The distance gradient in the after-effect of kinaesthetic width judgement

The combined effects of inspection-time and interfigural distance on a kinaesthetic figural after-effect were determined. The figural after-effect was defined as the degree to which a 2-in. width appeared to shrink following prolonged inspection of larger widths. The inspection-widths were 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5 in. and the inspection-times were 10 and 50 sec. A control group which did not inspect any widths was also employed. 156 subjects were tested. The results indicated that the classical non-monotonic relationship between interfigural distance and figural after-effect was not present. Instead, the figural after-effect increased as a negatively accelerated function of interfigural distance. Increasing inspection-time increased the asymptotic level of the figural after-effect. These results were interpreted in terms of the effects of anchors on judgements of magnitude.     

The lability of the tactile-kinaesthetic framework

This paper is concerned with the ability to recognize settings of a rod (pivoted at the centre) at various angles of tilt without the use of vision. Five angles of tilt, all within the upper right quadrant, were used and 80 subjects took part in the experiments. It is shown that tactile-kinaesthetic recognition of a given angle of tilt is decidedly poor, subjects commonly reporting that the position of the rod had been changed. The direction of these subjective shifts was found to be in general towards the centre of the quadrant. If, following the recognition experiments, the subjects were required to judge settings of the rod in fact vertical and horizontal, errors made tended to be in a direction opposite to that normally found in making these judgements. It was further found that attempts to reinstate the original settings led to mean judgements equivalent to those given on the recognition tests, but with signs reversed. These various phenomena are ascribed to lability and disorganization of the tactile-kinaesthetic framework. An analogy with the autokinetic phenomenon is adduced.     

The effect of evaluation on co-occurrence memory judgement

Three experiments tested the effect of an attitude towards an object on the memory judgement of whether this object co-occurred with positive versus negative stimuli. We induced positive or negative attitudes towards novel male stimuli, and paired each man with an equal number of positive and negative animals. In a memory test, participants reported more co-occurrences of same-valence man/animal pairs than opposite-valence pairs. This valence-compatibility effect occurred even when attitudes were induced after the pairing (Experiment 1), when participants knew that each man occurred with an equal number of positive and negative animals (Experiment 2), and in reports of clear memory of pairs that did not co-occur (Experiment 3). The present findings suggest that evaluation causes illusory correlation even when the co-occurring stimuli are not traits or behaviours attributed to the attitude object. The results question the validity of co-occurrence memory judgements as measures of co-occurrence awareness in evaluative conditioning (EC) research.     

The effect of instructions on the judgement of brightness

A brightness constancy experiment using ten subjects showed that different instructions significantly affect the subject's PSE judgement. Variations in the reflectance of the standard target and in the background and illumination of the variable target did not influence the effect of different instructions. The use of the D-ratio as constancy index in this study confirms an earlier theoretical finding that other brightness constancy ratios introduce an artefact into experimental results.     

The effect of contextual factors on the judgement of informal reasoning fallacies

Informal reasoning fallacies are arguments that are psychologically persuasive but not valid. In order to judge the validity of these arguments one has to be sensitive to the context in which they appear. However, there is no empirical study that examines students' sensitivity to contextual factors and whether contextual factors actually influence their ability to identify informal reasoning fallacies. We hypothesized that when explicitly presented with different argumentative contexts, students' performance would reflect their sensitivity to the contextual nature of informal reasoning fallacies. The two experiments that we conducted support this hypothesis and emphasize the mediating role of perspective taking in students' ability to identify fallacious arguments.     

The effect of contextual factors on the judgement of informal reasoning fallacies

Informal reasoning fallacies are arguments that are psychologically persuasive but not valid. In order to judge the validity of these arguments one has to be sensitive to the context in which they appear. However, there is no empirical study that examines students' sensitivity to contextual factors and whether contextual factors actually influence their ability to identify informal reasoning fallacies. We hypothesized that when explicitly presented with different argumentative contexts, students' performance would reflect their sensitivity to the contextual nature of informal reasoning fallacies. The two experiments that we conducted support this hypothesis and emphasize the mediating role of perspective taking in students' ability to identify fallacious arguments.     

The effect of repeated testing on judgement bias in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris)

Animal Cognition - Judgement bias paradigms are increasingly being used as a measure of affective state in dogs. Approach to an ambiguous stimulus is commonly used as a measure of affect, however,...     

The effect of visual frame of reference on a judgement of plane stimulus orientation by children

Three studies are reported with children aged 4 1/2 to 9 1/2 years and also with educationally subnormal children, in which it was found that up to about 7 years children's selection of one of a pair of line stimuli as 'falling over' is affected by the nature of the visual surround contours provided. Both the form of the stimulus surround and the presence or absence of a baseline tilted 45 degrees relative to the horizontal were found to affect the children's judgements. The plane (horizontal or vertical) in which the stimuli were presented had no effect on the results. It is argued that while the results show the influence of the visual surround on children's comprehension of 'falling over', this may not be wholly explicable in terms of surround contour matching, as conventionally correct judgements were obtained in the absence of all straight line contours in the immediate surround.     

Facial expressions modulate the gaze orienting effect on sound localization judgement

Recent studies have shown that cueing eye gaze can affect the processing of visual information, and this phenomenon is called the gaze-orienting effect (visual-GOE). Emerging evidence has shown that the cueing eye gaze also affects the processing of auditory information (auditory-GOE). However, it is unclear whether the auditory-GOE is modulated by emotion. We conducted three behavioural experiments to investigate whether cueing eye gaze influenced the orientation judgement to a sound, and whether the effect was modulated by facial expressions. The current study set four facial expressions (angry, fearful, happy, and neutral), manipulated the display type of facial expressions, and changed the sequence of gaze and emotional expressions. Participants were required to judge the sound orientation after facial expressions and gaze cues. The results showed that the orientation judgement of sound was influenced by gaze direction in all three experiments, and the orientation judgement of sound was faster when the face was oriented to the target location (congruent trials) than when the face was oriented away from the target location (incongruent trials). The modulation of emotion on auditory-GOE was observed only when gaze shifted followed by facial expression (Exp3); the auditory-GOE was significantly greater for angry faces than for neutral faces. These findings indicate that auditory-GOE as a social phenomenon exists widely, and the effect was modulated by facial expression. Gaze shift before the presentation of emotion was the key influencing factor for the emotional modulation in an auditory target gaze-orienting task. Our findings suggest that the integration of facial expressions and eye gaze was context-dependent.     

The influence of familiarity on explicit eye gaze judgement in preschoolers

The current study explores the influence of familiarity on explicit eye gaze judgement in preschoolers. We introduce reaction times for touches as a new measure for children studies. Children aged four–six years saw either their caregiver's face or a stranger's face looking at an object or away from it. Children were asked to touch the face that was looking at the object and reaction times to correct touches were measured. Children reacted faster to strangers' faces than to their caregivers' faces. This may indicate that preschoolers used the face of a stranger more effectively as a source of information about the environment and for this reason detected the eye gaze-object relationship faster. In addition, children's reactions were faster in a nonsocial shape-matching task than in the social eye gaze-judgement task. The applied paradigm is appropriate to further investigate the development and influencing factors of explicit eye gaze judgements in preschoolers.     

The judgement of behaviour as aggressive and sanctionable

The influence of the factors norm deviation, intent, and injury, on the judgement of a critical act as aggressive and sanctionable was tested using a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design. Scenarios depicting aggressive interactions represented the experimental conditions. 859 school children rated these scenarios on bipolar rating scales. The results show that norm deviation, intent, and injury, are important criteria for the interpretation of aggressive behaviour. Judging an action as sanctionable proved to be more sensitive for the variation of factors than the interpretation of behaviour as aggressive. In addition, an analysis of how the scenarios representing the experimental conditions were subjectively interpreted by the subjects was carried out. This showed that all combinations of the three definition criteria are psychologically meaningful. However, preferences were observed for specific interpretation patterns.     

Critical remarks on Rawls's burdens of judgement

I examine the role of the burdens of judgement argument in Rawls's defence of the claim that liberalism cannot be based on a comprehensive doctrine. According to Rawls, the burdens of judgement make it very unlikely that most individuals can agree on anything more than a purely political morality. I argue that the argument does not succeed. I concentrate on the last three burdens which are specifically about problems of reaching normative agreement. Firstly, I argue that Rawls's claim that modern society inevitably gives rise to a diversity of values is not convincing since for every claim of divergence a counterclaim of convergence can be provided. Secondly, I provide examples of plausible agreement on partial comprehensive doctrines. Thirdly, I argue that liberalism must rely on at least one partial comprehensive doctrine, namely, the value of autonomous choice. I conclude that the burdens of judgement argument does not demonstrate that liberalism cannot be based on comprehensive moral foundations.     

The influence of discrete emotions on judgement and decision-making: a meta-analytic review

During the past three decades, researchers interested in emotions and cognition have attempted to understand the relationship that affect and emotions have with cognitive outcomes such as judgement and decision-making. Recent research has revealed the importance of examining more discrete emotions, showing that same-valence emotions (e.g., anger and fear) differentially impact judgement and decision-making outcomes. Narrative reviews of the literature (Lerner & Tiedens, 2006 ; Pham, 2007 ) have identified some under-researched topics, but provide a limited synthesis of findings. The purpose of this study was to review the research examining the influence of discrete emotions on judgement and decision-making outcomes and provide an assessment of the observed effects using a meta-analytic approach. Results, overall, show that discrete emotions have moderate to large effects on judgement and decision-making outcomes. However, moderator analyses revealed differential effects for study-design characteristics and emotion-manipulation characteristics by emotion type. Implications are discussed.     

The influence of discrete emotions on judgement and decision-making: A meta-analytic review

During the past three decades, researchers interested in emotions and cognition have attempted to understand the relationship that affect and emotions have with cognitive outcomes such as judgement and decision-making. Recent research has revealed the importance of examining more discrete emotions, showing that same-valence emotions (e.g., anger and fear) differentially impact judgement and decision-making outcomes. Narrative reviews of the literature (Lerner & Tiedens, 2006 Lerner, J. S. and Tiedens, L. Z. 2006. Portrait of the angry decision maker: How appraisal tendencies shape anger's influence on cognition. Journal of Behavioral Decision-Making, 19: 115–137. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Pham, 2007 Pham, M. T. 2007. Emotion and rationality: A critical review and interpretation of empirical evidence. Review of General Psychology, 11(2): 155–178. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) have identified some under-researched topics, but provide a limited synthesis of findings. The purpose of this study was to review the research examining the influence of discrete emotions on judgement and decision-making outcomes and provide an assessment of the observed effects using a meta-analytic approach. Results, overall, show that discrete emotions have moderate to large effects on judgement and decision-making outcomes. However, moderator analyses revealed differential effects for study-design characteristics and emotion-manipulation characteristics by emotion type. Implications are discussed.     

The corroboration time measure: An implicit confidence judgement

The corroboration time technique is introduced as a means of eliciting covert confidence judgements. A validation experiment is reported in which three measures based upon the corroboration time are compared with overt confidence judgements. It is concluded that the technique yields a valid, sensitive measure of confidence which is as sensitive as an overt confidence judgement to variations in the independent variable, and which is less intrusive in use. It may be used whenever there is a unique correct response which can given as feedback for corroboration.