Toward a comprehensive test battery for face cognition: Assessment of the tasks

Despite the importance of face recognition in everyday life and frequent complaints about its failure, there is no comprehensive test battery for this ability. As a first step in constructing such a battery, we present 18 tasks aimed at measuring face perception, face learning, face recognition, and the recognition of facially expressed emotions. A sample of 153 healthy young adults completed all tasks. In general, reaction time measures showed high estimates of internal consistency; tasks focused on performance accuracy yielded reliabilities that were somewhat lower, yet high enough to support their use in a battery of face cognition measures. Some of the tasks allowed computation of established experimental effects in a within-subjects design, such as the part-whole effect. Most of these experimental effects were confirmed in our large sample, and valuable effect size estimates were obtained. However, in many cases these difference measures showed poor estimates of internal consistency.     

Characters and their perspectives in narratives describing spatial environments

Summary This paper explores how people represent spatial information involving two perspectives associated with characters who share the same environment. Subjects first learned a narrative that described a scene with eight landmarks surrounding two characters who had the same or different perspective. Afterwards, subjects were given blocks of three-sentence items to be read at their own pace. The first two sentences guided the reader's attention to one character, while the third sentence described a spatial relation between a character and a landmark; subjects had to verify whether the relation was true or false. The results showed that it took longer to verify sentences after learning two-perspective narratives than it did with those of one perspective, and after reading items involving two characters rather than one. Both effects were significant and independent. To explain the perspective effect, it is proposed that subjects build a single perspective-free mental model that is instantiated as a particular perspective when necessary. The character effect has to do with modeling the characters' nonspatial traits. Finally, spatial skills were a predictor of subjects' performance, indicating individual differences in modeling efficiency.     

Strategic reliance on phonological mediation in lexical access

The present study investigated strategic variation in reliance on phonological mediation in visual word recognition. In Experiment 1, semantically related or unrelated word primes preceded word, pseudohomophone (e.g.,trane), or nonpseudohomophone (e.g.,trank) targets in a lexical decision task. Semantic priming effects were found for words, and response latencies to pseudohomophones were longer in related than in unrelated prime conditions. In Experiment 2, related or unrelated word primes preceded word or pseudohomophone targets. A relatedness effect was found for words, although it was significant at a 600-msec prime-target stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) and not at a 200-msec SOA. There was no relatedness effect for pseudohomophones. Experiment 3 was a replication of Experiment 2, except that pseudohomophones were replaced by nonpseudohomophonic orthographic controls. Facilitation effects for related target words were greater in Experiment 3 than in Experiment 2. The results reflect apparent variations in the expectation that a related prime reliably indicates that a target is a word. Although reliance on phonological mediation might be strategically contingent, there could be a brief time period in which phonologically mediated lexical access occurs automatically. Whether phonological information is maintained or suppressed subsequently depends on its overall usefulness for the task.     

Toward a formal theory of flexible spatial behavior: geometric category biases generalize across pointing and verbal response types

Three experiments tested whether geometric biases--biases away from perceived reference axes--reported in spatial recall tasks with pointing responses generalized to a recognition task that required a verbal response. Seven-year-olds and adults remembered the location of a dot within a rectangle and then either reproduced its location or verbally selected a matching choice dot from a set of colored options. Results demonstrated that geometric biases generalized to verbal responses; however, the spatial span of the choice set influenced performance as well. These data suggest that the same spatial memory process gives rise to both response types in this task. Simulations of a dynamic field model buttress this claim. More generally, these results challenge accounts that posit separate spatial systems for motor and verbal responses.     

Comparing to perfection: How cultural norms for appearance affect social comparisons and self-image

Theory and research suggests that cultural norms for appearance present unrealistic standards of beauty which may contribute to women's body dissatisfaction. In Study 1, women described their appearance more negatively than men and made more upward social comparisons about their bodies, but not about other domains. Women also compared more than men with unrealistic targets (e.g., models). In Study 2, we explored the role of cultural norms for appearance in social comparisons with relevant (peer) or irrelevant (model) superior targets. When cultural norms were not salient, participants judged a peer to be more relevant, compared more with the peer, and were more negatively affected by the peer. However, when cultural norms were salient, participants judged a professional model to be equally relevant, compared more with the model and felt worse after exposure to the model. We discuss the powerful role of cultural norms in determining social comparison processes and self-appraisals.     

Reference-related inhibition produces enhanced position discrimination and fast repulsion near axes of symmetry

Models proposed to account for reference frame effects in spatial cognition often account for performance in some tasks well, but fail to generalize to other tasks. Here, we demonstrate that a new process account of spatial working memory--the dynamic field theory (DFT)--can bridge the gap between perceptual and memory processes in position discrimination and spatial recall, highlighting that the processes underlying spatial recall also operate in position discrimination. In six experiments, we tested two novel predictions of the DFT: first, that discrimination is enhanced near symmetry axes, especially when the perceptual salience of the axis is increased; and second, that performance far from a reference axis depends on the direction in which the second stimulus is presented. The DFT also predicts the magnitude of this direction-dependent modulation. These effects arise from reference-related inhibition in the theory. We discuss how the processes captured by the DFT relate to existing psychophysical models and operate across a diverse array of spatial tasks.     

Coping responses of Asian, Black, and Latino/Latina New York City residents following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States

This study examined mechanisms for coping with adversity in a sample of 24 Asian, Black, and Latino/Latina residents of New York City following the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attacks. Using consensual qualitative research methodology (C. E. Hill, B. J. Thompson, & E. N. Williams, 1997), the authors identified 7 broad coping domains used by the participants: (a) sought additional information about the WTC tragedy, (b) expressed a range of emotions, (c) sought or gave support, (d) engaged in religious or spiritual activities, (e) avoidance, (f) forbearance, and (g) used indigenous healing techniques. Although there were similarities across racial or cultural groups and genders with regard to the coping responses used, there also were unique coping strategies by racial or cultural background and gender.     

Evaluating parent-implemented behavioral skills training for teaching firearm safety skills

Research shows that behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training (IST) are effective interventions for teaching safety skills to children. In addition, the efficiency of these interventions can be increased when parents, teachers, or peers are taught to implement them. The purpose of this study was to replicate Novotny et al. (2020) and evaluate a web-based program for teaching parents to conduct BST to teach safety skills to prevent gunplay. We randomly assigned 18 children to the parent-conducted BST group or a control group and evaluated the intervention in a posttest only control group design. Children in the control group or treatment group who did not score a three in the in situ assessment (do not touch, get away, and tell an adult) received IST from their parents and were assessed again. Results showed that safety skill scores were statistically significantly higher in the treatment group than in the control group. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant increase in safety skills scores following IST for children who received it.     

Teacher and parent perceptions of behavior problems among a sample of African American,Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white studients

A multiracial/multiethnic sample of middle school adolescents and their teachers was used to assess whether teacher ratings of student behavior problems varied according to teacher-student racial/ethnic differences and students' perception of teachers' attitudes toward them. No significant mean score differences were found for Hispanic or non-Hispanic white students according to the race/ethnicity of the teachers doing the ratings. However, African American students rated by Hispanic and non-Hispanic white teachers had significantly higher mean total behavior problem scores than African American students rated by African American teachers. Teacher ratings were also compared to those made by parents. The percentage of students rated as cases by teachers but not by parents differed significantly by race/ethnicity of student. Other findings indicated highly significant relationships between student-perceived teacher disparagement and the assignment of high behavior problem scores to students by teachers. This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, R01DA05912; William A. Vega, Principal Investigator. The authors express their appreciation to Superintendent Octavio Visiedo, Dr. James Mennes, Dr. Sylvia Rothfarb, and the cooperating staff and teachers of the Dade County Public Schools for their support in the conduct of this research.