Social Values and Determinants of Cultural Fit in Quebec: The Roles of Ancestry, Linguistic Group, and Mental Health Status

Many quantitative cross-cultural research studies assume that cultural groups consist of anyone born and raised in the same country. Applying these criteria to the formation of study samples may produce cohorts that share a country but are heterogeneous in relevant domains of culture. For example, in Canada, Franco- and Anglo-Canadians are generally assumed to represent different linguistic groups but the same cultural group. However, speaking a different first language also can mean exposure to different media, information, and conventions, which are known to shape certain cultural domains, such as social values. Other factors may also produce cultural heterogeneity. For example, ancestral origins and recency of familial migration may influence endorsed social values after exposure to diverse cultures or norms. Mental health status or psychiatric conditions may also influence subscription of social values due to different lifestyle demands. Understanding the nuanced contributions of diverse backgrounds to cultural membership and fit (i.e., the degree to which an individual behaves like other cultural members) is useful when performing quantitative cross-cultural studies to minimize alternative explanations for statistical outcomes. This study used Cultural Consensus Analysis (CCA) to assess the cultural fit of social values for 222 Canadians, who had participated in cross-cultural neuropsychological experiments. CCA is an anthropological statistical method for evaluating cultural agreement of a sample. Participants were systematically evaluated by linguistic groups (French and English), migratory generation (1st–3rd+), and mental health status (healthy and patient). Group and individual variances were statistically interrogated. Results demonstrated that Franco- and Anglo-Canadians represent different cultural groups cohabitating in Quebec. Social values dividing Franco- and Anglo-Canadians were also identified. Second and third generation Canadians held more heterogeneous social values than Canadians, whose families had migrated earlier. Second generation Canadians with psychiatric disorders showed notably reduced cultural fit with other Canadians, which supports other literature reporting difficulties experienced by second generation migrants. However, third and later generations of Canadians with psychiatric disorders held a greater range of social values compared to healthy Canadians but still were good fits for Canadian culture. This study concluded that linguistic group and migratory generation partially determines cultural group for the social values domain while mental health status does not, contrary to theories proposed by previous literature

On the Functional Significance of the P1 and N1 Effects to Illusory Figures in the Notch Mode of Presentation

The processing of Kanizsa figures have classically been studied by flashing the full “pacmen” inducers at stimulus onset. A recent study, however, has shown that it is advantageous to present illusory figures in the “notch” mode of presentation, that is by leaving the round inducers on screen at all times and by removing the inward-oriented notches delineating the illusory figure at stimulus onset. Indeed, using the notch mode of presentation, novel P1and N1 effects have been found when comparing visual potentials (VEPs) evoked by an illusory figure and the VEPs to a control figure whose onset corresponds to the removal of outward-oriented notches, which prevents their integration into one delineated form. In Experiment 1, we replicated these findings, the illusory figure was found to evoke a larger P1 and a smaller N1 than its control. In Experiment 2, real grey squares were placed over the notches so that one condition, that with inward-oriented notches, shows a large central grey square and the other condition, that with outward-oriented notches, shows four unconnected smaller grey squares. In response to these “real” figures, no P1 effect was found but a N1 effect comparable to the one obtained with illusory figures was observed. Taken together, these results suggest that the P1 effect observed with illusory figures is likely specific to the processing of the illusory features of the figures. Conversely, the fact that the N1 effect was also obtained with real figures indicates that this effect may be due to more global processes related to depth segmentation or surface/object perception

The Bank of Standardized Stimuli (BOSS), a New Set of 480 Normative Photos of Objects to Be Used as Visual Stimuli in Cognitive Research

There are currently stimuli with published norms available to study several psychological aspects of language and visual cognitions. Norms represent valuable information that can be used as experimental variables or systematically controlled to limit their potential influence on another experimental manipulation. The present work proposes 480 photo stimuli that have been normalized for name, category, familiarity, visual complexity, object agreement, viewpoint agreement, and manipulability. Stimuli are also available in grayscale, blurred, scrambled, and line-drawn version. This set of objects, the Bank Of Standardized Stimuli (BOSS), was created specifically to meet the needs of scientists in cognition, vision and psycholinguistics who work with photo stimuli

Heightened Responses of the Parahippocampal and Retrosplenial Cortices during Contextualized Recognition of Congruent Objects

Context sometimes helps make objects more recognizable. Previous studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have examined regional neural activity when objects have strong or weak associations with their contexts. Such studies have demonstrated that activity in the parahippocampal cortex (PHC) generally corresponds with strong associations between objects and their spatial contexts while retrosplenial cortex (RSC) activity is linked with episodic memory. However these studies investigated objects viewed in associated contexts, but the direct influence of scene on the perception of visual objects has not been widely investigated. We hypothesized that the PHC and RSC may only be engaged for congruent contexts in which the object could typically be found but not for neutral contexts. While in an fMRI scanner, 15 participants rated the recognizability of 152 photographic images of objects, presented within congruent and incongruent contexts. Regions of interest were created to examine PHC and RSC activity using a hypothesis-driven approach. Exploratory analyses were also performed to identify other regional activity. In line with previous studies, PHC and RSC activity emerged when objects were viewed in congruent contexts. Activity in the RSC, inferior parietal lobe (IPL) and fusiform gyrus also emerged. These findings indicate that different brain regions are employed when objects are meaningfully contextualized

The impact of image format and normative variables on episodic memory

Cognitive processes are complex and difficult to study because multiple variables can interact and confound the effect of the independent variable. To avoid this potential problem, experimental conditions are rigorously controlled and normative stimuli from standardized data-sets are preferably used. However, norms characterize the stimuli, but they do not prevent potential confounding effects. This is an important issue since many normative variables, such as familiarity and visual complexity, influence cognitive processes, such as memory. In Experiment 1, 20 participants completed an episodic memory task in order to see if name agreement, object agreement, familiarity, visual complexity, manipulability and colour diagnosticity of photos taken from the Bank of Standardized Stimuli (BOSS) influence memory performances. In Experiment 2, 20 participants completed a different episodic memory task to see whether memory performances were different for coloured photos, greyscale photos and black and white line drawings. Results showed that familiarity decreased memory accuracy whereas visual complexity increased it. Object agreement and colour diagnosticity brought a feeling of familiarity, and manipulability decreased the recognition of old objects. Results from the Experiment 2 showed that old photos were more recognized than old drawings and that new coloured photos were more correctly rejected than new greyscale photos and new drawings that had low colour diagnosticity. This study documents the different patterns of influences that normative variables exert on episodic memory and illustrates the importance of carefully controlling them in future studies

N300 and social affordances: a study with a real person and a dummy as stimuli.

Pictures of objects have been shown to automatically activate affordances, that is, actions that could be performed with the object. Similarly, pictures of faces are likely to activate social affordances, that is, interactions that would be possible with the person whose face is being presented. Most interestingly, if it is the face of a real person that is shown, one particular type of social interactions can even be carried out while event-related potentials (ERPs) are recorded. Indeed, subtle eye movements can be made to achieve an eye contact with the person with minimal artefacts on the EEG. The present study thus used the face of a real person to explore the electrophysiological correlates of affordances in a situation where some of them (i.e., eye contacts) are actually performed. The ERPs this person elicited were compared to those evoked by another 3D stimulus: a real dummy, and thus by a stimulus that should also automatically activate eye contact affordances but with which such affordances could then be inhibited since they cannot be carried out with an object. The photos of the person and of the dummy were used as matching stimuli that should not activate social affordances as strongly as the two 3D stimuli and for which social affordances cannot be carried out. The fronto-central N300s to the real dummy were found of greater amplitudes than those to the photos and to the real person. We propose that these greater N300s index the greater inhibition needed after the stronger activations of affordances induced by this 3D stimulus than by the photos. Such an inhibition would not have occurred in the case of the real person because eye contacts were carried out