Virtual Humans and Persuasion: The Effects of Agency and Behavioral Realism

Two studies examined whether participant attitudes would change toward positions advocated by an ingroup member even if the latter was known to be an embodied agent; that is, a human-like representation of a computer algorithm. While immersed in a virtual environment, participants listened to a persuasive communication from a digital representation of another student. The latter was actually an embodied agent (a computer-controlled digital representation of a human). Study 1 examined the extent to which gender of the virtual human, participant gender, and the agent's behavior affected attitude change. Results revealed gender-based ingroup favoritism in the form of greater attitude change for same gender virtual humans. Study 2 examined behavioral realism and agency beliefs; that is, whether participants believed the other to be an agent or an avatar (an online representation of an actual person). Results supported Blascovich and colleague's model of social influence within immersive virtual environments. Specifically, the prediction that virtual humans high in behavioral realism would be more influential than those low in behavioral realism was supported, but this effect was moderated by the gender of the virtual human and the research participant. Implications of these findings for the model are discussed.     

Affective reactions to facial identity in a prosopagnosic patient

This study probes whether a prosopagnosic patient can make accurate explicit affective judgements towards faces. Patient MJH was shown photographs of faces of well-liked family members and public figures rated as “evil” by opinion polls. MJH was asked to rate each face on two 7-point scales (Likeability and Pleasantness). Since he is unable to explicitly recognise faces, his ratings were based on his evaluative reaction to the faces presented. In a second phase of the experiment, MJH was told the name of the faces previously presented and asked to rate them using the same scales. MJH's Likeability ratings during the picture-viewing phase of the experiment and the explicit phase were highly correlated. Based on these findings, we propose that thought consists of an explicit declarative and an implicit emotional aspect, which may become dissociated in prosopagnosia.     

A socioemotional intervention in a Latin American orphanage

A pilot intervention that emphasized training and technical assistance to promote warm, sensitive, and responsive one‐on‐one caregiver–child interactions primarily during feeding and bathing/changing was implemented using regular staff in a depressed orphanage for children birth to approximately 8 years of age in Latin America. Despite a variety of unanticipated irregularities in the implementation of the intervention, many beyond the researchers' control, ward environments improved; caregivers displayed more warm, sensitive, and responsive interactions with children; and children improved an average of 13.5 developmental quotient (DQ) points after 4+ months' exposure to the completed intervention. Furthermore, 82% of the children had DQs greater than 70 before the intervention, but only 27.8% did so afterward. Although the training for all caregivers was aimed at children birth to 3 years, the number of different caregivers was reduced, and technical assistance was provided only to caregivers serving children less than 3 years, younger and older children (3–8 years) improved approximately the same amount. However, children who were transitioned from a younger to an older ward during the intervention improved less than did children who remained in either a younger or an older ward, the first evidence suggesting that the common orphanage practice of periodically graduating children from one homogeneous age group to another may impede their development. The study is consistent with others that have shown that orphanages can be changed, and increases primarily in warm, sensitive, responsive caregiver–child interactions can produce improvements in children's development.     

Developmental environment affects risk-acceptance in the hissing cockroach, Gromphadorhina portentosa

Consistent individual differences in the tendency to accept risk have been demonstrated in invertebrates, fish, birds, and mammals, including humans. These individual differences have been associated with size, growth rate, survival, and reproductive success. Little research, however, has investigated the effect of developmental environment on individual differences in risk-acceptance. Competing hypotheses offer different explanations of how variation in the quality of the developmental environment affects risk-acceptance in adults. The first hypothesis states that individuals developing in poor quality environments take risks because such behavior is their only means of obtaining adequate fitness returns. The second hypothesis states that individuals developing in poor environments avoid risk because their poor physical condition makes them especially vulnerable to injury or death. We measured several forms of risk-accepting behavior (exploration, foraging, and recovery after disturbance) in male hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) that had developed in nutritional and social environments of varying quality. Individuals raised on poor nutrition diets exhibited lower levels of risk-acceptance than those raised on high nutrition diets. Risk-acceptance among individuals that developed on poor nutrition diets was negatively correlated with body size. We conclude that quality of developmental environment affects risk-acceptance across behavioral contexts in male hissing cockroaches. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that condition-dependent vulnerability mediates the relationship between developmental environment and risk-acceptance.     

The God of Chance and Purpose

The author argues that ontological randomness is genuine, and that God does not determine the outcome of every scientifically random event, but instead controls randomness by setting broad boundaries. Through paleontological examination, this paper looks at how randomness shapes the world from the bottom up. However, the phenomena known as convergence indicate that evolution through natural selection may proceed along various paths, but the destinations are few. Thus there is a dichotomy: randomness is constrained within pattern.