The right parahippocampal gyrus contributes to the formation and maintenance of bound information in working memory

Working memory is devoted to the temporary storage and on-line manipulation of information. Recently, an integrative system termed the episodic buffer has been proposed to integrate and hold information being entered or retrieved from episodic memory. Although the brain system supporting such an integrative buffer is still in debate, the medial temporal lobe appears to be a promising candidate for the maintenance of bound information. In the current work, binding was assessed by comparing two conditions in which participants had to retain three letters and three spatial locations presented either bound or separate. At the behavioral level, lower performance was found for bound information than for separate information. When contrasting the two conditions, activation in the right parahippocampal gyrus was greater for the encoding and maintenance of bound information. No activation was observed in the medial temporal lobe during the retrieval of bound information. Together, our results suggest that the parahippocampal gyrus may underlie the integrative and maintenance functions of the episodic buffer.     

Selective attention and executive functions deficits among criminal psychopaths

The present study examined whether psychopaths exhibit deficits in selective attention and executive functions. Prison inmates were assigned to either a “psychopath” group or a “control” group according to their scores on the PCL‐R [Hare, 1991: Toronto, Multi‐Health Systems]. The two groups were compared in terms of performance on the following tests: (1) D‐II cancellation, (2) Porteus Maze, (3) Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting, (4) Stroop Color Word Interference, (5) Trail Making, and (6) Tower of London. The results support the hypothesis of selective attention and specific executive function deficits among psychopaths. Specifically, psychopaths' abilities to maintain a plan and to inhibit irrelevant information were inferior to those of control participants. Aggr. Behav. 29:393–405, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The Logic of Feeling

The contribution of the feelings‐as‐information hypothesis to our understanding of the role of affect in judgment and decision making is discussed. Basic principles and regularities in how affective feelings guide judgments and decisions are then identified. Based on these principles and regularities, it is argued that the role of feelings in judgment and decision making may be more adaptive than has been assumed in most academic circles. This adaptivity transpires (a) in the variety of goal‐relevant signals that feelings convey, (b) the flexibility with which feelings are interpreted, (c) the judgmental properties of feelings, and (d) the selectivity with which feelings are invoked. It is speculated that affective feelings may tap into a separate system of judgment and decision making with its unique strengths and weaknesses.     

Tones disappear faster in the right ear than in the left

In order to gain further information on the characteristics and physiological correlates of tone decay in humans, the tone decay test was administered to 58 normal-hearing subjects, successively in the left and right ears and in absence and presence of a contralateral noise. The results revealed that tone decay was greater in the right than in the left ear and was increased by contralateral noise. The contralateral effect of this noise on cochlear biomechanisms was then estimated by measuring contralaterally induced variations in the amplitude of click-evoked otoacoustic emissions in the same subjects. In the right ear, the increase in tone decay and the decrease in otoacoustic emission amplitude--both induced by contralateral noise--were positively correlated (r = .315, p = .016). Furthermore, the contralateral changes in otoacoustic emission amplitude were found to be on average larger in the right than in the left ear, this asymmetry being correlated with that observed for the tone decay. These findings are discussed in relation to previous results on simple and induced loudness adaptation in the vicinity of threshold, on contralateral attenuation of otoacoustic emissions and on the influence of the auditory efferents on cochlear biomechanisms.     

Preregistration Is Neither Sufficient nor Necessary for Good Science

To address widespread perceptions of a reproducibility crisis in the social sciences, a growing number of scholars recommend the systematic preregistration of empirical studies. The purpose of this article is to contribute to an epistemological dialogue on the value of preregistration in consumer research by identifying the limitations, drawbacks, and potential adverse effects of a preregistration system. After a brief review of some of the implementation challenges that commonly arise with preregistration, we raise three levels of issues with a system of preregistration. First, we identify its limitations as a means of advancing consumer knowledge, thus questioning the sufficiency of preregistration in promoting good consumer science. Second, we elaborate on why consumer science can progress even in the absence of preregistration, thereby also questioning the necessity of preregistration in promoting good consumer science. Third, we discuss serious potential adverse effects of preregistration, both at the individual researcher level and at the level of the field as a whole. We conclude by offering a broader perspective on the narrower role that preregistration can play within the general pursuit of building robust and useful knowledge about consumers.     

When Arousal Influences Ad Evaluation and Valence Does Not (and Vice Versa)

This research examines, across 2 studies, the interplay between the valence and arousal components of affective states and the affective tone of a target ad. In the first study, music was used to induce a pleasant or unpleasant mood, while controlling for arousal. Participants were subsequently exposed to an ad that either had a positive‐affective tone or was ambiguous in its affective tone. As predicted, the valence of the affective state colored the evaluation of the ad in a mood‐congruent direction, but this coloring effect occurred only when the ad had an ambiguous‐affective tone. In the second study, the target ad had a clear positive or negative affective tone, and the valence and arousal dimensions of the mood state were manipulated independently. As predicted, the arousal dimension, but not the valence dimension, influenced ad evaluation. Ad evaluations were more polarized in the direction of the ad's affective tone under high arousal than under low arousal. This effect was more pronounced for self‐referent evaluations (e.g., “I like the ad”) than for object‐referent evaluations (e.g., “The ad is good”), favoring an attributional explanation—the excitation transfer hypothesis—over an attention‐narrowing explanation—the dynamic complexity hypothesis. Taken together, the results of the 2 studies stress the important contingency of the affective tone of the ad, when examining the effects of the valence and arousal dimensions of a person's affective state on ad evaluation. The results also provide additional insights into how and when affect serves as information in judgment processes.     

Modele d'Interaction entre corpuscules en theorie fonctionnelle

Conclusions Il y a trop de distance entre les conceptions abstraites de la Physique et les modèles intuitifs empruntés à l'univers concret pour que l'on puisse espérer tirer de l'utilisation de ceux-ci des indications exactes. Il faut recourir à des modèles déjà conceptuels et abstraits empruntés plutôt à l'univers mathématique qu'à l'univers sensible.     

How does exposure to masked individuals affect White Americans' attitudes toward Asian American and Pacific Islanders?

Across three studies, conducted between Spring 2020 and Spring 2021, we tested whether exposure to an Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) target person wearing a face mask would increase or decrease White Americans' perceived threat from and positivity toward AAPI individuals. Although results varied by study, a single-paper meta-analysis revealed that the masked (compared to unmasked) AAPI target resulted in greater positivity toward AAPIs, due to reduced perceptions of both symbolic threat to group values and realistic threat to group health. Positivity toward AAPIs did not reliably differ after exposure to a masked versus unmasked White target. Implications for interventions that encourage COVID-safe behaviors and combat anti-AAPI attitudes are discussed.