Silvia De Marchi (1929) on numerical estimation: A translation and commentary.

Vittorio Benussi (1878-1927) is known for numerous studies on optical illusions, visual and haptic perception, spatial and time perception. In Padova, he had a brilliant student who carefully worked on the topic of how people estimate numerosity, Silvia De Marchi (1897-1936). Her writings have never been translated into English before. Here we comment on her work and life, characterized also by the challenges faced by women in academia. The studies on perception of numerosity from her thesis were published as an article in 1929. We provide a translation from Italian, a redrawing of its 23 illustrations and of the graphs. It shows an original experimental approach and an anticipation of what later became known as magnitude estimation.

Event related potentials (ERP) reveal a robust response to visual symmetry in unattended visual regions.

Visual symmetry at fixation generates a bilateral Event Related Potential (ERP) called the Sustained Posterior Negativity (SPN). Symmetry presented in the left visual hemifield generates a contralateral SPN over the right hemisphere and vice versa. The current study examined whether the contralateral SPN is modulated by the focus of spatial attention. On each trial there were two dot patterns, one to the left of fixation, and one to the right of fixation. A central arrow cue pointed to one of the patterns and participants discriminated its regularity (symmetry or random). We compared contralateral SPN amplitude generated by symmetry at attended and unattended spatial locations. While the response to attended symmetry was slightly enhanced, the response to unattended symmetry was still substantial. Although visual symmetry detection is a computational challenge, we conclude that the brain processes visual symmetry in unattended parts of the visual field.

When does perceptual organization happen?

Reflectional (mirror) symmetry is an important visual cue for perceptual organization. The brain processes symmetry rapidly and efficiently. Previous work suggests that symmetry activates the extrastriate cortex and generates an event related potential (ERP) called the Sustained Posterior Negativity (SPN). It has been claimed that no tasks completely block symmetry processing and abolish the SPN. We tested the limits of this claim with a series of eight new Electroencephalography (EEG) experiments (344 participants in total). All experiments used the same symmetrical or asymmetrical dot patterns. When participants attended to regularity in Experiment 1, there was a substantial SPN (Mean amplitude = -2.423 µV). The SPN was reduced, but not abolished, when participants discriminated dot luminance in Experiments 2 and 3 (-.835 and -1.410 µV) or the aspect ratio of a superimposed cross in Experiments 4 and 5 (-.722 and -.601 µV). The SPN also survived when the background pattern was potentially disruptive to the primary task in Experiment 6 (-1.358 µV) and when participants classified negative superimposed words in Experiment 7 (-.510 µV). Finally, the SPN remained when participants attended to the orientation of a diagonal line in Experiment 8 (-.589 µV). While task manipulations can turn down the extrastriate symmetry activation, they cannot render the system completely unresponsive. Permanent readiness to detect reflectional symmetry at the centre of the visual field could be an evolved adaptation.

The brain does not process horizontal reflection when attending to vertical reflection, and vice versa.

Previous work has found that feature attention can modulate electrophysiological responses to visual symmetry. In the current study, participants observed spatially overlapping clouds of black and white dots. They discriminated vertical symmetry from asymmetry in the target dots (e.g., black or white) and ignored the regularity of the distractor dots (e.g., white or black). We measured an electroencephalography component called the sustained posterior negativity (SPN), which is known to be generated by visual symmetry. There were five conditions with different combinations of target and distractor regularity. As well as replicating previous results, we found that an orthogonal axes of reflection in the distractor dots had no effect on SPN amplitude. We conclude that the visual system can processes reflectional symmetry in independent axis-orientation specific channels.

On the relationship between foveal mask interference and mental imagery in peripheral object recognition.

A delayed foveal mask affects perception of peripheral stimuli. The effect is determined by the timing of the mask and by the similarity with the peripheral stimulus. A congruent mask enhances performance, while an incongruent one impairs it. It is hypothesized that foveal masks disrupt a feedback mechanism reaching the foveal cortex. This mechanism could be part of a broader circuit associated with mental imagery, but this hypothesis has not as yet been tested. We investigated the link between mental imagery and foveal feedback. We tested the relationship between performance fluctuations caused by the foveal mask-measured in terms of discriminability (d') and criterion (C)-and the scores from two questionnaires designed to assess mental imagery vividness (VVIQ) and another exploring object imagery, spatial imagery and verbal cognitive styles (OSIVQ). Contrary to our hypotheses, no significant correlations were found between VVIQ and the mask's impact on d' and C. Neither the object nor spatial subscales of OSIVQ correlated with the mask's impact. In conclusion, our findings do not substantiate the existence of a link between foveal feedback and mental imagery. Further investigation is needed to determine whether mask interference might occur with more implicit measures of imagery.

The network structure of psychopathological and resilient responses to the pandemic: A multicountry general population study of depression and anxiety.

Commonly identified patterns of psychological distress in response to adverse events are characterized by resilience (i.e., little to no distress), delayed (i.e., distress that increases over time), recovery (i.e., distress followed by a gradual decrease over time), and sustained (i.e., distress remaining stable over time). This study aimed to examine these response patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anxiety and depressive symptom data collected across four European countries over the first year of the pandemic were analyzed (N = 3,594). Participants were first categorized into groups based on the four described patterns. Network connectivity and symptom clustering were then estimated for each group and compared. Two thirds (63.6%) of the sample displayed a resilience pattern. The sustained distress network (16.3%) showed higher connectivity than the recovery network (10.0%) group, p = .031; however, the resilient network showed higher connectivity than the delayed network (10.1%) group, p = .016. Regarding symptom clustering, more clusters emerged in the recovery network (i.e., three) than the sustained network (i.e., two). These results replicate findings that resilience was the most common mental health pattern over the first pandemic year. Moreover, they suggest that high network connectivity may be indicative of a stable mental health response over time, whereas fewer clusters may be indicative of a sustained distress pattern. Although exploratory, the network perspective provides a useful tool for examining the complexity of psychological responses to adverse events and, if replicated, could be useful in identifying indicators of protection against or vulnerability to future psychological distress.

Phenomenology, Quantity, and Numerosity.

There are many situations in which we interact with collections of objects, from a crowd of people to a bowl of blackberries. There is an experience of the quantity of these items, although not a precise number, and we have this impression quickly and effortlessly. It can be described as an expressive property of the whole. In the literature, the study of this sense of numerosity has a long history, which is reviewed here with examples. I argue that numerosity is a direct perceptual experience, and that all experiences of numerosity, not only estimations, are affected by perceptual organisation.

Foveal feedback in perceptual processing: Contamination of neural representations and task difficulty effects.

Visual object recognition was traditionally believed to rely on a hierarchical feedforward process. However, recent evidence challenges this notion by demonstrating the crucial role of foveal retinotopic cortex and feedback signals from higher-level visual areas in processing peripheral visual information. The nature of the information conveyed through foveal feedback remains a topic of debate. To address this, we conducted a study employing a foveal mask paradigm with varying stimulus-mask onset asynchronies in a peripheral same/different task, where peripheral objects exhibited different degrees of similarity. Our hypothesis posited that simultaneous arrival of feedback and mask information in the foveal cortex would lead to neural contamination, biasing perception. Notably, when the two peripheral objects were identical, we observed a significant increase in the number of "different" responses, peaking at approximately 100 ms. Similar effect was found when the objects were dissimilar, but with an overall later timing (around 150 ms). No significant difference was found when comparing easy (dissimilar objects) and difficult trials (similar objects). The findings challenge the hypothesis that foveation planning alone accounts for the observed effects. Instead, these and previous observations support the notion that the foveal cortex serves as a visual sketchpad for maintaining and manipulating task-relevant information.

Predicting resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United Kingdom: Cross-sectional and longitudinal results.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the psychological wellbeing of some people, there is evidence that many have been much less affected. The Ecological Model of Resilience (EMR) may explain why some individuals are not resilient whilst others are. In this study we test the EMR in a comparison of UK survey data collected from the COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) longitudinal study of a representative sample of the United Kingdom (UK) adult population and data from an Italian arm of the study. We first compare data from the third wave of the UK arm of the study, collected in July/August 2020, with data from an equivalent sample and stage of the pandemic in Italy in July 2020. Next, using UK longitudinal data collected from C19PRC Waves 1, 3 and 5, collected between March 2020 and April 2021 we identify the proportion of people who were resilient. Finally, we examine which factors, drawn from the EMR, predict resilient and non-resilient outcomes. We find that the 72% of the UK sample was resilient, in line with the Italian study. In the cross-sectional logistic regression model, age and self-esteem were significantly associated with resilience whilst death anxiety thoughts, neuroticism, loneliness, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms related to COVID-19 were significantly associated with Non-Resilient outcomes. In the longitudinal UK analysis, at Wave 5, 80% of the sample was Resilient. Service use, belonging to wider neighbourhood, self-rated health, self-esteem, openness, and externally generated death anxiety were associated with Resilient outcomes. In contrast, PTSD symptoms and loneliness were associated with Non-Resilient outcomes. The EMR effectively explained the results. There were some variables which are amenable to intervention which could increase resilience in the face of similar future challenges.

Mario Ponzo (1928) on perception of numerosity: A translation and commentary.

Ponzo is a familiar name in psychology because of the illusion that takes his name. He had a long and productive career in Italy, and some of his work was translated for international journals already in his lifetime. However, few of these papers are available in English. We provide a commentary that considers how his name came to be associated with an illusion he did not discover. We explain the content of several papers, some of which are often cited in a wrong context in the literature (i.e., papers on touch mentioned in relation to the Ponzo illusion). More importantly, we discuss his contribution to the study of perceived numerosity, and provide a full translation of his important 1928 paper, including a redrawing of its 28 illustrations.

The role of the COVID-19 impersonal threat strengthening the associations of right-wing attitudes, nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiments.

Literature showed that the link between right-wing attitudes and ethnocentric attitudes gets stronger under existential threats, but the role exerted by an impersonal threat - as COVID-19 - on right-wing attitudes is still unclear. This study aimed to highlight the role of anxiety exerted by the impersonal COVID-19 threat on the relationship between right-wing attitudes and ethnocentric attitudes, as nationalism and anti-immigrants' sentiments. As part of an international project to evaluate the impact of COVID-19, this study administered an online survey to a representative sample (n 1038). The anxiety generated by an impersonal threat as COVID-19 - thus not exerted by any outgroup - can moderate the relationship among personal Right-Wing Authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and ethnocentric attitudes. This is the first study demonstrating that existential threat is effective also when exerted by an impersonal agent (as COVID-19) rather than by an outgroup. Second, these findings disclose useful implications for preventive psychological interventions and for social policy makers. Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04305-w.

The mediating role of scientifical-medical satisfaction between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and vaccine confidence: a two-waves structural equation model.

Vaccine confidence has emerged as one of the most relevant psychological factors implied in the worldwide affecting the fight against COVID-19-as well as public trust in doctors, medicine, and science. Indeed, the vaccine confidence is crucial to maximize the trust in vaccines and their use for prevention, with several implications for public health. This study aimed to analyse the relationships among between vaccine confidence, conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19, and satisfaction with science and medicine in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. A longitudinal observational survey was administered to a convenience sample (n = 544; mean age 52.76 y.o., SD = 15.11; females 46.69%) from the Italian general population. A two-waves mediation model-a structural equation model technique-was used. The survey was part of a larger international project ( https://osf.io/qy65b/ ). The model highlighted that the conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 had a negative effect on the satisfaction with medicine and science (ß = - 0.13, se = 0.03, p < .001). The latter, in turn, had a positive effect on vaccine confidence (ß = 0.10, se = .05, p < .001). Interestingly, the effect of conspiracy beliefs on vaccine confidence was completely mediated by the scientifical-medical satisfaction (ß = - 0.02, se = 0.01, p < .05). These results highlight how the scientifical-medical satisfaction can fully mediate the relationship between conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 and vaccine confidence. These findings about vaccine hesitancy and confidence and disclose have implications for psychological and social interventions that could promote vaccine confidence by targeting the satisfaction with science and medicine.

What the Solitaire illusion tells us about perception of numerosity.

In four experiments we investigated the Solitaire illusion. In this illusion, most observers see as more numerous a set of dots that forms a single central group, compared to dots on the outside of that group. We confirmed and extended the effect to configurations with much higher numerosity than the original and of various colours. Contrary to prediction, separating the two groups, so that they are presented side by side, reduced but did not abolish or reverse the illusion. In this illusion, therefore, neither total size of the region (area), not average distance of the elements has the expected effect. In Experiments 3 and 4 we eliminated the regularity of the pattern, by sampling 50% (Exp 3) or only a 10% (Exp 4) of the elements. These produces quasi-random configurations. For these configurations the bias for the inner groups was still present, and it was only eliminated when the groups were shown as separate. However, the effect never reversed (no bias for the outer group, despite its larger area). We conclude that the Solitaire illusion is evidence of a strong bias in favour of centrally located elements, a bias that can overcome other factors.

Investigating the role of the foveal cortex in peripheral object discrimination.

Peripheral object discrimination is hindered by a central dynamic mask presented between 150 and 300 ms after stimulus onset. The mask is thought to interfere with task-relevant feedback coming from higher visual areas to the foveal cortex in V1. Fan et al. (2016) supported this hypothesis by showing that the effect of mask can be further delayed if the task requires mental manipulation of the peripheral target. The main purpose of this study was to better characterize the temporal dynamics of foveal feedback. Specifically, in two experiments we have shown that (1) the effect of foveal noise mask is sufficiently robust to be replicated in an online data collection (2) in addition to a change in sensitivity the mask affects also the criterion, which becomes more conservative; (3) the expected dipper function for sensitivity approximates a quartic with a global minimum at 94 ms, while the best fit for criterion is a quintic with a global maximum at 174 ms; (4) the power spectrum analysis of perceptual oscillations in sensitivity data shows a cyclic effect of mask at 3 and 12 Hz. Overall, our results show that foveal noise affects sensitivity in a cyclic manner, with a global dip emerging earlier than previously found. The noise also affects the response bias, even though with a different temporal profile. We, therefore, suggest that foveal noise acts on two distinct feedback mechanisms, a faster perceptual feedback followed by a slower cognitive feedback.

Towards the boundaries of self-prioritization: Associating the self with asymmetric shapes disrupts the self-prioritization effect.

Individuals tend to prioritize self-relevant information over other-relevant information. Converging empirical evidence indicates that stimuli that are arbitrarily associated with the self are processed more efficiently than stimuli that are arbitrarily associated with stranger identities. In the present study, we tested if a salient perceptual feature (i.e., presence or absence of symmetry) can modulate this self-prioritization effect. In particular, we wanted to know how the valence of symmetry would integrate or interfere with the self. Under one condition, participants were asked to associate the self with symmetric shapes and a stranger with asymmetric shapes, whereas, under another condition, the association was inverted (i.e., self-asymmetry/stranger-symmetry). The two conditions were manipulated within participants (Experiment 1, laboratory-based) or between participants (Experiment 2, online). Participants classified a randomly generated shape (symmetric vs. asymmetric) and a label (you vs. stranger) as either matching or nonmatching with the previously learned association. In both experiments, a clear self-prioritization effect emerged in the self-symmetry/stranger-asymmetry condition whereas, strikingly, no evidence of a self-prioritization effect emerged at all in the opposite condition. The results suggest that the self-prioritization effect is not mandatory and can be modulated by the valence of the stimuli with which self and stranger are associated. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Lessons from a catalogue of 6674 brain recordings.

It is now possible for scientists to publicly catalogue all the data they have ever collected on one phenomenon. For a decade, we have been measuring a brain response to visual symmetry called the sustained posterior negativity (SPN). Here we report how we have made a total of 6674 individual SPNs from 2215 participants publicly available, along with data extraction and visualization tools (https://osf.io/2sncj/). We also report how re-analysis of the SPN catalogue has shed light on aspects of the scientific process, such as statistical power and publication bias, and revealed new scientific insights.

On the usefulness of graph-theoretic properties in the study of perceived numerosity.

Observers can quickly estimate the quantity of sets of visual elements. Many aspects of this ability have been studied and the underlying system has been called the Approximate Number Sense (Dehaene, 2011). Specific visual properties, such as size and clustering of the elements, can bias an estimate. For intermediate numerical quantities at low density (above five, but before texturization), human performance is predicted by a model based on the region of influence of elements (occupancy model: Allïk & Tuulmets, 1991). For random 2D configurations we computed ten indices based on graph theory, and we compared them with the occupancy model: independence number, domination, connected components, local clustering coefficient, global clustering coefficient, random walk, eigenvector centrality, maximum clique, total degree of connectivity, and total edge length. We made comparisons across a range of parameters, and we varied the size of the region of influence around each element. The analysis of the pattern of correlations suggests two main groups of graph-based measures. The first group is sensitive to the presence of local clustering of elements, the second seems more sensitive to density and the way information spreads in graphs. Empirical work on perception of numerosity may benefit from comparing, or controlling for, these properties.

Measurement invariance of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) across four European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) are self-report measures of major depressive disorder and generalised anxiety disorder. The primary aim of this study was to test for differential item functioning (DIF) on the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 items based on age, sex (males and females), and country. METHOD: Data from nationally representative surveys in UK, Ireland, Spain, and Italy (combined N = 6,054) were used to fit confirmatory factor analytic and multiple-indictor multiple-causes models. RESULTS: Spain and Italy had higher latent variable means than the UK and Ireland for both anxiety and depression, but there was no evidence for differential items functioning. CONCLUSIONS: The PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores were found to be unidimensional, reliable, and largely free of DIF in data from four large nationally representative samples of the general population in the UK, Ireland, Italy and Spain.

Electrophysiological evidence of the amodal representation of symmetry in extrastriate areas.

Extrastriate visual areas are strongly activated by image symmetry. Less is known about symmetry representation at object-level rather than image-level. Here we investigated electrophysiological responses to symmetry, generated by amodal completion of partially-occluded polygon shapes. We used a similar paradigm in four experiments (N = 112). A fully-visible abstract shape (either symmetric or asymmetric) was presented for 250 ms (t0). A large rectangle covered it entirely for 250 ms (t1) and then moved to one side to reveal one half of the shape hidden behind (t2, 1000 ms). Note that at t2 no symmetry could be extracted from retinal image information. In half of the trials the shape was the same as previously presented, in the other trials it was replaced by a novel shape. Participants matched shapes similarity (Exp. 1 and Exp. 2), or their colour (Exp. 3) or the orientation of a triangle superimposed to the shapes (Exp. 4). The fully-visible shapes (t0-t1) elicited automatic symmetry-specific ERP responses in all experiments. Importantly, there was an exposure-dependent symmetry-response to the occluded shapes that were recognised as previously seen (t2). Exp. 2 and Exp.4 confirmed this second ERP (t2) did not reflect a reinforcement of a residual carry-over response from t0. We conclude that the extrastriate symmetry-network can achieve amodal representation of symmetry from occluded objects that have been previously experienced as wholes.