Changes in background impair fluency-triggered positive affect: a cross-cultural test using a mere-exposure paradigm

This study examined whether repeated exposure would enhance positive evaluations when only a part of a stimulus (e.g., the central object) was identical to a previously presented stimulus. Japanese and American participants were exposed to photographs of animals with scenery, then asked their preferences for each of four types of photographs of animals (photographs of animals with the original scenery, photographs of animals without scenery, photographs of animals with novel scenery, and photographs of animals not depicted previously). Finally, their recognition of the animals presented in the exposure phase was tested. Members of both groups showed the mere-exposure effect for the first two types of stimuli, irrespective of stimulus recognition accuracy, whereas this effect was not observed for animals presented with novel scenery. This suggests that changes in background impair positive affect as a result of repeated exposure.     

Motivational effects in the social comparison of opinions

Four experiments were executed to test the effects of different epistemic motivations on subjects' tendency to compare with agreeing or disagreeing others. We found that under high (vs. low) fear of invalidity, subjects tend more to compare with disagreeing (vs. agreeing) others. By contrast, under high (vs. low) need for self-confirmation or a high (vs. low) need for cognitive structure, subjects tended more to compare with agreeing others. These results are discussed in reference to social comparison formulations (Festinger, 1954; Goethals & Darley, 1977) and the theory of lay epistemology (Kruglanski & Ajzen, 1983; Kruglanski & Freund, 1983).     

Congruity effects in the survival processing paradigm

Five experiments were conducted to investigate a proposal by Butler, Kang, and Roediger (2009) that congruity (or fit) between target items and processing tasks might contribute, at least partly, to the mnemonic advantages typically produced by survival processing. In their research, no significant survival advantages were found when words were preselected to be highly congruent or incongruent with a survival and control (robbery) scenario. Experiments 1a and 1b of the present report show that survival advantages, in fact, generalize across a wide set of selected target words; each participant received a unique set of words, sampled without replacement from a large pool, yet significant survival advantages remained. In Experiment 2, we found a significant survival advantage using words that had been preselected by Butler et al. to be highly unrelated (or irrelevant) to both the survival and control scenarios. Experiment 3 showed a significant survival advantage using word sets that had been preselected to be highly congruent with both scenarios. Finally, Experiment 4 mixed congruent and incongruent words in the same list, more closely replicating the design used by Butler et al., and a highly reliable main effect of survival processing was still obtained (although the survival advantage for the congruent words did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance). Our results suggest that the null effects of survival processing obtained by Butler et al. may not generalize beyond their particular experimental design.     

Trial-by-trial effects in the affective priming paradigm

In this paper, we yield evidence for the dependence of affective priming on the congruency of the previous trial. Affective priming refers to the finding that valence categorizations of targets are facilitated when the preceding prime is of the same valence. In two experiments, affective priming was diminished after incongruent trials (i.e., prime and target were of different valence), whereas, significant affective priming was observed after congruent trials (i.e., prime and target were of same valence). We compare this pattern to the known sequential dependencies in Stroop- and Eriksen-type tasks. Furthermore, our results can help to improve the statistical power of studies in which the affective priming task is used as a measure for automatic evaluations of attitude-objects.     

Attention and nontarget effects in the location-cuing paradigm

Three experiments were conducted in order to determine whether irrelevant items presented outside the focus of attention would affect the identification of a precued target. A peripheral cue indicated one of eight possible locations in a circular array, centered on fixation with a radius of 5.25°. After a variable interval (0–200 msec), eight characters were presented briefly and masked. In each experiment, there was an effect of the identity of the characters at the seven noncued locations (the nontargets) on the accuracy of identification of the target. When there were more nontargets identical to the target, accuracy was higher than when there were fewer nontargets identical to the target. Nontargets consistently affected performance despite incentives to focus only on the target.     

Motivational and emotional effects of social comparison in sports

The comparison to other athletes and the resulting effects on emotion, motivation and effort investment are a natural and integral part of sports performance. The current study tested a bias toward upward comparison in athletes. Further it tested how comparison processes influence motivation (i.e., self-improvement motivation, coasting, disengagement), emotion (e.g. happiness and shame) and performance improvement as a behavioral measure of effort. Freshmen from an elite sport university volunteered to participate in an experience sampling study conducted over one semester (6 months). Contrary to our predictions, athletes did not generally compare more upward than downward, and only few subscales of the two sport-specific dispositional measures (sport-specific achievement motivation and sport orientation) predicted upward comparison. As hypothesized, upward comparison to moderately better standards was associated with greater motivation while extreme upward comparison was related to a drop in motivation and increased disengagement. Still, upward comparison during the semester significantly predicted performance at the end of the semester. Downward comparison was related to coasting motivation and lower levels of performance. Happiness decreased with upward and increased with downward comparison. The opposite was true for feelings of shame. This research emphasizes the role of the social environment in sports and how training partners depending on their inferiority or superiority can boost or hinder motivation and performance in athletes.     

Inhibitory effects on response force in the stop-signal paradigm

The forcefulness of key press responses was measured in stop-all and selective stopping versions of the stop-signal paradigm. When stop signals were presented too late for participants to succeed in stopping their responses, response force was nonetheless reduced relative to trials in which no stop signal was presented. This effect shows that peripheral motor aspects of primary task responses can still be influenced by inhibition even when the stop signal arrives too late to prevent the response. It thus requires modification of race models in which responses in the presence of stop signals are either stopped completely or produced normally, depending on whether the responding or stopping process finishes first.     

多感觉整合范式中潜在的跨通道转换效应

大脑可以对来自不同感觉通道的信息进行处理与整合。与单一感觉通道相比, 个体对同时呈现在不同感觉通道的目标信号的响应会更快。对于这种现象的一种主要理论解释是共同激活模型, 该模型认为来自不同通道的刺激在特定的脑区汇聚整合, 比如顶叶内沟、颞上沟和前额叶皮层区域。整合后的信号强度更大, 可以更快地触发反应, 但是信号的整合发生在认知加工的哪一阶段目前尚未有明确结论。当个体对出现在不同感觉通道之间的任务转换进行加工时, 产生与感觉通道相关的任务转换的损失小于跨感觉通道转换损失与任务转换损失的总和, 这为与感觉通道相关的转换代价来源于任务设置的惯性和干扰提供了证据。而在单通道和多通道之间发生转换时, 跨通道转换代价会减小甚至消失, 这是由于同时发生的多感觉整合抵消了一部分损失, 这种现象支持了共同激活模型理论。然而, 多感觉信号整合对任务转换的神经加工过程产生怎样的影响并不清楚, 在未来的研究中可以把多感觉整合范式同经典的任务转换范式结合改进, 进而确定跨通道转换的加工机制和多感觉信号整合的发生阶段。     

Lexical- and perceptual-based object effects in the two-rectangle cueing paradigm

Previous studies demonstrate that attentional selection can be object-based, in which the object is defined in terms of Gestalt principles or lexical organizations. Here we investigate how attentional selection functions when the two types of objects are manipulated jointly. Experiment 1 replicated Li and Logan (2008) by showing that attentional shift between two Chinese characters is more efficient when they form a compound word than when they form a nonword. Experiment 2A presented characters either alone or within rectangles (Egly, Driver, & Rafal, 1994) and the characters in a rectangle formed either a word or a nonword. Experiment 2B differed from Experiment 2A in that the two characters forming a word were in different rectangles. Experiment 3A presented the two characters of a word either within a rectangle or in different rectangles. Experiment 3B used the same design as Experiment 3A but presented stimuli of different types in random orders, rather than in blocks as in Experiments 2A, 2B and 3A. In blocked presentation, detection responses to the target color on a character were faster when this character and the cue character formed a word than when they did not, and the size of this lexical-based object effect did not vary according to whether the two characters were presented alone or within or between rectangles. In random presentation, however, the lexical-based object effect was diminished when the two characters of a word were presented in different rectangles. Overall, these findings suggest that the processes that constrain attention deployment over conjoined objects can be strategically adjusted.     

Motivational bases in mixed-motive interactions: The effects of comparison levels

The relationship between reward level and the basic motives which underlie strategic choices (competitive and noncompetitive) in a mixed-motive game was examined from two theoretical perspectives. The “regret” interpretation proposed by McClintock and McNeel was compared to an approach based upon Thibout and Kelley's concept of comparison level (CL). Two independent variables, CL and Reward, were manipulated by varying the payoff rates in two playing series of the MDG. Initially, 50 iterations were played for high (4¢ per point) or low ($\text{1}\text{5¢}$ per point) incentive to provide subjects with outcomes upon which to base their CL's. The Reward manipulation was introduced in 150 subsequent trials of the game with subjects playing for 8¢ or 1¢ per point. The results show that the absolute magnitude of reward did not influence the extent of cooperative or competitive behavior. On the other hand, the magnitude of reward relative to CL was significantly associated with the degree of cooperative behavior—supra-CL outcomes yielding a higher frequency of cooperative behavior than infra-CL outcomes.     

Recognising what you like: Examining the relation between the mere-exposure effect and recognition

The perceptual fluency/attributional model of the mere-exposure effect proposed by R. F. Bornstein and P. D'Agostino (1992) predicts that when recognition of a previously presented stimulus is above chance, feelings of fluency associated with that stimulus are discounted and thus the amount of fluency (mis)attributed to liking is reduced. This correction process results in smaller mere-exposure effects for supraliminal stimuli than for “subliminal” stimuli because when recognition is below chance participants are unaware of the source of fluency and they do not engage in correction. We tested this prediction in three experiments by presenting photographs of faces (Experiments 1 and 2) and polygons (Experiment 3) at varying exposure frequencies for 40 ms and 400 ms durations. Contrary to the prediction of the model, a significant mere-exposure effect was only found when recognition performance was at its highest level. Furthermore, across the three experiments liking and recognition were positively correlated.     

The effects of formal and acoustic repetition in the Brown-Peterson paradigm

On a given trial in the Peterson and Peterson paradigm, the trigram B, K, T was presented. For one group this same trigram had been presented three trials earlier (exact repetition). For another group the critical item which had preceded the consonant trigram was BEE, KAY, TEA (homophonic repetition). Both groups showed a repetition facilitation significant beyond that of the appropriate control groups. The exact repetition group excelled the homophonic repetition group. Postexperimental questionnaires on awareness of the experimental manipulation did not precisely clarify the results obtained. The data support the view of multiple encoding.     

Dissociating the effects of attention and contingency awareness on evaluative conditioning effects in the visual paradigm

Two experiments are described that investigate the effects of attention in moderating evaluative conditioning (EC) effects in a picture-picture paradigm in which previously discovered experimental artifacts (e.g., Field & Davey, 1999 ) were overcome by counterbalancing conditioned stimuli (CSs) and unconditioned stimuli (USs) across participants. Conditioned responses for individuals who had attention enhanced were compared against a control group and groups for whom attention was impeded using a distracter task. In a second experiment the effects of attention were dissociated from those of contingency awareness by using backward-masked US presentations. The results of these experiments indicate that although associative EC effects may not be disrupted by a lack of contingency awareness, attention is an important factor in establishing conditioning. These results shed some light onto the possible boundary conditions that could explain past inconsistencies in obtaining EC effects in the visual paradigm.     

Mix me a list: Context moderates the truth effect and the mere-exposure effect

When participants are repeatedly presented with an unfamiliar stimulus, this stimulus is rated as more likable (mere-exposure effect) or more valid (truth effect) as compared with a similar non-repeated stimulus. Both effects have been discussed as effects of fluency. Typical research designs on these effects involve a test phase in which ratings of both repeated and non-repeated stimuli are required. Based on research on moderators of fluency effects, we propose that the procedure of assessing the effects with mixed lists of repeated and non-repeated stimuli contributes strongly to the emergence of both effects. Two experiments found that the truth effect and the mere-exposure effect were strongly moderated by whether mixed lists or only repeated items were used at the test phase: whereas strong effects occurred in a context of repeated and non-repeated stimuli, the effects vanished with only repeated stimuli. Methodological and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Motivational effects of success or failure feedback on the perception of affective pictures

A study of perception of affective pictures from the International Affective Photo System, using the Self Assessment Manikin scale, was conducted. It was hypothesized that participants' affective ratings could be moderated by a subjective experience of success or failure. Analysis, based on a sample of 36 university students, showed an approach tendency for women when they were exposed to positive pictures in the success condition. This approach tendency was associated with relatively shorter processing times and high affective ratings. Men showed relatively shorter processing times and high affective ratings when exposed to negative pictures. For memory-related measures, the highest scores were observed in the success condition for exposure to pleasant pictures. The results are discussed in terms of affective-related self-regulatory tendencies moderated by sex.     

Phonological effects in handwriting production: evidence from the implicit priming paradigm

In the present article, we report 3 experiments using the odd-man-out variant of the implicit priming paradigm, aimed at determining the role played by phonological information during the handwriting process. Participants were asked to write a small set of words learned in response to prompts. Within each block, response words could share initial segments (constant homogeneous) or not (heterogeneous). Also, 2 variable homogeneous blocks were created by including a response word that did not share orthographic onset with the other response (odd-man-out). This odd-man-out could be phonologically related to the targets or not. Experiment 1 showed a preparation effect in the constant homogeneous condition, which disappeared (spoil effect) in the variable condition not phonologically related. However, no spoil effect was found when the odd-man-out shared the phonological initial segment with the targets. In Experiment 2, we obtained a spoil effect in the variable phonologically related condition, but it was significantly smaller than in the variable not phonologically related condition. The effects observed in Experiment 2 vanished in Experiment 3 under articulatory suppression, suggesting that they originated at a sublexical level. These findings suggest that phonological sublexical information is used during handwriting and provide evidence that the implicit priming paradigm (and the odd-man-out version of this) is a suitable tool for handwriting production research.     

Motivational orientations and task autonomy fit: effects on organizational attraction

The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is congruence between applicant needs (i.e., motivational orientations) and what is available (i.e., task autonomy) from an organizational perspective based on the fit between needs and supply. The fit between work motivation and task autonomy was examined to see whether it was associated with organizational attraction. This experimental study included two phases. Phase 1 participants consisted of 446 undergraduate students, of whom 228 were recruited to participate in Phase 2. The fit relations between task autonomy and intrinsic motivation and between task control and extrinsic motivation were characterized. Findings indicated that the fit between work motivation and task autonomy was positively associated with organizational attraction. Based on these results, it may be inferred that employers should emphasize job characteristics such as autonomy or control orientations to attract individuals, and focus on the most suitable work motivations for their organizations.