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.     

FIXED-TIME SCHEDULES ATTENUATE EXTINCTION-INDUCED PHENOMENA IN THE TREATMENT OF SEVERE ABERRANT BEHAVIOR

We compared the effects of extinction (EXT) and fixed-time (FT) schedules as treatment for severe problem behavior displayed by 3 individuals with developmental disabilities. First, functional analyses identified the reinforcers maintaining aberrant behavior for all 3 individuals. Next, EXT and FT schedules were compared using a multielement design. During EXT, the reinforcer maintaining problem behavior was withheld. During FT, the reinforcers were presented response independently at preset intervals. Results showed that FT schedules were generally more effective than EXT schedules in reducing aberrant behavior. FT schedules may be used in situations when extinction-induced phenomena are problematic.     

Is the moral domain unique? A social influence perspective for the study of moral cognition

The nature of the cognitive processes that give rise to moral judgment and behavior has been a central question of psychology for decades. In this paper, we suggest that an often ignored yet fruitful stream of research for informing current debates on the nature of moral cognition is social influence. We introduce what we call the “social‐moderation‐of‐process” perspective, a methodological framework for leveraging insights from social influence research to inform debates in moral psychology over the mechanisms underlying moral cognition and the moral domains in which those mechanisms operate. We demonstrate the utility of the social‐moderation‐of‐process perspective by providing a detailed example of how research on social influence in behavioral ethics can be utilized to test a research question related to a debate between two prominent theories in moral psychology. We then detail how researchers across the field of moral psychology can utilize our social‐moderation‐of‐process perspective.     

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.     

Keeping the illusion of control under control: Ceilings, floors, and imperfect calibration

Prior research has claimed that people exaggerate probabilities of success by overestimating personal control in situations that are heavily or completely chance-determined. We examine whether such overestimation of control persists in situations where people do have control. Our results suggest a simple model that accounts for prior findings on illusory control as well as for situations where actual control is high: People make imperfect estimates of their level of control. By focusing on situations marked by low control, prior research has created the illusion that people generally overestimate their level of control. Across three studies, we show that when they have a great deal of control, people under-estimate it. Implications for research on perceived control and co-variation assessment are discussed.     

Blind ethics: Closing one's eyes polarizes moral judgments and discourages dishonest behavior

Four experiments demonstrate that closing one’s eyes affects ethical judgment and behavior because it induces people to mentally simulate events more extensively. People who considered situations with their eyes closed rather than open judged immoral behaviors as more unethical and moral behaviors as more ethical. In addition, considering potential decisions with closed eyes decreased stated intentions to behave ethically and actual self-interested behavior. This relationship was mediated by the more extensive mental simulation that occurred with eyes closed rather than open, which, in turn, intensified emotional reactions to the ethical situation. We discuss the implications of these findings for moral psychology and ethical decision making.     

The ontogeny of face identity; I. Eight- to 21-week-old infants use internal and external face features in identity

A paradigm was designed to study how infants identify live faces. Eight- to 21-week-old infants were seated comfortably and were presented an adult female, dressed in a white laboratory coat and a white turtle neck sweater, until habituation ensued. The adult then left the room. One minute later either she or an identically garbed confederate returned. Looking time did not increase above habituation levels when the original experimenter returned, but increased substantially when the confederate entered the room. Furthermore, internal features alone could serve as the basis of face identity. Looking times of infants who had habituated to experimenters with masked outer features of hair, ears and neck also markedly increased when a second identically dressed experimenter returned. Identity in this instance could only be based on internal facial characteristics. A second study assessed the contributions of internal and external facial features to identity. Infants were habituated to an experimenter in a short wig. One minute later they saw her again, either in the same short wig or in a long one. Alternatively, they saw a second experimenter wearing either the short wig or the long one. Infants looked longer only to the stranger wearing the long wig. Very brief looking times occurred to the familiar adult, regardless of wig, and to the stranger wearing the familiar wig. This paradigm provides an approach to discover rules used by infants of different ages to process and identify adult faces and to establish the bases of face preference.