bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Organization in the Perception of Speech by Young Infants
Authors: Eimas Peter D. , Miller Joanne L.
Published: April 2006

Evidence is presented that 3- and 4-month-old infants are able to integrate two sounds with different sources and locations to form a coherent speech percept. Synthetic speech patterns were presented dichotically so that one ear received the third-formant transition appropriate for the syllable [da] or [ga], and the other car received the base, that is, the remaining acoustic information necessary for syllabic perception. Adults typically perceive these stimuli as a birdlike chirp at the ear receiving the transition and. depending on which transition is presented, as the syllable [da] or [ga] at the ear receiving the base. Infants discriminated the two dichotic patterns. They also discriminated them when the third-formant transitions were attenuated to the extent that infant listeners could not discriminate them when they were presented in isolation. The results support the contention that the infants integrated the two disparate sources of acoustic information into a coherent percept that is presumably phonetic in nature, and they are also consistent with the view that this organization arises from a specialized system for the perception of speech.
Toward a Synthetic Physiological Psychology
Authors: Teitelbaum Philip , Pellis Sergio M.
Published: April 2006

The word “synthetic” in the title of this paper has three meanings, each of which highlights a fundamental problem with physiological psychology, and. at the same time, offers a solution. (1) Synthetic means artificial—made by man, not by nature. To separate physiological psychology from medicine, and to build a science of pure function in humans (which is what psychology is), apart from a science of the mechanics of living human tissue (which is what medicine is), synthetic physiological psychology adopts a physically achieved analytic approach to the design, not of people, but of robots that behave like people. This avoids the misuse of reductionism. (2) Analysis by itself is not adequate; every analysis must be validated immediately by synthesis. Some forms of physically achieved analysis and resynthesis, particularly appropriate for synthetic physiological psychology, are contrasted with the hypothetico-deductive method, as a complementary scientific method of arriving at simple facts about complex living systems. (3) Synthetic also means integrative—at present, the various subfields of psychology are not united by principles based on the action of common units of function, derived by a physically achieved analysis. A simple procedure is described that can provide them.
A Motivational Analysis of Emotion: Reflex-Cortex Connections
Authors: Lang Peter J. , Bradley Margaret M. , Cuthbert Bruce N.
Published: April 2006

This analysis postulates a motivational continuity from reflex reactions to complex, cognitively elaborated emotional expressions. Responses are motivated by either the positive-appetitive or the negative-aversive brain systems. Reflexes evoked during emotional processing are augmented if their affective valence (positive or negative) matches that of the active motivational system and inhibited when a mismatch is present. Research testing this biphasic model is described using the defensive startle probe reflex. It is shown that probe responses are reliably potentiated during perception and imagery of unpleasant events and reduced during pleasant events. The neurobehavioral foundations of this conception are presented, and the implications of probe analysis are elucidated for theories of emotion organization, the assessment of mood, and practical applications in psychopathology and neurological disorder.
Early Experience and Emotional Development: The Emergence of Wariness of Heights
Authors: Campos Joseph J. , Bertenthal Bennett I. , Kermoian Rosanne
Published: April 2006

Because of its biological adaptive value, wariness of heights is widely believed to be innate or under maturational control. In this report, we present evidence contrary to this hypothesis, and show the importance of locomotor experience for emotional development. Four studies bearing on this conclusion have shown that (1) when age is held constant, locomotor experience accounts for wariness of heights; (2) “artificial” experience locomoting in a walker generates evidence of wariness of heights; (3) an orthopedically handicapped infant tested longitudinally did not show wariness of heights so long as he had no locomotor experience; and (4) regardless of the age when infants begin to crawl, it is the duration of locomotor experience and not age that predicts avoidance of heights. These findings suggest that when infants begin to crawl, experiences generated by locomotion make possible the development of wariness of heights.
Cognitive Biases and the Emotional Disorders
Authors: Mineka Susan , Sutton Steven K.
Published: April 2006

Four types of cognitive bias involving selective processing of emotion-relevant information are discussed vis-à-vis their relevance for understanding emotion-cognition interactions and for understanding the etiology and maintenance of the emotional disorders. Anxiety, but not depression, appears to be associated with an attentional bias for threatening material. Depression, but not anxiety, appears to be associated with a memory bias for negative mood-congruent material. Phobias, anxiety, and depression all appear to be associated with mood-congruent judgmental biases. Finally, selective associations in fear conditioning are a form of associative bias implicated in the origins of fears and phobias.
The Effect of Meaning Frequency on Processing Lexically Ambiguous Words: Evidence from Eye Fixations
Authors: Sereno Sara C , Pacht Jeremy M , Rayner Keith
Published: April 2006

Subjects read sentences containing lexically ambiguous words while their eye movements were monitored Biased ambiguous words (those that have one highly dominant sense) were used in sentences containing a prior context that instantiated their subordinate sense Control words were matched in frequency both to the dominant and to the subordinate meaning of the ambiguous word (high- and low-frequency controls) Subjects fixated longer on both the ambiguous word and the low-frequency control than on the high-frequency control When the target was ambiguous, however, the duration of posttarget fixations was longer and the likelihood of making a regression to the target was greater than when the target was an unambiguous control The results are discussed in relation to current models of lexical ambiguity resolution
Approximating Chaotic Behavior
Authors: Neuringer Allen , Voss Cheryl
Published: April 2006

Human subjects received feedback showing how closely their responses approximated the chaotic output of the logistic difference function. In Experiment 1, subjects generated analog responses by placing a pointer along a line. In Experiment 2, they generated digital responses in the form of three-digit numbers. In Experiment 3, feedback was sometimes provided and other times withheld. Responses came to approximate three defining characteristics of logistic chaos: Sequences were “noisy,” they were extremely sensitive to initial conditions, and lag 1 autocorrelation functions were parabolic in form. Chaos theory may describe some highly variable although precisely determined human behaviors.
The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Serial Memory: List Learning by Pigeons and Monkeys
Authors: Terrace H. S.
Published: April 2006

The study of cognitive processes in animals provides a unique opportunity to investigate the phytogeny and ontogeny of cognition. Much of our understanding of human cognition derives from the intensive study of adult human subjects. Serial learning provides an instructive example. Since Ebbinghaus, experiments on serial learning have been performed almost exclusively on subjects who have had much experience learning lists by virtue of their formal and informal education. Recent research on serial learning in pigeons and monkeys provides a new perspective on this fundamental skill, which does not require language and which appears to he phylogeneticalty quite old. This research has also revealed qualitative differences in how pigeons and monkeys represent lists they learn to produce and provided opportunities to observe the development of list-learning strategies starting with a subject's first list.
Where Is the Comparison in Comparative Cognition? Alternative Research Programs
Authors: Shettleworth Sara J.
Published: April 2006

Contemporary research on comparative cognition reflects two distinct programs. The purpose of the anthropocentric program is to discover whether nonhuman species process information in the same way as humans do. The ecological program analyzes ecologically significant aspects of cognition and compares them in closely and distantly related species. Research on memory for stored food in birds provides a detailed example of this latter program. Other examples include research on bird song learning and foraging and ecological analyses of human cognition.
Newborns Form “Prototypes” in Less Than 1 Minute
Authors: Walton Gail E. , Bower T. G. R.
Published: April 2006

Past research demonstrated that newborns looked longer at live faces and two-dimensional still images of the mother than at the faces and images of strangers (Bushnell, Sai, & Mullin, 1989; Field, Cohen, Garcia, & Greenberg, 1985; Walton, Bower, & Bower, 1992). This study examined schema (prototype) theory as a basis for newborn's preference for the mother's face by creating composite (prototype) faces with a pixel averaging technique. Results obtained with a preferential operant-sucking procedure indicated that formation of a representation of faces was rapid. Newborns preferred to look at a composite of presented faces rather than a composite of unseen faces on the first-look presentation of each. The effect faded over the duration of the experiment.
Effects of Transmitter Tuning on Attitude Change Persistence: An Examination of Alternative Explanations
Authors: Boninger David S. , Brannon Laura A. , Brock Timothy C.
Published: April 2006

Lassiter, Pezzo, and Apple (this issue) replicated the effect of transmitter tuning on attitude change persistence (Boninger, Brock, Cook, Gruder, & Romer, 1990) and included an additional condition as the basis for an alternative explanation. Although their independent replication is an important contribution that provides significant empirical corroboration, a superficial rendering of the interrupted-task literature (Zeigarnik, 192711938) and ambiguity in the operationalization of the additional condition appear to weaken their proposed interruption-perseveration explanation. We also summarize ancillary data from our earlier work (Boninger et at., 1990) that shed further doubt on this alternative explanation.
Cats Perceive Biological Motion
Authors: Blake Randolph
Published: April 2006

With behavioral techniques, cats were trained to discriminate a point-light animation sequence depicting biological motion (i.e., a cat walking) from an animation sequence consisting of equivalent local motion vectors lacking the global synchrony present in the biological-motion sequence (i.e., “foil” displays). Successful discrimination was evidenced for even the most difficult foil display and for different versions of the biological-motion sequence, indicating that cats are able to extract the higher order kinematic invariants embodied in these novel motion displays.
A Connectionist Modeling Approach to Word Recognition and Dyslexia
Authors: Seidenberg Mark S.
Published: April 2006

Word recognition plays an essential role in learning to read, skilled reading, and dyslexia. The goal of the research I describe is to develop a theory of word recognition that is realized as a connectionist simulation model. Experience with a first-generation model suggests that the approach can reveal general principles underlying word recognition and its impairments. Although computational modeling introduces new problems of method and interpretation, it contributes in an essential way to understanding reading and other aspects of cognition.
Preserved Priming of Novel Objects across Size Transformation in Amnesic Patients
Authors: Schacter Daniel L. , Cooper Lynn A. , Treadwell Jonathan
Published: April 2006

Previous research has indicated that amnesic patients can show normal priming of novel objects on a decision task in which subjects decide whether unfamiliar structures could or could not exist in the three-dimensional world. The present experiment reveals that amnesic patients exhibit normal priming on this task across a study-to-test size transformation despite impaired explicit memory. These results suggest that priming of novel objects in amnesia depends on a spared structural description system that computes size-invariant representations of visual objects.
A Developmental-Genetic Analysis of Continuity and Change in the Bayley Mental Development Index from 14 to 24 Months: The MacArthur Longitudinal Twin Study
Authors: Cherny S.S. , Fulker D.W. , Emde R.N. , Robinson J. , Corley R.P. , Reznick J.S. , Plomin R. , DeFries J.C.
Published: April 2006

A developmental-genetic model was fitted to Bayley Mental Development Index (MDI) data to address questions concerning the origins of individual differences in MDI performance and the origins of change and continuity during infancy More than 350 pairs of identical and same-sex fraternal twins were studied longitudinally at 14, 20, and 24 months of age There was substantial genetic continuity of general cognitive ability from 14 to 24 months, but significant new genetic variation also appeared at 24 months Shared family environmental influences were global across all three ages and not time-specific Finally, nonshared environmental influences did not contribute to the observed continuity of general cognitive ability, only to change
Genius and Madness?: A Quasi-Experimental Test of the Hypothesis That Manic-Depression Increases Creativity
Authors: Weisberg Robert W.
Published: April 2006

Much evidence has been adduced to support the view, originally proposed by Kraepelin, that mania increases creativity Examples of supporting evidence are findings of similarity in thought between creative persons and manic-depressives and high creativity in normal relatives of manic-depressives However, such data are correlational and are therefore equivocal concerning the hypothesis that mania is a cause of increased creativity The present study analyzed the relationship between mood and productivity in the career of composer Robert Schumann, who has been diagnosed as bipolar Schumann's positive mood was related to increased quantity of his work but not to increased quality, indicating that mania did not increase creativity of thought processes
Developmental Changes in Interlimb Coordination: Transition to Hands-and-Knees Crawling
Authors: Freedland Robert L. , Bertenthal Bennett I.
Published: April 2006

A short-term longitudinal study was conducted to assess changes in the patterning of the limbs during infants’ transition to hands-and-knees crawling Six infants were studied using observational and kinematic assessment techniques The results revealed that all 6 infants converged on the same diagonal interlimb pattern for locomoting shortly after developing sufficient muscle strength to support their abdomens above the support surface This finding is significant because forward prone progression could be accomplished using any number of interlimb patterns (e g, moving one limb at a time), yet a diagonal pattern is the most flexible and dynamically efficient The process by which this behavioral pattern emerges appears consistent with recent developmental theories suggesting that new responses are selected to optimize performance following periods of increased variability induced by changing organismic or environmental conditions
Fuzzy-Trace Theory and Framing Effects in Children's Risky Decision Making
Authors: Reyna Valerie F , Ellis Susan C
Published: April 2006

Traditional theories of cognitive development predict that children progress from intuitive to computational thinking, whereas fuzzy-trace theory makes the opposite prediction To evaluate these alternatives, framing problems were administered to preschoolers, second graders, and fifth graders Consistent with fuzzy-trace theory, results indicated (a) that younger children focused on quantitative differences between outcomes and did not exhibit framing effects (risk avoidance for gains, risk seeking for losses) and (b) that older children assimilated these quantitative differences and displayed framing effects
Modeling Probabilistic Categorization Data: Exemplar Memory and Connectionist Nets
Authors: Myers Jerome L. , Lohmeier Jill H. , Well Arnold D.
Published: April 2006

In probabilistic categorization tasks, the correct category is determined only probabilistically by the stimulus pattern Data from such experiments have been successfully accounted for by a simple network model, but have posed difficulties for exemplar models In the present article, we consider an exemplar model, CLEM (concept learning by exemplar memorization), which differs from previously tested exemplar models in that exemplar traces are assumed to be stored only when the subject has guessed or made a classification error Fits of CLEM to both learning and test data were comparable to those of the network model, and better than those obtained for a version of CLEM in which encoding was independent of the subject's response The implications of these results for the processes underlying classification decisions are discussed
Searching for Mood Dependent Memory
Authors: Eich Eric
Published: April 2006

Though it has sometimes been shown that events encoded in a certain state of affect or mood are most retrievable in that state, neither the circumstances under which mood dependent memory (MDM) occurs nor the mechanisms that enable its emergence are as yet well understood The purpose of the research reviewed here is to clarify these circumstances and mechanisms To this end, the research focuses on four factors that appear to play pivotal roles in the occurrence of MDM These factors are (a) the nature of the target events or the manner in which they are encoded (i e, are events generated through internal mental processes such as reasoning, imagination, or thought more apt to be forgotten following a shift in mood state than are events that emanate mainly from external sources?), (b) the nature of the retrieval task (is it possible to demonstrate mood dependence using implicit rather than explicit measures of memory?), (c) efficacy of mood modification (do strong, stable, and authentic affective states promote the appearance of MDM?), and (d) whether alterations in affect are one-dimensional or two-dimensional (does a shift along both the pleasure and the arousal dimensions of mood impair memory more than does a shift along the pleasure dimension alone?) Exploring these four factors in detail may make it possible to resolve much of the controversy that now surrounds MDM, and to acquire fresh insights into its cognitive and affective foundations
A Semantic Space Approach to Representations of Self and Other in Pathological Grief: A Case Study
Authors: Hart Daniel , Stinson Charles , Field Nigel , Ewert Mary , Horowitz Mardi
Published: April 2006

A semantic space model of mental representations of self and other was applied in a case study of pathological grief Traits and characteristics elicited on a questionnaire were used to elicit judgments of similarity of representations of self and important others to one another before therapy began, in the middle of therapy, and at the conclusion of therapy The similarity judgments were analyzed using multidimensional scaling The products of these analyses yielded findings that converged with those derived from coding the therapy transcripts and showed relations between emotions and representations of self
Microgenetic Study of Change: What Has It Told Us?
Authors: Kuhn Deanna
Published: April 2006

The microgenetic method has been advocated by developmentalists as a promising tool in the study of change Despite convergence of findings across investigators and diverse domains, however, several fundamental questions need to be answered (a) Is the potential for change specific to periods of developmental transition? (b) Is change domain-general or domain-specific? (c) Why and how does change occur? Answers to these questions bear on the extent to which microgenetic study of change can be interpreted as providing insight into the natural change process
Access to Global and Local Properties in Visual Search for Compound Stimuli
Authors: Enns James T. , Kingstone Alan
Published: April 2006

The question of whether attention is drawn more easily to global or local aspects of a stimulus has been debated for more than 100 years We examined it anew, using the visual search task, which distinguishes sensory from attentional effects Subjects searched for a target feature (e g, triangle vs square), which was equally likely to occur in the local elements of a compound search item, in its global structure, or in both Element size and spacing were used to manipulate whether search was generally easier for local or global targets (e g, small size and dense spacing favor global detection) The novel result was that these factors had very little influence on search slopes for local targets, whereas they had large effects on search slopes for global targets This result suggests that a qualitatively different process underlies detection at the global level in traditional compound stimuli Our proposal that an attention-demanding grouping stage is involved was confirmed in a final experiment in which grouping was made selectively difficult at the local level
Mothers' Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy: Effects on Spatial-Visual Reasoning in 14-Year-Old Children
Authors: Hunt Earl , Streissguth Ann P. , Kerr Beth , Olson Heather Carmichael
Published: April 2006

Fourteen-year-old adolescents' behavior on a spatial-visual reasoning task was associated with self-report of their mothers' alcohol consumption during pregnancy, 15 years earlier The task was arranged so that it was possible to evaluate the examinees' tendency to respond rapidly and less accurately, or slowly and more accurately The greater the mother's reported drinking, the faster and less accurately the adolescent responded The decrement in visual-spatial reasoning related to alcohol appears to be linked to a tendency toward impulsive responding
Localizing the Spatial Localization System: Helmholtz or Gibson?
Authors: Bedford Felice L
Published: April 2006

McCloskey and a team of authors (1995) documented a fascinating deficit involving the localization of objects When subject A H reaches for objects placed in different positions, she is often wrong about direction but not amount An object located 30° to her left, say, might cause her to reach 30° to the right The authors demonstrated that her motor abilities are flawless and that the errors are genuinely in vision But precisely where in the visual localization process does the deficit occur?
Two Issues in Auditory Cognition: Self-Organization of Octave Categories and Pitch-Invariant Pattern Recognition
Authors: Bharucha Jamshed J. , Mencl W. Einar
Published: April 2006

The study of auditory and music cognition provides opportunities to explore general cognitive mechanisms in a specific, highly structured domain We discuss two problems with implications for other domains of perception the self-organization of perceptual categories and invariant pattern recognition The perceptual category we consider is the octave We show how general principles of self-organization operating on a cochlear spectral representation can yield octave categories The example of invariant pattern recognition we consider is the recognition of invariant frequency patterns transformed to different absolute frequencies We suggest a system that uses pitch or musical key to map tones into a pitch-invariant format
Testing a Hierarchical Model of Self-Knowledge
Authors: Schell Terry L. , Klein Stanley B. , Babey Susan H.
Published: April 2006

A priming procedure (e g, Klein, Loftus Trafton, & Fuhrman, 1992) was used to test a hierarchical model of self-knowledge According to this model, people simultaneously hold multiple representations of themselves that differ both in their context specificity and in the type of knowledge of which they consist Specifically, context-independent self-knowledge is assumed to be represented abstractly without reference to any particular behaviors, whereas the representation of context-dependent self-knowledge includes knowledge of one's behavior in specific situations Our results support a hierarchical model Subjects accessed abstract knowledge when describing their context-independent personality characteristics, but accessed behavioral episodes when describing themselves in a specific context Possible implications of this research are discussed, as is the relation of a hierarchical model of self-knowledge to a mixed model of self-knowledge (e g, Klein & Loftus, 1993b)
Differences Between Objects and Nonobjects in Visual Extinction: A Competition for Attention
Authors: Ward Robert , Goodrich Susan
Published: April 2006

We used visual extinction as a method for investigating the influence of objects on selective visual attention Two subjects demonstrating extinction following damage to right parietal cortex were tested in a simple detection task The task required only that subjects detect the presence or absence of any item in the left and right visual fields Both subjects showed an advantage for good objects in the impaired field However, this advantage for good objects held only in the presence of a simultaneous stimulus in the undamaged field We suggest that objects are not simply easier to detect than nonobjects, instead we argue that objects are stronger competitors for attentional selection
The Visual System's Measurement of Invariants Need Not Itself Be Invariant
Authors: Wagemans Johan , Van Gool Luc , Lamote Christian
Published: April 2006

When two shapes that differ in orientation or size have to be compared or objects have to be recognized from different viewpoints, the response time and error rate are systematically affected by the size of the geometric difference In this report, we argue that these effects are not necessarily solid evidence for the use of mental transformations and against the use of invariants by the visual system We report an experiment in which observers were asked to give affine-invariant coordinates of a point located in an affine frame defined by three other points The angle subtended by the coordinate axes and the ratio of the lengths of their unit vectors systematically affected the measurement errors This finding demonstrates that the visual system's measurement of invariants need not itself be invariant
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Semantic Memory Processes in the Frontal Lobes
Authors: Gabrieli John D.E. , Desmond John E. , Demb Jonathan B. , Wagner Anthony D. , Stone Maria V. , Vaidya Chandan J. , Glover Gary H.
Published: April 2006

Frontal-lobe activation during semantic memory performance was examined using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a noninvasive technique for localizing neural activity associated with cognitive function Left inferior prefrontal cortex was more activated for semantic than for perceptual encoding of words, and for initial than for repeated semantic encoding of words Decreased activation for semantic encoding of repeated words reflects repetition priming, that is, implicit retrieval of memory gained in the initial semantic encoding of a word The left inferior prefrontal region may subserve semantic working memory processes that participate in semantic encoding and that have decreased demands when such encoding can be facilitated by recent semantic experience These results demonstrate that fMRI can visualize changes in an individual's brain function associated with the encoding and retrieval of new memories
Superordinate Identification, Subgroup Identification, and Justice Concerns: Is Separatism the Problem; Is Assimilation the Answer?
Authors: Huo Yuen J. , Smith Heather J. , Tyler Tom R. , Lind E. Allan
Published: April 2006

The diversity of American society raises concerns about whether authorities can maintain social cohesion amid competing interests and values The group-value model of justice suggests that authorities function more effectively when they are perceived as fair (e g, benevolent, neutral, and respectful) However, such relational evaluations may be effective only if authorities represent a group with which people identify In a diverse society, subgroup memberships may assume special importance People who identify predominantly with a subgroup may focus on instrumental issues when evaluating a superordinate-group authority, and conflicts with that authority may escalate if those people do not receive favorable outcomes Results indicate that subgroup identification creates problems for authorities only when people have strong subgroup identification and weak superordinate-group identification As long as people identify strongly with the superordinate group, even if they also identify strongly with their subgroup, relational issues will dominate reactions to authorities
Participation Rates and Maximal Performance: A Log-Linear Explanation for Group Differences, Such as Russian and Male Dominance in Chess
Authors: Charness Neil , Gerchak Yigal
Published: April 2006

Can the superiority of some countries and groups at certain activities be explained solely by the relative sizes of the participating populations? We focus on the expected highest achievement, max, as a function of the participating group's size For several relevant statistical distributions, max can be shown to be approximately log-linear in sample size, with a slope of about 0 7 SD units We use this relation (max is log-linear ~0 7 MILL7) to examine differences in performance in chess by men and women and by different countries The expected differences under MILL7 are very close to the observed differences We also examine the implications of MILL7 for the interpretation of other group differences and discuss its limitations
Accentuate the Relevant
Authors: Fischhoff Baruch , Downs Julie
Published: April 2006

People need information in order to make effective choices and to feel competent in managing their own affairs Decision-making research provides tools for identifying and addressing these informational needs The tools allow formal analyses of what information is critical to particular decisions, as well as descriptive analyses of how well those facts are understood Communication should be focused on critical information that is either missing or available but not understood Decision-relevant situations range from ones posing well-formulated, imminent choices to ones in which people are trying to understand what choices are even possible This article reviews briefly the formal and descriptive approaches to dealing with such decisions Including these approaches in behavioral interventions might help people to be as systematic as they would like in their decision making It might even make them want to be more systematic
Self-Verification and Drug Abusers: Implications for Treatment
Authors: Linehan Marsha M.
Published: April 2006

The work of Swann and his colleagues suggests that a desire for self-verification is a ubiquitous human motive, as important as the desire for positive evaluations When the self-view is negative, the reinforcement value of self-verification can lead individuals to maintain lifestyles and seek out other individuals who will maintain the negative self-view Trying to change negative self-views by simple verbal invalidation is not often successful The reinforcing qualities of self-verification for most individuals and the apparently aversive qualities of invalidating an individual s self-views have potentially important implications for treatment of drug abusers This commentary briefly reviews self-verification research and discusses implications of findings for psychotherapy, particularly as they relate to strengthening clinical progress and attachment to therapy and to giving feedback to clients
Listening to Smoking Researchers: Negative Affect and Drug Abuse Treatment
Authors: Carroll Kathleen M.
Published: April 2006

The work of Baker and his colleagues indicates that a broadened view of withdrawal that recognizes its probable affective bases will suggest new treatment strategies for the treatment of smoking and, by extension, drug dependence This commentary briefly reviews the current status of treating drug dependence by addressing negative affect and emphasizes that clinical research which allows for building more complex models of individual change over time holds promise for clearer understanding of the role of negative affect among drug abusers and thus more effective treatments Although clinical treatments for drug dependence have long recognized the significance of negative affect we are far from a thorough understanding of the role of negative affect in withdrawal, craving, and relapse to drug use
The Illusion of Morality as Self-Interest: A Reason to Cooperate in Social Dilemmas
Authors: Baron Jonathan
Published: April 2006

One reason for people's voluntary cooperation in social dilemmas, or altruistic behavior in general, may be their belief that altruism pays off in terms of long-run self-interest Although this is often true, it is typically false in large-scale social dilemmas among strangers In three questionnaire studies, subjects endorsed this self-interest illusion frequently for large-scale dilemmas, such as overfishing and pollution, in which the benefits of cooperation are delayed.
One-Shot View Invariance in a Moving World
Authors: Kourtzi Zoe , Shiffrar Maggie
Published: April 2006

How do people recognize an object in a novel orientation? Psychophysical and neurophysiological studies have suggested that extensive practice is required before observers can recognize an object that has been rotated to a new orientation Because object orientation frequently varies with object movement, we examined whether observers might more readily recognize a moving object in a new orientation Results from a priming study indicate that motion significantly and readily enhances the recognition of new object orientations when those orientations fall within the path of the motion That is motion promotes view-invariant object recognition without practice
Significance Tests Have Their Place
Authors: Harris Richard J.
Published: April 2006

Null-hypothesis significance tests (NHST), properly used, tell us whether we have sufficient evidence to be confident of the sign of the population effect–but only if we abandon two-valued logic in favor of Kaiser's (1960) three-alternative hypothesis tests Confidence intervals provide a useful addition to NHSTs, and can be used to provide the same sign-determination function as NHST However, when so used, confidence intervals are subject to exactly the same Type I, II, and III error rates as NHST In addition, NHSTs provide two pieces of information about our data–maximum probability of a Type III error and probability of a successful exact replication–that confidence intervals do not The proposed alternative to NHST is just as susceptible to misinterpretation as is NHST The problem of bias due to censoring of data collection or publication can be handled by providing archives for all methodologically sound data sets, but reserving interpretations and conclusions for statistically significant results
From Laboratories to Collaboratories: A New Organizational Form for Scientific Collaboration
Authors: Finholt Thomas A. , Olson Gary M.
Published: April 2006

This article explores the potential impact of collaboratories on psychology. A collaboratory is a computer-supported system that allows scientists to work with each other, facilities, and databases without regard to geographical location The impact of collaboratories is discussed in terms of changes in the organization and practice of scientific work as this work moves from physical to virtual settings Examination of prototype collaboratories in the physical sciences shows that use of collaboratories produces changes through improved access to scarce resources, support for joint work among distant colleagues, and opportunities for broader participation in research by students Similar results in psychology are predicted if psychologists exploit collaboratories' capabilities to design new ways of conducting research, rather than adopting collaboratory technology as an extension of the status quo.
Time Course of Activating Brain Areas in Generating Verbal Associations
Authors: Abdullaev Yalchin G. , Posner Michael I.
Published: April 2006

Generating a use for a visual word in comparison with reading the word aloud activates frontal attention areas first (170 ms), a left lateral frontal area next (250 ms), and then a left temporoparietal (Wernicke's) area (650 ms) A brief period of practice reduces these activations If subjects are asked to respond to a word from the same practiced list by giving a novel use, the original activations reappear and are joined by activity similar in location and time to Wernicke's activation but in the right hemisphere These findings demonstrate the time course of activations of neuroanatomical areas in word processing and indicate a role for the right hemisphere when semantic processing is more difficult, such as in generating a less frequent association in the presence of a highly practiced one
Moralization and Becoming a Vegetarian: The Transformation of Preferences Into Values and the Recruitment of Disgust
Authors: Rozin Paul , Markwith Maureen , Stoess Caryn
Published: April 2006

We describe a rather common process that we call moralization, in which objects or activities that were previously morally neutral acquire a moral component. Moralization converts preferences into values, and in doing so influences cross-generational transmission (because values are passed more effectively in families than are preferences), increases the likelihood of internalization, invokes greater emotional response, and mobilizes the support of governmental and other cultural institutions. In recent decades, we claim, cigarette smoking in America has become moralized. We support our claims about some of the consequences of moralization with an analysis of differences between health and moral vegetarians. Compared with health vegetarians, moral vegetarians find meat more disgusting, offer more reasons in support of their meat avoidance, and avoid a wider range of animal foods. However, contrary to our prediction, liking for meat is about the same in moral and health vegetarians.
Object Substitution: A New Form of Masking in Unattended Visual Locations
Authors: Enns James T. , Di Lollo Vincent
Published: April 2006

Can four dots that surround, but do not touch, a target shape act as a mask to reduce target discriminability? Although existing theories of metacontrast and pattern masking say “no,” we report this occurs when targets appear in unpredictable locations. In three experiments, a four-dot mask was compared with a standard metacontrast mask that surrounded the target. Although accuracy was predictably different for the two masks at a central display location in Experiment I, both masks had similar strong effects on accuracy in parafoveal locations. Experiment 2 revealed that both four-dot and metacontrast masking were insensitive to contour proximity in parafoveal display locations, and Experiment 3 showed that four-dot masking could occur even at a central location if attention was distributed among several targets. We propose that targets in unattended locations are coded with low spotiotemporal resolution, leaving them vulnerable to substitution by the four dots when attention is directed to them.
Nitric oxide impairs mitochondrial movement in cortical neurons during hypoxia
Authors: Zanelli Santina A. , Trimmer Patricia A. , Solenski Nina J.
Published: April 2006

Cortical nitric oxide (NO) production increases during hypoxia/ischemia in the immature brain and is associated with both neurotoxicity and mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondrial redistribution within the cell is critical to normal neuronal function, however, the effects of hypoxia on mitochondrial dynamics are not known. This study tested the hypothesis that hypoxia impairs mitochondrial movement via NO‐mediated pathways. Fluorescently labeled mitochondria were studied using time‐lapse digital video microscopy in cultured cortical neurons exposed either to hypoxia/re‐oxygenation or to diethyleneamine/nitric oxide adduct, DETA‐NO (100–500 µm). Two NO synthase inhibitors, were used to determine NO specificity. Mitochondrial mean velocity, the percentage of movement (i.e. the time spent moving) and mitochondrial morphology were analyzed. Exposure to hypoxia reduced mitochondrial movement to 10.4 ± 1.3% at 0 h and 7.4 ± 1.7% at 1 h of re‐oxygenation, versus 25.6 ± 1.4% in controls (p < 0.05). Mean mitochondrial velocity (µm s−1) decreased from 0.374 ± 0.01 in controls to 0.146 ± 0.01 at 0 h and 0.177 ± 0.02 at 1 h of re‐oxygenation (p < 0.001). Exposure to DETA‐NO resulted in a significant decrease in mean mitochondrial velocity at all tested time points. Treatment with NG‐nitro‐l‐arginine methyl ester (l‐NAME) prevented the hypoxia‐induced decrease in mitochondrial movement at 0 h (30.1 ± 1.6%) and at 1 h (26.1 ± 9%) of re‐oxygenation. Exposure to either hypoxia/re‐oxygenation or NO also resulted in the rapid decrease in mitochondrial size. Both hypoxia and NO exposure result in impaired mitochondrial movement and morphology in cultured cortical neurons. As the effect of hypoxia on mitochondrial movement and morphology can be partially prevented by a nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor, these data suggest that an NO‐mediated pathway is at least partially involved.
Pseudophosphorylation of tau at serine 422 inhibits caspase cleavage: in vitro evidence and implications for tangle formation in vivo
Authors: Guillozet‐Bongaarts Angela L. , Cahill Michael E. , Cryns Vincent L. , Reynolds Matthew R. , Berry Robert W. , Binder Lester I.
Published: April 2006

The tangles of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are comprised of the tau protein displaying numerous alterations, including phosphorylation at serine 422 (S422) and truncation at aspartic acid 421 (D421). Truncation at the latter site appears to result from activation of caspases, a class of proteases that cleave specifically at aspartic acid residues. It has been proposed that phosphorylation at or near caspase cleavage sites could regulate the ability of the protease to cleave at those sites. Here, we use tau pseudophosphorylated at S422 (S422E) to examine the effects of tau phosphorylation on its cleavage by caspase 3. We find that S422E tau is more resistant to proteolysis by caspase 3 than non‐pseudophosphorylated tau. Additionally, we use antibodies directed against the phosphorylation site and against the truncation epitope to assess the presence of these epitopes in neurofibrillary tangles in the aged human brain. We show that phosphorylation precedes truncation during tangle maturation. Moreover, the distribution of the two epitopes suggests that a significant length of time (perhaps as much as two decades) elapses between S422 phosphorylation and cleavage at D421. We further conclude that tau phosphorylation at S422 may be a protective mechanism that inhibits cleavage in vivo.
Apolipoprotein A‐I increases association of cytosolic cholesterol and caveolin‐1 with microtubule cytoskeletons in rat astrocytes
Authors: Ito Jin‐ichi , Kheirollah Alireza , Nagayasu Yuko , Lu Rui , Kato Koichi , Yokoyama Shinji
Published: April 2006

Apolipoprotein (apo) A‐I induces rapid translocation of protein kinase Cα and phospholipase Cγ, and slow translocation of caveolin‐1 and newly synthesized cholesterol to the cytosolic lipid‐protein particle (CLPP) fraction in rat astrocytes. In order to understand the function of CLPP, we investigated the interaction with cytoskeletons of CLPP‐related proteins such as caveolin‐1 and protein kinase Cα and of CLPP‐related lipids in rat astrocytes. Under the conditions that microtubules were depolymerized, association of cytosolic caveolin‐1 with protein kinase Cα and α‐tubulin was enhanced when the cells were treated with apoA‐I for 5 min. This association was suppressed by a scaffolding domain‐peptide of caveolin‐1. Association with the microtubule‐like filaments of cytosolic lipids, caveolin‐1 and protein kinase Cα was also increased by the apoA‐I treatment and inhibited by the scaffolding domain peptide. Paclitaxel (taxol), a compound to stabilize microtubules, suppressed the apoA‐I‐mediated intracellular translocation and release from the cells of the de novo synthesized cholesterol and phospholipid. The findings suggested that the association of CLPP with microtubules is mediated by a scaffolding domain of caveolin‐1, induced by apoA‐I and involved in regulation of intracellular cholesterol trafficking for assembly of cellular lipids to apoA‐I–high‐density lipoprotein (HDL).
Direct interaction of post‐synaptic density‐95/Dlg/ZO‐1 domain‐containing synaptic molecule Shank3 with GluR1 α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazole propionic acid receptor
Authors: Uchino Shigeo , Wada Hidenori , Honda Shizuyo , Nakamura Yasuko , Ondo Yumiko , Uchiyama Takayoshi , Tsutsumi Moe , Suzuki Eri , Hirasawa Takae , Kohsaka Shinichi
Published: April 2006

A class of scaffolding protein containing the post‐synaptic density‐95/Dlg/ZO‐1 (PDZ) domain is thought to be involved in synaptic trafficking of α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA) receptors during development. To clarify the molecular mechanism of AMPA receptor trafficking, we performed a yeast two‐hybrid screening system using the cytoplasmic tail of the GluR1 subunit of AMPA receptor as a bait and identified a synaptic molecule, Shank3/ProSAP2, as a GluR1 subunit‐interacting molecule. Shank3 is a PDZ domain‐containing multidomain protein and is predominantly expressed in developing neurons. Using the glutathione S‐transferase pull‐down assay and immunoprecipitation technique we demonstrated that the GluR1 subunit directly binds to the PDZ domain of Shank3 via its carboxyl terminal PDZ‐binding motif. We raised anti‐Shank3 antibody to investigate the expression of Shank3 in cortical neurons. The pattern of Shank3 immunoreactivity was strikingly punctate, mainly observed in the spines, and closely matched the pattern of post‐synaptic density‐95 immunoreactivity, indicating that Shank3 is colocalized with post‐synaptic density‐95 in the same spines. When Shank3 and the GluR1 subunit were overexpressed in primary cortical neurons, they were also colocalized in the spines. Taken together with the biochemical interaction of Shank3 with the GluR1 subunit, these results suggest that Shank3 is an important molecule that interacts with GluR1 AMPA receptor at synaptic sites of developing neurons.
Laser treatment for pigmented lesions: a review
Authors: Jones Christina E. , Nouri Keyvan
Published: April 2006

Background  Just a few decades ago, before lasers were introduced into dermatologic practice, many cutaneous lesions were untreatable. Since the introduction of lasers in dermatology in the 1960s and its revolution by Anderson and Parrish in the 1980s based on the selective photothermolysis theory, lasers have become a main component of many dermatology practices. With the advent of these selective lasers and their constant technological advancements, many lesions can now be easily removed with a low incidence of complications, creating a high demand for laser surgery.

Aims  This paper will review current laser systems used for pigmented lesions.

Methods  An English‐language literature search and review through Medline from January 1994 to October 2004. Review of the latest techniques and lasers used in treating pigmentary disorders and possible future applications and treatment options.

Conclusions  Laser technique and technology has greatly advanced producing more effacious treatment with minimal complications.