Embodied perception of reachable space: how do we manage threatening objects?

This study aimed at determining whether the size of reachable space is affected by the level of danger of some everyday manipulable objects. Two possibilities are examined: Dangerous objects affect the size of reachable space because of long-term semantic knowledge of their potential hurtful value or the on-line relation between objects' dangerous attributes and the body. The experimental paradigm combined the danger value (dangerous/not dangerous) and the orientation of objects (e.g. pointing away from/towards the perceiver). Reachability judgments measured the size of peripersonal space, and perception of objects' danger was estimated through questionnaires. Results revealed that, whatever the estimated level of objects' danger, the extent of peripersonal space was reduced when the threatening part of dangerous objects was oriented towards participants, not when oriented away. This suggests that the characteristics of the here and now body-objects interaction are crucial in affecting the boundary of peripersonal space.     

Childbirth and Alcohol Consumption Impact of Recent Childbirth on Alcohol Consumption

While the devastating effects of parental alcohol use on children’s health are well known, the specific impact of childbirth on parental alcohol consumption has rarely been examined in the general population. We sought to examine patterns of alcohol use associated with childbirth. Data were drawn from the US National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. We compared successively the characteristics of alcohol use among females living with a child under 1 year with (i) those of females not living with children under 1 year and (ii) those of females living with an older child. Mean daily ethanol intake was lower among females living with a child under 1 than among females either not living with children under 1 year (p?<?0.001) or living with an older child (p?<?0.01). Moreover, low-to-mild drinking frequencies fell among females living with a child under 1, compared with females either not living with children under 1 year (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)?=?0.56; 95% CI [0.40, 0.80] for at least once a month and AOR?=?0.40; 95% CI [0.27, 0.58] for less than once a month) or living with an older child (AOR?=?0.52; 95% CI [0.36, 0.75] for at least once a month and AOR?=?0.66, 95% CI [0.46, 0.94] for less than a month). No significant difference was found for males. Our study suggests that childbirth, as opposed to motherhood per se, reduces several (though not all) dimensions of alcohol consumption in females, but not in males.     

Reading action word affects the visual perception of biological motion

In the present study, we investigate whether reading an action-word can influence subsequent visual perception of biological motion. The participant's task was to perceptually judge whether a human action identifiable in the biological motion of a point-light display embedded in a high density mask was present or not in the visual sequence, which lasted for 633 ms on average. Prior to the judgement task, participants were exposed to an abstract verb or an action verb for 500 ms, which was related to the human action according to a congruent or incongruent semantic relation. Data analysis showed that correct judgements were not affected by action verbs, whereas a facilitation effect on response time (49 ms on average) was observed when a congruent action verb primed the judgement of biological movements. In relation with the existing literature, this finding suggests that the perception, the planning and the linguistic coding of motor action are subtended by common motor representations.     

The Five-Factor Model of Personality at the Facet Level: Association with Antisocial Personality Disorder Symptoms and Prediction of Antisocial Behavior

The association between the Five-Factor Model of personality (FFM) and antisocial personality disorder (APD) symptoms was investigated in a sample of young males with a history of severe antisocial behavior. Results were compared against those of an expert-consensus study (Lynam and Widiger Journal of Abnormal Psychology 110:401–412, 2001) and those of a recent meta-analysis (Samuel and Widiger Clinical Psychology Review 28:1326–1342, 2008) based primarily on non-antisocial samples. A high degree of similarity was observed across the three. Multivariate analysis indicated two FFM facets, Compliance and Activity, to be associated with APD symptoms. The contribution of these facets to the prospective prediction of antisocial behavior over and above that of APD symptoms and past antisocial behavior was evaluated. Compliance alone explained 8.7% of the unique variance in future antisocial behavior.     

Embodiment, spatial categorisation and action

Despite the subjective experience of a continuous and coherent external world, we will argue that the perception and categorisation of visual space is constrained by the spatial resolution of the sensory systems but also and above all, by the pre-reflective representations of the body in action. Recent empirical data in cognitive neurosciences will be presented that suggest that multidimensional categorisation of perceptual space depends on body representations at both an experiential and a functional level. Results will also be resumed that show that representations of the body in action are pre-reflective in nature as only some aspects of the pre-reflective states can be consciously experienced. Finally, a neuro-cognitive model based on the integration of afferent and efferent information will be described, which suggests that action simulation and associated predicted sensory consequences may represent the underlying principle that enables pre-reflective representations of the body for space categorisation and selection for action.     

Comparing persistent juvenile delinquents and normative peers with the Five-Factor Model of Personality

Recent research suggests that personality traits are associated with delinquency. T-tests were run to identify which traits and facets of the Five-Factor Model of Personality contributed to differentiate persistent juvenile delinquents (n = 48) from normative peers (n = 48). Results showed that two traits, namely Agreeableness and Neuroticism, and 12 facets differed significantly between the groups. Observed effect sizes varied from medium to large.     

Determination of target distance in a structured environment: Selection of visual information for action

In the literature relating to visuo-motor control, controversial data are found concerning the consequence of enriching the visual scene in the specification of the target's spatial coordinates. In this paper four experiments were carried out to unravel this issue. Based on spatio-temporal analysis of pointing movements carried out in an open loop condition, the effect of appending contextual elements in the vicinity of a visual target was investigated, taking into account (1) their location in the visual field, (2) the extent of the movement, and (3) their presence during the planning and/or execution period of the movement. Taken as a whole, results showed that enriching the visual scene gave rise to a decrease of perceptual underestimation of distance (with no effect on the direction parameter), as otherwise observed (dark environment). Though not deeply affecting reaction and movement time, this effect held whatever the target position, provided that the contextual elements were situated between the initial and terminal position of the hand trajectory. The magnitude of the effect was, however, dependent upon the space conferred to the visual context. Furthermore, a higher spatial performance was observed when the latter was provided during the planning of execution period of the movement. Both effects combined when contextual elements were provided during the entire movement, which suggests a continuous updating of target coordinates during the whole motor performance. Altogether these findings underline a dynamic aspect of space perception, originating, in part, in the functional use of contextual cues in the coding of target distance. They also suggest that, provided the visual environment is structured, the retinal signal is widely used in the perception of target distance in visuo-manual tasks.