Common mechanisms in apparent motion perception and visual pattern matching

There are close functional similarities between apparent motion perception and visual pattern matching. In particular, striking functional similarities have been demonstrated between perception of rigid objects in apparent motion and purely mental transformations of visual size and orientation used in comparisons of objects with respect to shape but regardless of size and orientation. In both cases, psychophysical data suggest that differences in visual size are resolved as differences in depth, such that transformation of size is done by translation in depth. Furthermore, the process of perceived or imagined translation appears to be stepwise additive such that a translation over a long distance consists of a sequence of smaller translations, the durations of these steps being additive. Both perceived and imagined rotation also appear to be stepwise additive, and combined transformations of size and orientation appear to be done by alternation of small steps of pure translation and small steps of pure rotation. The functional similarities suggest that common mechanisms underlie perception of apparent motion and purely mental transformations. In line with this suggestion, functional brain imaging has isolated neural structures in motion area MT used in mental transformation of size.     

Quantifying knee mechanics during balance training exercises

Patellofemoral pain (PFP) is common among runners and those recovering from anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Training programs designed to prevent or treat injuries often include balance training, although balance interventions have been reported to coincide with more knee injuries. Knowledge of the effect of balance exercises on knee mechanics may be useful when designing training programs. High knee abduction moment has been implicated in the development of PFP, and imbalance between vastus lateralis (VL) and vastus medialis oblique (VMO) may contribute to patellofemoral stress. The purpose was to quantify knee abduction moment and vasti muscle activity during balance exercises. Muscle activity of VMO and VL, three-dimensional lower-extremity kinematics, and ground reaction forces of healthy recreational athletes (12M, 13F) were recorded during five exercises. Peak knee abduction moment, ratio of VMO:VL activity, and delay in onset of VMO relative to VL were quantified for each exercise. The influence of sex and exercise on each variable was determined using a mixed-model ANOVA. All analyses indicated a significant main effect of exercise, p < 0.05. Follow-up comparisons showed low peak knee abduction moment and high VMO:VL ratio for the task with anterior-posterior motion. Delay of VMO relative to VL was similar among balance board tasks.     

An Evolutionary Theory of Diversity: The Contributions of Grounded Theory and Grounded Action to Reconceptualizing and Reframing Diversity as a Complex Phenomenon

The author discusses the contributions of grounded theory and grounded action to the development of a new, and evolutionary, theoretical framework for understanding diversity as a complex phenomenon. She discusses the work of Thomas and Gregory as pioneers in expanding the conceptualization of diversity, arguing that this new understanding increases the potential for creative action in systems.     

Transforming Training: A Perspective on the Need for and Payoffs From Common Standards

Standards today position the research community on the eve of scientific breakthrough. Efficiency and warfighter competency are likely to improve greatly as a result of the feedback and research studies enabled by the use of common standards for defining competencies, assessing performance, and enabling technologies to collect data. Such standards make it possible to evaluate warfighter performance across sites and across time. Standards also make it possible to do rigorous comparisons in the lab, operational simulator settings, and even live exercises. The standardized methods and leveraging of common data will yield unprecedented scientific power and opportunity to rapidly transform training.     

组织特征影响教学方式转变的机制:组织认同的中介作用

摘 要 采用问卷法调查法,以广东省627 名中小学教师为被试,以结构方程模型考察组织特征、组织认同与教学方式转变的关系。结果表明：（1）组织特征能显著正向预测组织认同和教学方式转变,组织认同能显著正向预测教学方式转变。（2）组织认同在组织特征影响教学方式转变中起完全中介作用。这启示我们可以通过提升教师对他们所属学校的组织认同水平有效地促进其教学方式的转变。     

PATIENT‐ANALYST “WITHNESS”: ON ANALYTIC “PRESENCING,” PASSION,AND COMPASSION IN STATES OF BREAKDOWN,DESPAIR, AND DEADNESS

This paper focuses on the analyst's “presencing” (being there) within the patient's experiential world and within the grip of the psychoanalytic process, and the ensuing deep patient–analyst interconnectedness, as a fundamental dimension of analytic work. It engenders new possibilities for extending the reach of psychoanalytic treatment to more disturbed patients. Here patient and analyst forge an emergent new entity of interconnectedness or “withness” that goes beyond the confines of their separate subjectivities and the simple summation of the two. Using a detailed clinical illustration of a difficult analysis with a severely fetishistic‐masochistic patient, the author describes the kind of knowledge, experience, and powerful effects that come into being when the analyst interconnects psychically with the patient in living through the process, and that relate specifically to the analyst's compassion.     

From trainee to trainer: crossing over to the other side of the fence

This article discusses the authors' experiences of the transition from trainee to trainer on a psychotherapeutic training programme, and some of the challenges involved. Using the framework offered by Rizq (2009), the article examines the many parallel processes implicit in the roles of trainee, trainer and therapist. We explore these using examples from personal experience and psychodynamic theory and concepts. We believe our experience illustrates one of the transitions that are inevitable throughout the process of training, qualifying and practising as therapeutic practitioners. These transitions, whilst often fraught with difficulty, are invariably paramount to the process of reflection and development as a practitioner and teacher. Therefore, this article hopes to formulate a deeper understanding of this edifying, yet challenging transition.     

Fisher transformation based confidence intervals of correlations in fixed- and random-effects meta-analysis

Meta-analyses of correlation coefficients are an important technique to integrate results from many cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs. Uncertainty in pooled estimates is typically assessed with the help of confidence intervals, which can double as hypothesis tests for two-sided hypotheses about the underlying correlation. A standard approach to construct confidence intervals for the main effect is the Hedges-Olkin-Vevea Fisher-z (HOVz) approach, which is based on the Fisher-z transformation. Results from previous studies (Field, 2005, Psychol. Meth., 10, 444; Hafdahl and Williams, 2009, Psychol. Meth., 14, 24), however, indicate that in random-effects models the performance of the HOVz confidence interval can be unsatisfactory. To this end, we propose improvements of the HOVz approach, which are based on enhanced variance estimators for the main effect estimate. In order to study the coverage of the new confidence intervals in both fixed- and random-effects meta-analysis models, we perform an extensive simulation study, comparing them to established approaches. Data were generated via a truncated normal and beta distribution model. The results show that our newly proposed confidence intervals based on a Knapp-Hartung-type variance estimator or robust heteroscedasticity consistent sandwich estimators in combination with the integral z-to-r transformation (Hafdahl, 2009, Br. J. Math. Stat. Psychol., 62, 233) provide more accurate coverage than existing approaches in most scenarios, especially in the more appropriate beta distribution simulation model.     

The Transformative Effects of Stigma: Coping Strategies as Meaning‐Making Efforts for Immigrants Living in Greece

The present article examines the strategies that immigrants living in Greece use to cope with stigma that arises in their interaction with both Greek society and their communities of origin. Drawing on interviews and focus groups conducted with immigrants from a variety of countries, a dialogical analysis illuminates the ways in which immigrants actively negotiate stigmatizing perspectives and transform themselves. Strategies include the deployment of social categories such as those of ‘human being’ and ‘crazy’ person, and concepts such as those of ‘lawfulness’ and ‘fate’. These were used to construct meanings of equality and inclusion into society, to deny responsibility for stigma and to discredit stigma as absurd. They enabled participants to see themselves as proud, equal, self‐dependent individuals who plan actions for social change. The article suggests that coping with stigma should not only be understood in terms of stress regulation, leading to positive or negative outcomes, as suggested by current literature, but as a meaning‐making effort, through which individuals transform the way they see themselves and act within their world. A meaning‐making approach moves away from individualistic, outcome‐oriented explanations to a socially situated perspective on stigma that studies the processes through which social meanings are subjectively perceived as stigmatizing and are used to challenge stigma. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.