Unfamiliar Ones Research Articles

Primed for Reading

Primed for Reading

When the brain remembers, but the patient doesn’t: Converging fMRI and EEG evidence for covert recognition in a case of prosopagnosia

The role of the occipito-temporal cortex in visual awareness remains an open question and with respect to faces in particular, it is unclear to what extent the fusiform face area (FFA) may be involved in conscious identification. An answer may be gleaned from prosopagnosia, a disorder in which familiar faces are no longer recognized. This impairment has sometimes been reported to be associated with implicit processing of facial identity, although the neural substrates responsible for unconscious processing remain unknown. In this study, we addressed these issues by investigating the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) responses to familiar and unfamiliar faces in a well-known prosopagnosic patient (P.S.). Our fMRI results show that faces known prior to the onset of prosopagnosia produce an increase in activation in the lateral fusiform gyrus encompassing the FFA, as well as the right middle frontal gyrus, when compared to unknown faces. This effect is not observed with photographs of celebrities dating after the onset of prosopagnosia. Furthermore, electrophysiological responses show that previously familiar faces differ from unfamiliar ones at around 550 msec. Since covert processing of familiarity is associated with activation in FFA, this structure does not appear to be sufficient to produce awareness of identity. Furthermore, the results support the view that FFA participates in face individuation.

대기 중 물의 상태변화에 관한 중학생의 글에서 나타나는 의미관계 및 과학 언어적 특성에 관한 예비연구

본 연구는 과학적 소양은 과학적 지식의 획득과 과학적 담화에 참여할 수 있는 언어적 능력을 통하여 길러진다는 전제하에 대기 중의 물의 상태변화에 관한 학생 글에서 나타나는 의미관계와 과학 언어적 특징을 알아보았다. 중학교 3학년 학생 67명이 참여하여 일상생활에서 흔히 경험할 수 있는 현상과 학교과학교육에서 체계적으로 배우는 현상 에 관한 두 개의 서술형 문항에 대한 글을 작성하였다. 연구의 결과 학생들은 '이슬점' 같은 생소한 용어뿐만 아니라 '수증기', '김' 등과 같은 친숙한 용어에 대해서도 잘못된 의미관계를 형성하고 있었고, 학교과학 교육보다 일상의 경험에서 형성된 지식에서 옳은 의미관계와 잘못된 의미관계 모두 더 많이 나타났다. 일상의 과학적 현상에 대해서는 행위와 절차를 중심으로 한 서술 양상이, 학교 교육에 의해 접하게 된 현상에 대해서는 전문용어와 명사구의 사용 양상이 보였다. 본 연구를 통하여 경험에 기초한 자발적 과정은 풍부한 의미관계 형성에, 형식적이고 이론적인 과정은 명사화를 중심으로 한 전문적이고 추상적인 서술의 측면에서 과학적 언어 능력 발달에 기여함을 알 수 있었다. Recently, scientific literacy means not only the acquisition of scientific knowledge but also the linguistic ability to participate in a scientific discourse community. Keeping this in mind, this study investigated middle school students' writings about phase transitions of water in air. Sixty seven students at 9th grade (age 15) students participated in this study and wrote two individual short texts. The result of text analysis can be summarized as follows: (1) students had problems with familiar scientific terms such as 'water vapor' and 'steam' as well as unfamiliar ones like 'dew point'. (2) Students described right semantic relations and at the same time wrong ones more in the idea formed from everyday experience than those from school instruction. (3) While students showed action and process centered writing in text about everyday phenomenon, they showed more preference for technical words and nouns in text about school science. This study suggest that students could develop linguistic ability of science from both spontaneous process based on experience and formal and theoretical learning; the former in forming various semantic relations, the latter in technical and abstract aspect of scientific writing.

Recognition of faces of known individuals in two lemur species ( Eulemur fulvus and E. macaco)

Three brown lemurs, Eulemur fulvus , and two black lemurs, Eulemur macaco , were trained to select consistently the photograph of the face of a known individual (KI: belonging to the same social group) when it was presented simultaneously with a photograph of the face of an unfamiliar individual (UI: belonging to another social group). After the learning phase, the subjects were presented with new pairs of photographs (KI versus UI: photographs that were not used in the learning phase), the same pairs presented in different associations, and finally pairs of photographs that were completely novel (50 different pairs). All the subjects selected the KI significantly more often than the UI under all conditions. Additional tests showed that the subjects preferentially selected photographs of a UI belonging to their own species versus a UI belonging to the other species. No preference was observed when the subjects were presented with two KI or with their own photograph associated with a UI. These results reveal that the face contains information allowing lemurs to discriminate familiar individuals from unfamiliar ones.

Factor determining functional perception on technology-driven product design: a case study on mobile phone for the elderly

Distinctive human attribute such as age, sex, and cultural background posted much of the problems in the understanding of graphic representation. This research attempts to use pictorial icon in cell phone as a case study to reveal the age and cultural bias between age groups. Most of them are able to operate only the basic features. The study thus has an ultimate goal to discover an universally representation of iconic symbol, which would help enhance the learning ability of senior group in particular, and to improve the usage of other technological oriented appliances in general. Study in three features-complexity of iconic, the visual limitation of the aged, and the interpretation of iconic symbols. The first issue deals with the capability to learn new technology and the recollection. Next, deals with graphic icon visible format -simple, detailed and textual which include size and color. The final issue deals with the 2D/3D format, realistic/symbolic, and with/without textual display. The research found that respondents are proved to be equally able to learn complicated level as younger users. With reading glasses, they are able to visualize and understand simple icons as small as 5-10mm. Complicated as 30mm. Graphical icons with textual as 10-15mm. Bright color for simple icon, cooler tone is for complicated ones. 2D is for familiar objects while 3D and realistic for unfamiliar ones. Textual representation could enhance the understanding of representation as well.

The Effect of Social and Situational Factors on the Intended Response to Aggression Among Adolescents

ABSTRACT In this study, I explored intended response to aggression among adolescents. I drew hypotheses from social identity theory, cost/benefit considerations, and social information processing model. I asked 217 Jewish and Muslim male adolescents in this study to assess their intended use of aggression in 12 hypothetical conflict situations (vignettes), in which I manipulated the opponent's religion, gender, acquaintance, and severity of aggression. I mainly found that male adolescents respond to aggression by same-religion opponents more moderately than to cross-religion aggression; their response is more moderate to cross-gender aggression than to same-gender aggression; response is more moderate to the aggression of familiar opponents than to that of unfamiliar ones; and response is less severe toward moderate than toward severe aggression.

Investigating users’ intuitive interaction with complex artefacts

This paper examines the role of intuition in the way that people operate unfamiliar devices. Intuition is a type of cognitive processing that is often non-conscious and utilises stored experiential knowledge. Intuitive interaction involves the use of knowledge gained from other products and/or experiences. Two initial experimental studies revealed that prior exposure to products employing similar features helped participants to complete set tasks more quickly and intuitively, and that familiar features were intuitively used more often than unfamiliar ones. A third experiment confirmed that performance is affected by a person's level of familiarity with similar technologies, and also revealed that appearance (shape, size and labelling of features) seems to be the variable that most affects time spent on a task and intuitive uses during that time. Age also seems to have an effect. These results and their implications are discussed.

Guppy males distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar females of a distantly related species

Because production of gametes is costly in many species, selection is expected to favour mate recognition behaviours that reduce the probability of wasted mating attempts. Male Trinidadian guppies, Poecilia reticulata, can learn to distinguish between conspecific females and between conspecific and congeneric females (P. picta) and make adaptive mating decisions on the basis of this information. In Mexico, however, introduced guppy males direct seemingly nonadaptive sexual behaviour to females of the distantly related Skiffia bilineata (Goodeidae). We asked whether prolonged exposure would lead to recognition and thus to a reduction of the level of male sexual behaviour experienced by S. bilineata females. Pairs of male guppies interacted freely with two female P. reticulata, two female S. bilineata, or one female of each species for 14 days. During trials, males encountered both familiar and unfamiliar females of the species they were trained with, and courtship towards these was quantified. We found that although male guppies habituated to familiar S. bilineata females, they persisted in their mating attempts towards unfamiliar ones. As with female guppies in previous studies, male guppies courted novel S. bilineata females and shunned those previously encountered. Our finding that guppy males recognize familiar S. bilineata females, but do not generalize this response, means that these endangered goodeids are vulnerable to persistent harassment.

America’s Concertmasters (review)

America's Concertmasters. By Anne Mischakoff Heiles. (Detroit Monographs in Musicology/Studies in Music, No. 51.) Sterling Heights, Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 2007. [xvii, 564 p. ISBN-10: 0899901395; ISBN-13: 9780899901398. $50.] Illustrations, appendices, bibliographical references, index. Anne Mischakoff Heiles has written a book exploring the training, traits, desires, and often interesting anecdotes of over 180 concertmasters and a dozen orchestras, from Boston to Toronto. Being the daughter of concertmaster Mischa Mischakoff has given Heiles a unique perspective and obvious passion for this subject, which shows in the extensive research, through dozens of interviews, contained in this work. After a brief prologue explaining the concertmaster selection and interview process, and an excellent introduction of how the concertmaster role evolved, Heiles takes us on a wonderful journey exploring the lives of concertmasters from ten of the major performing orchestras in North America: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Toronto. She also includes two chapters on the concertmasters of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for insights into the leaders of an opera orchestra and summer orchestra, respectively. Among the issues Heiles seeks to probe are the traits that distinguish concertmasters from section players and soloists, the musical training concertmasters receive, how power is shared between conductor and concertmaster, how authority develops between concertmaster and section players, the range of musical interests today's concertmasters have and whether their musical activities differ from their predecessors, and their tips for those aspiring to orchestral careers. The skeletal questions she posed were: * Describe your violin training. Did you receive any special training to be a concertmaster? * What personal traits do you think distinguish a concertmaster? * Did you aspire to be a soloist? If so, why did you give it up? Do you regret not being a concert artist? What opportunities do you now have for solo appearances? * Do you feel an itch to conduct? * How do you, as a leader, also follow? How do you relate to conductors? * When and how do you gesture physically to lead the violin section? * How do you make the sudden shift from playing the tutti passages to the solos? Do you have favorites among the concertmaster solos? What do you still find difficult in the solos? * Do you consider yourself more a part of the management or the orchestra? * How do you draw the line between yourself and your section? Do you socialize with orchestra members? With conductors? * How do you give criticism or make suggestions to the violin section? How do you set a standard? * Are you an activist? Involved in orchestra committee work? * Do you feel a responsibility to teach? What advice do you give younger players about taking auditions? * Are you active in commissioning or performing new music? * What are the social perks of the concertmaster position and do you enjoy them? * How do you balance time between your musical activities and home life? How do you feel about orchestra tours? About the orchestra's future? About your future? (pp. 4-5) Each chapter contains a brief history of how that particular orchestra got started, and then discusses each of its concertmasters, along with fabulous pictures of some of the early orchestras and of many concertmasters. There are charts towards the beginning of each chapter listing the concertmasters in order for that orchestra, a symphonic score card if you will, to help keep the names and information straight. There are names that most everyone will recognize as well as some unfamiliar ones, but all contribute interesting and wonderful stories, teaching tools, leadership lessons, audition advice, and many ideas on the quintessential qualities of a good concertmaster. …

Multivariate classification of animal communication signals: A simulation-based comparison of alternative signal processing procedures using electric fishes

Evolutionary studies of communication can benefit from classification procedures that allow individual animals to be assigned to groups (e.g. species) on the basis of high-dimension data representing their signals. Prior to classification, signals are usually transformed by a signal processing procedure into structural features. Applications of these signal processing procedures to animal communication have been largely restricted to the manual or semi-automated identification of landmark features from graphical representations of signals. Nonetheless, theory predicts that automated time-frequency-based digital signal processing (DSP) procedures can represent signals more efficiently (using fewer features) than can landmark procedures or frequency-based DSP – allowing more accurate classification. Moreover, DSP procedures are objective in that they require little previous knowledge of signal diversity, and are relatively free from potentially ungrounded assumptions of cross-taxon homology. Using a model data set of electric organ discharge waveforms from five sympatric species of the electric fish Gymnotus, we adopted an exhaustive simulation approach to investigate the classificatory performance of different signal processing procedures. We considered a landmark procedure, a frequency-based DSP procedure (the fast Fourier transform), and two kinds of time-frequency-based DSP procedures (a short-time Fourier transform, and several implementations of the discrete wavelet transform -DWT). The features derived from each of these signal processing procedures were then subjected to dimension reduction procedures to separate those features which permit the most effective discrimination among groups of signalers. We considered four alternative dimension reduction methods. Finally, each combination of reduced data was submitted to classification by linear discriminant analysis. Our results support theoretical predictions that time-frequency DSP procedures (especially DWT) permit more efficient discrimination of groups. The performance of signal processing was found to depend largely upon the dimension reduction procedure employed, and upon the number of resulting features. Because the best combinations of procedures are dataset-dependent and difficult to predict, we conclude that simulations of the kind described here, or at least simplified versions of them, should be routinely executed before classification of animal signals - especially unfamiliar ones.

Faces and Behinds: Chimpanzee Sex Perception

Six adult chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) trained on computerized matching-to-sample were shown a sample behind (anogenital region) of a chimpanzee and rewarded for selecting a corresponding facial image. If the two faces were of the same sex, and one belonged to the same individual as the behind, subjects made the correct association for familiar individuals but not unfamiliar ones, suggesting whole-body knowledge of group mates. If the two faces were of opposite sex, subjects selected the same-sex face as the behind at first only for familiar individuals when face and behind belonged to the same individual. During subsequent exposures, however, they learned to associate the same-sex face with the behind even if the behind was “generic” male or female (i.e., unmatched to any known individual) provided the depicted individuals were familiar. This suggests that sex perception is aided by a “gender construct” derived from firsthand experience with group mates, and which construct is unavailable for unfamiliar individuals.

New therapeutic landscapes in Africa: Parental categories and practices in seeking infant health in the Republic of Guinea

In considering African health care practice, it is usual to draw strong distinctions between biomedical and traditional practices, and between public and private health institutions. Whilst distinctions between traditional and biomedical, and between public and private medicine make sense from the vantage point of health professionals, we question how far these distinctions are pertinent in shaping health-seeking behaviour given experience of them. This paper argues that other distinctions are becoming far more important to African therapeutic landscapes to the ways that people evaluate the salience of different health providers to their problems. We draw on ethnographic research and illustrative evidence from 1550 ‘infant health biographies’ from rural and urban areas in the Republic of Guinea, where 93% of health expenditure takes place outside the state sector. We outline the distinctions that inform parents' health-seeking practices here. These include distinctions between women's and children's health providers (at state health centres), and those that men frequent (private pharmacies); between familiar ailments with known therapies (whether self-treatment, biomedical or herbal), and unfamiliar ones requiring expert diagnostics (whether from Islamic healers, diviners or doctors); between illnesses treatable by injection, and those aggravated by injection; between types of payment; and between high quality/strong medicines, and poor quality/weak ones. As people engage with emergent therapeutic landscapes, relations of knowledge and expertise, and forms of social solidarity, are emerging with significant implications for potential pathways of health system development, how these are conceptualised, and the forms of citizenship and partnership they might involve.

Be the expert you are

Recent highly publicised events have understandably worried some expert witnesses, including psychiatrists. This commentary seeks to encourage those who have invaluable expertise to offer the courts to continue to act as expert witnesses. The Civil Procedure Rules and the Criminal Procedure Rules are helpful to some extent in allaying any fears that expert psychiatrists may have. They are, however, matters of form. More important, it is suggested, are the principles that operate and that, at least in part, lie behind the Rules. Those principles are often, in fact, not unfamiliar ones. Moreover, some of the most fundamental legal principles applied in the courts operate to circumscribe the role of expert witnesses, thus protecting them, provided that they do not go beyond the limits of their expertise.

Internal feature saliency as a marker of familiarity and configural processing

Two experiments that explore the internal feature advantage (IFA) in familiar face processing are reported. The IFA involves more efficient processing of internal features for familiar faces over unfamiliar ones. Experiment 1 examined the possibility of a configural basis for this effect through use of a matching task for familiar and unfamiliar faces presented both upright and upside-down. Results revealed the predicted IFA for familiar faces when stimuli were upright, but this was removed when stimuli were inverted. Experiment 2 examined the degree of training required before the IFA was demonstrated. Latency results revealed that whilst 90–180 s of exposure was sufficient to generate an IFA of intermediate magnitude, 180–270 s of exposure was required before the IFA was equivalent to that demonstrated for a familiar face. Taken together, these results offer three conclusions: First, the IFA is reaffirmed as an objective indicator of familiarity; second, the IFA is seen to rest on configural processing; and finally, the development of the IFA with familiarity indicates a development of configural processing with familiarity. As such, insight is gained as to the type of processing changes that occur as familiarity is gradually acquired.

Social learning of novel route preferences in adult humans

Non-human animals can acquire novel route preferences by following knowledgeable individuals. Such socially learned route preferences can be stably maintained over multiple transmission episodes, sometimes forming long-lived traditions. In humans, preferences for familiar routes or heavily used worn trails over unfamiliar ones have been described in various contexts. However, social learning of route preferences has not been experimentally demonstrated in humans. Here, we demonstrate that social learning and tradition influence route choice. We led adult male and female participants into a room by one of two routes. Participants followed the demonstrated route choices, and later remembered and preferred this choice even when determinably suboptimal (i.e. longer and not preferred by control participants) or when the choice was indicated as arbitrary (the demonstrator took one route to retrieve a poster that had ostensibly fallen). Moreover, route preferences were stably maintained over multiple transmission episodes. We suggest that simple social learning processes, often neglected in human and primate research, can result in long-lived route preferences that may influence a range of additional behaviour patterns.

Social isolation elicits deficits in the ability of newly weaned female piglets to recognise conspecifics

In pigs, weaning and social isolation can be highly stressful and may impair social recognition (SR). The goal of this study was to assess the ability of newly weaned female piglets to recognise familiar non-related conspecifics and to examine how this was affected by weaning age and/or acute social isolation. For that purpose, 48 female piglets were either weaned at day 11 (D11, n = 24) or at day 22 (D22, n = 24) of age and subjected to the familiarisation procedure during the first 2 days post-weaning. To examine whether social isolation affected SR, 24 piglets were isolated for 15 min after the last familiarisation procedure, while the control group ( n = 24) remained with their littermates in the nursery pens. In the SR test, taking place immediately after social isolation, each subject was exposed to a familiar ( n = 24) or an unfamiliar ( n = 24) conspecific for a 3-min period. The animals were tested only once, 2 days after weaning, i.e. at 13 days of age for D11 piglets and 24 days of age for D22 piglets. The assessment of SR was based on the natural tendency of pigs to investigate unfamiliar conspecifics more intensely than familiar ones. Overall, during the SR test familiar piglets spent less time on social investigation (16.70 ± 2.86%) than unfamiliar ones (29.09 ± 3.71%). The results indicated a significant interaction between weaning age and social isolation among familiar pigs ( F 1,17 = 23.12, P < 0.001). Neither weaning age nor social isolation affected the duration of social investigation in piglets exposed to unfamiliar conspecifics ( F 1,17 = 0.24, P = 0.63). However, when isolated D11 piglets were exposed to familiar conspecifics they investigated more than non-isolated D11, isolated D22 and non-isolated D22 piglets. The amount of social investigation displayed by familiar isolated D11 piglets was similar to that displayed by unfamiliar animals. In conclusion, it may indicate that SR can be disrupted by 15 min of social isolation in piglets weaned at D11, but not in piglets weaned at D22.

Actors and actions: The role of agent behavior in infants’ attribution of goals

Twelve-month-old infants attribute goals to both familiar, human agents and unfamiliar, non-human agents. They also attribute goal-directedness to both familiar actions and unfamiliar ones. Four conditions examined information 12-month-olds use to determine which actions of an unfamiliar agent are goal-directed. Infants who witnessed the agent interact contingently with a human confederate encoded the agent's actions as goal-directed; infants who saw a human confederate model an intentional stance toward the agent without the agent's participation, did not. Infants who witnessed the agent align itself with one of two potential targets before approaching that target encoded the approach as goal-directed; infants who did not observe the self-alignment did not encode the approach as goal-directed. A possible common underpinning of these two seemingly independent sources of information is discussed.

Social grooming in the kindergarten: the emergence of flattery behavior

The present study examined the emergence of flattery behavior in young children and factors that might affect whether and how it is displayed. Preschool children between the ages of 3 and 6 years were asked to rate drawings produced by either a present or absent adult stranger (Experiments 1 and 2), child stranger (Experiments 2 and 3), classmate, or the children's own teacher (Experiment 3). Young preschoolers gave consistent ratings to the same drawing by the person regardless of whether the person was absent or present. In contrast, many older preschoolers gave more flattering ratings to the drawing when the person was present than in the person's absence. Also, older preschoolers displayed flattery regardless of whether the recipient was an adult or a child. However, they displayed flattery to a greater extent towards familiar individuals than unfamiliar ones, demonstrating an emerging sensitivity to social contexts in which flattery is used. These findings suggest that preschoolers have already learned not to articulate bluntly their true feelings and thoughts about others. Rather, they are able to manipulate their communications according to social context.

Re-visioning one's Narratives: Exploring the relationship between researcher self-study and teacher research

This paper is concerned with the relationship of self-study to a non-self-study methodology used in a teacher study. The study was intended to involve 18 kindergarten to Grade 12 teachers in “bringing memory forward” through looking back on their narratives, producing an autobiography and discussing familiar texts in relation to unfamiliar ones. Conceived separately from the researcher's self-studies, this methodology can be traced back to the researcher's own memory work. The paper explores the complex relationship between researcher self-study and teacher research, arguing that one builds on the other but that pedagogical, theoretical, and methodological reasons exist for also keeping them distinct. The primary pedagogical reason is to allow teachers the freedom to acknowledge the stories that have been formative for them and to critically engage those narratives.

Choices Under Ambiguity With Familiar And Unfamiliar Outcomes

This paper considers a decision-making process under ambiguity in which the decision-maker is supposed to split outcomes between familiar and unfamiliar ones. She is assumed to behave differently with respect to unfamiliar gains, unfamiliar losses and customary (familiar) outcomes. In particular, she is supposed to be pessimistic on gains, optimistic on losses and ambiguity neutral on the familiar outcomes. A generalization of the usual Choquet Integral is formalized when the decision maker holds capacities and probabilities. A characterization of the decision-maker's behavior is provided for a specific subset of capacities, in which it is shown that the decision-maker underestimates the unfamiliar outcomes while is linear in probabilities on customary ones.