Moral prototypes and moral behavior: Specific effects on emotional precursors of moral behavior and on moral behavior by the activation of moral prototypes

The present studies investigated the extent to which three basic moral prototypes, “just,” “brave”, and “caring”, are related to moral, prosocial behavior. In five studies, we tested (a) whether people would associate three basic types of moral behavior (helping behavior, moral courage, and heroism) with three moral prototypes, and (b) whether specific emotional precursors of moral behavior and moral behavior itself could be promoted by activating the respective moral prototype. As expected, Studies 1–3 revealed that people associated helping behavior with the caring prototype, moral courage with the just prototype, and heroism with the brave prototype. Studies 4 and 5 showed that the activation of the three prototypes differentially influenced emotional precursors of the three types of moral behavior (Study 4) as well as actual moral behavior (Study 5). Thus, the five studies revealed that people associate different moral behaviors with different moral prototypes and that a certain moral behavior can be activated by the priming of the related prototype. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strategies in visuospatial working memory for learning virtual shapes

This study investigated visuospatial working memory (WM) strategies people use to remember unfamiliar randomly generated shapes in the context of an interactive computer‐based visuospatial WM task. In a three‐phase experiment with random shapes, participants (n = 94) first interactively determined if two equivalent shapes were rotated or reflected; second, memorized the shape; and third, determined if an imprint in a profile view of the ground was a rotated, reflected imprint of the shape, or an imprint not matching the original shape. Participants self‐reported these strategies: Key feature, shape interaction, association/elaboration, holistic/perspective, divide and conquer, mental rotation/reflection and others. Participants reporting key features strategy were significantly more accurate on the computer‐based visuospatial WM task. These results highlight the importance of strategy in visuospatial WM. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ceci n'est pas la mort: Evidence for the recruitment of self‐reference from surrealistic art under mortality salience

Previous research has demonstrated that death reminders influence how we perceive art. In the context of terror management theory, this has been explained by the death‐transcending quality of art to convey cultural meaning. In two studies, we examined psychological and neurocognitive responses to naturalistic and surrealistic art when death was primed. We found that naturalistic paintings were evaluated similarly in terms of personal reassurance in both mortality salience and control condition, whereas surrealistic paintings were evaluated as more reassuring in the mortality salience condition than in the control condition. Using high‐field functional magnetic resonance imaging in a second study, we found a similar pattern of results, showing specific activation in the precuneus, a brain area associated with self‐related operations, in all prime conditions for the viewing of naturalistic paintings, but only in the death and disgust prime conditions when viewing surrealistic paintings. Our results suggest motivated self‐reference when viewing both naturalistic and surrealistic artworks under mortality salience. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Choose Your Words Wisely: What Verbal Hesitation Indicates About Eyewitness Accuracy

Researchers have demonstrated qualitative differences in witness verbal reports made in the presence and absence of misinformation. The present study examined changes in linguistic markers present in verbal reports in the context of a repeated‐retrieval misinformation study. After witnessing an event, an immediate retrieval group engaged in a free‐recall test associated with the event. The delayed retrieval group completed a filler task. Following, all participants were presented with a post‐event narrative that included neutral, consistent, and misleading details. Both groups then took two free‐recall tests. We found that hesitations were more likely to accompany correctly remembered details if those details were altered in the narrative, than if there was consistency between the original event and narrative. We also found that retrieval prior to misinformation positively influenced the inclusion of hesitations in free‐recall reports that immediately followed the narrative.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Orthographic regularity gradually modulates saccade amplitudes in reading

The present research tested the hypothesis that variations in the orthographic regularity of word beginnings influence landing positions and amplitudes of interword saccades in continuous reading. Participants were asked to read sentences including target words of low, medium, and high frequency of initial quadrigrams that were either single‐root nouns or noun‐noun compounds. Saccades landed further into words with more regular beginnings, irrespective of whether the target was a compound word or not. Critically, the orthographic landing site effect was graded, suggesting that orthographic information continuously modulates saccade amplitude before and after the decision to move has been made.     

Differential aspects of visual short and long-term memory

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the decomposition of visual imagery ability in subcomponents. Basically, it is assumed that visual imagery consists of several components which are relatively independent of spatial imagery components (Kosslyn, Brunn, Cave, & Wallach, 1984; Poltrock & Agnoli, 1986; Poltrock & Brown, 1984).

Theoretical assumptions on individual differences in visual imagery are formulated within a framework of general information processing principles. Based on the assumption that data and conceptually driven processes are involved in visual imagery, we turned to the question of whether vivid and non-vivid imagers differ on a primary data or conceptually driven processing level. To induce primary data-driven visual processes, unfamiliar visual patterns were used (Logie, 1986; Phillips, 1983). A visual long-term memory task (Marks, 1973) should involve primary conceptually driven visual processes.

The analysis of relationships between self-report measures of visual imagery ability (VVIQ; Marks, 1973; TVIC; Gordon, 1949) and visual memory performance measures, showed that vivid imagers prefer, when already on a primary data-driven processing level, visual coding strategies that might favour the long-term storage of information contained in real-life pictures.     

Professional burnout

Abstract

Stress has been a ubiquitous concept in health research. We compare stress theories with the operationalization of stress in health research. Although scientific investigation is ideally based on theoretical principles, stress research is seen as often atheoretical or misapplying theories. Major conceptualizations of stress are considered and prominent research avenues in health psychology are analyzed as to the extent they mirror, diverge from, or inform stress conceptualizations. A central conclusion of the paper is that perceived and objective stressors are not only both valid construels of stress, but that they operate differently on psychological and physiological systems.     

Psychophysiological effects of emotional dissonance in a face-to-face service interaction

Abstract

Current research demonstrates that requirements to express emotions which are not genuinely felt in the particular situation (emotional dissonance) are associated with negative long and short-term effects. The aim of the present study was to investigate: (a) the psychophysiological short-term effects of emotional dissonance in a face-to-face service interaction and (b) the moderating role of gender and neuroticism. In total, 32 women and 27 men were instructed to play the role of a service employee, who had to interact with an angry and rude customer. Half of the sample was given information that the organization expected them to be friendly (emotional dissonance), the other half was told they were expected to act naturally and show their genuine feelings (no emotional dissonance). Subjective and behavioral responses revealed that participants in the “friendly” condition modulated their emotional expressions to a greater extent than those in the “naturally” condition. Participants in the “friendly” condition showed stronger systolic and diastolic blood pressure responses. Furthermore, hierarchical regression analyses yielded that gender and neuroticism partly moderated the association between emotional dissonance and participants' psychophysiological response.     

Dimension‐specific intertrial facilitation in visual search for pop‐out targets: Evidence for a top‐down modulable visual short‐term memory effect

In visual search for pop‐out targets, target detection is expedited when the target‐defining dimension (e.g., colour) is repeated on consecutive trials, but not (or less) when the target feature (e.g., red) is repeated (Found & Müller, 1996). The present study examined whether this dimension‐specific intertrial facilitation (ITF) is mediated by an explicit or an implicit memory of the target on the previous trial. In Experiment 1, observers had no above‐chance knowledge of the target dimension (or feature) when this information was not to be encoded and retained explicitly; yet, they exhibited dimension‐specific ITF. In Experiment 2, the nature of the ITF effect was unaffected by whatever attribute of the target was to be explicitly encoded and memorized, its dimension or feature; however, ITF was increased compared to a no‐memory control condition. In Experiment 3, ITF was not increased when observers had to determine the target dimension, but without having to maintain a memory of it during the intertrial interval. These results suggest that, although an implicit memory is sufficient for producing dimension‐specific ITF, ITF is top‐down modulable by explicit memory instructions.     

Error Detection, Task Characteristics, and Some Consequences for Software Design

On a étudié la détection des erreurs par les utilisateurs d'ordinateur à partir de la théorie de l'action. On a effectué, pour des raisons de validités externe et interne, à la fois une recherche sur le terrain et deux expériences de laboratoire exploitant un traitement de texte. La problématique portait sur le taux de détection de différents types d'erreurs, l'impact de la complexité de la tâche sur la détection des erreurs et la question de la détection programmée des erreurs. Les résultats débouchent sur un meilleur taux de détection (96,5%) dans la recherche de terrain (par rapport au taux obtenu dans les expériences). Les erreurs apparaissant dans les tâches complexes étaient plus difficiles à détecter. En outre, la moitié de la totalité des erreurs pouvaient être détectées par les seuls utilisateurs. Pas plus de 22% des erreurs étaient détectées avec l'aide du système informatique. Ce sont les erreurs dans les travaux complexes que la détection aidée par le système déjouait le plus difficilement. On propose, comme application pratique, une stratégie de gestion des erreurs qui ferait appel à un processus de traitement des erreurs relevant du software.