A focus on the secure base phenomenon creates a framework for exploring the function of the attachment system in adulthood. Engaged couples (N = 157) were videotaped in a problem-solving interaction and assessed using the Secure Base Scoring System (SBSS), a system based on Ainsworth's analyses of infant-parent secure base use and support. Study 1 showed behavior was significantly related to representations assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview (M. Main & R. Goldwyn, 1994). In Study 2, the interactions were independently scored with the Rapid Marital Interaction Coding System (RMICS; R. E. Heyman & D. Vivian, 1993), a communication-based system. The SBSS predicted relationship variables beyond the RMICS, especially for women. Results indicate that the secure base phenomenon provides a cogent perspective on adult attachment behavior.

There is increasing evidence that early event-related potentials are a result of phase alignment of ongoing background oscillations of the electroencephalogram rather than additive amplitude modulation. Steady state visual-evoked potentials (ssVEPs) can be recorded using an intensity modulated stimulus, resulting in an evoked brain response at a known frequency, i.e. the stimulation frequency. Given this property, the ssVEP is ideally suited for examining the relationship between single-trial fluctuations in phase/amplitude and the evoked brain potential resulting from averaging across trials. To address this issue, the current study investigated the contribution of single trial power and intertrial phase locking to ssVEP generation by presenting a peripheral flicker. Further, transient stimuli were presented during flicker and at three increasing latency lags following flicker offset to examine (1) to what extent a stimulus can disturb the ssVEP oscillation and (2) how phase alignment during P1-N1-P2 time windows is affected during presence of evoked oscillations. The former assessment evaluates the stability of ssVEPs and the latter the phase alignment processes to transient stimuli under experimentally induced background oscillations. We observed that ssVEPs are a result of phase alignment rather than single trial amplitude modulation. In addition, ssVEP oscillations were not disturbed by transient stimuli. Finally, phase alignment in P1-N1-P2 time windows was distorted during and shortly after steady state stimulation. We conclude that ssVEPs represent strongly phase locked oscillations sharing the same generation mechanisms as early evoked potentials.

The increasing number of people playing games on touch-screen mobile phones raises the question of whether touch behaviors reflect players' emotional states. This prospect would not only be a valuable evaluation indicator for game designers, but also for real-time personalization of the game experience. Psychology studies on acted touch behavior show the existence of discriminative affective profiles. In this article, finger-stroke features during gameplay on an iPod were extracted and their discriminative power analyzed. Machine learning algorithms were used to build systems for automatically discriminating between four emotional states (Excited, Relaxed, Frustrated, Bored), two levels of arousal and two levels of valence. Accuracy reached between 69% and 77% for the four emotional states, and higher results (∼89%) were obtained for discriminating between two levels of arousal and two levels of valence. We conclude by discussing the factors relevant to the generalization of the results to applications other than games.

The temporal and spatial characteristics of brain activity preceding prosaccades and antisaccades were investigated using source reconstructions of 64-channel electroencephalography and 148-channel magnetoencephalography data. Stimulus-locked data showed early cuneus activity was stronger during antisaccades, and later occipital gyrus activity was stronger preceding prosaccades, which suggests a top-down influence on early visual processing. Response-locked data showed that supplementary eye field, prefrontal cortex, and medial frontal eye field activity was greater for antisaccades than for prosaccades prior to saccade generation. Lateral frontal eye field activity appeared to be inhibited prior to antisaccade response generation. The spatial and temporal resolution of combined electroencephalography/magnetoencephalography data allows the evaluation of specific cortical activities preceding saccades and for demonstration of how activities differ as a function of response contingencies.

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AcknowledgementThe authors would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments as well as Arnold Kamis for his help with the PLS analysis. AbstractThis paper examines three cognitive antecedents of Web user attitude toward a commercial website --perceived informativeness, perceived entertainment, and perceived irritation. We tested the theoretical relationships between the three cognitive antecedents, attitude toward the site, and intention to return to the site using Partial Least Squares (PLS) with data collected in a field study of three ecommerce websites. The model explains a high percentage of the variance in attitude toward the site and intention to return and all the coefficients in the model are significant. We conclude that both perceived informativeness and perceived entertainment are significantly and positively related to attitude toward the site, while perceived irritation is significantly and negatively related to attitude toward the site. We also conclude that attitude toward the site is significantly and positively related to a user's intention to return to the site.

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These techniques may include the overall structure of the online retailing interface (Westland & Au, 1998), and such individual features as banners, animation, sound, video, interstitials, and pop-up ads (Rodgers & Thorson, 2000). Features like banner size, image maps, audio, and Website interactivity have been found to enhance site appeal (Li &