Gaze behavior in analytical and holistic face processing

We conducted two experiments examining children's and adults' gaze behavior when processing faces analytically (focusing on a single feature) or holistically (comparing the overall similarity of the faces). Children 6-8 and 9-10 years of age and adults were instructed to assign schematically drawn faces in Experiment 1 and photos of real faces in Experiment 2 to two categories. The categories were constructed so as to allow either an analytical or holistic categorization of the faces. During all trials, gaze behavior was recorded from stimulus onset until reaction. The location and duration of the fixations used were analyzed. Whereas the holistic processors fixated the whole area of the eyes and nose most and longest independently of age, analytical processors showed a more feature-specific gaze behavior, focusing their fixations upon the particular feature used for subsequent processing. Thus, differences in analytical and holistic face processing can be detected early in gaze behavior-that is, at the visual encoding stage.     

Perceptual asymmetry for chimeric stimuli in children with early unilateral brain damage

The present study used a chimeric stimuli task to assess the magnitude of the left-hemispace bias in children with congenital unilateral brain damage (n = 46) as compared to typically developing matched controls (n = 46). As would be expected, controls exhibited a significant left-hemispace bias. In the presence of left hemisphere (LH) damage, the left-hemispace preference was found to be present, but attenuated, whereas right hemisphere (RH) damage resulted in a less lateralized process. Examination of lesion severity revealed that large lesions in the RH were associated with a reversal of the typical left-hemispace bias, while small lesions resulted in a left bias approximating that of controls. In contrast, the left-hemispace preference in children with LH damage was similar across lesion size. We conclude that damage to either hemisphere early in brain development may alter hemispheric preference for processing of nonverbal stimuli, and that at least in the case of RH damage, alteration of the normal perceptual asymmetry may depend on the interaction between lesion side and severity.     

The effect of low social support on short-term prognosis in patients following a first myocardial infarction

The objectives of the current study were (1) to assess adjustment in patients following a first myocardial infarction (MI) at 9 months compared with 4-6 weeks post-MI, (2) to examine the availability of and satisfaction with social support over time, and (3) to determine separate baseline psychosocial predictors of recurrent cardiac events. A questionnaire assessing post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, health complaints, and social support, was distributed to consecutive patients 4-6 weeks and 9 months post-MI. Prior to assessment at follow-up, 8 (7%) of 112 patients had dropped out, and two had died due to cardiac causes. Objective clinical measures were obtained from medical records. There was an improvement in somatic and cognitive symptoms at follow-up, but no change in symptoms of arousal, depression, and anxiety. Half of the patients were afraid of a recurrent MI. There was a significant decrease in social support between baseline and follow-up, and lower social support at baseline was associated with a 10% increased risk of recurrent cardiac events at follow-up (OR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.84 to 0.97) adjusting for all other variables. Some patients still experienced difficulties with psychosocial adjustment 9 months post-MI despite a reduction in somatic and cognitive symptoms. Social support decreased over time, which may have serious prognostic implications; lower social support at baseline was an independent predictor of recurrent events at 9 months. An important step for future research will be to investigate how social support can be enhanced in patients at risk.     

The owl and the pussycat: Gaze cues and visuospatial orienting

Recent research has shown that nonpredictive gaze cues trigger reflexive shifts in attention toward the looked-at location. But just how generalizable is this spatial cuing effect? In particular, are people especially tuned to gaze cues provided by conspecifics, or can comparable shifts in visual attention be triggered by other cue providers and directional cues? To investigate these issues, we used a standard cuing paradigm to compare the attentional orienting produced by different cue providers (i.e., animate vs. inanimate) and directional cues (i.e., eyes vs. arrows). The results of three experiments revealed that attentional orienting was insensitive to both the identity of the cue provider and the nature of the triggering cue. However, compared with arrows, gaze cues prompted a general enhancement in the efficiency of processing operations. We consider the implications of these findings for accounts of reflexive visual orienting.     

Determining inhibition: Individual differences in the 'lexicon context' trade-off during lexical ambiguity resolution in working memory

The current experiment assessed the relation between inhibitory mechanisms underlying language processing in working memory (WM) and the influence of a postulated internal cognitive trade-off between lexicon and context factors driving inhibition in sentence processing. Participants with high and low WM span (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980) were presented with sentences that began with an ambiguous noun (being both homographic and homophonic). A cue towards the relevant meaning of the ambiguous word was presented three words later by another noun. Immediately after the cue, a verb was presented that finally disambiguated the ambiguous noun. In half of the cases, the final disambiguation was congruent with the disambiguation cue. In the other half, subjects had to realize that it was not the cued but the other meaning, which turned out to be relevant in the actual sentence. This experimental paradigm was identical to the one used in Gunter et al. (2003). In contrast to the original experiment, the filler items in the present study were unambiguous. Both groups showed a smaller N400 component for the cue related to the dominant as compared to the subordinate meaning, suggesting that the dominant meaning was more active in WM than the subordinate one. In the original experiment, only the high-span subjects manifested this effect. Thus, a change in the global experimental setting changed the use of WM-related inhibitory processes. Data also suggest that, as a default strategy, the lexicon-context trade-off of high-span subjects relies more on lexicon information than does that of low-span subjects.     

The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory: development and validation of a short version

This article reports on the development of a revised version of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (OCI; E. B. Foa, M. J. Kozak, P. Salkovskis, M. E. Coles, & N. Amir, 1998), a psychometrically sound, theoretically driven, self-report measure. The revised OCI (OCI-R) improves on the parent version in 3 ways: It eliminates the redundant frequency scale, simplifies the scoring of the subscales, and reduces overlap across subscales. The reliability and validity of the OCI-R were examined in 215 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), 243 patients with other anxiety disorders, and 677 nonanxious individuals. The OCI-R, which contains 18 items and 6 subscales, has retained excellent psychometric properties. The OCI-R and its subscales differentiated well between individuals with and without OCD. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses demonstrated the usefulness of the OCI-R as a diagnostic tool for screening patients with OCD, utilizing empirically derived cutscores.     

What motivates stunt men?

If confrontation with danger is related to fear, and fear is considered to be the motivation for avoidance behavior, the question remains why certain people seek confrontations with danger. The present study, part of a larger one, is concerned with confrontation with actual danger, as in dangerous sports or voluntarily chosen dangerous professions. It reports the results of interviews with six stunt men. These results partly support the hypothesis of Zuckerman on sensation-seeking personality features: The subjects appear to be eager for varied experience and relatively unconcerned with negative consequences of their actions. The ability to stand the strains and to concentrate under riskful conditions shows up as a further important characteristic of stunt men. The major reward that constitutes the motivation for engaging in the stunting profession appears to consist of being able to meet the challenges involved, with increased self-esteem, receiving acclaim, and monetary profit as secondary rewards. Ability and motivation thus are inextricably intertwined.With acknowledgment to Prof. Nico Frijda, without whose support this article would not have been written and would not have acquired its present form.     

‘The lesser of two evils…’ – views of persons with rheumatoid arthritis on medication adherence: a qualitative study

Objective: This study aimed to explore medication adherence among adherent and non-adherent persons suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A special focus was put on the reasons accounting for successful medication adherence and on potential barriers or facilitating factors.

Design: A qualitative study with semi-structured interviews was conducted. Eighteen participants were recruited through stratified purposive sampling according to their medication adherence level. Interviews were analysed by interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Results: Medication adherence behaviour was described on a continuum ranging from non-adherent to adherent. Participants’ current adherence level was represented as a result of inner negotiations between a variety of influential factors and the successful application of a range of strategies. The influential factors were: experiences with medication, outcome expectations, knowledge of therapeutic options, the traits ‘openness’ and ‘conscientiousness’, belief in medical progress, characteristics of the medication, level of trust in one’s physician, and perceived autonomy. Facilitating strategies were: establishing routines, using social support and the deliberate suppression of information about potential adverse events.

Conclusion: The experience of and the reasons for medication (non-)adherence from the perspective of people with RA were explored comprehensively. Participants’ ongoing negotiations between adherence and non-adherence emerged as a key finding with implications for health service providers.