The interference of various word parts on color naming in the Stroop test

This study compared the interfering effects of various word parts on performance of the Stroop task. In different conditions, the first, middle, and last two letters of a color word formed color patches. In other conditions, random letters were attached to these word parts. In a control condition, entire words formed the color patches. While no condition produced as much interference as the control condition, the first part of a color word interfered with color naming more than other word parts. The addition of unrelated letters had little or no effect on the interference produced by the first part of a word. The results are consistent with suggestions that word perception often involves the activation of an articulatory motor program which is initiated by the first part of the word.     

Perceived characteristics of “competent” people

The purpose of this research was to determine the specific behaviors and cues which 104 assessors perceived as indicating the presence of psychological variables shown to be related to competent job behavior. The cue systems utilized were found to be reminiscent of theory Y conceptions of effective job behavior. Implications of the lack of correlation of cue utilization with assessor characteristics are discussed.     

Behavioral Consequences of Exposure to Uncontrollable and Unpredictable Noise1

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate behavioral consequences of exposure to high-intensity predictable and unpredictable noise, under conditions where subjects believed or did not believe they had control over noise termination. Subjects were a group of men and women, averaging 50 years of age, who had lived in an urban environment for most of their lives. Results showed that the work of adapting to uncontrollable, in contrast to controllable noise, produced greater performance impairments following termination of the noise. Predictable noise had minimal effects on postadaptive performance, even though subjects could not control its offset. Comparisons of these data with previous findings reported by the authors indicated that people living in urban settings for long periods of time show essentially the same negative consequences of noise adaptation as those living in cities for shorter durations.     

The most good you can do: a response to the commentaries

Anthony Skelton, Violetta Igneski and Tracy Isaacs share my view that our obligations to help people in extreme poverty go beyond what is conventionally accepted. Nevertheless, the other contributors argue that my view is too demanding, while noting some tensions between my different writings on this issue. I explain my position, drawing on Sidgwick’s distinction between what someone ought to do, and what we should praise or blame someone for doing or not doing. I also respond to the position that Skelton considers preferable to mine, drawing this time on an argument that Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek and I have made in our recent book, The Point of View of the Universe. I also address Igneski’s concerns about gender inequality, and indicate my broad agreement with Isaacs’ suggestion that effective altruism could benefit from a more co-ordinated approach.     

A Time-Varying Measure of Dyadic Synchrony for Three-Dimensional Motion

We propose a novel approach to the analysis of synchronized three-dimensional motion in dyads. Motion recorded at high time resolution, as with a gaming device, is preprocessed in each of the three spatial dimensions by spline smoothing. Synchrony is then defined, at each time point, as the cosine between the two individuals’ estimated velocity vectors. The approach is extended to allow a time lag, allowing for the analysis of leader-follower dynamics. Mean square cosine over the time range is proposed as a scalar summary of dyadic synchrony, and this measure is found to be positively associated with cognitive empathy.     

Correction to: Rational social and political polarization

Philosophical Studies - In the original publication of the article, the Acknowledgement section was inadvertently not included. The Acknowledgement is given in this Correction.     

Temporal binding, binocular rivalry, and consciousness.

Cognitive functions like perception, memory, language, or consciousness are based on highly parallel and distributed information processing by the brain. One of the major unresolved questions is how information can be integrated and how coherent representational states can be established in the distributed neuronal systems subserving these functions. It has been suggested that this so-called "binding problem" may be solved in the temporal domain. The hypothesis is that synchronization of neuronal discharges can serve for the integration of distributed neurons into cell assemblies and that this process may underlie the selection of perceptually and behaviorally relevant information. As we intend to show here, this temporal binding hypothesis has implications for the search of the neural correlate of consciousness. We review experimental results, mainly obtained in the visual system, which support the notion of temporal binding. In particular, we discuss recent experiments on the neural mechanisms of binocular rivalry which suggest that appropriate synchronization among cortical neurons may be one of the necessary conditions for the buildup of perceptual states and awareness of sensory stimuli.