Importance of the Inverted Control in Measuring Holistic Face Processing with the Composite Effect and Part-Whole Effect

Holistic coding for faces is shown in several illusions that demonstrate integration of the percept across the entire face. The illusions occur upright but, crucially, not inverted. Converting the illusions into experimental tasks that measure their strength - and thus index degree of holistic coding - is often considered straightforward yet in fact relies on a hidden assumption, namely that there is no contribution to the experimental measure from secondary cognitive factors. For the composite effect, a relevant secondary factor is size of the "spotlight" of visuospatial attention. The composite task assumes this spotlight can be easily restricted to the target half (e.g., top-half) of the compound face stimulus. Yet, if this assumption were not true then a large spotlight, in the absence of holistic perception, could produce a false composite effect, present even for inverted faces and contributing partially to the score for upright faces. We review evidence that various factors can influence spotlight size: race/culture (Asians often prefer a more global distribution of attention than Caucasians); sex (females can be more global); appearance of the join or gap between face halves; and location of the eyes, which typically attract attention. Results from five experiments then show inverted faces can sometimes produce large false composite effects, and imply that whether this happens or not depends on complex interactions between causal factors. We also report, for both identity and expression, that only top-half face targets (containing eyes) produce valid composite measures. A sixth experiment demonstrates an example of a false inverted part-whole effect, where encoding-specificity is the secondary cognitive factor. We conclude the inverted face control should be tested in all composite and part-whole studies, and an effect for upright faces should be interpreted as a pure measure of holistic processing only when the experimental design produces no effect inverted.Australian Research Council DP0984558 to Elinor McKone; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (project number CE110001021); Kate Crookes salary supported by Hong Kong Research Grants Council grant (HKU744911) to William Hayward

Importance of the inverted control in measuring holistic face processing with the composite effect and part-whole effect

Holistic coding for faces is shown in several illusions that demonstrate integration of the percept across the entire face. The illusions occur upright but, crucially, not inverted. Converting the illusions into experimental tasks that measure their strength - and thus index degree of holistic coding - is often considered straightforward yet in fact relies on a hidden assumption, namely that there is no contribution to the experimental measure from secondary cognitive factors. For the composite effect, a relevant secondary factor is size of the "spotlight" of visuospatial attention. The composite task assumes this spotlight can be easily restricted to the target half (e.g., top-half) of the compound face stimulus. Yet, if this assumption were not true then a large spotlight, in the absence of holistic perception, could produce a false composite effect, present even for inverted faces and contributing partially to the score for upright faces.We reviewevidence that various factors can influence spotlight size: race/culture (Asians often prefer a more global distribution of attention than Caucasians); sex (females can be more global); appearance of the join or gap between face halves; and location of the eyes, which typically attract attention. Results from five experiments then show inverted faces can sometimes produce large false composite effects, and imply that whether this happens or not depends on complex interactions between causal factors. We also report, for both identity and expression, that only top-half face targets (containing eyes) produce valid composite measures. A sixth experiment demonstrates an example of a false inverted part-whole effect, where encoding-specificity is the secondary cognitive factor.We conclude the inverted face control should be tested in all composite and part-whole studies, and an effect for upright faces should be interpreted as a pure measure of holistic processing only when the experimental design produces no effect inverted

Depression and anxiety in esidential aged care : attitudes, help-seeking and effectiveness of group-based cognitive behaviour therapy

Depression and anxiety among older people who live in residential aged care is severely under-recognised and under-treated. The aim of this dissertation was to examine ways to improve the provision of psychological therapies to residents through a two-step process of examining older adults' willingness to seek help for depression and anxiety, and by evaluating the effectiveness of providing group-based cognitive behaviour therapy within residential aged care facilities. Informed by theoretical models of help-seeking, older adults' attitudes towards depression and anxiety and their relationship to help-seeking was explored in Study 1 (N = 105). Positive attitudes and low stigma towards depression and anxiety were found in this sample of older people living in residential care. Their favourable attitude towards depression and anxiety was positively related to willingness to seek help for these disorders, but no relationship between stigma and help-seeking was found. In addition, the older adults in the sample indicated that they would be willing to engage with specialist mental health services if referred by their GPs. Practical issues such as cost was cited as the main barrier to seeking help. In Study 2 (N = 18), group-based cognitive behaviour therapy for anxiety and depression was conducted with older people within their aged care facility. Its effectiveness in reducing symptoms of mild depression and anxiety was evaluated, with encouraging results on standardised measures and positive qualitative feedback from the participants. Together, these results strengthen the need to facilitate greater access to psychological services by older adults who live in residential aged care in order to maintain their overall mental wellbeing

Help-seeking intentions for anxiety among older adults

Mental health practices are not working for older people with anxiety in residential care, as there is a persistent lack of recognition and treatment. This suggests that alternative ways of reaching and meeting the needs of this population need to be explored. One possibility involves enabling older adults themselves to seek help. The current work explored various factors impacting on help-seeking behaviours. In total, 105 participants from independent living units in a residential care setting completed a questionnaire focusing on attitudes and stigma towards anxiety, likelihood to seek help, help-seeking barriers and literacy around the symptoms of anxiety. Participants in the main did not hold negative attitudes towards other people with anxiety, despite concerns that other people could view them negatively if they were experiencing anxiety. Barriers to help-seeking included: difficulties recognising physical anxiety symptoms as being indicative of anxiety; the effectiveness of treatments; costs; misdiagnosis; privacy; medication usage and the associated side-effects; and, uneasiness about the skills and knowledge of health professionals. Although concerns were not held by all participants, the fact remains that anxiety is largely undiagnosed and untreated for this population and these stoppages to appropriate care must be addressed

A feasibility study of group-based cognitive behaviour therapy for older adults in residential care

Objective: This study examined the feasibility of providing older adults living in residential aged care with group-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for depression and anxiety. Method: Eighteen participants with subclinical to mild anxiety and/or depression were divided equally into a treatment group and a control group, with treatment consisting of a manualised CBT program for older adults with depression and anxiety. The residents who participated in the group program provided an accurate representation of "real-world" residential aged care facilities (RACF) populations; many with comorbid physical problems, mild cognitive impairment and functional decline, and a mean age of almost 80 years. Results: The residents showed that not only could they successfully engage in psychotherapy, they were able to experience the benefits such as building their skills and resilience, receiving validation and emotional support from their fellow residents and fostering friendships and social networks. Encouragingly, the treatment group also showed fewer depressive symptoms post-treatment. Conclusions: Group-based psychotherapy should continue to be explored as a strategy to promote good mental health in RACFs, with further studies focusing on the feasibility of recruiting and treating clinical populations in this setting. © 2016 The Australian Psychological Society

Asia has the global advantage: Race and visual attention

In studies of visual attention, and related aspects of cognition, race (continent/s of ancestry) of participants is typically not reported, implying that authors consider this variable irrelevant to outcomes. However, there exist several findings of perceptual differences between East Asians and Caucasian Westerners that can be interpreted as relative differences in global versus local distribution of attention. Here, we used Navon figures (e.g., large E made up of small Vs) to provide the first direct comparison of global-local processing using a standard method from the attention literature. Relative to Caucasians, East Asians showed a strong global advantage. Further, this extended to the second generation (Asian-Australians), although weakened compared to recent immigrants. Our results argue participants' race should be reported in all studies about, or involving, visual attention to spatially distributed stimuli: to continue to ignore race risks adding noise to data and/or drawing invalid theoretical conclusions by mixing functionally distinct populations