Encoding the world around us: Motor-related processing influences verbal memory

It is known that properties of words such as their imageability can influence our ability to remember those words. However, it is not known if other object-related properties can also influence our memory. In this study we asked whether a word representing a concrete object that can be functionally interacted with (i.e., high-manipulability word) would enhance the memory representations for that item compared to a word representing a less manipulable object (i.e., low-manipulability word). Here participants incidentally encoded high-manipulability (e.g., CAMERA) and low-manipulability words (e.g., TABLE) while making word judgments. Using a between-subjects design, we varied the depth-of-processing involved in the word judgment task: participants judged the words based on personal experience (deep/elaborative processing), word length (shallow), or functionality (intermediate). Participants were able to remember high-manipulability words better than low-manipulability words in both the personal experience and word length groups; thus presenting the first evidence that manipulability can influence memory. However, we observed better memory for low- than high-manipulability words in the functionality group. We explain this surprising interaction between manipulability and memory as being mediated by automatic vs. controlled motor-related cognition.     

Being a Traveller—On Traversing the Self-Process in Qualitative Research

This paper addresses certain key questions about researching in psychology from a qualitative perspective. It debates the question of certainty versus variability—are truths fixed and universal or is there something beyond immortal, objective facts? The question of sharability versus particularity is raised—is the complete picture explained by generalisations or does one view the psychological landscape in a way that highlights the difference? The question of objectivity versus subjectivity is dwelled upon—should the researcher be a detached, neutral observer of the Other or should she let her subjectivity flow freely in the researching process? And finally, the question of neutrality versus positionality is examined—does reality come into focus only if the researcher stands at a certain distance or would her lens blur if she stands too close? Through engagement with these questions, the researcher, akin to a traveller who meanders across a littered landscape, attempts to traverse personal territories in the search of truths of human knowledge. The paper also delves into some of the unsettling aspects of qualitative research.     

Intervention for infants with brain injury: results of a randomized controlled study

A randomized clinical trail (RCT) employed a 12-month individualized cognitive/sensorimotor stimulation program to look at the efficacy of the intervention on 62 infants with suspected brain injury. The control group infants received the State-funded follow-up program provided by the Los Angeles (LA) Regional Centers while the intervention group received intensive stimulation using the Curriculum and Monitoring System (CAMS) taught by public health nurses (PHNs). The developmental assessments and outcome measures were performed at 6, 12 and 18 months corrected age and included the Bayley motor and mental development, the Home, mother-infant interaction (Nursing Child Assessment Feeding Scale (NCAFS) and Nursing Child Assessment Teaching Scale (NCATS)), parental stress and social support. At 18 months, 43 infants remained in the study. The results indicate that the intervention had minimal positive effects on the Bayley mental and motor development scores of infants in the intervention group. Likewise, the intervention did not contribute to less stress or better mother-infant interaction at 12 or 18 months although there were significant differences in the NCAFS scores favoring the intervention group at 6 months. There was a significant trend, however, for the control group to have a significant decrease over time on the Bayley mental scores. Although the sample was not large and attrition was at 31%, this study provides further support to the minimal effects of stimulation and home intervention for infants with brain injury and who may have more significant factors contributing to their developmental outcome.     

Shock and awe: Distinct effects of taboo words on lexical decision and free recall

Taboo stimuli are highly arousing, but it has been suggested that they also have inherent taboo-specific properties such as tabooness, offensiveness, or shock value. Prior studies have shown that taboo words have slower response times in lexical decision and higher recall probabilities in free recall; however, taboo words often differ from other words on more than just arousal and taboo properties. Here, we replicated both of these findings and conducted detailed item analyses to determine which word properties drive these behavioural effects. We found that lexical-decision performance was best explained by measures of lexical accessibility (e.g., word frequency) and tabooness, rather than arousal, valence, or offensiveness. However, free-recall performance was primarily driven by emotional word properties, and tabooness was the most important emotional word property for model fit. Our results suggest that the processing of taboo words is influenced by distinct sets of factors and by an intrinsic taboo-specific property.     

An investigation of auditory contagious yawning

Despite a widespread familiarity with the often compelling urge to yawn after perceiving someone else yawn, an understanding of the neural mechanism underlying contagious yawning remains incomplete. In the present auditory fMRI study, listeners used a 4-point scale to indicate how much they felt like yawning following the presentation of a yawn, breath, or scrambled yawn sound. Not only were yawn sounds given significantly higher ratings, a trait positively correlated with each individual’s empathy measure, but relative to control stimuli, random effects analyses revealed enhanced hemodynamic activity in the right posterior inferior frontal gyrus (pIFG) in response to hearing yawns. Moreover, pIFG activity was greatest for yawn stimuli associated with high as opposed to low yawn ratings and for control sounds associated with equally high yawn ratings. These results support a relationship between contagious yawning and empathy and provide evidence for pIFG involvement in contagious yawning. A supplemental figure for this study may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Motor imagery and higher-level cognition: four hurdles before research can sprint forward

Traditionally, higher-level cognition has been described as including processes such as attention, memory, language, and decision-making. However, motor processing and motor imagery are important aspects of cognition that have typically been considered outside of the traditional view. Recent research has demonstrated that there may be a critical functional relationship between motor imagery and other higher-level cognitive processes. Here we present a review of the extant literature on motor imagery and cognition, as well as outline four hurdles that must be addressed before the field investigating the influence of motor-based processes on higher-level cognition can be moved forward. These hurdles include problems distinguishing between visual and motor processes, addressing the differences in tasks and stimuli used to evoke motor imagery, accounting for individual differences in motor imagery ability, and identifying the appropriate neural correlates. It is important that these hurdles are addressed in future research so we can sprint forward and further our knowledge about this interesting relationship.     

Normative predictions of collectivist‐individualist intentions and behaviour of Indians

Five hundred and thirty‐four college students, drawn from five distantly located cities in India that varied in affluence and infrastructural facilities, participated in a study designed to understand their normative predictions about people's responses to 20 situations. The responses consisted of five combinations: collectivist behaviour with collectivist intention (CC), individualist behaviour with individualist intention (II), collectivist behaviour with individualist intention to behave subsequently in an individualist way or to serve individualist intention (CI), individualist behaviour with collectivist intention to behave subsequently in a collectivist way or to serve a collectivist purpose (IC), and a mix of collectivist and individualist intention and behaviour (C&I). The findings indicated that the situations involving family members were reported to induce collectivism in behaviour as well as intentions. However, compelling personal needs were believed to lead to serve individualist interests, but by adopting collectivist behaviour. Further, collectives, compared to individuals, were reported to behave in collectivist way. Even when collectives behaved in individualist fashion, the ultimate aim was conjectured to serve a collectivist purpose. Females, like males, were perceived to meet compelling individual needs by resorting to collectivist behaviour. In less compelling matters that are less salient to their gender role, females were reported to remain collectivist in their behaviour as well as intentions. More affluent places with better infrastructure are believed to manifest either a mix of collectivist and individualist behaviour and intentions or a response pattern that enables individualist interests to be served through collectivist behaviour. A clear individualist pattern of behaviour and intention was rarely predicted to occur. The changing socioeconomic scenario has probably induced a shift towards cultivating individualist intentions that are still realized through collectivist behaviour. With the rate of change accelerating further, individualism is likely to get stronger, particularly in more affluent areas with better infrastructure. However, the combinations of collectivist and individualist behaviour and intentions are likely to remain complex.     

Unconscious processing of color and form in metacontrast masking

Three experiments employed a metacontrast masking procedure to examine the extent and nature of priming effects from visual stimuli not consciously perceived. The results showed effects of unconscious stimuli on subsequent target responses that (1) were more consistent, reliable, and not subject to strategic control, as compared with consciously perceived stimuli (Experiment 1); (2) produced both facilitation and interference of subsequent processing (Experiment 2); and (3) did not influence indirect response-related levels of processing (Experiment 3). These results demonstrate that color and form attributes of unconscious stimuli are sufficiently registered within the visual system to influence behavior, and that some of these unconscious effects occur at early levels of stimulus encoding, prior to higher level perceptual and response-related processes.     

Unconscious color priming occurs at stimulus- not percept-dependent levels of processing

Although past studies have shown that visual information can be processed without awareness, the types and levels of this processing have yet to be determined. We used metacontrast masking to explore unconscious priming effects of white, blue, and green stimuli generated on a color video display. We found that a white prime tends to act more like a green than a blue one. Color confusions among unmasked and masked primes and calibrations of the display phosphors show that physical rather than perceptual properties of the stimuli best explain the white prime's effects. We conclude that unconscious color priming in normal observers occurs at early wavelength-dependent levels of processing prior to later color-percept-dependent levels.