Visual attention to own- versus other-race faces: Perspectives from learning mechanisms and task demands

Multiple factors have been proposed to contribute to the other-race effect in face recognition, including perceptual expertise and social-cognitive accounts. Here, we propose to understand the effect and its contributing factors from the perspectives of learning mechanisms that involve joint learning of visual attention strategies and internal representations for faces, which can be modulated by quality of contact with other-race individuals including emotional and motivational factors. Computational simulations of this process will enhance our understanding of interactions among factors and help resolve inconsistent results in the literature. In particular, since learning is driven by task demands, visual attention effects observed in different face-processing tasks, such as passive viewing or recognition, are likely to be task specific (although may be associated) and should be examined and compared separately. When examining visual attention strategies, the use of more data-driven and comprehensive eye movement measures, taking both spatial–temporal pattern and consistency of eye movements into account, can lead to novel discoveries in other-race face processing. The proposed framework and analysis methods may be applied to other tasks of real-life significance such as face emotion recognition, further enhancing our understanding of the relationship between learning and visual cognition.     

Eye-movement patterns in face recognition are associated with cognitive decline in older adults

The Hidden Markov Modeling approach for eye-movement data analysis is able to quantitatively assess differences and similarities among individual patterns. Here we applied this approach to examine the relationships between eye-movement patterns in face recognition and age-related cognitive decline. We found that significantly more older than young adults adopted “holistic” patterns, in which most eye fixations landed around the face center, as opposed to “analytic” patterns, in which eye movements switched among the two eyes and the face center. Participants showing analytic patterns had better performance than those with holistic patterns regardless of age. Interestingly, older adults with lower cognitive status (as assessed by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment), particularly in executive and visual attention functioning (as assessed by Tower of London and Trail Making Tests) were associated with a higher likelihood of holistic patterns. This result suggests the possibility of using eye movements as an easily deployable screening assessment for cognitive decline in older adults.     

Perceptual experience shapes our ability to categorize faces by national origin: A new other-race effect

People are better at recognizing own-race than other-race faces. This other-race effect has been argued to be the result of perceptual expertise, whereby face-specific perceptual mechanisms are tuned through experience. We designed new tasks to determine whether other-race effects extend to categorizing faces by national origin. We began by selecting sets of face stimuli for these tasks that are typical in appearance for each of six nations (three Caucasian, three Asian) according to people from those nations (Study 1). Caucasian and Asian participants then categorized these faces by national origin (Study 2). Own-race faces were categorized more accurately than other-race faces. In contrast, Asian American participants, with more extensive other-race experience than the first Asian group, categorized other-race faces better than own-race faces, demonstrating a reversal of the other-race effect. Therefore, other-race effects extend to the ability to categorize faces by national origin, but only if participants have greater perceptual experience with own-race, than other-race faces. Study 3 ruled out non-perceptual accounts by showing that Caucasian and Asian faces were sorted more accurately by own-race than other-race participants, even in a sorting task without any explicit labelling required. Together, our results demonstrate a new other-race effect in sensitivity to national origin of faces that is linked to perceptual expertise.     

Testing the factor structure of the beliefs about language learning inventory

This preliminary study examined the factor structure of the Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory in two samples of about 750 college students of English as a foreign language in Taiwan. Results of confirmatory factor analysis lend partial support to Horwitz's theoretical five-factor belief model. Subsequent exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of data show that a four-factor model represented by only 12 items performed better than other models both theoretically and empirically. This model consists of two dimensions already theorized in the inventory: Difficulty of Language Learning and Foreign Language Aptitude, and two newly interpreted dimensions, Importance of Spoken Language and Analytical Approaches to Language Learning. Although this four-factor model could be replicated in an independent sample, the factors are not reliable, suggesting the need to search for a more representative set of beliefs to tap specific aspects of language learning.     

Design-Based Guidelines for the Semantic Perception of Emergency Signs

The current study applies semantic differential to explore the semantic perception of emergency signs, in an attempt to analyze the meanings of emergency signs in regard to the psychological exigencies of the general public. The results indicate that problems concerning recognition accuracy have been observed, but also that the evaluation of the semantic meaning of the signs is positive. However, a number of emotional factors also emerge, indicating that if improvements should be made to the existing emergency signs, it would better facilitate evacuation in the event of an emergency. As for the design guidelines, the emergency signs should be readily recognizable and have a single meaning. Multiple symbolic meanings should be eliminated. Concrete design guidelines include: (a) safety movement, (b) clarity, and (c) safety. To avoid confusion in sign recognition, in addition to the improvements made based on the abovementioned guidelines, educational promotional activities carried out by the government would also prove very beneficial.     

A Measuring Device for the Galvanic Reflex

Twenty words were scaled according to their reinforcing value. Ss rated the words according to whether they would like or dislike to have a respected person say the word after S performed a task. A frequency table was compiled which indicated the number of times each word was chosen. Items in the frequency table with a high numerical value were denoted as liked and positive; items with a low numerical value were denoted as disliked and negative. One each of the positive, negative, and neutral reinforcers was used in a verbal conditioning experiment. After “I-We” sentences, Ss—depending upon the group to which they were assigned—were given orally one of the three reinforcing words by the E. The positive reinforcer produced a rapid progressive increase in the rate of responding; the negative reinforcer, a successive decreasing rate of responding; the neutral reinforcer produced at first an increasing rate of responding, then a decreasing reinforcing characteristic. Comparison of the initial set of I-We sentences revealed that conditioning did occur in the direction the numerical values indicated.     

Age-Related Changes in Distance From Center of Mass to Center of Pressure During One-Leg Standing

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study was to clarify the age-related effects of distances from the center of pressure (COP) to the center of mass (COM) (COP-COM distances) during one-leg standing (OLS) task. Healthy old and young adults (n = 11 each) participated in this study. The authors divided the task into 3 phases (accelerated, decelerated, and steady) based on the relationship between COM and COP. COP-COM distances in the older group were significantly reduced during the accelerated phase, then significantly increased during the decelerated and steady phases. Furthermore, distances during these phases correlated inversely with OLS time. The authors conclude that OLS time is shortened by the larger braking response to COM shifts just after leg-lifting, and the production of larger inertial forces to maintain COM position during the OLS in older individuals.     

Autobiographical memory specificity and the persistence of depressive symptoms in HIV-positive patients: Rumination and social problem-solving skills as mediators

Individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are at elevated risk for depressive conditions, which in turn can negatively impact health-related behaviours and the course of illness. The present study tested the role of autobiographical memory specificity and its interaction with perceived stress in the persistence of depressive symptoms among dysphoric HIV-positive individuals. Additionally, we examined whether rumination and social problem solving mediated these effects. Results indicated that memory specificity moderated the impact of perceived stress, such that perceived stress was more strongly associated with follow-up depressive symptoms among those with greater memory specificity. Rumination, but not social problem solving, mediated this effect. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Longitudinal changes in marital satisfaction during middle age in Taiwan

The current 8‐year panel study explored changes in marital satisfaction among 614 married middle‐aged persons with seventh‐grade children. It also examined how individual health (physical health and depressive moods) and role changes (parenting transitions and life stress) were related to trajectories of marital satisfaction and investigated the buffering effect of family cohesion on these associations. Growth curve analyses show an inverted‐U shape in marital satisfaction during middle age. This indicates that regardless of the gender or age of the respondents, marital satisfaction among middle‐aged adults increased when their children were in the 9^th and 12^th grade, and then declined when their children were in their sophomore year of college. Declining physical health and an increase in depressive moods were related to a drop in marital satisfaction. Stressful events in midlife had negative effects on marital satisfaction, and family cohesion served as a buffer to mitigate the adverse impact of life stress on marital satisfaction. Overall, these results highlight the role of adolescent children in understanding why marital satisfaction changes among middle‐aged parents and emphasize the importance of health and life stress in relation to midlife marital satisfaction. These findings are discussed with life course perspectives and Taiwanese cultural values in relation to familism and academic achievement among children.