Local contour characteristics as determinants of pattern discrimination

Subjects were required to discriminate complex random polygons which had the same global shapes but differed in local contour characteristics. Discrimination was most often successful when local contour features comprised a few long line segments or when they were relatively complex. Local contour features of intermediate sized elements and intermediate complexity played a smaller role in discrimination. Presentation time and interstimulus interval effects, and their interaction were observed. A two-factor explanation was offered for the effect of the contour variable.     

The role of location indexes in spatial perception: a sketch of the FINST spatial-index model

This paper hypothesizes a resource-limited mechanism, called a FINST, for individuating or indexing visual features, as distinct from encoding their type or location. FINSTs have the property that they index features in a way that is transparent to their retinal location, and hence under certain conditions succeed in "pointing to" scene locations. The basic assumption is that no operation upon sets of features can occur unless all the features to which the operation applies are first FINSTed. A number of applications of this hypothesis are explored in this paper, including applications to phenomena such as the spatial stability of visual percepts, the ability to track several independently moving targets in parallel, the ability to detect a class of spatial relations requiring the use of "visual routines", various mental imagery phenomena, and the ability to encode complex shapes for recognition. In addition, the possibility is examined that such indexes might be used to bind perceived locations to arguments in motor commands, thereby allowing some forms of perceptual-motor coordination. Several additional assumptions are introduced for this purpose, including the postulation of other indexes (called ANCHORS) for non-visually sensed locations. It is assumed that ANCHORS can be bound to FINSTs, thus allowing cross-referencing of visually detected locations to locations given within a proprioceptive or motor-command frame of reference.     

Analytic Thinking,Religion, and Prejudice: An Experimental Test of the Dual-Process Model of Mind

Dual-process models of the mind, as well as the relation between analytic thinking and religious belief, have aroused interest in recent years. However, few studies have examined this relation experimentally. We predicted that religious belief might be one of the causes of prejudice, while analytic thinking reduces both. The first experiment replicated, in a mostly Muslim sample, past research showing that analytic thinking promotes religious disbelief. The second experiment investigated the effect of Muslim religious priming and analytic priming on prejudice and showed that, although the former significantly increased the total prejudice score, the latter had an effect only on antigay prejudice. Thus, the findings partially support our proposed pattern of relationships in that analytic thinking might be one of the cognitive factors that prevents prejudice, whereas religious belief might be the one that increases it.     

Gender-Specific Conflicts among Urban African-American Youth: The Roles of Situational Context and Issues of Contention

The literatures on violence among young men and young women have highlighted the importance of situational context. However, few studies have compared disputes that do not result in violence with those that do, and even fewer have been positioned to investigate the role situational context may play across gender in accounting for these outcomes. Drawing on recent scholarship on gender and violence, this research explores the situational contexts of youth conflicts among African-American adolescent boys and girls. Using a large sample of narrative accounts of 153 violent and nonviolent conflicts, we examine how youth describe the issues of contention in their conflicts, how these relate to the situational contexts in which conflicts emerge, and similarities and differences in the antecedents, contexts, and extent of male and female violence.     

High-strain induced reverse martensitic transformation in an ultrafine-grained Ti-Nb-Ta-Zr alloy

We report on a novel phenomenon, that is a high-strain-induced reverse martensitic transformation in an ultrafine-grained Ti–36Nb–2Ta–3Zr (wt.%) alloy processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at room temperature. Our results show that a martensitic transformation from body-centred cubic β matrix to orthorhombic α″ martensite occurs under low-strain ECAP conditions and that a large portion (~34%) of martensite transforms into a matrix phase (i.e. reverse martensitic transformation) with increasing ECAP strain to a high value of 4 (i.e. 6 passes) with a corresponding reduction in the α″-lath thickness and a refinement of grain size in the matrix phase.     

Public Discourse and Public Policy: Some Ways That Metaphor Constrains Health (Care)

Since the terms of the health policy debate in the United States and Canada are largely supplied by biomedicine, the current “crisis” in health care is, in part, a product of biomedical rhetoric. In this essay, three metaphors widely identified as being associated with biomedicine—the body is a machine, medicine is war,and medicine is a business—are examined with a view to the ways in which they influence the health policy debate, not only with respect to outcomes, but also with respect to what can be argued at all. The essay proposes that biomedical language itself be foregrounded as the constitutive material of public discourse on health policy.     

Insurance Coverage and Mental Health Service Use by Adolescents with Serious Emotional Disturbance

This paper examines the relationships between insurance coverage, need, and mental health services in a community-based sample of 1,015 youths who were 9, 11, and 13 years old at the beginning of the study. They were followed over a two-year period. A strong measure of need based on a standardized diagnostic interview was available and repeated over three annual waves. Data on service use was collected quarterly across two years. Major findings included: (a) high need (serious emotional disturbance [SED]) was strongly related to use of any mental health services; (b) services use was much more likely to occur with public (Medicaid) insurance coverage than either private or no insurance; (c) considerable unmet need was observed even for youths with SED; (d) school-based mental health services potentially substituted for professional mental health services; and (e) there was little unnecessary use of mental health services in the low need group. The major policy implication of these findings is that the regulation of insurance benefits should be based on level of need, rather than on arbitrary limits which are likely to either reduce the probability of or appropriate amount of care for youths who most need mental health services.     

The Contribution of Hope and Affectivity to Diabetes-Related Disability: An Exploratory Study

This study examined the relationships of the dispositional variables of hope, positive affectivity (PA), and negative affectivity (NA) with disease status and illness-related psychosocial functioning in a sample of 45 young adults with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Canonical analyses revealed one significant canonical function between the dispositional and psychosocial outcome variables. Primary contributors to the relationship were higher NA and lower PA and maladaptive emotional behavior. A linear multiple regression analysis using hope and affectivity as predictors failed to account for a significant proportion of variance in objective disease status as measured by hemoglobin A _1C (HbA_1C). The results support previous findings that affectivity may relate to self-reported, disease-related outcome, but not necessarily to objective measures of health status. Future studies of adaptation to chronic illness should consider including measures of illness-related behaviors (e.g., adherence), as well as subjective and objective measures of health status.     

Parent vs. Self-Report: Contributions Toward Diagnosis of Adolescent Psychopathology

Assessment of psychopathology in adolescents can be complicated due to uncertainties about who should be considered the primary informant. While a multimethod, multiinformant approach to assessment allows for a thorough assessment, it can also result in contradictory findings. The purpose of this study was to use a sample of 121 adolescents to investigate issues of parent-adolescent agreement on behavior rating scales and a structured diagnostic interview. Additionally, this study evaluated whether adolescent report offers unique information to the assessment beyond the parent's report. The sample included both normal controls and adolescents who met criteria for diagnosis of an Internalizing or Externalizing disorder based on the DSM-IV criteria. Agreement between parents and adolescents on the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents—Revised (DICA-R) was low for ADHD (39.4%) and Externalizing Disorders (41.1%) and moderate for Internalizing Disorders (56.6%). A significant difference was found between the number of ADHD symptoms reported, with parents reporting more symptoms (M = 9.42) than adolescents (M = 8.34). Regression analysis indicated that the adolescent completed Youth Self-report (YSR) contributed unique information beyond the parent completed measures in predicting both the adolescent and the parent interviews for Internalizing Disorders. This finding emphasizes the need to continue to collect self-report information, especially when assessing Internalizing disorders, which inherently contain symptoms indicating high-risk behaviors such as suicide ideation.     

The role of client choice and target selection in self-management therapy for depression in older adults

In a study designed to maximize the effectiveness of treatment by allowing participants to select the target of treatment, 40 depressed older adults were randomly assigned to a waiting-list control condition or to conditions in which the target of treatment was either chosen or assigned. All participants received self-management therapy and the choice was between changing behavior or changing cognition. It was found that individually administered self-management therapy was effective in treating depression for older adults. There were no differences in outcome between versions of self-management therapy that targeted behavioral or cognitive change. Among those who completed treatment, there were no differences in outcome between those who received a choice and those who did not. Individuals who were given a choice of treatment options, however, were less likely to drop out of treatment prematurely.