Gauging response time distributions to examine the effect of facial expression inversion.

Introduction: We used images of facial expressions (FEs) of emotion in a speeded Same/Different task to examine (i) distributional characteristics of response times (RTs) in relation to inter-stimulus similarity and (ii) the impact of inversion on FE processing. Methods: Stimuli were seven emotion prototypes, posed by one male and one female, and eight intermediate morphs. Image pairs (N = 225) were presented for 500 ms, upright or inverted, in a block design, each 100 times. Results: For both upright and inverted FEs, RTs were a non-monotonic function: median values were longest for stimulus pairs of intermediate similarity, decreasing for both more-dissimilar and more-similar pairs. RTs of "Same" and "Different" judgments followed ex-Gaussian distributions. The non-monotonicity is interpreted within a dual-process decision model framework as reflecting the infrequency of identical pairs, shifting the balance between the Same and Different processes. The effect of stimulus inversion was gauged by comparing RT-based multidimensional scaling solutions for the two presentation modes. Solutions for upright and inverted FEs showed little difference, with both displaying some evidence of categorical perception. The same features appeared in hierarchical clustering solutions. Discussion: This outcome replicates and reinforces the solutions derived from accuracy of "Different" responses reported in our earlier companion paper. We attribute this lack of inversion effect to the brief exposure time, allowing low-level visual processing to dominate Same/Different decisions while elevating early featural analysis, which is insensitive to face orientation but enables initial positive/negative valence categorization of FEs.

The Psychosocial Interactions of Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors and the Possible Relationship With Their Development.

BACKGROUND: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs; 16-25 years old) with cancer may be particularly affected by social interactions, as they can be grappling with a serious illness and normal developmental challenges. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to explore interactions relevant to AYA survivors and cancer and to investigate whether specific interactions are experienced as more and less helpful. METHODS: Ten semistructured interviews were conducted with AYAs, with questions pertaining to their psychosocial interactions and any developmental effects from having cancer. Five follow-up interviews were conducted approximately 12 months later, a 50% response rate. RESULTS: Thematic analysis identified a range of themes including the importance of personal privacy and controlled sharing of information, independence, identity formation, positivity, acknowledgement of cancer versus being treated normally, and receiving support instead of supporting others. In the 1-year follow-up interviews, half of these themes remained constant; however, the personal privacy, independence, and supporting others themes changed. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, social support, social interactions, and developmental stage seem to influence the overall cancer experience. Development seems to be impacted by cancer for both adolescents and young adults, but this impact lessened over a 1-year period for the 50% of participants who participated in both interviews. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: It is believed that a more comprehensive understanding of AYA patients' psychosocial experiences related to cancer will enable those who interact with this group to provide more positive support through their interactions with individuals.

When does "bright" mean "prototypical"? Color-term modifiers in eight European languages, examined with color-survey data.

Certain modified color terms encountered in a multi-language corpus of unconstrained color-naming data, elicited with 65 Color-aid Corporation tiles, can be glossed into English as "bright (or vivid) X" (e.g., Estonian "ere-X"), while other modifiers are glossed "light" or "dark." However, translation between languages or into the terms of colorimetry is never assured. We address the problem empirically by examining the denotata of each modified term and treating its uses as a distribution across a metric color space in which tiles are located as points. We compared each distribution with that of the unmodified term X, identifying the latter with the focus of X (the within-language consensus about the most prototypical exemplar of X). In some cases the modifiers operate as "bright" in the sense of "intense" or "saturated," so "bright-X" and "X" share a centroid, but this is not universal.

Art expertise in construing meaning of representational and abstract artworks.

Aesthetic appraisal of artwork can present the observer with visual problems to solve in the process of grasping its meaning and 'visual rightness' (i.e. "good" structure; Locher, 2003), with an elaboration on perceptual, semantic and affective dimensions (e.g. Markovic, 2011). Thus observer's expertise is a factor in aesthetic appraisal. To examine the influence of art training on the aesthetic response, and to clarify the nature of the Representational/Abstract distinction, 30 Experts and 33 Non-experts (Art and Psychology students, respectively) were asked to rate 24 paintings on six affective and affective-evaluative semantic differential scales. Stimuli were images of paintings from the period 1900-1935, 12 broadly Representational and 12 broadly Abstract. Relative to Non-experts, Experts rated Abstract artworks as more Interesting, Beautiful, Informative and Sophisticated, distinguishing them less markedly from Representational artworks. Aggregate Expert and Non-expert ratings, processed by factor analysis, resulted in a two-factor solution. The first factor, contrasting Abstract and Representational artworks, appeared more salient for Non-experts. The second factor, Cool-Warm, separating vibrantly-colored paintings from those with a blue-dominated/dull palette, was more salient for Experts. While Non-experts exaggerated differences between Abstract and Representational paintings, Experts appraised these two types of art similarly, attending more to artwork collative properties. We conclude that appreciation of art by Experts involves 'cognitive mastery' (Leder, Belke, Oeberst, & Augustin, 2004), i.e. more complex, cues-based visual schemata which equip them with more sophisticated strategies for analysing collative properties and semantics of an artwork while parsing 'visual rightness' to unfold its visual meaning.

Age and gender effects on perceptual color scaling using triadic comparisons.

We examined age and gender as possible determinants of individual differences in triadic judgments of color dissimilarity. Seventy triads were constructed from 21 equal-lightness Munsell samples, at equal hue steps, forming a rough ellipse in the CIE-LAB plane, and presented to 51 males and 53 females (half young, half elderly adults) who indicated each triad's "odd one out." Principal component analysis followed by multidimensional scaling (MDS) revealed group differences in judgment reliability, with better performance for female and younger groups. Gender differences in color similarity were more pronounced with age, and specific to sectors of the color circle, arguably involving the use of conventional knowledge of color relationships. Maximum-likelihood MDS and inspection of specific triads allowed a more detailed description of these differences.

Individual variations in color-concept space replicate across languages.

The cross-cultural nature of color categories and concepts is central to the Berlin-Kay tradition of color-language universalism. In an extension, we examine the cognitive organization of color concepts, the pattern of associations among them, where cross-cultural regularities may also exist. We focus here on individual variations in that pattern. Listing data provide a convenient probe of "associational space" and are amenable to factor analysis using a correlational index of between-list similarity. The rotated factors are "points-of-view": alternative prototypal ways of organizing the concepts and extremes of a spectrum of listing-sequence variation. Points-of-view proved to be comparable for three languages (Hungarian, Italian, Estonian) when visualized with multidimensional scaling. This allowed a similar interpretation of the spectrum of variation in each language, as individual differences in the weight of a conceptual distinction between chromatic and "achromatic" terms, supporting the case for cross-language convergence.

Profiling children's emotion regulation behaviours.

Callear, Harvey, and Bimler (2016, International Journal of Behavioral Development, 41, 456) organized children's emotion regulation behaviours into a coherent structure. However, further investigation is needed to identify core patterns of these emotion regulation behaviours. To identify clusters and prototypal constellations of emotion regulation behaviours, the 85 behavioural items comprising the Children's Emotion Regulation Inventory (ChERI) were ranked by 151 parents in order of applicability, using an ordinal sorting procedure (Method of Successive Sorts). Responses were aggregated in empirical scales, for classification of the cases using hierarchical and k-means clustering. The scales were based on nine key 'hotspots' of children's emotion regulation behaviours, interpreted as Outward Engagement, Inward or Somatic Focus, Disengagement, Disruptive, Impulsive/Labile, Social Connectedness/Compliance, Generating Closeness/Intimacy, Establishing Order and Generating Disorder. Five summary styles of children's emotion regulation emerged and are characterized on those scales. These hotspots and styles provide guidance to clinicians, parents, teachers, and other invested adults to assess and support children's emotional development. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Measurements of children's emotion regulation predominantly focus on internal processes and/or isolated expressions of emotion regulation behaviours. Research detailing anger and anxiety emotion regulation styles exists (e.g., Carthy, Horesh, Apter, & Gross, 2010, Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 32, 23; Zalewski, Lengua, Wilson, Trancik, & Bazinet, 2011, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 110, 141). Callear, Harvey, and Bimler (2016, International Journal of Behavioral Development, 41, 456) developed the Children's Emotion Regulation Inventory to identify children's observable emotion regulation strategies. What does this study add? Research does not investigate which clusters of children's emotion regulation behaviours are most commonly exhibited and nor does it investigate emotion regulation behavioural styles. Examines how children's emotion regulation behaviours co-occur. Identifies nine core clusters (groupings) of emotion regulation behaviours most commonly observed to be exhibited in children. Identifies five emotion regulation behavioural styles (common co-occurring patterns of emotion regulation behaviour clusters) in children.

Perceptual color spacing derived from maximum likelihood multidimensional scaling.

The canonical application of multidimensional scaling (MDS) methods has been to color dissimilarities, visualizing these as distances in a low-dimensional space. Some questions remain: How well can the locations of stimuli in color space be recovered when data are sparse, and how well can systematic individual variations in perceptual scaling be distinguished from stochastic noise? We collected triadic comparisons for saturated and desaturated sets of Natural Color System samples, each set forming an approximate hue circle. Maximum likelihood MDS was used to reconstruct the configuration of stimuli more accurately than the standard "vote-count" approach. Individual departures from the consensus response pattern were minor, but repeated across stimulus sets, and identifiable as variations in the salience of color-space axes. No gender differences could be discerned, contrary to earlier results.

"Clothed in triple blues": sorting out the Italian blues.

Cross-cultural comparisons of color perception and cognition often feature versions of the "similarity sorting" procedure. By interpreting the assignment of two color samples to different groups as an indication that the dissimilarity between them exceeds some threshold, sorting data can be regarded as low-resolution similarity judgments. Here we analyze sorting data from speakers of Italian, Russian, and English, applying multidimensional scaling to delineate the boundaries between perceptual categories while highlighting differences between the three populations. Stimuli were 55 color swatches, predominantly from the blue region. Results suggest that at least two Italian words for "blue" are basic, a similar situation to Russian, in contrast to English where a single "blue" term is basic.

Some Renaissance, Baroque, and contemporary cultural elaborations of the art of memory.

The target article addresses historical and present-day mnemotechnics as a practice. It also deserves scrutiny as culture writ small. For would-be Hermetic adepts of the Renaissance and Baroque, the ancient art of memory (AAOM) provided both an iconography and a projective-test vision of possibilities. In contemporary fiction, Memory Palaces become a metaphor for the workings of mind, of culture, and of information technology.

Processing bimodal stimuli: integrality/separability of color and orientation.

We examined how two distinct stimulus features, orientation and color, interact as contributions to global stimulus dissimilarity. Five subjects rated dissimilarity between pairs of bars (N = 30) varying in color (four cardinal hues, plus white) and orientation (six angles at 30° intervals). An exploratory analysis with individual-differences multidimensional scaling (MDS) resulted in a 5D solution, with two dimensions required to accommodate the circular sequence of the angular attribute, and red-green, blue-yellow and achromatic axes for the color attribute. Weights of the orientation subspace relative to the color subspace varied among the subjects, from a 0.32:0.61 ratio to 0.53:0.44, emphasis shifting between color and orientation. In addition to Euclidean metric, we modeled the interaction of color and orientation using Minkowski power metrics across a range of Minkowski exponents p, including the city-block (p = 1), Euclidean (p = 2) and Dominance metric (p → ∞) as special cases. For averaged data, p ~ 1.3 provided the best fit, i.e., intermediate between separable and integral features. For individual subjects, however, the metric exponent varied significantly from p = 0.7 to p = 3.1, indicating a subject-specific rule for combining color and orientation, as in Tversky and Gati's variable-weights model. No relationship was apparent between dimensional weights and individual p exponents. Factors affecting dimensional integrality are discussed, including possible underlying neural mechanisms where the interaction of the low-level vision attributes orientation and color might shift between uncorrelated (p = 1) or correlated (p ≥ 2) forms.

Processing Facial Expressions of Emotion: Upright vs. Inverted Images.

We studied discrimination of briefly presented upright vs. inverted emotional facial expressions (FEs), hypothesizing that inversion would impair emotion decoding by disrupting holistic FE processing. Stimuli were photographs of seven emotion prototypes, of a male and female poser (Ekman and Friesen, 1976), and eight intermediate morphs in each set. Subjects made speeded Same/Different judgments of emotional content for all upright (U) or inverted (I) pairs of FEs, presented for 500 ms, 100 times each pair. Signal Detection Theory revealed the sensitivity measure d' to be slightly but significantly higher for the upright FEs. In further analysis using multidimensional scaling (MDS), percentages of Same judgments were taken as an index of pairwise perceptual similarity, separately for U and I presentation mode. The outcome was a 4D "emotion expression space," with FEs represented as points and the dimensions identified as Happy-Sad, Surprise/Fear, Disgust, and Anger. The solutions for U and I FEs were compared by means of cophenetic and canonical correlation, Procrustes analysis, and weighted-Euclidean analysis of individual differences. Differences in discrimination produced by inverting FE stimuli were found to be small and manifested as minor changes in the MDS structure or weights of the dimensions. Solutions differed substantially more between the two posers, however. Notably, for stimuli containing elements of Happiness (whether U or I), the MDS structure showed signs of implicit categorization, indicating that mouth curvature - the dominant feature conveying Happiness - is visually salient and receives early processing. The findings suggest that for briefly presented FEs, Same/Different decisions are dominated by low-level visual analysis of abstract patterns of lightness and edge filters, but also reflect emerging featural analysis. These analyses, insensitive to face orientation, enable initial positive/negative Valence categorization of FEs.

Direction in the color plane as a factor in chromatic flicker and chromatic motion.

A percept of motion results when a chromatic grating, formed from a spatial alternation between two isoluminant hues, drifts across the visual field. With hue pairs chosen to be equally subjectively dissimilar, the motion is greater for alternation along some directions in color space (orange/blue) than others (green/purple), suggesting a specific interaction between the (L-M) and S(0) chromatic opponent channels. This phenomenon was explored systematically by choosing 24 pairs of hues across the color circle and using the method of paired comparisons to scale their movement-inducing contrast. The flicker-inducing contrast observed from rapid alternation between the pairs was measured in the same way. Both phenomena consistently drew upon both chromatic channels, though in different proportions, as if chromatic and temporal variation information are multiplexed along motion-processing pathways. Border-distinctness data were also collected to isolate the (L-M) channel.

Color-space distortions following long-term occupational exposure to mercury vapor.

Color vision was examined in subjects with long-term occupational exposure to mercury (Hg) vapor. The color vision impairment was assessed by employing a quantitative measure of distortion of individual and group perceptual color spaces. Hg subjects (n = 18; 42.1 ± 6.5 years old; exposure time = 10.4 ± 5.0 years; time away from the exposure source = 6.8 ± 4.6 years) and controls (n = 18; 46.1 ± 8.4 years old) were examined using two arrangement tests, D-15 and D-15d, in the traditional way, and also in a triadic procedure. From each subject's 'odd-one-out' choices, matrices of inter-cap subjective dissimilarities were derived and processed by non-metric multidimensional scaling (MDS). D-15d results differed significantly between the Hg-group and the control group (p < 0.05), with the impairment predominantly along the tritan axis. 2D perceptual color spaces, individual and group, were reconstructed, with the dimensions interpreted as the red-green (RG) and the blue-yellow (BY) systems. When color configurations from the Hg-group were compared to those of the controls, they presented more fluctuations along both chromatic dimensions, indicating a statistically significant difference along the BY axis. In conclusion, the present findings confirm that color vision impairments persist in subjects that have received long-term occupational exposure to Hg-vapor although, at the time of testing, they were presenting mean urinary concentration within the normal range for non-exposed individuals. Considering the advantages of the triadic procedure in clinical evaluation of acquired color vision deficiencies, further studies should attempt to verify and/or improve its efficacy.

Convergence of internal and external structure for the California Child Q-set.

The language of personality traits includes single-word trait descriptors, and longer phrases or sentences. Evidence has accumulated that abstract, semantic relationships among single words have the same underlying structure as the empirical relationships when words are applied to individuals. The present study examines whether these two kinds of structure are also isomorphic for longer trait descriptors. Empirical descriptions and judgements of semantic similarity were collected among the descriptors comprising the California Child Q-set, or CCQ, and analysed with multidimensional scaling. Canonical correlation showed the solutions to be closely related to one another, and to independent sets of ratings available for the CCQ items. Informants' similarity judgements were not affected by the context in which they were made. The dominant dimensions of the solutions reproduce dimensions found previously for the single-word personality lexicon, indicating the two trait-descriptive languages to be closely parallel.

Convergence of internal and external structure for the California child Q-set

The language of personality traits includes single-word trait descriptors, and longer phrases or sentences. Evidence has accumulated that abstract, semantic relationships among single words have the same underlying structure as the empirical relationships when words are applied to individuals. The present study examines whether these two kinds of structure are also isomorphic for longer trait descriptors. Empirical descriptions and judgements of semantic similarity were collected among the descriptors comprising the California Child Q-set, or CCQ, and analysed with multidimensional scaling. Canonical correlation showed the solutions to be closely related to one another, and to independent sets of ratings available for the CCQ items. Informants’ similarity judgements were not affected by the context in which they were made. The dominant dimensions of the solutions reproduce dimensions found previously for the single-word personality lexicon, indicating the two trait-descriptive languages to be closely parallel (AU)

El lenguaje de rasgos de personalidad incluye a descriptores de rasgo de una sola palabra y frases u oraciones más largos. Hay evidencia acumulada de que las relaciones semánticas abstractas entre estas palabras tienen la misma estructura subyacente que las relaciones empíricas cuando las palabras aisladas se aplican a individuos. Este estudio explora si estas dos clases de estructuras son también isomorfas para descriptores de rasgo más largos. Se registraron las descripciones y los juicios empíricos de similitud semántica de los descriptores incluidos en el California Child Q-set (CCQ) y se analizaron con escalamiento multidimensional. La correlación canónica mostró que ambas soluciones están estrechamente relacionadas entre sí y con conjuntos independientes de puntuaciones disponibles para los ítems del CCQ.Los juicios de similitud de los informantes no estuvieron afectados por el contexto en el que fueron hechos. Las dimensiones dominantes de las soluciones reproducen otras dimensiones encontradas previamente en el léxico de personalidad de palabras únicas, indicando que los dos lenguajes de descripción de rasgos son cercanamente paralelos (AU)

Flicker between equal-luminance colors examined with multidimensional scaling.

Even when two rapidly alternating color stimuli are equated in luminance, the flicker between them is not always zero. By one hypothesis this residual chromatic flicker is tritanopic, like edge distinctness: dependent purely on L- and M-cone stimulation, with no contribution from S-cones. Judgments of flicker intensity between pairs of colors were analyzed with multidimensional scaling (MDS)--in effect treating them as an index of color dissimilarity. They reveal a systematic reduction of flicker when stimulus pairs differ along a chartreuse-magenta direction in the color plane, corresponding to an effective compression of color space along this axis or an equivalent elongation along a blue-orange axis. In contrast, judgments of edge distinctness between the same pairs reveal the expected tritanopic axis of compression. It follows that chromatic flicker does receive a contribution from S-cone stimulation, but this interacts with the contribution from L- and M-cones, perhaps due to phase delays.

Colour-space distortion in women who are heterozygous for colour deficiency.

We examined colour perception among a group of women heterozygous for colour vision deficiency. Judgements of colour dissimilarity were collected by presenting colour stimuli in groups of three for odd-one-out decisions. The judgements were summarised as one consensus colour space for the heterozygotes and another for age-matched controls. Individual differences MDS was also applied, resulting in a single colour space which can be adjusted to fit each subject's responses individually by compressing it along its axes. Heterozygous women showed a trend towards colour-space compression in a red-green dimension, or reduced salience of that dimension compared to controls, though less extreme than found in overt colour deficiency.

Hue and saturation shifts from spatially induced blackness.

We studied changes in the color appearance of a chromatic stimulus as it underwent simultaneous contrast with a more luminous surround. Three normal trichromats provided color-naming descriptions for a 10 cd/m2 monochromatic field while a broadband white annulus surround ranged in luminance from 0.2 cd/m2 to 200 cd/m2. Descriptions of the chromatic field included Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, White, and Black or their combinations. The naming frequencies for each color/surround were used to calculate measures of similarity among the stimuli. Multidimensional scaling analysis of these subjective similarities resulted in a four-dimensional color space with two chromatic axes, red-green and blue-yellow, and two achromatic axes, revealing separate qualities of blackness/lightness and saturation. Contrast-induced darkening of the chromatic field was found to be accompanied by shifts in both hue and saturation. Hue shifts were similar to the Bezold-Brücke shift; shifts in saturation were also quantified. A stage model is proposed to account for the relationships among blackness induction and the inherent nonlinearities in chromatic and achromatic processing.

Constructing personality maps, mapping personality constructs: multidimensional scaling recovers the big five factors from internal and external structure.

This report examines the structure of similarities underlying the lexicon of personality-trait description, when "similarity" is defined and measured in terms of (a) semantic judgment and (b) covariance in actual use. A lexicon of 60 trait adjectives was examined, using several procedures for collecting semantic judgments. Similarity data of both kinds were analyzed with multidimensional scaling (MDS) to provide a parsimonious representation of underlying structure. The convergence between semantic judgments and covariance within trait-attribution data was substantial; both kinds of data evinced the same structure when collected for subsets of adjectives. Canonical correlation was employed to find the number of dimensions shared across MDS solutions. Interpretation of the results was facilitated by individual-differences MDS, which can select an optimal set of underlying dimensions, and at the same time accommodate the differences between data sets that arise when data-collection procedures differ in the relative emphasis they place upon those dimensions. We interpret the small number and shared nature of the dimensions by arguing that the lexicon's structure relates to trait perception rather than personality structure per se, even when probed with trait-attribution covariance.