The two sides of the mental clock: the Imaginal HemiSpatial Effect in the healthy brain

When subjects are asked to compare the mental images of two analog clocks telling different times (the mental clock test), they are faster to process angles formed by hands located in the right than in the left half of the dial. In the present paper, we demonstrate that this Imaginal HemiSpatial Effect (IHSE) can be also observed in two modified versions of the mental clock test: in Experiment 1 subjects had to imagine the position occupied by two numbers within a clock face and to judge if the subtended angle was smaller or greater than 90 degrees , while in Experiment 2 subjects were asked to match two imagined positions on a clock face with two visually presented locations. The finding of the IHSE in these tasks suggested that it is a genuine phenomenon related to spatial imagery tasks, and is consistent with recent neuroimaging evidence that the left parietal lobe is mainly involved in the generation of spatial mental images.     

图形视觉与心理表象眼动模式的比较研究

本研究通过比较图形视觉和心理表象以及不同认知框架下表象加工的眼动参数,揭示图形视觉加工和心理表象加工的特点.结果表明,从视知觉到视觉心理表象,眼动被币新编码,眼动模式更加简洁,视觉心理表象具有一定的概括性;认知框架影响视觉心理表象加工的眼动模式.     

The Relation of Psychopathic Characteristics and Anxiety in Noncriminals: Physiological and Cognitive Responses to Guided Imagery

In response to a paucity of research examining the phenomenology of psychopathy among nonforensic samples, the present study explored the relations among psychopathic traits, self-reported anxiety, and physiological reactivity to experimental stimuli. Undergraduate students with no history of criminal behavior listened to four audiotaped vignettes designed to elicit affective responses. Imagery and anxiety ratings, as well as physiological indices supported the utility of the experimental manipulation. Consistent with data obtained among forensic samples, participants with greater psychopathic characteristics exhibited electrodermal hyporeactivity in response to guided imagery. However, inconsistent with previous findings, hyporeactivity was primarily related to high emotional detachment rather than elevated levels of deviant behavior. Results also suggested certain psychopathic qualities (emotional detachment) may be more associated with somatic and trait anxiety than other characteristics (deviant behavior), although anxiety did not moderate the effects of psychopathic characteristics on physiological responding. Theoretical implications are addressed, including the possible generalizability of psychophysiological models of diagnosed psychopaths to individuals with more benign psychopathic characteristics.     

Logic programs, iterated function systems, and recurrent radial basis function networks

Graphs of the single-step operator for first-order logic programs—displayed in the real plane—exhibit self-similar structures known from topological dynamics, i.e., they appear to be fractals, or more precisely, attractors of iterated function systems. We show that this observation can be made mathematically precise. In particular, we give conditions which ensure that those graphs coincide with attractors of suitably chosen iterated function systems, and conditions which allow the approximation of such graphs by iterated function systems or by fractal interpolation. Since iterated function systems can easily be encoded using recurrent radial basis function networks, we eventually obtain connectionist systems which approximate logic programs in the presence of function symbols.     

Testing predictive control of movement in children with developmental coordination disorder using converging operations

Recent systematic reviews (Wilson et al., 2013, Dev. Med. Child Neurol., 55, 217; Adams et al., 2014, Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev., 47C, 225) suggest that a common underlying problem in developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is the internal modelling deficit. The study presented here is the first to test this hypothesis using a within‐subject design, assessing motor imagery, action planning, and rapid online control (ROC) in a sample of children screened rigorously for DCD. Participants were 66 children; 33 children (26 boys and seven girls) aged 6–11 years in the DCD group and 33 controls (gender and age matched). Motor imagery was assessed with the hand rotation task (HRT), action planning with an end‐state comfort effect test, and ROC with the double‐step pointing task. Results showed that children with DCD were slower and less accurate than controls in the HRT. Reduced forward planning for comfortable end‐state was also shown in DCD. Finally, no group differences were found on the ROC task. Collectively, children with DCD manifest deficits in the internal modelling of movements, but this varies under different task constraints, particularly those related to movement complexity.     

Why Are Some Phenomenal Experiences ‘Vivid’ and Others ‘Faint’? Representationalism,Imagery, and Cognitive Phenomenology

One central brand of representationalism claims that the specific phenomenal character of an experience is fully determined by its content. A challenge for this view is that cognitive and perceptual experiences sometimes seem to have the same representational content while differing in phenomenal character. In particular, it might seem that one can have faint imagery experiences or conscious thoughts with the same contents as vivid perceptual experiences. This paper argues that such cases never arise, and that they are probably metaphysically impossible. I also suggest a fully representational account of differences in vividness between phenomenal experiences.     

Derogation without words: On the power of non-verbal pejoratives

While a large body of literature on pejorative language has emerged recently, derogatory communication is a broader phenomenon that need not constitutively involve the use of words. This paper delineates the class of non-verbal pejoratives (NVPs) and sketches an account of the derogatory power of a subset of NVPs, namely those whose effectiveness crucially relies on iconicity. Along the way, I point out some ways in which iconic NVPs differ from wholly arbitrary NVPs and ritualized threat signals in the animal kingdom, such as the wolf’s snarl, which do not threaten or demean targets by virtue of any kind of iconographic depiction. An iconic portrayal such as a racist caricature disparages its target by inviting recipients to entertain an unflattering image of the target. “Blackface” performers in the nineteenth-century, for example, promulgated an unflattering image of African-Americans by means of make-up, costumes, and vocal impersonations.     

Externally controlled involuntary cognitions and their relations with other representations in consciousness

Percepts and action-related urges often enter consciousness insuppressibly. The Reflexive Imagery Task (RIT) was developed to investigate how high-level cognitions (e.g., subvocalizations), too, can enter consciousness in this manner. Limitations of the paradigm include (a) that no data have confirmed subjects’ introspections about the involuntary subvocalizations, and (b) that, in everyday life, adaptive responses to involuntary cognitions often depend on the nature of the other contents in consciousness. To address a and b, we developed an RIT in which subjects were presented with visual objects and instructed to not think of the object names. If a subvocalization did arise, however, subjects responded motorically only if the subvocalization rhymed with a word held in memory and if there was a visual “go” cue. Subjects successfully (on 0.83 of the trials) emitted this complex, “multi-determined” response, which provides evidence for the occurrence of the involuntary subvocalizations and illuminates the function of consciousness.     

Incorporating Imagery Into Thought Records: Increasing Engagement in Balanced Thoughts

Thought records are one of the most effective CBT interventions. However, clients can find them overly intellectual. While clients may logically understand that their balanced thought is accurate, they may not be emotionally convinced, thus reducing the thought record’s effectiveness. In the present paper we describe how imagery can be used throughout the thought record process to enhance clients’ emotional engagement. We describe how imagery can be used to identify negative automatic thoughts, to increase the believability of evidence against negative automatic thoughts, and to increase emotional engagement with balanced thoughts.     

Saving for your future self: The role of imaginary experiences

Despite increased longevity, many people fail to save the funds necessary to support their retirement. In an attempt both to elucidate and remedy this failing, research exploring the “future-self continuity” hypothesis has revealed that temporal discounting is decreased and saving increased when connections between one’s current and future self are strengthened. Here, we explored the possibility that a basic component of mental imagery – spatial visual perspective – may be an important determinant of people’s decisions to spend now or save for the future. The results of two experiments supported this prediction. Rates of saving were enhanced when a distant-future event was generated from a third-person vs. first-person vantage point, an effect that was mediated by visual bodily awareness during mental imagery.