Robots as Malevolent Moral Agents: Harmful Behavior Results in Dehumanization,Not Anthropomorphism

A robot's decision to harm a person is sometimes considered to be the ultimate proof of it gaining a human-like mind. Here, we contrasted predictions about attribution of mental capacities from moral typecasting theory, with the denial of agency from dehumanization literature. Experiments 1 and 2 investigated mind perception for intentionally and accidentally harmful robotic agents based on text and image vignettes. Experiment 3 disambiguated agent intention (malevolent and benevolent), and additionally varied the type of agent (robotic and human) using short computer-generated animations. Harmful robotic agents were consistently imbued with mental states to a lower degree than benevolent agents, supporting the dehumanization account. Further results revealed that a human moral patient appeared to suffer less when depicted with a robotic agent than with another human. The findings suggest that future robots may become subject to human-like dehumanization mechanisms, which challenges the established beliefs about anthropomorphism in the domain of moral interactions.     

Talking Points: A Modulating Circle Increases Listening Effort Without Improving Speech Recognition in Young Adults

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Speech recognition is improved when the acoustic input is accompanied by visual cues provided by a talking face (Erber in Journal of Speech and Hearing Research,...     

Correction to: Effects of reward magnitude and training frequency on the learning rates and memory retention of the Port Jackson shark Heterodontus portusjacksoni

Animal Cognition - In the original publication of the article, the Fig. 4 was erroneously published.     

Age differences in coping resources and satisfaction with life among middle-aged,young-old,and oldest-old adults

The authors examined age differences in perceived coping resources and satisfaction with life across 3 older-adult age groups (45-64, 65-74, and 75 years and older). The 98 participants represented healthy, socially active, community-residing adults. Group comparisons were made on 12 individual coping scales, and an overall coping resource effectiveness score was computed. No significant differences were found for 11 of the coping resources or for overall coping resource effectiveness. Similar consistencies in life satisfaction were found across the 3 age groups. The findings indicate that (a) for healthy adults, the oldest old cope at least as effectively as their younger counterparts, despite their likelihood of encountering increased levels of stress; and (b) psychologically, old age may be viewed as a time of resilience and fortitude.     

Baseball outfielders maintain a linear optical trajectory when tracking uncatchable fly balls

The authors investigated whether behavior of fielders pursuing uncatchable fly balls supported either (a) maintenance of a linear optical trajectory (LOT) with monotonic increases in optical ball height or (b) maintenance of optical acceleration cancellation (OAC) with simultaneous lateral alignment with the ball. Past work supports usage of both LOT and OAC strategies in the pursuit of catchable balls headed to the side. When balls are uncatchable, fielders must choose either optical linearity or alignment at the expense of the other. Fielders maintained the LOT strategy more often and for a longer period of time than they did the OAC alignment strategy. Findings support the LOT strategy as primary when pursuing balls headed to the side, whether catchable or not.     

A Rorschach study of oral dependence in alcoholics and depressives

Despite the strong association between alcoholism and orality in psychoanalytic theory, use of the Rorschach Inkblot Test to provide empirical support for such a link has yielded decidedly mixed results. However, Masling's Rorschach Oral-Dependency (ROD) scale has shown twice that people with alcoholism give more oral-dependent responses on the Rorschach than matched comparison groups (Bertrand & Masling, 1969; Weiss & Masling, 1970), which is supportive of classical analytic theory. In this study, we investigated alcohol groups, depression groups, and "normal" undergraduates with the ROD scale and found that the 2 clinical groups produced higher ROD scores than the undergraduates. In addition, recent studies by Duberstein and Talbot (1993) and Fowler, Hilsenroth, and Handler (1996) provide evidence for an object relations model of dependency that suggests that a balance between anaclitic dependence and complete independence, in which dependency needs are acknowledged but are not overwhelming, is most adaptive. This model of dependency was evaluated; it was found that a simple difference in group means provided a better fit with the data, although some evidence of an object relations model also was found. Finally, Rorschach and MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) levels of general defensiveness and primary process manifestations in Rorschach content were investigated to assess whether participants were responding defensively to the testing and whether there were any differences in the nature of oral-dependent responses between the clinical groups.     

Spatial stimulus cue information supplying auditory saltation

Auditory saltation is a misperception of the spatial location of repetitive, transient stimuli. It arises when clicks at one location are followed in perfect temporal cadence by identical clicks at a second location. This report describes two psychophysical experiments designed to examine the sensitivity of auditory saltation to different stimulus cues for auditory spatial perception. Experiment 1 was a dichotic study in which six different six-click train stimuli were used to generate the saltation effect. Clicks lateralised by using interaural time differences and clicks lateralised by using interaural level differences produced equivalent saltation effects, confirming an earlier finding. Switching the stimulus cue from an interaural time difference to an interaural level difference (or the reverse) in mid train was inconsequential to the saltation illusion. Experiment 2 was a free-field study in which subjects rated the illusory motion generated by clicks emitted from two sound sources symmetrically disposed around the interaural axis, ie on the same cone of confusion in the auditory hemifield opposite one ear. Stimuli in such positions produce spatial location judgments that are based more heavily on monaural spectral information than on binaural computations. The free-field stimuli produced robust saltation. The data from both experiments are consistent with the view that auditory saltation can emerge from spatial processing, irrespective of the stimulus cue information used to determine click laterality or location.     

Testing instance models of face repetition priming

Two experiments examining repetition priming in face recognition are reported. They employed eight rather than the more usual two presentation trials so that the prediction made by Logan's (1988) instance model of power function speedup of response time (RT) distributions could be examined. In Experiment 1, we presented the same photograph on each trial; in Experiment 2, we presented photographs of varying poses. Both experiments showed repetition priming effects for familiar and unfamiliar faces, power function speedup for both the mean and the standard deviation of RT and the power function speedup of the quanties of the RT distributions. We argue that our findings are consistent with the predictions made by the instance model and provide an explanatory challenge for alternative theoretical approaches.