Comparison of Student Versus Employee Test Populations for Warning Sign Research Based on Severity Ratings for Signal Words

Most studies of warning signs involve undergraduate students as subjects. This paper reports a direct comparison of findings from an undergraduate population and an employed population. The 48 employed subjects from this study were compared with 59 undergraduate subjects from a companion study. Subjects from both populations were shown the same signs and asked to rate the severity level connoted by each sign. The signs differed only in signal word. Results for each population indicated that signal word had a highly significant effect on severity ratings. When the two populations were compared for ratings of each signal word, the only significant difference was for Caution. Median ratings of each population were the same: Deadly (4), Danger (3), Warning (2), Caution (1), and Notice (0).

Judgments of duration, figure-ground contrast, and size for words and nonwords

Does the word-superiority effect on letter discrimination result in a word-superiority effect on duration judgments? We examined this question in five experiments. In the first four experiments, we have demonstrated that (1) words shown for 32-80 msec were judged as presented longer than non-words shown for the same duration; (2) this word-superiority effect persists if the stimuli are shown for an objective duration of up to 250 msec; and (3) these effects can be extended to judgments of figure-ground contrast and letter size. These findings extend existing data on effects of processing fluency on perceptual judgments. In Experiment 5, we found that duration judgments were higher for words than for pronounceable nonwords, and duration judgments were higher for pronounceable non-words than for nonpronounceable nonwords. We discuss the implications of this finding for the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis.

Monitoring the Time Course of Perception without Awareness: A Comparison of Mirror Masked Words and Nonwords

Mirror masked words are embedded into a context that makes them appear as senseless patterns or as strings of unfamiliar letters. Thus, mirror masked words can be shown for several hundreds of milliseconds without being recognised as words. We sought to further investigate effects of nonsconscious reading by monitoring event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while participants observed mirror masked letter strings. ERPs were recorded while participants observed mirror masked words and nonwords. Data of 15 participants was segmented into periods of quasi-stable field topography (microstates). Microstates for masked words and nonwords were compared using randomization tests, statistical parametric scalp maps and Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (LORETA). ERPs to masked words and nonwords showed significant topographic differences between 136 and 256 ms, indicating that stimuli were nonconsciously discriminated. A LORETA model localised sources of activation discriminating between masked words and nonwords in left operculum, the right superior parietal lobe and right superior temporal gyrus indicating higher current density for nonwords than for words in these areas. ERPs of mirror masked stimuli can indicate unconscious discrimination even in cases where behavioural priming is unreliable. This approach might be useful for investigating differences in early, nonconscious stages of word perception.

Event-related electric microstates of the brain differ between words with visual and abstract meaning

The present study shows that different neural activity during mental imagery and abstract mentation can be assigned to well-defined steps of the brain's information-processing. During randomized visual presentation of single, imagery-type and abstract-type words, 27 channel event-related potential (ERP) field maps were obtained from 25 subjects (sequence-divided into a first and second group for statistics). The brain field map series showed a sequence of typical map configurations that were quasi-stable for brief time periods (microstates). The microstates were concatenated by rapid map changes. As different map configurations must result from different spatial patterns of neural activity, each microstate represents different active neural networks. Accordingly, microstates are assumed to correspond to discrete steps of information-processing. Comparing microstate topographies (using centroids) between imagery- and abstract-type words, significantly different microstates were found in both subject groups at 286–354 ms where imagery-type words were more right-lateralized than abstract-type words, and at 550–606 ms and 606–666 ms where anterior-posterior differences occurred. We conclude that language-processing consists of several, well-defined steps and that the brain-states incorporating those steps are altered by the stimuli's capacities to generate mental imagery or abstract mentation in a state-dependent manner.

Do Words Matter? The Impact of Communication on the PIIGS' CDS and Bond Yield Spreads during Europe's Sovereign Debt Crisis

The paper aims to shed light on the role of communication in the European debt crisis. It examines the effects of public statements by ECB Governing Council members, EU officials and national representatives on the PIIGS' CDS and bond yield spreads. The focus lies on dovish statements that signal strong determination in the rescue of indebted countries, and hawkish statements that indicate limited commitment to support the PIIGS and protect its creditors. The analysis of daily data for the period between January 1, 2009 and August 12, 2011 in an EGARCH framework suggests that communication by representatives of Germany, France, and the EU as well as ECB Governing Council members had an immediate impact on both types of securities. No effects.

Beyond words: Sensory properties of depressive thoughts

Verbal thoughts (such as negative cognitions) and sensory phenomena (such as visual mental imagery) are usually conceptualised as distinct mental experiences. The present study examined to what extent depressive thoughts are accompanied by sensory experiences and how this is associated with symptom severity, insight of illness and quality of life. A large sample of mildly to moderately depressed patients (N = 356) was recruited from multiple sources and asked about sensory properties of their depressive thoughts in an online study. Diagnostic status and symptom severity were established over a telephone interview with trained raters. Sensory properties of negative thoughts were reported by 56.5% of the sample (i.e., sensation in at least one sensory modality). The highest prevalence was seen for bodily (39.6%) followed by auditory (30.6%) and visual (27.2%) sensations. Patients reporting sensory properties of thoughts showed more severe psychopathological symptoms than those who did not. The degree of perceptuality was marginally associated with quality of life. The findings support the notion that depressive thoughts are not only verbal but commonly accompanied by sensory experiences. The perceptuality of depressive thoughts and the resulting sense of authenticity may contribute to the emotional impact and pervasiveness of such thoughts, making them difficult to dismiss for their holder.

Moving along the mental time line influences the processing of future related words

Abstract concepts like numbers or time are thought to be represented in the more concrete domain of space and the sensorimotor system. For example, thinking of past or future events has a physical manifestation in backward or forward body sway, respectively. In the present study, we investigated the reverse effect: can passive whole-body motion influence the processing of temporal information? Participants were asked to categorize verbal stimuli to the concepts future or past while they were displaced forward and backward (Experiment 1), or upward and downward (Experiment 2). The results showed that future related verbal stimuli were categorized faster during forward as compared to backward motion. This finding supports the view that temporal events are represented along a mental time line and that the sensorimotor system is linked to that representation. We showed that body motion is not just an epiphenomenon of temporal thoughts. Passive whole-body motion can influence higher-order temporal cognition.

Words, words, words: Philology and Beyond: Festschrift for Andreas Fischer on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday

This Festschrift comprises a series of papers written in honour of the philologist Andreas Fischer, on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday. As in Andreas Fischer s own research, the main focus of the volume is on words: words in modern varieties, such as emergent conjunctions in Australian, American and British English; words in their cultural and historical context, such as English keywords in Old Norse literature; and words in a diachronic perspective, such as Romance suffixation in the history of English. Many contributions are anchored in the philological tradition that has informed much of Andreas Fischer s own scholarship, such as the study of verbal duelling in the late thirteenth-century romance Kyng Alisaunder. Others examine the construction ofdiscourses, such as those surrounding the Black Death. The volume, with its innovative studies,offers fascinating insights into words, discourses,and their contexts, both past and present.

Modulatory effects of bag cell peptides in {\it Aplysia}: Behavioral and electrophysiological studies

Reproductive hormones have effects on the nervous system not directly related to reproductive function. In the rat, for example, luteinizing hormone releasing hormone has dramatic effects on learning and memory. The present work attempts to examine the effects of reproductive hormones on non-reproductive behaviors and the neural loci and mechanisms underlying these effects in Aplysia, an animal whose behaviors, reproductive hormones and neural circuitry have been well characterized.^ In Aplysia, the neurosecretory bag cells release several peptides that are responsible for eliciting egg laying. The effects of these peptides on the defensive tail-siphon withdrawal reflex, as well as sensitization of this reflex, were examined. Sensitization, a simple form of nonassociative learning, refers to the behavioral enhancement of a response to a test stimulus after the presentation of a strong stimulus, that may last minutes (short-term) or days (long-term). An extract of the bag cells (BCE) inhibited the baseline siphon component of the tail-siphon withdrawal reflex and suppressed long-term, but not short-term, sensitization of the reflex. Preliminary experiments suggest that BCE also affects the tail component of the tail-siphon withdrawal reflex.^ To determine the neural mechanisms underlying the inhibition of the baseline reflex, electrophysiological studies were performed using an in vitro analogue of the tail-siphon withdrawal reflex to examine the ability of BCE, as well as the individual bag cell peptides (BCPs), to modulate the circuitry of the reflex. Bag cell extract attenuated the synaptic strength of the monosynaptic connections between tail sensory neurons and tail motor neurons. When individually applied only $\beta$-BCP produced a similar attenuation. This effect of $\beta$-BCP was not dependent on changes in duration of the presynaptic action potential.^ An in vitro analogue of long-term sensitization training was developed to examine the mechanisms by which the BCPs may affect long-term sensitization of the tail-siphon withdrawal reflex. This analogue exhibited both short- and long-term facilitation of the connections between the tail sensory and motor neurons.^ The results of these behavioral and electrophysiological experiments suggest that the BCPs inhibit the tail-siphon withdrawal reflex, at least in part, by modulating the synaptic strength of the connections between the sensory neurons and motor neurons underlying the reflex. One candidate for this effect is $\beta$-BCP. Thus, the peptides which elicit egg laying may also serve other functions such as the inhibition of defensive reflexes. In addition, these experiments raise the possibility that BCPs may exert a long lasting effect ($>$24 hr), suppressing long-term sensitization of the tail-siphon withdrawal reflex. ^

'Saying it without words': a qualitative study of oncology staff's experiences with speaking up about safety concerns.

OBJECTIVES To explore the experiences of oncology staff with communicating safety concerns and to examine situational factors and motivations surrounding the decision whether and how to speak up using semistructured interviews. SETTING 7 oncology departments of six hospitals in Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS Diverse sample of 32 experienced oncology healthcare professionals. RESULTS Nurses and doctors commonly experience situations which raise their concerns and require questioning, clarifying and correcting. Participants often used non-verbal communication to signal safety concerns. Speaking-up behaviour was strongly related to a clinical safety issue. Most episodes of 'silence' were connected to hygiene, isolation and invasive procedures. In contrast, there seemed to exist a strong culture to communicate questions, doubts and concerns relating to medication. Nearly all interviewees were concerned with 'how' to say it and in particular those of lower hierarchical status reflected on deliberate 'voicing tactics'. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate a widely accepted culture to discuss any concerns relating to medication safety while other issues are more difficult to voice. Clinicians devote considerable efforts to evaluate the situation and sensitively decide whether and how to speak up. Our results can serve as a starting point to develop a shared understanding of risks and appropriate communication of safety concerns among staff in oncology.

The women of Israel or: characters and sketches from the holy scriptures and Jewish history : illustrative of the past history, present duties, and future destiny of the Hebrew females, as based on the words of god

by Grace Aguilar