Training Motor Sequences: Effects of Speed and Accuracy Instructions

Participants practiced a fixed 3- and a fixed 6-key press sequence for 144 times each. In the speed group, they were instructed to execute their sequences fast without bothering much about errors while the accurate group was instructed to be careful and prevent errors. In the test phase, participants executed series of 3 and 6 responses (a) when all element-specific stimuli were displayed in the familiar order, (b) in response to just the familiar first stimulus, and (c) by responding to random stimuli. The speed instruction yielded stronger sequencing skill while the accuracy instruction developed stronger reaction skill.     

The Simple Copy Task: Detecting Higher Order Visual Processing Deficits in Schizophrenia,Dementia, and Movement Disorder Groups

The Simple Copy Task (SCT) is a figure copying test with inherent appeal due to its short administration time, graded task difficulty, varied stimuli, and potential to eliminate floor effects. Despite this, there is a lack of data regarding its construct validity and diagnostic utility. The present study compared SCT performance of schizophrenia (n = 29), dementia (n = 64), and movement disorder (n = 12) groups with that of unmatched healthy control participants (n = 49). Movement disorder patients committed a high degree of misplacement errors, whereas dementia patients tended to omit items, add extraneous detail, and perseverate. The schizophrenia group was most similar to the dementia group in their performance on the SCT, committing primarily omission and perseveration errors. The SCT was most closely related to the Rey Complex Figure Task (r = 0.68, p < .01) and the Block Design Task (r = 0.62, p < .01). Age (r = ?0.14, p < .01) and education (r = 0.35, p < .01) effects were present; however, there was no impact of gender and handedness. Taken together, these findings provide support for the utility of the task and directions for clinical interpretation.     

Research Note Examining non-religious groups in Britain: theistic belief and social correlates

Major changes in religious belonging in Britain in recent decades have included a marked decline in levels of Christian affiliation and a growing segment of society who profess no affiliation—the ‘religious nones’. This research note uses a contemporary opinion poll to examine the groupings within the broad ‘religious nones’ category, focusing on those who identify as atheist or agnostic or who profess some other non-religion identity. This research note examines the patterning in theistic belief across these groups and assesses the socio-demographic correlates of these groups. At each stage, the non-religious groups are compared with those who profess a religious affiliation. These empirical findings are of note, given trends in the British religious landscape and wider scholarly debates about the nature and extent of secularisation, and should encourage future research in the area of non-religion.     

Electrophysiological correlates reflect the integration of model-based and model-free decision information

In this study, we investigated the interplay of habitual (model-free) and goal-directed (model-based) decision processes by using a two-stage Markov decision task in combination with event-related potentials (ERPs) and computational modeling. To manipulate the demands on model-based decision making, we applied two experimental conditions with different probabilities of transitioning from the first to the second stage of the task. As we expected, when the stage transitions were more predictable, participants showed greater model-based (planning) behavior. Consistent with this result, we found that stimulus-evoked parietal (P300) activity at the second stage of the task increased with the predictability of the state transitions. However, the parietal activity also reflected model-free information about the expected values of the stimuli, indicating that at this stage of the task both types of information are integrated to guide decision making. Outcome-related ERP components only reflected reward-related processes: Specifically, a medial prefrontal ERP component (the feedback-related negativity) was sensitive to negative outcomes, whereas a component that is elicited by reward (the feedback-related positivity) increased as a function of positive prediction errors. Taken together, our data indicate that stimulus-locked parietal activity reflects the integration of model-based and model-free information during decision making, whereas feedback-related medial prefrontal signals primarily reflect reward-related decision processes.     

Priming Risky Choice: Do Risk Preferences Need Inferences?

The notion that subtle influences, often falling outside awareness, can bias behaviour has a strong grip on both theoretical perspectives and the public imagination. We report three experiments that examined this idea in the context of risky choice. Experiment 1 (N = 100) appeared to find evidence for an interaction whereby participants primed but not reminded of the prime showed an assimilation effect (e.g. participants primed to be risk seeking became more risk seeking) whereas those who were primed and reminded showed a contrast effect (e.g. became less risk seeking). However, two further experiments (N = 180, N = 128) failed to find any evidence for this interaction, and none of the experiments found evidence for the asymmetry in awareness predicted by an ‘unconscious’ assimilation but ‘conscious’ contrast account. The data were analysed using both Null Hypothesis Significance Testing and Bayesian methods, and the implications of the conclusions arising from each are discussed. Whatever one's statistical predilection, the results imply a reduction of confidence in the belief that risk preferences need no inferences. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why Should We Care About Nietzsche's ‘Higher Men’?

This paper offers a new interpretation of Nietzsche's ‘higher men’ doctrine, which explains how he can simultaneously hold the following two positions: first, that higher types are especially important or valuable; and second, that all moral claims are false (i.e. a crude error theory regarding morality). Nietzsche can coherently subscribe to both views by arguing that higher types have wide inter‐subjective (prudential) value to lower types. More specifically, higher men, who are mainly characterized by their strong, commanding nature, fulfill a psychological need, common in most humans—the need to obey. The paper develops this conception of higher types and shows how it relates to Nietzsche's insights on culture, nihilism, and becoming.     

Reconstructing the times of past and future personal events

Humans have the remarkable ability to mentally travel through past and future times. However, while memory for the times of past events has been much investigated, little is known about how imagined future events are temporally located. Using a think-aloud protocol, we found that the temporal location of past and future events is rarely directly accessed, but instead mostly relies on reconstructive and inferential strategies. References to lifetime periods and factual knowledge (about the self, others, and the world) were most frequently used to determine the temporal location of both past and future events. Event details (e.g., places, persons, or weather conditions) were also used, but mainly for past events. Finally, the results showed that events whose temporal location was directly accessed were judged more important for personal goals. Together, these findings shed new light on the mechanisms involved in locating personal events in past and future times.