Genes and psychology in the news

This article critiques the way that news articles report the relationship between genes and psychological processes. The news frequently reports that genes cause various psychological processes. However, these claims rest upon unscientific data; selective use of data (ignoring contradictory data); failure to consider just how the physical properties of genes and their by-products (e.g., neurotransmitters) could or could not control psychological phenomena; misconstruing the nature of psychological phenomena; specious arguments; and unwarranted leaps of faith. Consequently, the causal conclusion is unwarranted, and news reports misinform the public about this vital issue. The author delineates an alternative theory of the relation between biology and psychology which explains why genes may correlate with psychological processes without causing, or predisposing, them.     

Role of Attention and Perceptual Grouping in Visual Statistical Learning

Statistical learning has been widely proposed as a mechanism by which observers learn to decompose complex sensory scenes. To determine how robust statistical learning is, we investigated the impact of attention and perceptual grouping on statistical learning of visual shapes. Observers were presented with stimuli containing two shapes that were either connected by a bar or unconnected. When observers were required to attend to both locations at which shapes were presented, the degree of statistical learning was unaffected by whether the shapes were connected or not. However, when observers were required to attend to just one of the shapes' locations, statistical learning was observed only when the shapes were connected. These results demonstrate that visual statistical learning is not just a passive process. It can be modulated by both attention and connectedness, and in natural scenes these factors may constrain the role of stimulus statistics in learning.     

Studying action representation in children via motor imagery

The use of motor imagery is a widely used experimental paradigm for the study of cognitive aspects of action planning and control in adults. Furthermore, there are indications that motor imagery provides a window into the process of action representation. These notions complement internal model theory suggesting that such representations allow predictions (estimates) about the mapping of the self to parameters of the external world; processes that enable successful planning and execution of action. The ability to mentally represent action is important to the development of motor control. This paper presents a critical review of motor imagery research conducted with children (typically developing and special populations) with focus on its merits and possible shortcomings in studying action representation. Included in the review are age-related findings, possible brain structures involved, experimental paradigms, and recommendations for future work. The merits of this review are associated with the apparent increasing attraction for using and studying motor imagery to understand the developmental aspects of action processing in children.     

A choice reaction time index of callosal anatomical homotopy

Tachistoscopically presented bilateral stimulus pairs not parallel to the meridian produced significantly longer RTs on a task requiring discrimination of shapes (Go/no-Go) than pairs emplaced symmetrically on each side of the meridian in Desjardins and Braun [Desjardins, S., & Braun, C. M. J. (2006). Homotopy and heterotopy and the bilateral field advantage in the Dimond paradigm. Acta Psychologica, 121,  125–136]. This was explained by the fact that there are more homotopic than heterotopic fibers in the corpus callosum. However: (1) different parts of the visual field were not equiprobably stimulated, possibly causing subtle biases, (2) the predicted cost of vertical asymmetry was tested only with bilateral stimuli, and (3) interstimulus distance was at the outer limit of callosal midline fusion (10.6°). Here, a tachistoscopic experiment with 24 normal participants replicated the between-field vertical symmetry advantage [Desjardins, S., & Braun, C. M. J. (2006). Homotopy and heterotopy and the bilateral field advantage in the Dimond paradigm. Acta Psychologica, 121, 125–136.], but without irrelevant stimulation conditions and with more proximal stimuli. In addition, a significant specific cost of vertical asymmetry of 7 ms was found for between-field integration over within-field integration. As far as we know, this is the first demonstration of an effect of callosal anatomical homotopy with reaction time.     

Increased realism in eyewitness confidence judgements: the effect of dyadic collaboration

This study investigated to what extent, and under what circumstances, pair collaboration influences the realism in eyewitness confidence in event memory. The participants first saw a short film clip and then confidence rated their answers to questions on its content. A condition (the Individual–Pair condition) where individual effort preceded pair collaboration showed better calibration compared with a condition (the Simple Pair condition) where no individual effort took place. Furthermore, within the Individual–Pair condition, better calibration, and lower overconfidence, were found in the pair phase compared with the individual phase. The eyewitnesses in the Individual–Pair condition made more realistic judgements of the total number of questions answered correctly. In a control experiment no effect on realism in confidence was found when individuals performed the same task twice. The improved realism in the Individual–Pair condition may partly be explained in terms of the increased accuracy and lowered confidence found for such items where the pair members' had given different answers in the individual phase, and by a risky shift effect for such items where they had given the same answer. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationships between Integrity–Related Variables,Work Performance,and Trustworthiness in English and Spanish

Employees (N = 92) from the USA and Mexico completed questionnaires that measured rule–breaking, drug use, and attitudes toward theft. Integrity–related variable clusters had significant intercorrelations. Rule–breaking correlated with supervisor evaluations of work performance in Spanish and with trustworthiness in English.     

Commuting Probability Revisions: The Uniformity Rule

A simple rule of probability revision ensures that the final result ofa sequence of probability revisions is undisturbed by an alterationin the temporal order of the learning prompting those revisions.This Uniformity Rule dictates that identical learning be reflectedin identical ratios of certain new-to-old odds, and is grounded in the oldBayesian idea that such ratios represent what is learned from new experiencealone, with prior probabilities factored out. The main theorem of this paperincludes as special cases (i) Field's theorem on commuting probability-kinematical revisions and (ii) the equivalence of two strategiesfor generalizing Jeffrey's solution to the old evidence problem tothe case of uncertain old evidence and probabilistic new explanation.