The Effects of Force and Direction Uncertainty on Choice Reaction Time in an Isometric Force Production Task

The two experiments reported examined the temporal organization of force and direction motor-programming processes in a step-input tracking type task. Both experiments observed a reduction in reaction time in the direction-uncertain conditions compared to the direction-certain ones. Thus it seems as though the direction decision does not have to precede the selection of the proper amount of force. Experiment 2 observed an underadditive interaction between levels of direction uncertainty (certain or uncertain) and levels of force uncertainty (certain or uncertain). This interaction was interpreted as support for a parallel organization of the processes responsible for the programming of force and direction and thus, strongly supports the parallel model of programming recently proposed by Klapp (1977a, b).     

A Cerebral Hyperventilation Index for Electroencephalography

This study was an attempt to determine the effect of drive on probability learning. Each of two groups of Ss was divided into high- and low-drive groups on the basis of MAS scores. Each S was given 200 trials on a probability learning task, with 70 per cent reinforcement on one side and 30 per cent reinforcement on the other. At the .05 level, there was no difference between groups in probability choices, and neither group differed from the objective probability scores. The results are discussed in terms of the number of trials involved, the introduction of emotional arousal, and Hullian theory. On the basis of a comparison with the results of previous studies, it was suggested that investigators be cautious in generalizing probability learning results from one species to another.     

Border collie comprehends sentences containing a prepositional object,verb, and direct object

This study tested the ability of a Border Collie, Chaser, to learn the syntax and semantics of sentences consisting of three elements of grammar, a prepositional object, verb, and direct object. Understanding of the syntax of the sentences required that Chaser emit responses consistent with three elements of grammar sentences, such as to ball take Frisbee. Understanding of the semantics of the sentences required that Chaser respond correctly when the meanings of the sentences were changed by reversing positions of the prepositional object and the direct object in the sentence, such as to Frisbee take ball. Chaser's understanding of the sentences was tested in three different scenarios: (a) when multiple and familiar objects were used in the syntax command sentence, (b) when novel objects were used in the syntax command sentence (novel in the sense that objects had not been used during training), and (c) when vision of objects was not possible at the time the syntax command was verbalized. Findings were statistically significant in all three scenarios. Successful findings were attributed to Chaser's intensive training in her first three years of life. Analysis of the data revealed that Chaser's successful understanding of the syntax sentences required the processing and retention of two sound-object mappings (names-objects) into memory, along with simultaneous judgments concerning which object to take to the other – that is, working memory. These two types of cognitive abilities, memory storage and working memory, raise the bar in terms of our expectations of a dog's potential ability to understand verbal communications. We propose that Chaser's understanding of our three elements of grammar sentences represents a giant leap in her referential understanding of language.     

A Natural Approach in Mental Health Practice: Occupational Adaptation Revealed

A single case study of the stories told by one occupational therapist about her clients in mental health settings is presented in this article. Qualitative analysis revealed key concepts of the role of the occupational therapist as defined by occupational adaptation theory, along with unique perspectives of occupational therapy in mental health settings. The outcome of this study is a demonstration of the unique insight occupational therapy brings to addressing client recovery in mental health settings, specifically from an occupational adaptation perspective. This insight should enlighten others as to the necessity of skilled occupational therapy in mental health settings.     

Inter-individual variability of forces and modular muscle coordination in cycling: A study on untrained subjects

The aim of this study was to investigate the muscle coordination underlying pedaling in untrained subjects by using the muscle synergies paradigm, and to connect it with the inter-individual variability of EMG patterns and applied forces. Nine subjects performed a pedaling exercise on a cycle-simulator. Applied forces were recorded by means of instrumented pedals able to measure two force components. EMG signals were recorded from eight muscles of the dominant leg, and Nonnegative Matrix Factorization was applied to extract muscle synergy vectors W and time-varying activation coefficients H. Inter-individual variability was assessed for EMG patterns, force profiles, and H. Four modules were sufficient to reconstruct the muscle activation repertoire for all the subjects (variance accounted for >90% for each muscle). These modules were found to be highly similar between subjects in terms of W (mean r = .89), while most of the variability in force profiles and EMG patterns was reflected, in the muscle synergy structure, in the variability of H. These four modules have a functional interpretation when related to force distribution along the pedaling cycle, and the structure of W is shared with that present in human walking, suggesting the existence of a modular motor control in humans.     

Sensory substitution: an approach to the experimental study of perception / Sustitución sensorial: un abordaje para el estudio experimental de la percepción

Abstract

Sensory substitution refers to the phenomenon where object and environment information normally acquired through one sense can be obtained by another sense. For example, visual input being provided by hearing or touching. Sensory substitution devices are technological designs that transform the characteristics of one sensory modality into stimuli of another sensory modality. These devices were developed with two purposes: (1) to assist people with sensory disabilities in daily tasks; and (2) to study the involved mechanisms of brain plasticity. This article reviews studies in which sensory substitution phenomenon is employed as a methodological strategy to study visual perception. Furthermore, its use is discussed as an experimental platform to contrast new perceptual theories and underlying neurophysiological mechanisms that are currently under review.     

The Soul Cluster: Reconsideration of a Millennia Old Concept

The article presents a comparative analysis of the theories on conceptions of soul in indigenous and early European traditions. The focal point of the study is the observation that the concept of soul is noticeably complex in aboriginal cultures, and its plural—especially tripartite—nature is the rule rather than the exception. Another observation is that the described pluralism, the number of soul components, and their attributes go through speculative changes as the tradition moves away of tribal origins, which have the shamanic state of consciousness as experiential source of knowledge instead of scholarly theorization. A three-network model of human experience is drawn to support the tripartition cum trilocation concept of soul.     

Biases in use of positive and negative words across twenty natural languages

Positive events are more common (more tokens), but negative events are more differentiated (more types). These observations and asymmetries about the world are consistent with a number of features or biases favouring positive adjectives that have been shown for English. Compared to their opposites, positive adjectives in English are more likely to be unmarked, negated into their opposite, define the entire negative to positive dimension, and occur first in conjunctions with their negative opposite. In this paper we document that these biases have considerable generality, appearing in all or almost all of 20 natural languages. The greater differentiation of negative states is illustrated here by the demonstration that five common nouns describing negative states in English (disgust, risk, sympathy, accident, murderer) have equivalents in most or all of the 20 languages surveyed, but the opposite of these nouns is not lexicalised in most of the 20 languages.     

Socio-cultural selection and the sculpting of the human genome: Cultures’ directional forces on evolution and development

This paper argues for culture as a significant determinant of the modern human genome. As progress in the fields of genetics and evolutionary biology have gained greater insights into evolutionary process, aspects of classical proposals explaining how phenotypic responses to environmental experience could make their way into the genotype have returned in new guises. Recent proposals recognize environmental context as a key source of genetic variation by directly altering selection pressures to mask and unmask adaptive value of expressed traits, by reorganizing the combination and expression of genes during ontogeny to provide novel variants for selection, and by influencing developmental trajectories through epigenetic systems acutely sensitive to ontogenetic contexts. The emergence of a robust human socio-cultural niche, shielding humans from more proximate evolutionary pressures that marked our ancestral evolution, has arguably provided the strongest directive force on modern human evolution. Language is discussed as an exemplar of a cultural niche with a powerful self-organizing dynamic and the potential to dramatically alter the human genome.     

Identity in the asphalt jungle

We present a study of 40 youngsters who live and work in the streets of Mexico City and who have abandoned their homes for significant periods of time. They seek out their own means of survival from a very young age. In many cases they have children of their own already as teenagers. The Seminario de Sociopsicoanálisis was invited to take part in a project aimed at facilitating the access of these children to graphic arts, artistic creation and therapeutic listening. This article presents our principal findings of the children's everyday life conditions, their work and their dreams, based on data obtained from social character questionnaires – with which therapeutic intervention in this project began. Vignettes of two case studies are also presented. The interviews were complemented by data gathered in weekly sessions attended by the youngsters on a voluntary bases. The sessions attested to both the narcissistic, aggressive impulsiveness of these youngsters and the vital effort they make toward their own recovery and toward establishing affective emotional ties with instructors and therapists. We found that socio‐psychoanalytic methods could be used successfully to expand the scope of psychoanalytic theoretic postulates about character to a non‐clinical, disadvantaged population. By analyzing the content of the psychoanalytically guided interviews we were able to recognize the central, distinctive motive, which leads these youngsters to run away from home and forge their own sense of identity.