Identity and semantic negative priming in rapid serial visual presentation streams

In selective attention tasks, the efficiency of processing concurrently presented target and distractor stimuli in a given display is often influenced by the relationship these stimuli have with those in the previous display. When a to-be-attended target on a current trial (the probe trial) matches the ignored, non-target distractor on a previous trial (the prime trial), a response to the target is typically delayed compared with when the two stimuli are not associated. This negative priming (NP) phenomenon has been observed in numerous studies with traditional NP tasks presenting the target and distractor simultaneously in both the prime and probe trial couplets. Here, however, in four experiments using a mixture of stimulus types (letters, digits, English number words, and logographic Chinese number words), target and distractor stimuli were temporally separated in two rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams instead of concurrently presented. The findings provide a conceptual replication and substantial extension of a recent study by Wong (Plos One, 7, e37023, 2012), and suggest that active suppression of irrelevant distracting information is a more ubiquitous form of cognitive control than previously thought.     

Attentional spread in deaf and hearing participants: Face and object distractor processing under perceptual load

The case of human deafness constitutes a unique opportunity to examine possible consequences for perceptual processing due to altered sensory experiences. We tested whether deaf??in contrast to hearing??individuals are more susceptible to visual distraction from peripheral than from central face versus object stimuli. The participants were required to classify the gender of a target male or female symbol presented either alone (low perceptual load) or together with three filler symbols (high perceptual load), while ignoring gender-congruent or -incongruent face versus object distractors presented at central or peripheral positions. The gender classifications were affected by distractor gender under low, but not under high, perceptual load in hearing participants. In contrast, the responses of deaf participants were similarly influenced by distractor gender under both levels of perceptual load. There was no evidence for generally enhanced attention to the visual periphery in deaf individuals. Our results indicate that auditory deprivation may result in enhanced attentional capacities under high perceptual load.     

Impulsivity, anger, and psychopathy: the moderating effect of ethnicity

The present research tested the four-factor Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV) latent variable model for structural invariance across ethnicity in a large sample of civil psychiatric patients. In addition, it also examined how Barratt (1994) impulsivity and Novaco (1994) anger latent variables were related to the psychopathy dimensions within and across ethnicity. The data were analyzed with Mplus (Muthen & Muthen, 2001), and results indicated that the four-factor model was invariant across Caucasian and African American males in terms of both item factor loadings and thresholds. However, differential relations between the external correlates and the psychopathy dimensions were found across groups, suggesting that the association between impulsivity and psychopathy may be moderated by ethnicity.     

BEAUTY IN THE LIVING WORLD

Almost all admit that there is beauty in the natural world. Many suspect that such beauty is more than an adornment of nature. Few in our contemporary world suggest that this beauty is an empirical principle of the natural world itself and instead relegate beauty to the eye and mind of the beholder. Guided by theological and scientific insight, the authors propose that such exclusion is no longer tenable, at least in the data of modern biology and in our view of the natural world in general. More important, we believe an empirical aesthetics exists that can help guide experimental design and development of computational models in biology. Moreover, because theology and science can both contribute toward and equally profit from such an aesthetics, we propose that this empirical aesthetics provides the foundation for a living synergy between theology and science.     

Minimal and maximal goal orientation and reactions to norm violations

Violations of social norms can either be evaluated in an absolute or in a gradual fashion depending on whether group goals are represented as minimal or maximal goals. Recent research has shown that absolute versus gradual deviations lead to increased levels of demanded punishment and inclination to exclude the deviant from the respective moral community. In this article, we investigate whether individual differences in orientation towards setting goals in either minimal or maximal terms predict reactions to norm violation. In three studies we found that a dominant minimal goal orientation (MIN) relative to maximal goal orientation (MAX) increased punishment inclinations and social exclusion tendencies towards norm violators. These effects were mediated by affective reaction and proved to be unique goal orientation effects when possible effects of need for closure, intolerance of ambiguity and regulatory focus were controlled for. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The hidden persuaders break into the tired brain

There is a long-lasting debate on whether subliminal advertising actually works. In this context there are some studies suggesting that subjects’ motivation is a crucial point. Karremans et al. [Karremans, J. C., Stroebe, W., & Claus, J. (2006). Beyond Vicary’s fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand choice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 792-798] showed that subjects were influenced in their intention to drink a specific brand of soft drink by a subliminally presented brand prime, but only if they were thirsty. In the present study, we adapted their paradigm to the concept of ‘concentration’ and embedded the subliminal presentation of a brand logo into a computer game. Actual subsequent consumption of dextrose pills (of the presented or a not presented brand) was measured dependent on the level of participants’ tiredness and the subliminally presented logo. We found the same pattern as Karremans et al. (2006): only tired participants consumed more of the subliminally presented than the not presented brand. Therefore, the findings confirm that subjects are influenced by subliminally presented stimuli if these stimuli are need-related and if subjects are in the matching motivational state.     

Splitting as a predictor of depression.

146 university students completed measures of splitting, depression, and self-esteem. Splitting was positively correlated with depression and negatively related to self-esteem.     

The abstraction of visual prototypes by children

The present studies demonstrated that children as young as second graders could form prototypical representations from a set of highly similar stimuli. The prototype-plus-transformation model of this performance (Franks & Bransford, 1971) was contrasted with an attribute-frequency model (Neumann, 1974). Results supported the latter model when trigram stimuli were used to test differential predictions from the models.