Elvira Perez

Time (also) flies from left to right.

Everyday linguistic expressions in many languages suggest that back and front space is projected onto temporal concepts of past and future (as in the sentencewe are years ahead of them). The present experiment tested the psychological reality of a different space-time conceptual metaphor—projecting the past to left space and the future to right space—for which there are no linguistic traces in any language. Participants categorized words as referring to the past or to the future. Irrelevant to this task, words appeared either to the left or right of the screen, and responses were given by keypresses of the left or right hand. Judgments were facilitated when word position and response mapping were congruent with the left-past right-future conceptual metaphor. These results are discussed in the context of current claims about the embodiment of meaning and the possible mechanisms by which conceptual metaphors can be acquired.

Beyond alphabetic orthographies: The role of form and phonology in transposition effects in Katakana

In the past years, there has been growing interest in how the order of letters is attained in visual word recognition. Two critical issues are: (1) whether the front-end of the recently proposed models of letter position encoding can be generalised to non-alphabetic scripts, and (2) whether phonology plays an important role in the process of letter position encoding. In the present masked priming lexical decision experiments, we employed a syllabic/moraic script (Katakana), which allows disentangling form and phonology. In Experiment 1, we found a robust masked transposed-mora priming effect: the prime a.ri.me.ka facilitates the processing of the word a.me.ri.ka relative to a double-substitution prime (a.ka.ho.ka, ). In Experiment 2, we failed to obtain any signs of a masked phoneme transposition effect (a.re.mi.ka-a.me.ri.ka vs. a.ke.hi.ka-a.me.ri.ka). In Experiment 3, we failed to find any signs of a masked phonological priming effect when the order of the consonant/vowel phonemes of the internal morae was the right one (e.g., a.ma.ro.ka-a.me.ri.ka vs. a.ka.ho.ka-a.me.ri.ka). Thus, masked transposed-mora priming effects are orthographic (rather than phonological) in nature. We discuss how the recently proposed input coding schemes can be generalised to a syllable-based script.

A Systematic Review of Studies Measuring and Reporting Hearing Aid Usage in Older Adults since 1999: A Descriptive Summary of Measurement Tools

Objective A systematic review was conducted to identify and quality assess how studies published since 1999 have measured and reported the usage of hearing aids in older adults. The relationship between usage and other dimensions of hearing aid outcome, age and hearing loss are summarised. Data sources Articles were identified through systematic searches in PubMed/MEDLINE, The University of Nottingham Online Catalogue, Web of Science and through reference checking. Study eligibility criteria: (1) participants aged fifty years or over with sensori-neural hearing loss, (2) provision of an air conduction hearing aid, (3) inclusion of hearing aid usage measure(s) and (4) published between 1999 and 2011. Results Of the initial 1933 papers obtained from the searches, a total of 64 were found eligible for review and were quality assessed on six dimensions: study design, choice of outcome instruments, level of reporting (usage, age, and audiometry) and cross validation of usage measures. Five papers were rated as being of high quality (scoring 10–12), 35 papers were rated as being of moderate quality (scoring 7–9), 22 as low quality (scoring 4–6) and two as very low quality (scoring 0–2). Fifteen different methods were identified for assessing the usage of hearing aids. Conclusions Generally, the usage data reviewed was not well specified. There was a lack of consistency and robustness in the way that usage of hearing aids was assessed and categorised. There is a need for more standardised level of reporting of hearing aid usage data to further understand the relationship between usage and hearing aid outcomes.

Sensitivity to temporal fine structure and hearing-aid outcomes in older adults

Objective: To investigate the effect of sensitivity to temporal fine structure (TFS) on subjective measures of hearing aid outcome. Design: Prior to receiving hearing aids, participants completed a test to assess sensitivity to TFS and two self-assessment questionnaires; the Glasgow Hearing Aid Benefit Profile (GHABP), and the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of hearing (SSQ-A). Follow-up appointments, comprised three self-assessment questionnaires; the GHABP, the SSQ-B, and the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aid Outcomes (IOI-HA). Study sample: 75 adults were recruited from direct referral clinics. Results: Two thirds of participants were found to have good sensitivity to TFS; listeners with good sensitivity to TFS rated their hearing abilities higher at pre-fitting (SSQ-A) than those with poor sensitivity to TFS. At follow-up, participants with good sensitivity to TFS showed a smaller improvement on SSQ-B over listeners with poor sensitivity to TFS. Among the questionnaires, only the SSQ showed greater sensitivity to measure subjective differences between listeners with good and poor sensitivity to TFS. Conclusions: The clinical identification of a patients ability to process TFS information at an early stage in the treatment pathway could prove useful in managing expectations about hearing aid outcomes.

Frequency modulation facilitates (modal) auditory restoration of a gap

In this study we further investigated processes of auditory restoration (AR) in recently described stimulus types: the so-called gap-transfer stimulus, the shared-gap stimulus and the pseudo-continuous stimulus. The stimuli typically consist of two crossing sounds of unequal duration. In the shared-gap and pseudo-continuous stimuli, the two crossing sounds share a gap (<45 ms) at their crossing point. In the gap-transfer stimulus, only the long sound contains a gap (100 ms), whereas the short sound is physically continuous. Earlier research has shown that in these stimuli the long sound is subject to AR, in spite of the gap it contains, whereas the gap is perceived in the short sound. Experiment 1 of the present study showed that AR of the stimulis long sound was facilitated when its slope increased from 0 to 1 oct/s. Experiment 2 showed that the effect of slope on AR of the long sound also occurred when the slope relationship between the long and short sound was fixed. Implications for a tentative sound edge-binding explanation of AR as well as alternative explanations for the effect of slope on AR are discussed.

Research ethics and public trust, preconditions for continued growth of internet mediated research: Public confidence in internet mediate research

In this paper we argue for the position that responsible safeguards for privacy and ethical treatment of human data are of vital importance to retain the public confidence and trust that is necessary for the development and future success of internet mediated research (IMR). We support our position based on the high level of popular and media attention that is currently directed at IMR, which in combination with the relative uncertainties that still exist around the ethics of various IMR methods, raises the risk that IMR might succumb to a public backlash of similar proportions to the controversy that hit genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe. Based on the lessons that came out of the GM crops controversy we discuss the ethics requirements and challenges that must be met in order to retain the public trust in IMR. We end our argument by briefly reviewing a couple of examples of “privacy protecting architectures” that are being developed for IMR.

Understanding academic attitudes towards the ethical challenges posed by social media research

In this paper, we outline an online survey-based study seeking to understand academic attitudes towards social media research ethics (SMRE). As the exploratory phase of a wider research project, findings are discussed in relation to the responses of 30 participants, spanning multiple faculties and locations at one international university. The paper presents an empirical measure of attitudes towards social media research ethics, reflecting core issues outlined throughout the nascent Internet-mediated research (IMR) literature, in addition to survey questions relating to familiarity with SMRE guidance, and experience of reviewing SMRE proposals from students and/or as part of the universitys research ethics committees (RECs). Findings indicate notable variance in academic attitudes towards the ethical challenges of social media research, reflecting the complexity of decision-making within this context and further emphasising the need to understand influencing factors. Future directions are discussed in relation to the tentative findings presented by the current study.

Recovery and creative practices in people with severe mental illness: evaluating well-being and social inclusion

Abstract Purpose: This mixed (quantitative–qualitative) study evaluates the impact of an artistic workshop on a group of people with severe mental illness (SMI). This study focuses on the impact of creative practices on well-being and social inclusion outcomes. Method: After participating in a creative workshop, 31 people diagnosed with a SMI completed pre/post-intervention measures, namely, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale and the Social Inclusion questionnaire. It was applied in two-way repeated measures analysis of variance. The statistic Wilcoxon and Kruskal–Wallis were applied for non-parametric data to measure pre/post-test effects and workshop experience effects, respectively. In addition to quantitative measures, one observer participated in each workshop that ran in parallel in order to deepen and triangulate quantitative outcomes. Results: The qualitative and quantitative results show that social inclusion improved in a significant way with an important size effect. Psychological wellbeing increased significantly with a low size effect. Conclusions: In accordance with these results, creative practices with people diagnosed with SMI are recommended. In order to increase the impact of these interventions, it is recommended to utilize public space away from clinical environments and to include people without SMI in creative activities together with SMI patients. Implications for Rehabilitation: Creative practices can significantly improve social inclusions and well-being in people with severe mental illness. Participating in creative workshops helps to elaborate personal meanings and promote recovery. Creative practices in mental health services can challenge professional roles and institutional practices. Participation of people with and without severe mental illness engaged together in artistic activities can decrease public stigma.

Ethics of Personalized Information Filtering

Online search engines, social media, news sites and retailers are all investing heavily in the development of ever more refined information filtering to optimally tune their services to the specific demands of their individual users and customers. In this position paper we examine the privacy consequences of user profile models that are used to achieve this information personalization, the lack of transparency concerning the filtering choices and the ways in which personalized services impact the user experience. Based on these considerations we argue that the Internet research community has a responsibility to increase its efforts to investigate the means and consequences of personalized information filtering.

Linguistic Analysis of the Preschool Five Minute Speech Sample: What the Parents of Preschool Children with Early Signs of ADHD Say and How They Say It?

A linguistic analysis was performed on the Preschool Five Minute Speech Sample (PFMSS) of 42 parents. PFMSS is a validated measure for Expressed Emotion (EE) to assess parent-child relationship. Half of these parents (n = 21, clinical group) had preschool children with early symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the rest had typically developing children. Early symptoms of ADHD were identified with the Werry-Weiss Peters Rating Scale. The linguistic component of the PFMSS was analysed with keyword and linguistic pattern identification. The results of these two complementary analyses (i.e., EE and linguistic analysis) provided relevant recommendations that may improve the efficacy of psychological treatment for ADHD such as parenting interventions. We discuss the practical implications of these findings.