Evaluation of the Tobii EyeX Eye tracking controller and Matlab toolkit for research

The Tobii Eyex Controller is a new low-cost binocular eye tracker marketed for integration in gaming and consumer applications. The manufacturers claim that the system was conceived for natural eye gaze interaction, does not require continuous recalibration, and allows moderate head movements. The Controller is provided with a SDK to foster the development of new eye tracking applications. We review the characteristics of the device for its possible use in scientific research. We develop and evaluate an open source Matlab Toolkit that can be employed to interface with the EyeX device for gaze recording in behavioral experiments. The Toolkit provides calibration procedures tailored to both binocular and monocular experiments, as well as procedures to evaluate other eye tracking devices. The observed performance of the EyeX (i.e. accuracy < 0.6°, precision < 0.25°, latency < 50 ms and sampling frequency ≈55 Hz), is sufficient for some classes of research application. The device can be successfully employed to measure fixation parameters, saccadic, smooth pursuit and vergence eye movements. However, the relatively low sampling rate and moderate precision limit the suitability of the EyeX for monitoring micro-saccadic eye movements or for real-time gaze-contingent stimulus control. For these applications, research grade, high-cost eye tracking technology may still be necessary. Therefore, despite its limitations with respect to high-end devices, the EyeX has the potential to further the dissemination of eye tracking technology to a broad audience, and could be a valuable asset in consumer and gaming applications as well as a subset of basic and clinical research settings.     

Theory of mind and joint action in Parkinson’s disease

It has been suggested that the Theory of Mind (ToM) may rely on more basic processes of social cognition, such as action control (e.g., joint action), even if little is known about this relationship. The relationship between ToM and joint action can be studied in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), because they are characterized not only by a deficit in ToM (and in its cognitive and affective subcomponents) but also by a deficit in the inhibition of competing responses. Sixty PD patients and 60 matched healthy controls (HCs) performed a go/no-go Flanker task in both joint and individual conditions. Cognitive (Advanced Test or AT) and affective (Emotion Attribution Task or EAT) ToM also were measured. Thirty-five PD patients and matched HCs also performed the standard Flanker task, as a control measure. In patients, only individuals with high AT scores exhibited a joint Flanker effect, whereas in HCs the joint effect was found irrespectively of AT score. Patients with low EAT scores showed a greater interference effect than patients with high scores, whereas the opposite pattern was found for HCs. In regression analysis AT and EAT scores predicted the Flanker effect in the joint condition only. In the standard task, both groups showed a Flanker effect. The role of different fronto-striatal circuits, especially in PD patients, could explain the different involvement of cognitive and affective ToM in joint tasks. The Flanker effect is discussed considering the referential coding account and the attention-focus account as possible candidates to explain joint action effects.     

The conceptual distinction between projective identification (Klein) and container-contained (Bion)

This paper describes the use of play in the psychotherapy of a latency child from a severely traumatised background. It considers the meaning of play in relation to the role of the psychotherapist and to psychotherapeutic technique and explores its functions in terms of the child's development. The paper documents the psychotherapist's learning experience about the difficulty of trying to make the ‘right’ interpretations and her consequent realisation of the intrinsic value of play in psychotherapy. In considering these themes, the author explores how, by placing interpretation secondary to play, the therapy enabled the development of the child's creativity and self-agency, facilitating a movement from primarily paranoid–schizoid defences towards the beginnings of a depressive position.     

Encounter with a traditional healer: Western and African therapeutic approaches in dialogue

The paper explores the extent to which cultural aspects contribute to the modalities of human relations and consequently to the qualities of the internal objects and the sense of identity. Therapeutic relationships and techniques, as well as the theories on which they are based, are seen as being equally embedded in their cultural context. An encounter with a traditional African healer offers the author, a western trained European analyst, an opportunity to think about similarities and differences in the therapeutic approach to mental distress, as well as in the training of therapists/healers in the two cultures. Special attention is given to the role of ancestor reverence in African culture. The notion of the ancestors is related to what psychoanalysis describes as internal objects. Cultural differences in the role and importance of verbal language in the therapeutic relationship are described, and the importance and meaning of non-verbal forms of communication are explored.     

The relevance of the Oedipus myth to fostered and adopted children

The paper makes a conceptual distinction between aggressive phantasies and acts against the object and a destructive form of potentially objectless violence resulting from attacks on the mental capacity for linking terms of –K. In thinking about the issue of the internal states leading to mindless destructiveness, the author suggests that such behaviour may result from active envious attacks on the capacity for linking, but that, in some cases, early trauma may result in a more passive breakdown of the human disposition for creating emotional mental links. The discussion of the clinical history of a destructive latency child who was born at six months of gestational age connects the traumatic beginning of his life with his violent behaviour.     

Degrees of belief in god: a measure of belief for use in cross culture

Belief scales with good psychometric properties are relatively rare. Several scales that claim to measure levels of belief use behavioural indicators that do not necessarily reflect belief, and others refer to specific religions and do not consider ethnic factors or cultural differences. This paper introduces a 6-item multicultural belief scale (the Degrees of Belief in God Scale), based on the results of previous exploratory factor analyses. 2124 Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swiss, Turkish and ex-Yugoslavian subjects including Atheists, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Moslems and Protestants contributed to the development of the new instrument. Principal component analysis (PCA) followed by varimax-standardized rotation was used to identify (first order) dimensions of belief. In order to identify the shared or common variance in all groups defined by religion and culture of origin a hierarchical analysis of oblique factors was computed for each group. The paper also reports test–retest reliability as well as face, criterion and construct validity data. The resulting Degrees of Belief in God Scale has exceptional psychometric properties and the measurements are equivalent across the sampled cultures and religions.