Priming effect in affirmative complex conditional connectives

We report the results of an experiment that examined the mental representations underlying the comprehension of complex conditional connectives (such as “A, on condition that B”) and the conditional if (such as “A, if B”). The mental representations during the comprehension stage were analysed using a “priming methodology”. The experiment showed that participants read the possibility “A and not-B” faster when it was primed by “A, if B” than when it was primed by “A, on condition that B”. The finding suggests that people understand the sentence “A, on condition that B” as biconditional; other possibilities (“A and B”, “not-A and B”, “not-A and not-B”) were primed equally by both connectives. We discuss the implications of this for current theories of reasoning.     

时间定价对亲社会行为的影响

时间定价就是将金钱价格赋予时间之上,用金钱来衡量时间的价值。已有研究表明,时间定价激活时间经济价值最大化的心理定势,使个体更看重时间的经济回报,花更少的时间帮助他人。但是,时间定价对亲社会行为的影响可能并不仅仅局限于时间利他。本研究通过三个实验,除了考察时间定价对时间利他的影响外,还进一步探讨时间定价对金钱利他的影响。结果显示,时间定价不仅影响个体的时间利他行为,也削弱了金钱利他行为。这表明,时间定价所激活的经济效用心理定势不仅仅局限于时间这一种资源的效用。     

Effort as Person-Focused Praise: “Hard Worker” Has Negative Effects for Adults After a Failure

Although work with children demonstrates a benefit of process-focused praise relative to person-focused praise on post-failure motivation, few studies have examined this result in adults. We tested the effect of three types of praise on adults' post-failure outcomes: person-focused intelligence (“high intelligence”), person-focused effort (“hard worker”), and process-focused effort (“worked hard”) in a sample of 156 adults recruited from Amazon's MTurk. Participants completed a set of easy visual pattern recognition problems and were told that they performed better than most adults and were given one of the three types of feedback. They then completed more difficult problems and were told that they had not performed well. Participants in the “hard worker” condition (compared to “worked hard”) were more likely to endorse intelligence as a reason for failure. They also reported lower perceived success and less enjoyment than participants in other conditions. Participants in the “high intelligence” condition were more likely to attribute their failure to intelligence than participants in the “worked hard” condition. The results suggest that the benefit of process-focused praise typically found in children (worked hard compared to intelligent) was mostly not replicated in adults, and person-focused effort praise was detrimental in a non-college student adult sample.     

Has the World Changed? My Neighbor Might Know: Effects of Social Context on Routine Deviation

Routines help individuals save decision effort and protect them from overreacting to volatile environments. Yet routines become dysfunctional if the environment changes fundamentally. Whether the environment has truly changed is often not easy to tell. We experimentally study adaptation to a change in a previously stable environment. Participants have to choose between one of the four decks of cards. Each deck represents a lottery, with a distribution of gains and losses initially unknown to participants. In the learning phase of the experiment, participants acquire the routine to choose the most attractive deck. Unbeknownst to participants, after an interruption, the lotteries represented by the competing decks are changed. We study how participants react to this change. We manipulate whether participants have access to choices by a confederate who most of the time makes the normative choice. In baseline condition, they never do. In the treatments, access is provided either during the learning phase, during the test phase, or during both phases. Participants are most likely to realize that the world has changed if they had access to the confederate's choices in both phases. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Single- Versus Multiple-Exemplar Training on Vocal Identification of Artists’ Styles

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of single- versus multiple-exemplar training with several artists’ paintings on graduate students’ stimulus generalization to novel paintings by the same artists. Six graduate students participated in this study. Participants studied decks of cards that depicted images of paintings by six different artists. Multiple-exemplar decks included three exemplars of three artists for a total of nine cards, and single-exemplar decks included single exemplars of three artists for a total of three cards. Participants “tested out” when ready following independent study with each deck and were required to score 100 % correct in order to move on to a generalization probe, during which participants were presented with novel exemplars. Overall, four of six participants performed better on the generalization probe after multiple-exemplar training, though in the case of three participants, only to a slight degree. These modest effects suggest that multiple-exemplar training may facilitate stimulus generalization, but that studying with single exemplars may allow for stimulus generalization as well.     

权力不稳定性对权力效应的逆转作用

摘 要 基于权力的趋近-抑制理论，本研究探讨权力不稳定性对权力效应产生逆转作用以及权力动机对这一逆转作用的影响。实验采用角色扮演法和真实任务角色来操纵被试的权力水平和权力不稳定性，以赌博任务中的冒险行为和金钱分配任务中的趋利行为来测量被试的权力趋近/抑制效应。结果发现：权力稳定条件下，高权力被试比低权力被试表现出更多的冒险行为和趋利行为；权力不稳定条件下则相反，低权力被试比高权力被试表现出更多的冒险行为和趋利行为。权力不稳定条件下高权力动机的高权力者相比低权力动机的高权力者倾向给自己分配更少的金额数，表现出更为明显的抑制倾向；而高权力动机的低权力者相比低权力动机的低权力者倾向于提出更高要求的金额数，表现出更为明显的趋近倾向。该研究证实了权力不稳定性对权力效应的逆转作用，而权力动机对这一逆转作用起到增强趋势。     

Alcohol and remembering a hypothetical sexual assault: Can people who were under the influence of alcohol during the event provide accurate testimony?

We examined the influence of alcohol on remembering an interactive hypothetical sexual assault scenario in the laboratory using a balanced placebo design. Female participants completed a memory test 24 hours and 4 months later. Participants reported less information (i.e., responded “don't know” more often to questions) if they were under the influence of alcohol during scenario encoding. The accuracy of the information intoxicated participants reported did not differ compared to sober participants, however, suggesting intoxicated participants were effectively monitoring the accuracy of their memory at test. Additionally, peripheral details were remembered less accurately than central details, regardless of the intoxication level; and memory accuracy for peripheral details decreased by a larger amount compared to central details across the retention interval. Finally, participants were more accurate if they were told they were drinking alcohol rather than a placebo. We discuss theoretical implications for alcohol myopia and memory regulation, together with applied implications for interviewing intoxicated witnesses.     

Are Longshots Only for Losers? A New Look at the Last Race Effect

There is evidence that betting on longshots increases in the last race of a day of horse racing. Previous accounts have assumed that the phenomenon is driven by bettors who have lost money and are trying to recoup their losses. To test this assumption of “reference dependence,” three laboratory experiments simulated a day at the races: In each of several rounds, participants chose either (i) a gamble with a small probability of a large gain and a large probability of a small loss (the “longshot”) or (ii) a gamble with a moderate chance of a small gain or a small loss (the “favorite”). The first two experiments employed a game played for points, while a third experiment included monetary incentives and stimuli drawn from a real day of racing. These experiments provide a clear demonstration of the last race effect in a laboratory setting. However, the results indicate that the effect is largely reference independent: Participants were more likely to choose the longshot in the last round regardless of whether, and how much, they had won or lost in previous rounds. Winning or losing, bettors prefer to “go out with a bang” at the end of a series of gambles. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Narcissism and unprovoked aggression

It is widely accepted that narcissists become aggressive when they experience ego‐threat. However, there is surprisingly little empirical research on the relationship between narcissism and aggression. Equivocal findings suggest that aggression in narcissists either occurs only in response to provocation, or regardless of provocation. One‐hundred and thirty‐seven collegiate men completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory followed by a sham aggression paradigm, which afforded them the opportunity shock, or refrain entirely from shocking an ostensible opponent confederate. Participants were identified as “unprovoked aggressors,” “retaliatory aggressors,” or “nonaggressors” contingent on when and if they chose to administer electrical shocks to the confederate. Results indicated that participants who were high on narcissistic traits were more likely to be unprovoked aggressors than their low narcissism counterparts. Results are discussed in relation to threatened egotism theory and call for more research on narcissism, aggression, and the moderating effect of provocation. Aggr. Behav. 36:414–422, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

People think about what is true for conditionals,not what is false: Only true possibilities prime the comprehension of “if”

We report the results of two priming experiments that examine the comprehension of conditionals—for example, “if there are apples then there are oranges”—and biconditionals—for example, “if and only if there are apples then there are oranges”. The first experiment showed that participants read a biconditional faster when it was primed by a true possibility, “there were apples and there were oranges” than when it was primed by a false possibility, “there were no apples and there were oranges”; a conditional was primed equally by both possibilities. The second experiment showed that participants read the negated-antecedent conjunction faster when it was primed by a conditional than when it was primed by a biconditional; the affirmative conjunction was primed equally by both connectives. The experiments show that (a) when people understand “if A then B”, they access the true possibilities, “A and B”, and “not-A and B”, and (b) when they understand “if and only if A then B” they access “A and B”, but they do not access “not-A and B”. We discuss their implications for current theories of reasoning.     

外显与内隐选择的多效性原则

个体的选择可能是外显目标和内隐目标共同作用的结果,同时满足意识到的和未意识到的需要,这就是目标选择的多效性。通过两个行为学实验来验证内隐选择的多效性原则。实验一,被试随机分为积极和消极启动两个组,不同的启动后,要求判断两张不同颜色纸张的质量高低。结果发现在积极认同组,大多数的被试选择红色织物,在消极认同组（惭愧组）,少数的被试选择红色织物。实验二,被试同样被分为两组,其中一组施加积极启动,另一组为控制组,之后,所有被试被邀请参加一项研究涉及雇佣人员的决策。结果发现当被试没有分配任何目标时,被试选择四位应征者并无显著之差异;当被试分配了外显或内隐的目标时,大多数的被试选择了具有相应特征的应征者;当被试的外显目标和隐性目标都存在,被试的选择表现出多效性。实验结果表明,在追求明确的外显目标时,个人可能与此同时试图满足他们的已经激活的内隐背景目标,选择者可能并没有意识到这种影响。在二选一或者多选一选择背景下,对一个已知选项的选择,受到多效性影响,其多效性是基于个人选择的价值最大化,并同时满足几个目标的原则。     

Visual imagery: The past and future as seen by patients with Alzheimer’s disease

We investigated visual imagery for past and future thinking in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). We invited AD patients and controls to retrieve past events and to imagine future events. Participants also provided a “Field” response if they see the event through their own eyes, or an “Observer” response if they see themselves in the scene as a spectator would. Less “Field” and more “Observer” responses were observed in AD participants than in controls during past and future thinking, suggesting a diminished ability to mentally visualize past and future events in AD. Results also demonstrated significant positive correlations between the production of “Field” responses and specificity during past and future thinking, suggesting a relationship between the ability to mentally visualize past and future events and autobiographical overgenerality in AD.     

Spendthrifts and Tightwads in Childhood: Feelings about Spending Predict Children's Financial Decision Making

Adults differ in the extent to which they find spending money to be distressing; “tightwads” find spending money painful, and “spendthrifts” do not find spending painful enough. This affective dimension has been reliably measured in adults and predicts a variety of important financial behaviors and outcomes (e.g., saving behavior and credit scores). Although children's financial behavior has also received attention, feelings about spending have not been studied in children, as they have in adults. We measured the spendthrift–tightwad (ST–TW) construct in children for the first time, with a sample of 5‐ to 10‐year‐old children (N = 225). Children across the entire age range were able to reliably report on their affective responses to spending and saving, and children's ST–TW scores were related to parent reports of children's temperament and financial behavior. Further, children's ST–TW scores were predictive of whether they chose to save or spend money in the lab, even after controlling for age and how much they liked the offered items. Our novel findings—that children's feelings about spending and saving can be measured from an early age and relate to their behavior with money—are discussed with regard to theoretical and practical implications. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effect of Predicate Matching on Perceived Understanding and Factual Recall

Grinder and Bandler (1976) asserted that if therapists communicate with clients using verbal predicates that match the modality of the clients' primary representational system (PRS), it will be easier for the clients to understand the therapist and to believe that they are understood. In this study we investigated the relationship between predicate matching and understanding. Participants (N=99) listened to a recorded narrative under either a “matched” or “mismatched” experimental condition. Participants' objective understanding (factual recall) and subjective understanding (feelings of having understood) were assessed. The results weakly supported a claim of enhanced accuracy of understanding on one measure of objective understanding, and they suggested greater understanding and recall for visual PRS participants.     

Mistakes Around the Clock: Errors in Memory for the Orientation of Numerals

Recent research has demonstrated that when participants are required to draw from memory a standard clock with numbers represented by Roman numerals, they typically misrepresent the four as “IV” rather than as the correct “III.” Participants do not make this mistake when they simply copy the clock while it remains in full view. A reanalysis of the data presented by Richards, French, and Harris (1996) is reported in which we investigated the representation of the orientation of the Roman numerals on the clockface and found that participants in the memory conditions (surprise and forewarned) were more likely than participants in the copy (control) condition to draw the numerals vertically rather than in their correct centripetal orientation. In addition, we found this error was even more likely to occur for participants when they had no warning that a memory task would take place.     

Keep or trade? Effects of pay-off range on decisions with the two-envelops problem

The “two-envelops” problem has stimulated much discussion on probabilistic reasoning, but relatively little experimentation. The problem specifies two identical envelopes, one of which contains twice as much money as the other. You are given one of the envelopes and the option of keeping it or trading for the other envelope. Variables of interest include the possible amounts of money involved, what is known about the process by which the amounts of money were assigned to the envelopes, and whether you are allowed to know how much money is in the envelope in hand before deciding whether to keep or trade. In an earlier study, Butler and Nickerson found that when participants were allowed to know how much was in the envelope in hand, they generally elected to trade if that amount was small relative to the range of possibilities and to keep otherwise. The present experiments showed that this propensity was independent of the amount of money in the envelopes. Participants made decisions with a strong bias for avoiding the risk of losing by trading, particularly when the amount in hand was known and large relative to the range of possible amounts, regardless of the absolute value of the gamble. The results illustrate the dependence of thinking on the context in which it occurs, and demonstrate a tendency to treat quantities that are large or small relative to a particular context in which they are encountered as though they were large or small in a more general sense.     

“电子钱包”让人花钱更多？——手机支付的心理账户效应

为探究手机支付使用者消费增加的现象及其心理账户效应,使用计算机程序对114名被试进行了三项模拟购物实验。实验发现：（1）手机支付组被试的商品消费次数和金额都显著高于现金支付组被试,且这种差异体现在功能型商品的消费上。（2）手机支付时被试不会倾向于对大金额的消费进行控制,对大钱和小钱的花费不存在显著差异。（3）手机支付时收到红包的被试消费次数和金额显著高于账户常规收入的被试,且更多用于享乐型消费。总的来看,手机支付减弱了对大额金钱和意外收入的消费控制,非现金支付让消费者花钱更多。     

Sympathetic magic and perceptions of randomness: The hot hand versus the gambler's fallacy

The gambler's fallacy and hot hand were studied in predictions about outcomes of coin tosses. A critical trial occurred when participants made predictions after a “run” of four heads or tails. Participants' attention was manipulated to focus on the person flipping the coin, the coin, or neither (control group) as a possible cause of the run. We also manipulated whether or not there was a change in who tossed the coin. In the control condition the standard reversal was observed (gambler's fallacy); however, when participants focused on the person, and it was that same person who conducted the run and critical coin toss, more people chose in the direction of continuation (hot hand). Directing attention to the person tossing the run seemed to prompt participants to behave as if that individual was “hot” in terms of getting a specific outcome (e.g., heads), as if by sympathetic magic, thus eliminating the gambler's fallacy.     

The influence of expertise and of physical complexity on visual short-term memory consolidation

This paper examines controversial claims about the merit of “unconscious thought” for making complex decisions. In four experiments, participants were presented with complex decisions and were asked to choose the best option immediately, after a period of conscious deliberation, or after a period of distraction (said to encourage “unconscious thought processes”). In all experiments the majority of participants chose the option predicted by their own subjective attribute weighting scores, regardless of the mode of thought employed. There was little evidence for the superiority of choices made “unconsciously”, but some evidence that conscious deliberation can lead to better choices. The final experiment suggested that the task is best conceptualized as one involving “online judgement” rather than one in which decisions are made after periods of deliberation or distraction. The results suggest that we should be cautious in accepting the advice to “stop thinking” about complex decisions.     

“Generic” and “Specific” Expertise in English: An Expert/Expert Study in Poetry Interpretation and Academic Argument

In this study, eight English professors thought aloud as they read four lyric poems and composed a short text proposing a hypothetical talk about them for a professional conference. The study used a crossed design in which participants read a poem in each of the following conditions: familiar to them and close to their professional writing, familiar and far, unfamiliar and close, unfamiliar and far. When reading familiar poems, participants produced longer protocols and more elaborate interpretations. When planning their conference talks, participants produced longer protocols for poems that were far from their professional writing as they struggled to access sufficient background knowledge. Participants attempted to say something “new” about the poems, and they closely monitored the limits of their knowledge. These results suggest that English professors, just like experts in other disciplines, develop both “generic” and “specific” expertise. Implications for expertise research, literature instruction, and academic literary scholars are considered.