Impact of Background, Foreground, and Manipulated Object Rendering on Egocentric Depth Perception in Virtual and Augmented Indoor Environments.

This research investigated how the similarity of the rendering parameters of background and foreground objects affected egocentric depth perception in indoor virtual and augmented environments. We refer to the similarity of the rendering parameters as visual 'congruence'. Study participants manipulated the depth of a sphere to match the depth of a designated target peg. In the first experiment, the sphere and peg were both virtual, while in the second experiment, the sphere is virtual and the peg is real. In both experiments, depth perception accuracy was found to depend on the levels of realism and congruence between the sphere, pegs, and background. In Experiment 1, realistic backgrounds lead to overestimation of depth, but resulted in underestimation when the background was virtual, and when depth cues were applied to the sphere and target peg. In Experiment 2, background and target pegs were real but matched with the virtual sphere; in comparison to Experiment 1, realistically rendered targets prompted an underestimation and more accuracy with the manipulated object. These findings suggest that congruence can affect distance estimation and the underestimation effect in the AR environment resulted from increased graphical fidelity of the foreground target and background.

Low Vitamin D States Observed in U.S. Marines and Navy Sailors with Early Multi-Symptom Illness.

Research has implicated immune system inflammation as an underlying etiology of multi-symptom illnesses, and vitamin D has been shown to have a significant role in immune system function. In this retrospective review performed on the medical charts of service members who presented with signs and symptoms of multi-symptom illnesses, we focused on serum 25(OH)D3 levels and looked for associations of vitamin D status (deficient, insufficient, and normal) with age (20-31 years versus 31-56 years) and deployment status (war zones versus other). Two groups (U.S. Marines and Navy Sailors) were sampled and both showed high incidences of below normal vitamin D levels. However, with the Marines, age-related differences in serum levels (p = 0.009) were found only among those who deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan in comparison to those in non-combat locations. The comparison within the Navy sample showed that mobilized sailors had lower 25(OH)D3 levels than the group that did not deploy (p = 0.04). In addition, 100% of the sailors who deployed had below normal levels versus only 33% in the cadre group. The data suggest that personnel returning from a war zone with signs of early multi-symptom illness should be checked for low vitamin D status.

Video Games and Stress: How Stress Appraisals and Game Content Affect Cardiovascular and Emotion Outcomes.

Although previous studies have found that video games induce stress, studies have not typically measured all salient indicators of stress responses including stress appraisals, cardiovascular indicators, and emotion outcomes. The current study used the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat (Blascovich and Tomaka, 1996) to determine if video games induce a cardiovascular stress response by comparing the effects of threat and challenge appraisals across two types of video games that have shown different cardiovascular outcomes. Participants received challenge or threat appraisal instructions, and played a fighting game (Mortal Kombat) or a puzzle game (Tetris). Study outcomes were heart rate variability, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and positive and negative emotion ratings measured before, during and after gameplay. Results indicated that threat appraisal instructions increased negative emotion ratings and decreased heart rate variability, but not blood pressure, which is an essential marker for cardiovascular stress responses. Increased blood pressure and decreased heart rate variability was associated with fighting game players when compared with the puzzle game players, indicating a cardiovascular stress response; however, fighting game players also reported higher positive emotion ratings. Based on the study findings, video games do not induce stress responses like mental stressors used in previous research, demonstrating that the interactive player experience in video gaming may have more complex effects on stress outcomes. Future research should comprehensively measure biopsychosocial stress indicators and multiple emotional states over time to fully examine the relationship between video games and stress.

Open vs. Closed Shapes: New Perceptual Categories?

Effective communication using visualization relies in part on the use of viable encoding strategies. For example, a viewer's ability to rapidly and accurately discern between two or more categorical variables in a chart or figure is contingent upon the distinctiveness of the encodings applied to each variable. Research in perception suggests that color is a more salient visual feature when compared to shape and although that finding is supported by visualization studies, characteristics of shape also yield meaningful differences in distinctiveness. We propose that open or closed shapes (that is, whether shapes are composed of line segments that are bounded across a region of space or not) represent a salient characteristic that influences perceptual processing. Three experiments were performed to test the reliability of the open/closed category; the first two from the perspective of attentional allocation, and the third experiment in the context of multi-class scatterplot displays. In the first, a flanker paradigm was used to test whether perceptual load and open/closed feature category would modulate the effect of the flanker on target processing. Results showed an influence of both variables. The second experiment used a Same/Different reaction time task to replicate and extend those findings. Results from both show that responses are faster and more accurate when closed rather than open shapes are processed as targets, and there is more processing interference when two competing shapes come from the same rather than different open or closed feature categories. The third experiment employed three commonly used visual analytic tasks - perception of average value, numerosity, and linear relationships with both single and dual displays of open and closed symbols. Our findings show that for numerosity and trend judgments, in particular, that different symbols from the same open or closed feature category cause more perceptual interference when they are presented together in a plot than symbols from different categories. Moreover, the extent of the interference appears to depend upon whether the participant is focused on processing open or closed symbols.

Target categorization with primes that vary in both congruency and sense modality.

In two experiments we examined conceptual priming within and across sense modalities by varying the modality (picture and environmental sounds) and the category congruency of prime-target pairs. Both experiments used a repetition priming paradigm, but Experiment 1 studied priming effects with a task that required a superordinate categorization response (man-made or natural), while Experiment 2 used a lower level category response (musical instruments or animal): one that was more closely associated with the basic level of the semantic network. Results from Experiment 1 showed a strong effect of target modality and two distinct patterns of conceptual priming effects with picture and environmental sound targets. However, no priming advantage was found when congruent and incongruent primes were compared. Results from Experiment 2, found congruency effects that were specific to environmental sound targets when preceded by picture primes. The findings provide support for the intermodal event file and multisensory framework, and suggest that auditory and visual features about a single item in a conceptual category may be more tightly connected than two different items from the same category.

Vitamin D levels and monospot tests in military personnel with acute pharyngitis: a retrospective chart review.

Some recent studies have proposed an important role for vitamin D in reducing the risk of infection by assisting in the suppression of viruses and by controlling the inflammatory response. A low vitamin D state may have a detrimental effect on the immune system's ability to produce activated CD8+ T cells, and it may increase the inflammatory reaction to Epstein Barr virus. The aim of this chart review was to see if serum 25 OH vitamin D3 levels in service members with acute pharyngitis were lower in those who had positive rather than negative monospot tests. A retrospective chart review was conducted on the medical records of service members who presented to sick call at Camp Lejeune, NC with acute pharyngitis from October 8, 2010 until June 30, 2011. Serum 25 OH vitamin D3 levels were compared between those with positive and negative monospot test results. Of the 25 records that were reviewed, there were 9 (36%) service members with positive results, and they were found to have lower vitamin D levels (Median = 20.80 ng/ml, Interquartile range = 10.15) than those with negative test results (Median = 30.35 ng/ml, Interquartile range = 17.05), Mann-Whitney U = 41, p = .039. Only 1 of the 9 with positive test results had a normal serum 25 OH vitamin D3 level (30 ng/ml or greater) compared with 9 of the 16 with negative test results. Optimal vitamin D stores may play a significant role in reducing the risk of developing acute mononucleosis but larger, prospective studies will be needed to verify these findings.

Conceptual priming with pictures and environmental sounds.

A series of experiments was conducted to examine conceptual priming within and across modalities with pictures and environmental sounds. In Experiment 1, we developed a new multimodal stimulus set consisting of two picture and sound exemplars that represented 80 object items. In Experiments 2, we investigated whether categorization of the stimulus items would be facilitated by picture and environmental sound primes that were derived from different exemplars of the target items; and in Experiments 3 and 4, we tested the additional influence on priming when trials were consolidated within a target modality and the inter stimulus interval was lengthened. The results demonstrated that target categorization was facilitated by the advanced presentation of conceptually related exemplars, but there were differences in effectiveness when pictures and sounds appeared as primes.

Colavita dominance effect revisited: the effect of semantic congruity.

To investigate the effect of semantic congruity on audiovisual target responses, participants detected a semantic concept that was embedded in a series of rapidly presented stimuli. The target concept appeared as a picture, an environmental sound, or both; and in bimodal trials, the audiovisual events were either consistent or inconsistent in their representation of a semantic concept. The results showed faster detection latencies to bimodal than to unimodal targets and a higher rate of missed targets when visual distractors were presented together with auditory targets, in comparison to auditory targets presented alone. The findings of Experiment 2 showed a cross-modal asymmetry, such that visual distractors were found to interfere with the accuracy of auditory target detection, but auditory distractors had no effect on either the speed or the accuracy of visual target detection. The biased-competition theory of attention (Desimone & Duncan Annual Review of Neuroscience 18: 1995; Duncan, Humphreys, & Ward Current Opinion in Neurobiology 7: 255-261 1997) was used to explain the findings because, when the saliency of the visual stimuli was reduced by the addition of a noise filter in Experiment 4, visual interference on auditory target detection was diminished. Additionally, the results showed faster and more accurate target detection when semantic concepts were represented in a visual rather than an auditory format.

Latent viral immune inflammatory response model for chronic multisymptom illness.

A latent viral immune inflammatory response (LVIIR) model is presented which integrates factors that contribute to chronic multisymptom illness (CMI) in both the veteran and civilian populations. The LVIIR model for CMI results from an integration of clinical experience with a review of the literature in four distinct areas: (1) studies of idiopathic multisymptom illness in the veteran population including two decades of research on Gulf War I veterans with CMI, (2) new evidence supporting the existence of chronic inflammatory responses to latent viral antigens and the effect these responses may have on the nervous system, (3) recent discoveries concerning the role of vitamin D in maintaining normal innate and adaptive immunity including suppression of latent viruses and regulation of the immune inflammatory response, and (4) the detrimental effects of extreme chronic repetitive stress (ECRS) on the immune and nervous systems. The LVIIR model describes the pathophysiology of a pathway to CMI and presents a new direction for the clinical assessment of CMI that includes the use of neurological signs from a physical exam, objective laboratory data, and a new proposed latent viral antigen-antibody imaging technique for the peripheral and central nervous system. The LVIIR model predicts that CMI can be treated by a focus on reversal of immune system impairment, suppression of latent viruses and their antigens, and healing of nervous system tissue damaged by chronic inflammation associated with latent viral antigens and by ECRS. In addition, the LVIIR model suggests that maintaining optimal serum 25 OH vitamin D levels will maximize immune system suppression of latent viruses and their antigens and will minimize immune system inflammation. This model also emphasizes the importance of decreasing ECRS to improve immune system function and to minimize nervous system injury from excess serum glucocorticoid levels. The proposed model supports growing evidence that increasing omega 3 essential fatty acid levels in nervous system tissues may decrease inflammation in the nervous system and improve neural plasticity and recovery from neuronal injury.

Research in visual pattern recognition: the enduring legacy of studies from the 1960s.

This article highlights some research in visual pattern perception that was published in the American Journal of Psychology in the 1960s. Although visual perception research has changed substantially since then, and the term visual pattern recognition is no longer in widespread use, the six articles presented here are some of the most influential of those published by the Journal in its long history. The research is described with an emphasis on how a particular publication influenced others and the field in general.

Reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the Japanese version of the Neck Pain and Disability Scale.

BACKGROUND: Until recently, no Japanese versions have existed of the more popular, patient-reported disability questionnaires for neck pain. This study aimed to test the reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the Japanese version of the Neck Pain and Disability Scale (NPDS), one of the most widely used questionnaires in patients with neck pain. METHODS: In this validation study, 167 outpatients with neck pain participated. Patients received the NPDS and the Medical Outcome Study Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF-36), and used Visual Analog Scales (VASs) to assess pain and global health. To examine test-retest reliability, patients who were considered stable by clinicians were given the NPDS 2 weeks after baseline. To examine responsiveness, patients who had not undergone treatment at the time of the first data collection or had no change in treatment over 3 months were studied again 2 weeks after starting a new medication or physical therapy. RESULTS: Of the 167 participants, 143 completed the questionnaires (85.6%). Factor analysis showed two factors, defined as neck-pain-related disability (factor 1) and neck-related pain (factor 2). Cronbach's α coefficient for factor 1, factor 2, and total score was 0.94, 0.93, and 0.96. The intra-class correlation coefficients for the 19 more stable patients were 0.79, 0.88, and 0.87. For concurrent validity, the correlation between NPDS subscales and total score and SF-36 subscale scores ranged from r = -0.54 to -0.22 (p < 0.01). Correlations between the NPDS subscales and total score and VAS of pain ranged from 0.56 to 0.77 (p < 0.01) and those for VAS of global health ranged from 0.48 to 0.63 (p < 0.01). The NPDS subscales and total scores of the 41 patients retested after treatment were significantly improved. CONCLUSIONS: The Japanese version of the NPDS is a useful scale with reliability, validity, and responsiveness in assessing patients suffering from neck pain.

Perceptual comparisons with laterally presented pictures and environmental sounds.

Two experiments studied perceptual comparisons with cues that vary in one of four ways (picture, sound, spoken word, or printed word) and with targets that are either pictures or environmental sounds. The basic question probed whether modality or differences in format were factors that would influence picture and sound perception. Also of interest were cue effect differences when targets are presented on either the right or left side. Students responded to a same-different reaction time task that entailed matching cue-target pairs to determine whether the successive stimulus events represented features drawn from the same basic item. Cue type influenced reaction times to pictures and environmental sounds, but the effects were qualified by response type and with picture targets by presentation side. These results provide some additional evidence of processing asymmetry when pictures are directed to either the right or left hemisphere, as well as for some asymmetries in cross-modality cuing. Implications of these findings for theories of multisensory processing and models of object recognition are discussed.

Effects of brief and sham mindfulness meditation on mood and cardiovascular variables.

OBJECTIVES: Although long-term meditation has been found to reduce negative mood and cardiovascular variables, the effects of a brief mindfulness meditation intervention when compared to a sham mindfulness meditation intervention are relatively unknown. This experiment examined whether a 3-day (1-hour total) mindfulness or sham mindfulness meditation intervention would improve mood and cardiovascular variables when compared to a control group. METHODS: Eighty-two (82) undergraduate students (34 males, 48 females), with no prior meditation experience, participated in three sessions that involved training in either mindfulness meditation, sham mindfulness meditation, or a control group. Heart rate, blood pressure, and psychologic variables (Profile of Mood States, State Anxiety Inventory) were assessed before and after the intervention. RESULTS: The meditation intervention was more effective at reducing negative mood, depression, fatigue, confusion, and heart rate, when compared to the sham and control groups. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that brief meditation training has beneficial effects on mood and cardiovascular variables that go beyond the demand characteristics of a sham meditation intervention.

Age differences and format effects in working memory.

Format effects refer to lower recall of printed words from working memory when compared to spoken words or pictures. These effects have been attributed to an attenuation of attention to printed words. The present experiment compares younger and older adults' recall of three or six items presented as pictures, spoken words, printed words, and alternating case WoRdS. The latter stimuli have been shown to increase attention to printed words and, thus, reduce format effects. The question of interest was whether these stimuli would also reduce format effects for older adults whose working memory capacity has fewer attentional resources to allocate. Results showed that older adults performed as well as younger adults with three items but less well with six and that format effects were reduced for both age groups, but more for young, when alternating case words were used. Other findings regarding executive control of working memory are discussed. The obtained differences support models of reduced capacity in older adult working memory.

Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: evidence of brief mental training.

Although research has found that long-term mindfulness meditation practice promotes executive functioning and the ability to sustain attention, the effects of brief mindfulness meditation training have not been fully explored. We examined whether brief meditation training affects cognition and mood when compared to an active control group. After four sessions of either meditation training or listening to a recorded book, participants with no prior meditation experience were assessed with measures of mood, verbal fluency, visual coding, and working memory. Both interventions were effective at improving mood but only brief meditation training reduced fatigue, anxiety, and increased mindfulness. Moreover, brief mindfulness training significantly improved visuo-spatial processing, working memory, and executive functioning. Our findings suggest that 4days of meditation training can enhance the ability to sustain attention; benefits that have previously been reported with long-term meditators.

Priming effects with ambiguous figures.

We varied the format and semantic content of primes to determine the degree to which they would influence the interpretation of ambiguous figures. The primes were objects or object names that were related in some way to one of the two organizations of the ambiguous figures. In Experiment 1, we provided some normative data regarding the stimulus materials, whereas in Experiment 2, an orienting question was used to focus attention on the semantic relationship between the prime and the figure. In Experiment 3, we used the orienting question to divert attention away from the relationship by asking about physical features of the figures. Recognition responses to biased versions of the figures and to new figures were measured. Primes that were loosely and indirectly associated with one of the two interpretations of an ambiguous figure were found to be effective at biasing the interpretation of an ambiguous figure in the direction of the primed alternative but only if attention was focused on the semantic relationship between the two stimuli. Attention to the physical characteristics of the stimuli during encoding eliminated the prime's influence on complex object perception. These findings are consistent with the conceptual priming literature and extend those of some recent studies (Balcetis & Dale, 2007; Feist & Gentner, 2007), which show that the interpretation of complex figures can be biased by the advanced presentation of related verbal information.

The effects of brief mindfulness meditation training on experimentally induced pain.

UNLABELLED: This study investigated the effects of brief mindfulness meditation training on ratings of painful electrical stimulation. In Experiment 1, we used a 3-day (20 min/d) mindfulness meditation intervention and measured pain ratings before and after the intervention. Participants' numerical ratings of pain to "low" and "high" electrical stimulation significantly decreased after meditation training. Pain sensitivity, measured by change in stimulus intensity thresholds, also decreased after training. We investigated, in Experiment 2, how well relaxation and a math distraction task attenuated experimental pain. Math distraction but not relaxation reduced high pain ratings. There was no reduction in pain sensitivity in these participants. In Experiment 3, we directly compared the effects of meditation with math distraction and relaxation conditions. Our findings indicated significant effects of both meditation and math distraction. Consistent with what was observed in Experiment 1, these participants also demonstrated a decrease in pain sensitivity after meditation training. Changes in the mindfulness and anxiety assessments suggest that meditation's analgesic effects are related to reduced anxiety and the enhanced ability to focus on the present moment. PERSPECTIVE: Our findings indicate that a brief 3-day mindfulness meditation intervention was effective at reducing pain ratings and anxiety scores when compared with baseline testing and other cognitive manipulations. The brief meditation training was also effective at increasing mindfulness skills.

Modality effects in sentence recall.

The authors examined the intrusion of lures into sentence recall when manipulating the modality of distractor-word lists and sentences separately. Participants received a list of words followed by a sentence, and the list did or did not contain a lure related to a target in the sentence. Conceptual regeneration of the sentence during recall predicted higher lure intrusions than spontaneous intrusions in all conditions. However, if surface information is remembered, the modality of sentence and list should influence intrusions. The results from Experiment 1 showed that both factors are important, as intrusions were always higher when lures were contained in the distractor-word list and when visual, rather than auditory, sentences were recalled. The authors also found distractor modality to influence the results. In Experiment 2, when interference from the word probe was reduced by removing 40% of the word probes, the disruptive effect of the auditory distractors was attenuated on the trials without the word probe. Also, the authors found lure intrusions to be dependent on the presence of the word probe.

Reduction and elimination of format effects on recall.

Two experiments investigated whether the recall advantage of pictures and spoken words over printed words in working memory (Foos & Goolkasian, 2005; Goolkasian & Foos, 2002) could be reduced by manipulating letter case and sequential versus simultaneous presentation. Participants were required to remember 3 or 6 items presented in varied presentation formats while verifying the accuracy of a sentence. Presenting words in alternating uppercase and lowercase improved recall, and presenting words simultaneously rather than successively removed the effect of presentation format. The findings suggest that when forcing participants to pay attention to printed words you can make them more memorable and thereby diminish or remove any disadvantage in the recall of printed words in comparison with pictures and spoken words.