Eliciting information and cues to deceit through sketching in interpreter‐based interviews

As interviewees typically say less when an interpreter is present, we examined whether this was caused by interpreters not interpreting everything interviewees says or by interviewees providing less information. We further examined (a) the effect of a model drawing on providing information and (b) the diagnostic value of total details and the proportion of complications as cues to deceit. Hispanic, Russian, and South Korean participants were interviewed by native interviewers or by a British interviewer through an interpreter. Truth tellers discussed a trip they had made; liars fabricated a story. Participants received no instruction (condition 1) or were instructed to sketch while narrating without (condition 2) or with (condition 3) being given examples of detailed sketches. Interviewees said less when an interpreter was present because they provided less information. Truth tellers gave more details and, particularly, obtained a higher proportion of complications than liars. The sketching manipulation had no effect.     

Toward a comprehensive model of face impressions: What we know,what we do not,and paths forward

A person's impression of another depends upon three sources of variance. The characteristics of the target, the characteristics of the perceiver, and the interplay between the two. Researchers have dedicated different amounts of study to these three sources of variance, and therefore they differ in how well they are understood. The present work will first review the portions of the face impression process that are understood well, then identify and discuss portions of the process less well understood. We will then question to what extent the current state of knowledge will generalize to novel targets and populations. Finally, we will review several modeling approaches that can accommodate relatively unexamined yet important sources of variance in impression formation, suggesting a clear path forward toward a comprehensive understanding of face impressions.     

Using Automated Learning Devices for Monkeys (ALDM) to study social networks

Social network analysis has become a prominent tool to study animal social life, and there is an increasing need to develop new systems to collect social information automatically, systematically, and reliably. Here we explore the use of a freely accessible Automated Learning Device for Monkeys (ALDM) to collect such social information on a group of 22 captive baboons (Papio papio). We compared the social network obtained from the co-presence of the baboons in ten ALDM testing booths to the social network obtained through standard behavioral observation techniques. The results show that the co-presence network accurately reflects the social organization of the group, and also indicate under which conditions the co-presence network is most informative. In particular, the best correlation between the two networks was obtained with a minimum of 40 days of computer records and for individuals with at least 500 records per day. We also show through random permutation tests that the observed correlations go beyond what would be observed by simple synchronous activity, to reflect a preferential choice of closely located testing booths. The use of automatized cognitive testing therefore presents a new way of obtaining a large and regular amount of social information that is necessary to develop social network analysis. It also opens the possibility of studying dynamic changes in network structure with time and in relation to the cognitive performance of individuals.     

Understanding maladaptive responses to rejection: Aggression with an audience

Logically, responding aggressively to rejection is maladaptive because one is unlikely to seek a relationship with an aggressor. We predict that when concealed, the illogical aggressive response to rejection is more likely, whereas when the rejected individuals’ aggressive responses are perceived as public, the aggressive acts may be reduced. Participants were rejected by others (Experiment 1) or were either accepted or rejected during an online ball-tossing game (Experiment 2) and were then given an opportunity to aggress publicly or privately. Across experiments, when the opportunity to aggress was made public, rejected participants exhibited less aggressive behavior. When concerned about the perception of their public aggressive responses by others, rejected individuals’ aggressive responses diminished compared with those whose actions were private. Crucially, this extended to aggression visible only to neutral others, suggesting that effects cannot solely be due to fear of retribution.     

Effects of emotional valence and arousal manipulation on eyeblink classical conditioning and autonomic measures

Using a classical eyeblink conditioning paradigm, we have previously shown that the rate of acquisition of a conditioned response may be manipulated by engaging subjects in background tasks of varying complexity concurrent to conditioning. To further examine the influence of the background environment on conditioning, a picture set designed to elicit emotional responses, the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), was presented to subjects during classical eyeblink conditioning. The results suggest that eyeblink conditioning does appear to be sensitive to contextual manipulations of arousal. Pictures rated as very arousing were found to engage subjects enough to enhance learning, although not to the point that autonomic functions were significantly altered between picture groups. We suggest that group differences in learning may be a result of either novelty of, or vigilance to, interesting pictures rather than as a direct result of physiological arousal.     

Self‐esteem,perception of relationships,and emotional distress: A cross‐cultural study

This study examined the relative importance of self‐esteem, family cohesion, and support from friends in predicting depressed mood and anxiety in Japanese and American college students. Contrary to expectations, self‐esteem was the strongest predictor of emotional distress in both groups of students. Nevertheless, consistent with predictions derived from Markus and Kitayama's theory of self‐construals, family cohesion accounted for a significantly larger percentage of the variance in predicting emotional distress in Japan than in the United States. In both countries, the relations between support from friends and the measures of emotional distress were entirely mediated by self‐esteem. However, among Japanese students, family cohesion accounted for additional significant variance in predicting the measures of emotional distress, even after controlling for self‐esteem.     

Examining the Psychometric Properties of the Family Accommodation Scale-Parent-Report (FAS-PR)

Growing research has examined parental accommodation among the families of children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, these studies have utilized a parent-report (PR) version of a measure, the Family Accommodation Scale (FAS) that has never received proper psychometric validation. In turn, previously derived subscales have been developed via clinical rather than empirical evidence. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive psychometric analysis of the FAS-PR utilizing data collected from 96 youths with OCD. Exploratory factors analysis was conducted and revealed a 12-item scale yielding two separate, yet related subscales, Avoidance of Triggers (AT) and Involvement in Compulsions (IC). Subsequent analyses revealed good internal consistency and convergent and discriminant validity. These findings suggest that future research should seek to examine factors that may impact various facets to accommodation as well as the role these facets plays in predicting treatment outcome. Limitations are discussed.     

Generalized relational matching by guinea baboons (Papio papio) in two-by-two-item analogy problems

Analogical reasoning is considered the hallmark of human reasoning, but some studies have demonstrated that language- and symbol-trained chimpanzees can also reason analogically. Despite the potential adaptive value of this ability, evidence from other studies strongly suggests that other nonhuman primates do not have this capacity for analogical reasoning. In our three experiments, 6 of 29 baboons acquired the ability to perform a relational matching-to-sample (RMTS) task in which pairs of shapes composed relational displays. Five of these 6 monkeys then transferred this ability to RMTS tasks using novel exemplars of identity (elements in a pair are the same) and nonidentity (elements in a pair are different) relations. This transfer occurred even on trials in which the incorrect pair shared an element with the sample pair with which it was being compared. The baboons retained this ability 12 months later. The findings from our study of symbol-naive monkeys indicate that although language and symbol training facilitate conceptual thinking in nonhuman primates, such training is not a prerequisite for analogical reasoning.