Cognitive Ability and Cognitive Style in the Comprehension and Expression of Emotion

This research investigated the ability to comprehend and express affect by non-verbal means. Darwin (1872) suggested that the non-verbal communication of emotion had a biological basis. Hughlings-Jackson (1879) emphasized the relationship between cerebral functioning and the ability to communicate affect. Neuropsychological research suggests that a major neuronal network located in the right hemisphere supports non-verbal communication. The evidence indicates the localization of expressive skills in the anterior cortex and comprehensive skills in the posterior cortex. In the present study 31 behavioral tasks comprised a scale to assess the ability to communicate affect by non-verbal means. The tasks assessed the comprehension and/or expression of affect in facial expressions, drawings of faces, intonations of neutral sentences, and non-verbal vocal sounds. Six basic emotions were used--happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, and disgust. The scale was administered to 20 male and 25 female college students. Measures of internal consistency and reliability were calculated. Interrelationships between the tasks were analyzed as were relationships between the scale and demographic, personality and intellectual variables. The scale was analyzed via factor analysis and factor scores were calculated and correlated with demographic, personality and intellectual variables. The scale was found to be internally consistent and the scoring reliable. Performances on the 31 tasks were highly interrelated, which suggested a general ability to communicate emotion by non-verbal means. This general non-verbal ability appeared similar in many ways to the ability to use language to communicate. Comprehension skills appeared more fundamental than expression. The more highly developed skills in non-verbal communication were found for subjects at high levels of intellectual functioning. Communication of affect by non-verbal means appeared to be a skill that can be studied with cognitive research methods

Differential Patterns of Interference During Concurrent Task Performance for the Two Cerebral Hemispheres

In this experiment differential hemispheric processing demands in four cognitive tasks, two verbal and two non-verbal, were measured using a simple reaction time probe procedure. The procedure also measured the interference between the reaction time probe and the verbal and nonverbal tasks. The method used was similar to that found in information processing research using a concurrent task procedure to measure processing demands during primary task performance (Posner & Boies 1971). In the concurrent task procedure the subject is requested to perform two tasks at the same time: a cognitive (primary) task and a reaction time probe (secondary task). The accuracy and speed of response to the unpredictable perceptual probe is used as a measure of spare capacity during the performance of the primary task that is available to be allocated to perceptual monitoring at the instant of probe presentation. Four primary tasks were designed considering previous laterality research findings: two left hemisphere primary tasks (one requiring visual word processing and one requiring auditory word processing) and two right hemisphere primary tasks (one requiring visual-spatial processing and one requiring tone processing). Response to the primary task was pressing a switch with the right or left foot. The reaction-time probe tasks consisted of responding to stimuli presented to the right hemisphere with the left hand and stimuli presented to the left hemisphere with the right hand. The subjects responded to 26 randomly presented reaction time probes equally divided between right and left presentations. Twelve males and twelve female subjects served in each modality. Each of the tasks was performed alone and concurrently. The subject was instructed to pay equal attention to both tasks. Results showed that the male subjects tended to have shorter response latencies to the auditory reaction-time probes and female subjects tended to have shorter response latencies to the visual reactiontime probes. In addition, males had faster response latencies when the visual probe was presented to the right hemisphere than the left. These data suggest that males and females differed in the subprocesses they used to perform these tasks, and that visual and auditory subprocesses are organized differently within the sexes. Results during concurrent performance in the auditory activation task condition showed that the right foot interfered more with right hand performance and the left foot interfered more with left hand performance. These data suggest that the major source of interference between the activation task and criterion task was interference between motor components of the two tasks. Major differences were found between the verbal and non-verbal primary tasks in the way they were time-shared with the probe task. Performance on the verbal primary tasks appeared to have priority over the reaction time probe while performance on the non-verbal primary tasks did not; performance on the verbal primary tasks improved during concurrent conditions and performance on the non-verbal primary tasks declined. The enhancement in performance on the verbal primary tasks was accompanied by a greater decrement in performance on the probe task than occurred for probes during the non-verbal primary tasks

Space physics missions handbook

The purpose of this handbook is to provide background data on current, approved, and planned missions, including a summary of the recommended candidate future missions. Topics include the space physics mission plan, operational spacecraft, and details of such approved missions as the Tethered Satellite System, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, and the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science

Electron-beam propagation in a two-dimensional electron gas

A quantum mechanical model based on a Green's function approach has been used to calculate the transmission probability of electrons traversing a two-dimensional electron gas injected and detected via mode-selective quantum point contacts. Two-dimensional scattering potentials, back-scattering, and temperature effects were included in order to compare the calculated results with experimentally observed interference patterns. The results yield detailed information about the distribution, size, and the energetic height of the scattering potentials.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Transition from an electron solid to the sequence of fractional quantum Hall states at very low Landau level filling factor

At low Landau level filling of a two-dimensional electron system, typically associated with the formation of an electron crystal, we observe local minima in Rxx at filling factors nu=2/11, 3/17, 3/19, 2/13, 1/7, 2/15, 2/17, and 1/9. Each of these developing fractional quantum Hall (FQHE) states appears only above a filling factor-specific temperature. This can be interpreted as the melting of an electron crystal and subsequent FQHE liquid formation. The observed sequence of FQHE states follow the series of composite fermion states emanating from nu=1/6 and nu=1/8

Probing the potential landscape inside a two-dimensional electron-gas

We report direct observations of the scattering potentials in a two-dimensional electron-gas using electron-beam diffaction-experiments. The diffracting objects are local density-fluctuations caused by the spatial and charge-state distribution of the donors in the GaAs-(Al,Ga)As heterostructures. The scatterers can be manipulated externally by sample illumination, or by cooling the sample down under depleted conditions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Typification and authorship of Drosera intermedia (Droseraceae)

Drosera intermedia is lectotypified with the herbarium specimen on which the type drawing in the 1798 protologue was based. The collection history of the specimen, the history of the botanical drawing as original material, and the correct nomenclatural author and publication date of the name are presented based on historical notes and literature. Additionally, the global distribution of the species is given, including the first record from Africa

Properties of the Strange Axial Mesons in the Relativized Quark Model

We studied properties of the strange axial mesons in the relativized quark model. We calculated the $K_1$ decay constant in the quark model and showed how it can be used to extract the $K_1 (^3P_1) - K_1 (^1P_1)$ mixing angle ($\theta_K$) from the weak decay $\tau \to K_1 \nu_\tau$. The ratio $BR(\tau \to \nu_\tau K_1 (1270))/BR(\tau\to \nu_\tau K_1(1400))$ is the most sensitive measurement and also the most reliable since the largest of the theoretical uncertainties factor out. However the current bounds extracted from the TPC/Two-Gamma collaboration measurements are rather weak: we typically obtain $-30^o \lesssim \theta_K \lesssim 50^o$ at 68\% C.L. We also calculated the strong OZI-allowed decays in the pseudoscalar emission model and the flux-tube breaking model and extracted a $^3P_1 - ^1P_1$ mixing angle of $\theta_K \simeq 45^o$. Our analysis also indicates that the heavy quark limit does not give a good description of the strange mesons.Comment: Revised version to be published in Phys. Rev. D. Minor changes. Latex file uses revtex version 3 and epsfig, 4 postcript figures are attached. The full postcript version with embedded figures is available at ftp://ftp.physics.carleton.ca/pub/theory/godfrey/ocipc9512.ps.