Categorization by movement direction: Retrieval-induced forgetting of motor sequences grouped by motion features

We investigated the organized storage of motor sequences in memory by assuming that processes related to interference at retrieval are indicative of memory organization. Effects resulting from these processes, thus, would allow inferences on how motor sequences are represented and organized. Participants learned motor sequences that were categorized by the direction of the initial movement. The subsequent selective retrieval of a subset of sequences of one category resulted in retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) for the non-retrieved sequences of the same category. RIF occurred in an explicit recall test (Experiment 1), as well in an implicit test assessing memory with novel cues (Experiment 2). The results suggest that RIF affected motor programmes and that other cues as the used effectors (here movement direction) can be used for the organization of procedural memory. Basic retrieval dynamics apparently operate within the declarative and procedural systems in a similar way.     

Argument disrupts interpersonal synchrony

Research on interpersonal convergence and synchrony characterizes the way in which interacting individuals come to have more similar affect, behaviour, and cognition over time. Although its dynamics have been explored in many settings, convergence during conflict has been almost entirely overlooked. We present a simple but ecologically valid study comparing how different situational contexts that highlight affiliation and argument impact interpersonal convergence of body movement and to what degree emotional states affect convergence in both conversational settings. Using linear mixed-effect models, we found that in-phase bodily synchrony decreases significantly during argument. However, affective changes did not significantly predict changes in levels of interpersonal synchrony, suggesting that differences in affect valences between affiliation and argument cannot solely explain our results.     

The effects of facial adiposity on attractiveness and perceived leadership ability

Facial attractiveness has a positive influence on electoral success both in experimental paradigms and in the real world. One parameter that influences facial attractiveness and social judgements is facial adiposity (a facial correlate to body mass index, BMI). Overweight people have high facial adiposity and are perceived to be less attractive and lower in leadership ability. Here, we used an interactive design in order to assess whether the most attractive level of facial adiposity is also perceived as most leader-like. We found that participants reduced facial adiposity more to maximize attractiveness than to maximize perceived leadership ability. These results indicate that facial appearance impacts leadership judgements beyond the effects of attractiveness. We suggest that the disparity between optimal facial adiposity in attractiveness and leadership judgements stems from social trends that have produced thin ideals for attractiveness, while leadership judgements are associated with perception of physical dominance.     

Coping with the Aftermath of Terror-Resilience of ZAKA Body Handlers

Abstract

This study assessed the psychological consequences of body handling in the aftermath of terror attacks on 87 ZAKA volunteers and the implications of coping in attenuating the detrimental effects of prolonged exposure to terror. Subjects reported a low sense of danger and considerable self-efficacy. Only two participants (2.3 percent) met symptom criteria for PTSD, and 16 (18.4 percent) met criteria for sub-clinical posttraumatic disorder. Several possible explanations for the resilience of subjects are altruistic and religious rewards, respect and admiration from society and a tendency for sensation seeking.     

Does body dissatisfaction have the same meaning for males and females? A measurement invariance study

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to assess the psychometric equivalence of body dissatisfaction (BD) between males and females.MethodTwo scales, BD and Drive to Thinness (DT), from the Eating Disorder Inventory-3 were evaluated. The sample was comprised of 1616 adolescent males and 1429 adolescent females. Factorial invariance across gender of two scales was assessed in order to evaluate the equivalence of scores.ResultsThe results showed full invariance for the DT scale items, and partial invariance for BD scale items. The content analysis of the items confirmed that items related to the perception of thighs, stomach and hips showed differential functioning across gender.ConclusionsDifferent representation of the BD construct between males and females was concluded, and caution was recommended in assessing and interpreting BD in male samples with questionnaires designed for women.     

Do hands attract attention?

Social stimuli, like faces (Kanwisher, McDermott, & Chun, 1997) or bodies (Downing, Jiang, Shuman, & Kanwisher, 2001), engage specific areas within the visual cortex. Behavioural research reveals an attentional bias to these same stimuli (Ro, Friggel, & Lavie, 2007). The current study examined whether there is an attentional bias towards hands, and whether such a bias is distinct from any bias towards human bodies. In a two-alternative, forced-choice dot-probe task, participants saw two side-by-side pictures for 500 ms. A probe dot then appeared on either side and participants indicated where the dot appeared. Participants were significantly faster to respond when the probe location coincided with the location of pictures of bodies, hands, or feet, compared to dogs, starfish, hand tools, toaster ovens, inverted hands, or inverted bodies. Results suggest an attentional bias to bodies and body parts but found no evidence of a difference in attentional advantage of hands over bodies or feet.     

Lived Experiences of Subclinical Eating Disorder: Female Students' Perceptions

The aim of this study was to obtain an “insiders' perspective” on the lived experience of Subclinical Eating Disorder (SED) in female university students. Participants were 30 white, undergraduate females from the Potchefstroom campus of the North-West University in South African, (age range 18 years 6 months to 22 years). Data were collected using focus group interviews, drawings, letter-writing and self-reflective researcher field notes (Brocki & Wearden, 2006; Morse, 2003). For the analysis, the constant comparative text analysis method (Willig, 2001) was used. Emergent themes from the analysis included four main categories namely: Intra-, Interpersonal, Existential and Body-image. Subcategories of these themes spanned the following: Personal Brokenness, Personal Shame, Perceived Personal Inadequacy and Enslavement, Existential Vacuum, Perceived Social Pressure, Perceived Social Isolation and Body-image Dysfunction. Results were indicative of underestimation of SED-severity, its detrimental impact on participants' psychological well-being and high risk for escalation into full-blown eating disorders. An integrated, risk-protective model of secondary prevention, contextualised within psycho-social developmental perspectives is essential to understand SED in young adults.     

Young men’s minimisation of their body dissatisfaction

Abstract

Objective: To examine men’s body dissatisfaction qualitatively.

Design: Forty-two British men aged 18–45 years took part in a two-session group intervention across 12 groups. The intervention was designed to improve body dissatisfaction by engaging them in a critique of the appearance ideal through written and behavioural exercises.

Main outcome measures/results: Analysis of the topics discussed during the intervention generated two core themes. Theme 1 showed that, in general, men minimised the existence of their own body dissatisfaction while (somewhat surprisingly) outlining the ubiquity and potency of the appearance ideal for men in general. Theme 2 involved men reporting the problematic impact of body dissatisfaction in their lives (despite earlier minimisation), such as social avoidance, strict eating and supplement regimes, or difficulty in situations where the body was exposed.

Conclusion: The results stress the need to acknowledge that men experience a range of impacts of body dissatisfaction beyond clinical presentations (such as disordered eating) that influence their everyday lives, while also recognising that they tend to minimise this dissatisfaction in conversation. These findings have important implications for advocacy and interventions to improve men’s body dissatisfaction.     

Lexical-semantic body knowledge in 5- to 11-year-old children: How spatial body representation influences body semantics

This study addresses the relation between lexico-semantic body knowledge (i.e., body semantics) and spatial body representation (i.e., structural body representation) by analyzing naming performances as a function of body structural topography. One hundred and forty-one children ranging from 5 years 2 months to 10 years 5 months old were asked to provide a lexical label for isolated body part pictures. We compared the children’s naming performances according to the location of the body parts (body parts vs. head features and also upper vs. lower limbs) or to their involvement in motor skills (distal segments, joints, and broader body parts). The results showed that the children’s naming performance was better for facial body parts than for other body parts. Furthermore, it was found that the naming of body parts was better for body parts related to action. These findings suggest that the development of a spatial body representation shapes the elaboration of semantic body representation processing. Moreover, this influence was not limited to younger children. In our discussion of these results, we focus on the important role of action in the development of body representations and semantic organization.     

The effects of schema on recognition memories and subjective experiences for actions and objects

We examined how the schema affects recognition memories and subjective experiences for actions and objects. First, participants watched consecutive slides that described a man in the kitchen. In the slides, the man performed schema‐consistent actions and schema‐inconsistent actions, and schema‐consistent objects and schema‐inconsistent objects were left in the kitchen space. After watching the slides, participants completed a recognition test, a remember/know test, and a Perception/Thought/Emotion/Context questionnaire. For objects, the discrimination between targets and distracters was more accurate for schema‐inconsistent items than for schema‐consistent items, owing to perceptual, thought, and emotional recollections for schema‐inconsistent object targets. For actions, schema‐consistent targets were more frequently recognized than schema‐inconsistent targets, with more remember judgments based on perceptual and contextual recollections. While item‐specific information of schema‐inconsistent targets could be elaborated for objects, the perceptual details and the contextual relationship of schema‐consistent targets could be elaborated for actions. We also found less false recognitions for schema‐consistent action distracters than for schema‐consistent object distracters. The retrieval of the perceptual details of schema‐consistent action targets could prevent false recognitions for schema‐consistent action distracters.