The Effects of Time and Distance on Accuracy of Target-Directed Locomotion

Dual adaptation to different amounts or directions of prismatic displacement, or both, can be acquired and maintained with little mutual interference. Associative recalibration of the regional task- or workspace, contingent on differentiation of distinguishing sensory information, can explain such adaptation. In contrast, nonassociative realignment restores dimensional mapping among spatial representations. Methods for measuring the separate contributions of those 2 kinds of prism adaptation are identified in the present article. On the basis of a critique of dual-adaptation studies, the authors suggest that recalibration can explain the data but that the method used in those experiments confounded realignment and might have obscured the effectiveness of dual-calibration training.     

Visuokinesthetic Realignment in a Video-Controlled Reaching Task

The authors investigated the accuracy of horizontal pointing movements toward a visual target viewed on a vertical video monitor; the view included a directional distortion between perceptual and action spaces. Although accurate coding of the movement vector in a relative (visual) system of coordinates has been found to occur when there is a prismatic perturbation, provided that the hand and the target are continuously visible, such accurate performance has never been reported for video-controlled situations with larger deviations. To evaluate whether visual relative coding is task specific or depends on the magnitude of the induced misalignment, the authors manipulated the intensity of directional perturbation (10° or 40°) in a video-controlled task. Whatever the directional bias, participants (N = 40) were initially inaccurate but adapted quickly within a few trial rehearsals, with a concomitant recalibration of segmental proprioception. In contrast with prism studies, relative coding of the hand-to-target vector seemed not to be operative in video-controlled situations, suggesting that target location is specified in an egocentric system of reference that includes hand-related proprioceptive signals, despite the presence of a (consciously) detected misalignment between visual and kinesthetic systems.     

The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Ego Defense Mechanisms

The author examined the relationship between the components of emotional intelligence (perception of emotion, affect regulation, and emotional knowledge) and personality factors associated with adaptation, represented by the hierarchical model of defense mechanisms (M. Bond, S. Gardner, J. Christian. & J. Sigal, 1983). Bivariate correlation analyses yielded mixed results; the adaptive defense styles were correlated with overall emotional intelligence but not with the emotional perception and regulation components, as was hypothesized. Emotional knowledge was correlated with both adaptive and maladaptive defense styles and with general intelligence, as was expected. Implications for counseling and psychoeducational interventions are suggested.     

Motivational Effects of Outcome Feedback on Motor Performance

This study examined the effects of success and failure feedback on subsequent motor performance. Based upon the general motivation (or level-of-aspiration) hypothesis, initial success should lead to better subsequent performance than does initial failure, while the reverse prediction was derived from the cognitive dissonance theory. To test these rival hypotheses, two experiments were conducted on undergraduate male students (n =120) performing a motor maze task. Initial failure improved subjects’ subsequent performance, thus supporting the dissonance theory. However, this effect was observed only under low-ego-involving conditions, thereby suggesting that the effects of dissonance and ego involvement are interdependent. The findings were discussed in terms of motivational and informational/attributional effects of outcome feedback on motor performance.     

Scaling Estimates of Amplitude for Movements Without Visual Guidance

Three groups of subjects were involved in estimating movement amplitudes. Two of these groups used the method of estimation, labeling the amplitudes of simple linear movements in inches. One group made active movements, the other experienced passive movement of the arm. The third group, using the method of production, attempted to move the distance required by the experimenter’s label. Performance was described in terms of absolute, algebraic, and intrasubject variable error. No striking differences were noted between the three task groups, but males and females differed systematically. Females tended to over-estimate and males to underestimate the distances moved. Lack of evidence for any range effect suggests that subjects were operating from relatively stable perceptual traces, accessed by the verbal labels, rather than from memory traces of previous estimates of the same amplitudes.     

Is the Critical Point for Aperture Crossing Adapted to the Person-Plus-Object System?

When passing through apertures, individuals scale their actions to their shoulder width and rotate their shoulders or avoid apertures that are deemed too small for straight passage. Carrying objects wider than the body produces a person-plus-object system that individuals must account for in order to pass through apertures safely. The present study aimed to determine whether individuals scale their critical point to the widest horizontal dimension (shoulder or object width). Two responses emerged: Fast adapters adapted to the person-plus-object system by maintaining a consistent critical point regardless of whether the object was carried while slow adapters initially increased their critical point (overestimated) before adapting back to their original critical point. The results suggest that individuals can account for increases in body width by scaling actions to the size of the object width but people adapt at different rates.     

Block‐wise conflict adaptation of visual selectivity: Role of hemisphere‐dependent and location‐specific mechanisms

Three experiments investigated views on modulation of visual selectivity that involve hemisphere‐dependence and conflict frequency based views for a whole display. In each experiment, 16 participants completed a flanker task with compatible/incompatible stimulus arrays presented in the left, center, or right visual fields. The relative frequency of the compatible stimulus‐arrays within a trial block was varied as a function of the visual field. In Experiment 1, the relative compatibility frequency in the lateral visual fields was varied (75% / 25%) but not in the center visual field (50%). The results showed that in the lateral visual fields, the performance between the compatible and incompatible trials differed more in conditions with few (vs. many) compatibility trials. Experiments 2 and 3 validated these findings. In Experiment 2, the compatibility frequency varied in the center visual field but not in the lateral fields, resulting in performance effects in all three visual fields. Experiment 3 varied the magnitude of the differences between the compatibility and incompatibility frequencies. Together, the findings showed that participants adjusted to the frequencies of compatible stimuli in all visual fields, indicating conflict adaptation that depends on the relative frequencies of compatible stimuli. The results also suggest that this adaptation is associated with hemisphere‐dependent and location‐specific mechanisms.     

Making it last: Combating hedonic adaptation in romantic relationships

Increasing evidence that positive affect enhances associative processing has lent weight to the idea that positive affect increases false memory for information that is thematically interrelated. Using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm, we examined whether mild positive affect facilitates monitoring processes in modulating false memory for associate words. When participants in the warned condition – in contrast to those in the unwarned condition – were overtly warned about possible false recognition of the critical lure, we found that positive affect, compared to neutral affect, significantly enhanced monitoring through a warning and reduced false recognition. Signal detection analyses suggest that when a warning is provided, positive affect enhances sensitivity to discriminate list items from critical lures, but it does not shift the overall decision criterion. Taken together, we conclude that positive affect facilitates the effect of a warning in reducing false memories for semantic associates.     

Le Questionnaire sur les structures relationnelles : adaptation et validation de la version française du Experiences in Close Relationships–Relationship Structures Questionnaire

Introduction and objectivesThe Relationship Structures Questionnaire (ECR-RS), developed by Fraley, Heffernan, Vicary, et Brumbaugh (2011), measures a central construct commonly studied in the field of interpersonal relationships: one's specific attachment to a person. The objective of the two studies was to translate, adapt and validate a French version of the ECR-RS in the romantic relationship context.MethodData were collected from 110 French-speaking couples (Study 1) and 281 French-speaking students (Study 2). To evaluate the validity of the French version presented here, we investigated the factor structure, reliability (internal consistency and temporal stability), content validity, and concurrent validity.Results and conclusionResults support the French version presented here while revealing that the elimination of items 5 and 6 of the avoidance dimension is necessary for good psychometric properties. This adapted and validated version of the ECR-RS may be used for research with French-speaking populations.