Culture-contingent signs of trust in emergent relationships

This study develops a culture-contingent model of trust formation in emergent relationships by comparing how trust-warranting signs shape attributions of trustworthiness to unfamiliar trustees in collectivist versus individualist cultures. We predict and find that the effectiveness of dispositional and contextual signs varies systematically depending on trustors’ national culture. Collectivists tend to rely less on dispositional signs and more on situational signs than individualists. This difference fosters distinct trust-building pathways. Individualists bestow trust based on a trustee’s perceived ability and integrity, collectivists’ trusting choices depend to a greater extent on predictable, benevolent interactions with a potential partner. These findings suggest that, in cross-cultural encounters, signs aligned with trustors’ cultural expectations hasten trust production. Mismatched signs are impotent, even off-putting.     

The Generality Constraint and Categorial Restrictions

We should not admit categorial restrictions on the significance of syntactically well formed strings. Syntactically well formed but semantically absurd strings, such as 'Life's but a walking shadow' and 'Caesar is a prime number', can express thoughts; and competent thinkers both are able to grasp these and ought to be able to. Gareth Evans' generality constraint, though Evans himself restricted it, should be viewed as a fully general constraint on concept possession and propositional thought. For (a) even well formed but semantically cross-categorial strings often do possess substantive inferential roles; (b) hearers exploit these inferential roles in interpreting such strings metaphorically; (c) there is no good reason to deny truth-conditions to strings with inferential roles.     

Biological bases of face preference in 6-week-old infants

Six-week-old infants (N =40) who started the experiment in either a calm or crying state, received sucrose from an experimenter, while in eye contact with her. Sucrose was delivered either by syringe or on a pacifier. After 3.5 min., the experimenter retired, the mother came into the test room and placed her infant over her shoulder en face with a video camera. The experimenter and a confederate, both dressed identically, sat in front of and slightly to either side of the infant and the infant could choose to look at either experimenter. To minimize position bias, experimenters switched sides every 30 sec. To maintain a stable level of infant attention, they simultaneously called the baby's name at 10 sec. intervals. When an infant looked at one or the other experimenters, she raised her thumb in camera view. Only crying infants who sucked a sweet pacifier showed a preference for their experimenter. As a group none of the other infants did so. However, there was a wide distribution of sucking times in calm week 6 infants. Choice was linearly related to sucking duration. Infants who sucked for substantial periods of time, showed a strong preference for the experimenter. Those who sucked for minimal periods of time strongly preferred the confederate. Based on these findings and ones from 9- and 12-week-old infants, a model is presented in which preference in this experimental paradigm is determined by idealized levels of central activation. These levels may be inferred from the normal crying function at a particular age.     

Identifying Beneficial Physical Activity During School Recess: Utility and Feasibility of the Fitbit

The purpose of the current study was to assess the utility, feasibility, and reliability of Fitbit accelerometers to measure physical activity (via steps) of 15 young children simultaneously during recess. Fitbit-recorded steps per minute (SPM) were used as the primary measure to assess levels of activity in children playing in various structured (i.e., instructed) and unstructured (i.e., free play) recess activities. The results suggested that the number of steps measured by two Fitbits resulted in high levels of agreement, and the Fitbits were successful at identifying differential levels of activity across multiple types of play activities. Across all children, running or walking was associated with the most SPM (M = 89) and highest percentage of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA; M = 47%), followed by soccer (M = 58 SPM; M = 12% MVPA), free play (M = 53 SPM; 3% MVPA), and tag (M = 43 SPM; 7% MVPA). The utility of the Fitbit’s minute-by-minute data records was demonstrated, with the use of additional third-party software by Python, as differential levels of physical activity associated with various play behaviors were detected, and all 15 participants were assessed simultaneously with very few observers.     

Object substitution masking and its relationship with visual crowding

Object substitution masking (OSM) occurs when the perceptibility of a brief target is reduced by a trailing surround mask typically composed of four dots. Camp et al. (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 41, 940–957, 2015) found that crowding a target by adding adjacent flankers, in addition to OSM, had a more deleterious effect on performance than expected based on the combined individual effects of crowding and masking alone. The current experiments test why OSM and crowding interact in this way. In three experiments, target-flanker distance is manipulated whilst also varying mask duration in a digit identification task. The OSM effect—as indexed by the performance difference between unmasked and masked conditions—had a quadratic function with respect to target-flanker distance. Results suggest it is OSM affecting crowding rather than the converse: Masking seems to amplify crowding at intermediate target-distractor distances at the edge of the crowding interference zone. These results indicate that OSM and crowding share common mechanisms. The effect of OSM is possibly a consequence of changes to the types of feature detectors which are pooled together for target identification when that target must compete for processing with a trailing mask in addition to competition from adjacent flankers.     

Further analysis of idiosyncratic antecedent influences during the assessment and treatment of problem behavior

Recent research findings suggest that idiosyncratic variables can influence the outcomes of functional analyses (E. G. Carr, Yarbrough, & Langdon, 1997). In the present study, we examined idiosyncratic environment-behavior relations more precisely after identifying stimuli (i.e., a particular toy and social interaction) associated with increased levels of problem behavior. Two children, an 8-year-old boy with moderate mental retardation and a 5-year-old boy with no developmental delays, participated. Results of functional analyses for both children indicated that idiosyncratic antecedent stimuli set the occasion for occurrences of problem behavior (hand biting or hand flapping) and that problem behavior persisted in the absence of social contingencies. Further analyses were conducted to identify specific components of the stimuli that occasioned problem behavior. Treatments based on results of the analyses successfully reduced self-injury and hand flapping.     

Further evaluation of observational and mechanical measures of physical activity

Recent behavioral research has used a variety of methods to quantify physical activity, including direct observation using the Observational System for Recording Physical Activity (OSRAC), and automated devices such as heart rate (HR) monitors, pedometers, and Fitbit Accelerometers. The current study evaluated the concurrent validity of these measures, as well as the reliability of the pedometers and Fitbits. Four children engaged in 15 activities listed in the OSRAC coding system while their HRs and steps taken were measured. The results indicated that for most activities, HR covaried with the OSRAC activity levels, although some exceptions were noted. Steps per minute as measured by the Fitbit also covaried with the OSRAC activity levels and Fitbit data were reliable when activities did not involve subjects losing contact with the ground. Pedometers produced similar but less reliable steps per minute data.     

Ethnic differences in clinical presentation of depression in adult women

This study examined ethnic differences in self-report and interviewer-rated depressive symptoms and estimated the contributions of sociodemographic and psychosocial factors in predicting severity of depression. One hundred twenty-five clinically depressed African American (n = 46), Caucasian (n = 36), and Latina (n = 43) women were recruited. After controlling for differences in socioeconomic status, African American women reported more symptoms of distress and Latinas were rated as significantly more depressed than the other groups. However, these ethnic differences were not moderated by either education or employment. Finally, hierarchical regression analysis indicated that severity of depression was predicted by low education, being single, being Latina, high perceived stress, and feelings of hopelessness. Additional research is needed to validate these results and to investigate their clinical significance.     

The ontogeny of face recognition: eye contact and sweet taste induce face preference in 9- and 12-week-old human infants.

Nine and 12-week-old infants (N = 140) who were either calm or crying sat facing a researcher for 3.5 min. The researcher gazed into the infant's eyes with a smiling face or looked above the infant's forehead. She delivered a 12% sucrose solution via a syringe or a pacifier, or she did not deliver anything. After the exposure period, the mother held her infant over her shoulder. Infant gaze direction was recorded while the infant faced the same researcher and a stranger. The confluence of sweet taste and eye contact was necessary and sufficient for calm 9- and 12-week-olds to form a preference for the researcher. Crying infants never did so, even though eye contact and sweet taste arrested crying. Different visual-gustatory combinations induced unanticipated affective states and are discussed within the contexts of cognitive mechanisms that mediate face learning and preference, the proximate mechanisms involved, and the evolutionary significance of face recognition.