasping and for judgments that preceded grasping (Experiment 1). A similar effect was obtained prior to reaching to touch the targets (Experiment 2). The effect on verbal responses was apparent even when participants were simply instructed that a target touch task would follow the verbal task. After participants had completed a grasping task, the reduction in the magnitude of the illusion remained for a subsequent verbal-response judgment task (Experiment 3). Overall, the studies demonstrate strong connections between action planning and perception.     

Are complex psychotherapies more effective than biofeedback, progressive muscle relaxation, or both? A meta-analysis

A meta-analysis of 26 studies was conducted to assess whether more complex forms of psychotherapy would be superior to control treatments of either biofeedback, progressive muscle relaxation, or both. Consistent with hypotheses, more complex treatments provided a small, significant improvement over biofeedback and progressive muscle relaxation (r = .09). A subset of the more complex behavioral treatments accounted for most of this small incremental effectiveness of more complex treatments (r = .15). Possible sources of this incremental effectiveness are discussed.