Prediction outcome and choice reaction time: Inhibition versus facilitation effects

In two-choice RT tasks Ss verbally predicted all stimulus presentations, two-thirds of the presentations, or none of the presentations. Effects of stimulus probability were similar for each type of prediction trial: Correct Prediction Outcome (PO), Incorrect PO, and No-Prediction (NP). When comparisons between Prediction and NP trials were between Ss, reactions on NP trials were significantly faster than reactions POs, but were not slower than reactions to Correct POs. However, when Prediction and NP trials occurred within Ss, reactions on NP trials were not faster than reactions to Incorrect POs, but were significantly slower than reactions to Correct POs. Speculations about Ss' implicit stimulus predictions are offered to interpret differential implications of inhibition and facilitation.     

Approach bias for food cues in obese individuals

This study aimed to investigate the existence of an approach bias for food cues in obese individuals. A community sample of 56 obese women and 56 normal weight controls completed an approach–avoidance variant of the implicit association task. The obese participants were faster to respond to trials that paired food words with approach words, and trials that paired non-food words with avoid words, than the converse pairings, thus, demonstrating an approach bias for food. This bias was evident for both high caloric and low caloric food words, and was not attributable to a state of deprivation or feelings of hunger. By contrast, the normal weight controls did not show any such bias. The results are consistent with recent neurocognitive perspectives of obesity. At a practical level, approach biases for food may present a potential target for modifying (excessive) food intake.     

Does “feeling down” mean seeing down? Depressive symptoms and vertical selective attention

Prior research reveals that the encoding of affective stimuli is biased in a metaphorically consistent manner (e.g., good = up; bad = down). For example, negative words are evaluated faster if they are presented in a low versus high vertical position. The present studies extended this view by investigating whether such biases also correlate with individual differences in emotional experience. Specifically, in two studies, we examined whether vertical metaphor would be useful in understanding negative affect as manifested in neuroticism and depressive symptoms. We found support for this premise. That is, the higher the neuroticism (Studies 1 and 2) or depressive symptoms (Study 2) of participants, the faster they were to respond to or detect lower (versus higher) spatial attention targets. These results suggest that negative affect in general, and depressive symptoms in particular, appear to bias selective attention in a direction that favors lower regions of physical space.     

Redundancy gain for semantic features

In a go/no-go experiment, semantic redundancy gain was assessed for responses to single written words. Specifically, we asked participants to respond only to words whose meaning matched at least one semantic target feature—that is, the target category (e.g., animal), the target color (e.g., gray), or both. On redundant-target trials, the word (e.g., elephant) matched both semantic target features (i.e., gray and animal). On single-target trials, the word (e.g., beaver) matched one target feature (i.e., animal) and a nontarget feature (i.e., brown). We observed shorter reaction times in the redundant-target condition than in the faster single-target condition. Hence, the present study provides the first evidence that redundancy gain is not limited to responses to redundant proximal stimulus features but can also be observed for responses to semantic feature information.     

Measuring implicit attitudes of 4-year-olds: the preschool implicit association test

The Preschool Implicit Association Test (PSIAT) is an adaptation of an established social cognition measure (IAT) for use with preschool children. Two studies with 4-year-olds found that the PSIAT was effective in evaluating (a) attitudes toward commonly liked objects (flowers = good) and (b) gender attitudes (girl = good or boy = good). The gender attitude PSIAT was positively correlated with corresponding explicit attitude measures and also children’s actual sex. The new implicit and explicit measures of gender attitudes demonstrated discriminant validity; each predicted variance in children’s gendered play activities beyond that predicted by the other. Discussion describes potential uses of the PSIAT to investigate development of societally significant attitudes and stereotypes at younger ages than are achievable with currently available methods.     

Recognition times of different views of 56 depth-rotated objects: A note concerning Verfaillie and Boutsen (1995)

The present study examines the effect of thegoodness of view on the minimal exposure time required to recognize depth-rotated objects. In a previous study, Verfaillie and Boutsen (1995) derived scales of goodness of view, using a new corpus of images of depth-rotated objects. In the present experiment, a subset of this corpus (five views of 56 objects) is used to determine the recognition exposure time for each view, by increasing exposure time across successive presentations until the object is recognized. The results indicate that, for two thirds of the objects,good views are recognized more frequently and have lower recognition exposure times thanbad views.     

Sick and Healthy: Benatar on the Logic of Value

Abstract

David Benatar, in Better Never to Have Been, sets out two arguments in support of the view that coming into existence is always a net harm. Remarkably, the first argument seems to imply that coming into existence would be a net harm even if the only bad we experienced in our lives were a ‘single pin-prick’. This argument hinges on a purported asymmetry: that whereas the absence of pains in non-existence is good, the absence of pleasures in non-existence is not bad (rather than bad). It also hinges on the non-badness at issue here being relative (no worse than the presence of pleasures in existence) rather than intrinsic (value neutral). To establish the crucial claim that the non-badness of absent pleasures in non-existence is relative rather than intrinsic, Benatar constructs an analogy involving two people, Sick and Healthy. In this paper, I show the inaptness of the analogy and also provide positive reason to doubt the soundness of the argument as it stands. What emerges from this critical analysis of the analogy is a plausible theory of value at odds with Benatar’s argument as a whole.     

Action,prediction, and temporal awareness

The brain needs to track changes in the relation between action and effect. In two experiments, participants made voluntary keypress actions. In an adaptation phase, these actions were followed after a fixed interval by a tone. During a subsequent test phase, the duration of the interval was unexpectedly changed. We used time perception as an implicit marker of the experience of participants' control over the effect, and confirmed a temporal binding between actions and effects. On test trials, participants perceived tones to occur as shifted towards their time of occurrence in the preceding adaptation phase. Therefore, the perceived time of a tone was partly based on learning of an internal prediction, rather than on the time of actual sensory input. This predictive model is rapidly updated over a few trials (Experiment 1), and requires attention to the tones (Experiment 2). The brain learns action–effect relations. This predictive learning influences the perception of effects, and underlies some temporal illusions associated with action.     

Latencies and confidence in n-value concept learning

An experiment was carried out to investigate interrelationships between responsetimes (RTs), inspection times (ITs), confidence ratings and success-error measures in concept learning tasks with 2, 4 and 6 values per dimension. On the basis of multiple hypothesis testing assumptions, ordinal predictions were made for high and low confidence RTs and ITs on error and correct trials. As predicted, high confidence RTs were significantly faster than low confidence RTs and, on correct trials, high confidence ITs were significantly faster than low confidence ITs. On error trials, high confidence ITs were (non-significantly) slower than low confidence ITs. Latency curves after the last error changed around the trial on which Ss first expressed high confidence. The latency and success-error results generally replicated previous studies.     

Aversive racism and medical interactions with Black patients: A field study

Medical interactions between Black patients and nonBlack physicians are usually less positive and productive than same-race interactions. We investigated the role that physician explicit and implicit biases play in shaping physician and patient reactions in racially discordant medical interactions. We hypothesized that whereas physicians’ explicit bias would predict their own reactions, physicians’ implicit bias, in combination with physician explicit (self-reported) bias, would predict patients’ reactions. Specifically, we predicted that patients would react most negatively when their physician fit the profile of an aversive racist (i.e., low explicit-high implicit bias). The hypothesis about the effects of explicit bias on physicians’ reactions was partially supported. The aversive racism hypothesis received support. Black patients had less positive reactions to medical interactions with physicians relatively low in explicit but relatively high in implicit bias than to interactions with physicians who were either: (a) low in both explicit and implicit bias, or (b) high in both explicit and implicit bias.     

Brief loving-kindness meditation reduces racial bias,mediated by positive other-regarding emotions

The relationship between positive emotions and implicit racial prejudice is unclear. Interventions using positive emotions to reduce racial bias have been found wanting, while other research shows that positive affect can sometimes exacerbate implicit prejudice. Nevertheless, loving-kindness meditation (LKM) has shown some promise as a method of reducing bias despite increasing a broad range of positive emotions. A randomised control trial (n = 69) showed that a short-term induction of LKM decreased automatic processing, increased controlled processing, and was sufficient to reduce implicit prejudice towards the target’s racial group but not towards a group untargeted by the meditation. Furthermore, the reduction in bias was shown to be mediated by other-regarding positive emotions alongside increased control and decreased automaticity on the IAT. Non-other-regarding positive emotions conversely showed no correlation with bias. The study is the first to show that a short-term positive emotional induction can reduce racial prejudice, and aids the understanding of how positive emotions functionally differentiate in affecting bias.     

What’s in a Name? Two Approaches to Evaluating the Label Feminist

Across two studies, we employed unique approaches to investigating the meaning of the label feminist using a sample of undergraduates from a large Northeastern university in the U.S. In Study 1 (N = 60), we utilized an impression formation paradigm to investigate the meaning of the label feminist when applied to typical college student. The results revealed that feminist males were rated less favorably than nonfeminist males and feminist females were rated more favorably than nonfeminist females. In Study 2 (N = 112), we examined the context-free associations that people have with the label feminist using two implicit attitude measures. Females reported positive implicit associations with the label feminist while males expressed neutral to slightly negative implicit associations with feminists.     

Implicit motivation to control prejudice

This research examines whether spontaneous, unintentional discriminatory behavior can be moderated by an implicit (nonconscious) motivation to control prejudice. We operationalize implicit motivation to control prejudice (IMCP) in terms of an implicit negative attitude toward prejudice (NAP) and an implicit belief that oneself is prejudiced (BOP). In the present experiment, an implicit stereotypic association of Blacks (vs. Whites) with weapons was positively correlated with the tendency to “shoot” armed Black men faster than armed White men (the “Shooter Bias”) in a computer simulation. However, participants relatively high in implicit negative attitude toward prejudice showed no relation between the race-weapons stereotype and the shooter bias. Implicit belief that oneself is prejudiced had no direct effect on this relation, but the interaction of NAP and BOP did. Participants who had a strong association between self and prejudice (high BOP) but a weak association between prejudice and bad (low NAP) showed the strongest relation between the implicit race-weapons stereotype and the Shooter Bias, suggesting that these individuals freely employed their stereotypes in their behavior.     

Fitness vs. fatness: Implicit bias towards obesity among fitness professionals and regular exercisers

ObjectivesSuccess of supported exercise programmes to tackle obesity appear to be shaped, in part, by co-exercisers’ beliefs. This study, therefore, aimed to assess implicit attitudes towards obesity among two key groups of people in a public exercise setting: fitness professionals offering exercise advice, and regular exercisers.DesignQuestionnaire survey.MethodsIn all, 57 fitness professionals and 56 regular exercisers were recruited from gyms across Central England. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, semantic differential measure of explicit beliefs and the implicit associations test (IAT). The IAT reveals unconscious attitudes of participants to implicit associations between target concepts (thin vs. fat) and attributes (good vs. bad). The attribute of motivated vs. lazy was adopted in the current study due to relevance in an exercise setting.ResultsEvidence of a strong anti-fat bias was found (p<.01) for both fitness professionals and regular exercisers on all implicit and explicit measures (good vs. bad; motivated vs. lazy). This bias was more pronounced for fitness professionals who themselves had never been overweight and who believed personal control dictated body weight. For regular exercisers, a higher level of anti-fat bias was found for females, younger participants and those who had never been overweight.ConclusionsThis study suggests that the guidance to support exercise, and combat obesity, may be compromised by the beliefs of those facilitating such programmes.     

Attentional biases for faces and body parts

In four experiments, we examined whether faces and body parts are processed faster and engage attention more than other objects. Participants searched for a green among blue frames and were asked to make speeded categorical decisions on an object presented within the target frame (e.g., was it food?). On half of the trials a colour singleton (a red frame) was also present and reaction times to targets were measured as a function of the object category within the singleton. The results show that categorical judgements of faces (Experiments 1–3) and body parts (Experiment 4) in the target frame were significantly faster as compared to other object categories. Furthermore, the cost associated with presenting a face or body part in the singleton frame was greater than the cost when another type of object was in the singleton. These results suggest an attentional bias towards stimuli of sociobiological significance such as faces and body parts.     

Evaluative conditioning without directly experienced pairings of the conditioned and the unconditioned stimuli

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is the valence change of a stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) that is due to the previous pairing with another stimulus (unconditioned stimulus, US). We investigated whether EC can occur also when the CS–US pairings are not experienced directly by the participant but are implied by other events that the participant encounters. In two experiments, positive USs were presented in some trials and negative USs in other trials. Afterwards, participants were given information from which it was possible to conclude that CSs were covertly present during these trials. Finally, the valence of these CSs was registered using both implicit (Implicit Association Test, affective priming) and explicit measures (valence ratings). In line with the assumption that EC effects can be based on CS–US pairings that are not directly experienced, the valence of the CSs changed in the direction of the US with which they were covertly paired. This effect was observed both on explicit and on implicit measures. We argue that several aspects of our results are in line with propositional models of EC and fit less well with association formation models.     

Associations between visual attention,implicit and explicit attitude and behaviour for physical activity

The current study explored associations between previous physical activity and both implicit and explicit attitudes, as well as visual attention and activity motivation (intention). Analyses were performed on participants initially unaware of the physical activity focus of the study (N = 98). Higher levels of physical activity were associated with positive implicit attitudes and an attentional bias towards exercise cues. There was a quadratic (‘U’ shaped) relationship between implicit attitude and attention: the more extreme individuals’ implicit attitudes towards exercise (positive or negative) the greater their attentional bias to exercise cues. Furthermore, explicit attitude moderated the relationship between attentional bias and physical activity: attentional bias to exercise cues was associated with higher levels of physical activity only for those who had a strong positive explicit attitude. Findings suggested that implicit cognitions are linked with previous physical activity. Future research should consider strategies for strengthening positive implicit and explicit attitudes and directing attention to cues signalling healthy behaviour.     

Children's implicit attitude acquisition: Evaluative statements succeed,repeated pairings fail

From the earliest ages tested, children and adults show similar overall magnitudes of implicit attitudes toward various social groups. However, such consistency in attitude magnitude may obscure meaningful age‐related change in the ways that children (vs. adults) acquire implicit attitudes. This experiment investigated children's implicit attitude acquisition by comparing the separate and joint effects of two learning interventions, previously shown to form implicit attitudes in adults. Children (N = 280, ages 7–11 years) were taught about novel social groups through either evaluative statements (ES; auditorily presented verbal statements such as ‘Longfaces are bad, Squarefaces are good’), repeated evaluative pairings (REP; visual pairings of Longface/Squareface group members with valenced images such as a puppy or snake), or a combination of ES+REP. Results showed that children acquired implicit attitudes following ES and ES+REP, with REP providing no additional learning beyond ES alone. Moreover, children did not acquire implicit attitudes in four variations of REP, each designed to facilitate learning by systematically increasing verbal scaffolding to specify (a) the learning goal, (b) the valence of the unconditioned stimuli, and (c) the group categories of the conditioned stimuli. These findings underscore the early‐emerging role of verbal statements in children's implicit attitude acquisition, as well as a possible age‐related limit in children's acquisition of novel implicit attitudes from repeated pairings.     

Attentional biases toward humor: Separate effects of incongruity detection and resolution

Previous research has indicated that the comprehension of humor involves two stages: incongruity detection and incongruity resolution. However, little is known about the temporal parameters of these stages and the degree to which they influence attentional processing. In the current study, 155 participants completed a dot-probe task to examine these questions. On each trial, humor versus control, novel (incongruent but not humorous) versus control, or neutral versus neutral image pairs were presented for 300, 400, or 500 ms. A probe immediately replaced the experimental image (valid trial) or control image (invalid trial). An attentional bias toward humor and novelty by 300 ms was shown by faster probe-detection reaction times (RTs) on valid compared to invalid humor and novel trials for all three exposure times. When compared to the neutral trials, humor and novel stimuli elicited slower RTs, indicating a difficulty in attentional disengagement. An exploratory analysis found that subjective humor ratings predicted the disengagement bias at 500 ms, but not at 400 or 300 ms. These results suggest that incongruity detection biases attention by 300 ms, whereas incongruity resolution may only contribute at 500 ms.     

不同程度吸烟者内隐态度测量范式下的ERP研究

采用内隐联想测验的WIAT范式研究不同程度吸烟者的内隐态度,并用ERP技术探讨吸烟者相容与不相容任务的脑内时程变化。WIAT结果发现,只有程度深组对吸烟持明显消极态度。ERP结果表明,在不相容任务中程度深组诱发了比程度浅组更大的P2,说明程度深组对与积极相联的吸烟词早期注意增强。同时程度深组的不相容任务诱发了比相容任务更大的LPC,提示程度深组晚期对吸烟词有正性情绪加工。