Disgust sensitivity selectively predicts attitudes toward groups that threaten (or uphold) traditional sexual morality

Previous research has linked disgust sensitivity to negative attitudes toward gays and lesbians. We extend this existing research by examining the extent to which disgust sensitivity predicts attitudes more generally toward groups that threaten or uphold traditional sexual morality. In a sample of American adults (N = 236), disgust sensitivity (and particularly contamination disgust) predicted negative attitudes toward groups that threaten traditional sexual morality (e.g., pro-choice activists), and positive attitudes toward groups that uphold traditional sexual morality (e.g., Evangelical Christians). Further, disgust sensitivity was a weaker predictor of attitudes toward left-aligned and right-aligned groups whose objectives are unrelated to traditional sexual morality (e.g., gun-control/gun-rights activists). Together, these findings are consistent with a sexual conservatism account for understanding the relationship between disgust sensitivity and intergroup attitudes.     

Theories of spoken word recognition deficits in aphasia: evidence from eye-tracking and computational modeling

We used eye-tracking to investigate lexical processing in aphasic participants by examining the fixation time course for rhyme (e.g., carrot-parrot) and cohort (e.g., beaker-beetle) competitors. Broca’s aphasic participants exhibited larger rhyme competition effects than age-matched controls. A re-analysis of previously reported data (Yee, Blumstein, & Sedivy, 2008) confirmed that Wernicke’s aphasic participants exhibited larger cohort competition effects. Individual-level analyses revealed a negative correlation between rhyme and cohort competition effect size across both groups of aphasic participants. Computational model simulations were performed to examine which of several accounts of lexical processing deficits in aphasia might account for the observed effects. Simulation results revealed that slower deactivation of lexical competitors could account for increased cohort competition in Wernicke’s aphasic participants; auditory perceptual impairment could account for increased rhyme competition in Broca’s aphasic participants; and a perturbation of a parameter controlling selection among competing alternatives could account for both patterns, as well as the correlation between the effects. In light of these simulation results, we discuss theoretical accounts that have the potential to explain the dynamics of spoken word recognition in aphasia and the possible roles of anterior and posterior brain regions in lexical processing and cognitive control.     

Remembered study mode: Support for the distinctiveness account of the production effect

The production effect is the finding that words spoken aloud at study are subsequently remembered better than are words read silently at study. According to the distinctiveness account, aloud words are remembered better because the act of speaking those words aloud is encoded and later recovery of this information can be used to infer that those words were studied. An alternative account (the strength-based account) is that memory strength is simply greater for words read aloud. To discriminate these two accounts, we investigated study mode judgements (i.e., “aloud”/”silent”/”new” ratings): The strength-based account predicts that “aloud” responses should positively correlate with memory strength, whereas the distinctiveness account predicts that accuracy of study mode judgements will be independent of memory strength. Across three experiments, where the strength of some silent words was increased by repetition, study mode was discriminable regardless of strength—even when the strength of aloud and repeated silent items was equivalent. Consistent with the distinctiveness account, we conclude that memory for “aloudness” is independent of memory strength and a likely candidate to explain the production effect.     

Linear versus Hierarchical Agreement Feature Processing in Comprehension

Two experiments examined whether syntactic number features are tracked during comprehension with a linear slot-based memory system or with a hierarchical feature-passing system. In a construction such as The pond near the trail(s) for the horse(s) was ¨, a linear account of subject-number tracking predicts greater interference from horses (N3), whereas a hierarchical account predicts greater interference from trails (N2). Experiment 1 used singular-head subject noun phrases (e.g., pond) and showed equal interference from N2 and N3, failing to differentiate between linear and hierarchical accounts. Experiment 2 used plural-head subjects and revealed more interference from N2 than N3. The pattern across the experiments accords with the ideas that (1) feature-tracking is hierarchical (e.g., Vigliocco & Nicol, 1997), (2) plurals are marked (e.g., Eberhard, 1997), and (3) subject-number information decays across intervening number-marked elements.     

Basic processes in reading: A critical review of pseudohomophone effects in reading aloud and a new computational account

There are pervasive lexical influences on the time that it takes to read aloud novel letter strings that sound like real words (e.g.,brane frombrain). However, the literature presents a complicated picture, given that the time taken to read aloud such items is sometimes shorter and sometimes longer than a control string (e.g.,frane) and that the time to read aloud is sometimes affected by the frequency of the base word and other times is not. In the present review, we first organize these data to show that there is considerably more consistency than has previously been acknowledged. We then consider six different accounts that have been proposed to explain various aspects of these data. Four of them immediately fail in one way or another. The remaining two accounts may be able to explain these findings, but they either make counterintuitive assumptions or invoke a novel mechanism solely to explain these findings. A new account is advanced that is able to explain all of the effects reviewed here and has none of the problems associated with the other accounts. According to this account, different types of lexical knowledge are used when pseudohomophones and nonword controls are read aloud in mixed and pure lists. This account is then implemented in Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, and Ziegler’s (2001) dual route cascaded model in order to provide an existence proof that it accommodates all of the effects, while retaining the ability to simulate three standard effects seen in nonword reading aloud.     

Speeded retrieval abolishes the false-memory suppression effect: Evidence for the distinctiveness heuristic

We examined two different accounts of why studying distinctive information reduces false memories within the DRM paradigm. The impoverished relational encoding account predicts that less memorial information, such as overall familiarity, is elicited by the critical lure after distinctive encoding than after nondistinctive encoding. By contrast, the distinctiveness heuristic predicts that participants use a deliberate retrieval strategy to withhold responding to the critical lures. This retrieval strategy refers to a decision rule whereby the absence of memory for expected distinctive information is taken as evidence for an event’s nonoccurrence. We show that the typical false-recognition suppression effect only occurs when the recognition test is self paced. This suppression effect is abolished when participants make recognition decisions under time pressure, such as within 1 second of seeing the test item. These results are consistent with the distinctiveness heuristic that a time-consuming retrieval strategy is used to reduce false-recognition responses.     

Distinctiveness in serial memory for spatial information

Several studies have shown that recall performance depends on the extent to which an item differs from other items in a sequence (the distinctiveness effect; see, e.g., Kelley & Nairne, 2001). Distinctiveness effects, however, have been demonstrated mainly in the verbal domain. The present study extends distinctiveness effects to the spatial domain. In two experiments, participants recalled the order in which series of spatially located dots had been presented. Item discriminability was varied within the sequence by manipulating the duration of the interval inserted between the presentation of the dots (Experiment 1) and the perceptual characteristics of the stimuli (Experiment 2). The results showed that these manipulations in the spatial domain produce distinctiveness effects similar to those observed with verbal material (see, e.g., Neath & Crowder, 1990) and suggest that distinctiveness models of memory should take into account the processing of spatial information.     

Categorical invariance and structural complexity in human concept learning

An alternative account of human concept learning based on an invariance measure of the categorical stimulus is proposed. The categorical invariance model (CIM) characterizes the degree of structural complexity of a Boolean category as a function of its inherent degree of invariance and its cardinality or size. To do this we introduce a mathematical framework based on the notion of a Boolean differential operator on Boolean categories that generates the degrees of invariance (i.e., logical manifold) of the category in respect to its dimensions. Using this framework, we propose that the structural complexity of a Boolean category is indirectly proportional to its degree of categorical invariance and directly proportional to its cardinality or size. Consequently, complexity and invariance notions are formally unified to account for concept learning difficulty. Beyond developing the above unifying mathematical framework, the CIM is significant in that: (1) it precisely predicts the key learning difficulty ordering of the SHJ [Shepard, R. N., Hovland, C. L., & Jenkins, H. M. (1961). Learning and memorization of classifications. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 75(13), 1-42] Boolean category types consisting of three binary dimensions and four positive examples; (2) it is, in general, a good quantitative predictor of the degree of learning difficulty of a large class of categories (in particular, the 41 category types studied by Feldman [Feldman, J. (2000). Minimization of Boolean complexity in human concept learning. Nature, 407, 630-633]); (3) it is, in general, a good quantitative predictor of parity effects for this large class of categories; (4) it does all of the above without free parameters; and (5) it is cognitively plausible (e.g., cognitively tractable).     

Parts of activities: reply to Fellbaum and Miller (1990)

If people believe that one activity is a kind of another, they also tend to believe that the second activity is a part of the first. For example, they assert that deciding is a kind of thinking and that thinking is a part of deciding. Fellbaum and Miller's (1990) explanation for this phenomenon is based on the idea that people interpret part of in the domain of verbs as a type of logical entailment. Their explanation, however, suffers from at least 2 deficiencies. First, it fails to account for parallel effects with nouns (e.g., a contest is a kind of an activity, and an activity is a part of a contest). Second, it contains a flaw that incorrectly predicts many activities to be parts of each other (e.g., coming is part of going and going part of coming). However, a hypothesis Rips and Conrad (1989) originally proposed for the kind-part reciprocal effect avoids both of these difficulties.     

Does a theory of language need a grammar? Evidence from Hebrew root structure

Hebrew constrains the occurrence of identical consonants in its roots: Identical consonants are acceptable root finally (e.g., skk), but not root initially (e.g., kks). Speakers' ability to freely generalize this constraint to novel phonemes (Berent, Marcus, Shimron, & Gafos, 2002) suggests that they represent segment identity-a relation among mental variables. An alternative account attributes the restriction on identical phonemes to their feature similarity, captured by either the number of shared features or their statistical frequency. The similarity account predicts that roots with partially similar consonants (e.g., sgk) should be at least as acceptable as roots with fully identical consonants (e.g., skk), and each of these roots should be less acceptable than dissimilar controls (e.g., gdn). Contrary to these predictions, three lexical decision experiments demonstrate that full identity is more acceptable than partial similarity and (in some cases) controls. Speakers' sensitivity to consonant identity suggests that linguistic competence, in general, and phonology, in particular, encompass a computational mechanism that operates over variables. This conclusion is consistent with linguistic accounts that postulate a symbolic grammatical component that is irreducible to the statistical properties of the lexicon.     

Rankings,standards, and competition: Task vs. scale comparisons

Research showing how upward social comparison breeds competitive behavior has so far conflated local comparisons in task performance (e.g. a test score) with comparisons on a more general scale (i.e. an underlying skill). Using a ranking methodology ( Garcia, Tor, & Gonzalez, 2006) to separate task and scale comparisons, Studies 1–2 reveal that an upward comparison on the scale (e.g. being surpassed in rank), rather than in the mere task (e.g., being outperformed), is necessary to generate competition among rivals proximate to a standard (e.g. ranked #3 vs. 4, near “the top”); rivals far from a standard (e.g. ranked #203 vs. 204), on the other hand, still tend to cooperate. Study 3 illustrates this finding with player trades in Major League Baseball. Study 4 further shows how an implicit scale comparison, instead of the commonly assumed explicit task comparison, may account for those classical competition findings in the literature. Study 5 then reveals how scale ranking becomes all important in the proximity of a standard, leading rivals to tolerate even an upward scale comparison to increase their proximity to the standard. Implications for the increasingly popular “forced ranking” management systems (e.g., at General Electric) are also discussed.     

The bias in the bias: Comparative optimism as a function of event social undesirability

We present a new event-level predictor of comparative optimism: comparative optimism is larger for more socially undesirable events. A meta-analysis shows that event social undesirability predicts comparative optimism effect sizes reported in the literature, over and above the effects of other known predictors. Four experiments corroborate this finding and demonstrate the key role played by respondents’ impression management motives. The effect of social undesirability decreases with stronger than usual anonymity assurances, increases with greater impression management tendencies, and reverses when people want to make a negative impression. Because social undesirability is correlated to other known predictors of comparative optimism (e.g., controllability, severity), it is important to take its effects into account when assessing the effect of other event characteristics. The current research adds to, and bridges, the literatures on event-level predictors and impression management in comparative optimism.     

List composition and the word length effect in immediate recall: A comparison of localist and globalist assumptions

Lists of short words usually are recalled better than lists of longer words in immediate recall tasks. Such word length effects might be explained by localist accounts, in which the length of each word in a list affects the recall of that word only, or by globalist accounts, in which the lengths of at least some words affect the recall of other words (e.g., Baddeley, 1986). In a recent localist account, Neath and Nairne (1995) proposed that the recall of each word depends on the likelihood that features within the word are contaminated within the memory representation. We tested this by presenting not only homogeneous lists of short and long words, but also mixed lists, and by including articulatory suppression on some trials. The short-word advantage depended on the composition of the list, ruling out a strictly localist approach. There appear to be several globalist influences on recall, including distinctiveness factors as well as phonological storage and articulation.     

Tangible words are recognized faster: the grounding of meaning in sensory and perceptual systems

Sensory experience rating (SER), a new variable motivated by the grounded cognition framework of conceptual processing (e.g., Barsalou, 2008 ), indexes the degree to which a word evokes sensory/perceptual experiences. In the present study, SERs were collected for over 2,850 words. While SER is correlated with imageability, age of acquisition, and word frequency, the latter variables (along with seven others) account for less than 30% of the variance in SER. Reanalyses of two large-scale studies demonstrate that SER significantly predicts lexical decision times when other established predictor variables are statistically controlled. These results suggest that conceptual processing is grounded in sensory systems. Additionally, a major benefit of this variable is that it allows psycholinguistic researchers to examine semantic-perceptual links for all word classes with a single rating.     

Emotionality,distinctiveness, and recollective experience

Two experiments investigated the effects of emotional stimuli on recollective experience in recognition memory. In Experiment 1, words judged to evoke a positive emotional response (e.g., warmth, freedom) or a negative emotional response (e.g., mucus, corpse) were associated with more “remember” responses than emotionally neutral words (e.g., crate, border) when presented in mixed lists. This effect was stronger with negative words than with positive words. In Experiment 2 the effects of emotional stimuli were eliminated when participants studied pure lists of either all emotional or all neutral words. These findings are discussed in relation to Rajaram's (1996) distinctiveness account of recollective experience.     

Exploring automaticity in text processing: syntactic ambiguity as a test case

A prevalent assumption in text comprehension research is that many aspects of text processing are automatic, with automaticity typically defined in terms of properties (e.g., speed and effort). The present research advocates conceptualization of automaticity in terms of underlying mechanisms and evaluates two such accounts, a computational-efficiency account (underlying computational processes become more efficient with practice) and a memory-based processing account (the underlying basis of processing shifts with practice, from computing interpretations to retrieving prior interpretations). In five experiments, short texts containing either an ambiguous or unambiguous syntactic structure were presented for multiple study trials. In both conditions, reading times in target regions decreased across trials, indicating automatization. Several findings supported the memory-based processing account (e.g., practice effects were largely item-specific, reading times were longer for ambiguous versus unambiguous sentences on early trials but converged on later trials) Some evidence was also found for a contribution of gains in computational efficiency (i.e., some item-general practice effects were observed). Implications for research on automaticity and text processing are discussed.     

Redundancy gain for semantic features

In a go/no-go experiment, semantic redundancy gain was assessed for responses to single written words. Specifically, we asked participants to respond only to words whose meaning matched at least one semantic target feature—that is, the target category (e.g., animal), the target color (e.g., gray), or both. On redundant-target trials, the word (e.g., elephant) matched both semantic target features (i.e., gray and animal). On single-target trials, the word (e.g., beaver) matched one target feature (i.e., animal) and a nontarget feature (i.e., brown). We observed shorter reaction times in the redundant-target condition than in the faster single-target condition. Hence, the present study provides the first evidence that redundancy gain is not limited to responses to redundant proximal stimulus features but can also be observed for responses to semantic feature information.     

Negational categorization and intergroup behavior

Individuals define themselves, at times, as who they are (e.g., a psychologist) and, at other times, as who they are not (e.g., not an economist). Drawing on social identity, optimal distinctiveness, and balance theories, four studies examined the nature of negational identity relative to affirmational identity. One study explored the conditions that increase negational identification and found that activating the need for distinctiveness increased the accessibility of negational identities. Three additional studies revealed that negational categorization increased outgroup derogation relative to affirmational categorization and the authors argue that this effect is at least partially due to a focus on contrasting the self from the outgroup under negational categorization. Consistent with this argument, outgroup derogation following negational categorization was mitigated when connections to similar others were highlighted. By distinguishing negational identity from affirmational identity, a more complete picture of collective identity and intergroup behavior can start to emerge.     

Multiple moral foundations predict responses to sacrificial dilemmas

Moral dilemmas, by definition, demand trade-offs between competing moral goods (e.g., causing one harm to prevent another). Although moral dilemmas have served as a methodological pillar for moral psychology, surprisingly little research has explored how individual differences in moral values influence responses to dilemmatic trade-offs. In a cross-sectional study (N = 307), we tested competing claims regarding the relationship between the endorsement of foundational moral values and responses to sacrificial dilemmas, in which one judges the moral acceptability of causing fatal harm to one person to save multiple others. Inconsistent with Moral Dyad Theory, our results did not support the prediction that Harm concerns would be the unequivocally most important predictor of sacrifice endorsement. Consistent with Moral Foundations Theory, however, multiple moral values are predictive of sacrifice judgments: Harm and Purity negatively predict, and Ingroup positively predicts, endorsement of harmful action in service of saving lives, with Harm and Purity explaining similar amounts of unique variance. The present study demonstrates the utility of pluralistic accounts of morality, even in moral situations in which harm is central.     

Familiarity,Target Set and False Positives in Face Recognition

Distinctiveness of a face predicts both miss errors (MEs) and false positives (FPs) but correlations between these errors are low (e.g. Hancock, Burton, & Bruce, 1996). To investigate this, distinctiveness and personal familiarity were analysed as predictors of MEs and FPs in a face recognition experiment. Faces were assigned to three groups, which meant that each set were distractor faces for two different sets of targets. Mean ratings of distinctiveness predicted MEs, whereas familiarity predicted FPs only if individual ratings were used. The degree to which subjects were consistent in their ratings and performance over different faces was also considered. Good subject consistency was found on FPs when the subjects saw the same target faces. If subjects who had seen different target faces were compared, then the consistency of FPs was lower than the consistency of MEs. The results imply that distinctiveness predicts MEs as a general property of the population of faces, whereas familiarity predicts FPs according to the idiosyncrasies of subjects.