Verb gapping: An action-gap compatibility study

This study addresses the processing of verb-gapping sentences, e.g., John closes a juice bottle and Jim [ ] a lemonade bottle. The goal was to explore if there would be an interaction between language comprehension and motor action not only for overt action verbs but also for gapped verbs. Participants read gapping sentences that either described clockwise or counter-clockwise manual rotations (e.g., closes vs. opens a juice bottle). Adopting a paradigm developed by Zwaan and Taylor (2006), sentence presentation was frame-by-frame. Participants proceeded from frame to frame by turning a knob either clockwise or counter clockwise. Analyses of the frame reading-times yielded a significant effect of compatibility between the linguistically conveyed action and the knob turning for the overt-verb (e.g., closes/opens a juice bottle) as well as for the gapped-verb frame (e.g., a lemonade bottle) – with longer reading times in the match condition than in the mismatch condition – but not for any of the other frames (e.g., and Jim). The results are promising in providing novel evidence for the real-time reactivation of gapped verbs and in suggesting that action simulation is not bound to the processing of overt verbs.     

Automated Assessment of Reasons For Joining an Organization

An automated instrument capable of identifying and rank ordering reasons for joining the United States Marine Corps was developed and administered to a sample of 150 men. Testing time ranged from slightly less than 3 min to 5 1/2 min. Because of its ease of administration and effectiveness in identifying motivators, the automated instrument holds significant potential for use in a variety of settings in which personal characteristics (e.g., preferences, choice criteria, values, etc.) must be rapidly identified.     

Complainant’s physical attractiveness and juristic judgments of blame and punishment in physical,domestic, and sexual assault scenarios

ABSTRACT

Extralegal factors, including physical attractiveness, may bias juristic opinions. The present study provided 450 university students with hypothetical scenarios of physical, domestic, and sexual assault in which complainant’s attractiveness and other legal and extralegal characteristics were independently varied. Results indicate complainant’s attractiveness mattered in sexual assault scenarios only for guilt of the defendant, but not for physical or domestic assault. Complainant’s attractiveness was not related to perceptions of blameworthiness of complainant or punishment of defendant. Overall, legal factors of injury level, prior offending, and intoxication mattered more than attractiveness or race of the victim. Implications are discussed.