Do all kids look alike? Evidence for an other-age effect in adults

The current study provides evidence for the existence of an other-age effect (OAE), analogous to the well-documented other-race effect. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that adults are better at recognizing adult faces compared with faces of newborns and children. Results from Experiment 3 indicate that the OAE obtained with child faces can be modulated by experience. Moreover, in each of the 3 experiments, differences in the magnitude of the observed face inversion effect for each age class of faces were taken to reflect a difference in the processing strategies used to recognize the faces of each age. Evidence from Experiment 3 indicates that these strategies can be tuned by experience. The data are discussed with reference to an experience-based framework for face recognition.     

Is moral ambiguity all we have to offer?

Theology risks marginalization in the debate about ethical medicine, if theologians merely surrender to ambiguity. We live in a pluralistic society, C. Ben Mitchell points out, but Christians must not accept pluralism as an ideology. In light of our own tradition, we must speak out on ethical issues as we see them. Since "the public" is sympathetic to religious values, public policy should not be dictated by anti-religious points of view.     

Do we look happy? Perceptions of romantic relationship quality on Facebook

Does the information that people share about their romantic relationships on Facebook influence how other people perceive their relationship quality? Across 2 studies, people's accuracy at inferring others' relationship quality based on their Facebook profiles and how Facebook profiles influenced others' judgments of people's relationship quality and likability were investigated. Perceived relationship quality corresponded to self‐reported relationship quality (Study 1), and people with more visible relationships were perceived as having greater relationship satisfaction and commitment (Studies 1 and 2) and being more likable (Study 2). High disclosure about the relationship predicted greater perceived relationship quality but lower likability (Study 2). These findings illuminate how sharing information about one's relationship influences other people's impressions of the individual and the relationship.     

Do “They all look alike?” The Effect of Race,Sex, Experience,and Attitudes on the Ability to Recognize Faces1

Legal scholars and social scientists have long assumed that there is a racial bias in facial recognition and eyewitness identifications, with persons being much more accurate in identifying persons of their own race, but corroborative research evidence is scanty. In the present study, black and white college students attempted to identify which of a series of facial photos they had seen earlier. As predicted, a strong race of subject by race of picture interaction was found; both black and white subjects were significantly more accurate in identifying pictures of their own race than pictures of the other race. However, contrary to assumptions made by many legal and criminal justice personnel, neither racial attitude nor reported amount of quality of interracial experience were related to ability to recognize pictures. Implications for eyewitness identifications of these and related findings are discussed.     

Do we weep for Cordelia?

Abstract

Much of the contemporary debate concerning the nature and role of fictive emotions has argued that we do feel garden-variety emotions for fictional characters; the puzzle has been to account for this, given our knowledge of their fictional status. In this paper I argue that many of the emotional responses we have towards fictional characters are nothing like the emotions we feel in ordinary life. The implications for our engagement with literary fictions are subsequently examined.     

Do we need visual subjects?

It is widely accepted within contemporary philosophy of perception that the content of visual states cannot be characterized simply as a list of represented features. This is because such characterization leads to the so-called ‘Many Properties’ problem, that is, it does not allow us to explain how the visual system is able to distinguish between scenes containing different arrangements of the same features. The usual solution to the Many Properties problem is to characterize some basic elements of content as subjects, to which features are attributed by a predication-like relation. In this paper, I reconsider this solution and claim that the Many Properties problem can be solved without postulating such subjects. What is more, I argue that an alternative approach has stronger justification given the empirical data concerning human vision.     

Do we conceptualize every color we consciously discriminate?

Mandik understands color-consciousness conceptualism to be the view that one deploys in a conscious qualitative state concepts for every color consciously discriminated by that state. Some argue that the experimental evidence that we can consciously discriminate barely distinct hues that are presented together but cannot do so when those hues are presented in short succession suggests that we can consciously discriminate colors that we do not conceptualize. Mandik maintains, however, that this evidence is consistent with our deploying a variety of nondemonstrative concepts for those colors and so does not pose a threat to conceptualism. But even if Mandik has shown that we deploy such concepts in these experimental conditions, there are cases of conscious states that discriminate colors but do not involve concepts of those colors. Mandik's arguments sustain only a theory in the vicinity of conceptualism: The view that we possess concepts for every color we can discriminate consciously, but need not deploy those concepts in every conscious act of color discrimination.     

Do we need the power metaphor to construct our interpersonal reality?

In my own attempt to answer the question whether we need the power metaphor to construct our interpersonal relations, I have come to the conclusion that it is not necessary. I advocate the standpoint that the power metaphor is an epistemological/operational instrument which, applied to interpersonal relations, leads to selffulfilling prophecies; the power metaphor realizes itself. Of course, it is necessary to recognize when, under what circumstances, and how we operate with respect to the power metaphor. This knowledge which, when achieved, allows us to correct ourselves and look for alternatives. However, I see it as an epistemological and operational error to deal with the power metaphor as if it were an objective given, independent of the observer, which we cannot avoid, of which we are victims, and to whose construction we do not contribute. It is important for therapists to realize that some clients construct their problems with respect to the power metaphor and act accordingly, explicitly or implicitly. To that extent, knowledge about this construction offers the therapist options which can help him in his therapeutic work to encourage the overpowering of this operational and epistemological instrument-the power metaphor.Originally appeared in a special issue ofZeitschrift fur systemische Therapie (1986),4, 258–268, guest-edited by the author.     

Do we know what we've learned from listening to the news?

This study investigates the relationship between knowledge acquisition and an awareness of that knowledge within the context of listening to the news, Subjects listened to a recording of a radio news program consisting of regular news items as well as editorials, manipulated to be of high or low personal relevance. They then completed a surprise memory test and rated their confidence in their answers. In contrast to many studies, the results indicated a strong positive confidence-accuracy relationship. Confidence ratings were generally a better predictor of an individual's performance than were predictions based on item difficulty. Whereas subjects reported strong and accurate feelings of knowing, they apparently lacked complementary feelings ofnot knowing. The implications of these findings and others are discussed.     

Predicting marital satisfaction from behavior: Do all roads really lead to Rome?

The concurrent and longitudinal associations between spousal communication and marital satisfaction were investigated using two systems of observation (rating and coding) and two statistical methods. A coding system and a rating system were used to assess the amount of positive, negative, and avoidant behavior exhibited by 30 couples engaged in a 15-minute discussion about a marital problem. Change scores as well as regression methods were used to calculate correlations between communication behaviors and one-year change in Marital Adjustment Test (MAT) scores. Positive behavior by both spouses predicted an increase in wives' satisfaction, and negative behavior by both spouses predicted a decrease in wives' satisfaction. None of the variables consistently predicted changes in husbands' satisfaction. The two systems of observation and the two methods of analysis produced similar though not identical results. The article discusses the constructs of negative and avoidant behavior, reviews limitations of standard marital research methods, and offers theoretical and methodological recommendations for future research.     

Can we imagine how objects look from other viewpoints?

Many psychologists who study cognition believe that perception achieves object-centered representations that make it possible to extract representations of how the object would appear from differing viewpoints. Others believe we can achieve representations of how an object would appear by a process of visualization or mental rotation. We report experiments in which the subject tries to imagine how three-dimensional novel wire objects would appear from positions other than the one they are in. Subjects are unable to perform this task unless they make use of strategies that circumvent the process of visualization. It is suggested that the linear increase in time required to succeed in mental rotation tasks as a function of the angular discrepancy between the figures compared is the result of increasing difficulty rather than of the time required for rotation.     

Do we know how we cope? Relating daily coping reports to global and time-limited retrospective assessments

The current study examined the concordance among daily, trait (global retrospective), and time-limited retrospective reports of coping. A sample of 93 adults completed the COPE (C. S. Carver, M. F. Scheier, & J. K. Weintraub, 1989) prior to recording coping with the day's most negative event for 30 consecutive days. At the end of daily data collection, participants recalled to what extent they used each of 16 coping strategies over the past 30 days. Whereas findings indicate generally good concordance between daily and time-limited retrospective reports, concordance between global and daily reports was weak. Only limited evidence was found for systematic individual differences in concordance. Time-limited reports appear to be an adequate, though not ideal, method of determining usual patterns of coping with stress.