Heroic or competent? A second look

Knight (1984, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 33, 307–322) has hypothesized that B. M. Staw and J. Ross's (1980, Journal of Applied Psychology, 65(3), 249–260) findings result from observers' perceptions of competent leadership rather than from observers' perceptions of heroic leadership. Although Knight's data support his position, Knight used experimental subjects and materials different from those of Staw and Ross. This study replicated Knight's experiment using subjects and materials like those of Staw and Ross. The results show clear support for competent theory and mixed support for heroic theory. They suggest that business experienced and business inexperienced subjects disagree upon the value of leaders who are heroic, optimizers, or satisficers, but agree that plodders are less desirable than any of the other three.     

The role of attention in automatization: Does attention operate at encoding, or retrieval, or both?

In this research, we investigated whether attention operates in the encoding of automatized information, the retrieval of automatized information, or in both cases. Subjects searched two-word displays for members of a target category in focused-attention or divided-attention conditions that were crossed with block (training vs. transfer). To see whether subjects encoded all available items or only attended items, we compared performance for subjects in different training conditions but in the same transfer condition. Subjects encoded attended items. To see whether subjects retrieved all the items they had in memory, or only items associated with that to which they were attending at retrieval, we compared performance for subjects in the same training conditions but in different transfer conditions. Subjects retrieved attended items. Attention was found to operate at both encoding and retrieval. These findings support the instance theory of automaticity, which predicts the role of attention at encoding and retrieval     

Object-based attention: Shifting or uncertainty?

The contribution of object-based attentional guidance to visual processing is widely accepted, and recent models of attentional selection now include both space- and object-based representations. Nevertheless, although the mechanism of space-based attentional selection has been well characterized, the mechanism underlying object-based attentional selection remains poorly understood. Recent attempts at identifying the mechanism giving rise to object-based attentional selection have put forth two conflicting alternatives. The first suggests that object-based effects are driven by attentional uncertainty (i.e., the attentional prioritization hypothesis), whereas the second suggests that objects guide attentional selection only when an attentional shift is necessitated (i.e., the attentional-shifting hypothesis). Here, we directly investigated which of the two suggested accounts drives object-based effects, by pitting attentional certainty against attentional shifting. In a series of four experiments, we manipulated the certainty of target location, shifting of attention, and the stimulus onset asynchrony. It was observed that object-based effects depended solely on certainty of the forthcoming target location. These results suggest that attentional prioritization, and not a mere shift of attention, gives rise to object-based guidance of attentional selection. In addition, these results lend further support to the attentional prioritization account of object-based attention and provide further constraints on the mechanisms of object-based selection.     

Can psychopathic offenders discern moral wrongs? A new look at the moral/conventional distinction

A prominent view of psychopathic moral reasoning suggests that psychopathic individuals cannot properly distinguish between moral wrongs and other types of wrongs. The present study evaluated this view by examining the extent to which 109 incarcerated offenders with varying degrees of psychopathy could distinguish between moral and conventional transgressions relative to each other and to nonincarcerated healthy controls. Using a modified version of the classic Moral/Conventional Transgressions task that uses a forced-choice format to minimize strategic responding, the present study found that total psychopathy score did not predict performance on the task. Task performance was explained by some individual subfacets of psychopathy and by other variables unrelated to psychopathy, such as IQ. The authors conclude that, contrary to earlier claims, insufficient data exist to infer that psychopathic individuals cannot know what is morally wrong.     

Do new objects capture attention?

The visual system relies on several heuristics to direct attention to important locations and objects. One of these mechanisms directs attention to sudden changes in the environment. Although a substantial body of research suggests that this capture of attention occurs only for the abrupt appearance of a new perceptual object, more recent evidence shows that some luminance-based transients (e.g., motion and looming) and some types of brightness change also capture attention. These findings show that new objects are not necessary for attention capture. The present study tested whether they are even sufficient. That is, does a new object attract attention because the visual system is sensitive to new objects or because it is sensitive to the transients that new objects create? In two experiments using a visual search task, new objects did not capture attention unless they created a strong local luminance transient.     

The director task: A test of Theory-of-Mind use or selective attention?

Over two decades, the director task has increasingly been employed as a test of the use of Theory of Mind in communication, first in psycholinguistics and more recently in social cognition research. A new version of this task was designed to test two independent hypotheses. First, optimal performance in the director task, as established by the standard metrics of interference, is possible by using selective attention alone, and not necessarily Theory of Mind. Second, pragmatic measures of Theory-of-Mind use can reveal that people actively represent the director’s mental states, contrary to recent claims that they only use domain-general cognitive processes to perform this task. The results of this study support both hypotheses and provide a new interactive paradigm to reliably test Theory-of-Mind use in referential communication.     

Object-based attention: sensory modulation or priority setting?

The detection of an invalidly cued target is faster when it appears within a cued object than when it appears in an uncued object equally distant from the cued location; this is a manifestation of object based attention. Five experiments are reported in which it was investigated whether early sensory enhancement (in which attention "spreads" within an attended object but stops at its borders) or a later attentional prioritization mechanism best accounts for these effects. In Experiments 1-4, subjects identified a centrally located target with a buttonpress while attempting to ignore flanking distractors that were mapped to either a compatible or an incompatible response. The flankers appeared either within the object occupied by the target or in a different object but at the same distance from the target. The well-known effect of distance between the target and the flankers on the magnitude of the compatibility effect was replicated. However, whether the target and the flankers were in the same or different objects had no effect on the magnitude of the compatibility effect. In Experiment 5, when attention could not be narrowly focused in advance, object-based modulation of the flanker effect was observed. These results suggest that object-based selection may reflect an object-specific attentional prioritization strategy, rather than object-based attentional modulation of an early sensory representation.     

Drivers’ visual attention: A field study at intersections

Crossing a road intersection, a driver must collect visual information from various locations. The allocation of visual attention, which allows this collection, mainly relies on top-down processes. This study focuses on three top-down factors which influence the collection of visual information: the value of visual information for the ongoing task, their bandwidth, and the familiarity with the environment. These factors are studied according to the priority rules at intersections (Give way, Stop or Priority), the expected traffic density (Lower or Higher) and the number of passages (First or Second passage). Fourteen participants were installed in an instrumented vehicle equipped with an eye-tracker. They drove during 1h45 along a 80-km long route, mainly on rural roads, which included 19 intersections. Visual attention was studied by means of the head and gaze horizontal eccentricity. Effects were found for each of the three factors, in agreement with Wickens’ theoretical framework and with previous studies, despite the important variability in the data due to the experimental situation.     

An in-depth look at scholastic success: Fluid intelligence,personality traits or emotional intelligence?

The aim of the present study was to take an in-depth look at the role of fluid intelligence, personality traits and emotional intelligence (both ability-based and self-reported) in predicting scholastic success, verifying the existence of incremental validity of emotional intelligence with respect to fluid intelligence and personality variables. One hundred twenty-four students attending the last two years of high school were administered: the Advanced Progressive Matrices, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised Short Form, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory: Short. The results demonstrate the influence exercised by fluid intelligence, personality and emotional intelligence on scholastic success, underlining, in particular, the role of emotional intelligence defined according to the ability-based model.     

Are emotion metaphors conceptual or lexical?

Abstract

A review of Metaphors of Anger, Pride and Love: A Lexical Approach to the Structure of Concepts by Z. Kövecses (1986). Philadelphid/Amsterdam: John Benjamins, p. vii, 147. ISBN 1-55619-009-3 (US); ISBN 90-272-2558-3 (Europe). $34     

Neuronal representations of cognitive state: reward or attention?

The effects of spatial or featural attention on the activity of neurons have been studied in many experiments that have used a variety of neurophysiological approaches. Other experiments have examined how expectations about reward are represented in neuronal activity in various brain regions. Although attention and reward are distinct concepts, I argue here that many neurophysiological experiments on attention and reward do not permit a clean dissociation between the two. This problem arises in part because reward contingencies are the only parameter manipulated in any of these experiments. I describe how attention and reward expectations have been confounded, giving rise to uncertainty about how signals related to attention and reward are distributed in the brain.     

“Seeing” shapes that are almost totally occluded: A new look at Parks’s camel

When a shape moves behind a very narrow window, or “slit,” the entire shape can be recognized, although at any instant only meaningless fragments are visible. In some manner, the human visual system has the ability to piece together these sequential fragments into a coherent shape that is seen as moving across the largely occluded field. As a first step toward understanding how this feat may be accomplished, we show some minimal conditions for recovering the direction and speed of motion of an unknown shape moving behind a slit. Two important conditions are that the object be rigid and that its motion be a simple transition in the image plane.     

A new look at the vulnerability of puerperal mothers — A clinical study of two inpatient families at the Cassel Hospital

SUMMARY

The paper reviews some previous writings by Dr. Tom Main and Dr. Peter Lomas about the work of the Cassel Hospital with puerperal mothers. It goes on to describe the case histories and treatment of two patients recently treated with their families. The emphasis is on actual material produced in therapy but with reference to other aspects of the much wider treatment structures employed by the Cassel, for example the nursing and the community. Important aspects focussed upon include the essential experience of good mothering in becoming a mother, how closeness to the infantile impulses and urges of a real baby can lead to profound measures of identification and projection, and the effects of motherhood on femininity and sexuality.     

Jealousy: Compound emotion or label for a particular situation?

Individuals generally experience several emotions when confronted with an unfaithful mate. Such observations have led some scholars to propose that jealousy is a compound emotion. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the concept of jealousy as a combination of primary emotions is an artifact of the failure to control for the focus of concern. The subjects were 149 undergraduates who read jealousy and nonjealousy scenarios and indicated the emotions they believed the partner of a relationship experienced in response to the actions of the mate. The results indicated that manipulation of the focus of concern was a more parsimonious explanation of the results than the assumption that the subjects were basing their responses upon a subjective experience of a compound emotion.This paper was presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Anaheim, California, August 1983.