Modality-specific and amodal sources of interference in the attentional blink

When two masked targets (T1 and T2) are visually or auditorily presented in rapid succession, processing of T1 produces an attentional blink (AB)--that is, a transient impairment of T2 identification. The present study was conducted to compare the relative impact of masking T1 and T2 between vision and audition. Within a rapidly presented sequence, each of the two verbal targets, discriminated by their offset (Experiment 1) or their onset (Experiment 2), could be followed by either a single item, acting as a mask, or a blank gap. Masking of T2 appeared to be necessary for the occurrence of the AB for both the visual and the auditory modality. However, whereas masking of T1 affected the expression of the visual AB in both experiments, the same effect was observed in the auditory modality only when the targets varied at the onset. These results provide further evidence that processing auditory and visual information is restricted by similar attentional limitations but also suggest that these limits are constrained by properties specific to each sensory system.     

Women's eye contact and men's later interest: two field experiments

Previous studies indicated various nonverbal behaviors including eye contact of women are associated with men's approach; however, duration of the eye contact was not tested. In Exp. 1, a female confederate established eye-contact of 3 sec. or 1 sec. with a man when entering a bar. Duration of returned glance was the dependent variable. Analysis showed mean duration of the return glance was statistically shorter in the 1-sec. condition. In Exp. 2, the confederate made eye contact with a man and looked at him less than 1 sec., 2 sec., or 4 sec. The presence versus absence of smile was the dependent variable. Longer duration of eye contact was associated with an increase of smiling.     

Influence of articulation rate on two memory tasks in young and older adults

This study investigated the relation between phonological loop functioning and age. Phonological loop is a time-based subsystem of the Working Memory Model of Baddeley and Wilson, which uses rehearsal of information as an active process to avoid phonological decay. Performance differences were examined between young and older adults in two speech-based memory tasks, such as the immediate serial recall of words and the Digit Ordering Task. Analysis showed that performance on both tasks was lower for the older group. Articulation rate was also measured to test the hypothesis that the impairment of some cognitive functions in adults can be associated to their slowness or the greater time needed by older adults for the rehearsal process. A significant negative correlation was found for articulation rate with age. When the effect of articulation rate on Serial Recall and Digit Ordering Tasks was partialled out, the difference between the two groups was eliminated.     

Risk factors for addictive disorders: a discriminant analysis on 374 addicted and 513 nonpsychiatric participants

Many common risk factors have been described in addictive disorders. Little is known about factors' respective contributions to discrimination of addicted and nonaddicted participants. Two large samples were compared including 513 nonpsychiatric participants and 374 addicted participants meeting the DSM-IV criteria for eating disorders, alcohol, or substance dependence. Twenty-six risk factors were assessed by interview or self-rating scales. A discriminant analysis determined the respective weight of each risk factor. One discriminant function emerged and characterized a depressive dimension. The results suggest that the different risk factors described in addiction could be related to a depressive dimension.     

Knowing which day of the week it is: temporal structure and dynamics of memory

The complementary role of static and dynamic information used when one needs to be located in time was studied. Static information refers to temporal knowledge about days of the week, and dynamic information reflects a sense of time, taking into account the present, the near past, and the future. Each day of an actual 7-day wk., 699 women and 620 men were asked to provide a "right" or "wrong" response to a statement such as "Today is X," where X was the name of one of the seven days of the week. Analysis suggested use of a structured temporal representation of the week: the weekend, a landmark, had an anchoring role. Also the dynamics of the content of working memory were indicated. The active "temporal window" participants hold in mind seems directed more towards the future than the past. Results are discussed within the more general context of time management.     

Bayesian Hierarchical Classes Analysis

Hierarchical classes models are models for N-way N-mode data that represent the association among the N modes and simultaneously yield, for each mode, a hierarchical classification of its elements. In this paper we present a stochastic extension of the hierarchical classes model for two-way two-mode binary data. In line with the original model, the new probabilistic extension still represents both the association among the two modes and the hierarchical classifications. A fully Bayesian method for fitting the new model is presented and evaluated in a simulation study. Furthermore, we propose tools for model selection and model checking based on Bayes factors and posterior predictive checks. We illustrate the advantages of the new approach with applications in the domain of the psychology of choice and psychiatric diagnosis. Iwin Leenen is now at the Instituto Mexicano de Investigación de Familia y Población (IMIFAP), Mexico. The research reported in this paper was partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (programa Ramón y Cajal) and by the Research Council of K.U.Leuven (PDM/99/037, GOA/2000/02, and GOA/2005/04). The authors are grateful to Johannes Berkhof for fruitful discussions.     

Rethinking Social Participation: The Case of Immigrants in Canada

The social engagement of Canada’s immigrants continues to be the subject of debates. Most studies indicate a lower level of involvement, particularly for recent immigrants. This article investigates the possible causes of this lower participation by analyzing data from the 1998 General Social Survey (GSS), which provides precise measures of two different types of social engagement: volunteering and social participation. Three results stand out. First, formal volunteering and broader social participation do not display the same level of variability across groups. Second, the positive family effect usually observed does not apply to immigrants: the presence of children does not significantly increase their social engagement. Third, there is a strong gender component: whereas Canadian women are more likely to participate, immigrant women are not. Other factors (age, income, education), on the other hand, do seem to apply to both groups. We suggest that these results contribute to a new explanation of immigrant social engagement: Rather than being marked by a general immigration differential, newcomers to Canada seem to be left out of very specific, gender-influenced modes of participation, specifically, those related to the family, children, and schooling.     

Understanding Pamina's recovery: An application of the hermeneutic single‐case efficacy design

This article reports an effectiveness case study of the individual systemic therapy of a 22‐year‐old Portuguese woman with a diagnosis of paranoid personality disorder, conducted in a university‐based clinic in Lisbon, Portugal. Data were analysed using the hermeneutic single‐case efficacy design, a non‐experimental interpretive approach that aims to determine whether change occurred, whether change was due to therapeutic strategies, and what in therapy caused the change. Results indicate that the treatment was effective and that de‐pathologising Pamina's condition and genogram‐based exploration techniques played a crucial role in her recovery.     

False recognition of facial expressions of emotion: causes and implications

This article examines the importance of semantic processes in the recognition of emotional expressions, through a series of three studies on false recognition. The first study found a high frequency of false recognition of prototypical expressions of emotion when participants viewed slides and video clips of nonprototypical fearful and happy expressions. The second study tested whether semantic processes caused false recognition. The authors found that participants made significantly higher error rates when asked to detect expressions that corresponded to semantic labels than when asked to detect visual stimuli. Finally, given that previous research reported that false memories are less prevalent in younger children, the third study tested whether false recognition of prototypical expressions increased with age. The authors found that 67% of eight- to nine-year-old children reported nonpresent prototypical expressions of fear in a fearful context, but only 40% of 6- to 7-year-old children did so. Taken together, these three studies demonstrate the importance of semantic processes in the detection and categorization of prototypical emotional expressions.