The importance of being in earnest

Certain remarks in the Tractatus, taken together with a passage in a letter Wittgenstein wrote to Russell, suggest that at one time Wittgenstein inclined toward a psychologistic theory of language. But textual considerations with regard to the former and a special interpretation of the latter allow us to interpret these statements in a way that is consistent with Wittgenstein's later views.     

The importance of being convex: an advantage for convexity when judging position.

Perception of contour polarity was investigated in five experiments in which observers had to judge the vertical position of a vertex. When the vertex was perceived as convex, the level of performance as measured by reaction time and errors was higher than when the same vertex was perceived as concave. I conclude that contour polarity affects how observers perceive shape, and in particular part structure, and that the position of a part is more readily available than the position of a boundary between parts.     

The importance of being we: human nature and intergroup relations

The author discusses the nature of in-group bias and the social motives that underlie ethnocentric attachment to one's own membership groups. Two common assumptions about in-group bias are challenged: that in-group positivity necessitates out-group derogation and that in-group bias is motivated by self-enhancement. A review of relevant theory and research on intergroup relations provides evidence for 3 alternative principles: (a) in-group attachment and positivity are primary and independent of out-groups, (b) security motives (belonging and distinctiveness) underlie universal in-group favoritism, and (c) attitudes toward out-groups vary as a function of intergroup relationships and associated threats to belonging and distinctiveness     

The importance of being expert: Top-down attentional control in visual search with photographs

Two observers looking at the same picture may not see the same thing. To avoid sensory overload, visual information is actively selected for further processing by bottom-up processes, originating within the visual image, and top-down processes, reflecting the motivation and past experiences of the observer. The latter processes could grant categories of significance to the observer a permanent attentional advantage. Nevertheless, evidence for a generalized top-down advantage for specific categories has been limited. In this study, bird and car experts searched for face, car, or bird photographs in a heterogeneous display of photographs of real objects. Bottom-up influences were ruled out by presenting both groups of experts with identical displays. Faces and targets of expertise had a clear advantage over novice targets, indicating a permanent top-down preference for favored categories. A novel type of analysis of reaction times over the visual field suggests that the advantage for expert objects is achieved by broader detection windows, allowing observers to scan greater parts of the visual field for the presence of favored targets during each fixation.     

Comparing two-digit numbers: the importance of being presented together

The effect of presentation mode on magnitude comparisons of two-digit (2D) numbers was examined using the stimuli set developed by Nuerk, Weger, and Willmes (2001). In Experiment 1, only number pairs from difference decades were presented either simultaneously or sequentially. In the former case there was evidence for the parallel processing of both the units and decades digits and for a components representation, consistent with previous findings. In contrast, in the latter case there was evidence for the processing of mainly the decades digits. In Experiment 2, within-decade number pairs were added to make both digits task relevant. The results from the simultaneous condition were again consistent with a components representation, while results from the sequential presentation were in line with a holistic representation, in line with Zhang and Wang's (2005) research. Results therefore suggest that the processing of 2D numbers depends on the way they are presented.     

The importance of being nonalignable: a critical test of the structural alignment theory of similarity

The structural alignment theory of similarity distinguishes 2 types of difference that may occur between stimuli: Alignable differences are those related to a commonality, whereas nonalignable differences are not related to a commonality. Alignment theory predicts that alignable differences should be more heavily weighted than nonalignable differences in similarity judgment. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that, contrary to this prediction, nonalignable differences exerted a greater impact than alignable differences in similarity and difference judgments of geometric stimuli. Experiment 3 revealed that the relative weight accorded a given difference was also affected by contextual constraints. Thus, although the experiments supported the validity of the distinction between alignable and nonalignable differences, results were discordant with the specific prediction of structural alignment theory.     

The importance of being visible: On the role of attention in a mind viewed as an anarchic intelligence system i basic tenets

Abstract

This paper describes an attempt to view attention from the perspective of a pluralistic concept of information processing in the mind. The mind is likened to an anarchic intelligence system. It is assumed to comprise of a set of processing entities called modules that may be active in parellel. Their activation is externally driven, and their operation is not controlled by any other module. Cooperating among modules is often required for achieving goals. Cooperation calls for communication. Attention is assumed to regulate only the communication among modules. It exerts attentional emphasis by making the output of a to-be-attended module available for a maximal number of other modules, while limiting the ability of de-emphasised modules to disseminate their output. This is achieved by a mechanism called decoupling that controls the connections between modules. The control of decoupling that is required for attentional emphasis is associated with an aversive phenomenal aspect that is usually called effort. Awareness of a piece of information amounts to the visibility of that information among various modules.     

Mnemic neglect is not an artifact of expectancy: The moderating role of defensive pessimism

Research supporting the mnemic neglect model finds that people more easily recall positive than negative personality feedback, even when only asked to imagine that the feedback is real. The same bias is not found when people are asked to recall information about other people. Despite evidence that these findings reflect self‐enhancement motives, more research is needed to rule out the possibility that they instead simply reflect expectancies. Results supported the mnemic neglect model, and revealed that expectancies predicted recall only for a subgroup of participants who did not demonstrate the self–other recall bias characteristic of mnemic neglect: defensive pessimists, who are more likely than other people to process social information by comparing it to their expectancies. These findings suggest that mnemic neglect is not an artifact of expectancies, and is not driven by other self‐evaluation motives (such as self‐verification or self‐assessment). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The importance of being flexible: the ability to both enhance and suppress emotional expression predicts long-term adjustment

Researchers have documented the consequences of both expressing and suppressing emotion using between-subjects designs. It may be argued, however, that successful adaptation depends not so much on any one regulatory process, but on the ability to flexibly enhance or suppress emotional expression in accord with situational demands. We tested this hypothesis among New York City college students in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Subjects' performance in a laboratory task in which they enhanced emotional expression, suppressed emotional expression, and behaved normally on different trials was examined as a prospective predictor of their adjustment across the first two years of college. Results supported the flexibility hypothesis. A regression analysis controlling for initial distress and motivation and cognitive resources found that subjects who were better able to enhance and suppress the expression of emotion evidenced less distress by the end of the second year. Memory deficits were also observed for both the enhancement and the suppression tasks, suggesting that both processes require cognitive resources.