The effect of personal grooming on self-perceived body image.

Objective: Grooming behaviours, including application of fragranced products, are thought to reflect a means of managing social impressions and self-image. While application of deodorants has previously been shown to make individuals appear more confident to others, few studies have specifically examined the psychological effects of such rituals on the wearer. Here we investigated how grooming behaviours affect selfperceived body image, a central component of an individual’s self-image. Methods: In two separate experiments, using a psychophysical forced choice task, male and female participants with a normal body mass index (BMI) indicated whether projected life-size images of their own body were bigger or smaller than their actual size. In the experimental condition participants applied a fragranced deodorant before performing the task, while in the control condition no product was applied. Our dependent measures were the Point of Subjective Equality (PSE), the size at which participants report their body is subjectively equal to their actual body size, and the Difference Limen (DL), the amount of change in body size distortion necessary for it to be reliably detected. These measurements provide an index of attitudinal and perceptual components of body image respectively

The influence of art expertise and training on emotion and preference ratings for representational and abstract artworks.

<p>Across cultures and throughout recorded history, humans have produced visual art. This raises the question of why people report such an emotional response to artworks and find some works more beautiful or compelling than others. In the current study we investigated the interplay between art expertise, and emotional and preference judgments. Sixty participants (40 novices, 20 art experts) rated a set of 150 abstract artworks and portraits during two occasions: in a laboratory setting and in a museum. Before commencing their second session, half of the art novices received a brief training on stylistic and art historical aspects of abstract art and portraiture. Results showed that art experts rated the artworks higher than novices on aesthetic facets (beauty and wanting), but no group differences were observed on affective evaluations (valence and arousal). The training session made a small effect on ratings of preference compared to the non-trained group of novices. Overall, these findings are consistent with the idea that affective components of art appreciation are less driven by expertise and largely consistent across observers, while more cognitive aspects of aesthetic viewing depend on viewer characteristics such as art expertise.</p

Mean ratings from naïve and expert participants in the laboratory session.

<p>* significantly different at <i>p</i><.05 (Bonferroni corrected for multiple comparisons). Error bars represent standard error of the mean.</p

Demographic characteristics of participants.

<p>The art expertise score refers to a questionnaire adapted from the Assessment of Art Attributes (see Measures section) in which participants indicated, among others, the number of hours per week spent on creating visual art, number of museum visits per year, and so on. Scores are presented as mean ± standard deviation.</p><p>* significantly lower compared to the Expert group at <i>p</i><.005.</p><p>Demographic characteristics of participants.</p

Example of materials used in the museum session.

<p>(A) An example of a hand-out displaying one of the exhibition rooms in the museum with artworks included in our stimulus set, to aid participants in identifying the correct paintings and their corresponding numbers on the rating sheet. (B) Part of the rating sheet used in the museum session.</p

Effects of training and viewing context on ratings.

<p>Ratings for abstract art (graphs on left) and portraits (graphs on right) for all dimensions from all three groups at the laboratory session (blue bars) and the museum session (red bars). * significantly different from each other at <i>p</i><.05 (Bonferroni corrected for multiple comparisons). NT = No Training; TR = Training. Error bars represent standard error of the mean.</p

Examples of paradigm and stimulus material used in the laboratory session.

<p>(A) The experimental paradigm used in session I (laboratory session). (B) Examples of the stimuli. The top row shows examples of Geometric Abstraction (left) and Abstract Expressionism (right) artworks, while the bottom row shows sample portraits.</p

Effects of familiarity on rating scores obtained in the museum session.

<p>Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. * significantly different from each other at <i>p</i><.05.</p

Can we change brain functioning with cognition-focused interventions in Alzheimer's disease? The role of functional neuroimaging

PURPOSE: This review considers the application of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify treatment effects and brain plasticity in cognition-focused interventions aimed at people with Alzheimer's disease (AD). At present there is little evidence available that bears directly on this question. Associative memory function is affected in the early stages of AD and also deteriorates disproportionately in comparison to other types of memory in healthy ageing. METHODS: We review paradigms from the literature on face-name learning in fMRI in three groups (AD, mild cognitive impairment, and healthy ageing) with the aim of developing a paradigm to measure treatment effects and functional plasticity following cognitive intervention. RESULTS: Previous studies have commonly selected participants with high levels of education, and have generally used challenging tasks, with considerable variations in level of task performance across studies. The findings of the review indicate that there is a need a simple face-name learning paradigm that can be used with people with AD, and which can be applied either as a single assessment tool to compare various subject groups or as an outcome tool to assess functional changes following a period of cognitive intervention. CONCLUSIONS: We make recommendations for such a paradigm and discuss pilot data showing the successful application of our paradigm in an individual with MCI