Absence of placeholders abolishes exogenous attention effect in a peripheral cueing procedure

Most studies of exogenous visuospatial attention use placeholders indicating the regions where the stimuli appear on the screen. Preliminary results from our laboratory provided evidence that the attentional effect is more frequently observed when placeholders are used in these experimental procedures. Four experiments were carried out. Experiment 1 aimed at confirming the finding that the attentional effect of a spatially non-informative cue (S1) observed in the presence of placeholders disappears in their absence. The results confirmed this finding. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 examined several possible processes that could explain this finding. Experiment 2 investigated if the contribution of a faster disengagement of attention from the cued location or a stronger forward masking could explain the absence of attentional effect when no placeholders were used. Experiment 3 investigated if increased difficulty in discrimination of the target (S2) from S1 would favor the appearance of the attentional effect in the absence of placeholders. Experiment 4 investigated if an insufficient focusing of attention towards the cued location could explain the absence of attentional effect when no placeholders were used. The results of the three experiments indicated that placeholders act by reducing the discriminability of the S2. This would presumably lead to the adoption of an attentional set that favors the mobilization of attention by the S1

Intuizione e visualizzazione in matematica con particolare riferimento a Felix Klein

Questo lavoro trae spunto da un rinnovato interesse per l’«intuizione» e il «pensiero visivo» in matematica, e intende offrire un contributo alla discussione contemporanea su tali questioni attraverso lo studio del caso storico di Felix Klein. Dopo una breve ricognizione di alcuni dei saggi più significativi al riguardo, provenienti sia dalla filosofia della matematica, sia dalla pedagogia, dalle neuroscienze e dalle scienze cognitive, l’attenzione si concentra sulla concezione epistemologia di Klein, con particolare riferimento al suo uso del concetto di ‘intuizione’. Dai suoi lavori e dalla sua riflessione critica si ricavano non solo considerazioni illuminanti sulla fecondità di un approccio «visivo», ma argomenti convincenti a sostegno del ruolo cruciale dell’intuizione in matematica.

Lo spazio senso-motorio come rappresentazione dei comportamenti intersoggettivi. Una nuova ipotesi sperimentale dalla filosofia alle neuroscienze

La ricerca ha preso le mosse da tre ipotesi fondamentali: 1) Esiste un legame tra processi cognitivi di basso ed alto livello; 2) Lo spazio senso-motorio è una percezione soggettiva; 3) Lo spazio senso-motorio varia in funzione delle diverse modalità di interazione sociale. La tesi sostiene che lo spazio senso-motorio si lascia modulare dalla semplice co-presenza di un altro agente umano e da interazioni cooperative e non cooperative. I capitoli I, II, III, hanno lo scopo di scomporre e spiegare il significato della prima, seconda e terza ipotesi; giungendo a formulare la tesi centrale che sarà poi dimostrata sperimentalmente nel capitolo IV. Il capitolo V introduce future linee di ricerca nell’ambito dell’etica proponendo una nuova ipotesi sul legame che potrebbe sussistere tra la percezione dello spazio durante l’interazione sociale e i giudizi morali. Il lavoro svolto chiama ad operare insieme diverse discipline che concorrono a formare le scienze cognitive: la storia della filosofia, la filosofia della mente contemporanea, la neuropsicologia sperimentale ed alcuni temi della psicologia sociale.

Curricular Integration of Simulations in Neuroscience - Instructional and Technical Perspectives

In recent years interactive media and tools, like scientific simulations and simulation environments or dynamic data visualizations, became established methods in the neural and cognitive sciences. Hence, university teachers of neural and cognitive sciences are faced with the challenge to integrate these media into the neuroscientific curriculum. Especially simulations and dynamic visualizations offer great opportunities for teachers and learners, since they are both illustrative and explorable. However, simulations bear instructional problems: they are abstract, demand some computer skills and conceptual knowledge about what simulations intend to explain. By following two central questions this article provides an overview on possible approaches to be applied in neuroscience education and opens perspectives for their curricular integration: (i) How can complex scientific media be transformed for educational use in an efficient and (for students on all levels) comprehensible manner and (ii) by what technical infrastructure can this transformation be supported? Exemplified by educational simulations for the neurosciences and their application in courses, answers to these questions are proposed a) by introducing a specific educational simulation approach for the neurosciences b) by introducing an e-learning environment for simulations, and c) by providing examples of curricular integration on different levels which might help academic teachers to integrate newly created or existing interactive educational resources in their courses.

Plasticity, plasticity, plasticity…and the rigid problem of sex

Why is popular understanding of female-male differences still based on rigid models of development, even though contemporary developmental sciences emphasize plasticity? Is it because the science of sex differences still works from the same rigid models?

There is more than "more is up": Hand and foot responses reverse the vertical association of number magnitudes

Recent research in cognitive sciences shows a growing interest in spatial-numerical associations. The horizontal SNARC (spatial-numerical association of response codes) effect is defined by faster left-sided responses to small numbers and faster right-sided responses to large numbers in a parity judgment task. In this study we investigated whether there is also a SNARC effect for upper and lower responses. The grounded cognition approach suggests that the universal experience of "more is up" serves as a robust frame of reference for vertical number representation. In line with this view, lower hand responses to small numbers were faster than to large numbers (Experiment 1). Interestingly, the vertical SNARC effect reversed when the lower responses were given by foot instead of the hand (Experiments 2, 3, and 4). We found faster upper (hand) responses to small numbers and faster lower (foot) responses to large numbers. Additional experiments showed that spatial factors cannot account for the reversal of the vertical SNARC effect (Experiments 4 and 5). Our results question the view of "more is up" as a robust frame of reference for spatial-numerical associations. We discuss our results within a hierarchical framework of numerical cognition and point to a possible link between effectors and number representation.

Consciousness and choking in visually-guided actions

Choking under pressure describes the phenomenon of people performing well below their expected standard under circumstances where optimal performance is crucial. One of the prevailing explanations for choking is that pressure increases the conscious attention to the underlying processes of the performer's task execution, thereby disrupting what would normally be a relatively automatic process. However, research on choking has focused mainly on the influence of pressure on motor performance, typically overlooking how it might alter the way that vision is controlled when performing these motor actions. In this article we ask whether the visual component of expert motor-skill execution is susceptible to choking much like the motor component is thought to be. To do so, we draw heavily on empirical findings from studies of sporting expertise, in particular focussing on the role of gaze in three types of visually-guided actions: interceptive actions, aiming tasks, and anticipatory skill. For each of these skills we evaluate the nature of the expert advantage, discuss the role of consciousness in their control, examine the potential impact of pressure on task performance, and consider interventions designed to reduce the likelihood of choking when performing these tasks

Assessment of fight outcome is needed to activate socially driven transcriptional changes in the zebrafish brain

Group living animals must be able to express different behavior profiles depending on their social status. Therefore, the same genotype may translate into different behavioral phenotypes through socially driven differential gene expression. However, how social information is translated into a neurogenomic response and what are the specific cues in a social interaction that signal a change in social status are questions that have remained unanswered. Here, we show for the first time, to our knowledge, that the switch between status-specific neurogenomic states relies on the assessment of fight outcome rather than just on self- or opponent-only assessment of fighting ability. For this purpose, we manipulated the perception of fight outcome in male zebrafish and measured its impact on the brain transcriptome using a zebrafish whole genome gene chip. Males fought either a real opponent, and a winner and a loser were identified, or their own image on a mirror, in which case, despite expressing aggressive behavior, males did not experience either a victory or a defeat. Massive changes in the brain transcriptome were observed in real opponent fighters, with losers displaying both a higher number of differentially expressed genes and of coexpressed gene modules than winners. In contrast, mirror fighters expressed a neurogenomic state similar to that of noninteracting fish. The genes that responded to fight outcome included immediate early genes and genes involved in neuroplasticity and epigenetic modifications. These results indicate that, even in cognitively simple organisms such as zebrafish, neurogenomic responses underlying changes in social status rely on mutual assessment of fighting ability.

Theory of mind and relational complexity

Cognitive complexity and control theory and relational complexity theory attribute developmental changes in theory of mind (TOM) to complexity. In 3 studies, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds performed TOM tasks (false belief, appearance-reality), less complex connections (Level 1 perspective-taking) tasks, and transformations tasks (understanding the effects of location changes and colored filters) with content similar to TOM. There were also predictor tasks at binary-relational and ternary-relational complexity levels, with different content. Consistent with complexity theories: (a) connections and transformations were easier and mastered earlier than TOM; (b) predictor tasks accounted for more than 80% of age-related variance in TOM; and (c) ternary-relational items accounted for TOM variance, before and after controlling for age and binary-relational items. Prediction did not require hierarchically structured predictor tasks.

Attitude-behaviour consistency: the role of group norms, attitude accessibility, and mode of behavioural decision-making

The interplay between two perspectives that have recently been applied in the attitude area-the social identity approach to attitude-behaviour relations (Terry & Hogg, 1996) and the MODE model (Fazio, 1990a)-was examined in the present research. Two experimental studies were conducted to examine the role of group norms, group identification, attitude accessibility, and mode of behavioural decision-making in the attitude-behaviour relationship. In Study I (N = 211), the effects of norms and identification on attitude-behaviour consistency as a function of attitude accessibility and mood were investigated. Study 2 (N = 354) replicated and extended the first experiment by using time pressure to manipulate mode of behavioural decision-making. As expected, the effects of norm congruency varied as a function of identification and mode of behavioural decision-making. Under conditions assumed to promote deliberative processing (neutral mood/low time pressure), high identifiers behaved in a manner consistent with the norm. No effects emerged under positive mood and high time pressure conditions. In Study 2, there was evidence that exposure to an attitude-incongruent norm resulted in attitude change only under low accessibility conditions. The results of these studies highlight the powerful role of group norms in directing individual behaviour and suggest limited support for the MODE model in this context. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Evaluation of a brief child-focused group-based intervention for anxiety-disordered children

This paper presents a pilot study of a brief, group-based, cognitive-behavioural intervention for anxiety-disordered children. Five children (aged 7 to 13 years) diagnosed with a clinically significant anxiety disorder were treated with a recently developed 6-session, child-focused, cognitive-behavioural intervention that was evaluated using multiple measures (including structured diagnostic interview, self-report questionnaires and behaviour rating scales completed by parents) over four follow-up occasions (posttreatment, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up and 12-month follow-up). This trial aimed to (a) evaluate the conclusion suggested by the research of Cobham, Dadds, and Spence (1998) that anxious children with non-anxious parents require a child-focused intervention only in order to demonstrate sustained clinical gains; and (b) to evaluate a new and more cost-effective child-focused cognitive-behavioural intervention. Unfortunately, the return rate of the questionnaires was poor, rendering this data source of questionable value. However, diagnostic interviews (traditionally the gold standard in terms of outcome in this research area) were completed for all children at all follow-up points. Changes in diagnostic status indicated that meaningful treatment-related gains had been achieved and were maintained over the full follow-up period. The results would thus seem to support the principle of participant-intervention matching proposed by Cobham et al. (1998), as well as the utility of the more brief intervention evaluated.

Phobic anxiety in 11 nations: Part I: Dimensional constancy of the five-factor model

The Fear Survey Schedule-III (FSS-III) was administered to a total of 5491 students in Australia, East Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, and Venezuela, and submitted to the multiple group method of confirmatory analysis (MGM) in order to determine the cross-national dimensional constancy of the five-factor model of self-assessed fears originally established in Dutch, British, and Canadian samples. The model comprises fears of bodily injury-illness-death, agoraphobic fears, social fears, fears of sexual and aggressive scenes, and harmless animals fears. Close correspondence between the factors was demonstrated across national samples. In each country, the corresponding scales were internally consistent, were intercorrelated at magnitudes comparable to those yielded in the original samples, and yielded (in 93% of the total number of 55 comparisons) sex differences in line with the usual finding (higher scores for females). In each country, the relatively largest sex differences were obtained on harmless animals fears. The organization of self-assessed fears is sufficiently similar across nations to warrant the use of the same weight matrix (scoring key) for the FSS-III in the different countries and to make cross-national comparisons feasible. This opens the way to further studies that attempt to predict (on an a priori basis) cross-national variations in fear levels with dimensions of national cultures. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dragging down and dragging up: How relative group status affects responses to common fate

The authors examined whether status differences moderate the effects of common fate on subgroup relations. University students (N = 103) were led to believe that their subgroup was performing well (high status) or poorly (low status) relative to another subgroup. They were then told that the combined performances of the subgroups would have shared implications for their subgroup's welfare. (common fate) or that there would be a direct link between their subgroup's performance and its welfare (no common fate). High-status (but not low-status) group members responded to the common fate situation by (a) decategorizing and (b) showing benevolence to the out-group. Results are discussed with respect to their implications for managing subgroup relations.

Not being what you claim to be: impostors as sources of group threat

We examine the notion of impostors within groups, defined in this paper as people who make public claims to an identity while disguising their failure to fulfil key criteria for group membership. In Experiment 1, vegetarians showed heightened levels of negative affect toward vegetarians who ate meat occasionally compared to an authentic vegetarian. In contrast, non-vegetarians saw the impostor to be marginally more likeable than the authentic vegetarian. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants evaluated only a vegetarian who ate meat. Evaluations of the target were influenced by group attachment, such that participants who identified strongly as vegetarians downgraded the target more strongly and experienced more negative affect than did moderate identifiers and non-vegetarians. Participants were also sensitive to the size of the gulf between the target's claims for identity and their behaviour. Thus, targets who made public claims to being a vegetarian but ate meat were evaluated more negatively than were people who kept their claims for identity private (Experiment 2). Similarly, targets who tried to keep their deviant behaviour secret were evaluated more negatively than were people who openly admitted their deviant behaviour (Experiment 3). The reasons why impostors might threaten the integrity of group identities are discussed. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.