Negative emotionality influences the effects of emotion on time perception

In this study I used a temporal bisection task to test if greater overestimation of time due to negative emotion is moderated by individual differences in negative emotionality. The effects of fearful facial expressions on time perception were also examined. After a training phase, participants estimated the duration of facial expressions (anger, happiness, fearfulness) and a neutral-baseline facial expression. In accordance to the operation of an arousal-based process, the duration of angry expressions was consistently overestimated relative to other expressions and the baseline condition. In support of a role for individual differences in negative emotionality on time perception, temporal bias due to angry and fearful expressions was positively correlated to individual differences in self-reported negative emotionality. The results are discussed in relation both to the literature on attentional bias to facial expressions in anxiety and fearfulness and also, to the hypothesis that angry expressions evoke a fear-specific response. © 2008 American Psychological Association

Rapid temporal accumulation in spider fear: Evidence from hierarchical drift diffusion modelling

Fear can distort our sense of time – making time seem slow or even stand still. Here, I used Hierarchical Drift Diffusion Modelling (HDDM; Vandekerckhove, Tuerlinckx, & Lee, 2008, 2011; Wiecki, Sofer, & Frank, 2013) to test the idea that temporal accumulation speeds up during fear. Eighteen high fearful and twenty-three low fearful participants judged the duration of both feared stimuli (spiders) and non-feared stimuli (birds) in a temporal bisection task. The drift diffusion modelling results support the main hypothesis. In high but not low fearful individuals evidence accumulated more rapidly toward a long duration decision - drift rates were higher – for spiders compared to birds. This result and further insights into how fear affects time perception would not have been possible based on analyses of choice proportion data alone. Further results were interpreted in the context of a recent two-stage model of time perception (Balci & Simen, 2014). The results highlight the usefulness of diffusion modelling to test process-based explanations of disordered cognition in emotional disorders

A history of grape production and winemaking in Canterbury, New Zealand 1840-2002

Grapes were first planted in Canterbury in 1840, but commercial production only began in 1978. This research paper examines the history of grape and wine production in Canterbury. It considers the different factors constraining the commercial development of wine production initially and reviews the key actors and processes influencing developments since then. The role of Lincoln College, later University, is shown to be pivotal to the development of grape growing and wine making in Canterbury and the cooler parts of New Zealand. While Canterbury has only a small part of the overall New Zealand vineyard area, its contribution, through Lincoln, to research, publication, education and development of the New Zealand Wine Industry has been considerable. Canterbury is currently enjoying a period of rapid vineyard development. This research report provides much of the historical detail underlying the first three chapters of Canterbury Grapes and Wines 1840-2002 by Danny Schuster, David Jackson and Rupert Tipples (2002, Shoal Bay Press: Christchurch). It is the working document of an industry historian and first hand observer of the developments since 1977. As such, it is not a polished final publication manuscript of the form which appears in the book, but very much the working document, with all the limitations implied

Caution Follows Fear: Evidence from Hierarchical Drift Diffusion Modelling

Fearful expressions are thought to warn of potential threat (Davis et al., 2011; Whalen, 1998) and therefore, one response to seeing fear might be to react cautiously. Although previous studies have tested for an effect of seeing fear on visual perception, they have not tested for increased decision making caution. Here, I applied Hierarchical Drift Diffusion Modelling (Vandekerckhove, Tuerlinckx, & Lee, 2011a; Wiecki, Sofer, & Frank, 2013) to the results of 4 experiments designed to test the idea that seeing facial expressions both impairs visual perception (Bocanegra & Zeelenberg, 2009a) and leads to changes in decision making caution. Standard statistical analyses showed that reaction times were slower following fearful compared to neutral expressions. Diffusion Modelling showed that the data were best described by increased caution and not impaired perception. Further experiments showed that: 1) happy expressions did not lead to increased caution (Experiment 3) and 2) people were less cautious after seeing sad compared to neutral expressions (Experiment 4). Overall, the results point to a new direction for research in this area – testing for differences in decision making caution following facial expressions and other emotion cues

Neural bases for individual differences in the subjective experience of short durations (less than 2 seconds).

The current research was designed to establish whether individual differences in timing performance predict neural activation in the areas that subserve the perception of short durations ranging between 400 and 1600 milliseconds. Seventeen participants completed both a temporal bisection task and a control task, in a mixed fMRI design. In keeping with previous research, there was increased activation in a network of regions typically active during time perception including the right supplementary motor area (SMA) and right pre-SMA and basal ganglia (including the putamen and right pallidum). Furthermore, correlations between neural activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus and SMA and timing performance corroborate the results of a recent meta-analysis and are further evidence that the SMA forms part of a neural clock that is responsible for the accumulation of temporal information. Specifically, subjective lengthening of the perceived duration were associated with increased activation in both the right SMA (and right pre-SMA) and right inferior frontal gyrus

Electrophysiological responses to violations of expectation from eye gaze and arrow cues

Isolating processes within the brain that are specific to human behavior is a key goal for social neuroscience. The current research was an attempt to test whether recent findings of enhanced negative ERPs in response to unexpected human gaze are unique to eye gaze stimuli by comparing the effects of gaze cues with the effects of an arrow cue. ERPs were recorded while participants (N=30) observed a virtual actor or an arrow that gazed (or pointed) either toward (object congruent) or away from (object incongruent) a flashing checkerboard. An enhanced negative ERP (N300) in response to object incongruent compared to object congruent trials was recorded for both eye gaze and arrow stimuli. The findings are interpreted as reflecting a domain general mechanism for detecting unexpected events

Spectroscopic biomedical imaging with the Medipix2 detector

This study confirms that the Medipix2 x-ray detector enables spectroscopic bio-medical plain radiography. We show that the detector has the potential to provide new, useful information beyond the limited spectroscopic information of modern dual-energy computed tomography (CT) scanners. Full spectroscopic 3D-imaging is likely to be the next major technological advance in computed tomography, moving the modality towards molecular imaging applications. This paper focuses on the enabling technology which allows spectroscopic data collection and why this information is useful. In this preliminary study we acquired the first spectroscopic images of human tissue and other biological samples obtained using the Medipix2 detector. The images presented here include the clear resolution of the 1.4mm long distal phalanx of a 20 week old miscarried foetus, showing clear energy-dependent variations. The opportunities for further research using the forthcoming Medipix3 detector are discussed and a prototype spectroscopic CT scanner (MARS, Medipix All Resolution System) is briefly described

Freeze or flee? : negative stimuli elicit selective responding

Humans preferentially attend to negative stimuli. A consequence of this automatic vigilance for negative valence is that negative words elicit slower responses than neutral or positive words on a host of cognitive tasks. Some researchers have speculated that negative stimuli elicit a general suppression of motor activity, akin to the freezing response exhibited by animals under threat. Alternatively, we suggest that negative stimuli only elicit slowed responding on tasks for which stimulus valence is irrelevant for responding. To discriminate between these motor suppression and response-relevance hypotheses, we elicited both lexical decisions and valence judgments of negative words and positive words. Relative to positive words (e.g., kitten), negative words (e.g., spider) elicited slower lexical decisions but faster valence judgments. Results therefore indicate that negative stimuli do not cause a generalized motor suppression. Rather, negative stimuli elicit selective responding, with faster responses on tasks for which stimulus valence is response-relevant

Spectroscopic biomedical imaging with the Medipix2 detector

This study confirms that the Medipix2 x-ray detector enables spectroscopic bio-medical plain radiography. We show that the detector has the potential to provide new, useful information beyond the limited spectroscopic information of modern dual-energy computed tomography (CT) scanners. Full spectroscopic 3D-imaging is likely to be the next major technological advance in computed tomography, moving the modality towards molecular imaging applications. This paper focuses on the enabling technology which allows spectroscopic data collection and why this information is useful. In this preliminary study we acquired the first spectroscopic images of human tissue and other biological samples obtained using the Medipix2 detector. The images presented here include the clear resolution of the 1.4mm long distal phalanx of a 20-week-old miscarried foetus, showing clear energy-dependent variations. The opportunities for further research using the forthcoming Medipix3 detector are discussed and a prototype spectroscopic CT scanner (MARS, Medipix All Resolution System) is briefly describe

Practical Uses of the Human Capability Framework - An Outsiders's View of a Concept Guiding Public Policy and Research

The Human Capability Framework (HCF) was presented at LEW 9 as a really exciting concept that had proved very useful in Massey University's Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme. It had come from the Department of Labour. Personal amazement at the apparent change of direction in the Department's thinking this represented was succeeded by the realisation of its immediate usefulness for a research funding application then in process. This paper explores the author's perceptions of the original model and its origins. Then the outcomes that have flowed from the use of the model in the succeeding two years is considered. After an initial explanation of the HCF, there is an analysis of its use as a policy tool at national and regional levels. Its use in various research projects is described as well. The paper concludes with a consideration of the academic acceptability of the concept and some questions for further research