The influence of synchronous audiovisual distractors on audiovisual temporal order judgments

Participants made unspeeded temporal order judgments (TOJs) regarding which occurred first, anauditory or a visual target stimulus, when they were presented at a variety of different stimulus onset asynchronies. The target stimuli were presented either in isolation or positioned randomly among a stream of three synchronous audiovisual distractors. The largest just noticeable differences were reported when the targets were presented in the middle of the distractor stream. When the targets were presented at the beginning of the stream, performance was no worse than when the audiovisual targets were presented in isolation. Subsequent experiments revealed that performance improved somewhat when the position of the target was fixed or when the target was made physically distinctive from the distractors. These results show that audiovisual TOJs are impaired by the presence of audiovisual distractors and that this cost can be ameliorated by directing attention to the appropriate temporal position within the stimulus stream.     

Across the thin blue line: police officers and racial bias in the decision to shoot

Police officers were compared with community members in terms of the speed and accuracy with which they made simulated decisions to shoot (or not shoot) Black and White targets. Both samples exhibited robust racial bias in response speed. Officers outperformed community members on a number of measures, including overall speed and accuracy. Moreover, although community respondents set the decision criterion lower for Black targets than for White targets (indicating bias), police officers did not. The authors suggest that training may not affect the speed with which stereotype-incongruent targets are processed but that it does affect the ultimate decision (particularly the placement of the decision criterion). Findings from a study in which a college sample received training support this conclusion.     

Perceptions of ambiguously unpleasant interracial interactions: a structural equation modeling approach

Despite a general consensus in the United States that overtly racist acts are unacceptable, many ambiguous situations in everyday life raise questions of whether racism has influenced a person's behavior in an interracial encounter. The authors of the present study sought to (a) examine simultaneously an array of variables thought to be related to perceived racism and (b) investigate how the contribution of these variables may differ with respect to the asymmetry hypothesis, which suggests that acts of discrimination from a dominant person toward a subordinate person will be viewed as more biased than if the situation were reversed. The authors used a dual structural equation modeling approach. Results indicated that ethnic identity significantly predicted perceived racism. In addition, the extent to which cognitive interpretation style significantly predicted perceived racism depended on the ethnicity of participants involved in the interaction.     

Beyond self-selection in video game play: an experimental examination of the consequences of massively multiplayer online role-playing game play.

There is burgeoning interest in the study of video games. Existing work is limited by the use of correlational designs and is thus unable to make causal inferences or remove self-selection biases from observed results. The recent development of online, socially integrated video games (massively multiplayer online role-playing games [MMORPGs]) has created a new experience for gamers. This randomized, longitudinal study examined the effects of being assigned to play different video game types on game usage, health, well-being, sleep, socializing, and academics. One hundred 18- to 20-year-old participants (73% male; 68% Caucasian) were randomly assigned to play arcade, console, solo computer, or MMORPG games for 1 month. The MMORPG group differed significantly from other groups after 1 month, reporting more hours spent playing, worse health, worse sleep quality, and greater interference in "real-life" socializing and academic work. In contrast, this group also reported greater enjoyment in playing, greater interest in continuing to play, and greater acquisition of new friendships. MMORPGs represent a different gaming experience with different consequences than other types of video games and appear to pose both unique risks and benefits from their use.     

Biased Assimilation: Effects of Assumptions and Expectations on the Interpretation of New Evidence

People so readily generalize that they often 'know' in advance what they are going to like and what they are going to dislike. They develop assumptions and expectations, which in part determine their future evaluative responses. Biased assimilation occurs when perceptions of new evidence are interpreted in such a way as to be assimilated into preexisting assumptions and expectations. Because this bias may not be deliberate, people suspect the motives of others who do not share their evaluations, and the bias is difficult to overcome. Biased assimilation most likely occurs, however, because acting as though one's assumptions and expectations are correct is generally more adaptive than acting as though one's assumptions and expectations might be wrong. Therefore, overcoming a general tendency toward biased assimilation is not necessarily desirable.     

Using Speakers' Referential Intentions to Model Early Cross-Situational Word Learning

ABSTRACT— Word learning is a "chicken and egg" problem. If a child could understand speakers' utterances, it would be easy to learn the meanings of individual words, and once a child knows what many words mean, it is easy to infer speakers' intended meanings. To the beginning learner, however, both individual word meanings and speakers' intentions are unknown. We describe a computational model of word learning that solves these two inference problems in parallel, rather than relying exclusively on either the inferred meanings of utterances or cross-situational word-meaning associations. We tested our model using annotated corpus data and found that it inferred pairings between words and object concepts with higher precision than comparison models. Moreover, as the result of making probabilistic inferences about speakers' intentions, our model explains a variety of behavioral phenomena described in the word-learning literature. These phenomena include mutual exclusivity, one-trial learning, cross-situational learning, the role of words in object individuation, and the use of inferred intentions to disambiguate reference.     

Two-Mode Models of Self-Regulation as a Tool for Conceptualizing Effects of the Serotonin System in Normal Behavior and Diverse Disorders

ABSTRACT— The serotonin system is a collection of neural pathways whose overall level of functioning (from low to high) relates to diverse kinds of psychological and behavioral variability. Individual differences in serotonergic function are important both in personality and in vulnerability to psychological disorders. These disorders range widely—from impulsive aggression to depression. One way to understand such diverse reflections of differences in serotonergic function is by viewing serotonergic function through the lens of two-mode (or dual-process) models of self-regulation. Such theories posit a lower-order system that responds quickly to associative cues of the moment and a higher-order system that responds reflectively and planfully. Low serotonergic function appears to enhance influence of the lower-order system. This often yields impulsive reactivity. Why, then, does low serotonergic function also relate to depression, which is characterized by lethargy and unresponsiveness? The answer must be that ascendance of the lower system interacts with other factors. One hypothesis is that low serotonergic function plus high sensitivity to incentives yields vulnerability to impulsive approach, whereas low serotonergic function plus low incentive sensitivity yields vulnerability to depression. Conceptualizing serotonergic function this way helps integrate information pertaining to very different disorders into a coherent picture.     

Representation of movement sequences is related to task characteristics

Recent experiments have produced mixed results in terms of performance when, after learning a sequential task, the same visual-spatial coordinates or the same motor coordinates were reinstated on a subsequent effector transfer test. Given the diversity of tasks and especially sequence characteristics used in previous experiments, the cross-experimental comparison makes inferences and unambiguous interpretations difficult. The purpose of the present experiment was to determine in a principled manner how the spatio-temporal structure of a sequence influences the way the sequence is represented. The results indicated that after limited amount of practice relatively more simple sequences (S1) are coded more efficiently in a mirror (motor) representation which requires the same pattern of homologous muscle activation. Conversely, relatively more complex sequences (S2) are more efficiently coded in a visual-spatial coordinate system which requires movements to the same spatial locations as during acquisition. The data are also consistent with the notion that sequences with different spatio-temporal structures rely to a different degree on distinct control mechanisms (pre-planned vs. on-line, respectively).     

Nonstandard career paths and profiles of commitment to life roles: A complex relation

The career paths (ascending, interesting, uninteresting, descending) of 124 White Canadian francophones (62 men, 62 women) who had experienced nonstandard and precarious work for the last three years were examined in relation to the participants’ profiles of commitment to three life roles (work, family, and duality, that is, investment in both career and family). The paths were derived from the content analysis of the data collected through semi-structured individual interviews. Quantitative tools were used to assess the importance of life roles and to compare the career paths as well as the commitment profiles with respect to specific and general anxiety. Among other results, a significant relationship was found between unsatisfying career paths and the duality profile, on the one hand, and higher levels of specific and general anxiety, on the other. The results are discussed with respect to the scientific literature. Implications for career counseling are suggested.