Comparing implicit and synaesthetic number–space associations: Visuospatial and verbal spatial–numerical associations of response codes

In the theory of the mental number line, number, and space are implicitly associated, giving rise to the spatial–numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect, in which smaller numbers are more readily associated with the left side of space and larger numbers with the right, during a parity judgement task. Others, however, have argued that the SNARC effect is flexible and better explained by verbal rather than spatial associations. A few single-case studies on the SNARC effect have tested number–space synaesthetes, who make explicit associations between number and space. Here, we present data from experiments conducted on groups of synaesthetes and nonsynaesthetes on the classic SNARC parity judgement task with lateralized response keys and a modified version in which they responded to labels appearing on screen. Synaesthetes' behaviour was expected to differ from nonsynaesthetes' behaviour due to the explicit, fixed nature of their number–space associations, but both experiments show the two groups behaving in the same way, indicating that parity judgement tasks may not be tapping the same representation of number that gives rise to synaesthetic number–space experiences.     

Task instructions determine the visuospatial and verbal–spatial nature of number–space associations

Evidence for number–space associations comes from the spatial–numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect, consisting in faster reaction times to small/large digits with the left/right hand, respectively. Two different proposals are commonly discussed concerning the cognitive origin of the SNARC effect: the visuospatial account and the verbal–spatial account. Recent studies have provided evidence for the relative dominance of verbal–spatial over visuospatial coding mechanisms, when both mechanisms were directly contrasted in a magnitude comparison task. However, in these studies, participants were potentially biased towards verbal–spatial number processing by task instructions based on verbal–spatial labels. To overcome this confound and to investigate whether verbal–spatial coding mechanisms are predominantly activated irrespective of task instructions, we completed the previously used paradigm by adding a spatial instruction condition. In line with earlier findings, we could confirm the predominance of verbal–spatial number coding under verbal task instructions. However, in the spatial instruction condition, both verbal–spatial and visuospatial mechanisms were activated to an equal extent. Hence, these findings clearly indicate that the cognitive origin of number–space associations does not always predominantly rely on verbal–spatial processing mechanisms, but that the spatial code associated with numbers is context dependent.     

The effects of distinctiveness on memory and metamemory for face–name associations

We examined the influence of face and name distinctiveness on memory and metamemory for face–name associations. Four types of monitoring judgements were solicited during encoding and retrieval of face–name pairs that contained distinct or typical faces (Experiment 1) or names (Experiment 2). The beneficial effects of distinctiveness on associative memory were symmetrical between faces and names, such that relative to their typical counterparts, distinct faces enhanced memory for names, and distinct names enhanced memory for faces. These effects were also apparent in metamemory. Estimates of prospective and retrospective memory performance were greater for face–name associations that contained a distinct face or name compared with a typical face or name, regardless of whether the distinct item was a cue or target. Moreover, the predictive validity of prospective monitoring improved with name distinctiveness, whereas the predictive validity of retrospective monitoring improved with facial distinctiveness. Our results indicate that distinctiveness affects not only the strength of the association between a face and a name, but also the ability to monitor that association.     

Coding strategies in number space: Memory requirements influence spatial–numerical associations

The tendency to respond faster with the left hand to relatively small numbers and faster with the right hand to relatively large numbers (spatial numerical association of response codes, SNARC effect) has been interpreted as an automatic association of spatial and numerical information. We investigated in two experiments the impact of task-irrelevant memory representations on this effect. Participants memorized three Arabic digits describing a left-to-right ascending number sequence (e.g., 3–4–5), a descending sequence (e.g., 5–4–3), or a disordered sequence (e.g., 5–3–4) and indicated afterwards the parity status of a centrally presented digit (i.e., 1, 2, 8, or 9) with a left/right keypress response. As indicated by the reaction times, the SNARC effect in the parity task was mediated by the coding requirements of the memory tasks. That is, a SNARC effect was only present after memorizing ascending or disordered number sequences but disappeared after processing descending sequences. Interestingly, the effects of the second task were only present if all sequences within one experimental block had the same type of order. Taken together, our findings are inconsistent with the idea that spatial–numerical associations are the result of an automatic and obligatory cognitive process but do suggest that coding strategies might be responsible for the cognitive link between numbers and space.     

Do attentional capacities and processing speed mediate the effect of age on executive functioning?

The executive processes are well known to decline with age, and similar data also exists for attentional capacities and processing speed. Therefore, we investigated whether these two last nonexecutive variables would mediate the effect of age on executive functions (inhibition, shifting, updating, and dual-task coordination). We administered a large battery of executive, attentional and processing speed tasks to 104 young and 71 older people, and we performed mediation analyses with variables showing a significant age effect. All executive and processing speed measures showed age-related effects while only the visual scanning task performance (selective attention) was explained by age when controlled for gender and educational level. Regarding mediation analyses, visual scanning partially mediated the age effect on updating while processing speed partially mediated the age effect on shifting, updating and dual-task coordination. In a more exploratory way, inhibition was also found to partially mediate the effect of age on the three other executive functions. Attention did not greatly influence executive functioning in aging while, in agreement with the literature, processing speed seems to be a major mediator of the age effect on these processes. Interestingly, the global pattern of results seems also to indicate an influence of inhibition but further studies are needed to confirm the role of that variable as a mediator and its relative importance by comparison with processing speed.     

The cost of caring–the impact of secondary trauma on assumptions,values and beliefs

The aim of this paper is to look at the impact of working with distressed and traumatized clients. The paper describes a survey involving 430 care workers who regularly work with distressed or traumatized clients. The survey involved the participants completing a 21-item beliefs inventory describing their supervision or support and recording whether they had any spiritual or religious beliefs. A factor analysis of the results of the inventory found four factors, three of which involved the negative impact of the work on beliefs while the fourth gave an indication of the positive beliefs or post trauma growth that comes from working in this area. The results showed that while doing a good job and experiencing fulfilment were higher in carers who experienced lower levels of distressing experiences and beliefs, an increase in competence and improved learning opportunities were associated with higher levels of challenge. A review of the information provided on supervision and support showed that there was a wide variation in the sources of support for the different professions. While around 46% of the carers had spiritual beliefs only 29% were members of a religious group. The discussion looked at the implication of the results of the survey including the possible benefit of using the carer belief inventory to identify carers who may be vulnerable to secondary trauma or compassion fatigue. The need to provide support to all professions undertaking caring work with distressed or traumatized clients was highlighted.     

Developing number–space associations: SNARC effects using a color discrimination task in 5-year-olds

Human adults’ numerical representation is spatially oriented; consequently, participants are faster to respond to small/large numerals with their left/right hand, respectively, when doing a binary classification judgment on numbers, known as the SNARC (spatial–numerical association of response codes) effect. Studies on the emergence and development of the SNARC effect remain scarce. The current study introduces an innovative new paradigm based on a simple color judgment of Arabic digits. Using this task, we found a SNARC effect in children as young as 5.5 years. In contrast, when preschool children needed to perform a magnitude judgment task necessitating exact number knowledge, the SNARC effect started to emerge only at 5.8 years. Moreover, the emergence of a magnitude SNARC but not a color SNARC was linked to proficiency with Arabic digits. Our results suggest that access to a spatially oriented approximate magnitude representation from symbolic digits emerges early in ontogenetic development. Exact magnitude judgments, on the other hand, rely on experience with Arabic digits and, thus, necessitate formal or informal schooling to give access to a spatially oriented numerical representation.     

The impact of prenatal serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) antidepressant exposure and maternal mood on mother–infant interactions at 3 months of age

Exposure to maternal depression increases risks for altered mother–infant interactions. Serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) antidepressants are increasingly prescribed to manage antenatal maternal illness. The impact of SRIs on early mother–infant interactions was unknown. Three-month-old infants of 32 depressed mothers treated with SRI medications during pregnancy and 43 non-medicated mothers were studied. Using an established face-to-face mother–infant interaction paradigm, dyad interactions were studied with and without a toy. Videotaped sessions yielded 4 measures: maternal sensitivity, dyadic organization, infant readiness to interact, and maternal interruptive behaviors. Even with prenatal SRI treatment, depressed mothers interrupted their infants more during toy play. In the absence of prenatal SRI treatment, maternal postnatal depression adversely influenced infant behavior. Higher levels of maternal depression symptoms at 3 months predicted poorer infant readiness to interact during the toy session. Conversely, in the SRI-exposed group, higher prenatal depression scores predicted greater infant readiness to interact at 3 months. Increased infant readiness with SRI exposure suggests a “fetal programming effect” whereby prenatal maternal mood disturbances shaped a future response to a postnatal depressed maternal environment.     

Beyond the mental number line: A neural network model of number–space interactions

It is commonly assumed that there is an interaction between the representations of number and space (e.g., Dehaene et al., 1993, Walsh, 2003), typically ascribed to a mental number line. The exact nature of this interaction has remained elusive, however. Here we propose that spatial aspects are not inherent to number representations, but that instead spatial and numerical representations are separate. However, cultural factors establish ties between them. By extending earlier models (Gevers et al., 2006, Verguts et al., 2005) based on this hypothesis, the authors present computer simulations showing that a model incorporating this idea can account for data from a series of studies. These results suggest that number–space interactions are emergent properties resulting from the interaction between different brain areas.     

The number–weight illusion

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - When objects are manually lifted to compare their weight, then smaller objects are judged to be heavier than larger objects of the same physical weights: the...     

The impact of teacher language on students’ mindsets and statistics performance

Studies have shown that performance feedback provided by teachers can communicate mindset messages to students and subsequently impact students’ performance. We sought to examine whether non-feedback related comments could also influence students’ mindsets and performance. We utilized a sample of undergraduate students enrolled in a research pool (n?=?106) and compared their mindset and quiz scores after receiving a statistics lesson under one of three conditions. In two conditions the instructor introduced the lesson making comments that communicated either a fixed or growth mindset. A third condition served as a control. Students receiving growth comments moved towards growth mindset beliefs more so than those who received fixed mindset comments and had higher quiz scores when compared to the control group. These results provide early evidence that even non-feedback related comments can influence students’ mindsets and performance. We discuss implications for teaching, teacher training and future research.     

The impact of implicitly and explicitly primed ingroup–outgroup categorization on the evaluation of others pain: The case of the Jewish–Arab conflict

Despite the automaticity of affective sharing, many studies have documented the role of top-down effects, such as social categorization, on people’s empathic responses. An important question, largely ignored in previous research, concerns empathy to ingroup and outgroup members’ pain in the contexts of ongoing intergroup conflict. In the present study we examined how implicit and explicit ethnic social categorization of others affects empathy to pain in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. To meet this aim, we assessed the evaluation of pain by Jewish and Arab participants who viewed a series of visual stimuli depicting painful and non-painful familiar situations. The stimuli were associated with explicitly or implicitly primed typical names depicting ingroup, neutral outgroup, and adversary outgroup members. Results demonstrate that pain ratings in the explicit priming condition provide support for the ingroup empathy hypothesis, positing that empathy is higher for ingroup than for outgroup members for both Jews and Palestinian Arabs. Conversely, when the targets’ categories are primed implicitly, results revealed difference in empathy by the two ethnic groups where an ingroup bias was detected only for Palestinian Arabs. This suggests that the activation of ingroup bias on the subliminal implicit level among Palestinian Arab participants might be mediated by the amount of conflict permeating in their daily lives and by deeply rooted cultural values and behavioural patterns.     

Spending time: The impact of hours worked on work–family conflict

Scholars have long assumed that as workers spend more time at work fewer hours are available for their non-work lives leading to negative effects in both domains, and most studies examining the impact of work hours on work and life domains have supported this viewpoint. However, the majority of these studies have used one-dimensional measures of work–family conflict (WFC) and family–work conflict (FWC) on homogenous samples which included primarily married managers and professionals with children. Further, despite calls to examine non-linear relationships between work hours and WFC and FWC, few studies have done so. This study uses multi-dimensional measures to examine the linear and non-linear (quadratic) effects of work hours on WFC and FWC in a heterogeneous sample and examines the moderating effects of several work and family characteristics on these relationships. The findings indicate that whereas work hours have a linear relationship with WFC, the relationship between work hours and FWC is curvilinear. Managerial support was found to moderate the relationship between work hours and one dimension of FWC. Number of children moderated the relationships between work hours and WFC and another dimension of FWC.     

The impact of early missionary enterprises on landscape and identity formation in Palestine, 1820–1914

Most studies relating to missionary activity in various parts of the globe have dealt with missions both as agents of penetration of the colonial powers and as conveyers of Christian concepts of cultural and religious supremacy expressed as ‘redemption of the heathen world’. This paper argues that it is informative to emphasize a new dimension in the study of missions—that of the relationship between belief systems and place. It considers the modes of operation and the physical and ideological impact of British, American, German, Russian and French missionary societies on Palestine and its indigenous population (Muslim and Christian Arabs, and Jews) in the last century of Ottoman rule (1800–1918). The contribution of Western missionary activity to the colonized societies in which they operated has been depicted by recent revisionist historians to have been marginal and largely negative. However, studies of the missionary enterprise in recent years, including the work presented here, suggest that these presumptions are not well grounded.     

The effect of age and reminders on witnesses’ responses to cross-examination-style questioning

Witnesses of all ages struggle with cross-examination questions, often changing their testimony as a result. In the laboratory, cross-examination-style questioning decreases both children's and adults’ accuracy. We examined the extent to which this effect varies with age. We interviewed children, adolescents, and adults (N = 128) about a film clip after a short delay. Eight months later we cross-examined participants on their original responses to some questions, and simply repeated other questions. Participants of all ages were more likely to change their answers when cross-examined than when asked the same question again. Cross-examination negatively affected accuracy, although this effect decreased as age increased. Listening to an audio-recording of their original responses before the second interview reduced the number of changes participants made in response to repeated questions, but not cross-examination questions. These data give cause for concern about the effect cross-examination has on the accuracy of child and adolescent witnesses.     

The effect of context and drivers’ age on highway traffic signs comprehension

Background: Comprehension of traffic signs is crucial to safety. Objectives: To test the effects of the presentation condition (with or without driving context) on symbolic based road signs comprehension and comprehension time for young and older drivers. Method: 50 young drivers and 50 older drivers were presented with images of 28 Israeli road signs, both without context (with a white background) and in context (with the driving surrounding). Data were collected on the accuracy of signs meaning and on the time it took the participants to provide the meaning. Results: Younger drivers performed significantly better than older drivers on both accuracy and response time (RT). Older drivers’ average RT was approximately twice as long as younger drivers’ RT. However, the presentation mode (with or without context) did not affect sign comprehension of either group, but the presence of the context did increase the time it took the drivers to comprehend the sign’s meaning. In addition, correct response time was similar to opposite to sign’s meaning response time. Implications: Older drivers, can benefit from retraining in sign comprehension of current signage. The training should involve signs in their natural road environment to reduce comprehension time while actually driving. Moreover, signs that were understood as having an opposite meaning should be redesigned or be accompanied by text.     

Changes in person – organization fit: The impact of socialization tactics on perceived and actual P – O fit

This study examines the impact of socially oriented socialization tactics on changes in newcomer perceived and actual value-based person?–?organization (P?–?O) fit, and on the relations between these two measures of fit. Newcomers' fit was measured at entry (T1) and again after 4 months (T2) using the organizational culture profile (OCP; ). The results show that socialization tactics influence perceived fit, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, but not actual fit. As hypothesized, perceived and actual fit become more congruent over time, suggesting a shift in newcomers' perceptions of the organization. Additional analyses were conducted to investigate the mediating influence of perceived fit on the relationship of investiture with job satisfaction and with organizational commitment and, for both outcomes, this was found to be significant. We discuss the implications for organization socialization procedures, research into newcomer entry using measures of actual and perceived fit, and HRM practices during the initial few months of organizational entry.     

The effect of cognitive testing and feedback on older adults’ subjective age

Subjective age, or how old a person feels, is an important measure of self-perception that is associated with consequential cognitive and health outcomes. Recent research suggests that subjective age is affected by certain situations, including cognitive testing contexts. The current study examined whether cognitive testing and positive performance feedback affect subjective age and subsequent cognitive performance. Older adults took a series of neuropsychological and cognitive tests and subjective age was measured at various time points. Participants also either received positive or no feedback on an initial cognitive task, an analogies task. Results showed that participants felt older over the course of the testing session, particularly after taking a working memory test, relative to baseline. Positive feedback did not significantly mitigate this subjective aging effect. Results suggest that subjective age is malleable and that it can be affected by standard cognitive and neuropsychological test conditions.     

The effects of alerting signals in action control: activation of S–R associations or inhibition of executive control processes?

Non-informative, task-irrelevant auditory alerting signals often lead to increased interference effects in selective attention paradigms (e.g., Simon, Eriksen flanker). Some authors conclude that the alerting attentional network, activated by the alerting signal, reveals an inhibitory influence upon the executive attentional network, resulting in attenuated executive control. Alternatively, in the present study we argue that increased interference effects might be explained by alerting signals facilitating response activation processes (i.e., the activation of established S–R links). In a modified Eriksen-flanker paradigm, we contrasted these assumptions. We used word flanker stimuli for which S–R associations were established and word flanker stimuli without S–R associations. The presence of an alerting signal increased flanker compatibility only for flanker stimuli for which S–R associations existed while flanker compatibility effects were the same for all flanker types in conditions without alerting signals. Therefore, we conclude that alerting signals enhance stimulus triggered visuo-motor response activation processes.     

The impact of emotional faces on younger and older adults’ attentional blink

ABSTRACT

The attentional blink (AB) is the impaired ability to detect a second target (T2) when it follows shortly after the first (T1) among distractors in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). Given questions about the automaticity of age differences in emotion processing, the current study examined whether emotion cues differentially impact the AB elicited in older and younger adults. Twenty-two younger (18–22 years) and 22 older adult participants (62–78 years) reported on the emotional content of target face stimulus pairs embedded in a RSVP of scrambled-face distractor images. Target pairs included photo-realistic faces of angry, happy, and neutral expressions. The order of emotional and neutral stimuli as T1 or T2 and the degree of temporal separation within the RSVP systematically varied. Target detection accuracy was used to operationalise the AB. Although older adults displayed a larger AB than younger adults, no age differences emerged in the impact of emotion on the AB. Angry T1 faces increased the AB of both age groups. Neither emotional T2 attenuated the AB. Negative facial expressions held the attention of younger and older adults in a comparable manner, exacerbating the AB and supporting a negativity bias instead of a positivity effect in older adults.