Temporal preparation improves temporal resolution: Evidence from constant foreperiods

Recent research shows that temporal preparation within a constant foreperiod design improves the spatial resolution of visual perception. The present experiments were designed to investigate whether similar benefits of temporal preparation can be observed in a task that requires high temporal resolution. In three experiments, we assessed the effect of temporal preparation on temporal order judgments (TOJs). In Experiment 1, short foreperiods facilitated TOJ for two spatially adjacent dots. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2, in which the temporal order of two spatially overlapping stimuli (“+” and “x”) had to be discriminated. Experiment 3 investigated the time course of temporal preparation by extending these findings to a wide range of different foreperiod durations. The present findings corroborate recent evidence for a perceptual locus of temporal preparation. Most importantly, they show that temporal preparation within a constant foreperiod design improves the temporal resolution of visual perception, independently of whether TOJ requires a decision about the location or about the identity of the target stimuli.     

Dependence patterns in consumer behavior: exploration and refinement of a concept

• Dependency is proposed as an implicit yet undeveloped concept important in understanding consumer behavior. The development of this idea takes as a jumping‐off point, the family life cycle literature because it has implicitly recognized the importance of dependent children. A taxonomy of dependence is offered as several propositions regarding dependency patterns. While the central offering of this paper is theoretical, the concept is explored via focus groups with 24 women. Findings suggest that the concept is worthy of future development.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Take a look at the bright side: effects of contrast polarity on gaze direction judgments

Observers are inaccurate when judging the gaze direction of eyes shown in negative rather than positive polarity. On the basis of this polarity effect, it has been proposed that gaze is perceived as directed from the dark part of the eye. Our experiment investigated whether direction judgments simply follow this heuristic, as has been suggested. Participants judged the gaze direction of eyes shown at different eccentricities in positive or negative polarity. The error pattern revealed that most errors were incorrect "straight" judgments, suggesting that judgments do not merely follow the heuristic "the dark part does the looking." We suggest that gaze judgments are based on the outcome of a competition between gaze direction signals: Whereas luminance cues may indicate that gaze is directed from the dark part of the eye, geometric cues may indicate the opposite. This interpretation is supported by reduced overall error rates, and fewer incorrect "straight" responses, for more extreme gaze directions.     

Temporal preparation facilitates perceptual identification of letters

Recent evidence has suggested that perceptual processing of single stimulus features improves when participants are temporally prepared for the occurrence of the stimuli. This study was conducted to investigate whether the benefit of temporal preparation generalizes to perceptual identification of more complex stimuli, such as letters. In three experiments, participants discriminated masked letters under high- and low-temporal-preparation conditions. Visual discrimination performance in all experiments improved when the participants were temporally prepared. Therefore, the present results support the notion that perception benefits from temporal preparation not only at the feature level, but also at subsequent levels at which feature information is integrated.     

Predicting maternal reactivity/sensitivity: The role of infant emotionality,maternal depressiveness/anxiety,and social support

It was hypothesized that an accumulation of unfavorable conditions, i.e., high negative emotionality and low positive emotionality of the infant, maternal depression and anxiety, and lacking social and emotional support can attenuate mothers' reactivity/sensitivity. Maternal reactivity/sensitivity was observed during home visits and in the laboratory. Infant negative and positive emotionality was assessed by mother reports and behavioral observations. Maternal depressiveness/anxiety as well as social support were assessed via questionnaires. All mothers were primiparous and had healthy infants. Data collection was conducted at the infants' ages of four months (37 dyads) and eight months (33 dyads). The sample consisted of 19 male and 18 female infants (four‐months' measurement). Whereas the presence of a single risk factor was not related to maternal reactivity/sensitivity, the combination was. A decrease in maternal reactivity/sensitivity over the course of time was demonstrated for mothers who had to deal with high negative emotionality of the infant in combination with either high depressiveness/anxiety or low social support at the infants' age of four months. No significant main or interaction effects could be shown for infant positive emotionality. ©2004 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Contribution of ankle, knee, and hip joints to the perception threshold for support surface rotation

The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the extent to which subjects can perceive, at very slow velocities, an angular rotation of the support surface about the medio-lateral axis of the ankle, knee, hip, or neck joint when visual cues are not available. Subjects were passively displaced on a slowly rotating platform at .01, .03, and .05 deg/sec. The subjects’ task was to detect movements of the platform in four different postural conditions allowing body oscillations about the ankle, knee, hip, or neck joint. In Experiment 1, subjects had to detect backward and forward rotation (pitching). In Experiment 2, they had to detect left and right rotations of the platform (rolling). In Experiment 3, subjects had to detect both backward/forward and left/right rotations of the platform, with the body fixed and the head either fixed or free to move. Overall, when the body was free to oscillate about the ankle, knee, or hip joints, a similar threshold for movement perception was observed. This threshold was lower for rolling than for pitching. Interestingly, in these postural conditions, an unconscious compensation in the direction opposite to the platform rotation was observed on most trials. The threshold for movement perception was much higher when the head was the only segment free to oscillate about the neck joint. These results suggest that, in static conditions, the otoliths are poor detectors of the direction of gravity forces. They also suggest that accurate perception of body orientation is improved when proprioceptive information can be dynamically integrated.     

Preference of dissonance reduction modes as a function of their order,familiarity and reversibility

Two central hypotheses of the original version of the theory of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) (1) that dissonance is to be conceived of as a primary drive and (2) that in order to reduce dissonance less resistant cognitions will be changed more than highly resistant ones led to hypotheses which were confirmed by two experiments. In Experiment I, a 2 × 3 factorial design, order and familiarity of dissonance reduction modes were manipulated. After receiving a dissonant information the subjects were offered a relatively low and a relatively high resistant cognition for dissonance reduction, each being placed first (series I, high-low resistance) or last (series II, low-high resistance) respectively. Subjects did (known) or did not (unknown) read these modes before reacting to them. Under the unknown condition dissonance will be reduced more with a specific mode if it is placed first than last. With known reduction modes the order of presentation does not have an effect. Under series I condition the first-placed, higher-resistant cognition will be changed more in the unknown condition than in the known condition. Under the series II condition the first-placed, lower-resistant cognition will be changed equally in the known and unknown condition. In short, the higher-resistant cognition will be changed more, only when it is placed first and when the following modes are not known. Two explanations for these results are possible: (1) The more dissonance is reduced by changing a more or a less resistant congnition, the less further reduction is necessary; (2) dissonance will be reduced in an internally consistent way. Experiment II excluded the first explanation. Subjects were allowed to revise their original way of reducing dissonance. First, subjects in one condition received series I unknown and subjects in the other condition received series II unknown. Reacting to the dissonance reduction modes the second time, there was more revision when the high-resistant congition was placed first (series 1 revision) than when placed last (series II revision). These results support the hypothesis that dissonance reduction by changing a less-resistant congnition more and changing a high-resistant one less is preferred. Implications of the results of the two experments for the stability of dissonance reduction, the method and interpretation of dissonance experiments are discussed.     

The locus of temporal preparation effects: Evidence from the psychological refractory period paradigm

In reaction time (RT) tasks, responses are especially fast when participants can anticipate the onset of an imperative response signal. Although this RT facilitation is commonly attributed to temporal preparation, it is unclear whether this preparation shortens the duration of early or late processes. We used the effect propagation property of the psychological refractory period paradigm to localize the effect of temporal preparation. Manipulation of temporal uncertainty affected the RT of Task 1, regardless of the level of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). Consistent with the prediction of an early locus of temporal preparation, this effect propagated completely to the RT of Task 2 at short SOAs, but propagation diminished virtually to zero at long SOAs.     

The attentional blink effect: influence of negative words in an affective valence categorization task

In this study, we explored the emotional modulation of the Attentional Blink effect. In a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation procedure, a word (Target 1), either positive, negative or neutral, was followed by the word "WATER" (Target 2) in one half of the trials. The task included two conditions. In one of them, participants only had to detect the word "WATER". In double-response trials, participants also categorized Target 1's valence. Results showed that the detection of Target 2 was impaired in the double-response condition, this impairment being greater when negative word appeared as Target 1, as compared to positive and neutral words. However, these effects were independent on the Anxiety-Trait levels of participants. Overall, the pattern of data suggests that cognitive resources are focused on negative stimuli when their negative valence is emotionally salient enough.     

Cutaneous saltation within and across arms: a new measure of the saltation illusion in somatosensation

A new objective procedure was used to measure the strength of cutaneous saltation, in order to clarify current debates about the nature of this illusion. Three taps were presented successively to three possible forearm locations. Participants attended to the middle location and reported whether a tap was perceived there. When all stimuli were delivered to the same arm and intertap intervals were short, participants were unable to distinguish real and illusory stimuli at the middle location. When both arms were stimulated, location judgments on one arm were shifted toward a tap subsequently delivered to the other arm. These results challenge the view that saltation is a purely attentional phenomenon, but they are inconsistent with the idea that this illusion is produced in the primary somatosensory cortex.