The role of affect and affective congruence in perceptions of leaders: an experimental study

Based on the idea that emotional exchanges determine symbolic meanings in interpersonal exchanges, we hypothesized that displays of positive and congruent affect determine members' ratings of leaders in a simulated performance appraisal context. To test the hypotheses, 537 participants viewed videotapes of four male and female leaders giving positive and negative feedback, and with facial expressions of affect that were either congruent or incongruent with the verbal message that they were delivering. Results supported hypotheses that positive and message-congruent leader affect results in more positive member ratings of the leader, assessed using a seven-item measure of members' perceptions of the leader's negotiating latitude. The least positive ratings of negotiating latitude were given when positive feedback was delivered with negative facial affect. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Generalization by symbolic abstraction in cascaded recurrent networks

Generalization performance in recurrent neural networks is enhanced by cascading several networks. By discretizing abstractions induced in one network, other networks can operate on a coarse symbolic level with increased performance on sparse and structural prediction tasks. The level of systematicity exhibited by the cascade of recurrent networks is assessed on the basis of three language domains. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Do our feelings leak through the clothes we wear?

There is a substantial body of literature that suggests that clothing and more particularly fashion is a form of communication. It communicates how we want to be seen by others as well as how we see ourselves. But does it communicate how we feel? This paper draws a link between symbolic and emotional communication by suggesting that fashion changes our internal feelings and that many of these emotions are expressed to others through symbols such as the clothes we wear. A conceptual framework is presented explaining the effects of clothing on an individual consumer. This framework classifies the fashion effect into internally and externally communicated meanings. Knowledge of how fashion is used as a form of emotional expression is particularly important for those fashion retailers who display the clothing they sell to engender positive feelings that may then lead to purchase behaviour.

Defining a role for the subthalamic nucleus within operative theoretical models of subcortical participation in language

Objective:To investigate the effects of bilateral, surgically induced functional inhibition of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) on general language, high level linguistic abilities, and semantic processing skills in a group of patients with Parkinson’s disease. Methods:Comprehensive linguistic profiles were obtained up to one month before and three months after bilateral implantation of electrodes in the STN during active deep brain stimulation (DBS) in five subjects with Parkinson’s disease (mean age, 63.2 years). Equivalent linguistic profiles were generated over a three month period for a non-surgical control cohort of 16 subjects with Parkinson’s disease (NSPD) (mean age, 64.4 years). Education and disease duration were similar in the two groups. Initial assessment and three month follow up performance profiles were compared within subjects by paired t tests. Reliability change indices (RCI), representing clinically significant alterations in performance over time, were calculated for each of the assessment scores achieved by the five STN-DBS cases and the 16 NSPD controls, relative to performance variability within a group of 16 non-neurologically impaired adults (mean age, 61.9 years). Proportions of reliable change were then compared between the STN-DBS and NSPD groups. Results:Paired comparisons within the STN-DBS group showed prolonged postoperative semantic processing reaction times for a range of word types coded for meanings and meaning relatedness. Case by case analyses of reliable change across language assessments and groups revealed differences in proportions of change over time within the STN-DBS and NSPD groups in the domains of high level linguistics and semantic processing. Specifically, when compared with the NSPD group, the STN-DBS group showed a proportionally significant (p