1,721,084 research outputs found
Geometric determinants of spatial reorientation: Reply to Cheng and Gallistel
No full textThe principle proposed by K. Cheng and C. R. Gallistel (2005) has the merit of explaining empirical data on reorientation of chicks and rats, invoking the simple computation of a global shape parameter: the extraction of the principal axis. However, despite its elegance and economy, it is inconsistent with previous observations on the geometric determinants encoded and used by both chicks and rats in place-learning tasks based on the shape of the environment. Further investigations are necessary to clarify whether different geometric features are used in different spatial tasks (i.e., reorientation vs. place learning)
Il processo di capitalizzazione all'interno della relazione di coppia
No full textIntroduzione. La letteratura psicosociale ha sottolineato l’importanza delle variabili interattivo-relazionali e cognitive nel definire il funzionamento di coppia e la rilevanza che i processi diadici, ovvero come i partner affrontano insieme gli eventi, hanno sul benessere relazionale (p. es., Iafrate, Bertoni, Barni, & Donato, 2009). Nonostante l’interesse scientifico sia stato rivolto principalmente alle risposte agli eventi negativi, ci sono molte ragioni per approfondire anche le modalità con cui i membri della coppia rispondono agli eventi positivi e il loro impatto sul benessere dei partner e della relazione (Reis & Gable, 2003): la frequenza degli eventi positivi supera quella degli eventi negativi, gli eventi positivi sono fortemente collegati con il benessere e la salute mentale e sebbene essi siano maggiormente frequenti rispetto a quelli negativi, le persone si sentono meglio quando questi eventi sono valorizzati e condivisi (Bryant, Smart, & King, 2005). La condivisione di eventi positivi è definita capitalizzazione (Gable, Gonzaga, & Strachman, 2006; Langston, 1994), ovvero il processo attraverso il quale le persone condividono buone notizie con un altro significativo il quale a sua volta risponde in una maniera “attiva” in modo da massimizzare i benefici derivanti dall’evento. Obiettivi e metodi. Il presente studio si configura come uno studio esplorativo sul processo di capitalizzazione all’interno della relazione di coppia. L’obiettivo specifico è quello di analizzare le componenti del processo di capitalizzazione (modalità di comunicazione e tipi di risposta), le loro possibili combinazioni e le connessioni con outcome individuali e relazionali. A questo scopo, 100 coppie eterosessuali e sposate hanno completato un questionario self-report contenente scale volte a misurare il processo di capitalizzazione, la comunicazione dell’evento positivo e il benessere individuale e relazionale. Risultati. Le analisi sono in corso
Exploring the interactions among SNARC effect, finger counting direction and embodied cognition
Full text linkThe Spatial Numerical Association of Response Code (SNARC) is the preferential association between smaller/larger magnitudes and left/right side, respectively. Some evidence suggest a link between SNARC and a left-to-right finger counting habit. We asked 268 participants to show how they use the hands to count from 1 to 10. By means of this ecological task, 80% of the sample use first the right hand (to count from 1 to 5) and the majority of them use a palm-up posture. In Experiment 2 (N = 46) right-starters were asked to categorize 1-to-5 magnitudes as even or odd, using the left and right hand. Stimuli were presented both as Arabic numbers and by means of left and right hand photographs in palm-up and palm-down posture. Results confirmed the expected SNARC effect in the Arabic condition. With hand images we found that right hand responses were better for larger than for smaller magnitudes (SNARC, mainly for left hand palm-up stimuli), showing that the SNARC can be generalized to different codes. Finally, the interactions between magnitudes and left/right hand images in palm-up and palm-down posture suggest that embodied cognition can influence numerical processing
Minimization of modal contours: An instance of an evolutionary internalized geometric regularity?
No full textThe stratification in depth of chromatically homogeneous overlapping figures depends on a minimization rule which assigns the status of being "in front" to the figure that requires the formation of shorter modal contours. This rule has been proven valid also in birds, whose visual neuroanatomy is radically different from that of other mammals, thus suggesting an example of evolutionary convergence toward a perceptual universal
A bias for the female face in the right hemisphere
No full textIn the present study we assessed the contribution of the two hemispheres to the attribution of gender of faces in male and female observers. Normal and chimeric faces were presented in their canonical orientation and upside-down in a tachistoscopic paradigm. Chimeric faces were composed of two halves (left and right) obtained from photos of individuals of the same sex or from individuals of different sexes. All faces were presented tachistoscopically with a central fixation, the two halves falling in the two visual fields of the observer, who was required to rapidly judge the sex of the face. A left half-face (right-hemispheric) bias for gender attribution with upright faces was observed both in male and female participants, as previously reported. Strikingly, however, the bias depended entirely on female-left/ male-right chimeras, revealing a right-hemispheric advantage for the recognition of female faces. The results are discussed in the light of a behavioural bias during development (i.e., maternal cradling)
Hemispheric processing of landmark and geometric information in male and female domestic chicks (Gallus gallus)
No full textA place learning paradigm was used to assess lateralisation and sex differences in domestic chicks dealing with global (geometric shape) and local (identity of a beacon) aspects of spatial encoding. Male and female domestic chicks were trained binocularly to localise food buried under sawdust in the centre of a square-shaped enclosure. They were then tested binocularly and monocularly (Experiment 1). Training in the same task was also carried out in the presence of a centrally placed visual beacon, so that chicks could then be tested in a number of transformed versions of the training arrangement: after removing the beacon (Experiment 2), after shifting the beacon to a corner (Experiment 3) and after simultaneously shifting the beacon to a corner and replacing it with a second, visually different, beacon (Experiment 4). Results show that the right hemisphere prevalently attends to the geometry of the environment in both male and female chicks. Males rely upon local information (beacon) more than females, also showing stronger encoding of this information in their left hemisphere than their right hemisphere
Searching for the center: Spatial cognition in the domestic chick
No full textChicks learned to find food hidden under sawdust by ground-scratching in the central position of the floor of a closed arena. When tested inan arena of identical shape but a larger area, chicks searched at 2 different locations, one corresponding to the correct distance (i.e., center) in the smaller (training) arena and the other to the actual center of the test arena. When tested in an arena of the same shape but a smaller area, chicks searched in the center of it. These results suggest that chicks are able to encode information on the absolute and relative distance of the food from the walls of the arena. After training in the presence of a landmark located at the center of the arena, animals searched at the center even after the removal of the landmark. Marked changes in the height of the walls of the arena produced some displacement in searching behavior, suggesting that chicks used the angular size of the walls to estimate distances
Figure ground segregation modulates perceived direction of ambiguous moving gratings and plaids
No full textA translating oriented grating viewed through a circular aperture with an occluding area in the middle appeared to move alternately in an oblique or in a vertical direction depending on the foreground/background assignment on the central occluding area. The effect occurred even when the central area was simply removed from the display, thus giving rise to a 'subjective' occluder. Parametric studies revealed that the probability of seeing oblique or vertical motion was affected by the size of the central area but not by its contrast relationships with the grating. Similar phenomena of ambiguous motion direction were observed using changes in colour along a translating grating that produced neon colour spreading effects, or using oriented edge discontinuities that collapsed into subjective plaids composed of two one- dimensional gratings. These results are discussed with respect to the hypothesis that surface segmentation mechanisms play a crucial part in the interpretation of motion signals
Footedness in binocular and monocular chicks
No full textThe first foot used during bouts of ground scratching in 16-day-old chicks searching for food in the floor of an arena covered with sawdust was recorded in animals with normal binocular vision and in animals with an eye temporarily occluded by an eye-patch. Binocular chicks showed a significant right foot bias, whereas monocular chicks tended to use the foot contralateral to the eye in use. Data for monocular chicks thus suggest that the activated hemisphere (contralateral to the eye in use) is the one that takes control of posture, leaving to the other hemisphere reflex-like responses associated with ground scratching or body wiping. It is argued that footedness in chicks might have arisen from the limb that is used to maintain postural and positional control, rather than from the limb that is used during motor activities
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