Proffitt, Stefanucci, Banton, and Epstein (2003) reported a set of studies showing that the perceived distance to a target is influenced by the effort required to walk to its location. Hutchison and Loomis (H&L) reported an experiment that failed to find a significant influence of effort on indices of apparent distance. There were numerous important differences between the design and methods of H&L’s study and those of Proffitt et al. Moreover, there are important theoretical reasons to believe that these differences were responsible for the different results. The theoretical motivation of H&L’s studies was also brought into question.

This study examined the role of sex and intelligence in the relationship between ficid dependence-independenceand second language acquisition for a sample of 383 students (187 girls and 196 boys) aged between 13 and i6. The Portable Rod and Frame Test (PRFT) and rhe Embedded Figures Test (EFE) were used lo evaluate cognitive style. A two-waycovarianceanalysis, with intelligenceas the covariate, wa.semployedto investigate differences in second language achievemeni between students classified a.s either fielddependent or field-independent. A cluster analysis using z seores was examinedto study the performance of subjects classified as ejiher field-dependent or field-independent accordingto scores obtained un the FF1’and the PREI’(“coincident” subjects) and Ihose classifiedas field-dependentin une test and field-independentin the uther (“non-cuincident” subjects). No statistically signiflcant differences between the twu groups were obtained when cognitive style was defined by scores un the PRFT. When fleid dependenceindependence was measured by scores on the EFT, field-independent giris perfurmed betier than fleld-dependent giris (p ~ .005), but this uutcumewas nut observed fur buys. These results suggest a differential cuntributiun of Ihe “perceptive” and “cugnitive” components of field dependence-independenceand a modulating role by sex.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationships among perceived motivational climate, individuals’ goal orientations, and dispositional flow, with attention to possible gender differences. A sample of 413 young athletes, ages 12 to 16 years, completed the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2 (PMCSQ-2) and Perception of Success Questionnaire (POSQ), as well as the Dispositional Flow Scale. Task orientation was positively and significantly related to a perceived taskinvolving motivational climate and to the disposition to experience flow in the sport. Ego orientation was positively and significantly associated with a perceived ego-involving motivational climate and with dispositional flow. The perceptions of task-involving and ego-involving motivational climates were positively and significantly linked to general dispositional flow. Multiple regression analysis indicated that both task and ego goal orientations and perceived task- and ego-oriented climates predicted dispositional flow. Males displayed a stronger ego orientation, and were more likely to report that they participated in an ego-oriented climate, than did females. To the contrary, the females were more likely to perceive a task-oriented climate than did the males. No meaningful differences were found between males and females in general dispositional flow.

El objetivo de esta investigacion es analizar las diferencias psicologicas en pacientes y familiares en funcion de la ansiedad post-trasplante. Seleccionamos dos grupos: 166 trasplantados y los 166 familiares mas allegados de estos pacientes. Empleamos una Encuesta Psicosocial (en ambos grupos), la Escala de Ansiedad y Depresion en Hospital y el Cuestionario de Calidad de Vida (en el grupo de trasplantados) y las Escalas de Ansiedad y Depresion de Leeds (en el grupo de familiares). La evaluacion psicologica se realizo en dos fases: post-UCI (cuando a los pacientes se les daba el alta de la UCI pero continuaban ingresados en el hospital, concretamente, en la Unidad de Trasplantes) y post-hospitalaria (cuando transcurria un ano del alta hospitalaria de los pacientes tras el implante). Los resultados mostraron que un nivel alto de ansiedad en los pacientes tras el trasplante, aumentaba al ano la sintomatologia ansiosa y depresiva de los pacientes y de sus familiares y, ademas, empeoraba la calidad de vida de los trasplantados.

This is the first study that provides normative, reliability, factor validity and discriminant validity data of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988) in the Spanish general population. Sanz and Navarro’s (2003) Spanish version of the BAI was administered to 249 adults. Factor analyses suggested that the BAI taps a general anxiety dimension comprising two related factors (somatic and affective-cognitive symptoms), but these factors hardly explained any additional variance and, therefore, little information is lost in considering only full-scale scores. Internal consistency estimate for the BAI was high (= .93). The BAI was correlated .63 with the BDI-II and .32 with the Trait Anger scale of the STAXI 2, but a factor analysis of their items revealed three factors, suggesting that the correlations between the instruments may be better accounted for by relationships between anxiety, depression, and anger, than by problems of discriminant validity. The mean BAI total score and the distribution of BAI scores were similar to those found in other countries. BAI norm scores for the community sample were provided from the total sample and from the male and female subsamples, as females scored higher than males. The utility of these scores for assessing clinical significance of treatment outcomes for anxiety is discussed.

It is known that visual noise added to sinusoidal gratings changes the typical U-shaped threshold curve which becomes flat in log-log scale for frequencies below 10c/deg when gratings are masked with white noise of high power spectral density level. These results have been explained using the critical-band-masking (CBM) model by supposing a visual filter-bank of constant relative bandwidth. However, some psychophysical and biological data support the idea of variable octave bandwidth. The CBM model has been used here to explain the progressive change of threshold curves with the noise mask level and to estimate the bandwidth of visual filters. Bayesian staircases were used in a 2IFC paradigm to measure contrast thresholds of horizontal sinusoidal gratings (0.25-8 c/deg) within a fixed Gaussian window and masked with one-dimensional, static, broadband white noise with each of five power density levels. Raw data showed that the contrast threshold curve progressively shifts upward and flattens out as the mask noise level increases. Theoretical thresholds from the CBM model were fitted simultaneously to the data at all five noise levels using visual filters with log-Gaussian gain functions. If we assume a fixed-channel detection model, the best fit was obtained when the octave bandwidth of visual filters decreases as a function of peak spatial frequency.