Constraints on Multiple Object Tracking in Williams Syndrome: How Atypical Development Can Inform Theories of Visual Processing

The ability to track moving objects is a crucial skill for performance in everyday spatial tasks. The tracking mechanism depends on representation of moving items as coherent entities, which follow the spatiotemporal constraints of objects in the world. In the present experiment, participants tracked 1 to 4 targets in a display of 8 identical objects. Objects moved randomly and independently (moving condition), passed behind an invisible bar (occluded condition), or momentarily disappeared by shrinking (implosion condition). Scholl and Pylyshyn (1999) found that adults can track entities under the moving and occluded conditions, but not under implosion. This finding suggests that the tracking mechanism is constrained by the spatiotemporal properties of physical objects as they move in the world. In the present study, we adapt these conditions to investigate whether this constraint holds for people with severe spatial impairments associated with Williams syndrome (WS). In Experiment 1, we compare the performance of individuals with WS and typically developing (TD) adults. TD adults replicated Scholl and Pylyshyn’s findings; performance was no different between the moving and occluded conditions but was worse under implosion. People with WS had reduced tracking capacity but demonstrated the same pattern across conditions. In Experiment 2, we tested TD 4-, 5-, and 7-year-olds. People with WS performed at a level that fell between TD 4- and 5-year-olds. These results suggest that the multiple object tracking system in WS operates under the same object-based constraints that hold in typical development.     

Killing begets killing: evidence from a bug-killing paradigm that initial killing fuels subsequent killing

Killing appears to perpetuate itself even in the absence of retaliation. This phenomenon may occur in part as a means to justify prior killing and so ease the threat of prior killing. In addition, this effect should arise particularly when a killer perceives similarity to the victims because similarity should exacerbate threat from killing. To examine these ideas, the authors developed a bug-killing paradigm in which they manipulated the degree of initial bug killing in a "practice task" to observe the effects on subsequent self-paced killing during a timed "extermination task." In Studies 1 and 2, for participants reporting some similarity to bugs, inducing greater initial killing led to more subsequent self-paced killing. In Study 3, after greater initial killing, more subsequent self-paced killing led to more favorable affective change. Implications for understanding lethal human violence are discussed.     

Reference to Emotion States During Narrative Co‐Construction With Three‐Year‐Old Kibbutz Children: Comparison of Mother–Child and Metapelet–Child Dyads

In this study of young kibbutz children, we considered similarities and differences between mother–child dyads and metapelet (nonmaternal female caregiver)–child dyads on their rates of mentioning positive and negative emotion states and emotion calls during narrative co‐construction from a text‐free picture book illustrating emotionally charged situations. Thirty‐two kibbutz children approximately 3 years of age, their mothers, and their metaplot (i.e., plural of metapelet) were observed during co‐construction from the picture book. All participants (mothers, metaplot, children with mothers, and children with metaplot) mentioned more negative emotion states and emitted more negative emotion calls than positive ones. Children mentioned less emotion states than adults. No differences were found between mothers and metaplot in the number of emotion states mentioned, but mothers used significantly more emotion calls than did the metaplot, and their children tended to reciprocate. The influence of the context and type of relationship on emotion regulation is discussed.     

Embodied metaphor and the “true” self: Priming entity expansion and protection influences intrinsic self-expressions in self-perceptions and interpersonal behavior

Drawing on conceptual metaphor perspectives and embodied cognition theories, we proposed that the intrinsic self-concept-who people think they truly are-is represented metaphorically as a physical entity, and that expressions of the intrinsic self-concept are therefore conceptualized in terms of entity activity. Using an empirical strategy for experimentally investigating conceptual metaphor, we tested whether exposure to pictorial primes depicting entity expansion and protection produces metaphor-consistent effects on self-perceptions and interpersonal behaviors expressive of the intrinsic self-concept. In Study 1, participants primed with entity expansion perceived themselves as more self-actualized and less concerned with satisfying extrinsic contingencies of self-esteem. Study 2 showed that this effect was mediated by the increased accessibility of the concept entity expansion. In Study 3, expansion-primed participants conformed less to other people's opinions. In Study 4, participants primed with entity protection were less willing to disclose intimate, but not non-intimate, self-knowledge to a stranger.     

Objective and subjective measures indicate that orthographically similar words produce a blocking experience

Memory blocks are a common experience characterised by inappropriate retrieval of information that impairs memory search processes. In five studies, memory blocks were induced via exposure to orthographically similar words (Smith & Tindell, 1997) while participants reported their subjective experiences to determine whether the memory block effect (MBE) paradigm produces a feeling of being blocked. Experiments 1 and 3 provided evidence that the MBE is associated with more blocked experiences. In Experiments 2 and 4 increased blocking experiences correlated with blocked fragments when the experimental manipulation was disguised, which demonstrates that ratings were not contaminated by demand characteristics. Experiment 5 demonstrated that blocking happens even when there is no study list. Collectively, the subjective retrieval ratings and the objective response data provide converging evidence that exposure to orthographically similar words induces a memory block characterised by an ineffective memory search that perseverates on interfering information.     

Representation of Object Orientation in Children: Evidence from Mirror-Image Confusions

Although many cognitive functions require information about the orientations of objects, little is known about representation or processing of object orientation. Mirror-image confusion provides a potential clue. This phenomenon is typically characterized as a tendency to confuse images related by left-right reflection (reflection across an extrinsic vertical axis). However, in most previous studies the stimuli were inadequate for identifying a specific mirror-image (or other) relationship as the cause of the observed confusions. Using stimuli constructed to resolve this problem, Gregory and McCloskey (2010) found that adults' errors were primarily reflections across an object axis, and not left-right reflections. The present study demonstrates that young children's orientation errors include both object-axis reflections and left-right reflections. We argue that children and adults represent object orientation in the same coordinate-system format (McCloskey, 2009), with orientation errors resulting from difficulty encoding or retaining one (adults) or two (children) specific components of the posited representations.     

Small Subitizing Range in People with Williams syndrome

Recent evidence suggests that the rapid apprehension of small numbers of objects-- often called subitizing-- engages a system which allows representation of up to 4 objects but is distinct from other aspects of numerical processing. We examined subitizing by studying people with Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic deficit characterized by severe visuospatial impairments, and normally developing children (4-6.5 years old). In Experiment 1, participants first explicitly counted displays of 1 to 8 squares that appeared for 5 s and reported "how many". They then reported "how many" for the same displays shown for 250 ms, a duration too brief to allow explicit counting, but sufficient for subitizing. All groups were highly accurate up to 8 objects when they explicitly counted. With the brief duration, people with WS showed almost perfect accuracy up to a limit of 3 objects, comparable to 4 year-olds but fewer than either 5 or 6.5 year-old children. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to report "how many" for displays that were presented for an unlimited duration, as rapidly as they could while remaining accurate. Individuals with WS responded as rapidly as 6.5 year-olds, and more rapidly than 4 year-olds. However, their accuracy was as in Experiment 1, comparable to 4 year-olds, and lower than older children. These results are consistent with previous results indicating that people with WS can simultaneously represent multiple objects, but that they have a smaller capacity than older children, on par with 4 year-olds. This pattern is discussed in the context of normal and abnormal development of visuospatial skills, in particular those linked to the representation of numerosity.     

Object recognition in Williams syndrome: uneven ventral stream activation

Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic disorder associated with severe visuospatial deficits, relatively strong language skills, heightened social interest, and increased attention to faces. On the basis of the visuospatial deficits, this disorder has been characterized primarily as a deficit of the dorsal stream, the occipitoparietal brain regions that subserve visuospatial processing. However, some evidence indicates that this disorder may also affect the development of the ventral stream, the occipitotemporal cortical regions that subserve face and object recognition. The present studies examined ventral stream function in WS, with the hypothesis that faces would produce a relatively more mature pattern of ventral occipitotemporal activation, relative to other objects that are also represented across these visual areas. Using functional magnetic imaging, we compared activation patterns during viewing of human faces, cat faces, houses and shoes in individuals with WS (age 14-27), typically developing 6-9-year-olds (matched approximately on mental age), and typically developing 14-26-year-olds (matched on chronological age). Typically developing individuals exhibited changes in the pattern of activation over age, consistent with previous reports. The ventral stream topography of individuals with WS differed from both control groups, however, reflecting the same level of activation to face stimuli as chronological age matches, but less activation to house stimuli than either mental age or chronological age matches. We discuss the possible causes of this unusual topography and implications for understanding the behavioral profile of people with WS.     

SHOULD MARITAL RELATIONS BE NON‐HIERARCHICAL?

The paper explores an egalitarian norm widely accepted today, which I call the Marital Non‐Hierarchy Standard. According to this standard, marital relationships should be non‐hierarchical; neither partner may be more dominant than the other. The Marital Non‐Hierarchy Standard is exceptional: in almost all associations, including many financial, professional, educational and recreational ones, in almost all spheres of life, some hierarchies, within certain limits, are widely believed to be morally legitimate. I argue that in marital relations, too, some hierarchies should be accepted as morally legitimate. It might be argued that marital relations should be loving, and love requires that lovers will have the same degree of power. However, contemporary analyses of love show that love is consistent with (some) hierarchies. It might also be argued that justice requires that lovers will have equal power. However, theories of distributive justice such as Rawls's, Sen's, Dworkin's, and almost all others allow some marital hierarchies. Thus, both the love requirement and the justice requirement allow some hierarchical marital relationships and conflict with the Marital Non‐Hierarchy Standard. Until other justifications for this standard are presented, it is unclear why it should be endorsed.