PeerJ Preprints: Psychiatry and Psychologyhttps://peerj.com/preprints/index.atom?journal=peerj&subject=6400Psychiatry and Psychology articles published in PeerJ PreprintsSeven myths on crowding and peripheral visionhttps://peerj.com/preprints/273532019-12-062019-12-06Hans Strasburger
Crowding has become a hot topic in vision research and some fundamentals are now widely agreed upon. For the classical crowding task, one would likely agree with the following statements. (1) Bouma’s law can, succinctly and unequivocally, be stated as saying that critical distance for crowding is about half the target’s eccentricity. (2) Crowding is predominantly a peripheral phenomenon. (3) Peripheral vision extends to at most 90° eccentricity. (4) Resolution threshold (the minimal angle of resolution, MAR) increases strongly and linearly with eccentricity. Crowding increases at an even steeper rate. (5) Crowding is asymmetric as Bouma has shown. For that inner-outer asymmetry, the peripheral flanker has more effect. (6) Critical crowding distance corresponds to a constant cortical distance in primary visual areas like V1. (7) Except for Bouma’s seminal paper in 1970, crowding research mostly became prominent starting in the 2000s. I propose the answer is ‘not really’ or ‘not quite’ to these assertions. So should we care? I think we should, before we write the textbook chapters for the next generation.
Crowding has become a hot topic in vision research and some fundamentals are now widely agreed upon. For the classical crowding task, one would likely agree with the following statements. (1) Bouma’s law can, succinctly and unequivocally, be stated as saying that critical distance for crowding is about half the target’s eccentricity. (2) Crowding is predominantly a peripheral phenomenon. (3) Peripheral vision extends to at most 90° eccentricity. (4) Resolution threshold (the minimal angle of resolution, MAR) increases strongly and linearly with eccentricity. Crowding increases at an even steeper rate. (5) Crowding is asymmetric as Bouma has shown. For that inner-outer asymmetry, the peripheral flanker has more effect. (6) Critical crowding distance corresponds to a constant cortical distance in primary visual areas like V1. (7) Except for Bouma’s seminal paper in 1970, crowding research mostly became prominent starting in the 2000s. I propose the answer is ‘not really’ or ‘not quite’ to these assertions. So should we care? I think we should, before we write the textbook chapters for the next generation.Preferences and constraints: The value of economic games for studying human behaviorhttps://peerj.com/preprints/273552019-12-042019-12-04Anne C PisorMatthew M GervaisBenjamin G PurzyckiCody T Ross
As economic games have spread from experimental economics to other social sciences, so too have critiques of their usefulness for drawing inferences about the “real world.” What these criticisms often miss is that games can be used to reveal individuals’ private preferences in ways that observational and interview data cannot; further, economic games can be designed such that they do provide insights into real-world behavior. Here, we draw on our collective experience using economic games in field contexts to illustrate how researchers can strategically alter the framing or design of economic games to draw inferences about private-world or real-world preferences. A detailed case study from coastal Colombia provides an example of the subtleties of game design and how games can be combined fruitfully with self-report data. We close with a list of concrete recommendations for how to modify economic games to better match particular research questions and research contexts.
As economic games have spread from experimental economics to other social sciences, so too have critiques of their usefulness for drawing inferences about the “real world.” What these criticisms often miss is that games can be used to reveal individuals’ private preferences in ways that observational and interview data cannot; further, economic games can be designed such that they do provide insights into real-world behavior. Here, we draw on our collective experience using economic games in field contexts to illustrate how researchers can strategically alter the framing or design of economic games to draw inferences about private-world or real-world preferences. A detailed case study from coastal Colombia provides an example of the subtleties of game design and how games can be combined fruitfully with self-report data. We close with a list of concrete recommendations for how to modify economic games to better match particular research questions and research contexts.Identifying the spatial frequency specific orientation aftereffect in the visual systemhttps://peerj.com/preprints/279732019-09-202019-09-20Hiran Perera-W.A.
Previous studies have found that feature selectivity such as orientation and spatial frequency predominantly involves cortical mechanisms, and decades of research have identified the presence of orientation and spatial frequency-specific channels in the cortical region. Prolonged exposure to stimuli will generate an adapting aftereffect, thus reducing the neural sensitivity of those channels. Based on that notion, this research aims to identify whether the visual system encodes orientation variance independent of spatial frequency. Two experiments were conducted to assess the outcome of the study. In experiment 1, subjects viewed the stimuli with both eyes, and in experiment 2, stimuli were presented to one eye and viewed from the same or the contralateral eye. Results from both experiments indicated no interaction effect between spatial frequency and orientation aftereffect. Thus, supporting the experiments that orientation and spatial frequency are separately coded in the visual system.
Previous studies have found that feature selectivity such as orientation and spatial frequency predominantly involves cortical mechanisms, and decades of research have identified the presence of orientation and spatial frequency-specific channels in the cortical region. Prolonged exposure to stimuli will generate an adapting aftereffect, thus reducing the neural sensitivity of those channels. Based on that notion, this research aims to identify whether the visual system encodes orientation variance independent of spatial frequency. Two experiments were conducted to assess the outcome of the study. In experiment 1, subjects viewed the stimuli with both eyes, and in experiment 2, stimuli were presented to one eye and viewed from the same or the contralateral eye. Results from both experiments indicated no interaction effect between spatial frequency and orientation aftereffect. Thus, supporting the experiments that orientation and spatial frequency are separately coded in the visual system.Internal sensation of pleasure can be explained as a specific conformation of semblance: Inference from electrophysiological findingshttps://peerj.com/preprints/278862019-08-062019-08-06Kunjumon Vadakkan
Semblance hypothesis was able to find a solution for the generation of first- person internal sensation of memory along with provisions for behavioral motor actions. The derived inter-postsynaptic functional LINK (IPL) mechanism was able to explain a large number of findings from different levels of the system ranging from perception to sleep. It was possible to explain long-term potentiation (LTP) as the effect of experimental scaling-up of the changes occurring during natural learning. By keeping the latter relationship as a baseline, it was possible to explain long-term depression (LTD) observed in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a scaled-up change of a mechanism responsible for inducing internal sensation of pleasure. This mechanism provides inter-connectable explanations for the attenuation of postsynaptic potentials, reduced ring of medium spiny neurons and the finding that LTD induced by stimulation of one pathway to NAc occludes the LTD induction by another pathway.
Semblance hypothesis was able to find a solution for the generation of first- person internal sensation of memory along with provisions for behavioral motor actions. The derived inter-postsynaptic functional LINK (IPL) mechanism was able to explain a large number of findings from different levels of the system ranging from perception to sleep. It was possible to explain long-term potentiation (LTP) as the effect of experimental scaling-up of the changes occurring during natural learning. By keeping the latter relationship as a baseline, it was possible to explain long-term depression (LTD) observed in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a scaled-up change of a mechanism responsible for inducing internal sensation of pleasure. This mechanism provides inter-connectable explanations for the attenuation of postsynaptic potentials, reduced ring of medium spiny neurons and the finding that LTD induced by stimulation of one pathway to NAc occludes the LTD induction by another pathway.Evaluation of the socially evaluated cold-pressor group test (SECPT-G) in the general populationhttps://peerj.com/preprints/276582019-07-162019-07-16Linda BeckerUrsula SchadeNicolas Rohleder
Background. In stress research, economic instruments for introducing acute stress responses are needed. In this study, we investigated whether the socially evaluated cold-pressor group test (SECPT-G) induces salivary alpha-amylase and/or cortisol responses in the general population and whether this is associated with anthropometric, experimental, and lifestyle factors.
Methods. A sample of 91 participants from the general population was recruited. Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase (sAA) levels were assessed prior to (t0), immediately after (t1), and ten minutes after the SECPT-G (t2).
Results. A robust cortisol increase was found immediately after the SECPT-G, which further increased between t1 and t2. This was independent of most of the control variables. However, men showed a trend towards higher cortisol increases than women (p = .005). No sAA responses were found at all. However, sAA levels were dependent on measurement time point with highest levels between 9 pm and 9:30 pm. Participants who immersed their hands into the ice water for the maximally allowed time of three minutes showed higher sAA levels at all time points than participants who removed their hands from the water earlier.
Conclusions. We conclude that the SECPT-G is a good means of an acute stress test when cortisol – but not necessarily sAA – responses are intended.
Background. In stress research, economic instruments for introducing acute stress responses are needed. In this study, we investigated whether the socially evaluated cold-pressor group test (SECPT-G) induces salivary alpha-amylase and/or cortisol responses in the general population and whether this is associated with anthropometric, experimental, and lifestyle factors.Methods. A sample of 91 participants from the general population was recruited. Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase (sAA) levels were assessed prior to (t0), immediately after (t1), and ten minutes after the SECPT-G (t2).Results. A robust cortisol increase was found immediately after the SECPT-G, which further increased between t1 and t2. This was independent of most of the control variables. However, men showed a trend towards higher cortisol increases than women (p = .005). No sAA responses were found at all. However, sAA levels were dependent on measurement time point with highest levels between 9 pm and 9:30 pm. Participants who immersed their hands into the ice water for the maximally allowed time of three minutes showed higher sAA levels at all time points than participants who removed their hands from the water earlier.Conclusions. We conclude that the SECPT-G is a good means of an acute stress test when cortisol – but not necessarily sAA – responses are intended.Systematic mapping of forensic psychiatry: discovering evolution, trends and current prioritieshttps://peerj.com/preprints/277992019-06-142019-06-14Kapil K AedmaAhmed WaqasSadiq NaveedHafsa MerajMaryam Tariq
The expansion of research in forensic neuropsychiatric practice has led to several developments with an interdisciplinary focus in legal systems and psychiatry around the globe. Given the dearth of scientometric analyses in this area, this article will help increase knowledge of publication trends in law and psychiatry, and will also highlight the scant attention given on forensic psychiatry research in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Web of Science (WoS) Network Analysis Interface for Literature Studies (NAILS) platform software was used to conduct statistical and Social Network Analysis (SNA) of citation records, in order to obtain journal rankings based on citations, popularity, and highly cited keywords. A total of 7184 articles were published through November, 2016 in the journals selected for analysis. These items were cited a total of 44,033 times in 25,286 articles and a total of 36,441 times without self-citations in 22,105 articles. The keywords cited most frequently in these journals were psychopathy, risk assessment, delinquency, recidivism, violence, sex offender, aggression, treatment, assessment, adolescents, offenders, prison, mental illness, homicide, prisoners, gender, rehabilitation, sexual offenders, meta-analysis, self-control, the Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised, suicide, personality disorder, and forensic psychiatry. None of the most influential articles were published from LMICs, and funding opportunities were poor.
The expansion of research in forensic neuropsychiatric practice has led to several developments with an interdisciplinary focus in legal systems and psychiatry around the globe. Given the dearth of scientometric analyses in this area, this article will help increase knowledge of publication trends in law and psychiatry, and will also highlight the scant attention given on forensic psychiatry research in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Web of Science (WoS) Network Analysis Interface for Literature Studies (NAILS) platform software was used to conduct statistical and Social Network Analysis (SNA) of citation records, in order to obtain journal rankings based on citations, popularity, and highly cited keywords. A total of 7184 articles were published through November, 2016 in the journals selected for analysis. These items were cited a total of 44,033 times in 25,286 articles and a total of 36,441 times without self-citations in 22,105 articles. The keywords cited most frequently in these journals were psychopathy, risk assessment, delinquency, recidivism, violence, sex offender, aggression, treatment, assessment, adolescents, offenders, prison, mental illness, homicide, prisoners, gender, rehabilitation, sexual offenders, meta-analysis, self-control, the Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised, suicide, personality disorder, and forensic psychiatry. None of the most influential articles were published from LMICs, and funding opportunities were poor.The lateral habenula in depression: a mini-reviewhttps://peerj.com/preprints/276592019-04-172019-04-17Sterling Street
Although much remains unknown about this once-obscure structure, the lateral habenula is receiving increasing attention as a component of the circuitry of many conditions including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, pain disorders, substance use disorders, psychosis spectrum disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. In depression research, there is growing interest in this structure as a component of the brain’s “anti-reward system”, since it can inhibit the release of monoamines into regions involved in the expectation, pursuit, and receival of rewards. This mini-review covers the basics of lateral habenula structure and function, and discusses recent advances made in understanding habenular dysfunction in depression.
Although much remains unknown about this once-obscure structure, the lateral habenula is receiving increasing attention as a component of the circuitry of many conditions including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, pain disorders, substance use disorders, psychosis spectrum disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. In depression research, there is growing interest in this structure as a component of the brain’s “anti-reward system”, since it can inhibit the release of monoamines into regions involved in the expectation, pursuit, and receival of rewards. This mini-review covers the basics of lateral habenula structure and function, and discusses recent advances made in understanding habenular dysfunction in depression.You’re better than you think you are: A comparison of lecturer and student rated evaluations of teaching on a Professional Doctorate training programmehttps://peerj.com/preprints/276192019-03-282019-03-28Bob Patton
Student evaluation of teaching content and delivery has been undertaken at the University of Surrey for many years. Typically students complete Module Evaluation Questions (MEQs) at the end of each teaching module. Feedback from the MEQs is provided to teaching staff and this contributes towards individuals’ assessment of their appraisal targets, and to course convenors to help the ongoing development of course materials and staff development. Trainees attending the PsychD Clinical Psychology Doctorate programme complete a “Feedback on Learning” questionnaire (based on the standard university MEQ) on a weekly basis for each lecture they attended. While the evidence base for student assessment of leaning is well founded, the university does not at present seek to understand lecturers own reflection on their delivery of teaching. By determining differences and commonalities between educators and students experiences of teaching, it is hoped that we may identify areas for further staff development and training, and to facilitate regular reflection of teaching performance from staff.
Student evaluation of teaching content and delivery has been undertaken at the University of Surrey for many years. Typically students complete Module Evaluation Questions (MEQs) at the end of each teaching module. Feedback from the MEQs is provided to teaching staff and this contributes towards individuals’ assessment of their appraisal targets, and to course convenors to help the ongoing development of course materials and staff development. Trainees attending the PsychD Clinical Psychology Doctorate programme complete a “Feedback on Learning” questionnaire (based on the standard university MEQ) on a weekly basis for each lecture they attended. While the evidence base for student assessment of leaning is well founded, the university does not at present seek to understand lecturers own reflection on their delivery of teaching. By determining differences and commonalities between educators and students experiences of teaching, it is hoped that we may identify areas for further staff development and training, and to facilitate regular reflection of teaching performance from staff.Within-person structures of daily cognitive performance cannot be inferred from between-person structures of cognitive abilitieshttps://peerj.com/preprints/275762019-03-112019-03-11Florian SchmiedekMartin LövdénTimo von OertzenUlman Lindenberger
Over a century of research on between-person differences has resulted in the consensus that human cognitive abilities are hierarchically organized, with a general factor, termed general intelligence or “g,” uppermost. Surprisingly, it is unknown whether this body of evidence is informative about how cognition is structured within individuals. Using data from 101 young adults performing nine cognitive tasks on 100 occasions distributed over six months, we find that the structures of individuals’ cognitive abilities vary among each other, and deviate greatly from the modal between-person structure. Working memory contributes the largest share of common variance to both between- and within-person structures, but the g factor is much less prominent within than between persons. We conclude that between-person structures of cognitive abilities cannot serve as a surrogate for within-person structures. To reveal the development and organization of human intelligence, individuals need to be studied over time.
Over a century of research on between-person differences has resulted in the consensus that human cognitive abilities are hierarchically organized, with a general factor, termed general intelligence or “g,” uppermost. Surprisingly, it is unknown whether this body of evidence is informative about how cognition is structured within individuals. Using data from 101 young adults performing nine cognitive tasks on 100 occasions distributed over six months, we find that the structures of individuals’ cognitive abilities vary among each other, and deviate greatly from the modal between-person structure. Working memory contributes the largest share of common variance to both between- and within-person structures, but the g factor is much less prominent within than between persons. We conclude that between-person structures of cognitive abilities cannot serve as a surrogate for within-person structures. To reveal the development and organization of human intelligence, individuals need to be studied over time.Endogenous testosterone correlates with parochial altruism depending on decision strategy in relation to costly punishmenthttps://peerj.com/preprints/275642019-03-042019-03-04Luise ReimersEli KappoLucas StadlerMostafa YaqubiEsther K Diekhof
Testosterone plays a key role in shaping human social behavior. Recent findings have linked testosterone to altruistic behavior in economic decision tasks depending on group membership and intergroup competition. The preferential treatment of ingroup members, while aggression and discrimination is directed towards outgroup members, has been referred to as parochial altruism. Here we investigated in two consecutive studies, whether testosterone is associated with parochial altruism depending on individual tendency for costly punishment. In the first study, 61 men performed a single-shot ultimatum game (UG) in a minimal group context, in which they interacted with members of an ingroup and an outgroup. In the second study, 34 men performed a single-shot UG in a more realistic group context, in which they responded to the proposals of supporters of six political parties during the German election year 2017. Political parties varied in their social distance to the participants’ favorite party as indicated by an individual ranking, which resulted in one ingroup (rank 1) and five outgroups of varying social distance (rank 6 referred to as the most distant outgroup). Participants also performed a cued recall task, in which they had to decide whether they had already encountered a face during the UG (old-new decision). In both studies, results showed a parochial pattern with higher rejection rates of outgroup than ingroup offers. Interestingly, higher salivary testosterone was associated with higher rejection rates related to unfair offers by the most distant outgroup, yet only in the group of self-oriented subjects (pro-selfs). Further, only the pro-selfs showed a memory advantage for unfair interaction partners in study 2, especially if those were ingroup members. The present findings suggest that the latent intergroup bias during decision-making, that was particularly visible in pro-selfs, may be related to endogenous testosterone. In line with previous evidence that already indicated a role of testosterone in shaping male parochial altruism in male soccer fans, these data underscore the general yet rather subtle role of testosterone also in other social settings.
Testosterone plays a key role in shaping human social behavior. Recent findings have linked testosterone to altruistic behavior in economic decision tasks depending on group membership and intergroup competition. The preferential treatment of ingroup members, while aggression and discrimination is directed towards outgroup members, has been referred to as parochial altruism. Here we investigated in two consecutive studies, whether testosterone is associated with parochial altruism depending on individual tendency for costly punishment. In the first study, 61 men performed a single-shot ultimatum game (UG) in a minimal group context, in which they interacted with members of an ingroup and an outgroup. In the second study, 34 men performed a single-shot UG in a more realistic group context, in which they responded to the proposals of supporters of six political parties during the German election year 2017. Political parties varied in their social distance to the participants’ favorite party as indicated by an individual ranking, which resulted in one ingroup (rank 1) and five outgroups of varying social distance (rank 6 referred to as the most distant outgroup). Participants also performed a cued recall task, in which they had to decide whether they had already encountered a face during the UG (old-new decision). In both studies, results showed a parochial pattern with higher rejection rates of outgroup than ingroup offers. Interestingly, higher salivary testosterone was associated with higher rejection rates related to unfair offers by the most distant outgroup, yet only in the group of self-oriented subjects (pro-selfs). Further, only the pro-selfs showed a memory advantage for unfair interaction partners in study 2, especially if those were ingroup members. The present findings suggest that the latent intergroup bias during decision-making, that was particularly visible in pro-selfs, may be related to endogenous testosterone. In line with previous evidence that already indicated a role of testosterone in shaping male parochial altruism in male soccer fans, these data underscore the general yet rather subtle role of testosterone also in other social settings.