Evidence for strong dissociation between emotion and facial displays: the case of surprise

Eight experiments examined facial expressions of surprise in adults. Surprise was induced by disconfirming a previously established schema or expectancy. Self-reports and behavioral measures indicated the presence of surprise in most participants, but surprise expressions were observed only in 4%-25%, and most displays consisted of eyebrow raising only; the full, 3-component display was never seen. Experimental variations of surprise intensity, sociality, and duration/complexity of the surprising event did not change these results. Electromyographic measurement failed to detect notably more brow raisings and, in one study, revealed a decrease of frontalis muscle activity in the majority of the participants. Nonetheless, most participants believed that they had shown a strong surprise expression.     

Domain specific effects of central traits in impression formation

In a procedure similar to that used in Asch's classic studies in 1946, 125 college students (54 men and 71 women, Mage=20.9 yr., SD=4.8) rated their impression of a hypothetical man or woman who was described by seven stimulus traits. This list included one of four central traits which appeared in the middle of the list: warm, cold, serious, or foolish. The dependent measures were factor scores derived from participants' ratings of 20 traits on social desirability and intellectual desirability. As hypothesized, warm and cold, prototypes of social desirability and undesirability, were associated with judgments of social but not intellectual desirability, and serious and foolish, prototypes of intellectual desirability and undesirability, were associated with judgments of intellectual but not social desirability. In addition, there was evidence of a subtle sex bias: ratings of "foolish" women were higher on social desirability than ratings of "foolish" men.     

Factor analysis of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised in developmentally disabled persons

The results of previous studies on the factorial structure of Wechsler Intelligence Scales are somewhat inconsistent across normal and pathological samples. To study specific clinical groups, such as developmentally disabled persons, it is useful to examine the factor structure in appropriate samples. A factor analysis was carried out using the principal component method and the Varimax orthogonal rotation on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-R) in a sample of 203 developmentally disabled persons, with a mean age of 25 years 4 months. Developmental disability ranged from mild to moderate. Partially contrasting with previous studies on normal samples, results found a two-factor solution. Wechsler's traditional Verbal and Performance scales seems to be more appropriate for this sample than the alternative three-factor solution.     

Predicting the near and distant future

Four studies investigated individuals' confidence in predicting near future and distant future outcomes. Study 1 found that participants were more confident in theory-based predictions of psychological experiments when these experiments were expected to take place in the more distant future. Studies 2-4 examined participants' confidence in predicting their performance on near and distant future tests. These studies found that in predicting their more distant future performance, participants disregarded the format of the questions (e.g., multiple choice vs. open ended) and relied, instead, on their perceived general knowledge (e.g., history knowledge). Together, the present studies demonstrate that predictions of the more distant future are based on relatively abstract information. Individuals feel more confident in predicting the distant future than the near future when the predictions concern outcomes that are implied by relatively abstract information.     

Hedonic and sensory characteristics of odors conditioned by pairing with tastants in humans

Animals readily acquire positive odor-taste hedonic associations, but evidence for this in humans remains weak and was explored further. Retronasal pairing of odors with sucrose or salty stimuli (Experiment 1) increased the rated sweetness of sucrose-paired odors without altering liking, although changes in odor pleasantness correlated with sucrose liking. Experience of odors with sucrose or quinine by sweet likers (Experiment 2) found increased pleasantness and sweetness for sucrose-paired odors, whereas quinine-paired odors became less liked and more bitter. Odor-sucrose pairings in sweet likers and dislikers (Experiment 3) found increased sweetness in both groups but increased odor liking only in likers. These data suggest that evaluative and sensory learning are dissociable and that evaluative changes are sensitive to individual differences in sweet liking.     

Mortality salience, martyrdom, and military might: the great satan versus the axis of evil

Study 1 investigated the effect of mortality salience on support for martyrdom attacks among Iranian college students. Participants were randomly assigned to answer questions about either their own death or an aversive topic unrelated to death and then evaluated materials from fellow students who either supported or opposed martyrdom attacks against the United States. Whereas control participants preferred the student who opposed martyrdom, participants reminded of death preferred the student who supported martyrdom and indicated they were more likely to consider such activities themselves. Study 2 investigated the effect of mortality salience on American college students' support for extreme military interventions by American forces that could kill thousands of civilians. Mortality salience increased support for such measures among politically conservative but not politically liberal students. The roles of existential fear, cultural worldviews, and construing one's nation as pursing a heroic battle against evil in advocacy of violence were discussed.     

Empathy-motivated helping: the moderating role of group membership

In this article, the authors present two laboratory experiments testing a group-level perspective on the role of empathy in helping. Experiment 1 tested the authors' predictions in an intercultural context of helping. Confirming their specific Empathy x Group Membership moderation hypothesis, empathy had a stronger effect on helping intentions when the helper and the target belonged to the same cultural group than when they belonged to different groups. Experiment 2 replicated these findings in a modified minimal group paradigm using laboratory-created groups. Moreover, this second experiment also provides evidence for the hypothesized psychological mechanisms underlying the empathy-(ingroup) helping relationship. Specifically, analyses in the ingroup condition confirmed that the strength of the empathy-(ingroup) helping relationship systematically varied as a function of perceived similarities among ingroup members. The general implications of these findings for empathy-motivated helping are discussed.     

Perceptual encoding efficiency in visual search

The authors present 10 experiments that challenge some central assumptions of the dominant theories of visual search. Their results reveal that the complexity (or redundancy) of nontarget items is a crucial but overlooked determinant of search efficiency. The authors offer a new theoretical outline that emphasizes the importance of nontarget encoding efficiency, and they test this proposal using dot pattern stimuli adapted from W. R. Garner and D. E. Clement (1963). The results provide converging support for the importance of nontarget encoding efficiency in accounting for visual search performance.