Recognizing cognates and interlingual homographs: Effects of code similarity in language-specific and generalized lexical decision

In four experiments, we investigated how cross-linguistic overlap in semantics, orthography, and phonology affects bilingual word recognition in different variants of the lexical decision task. Dutch-English bilinguals performed a language-specific or a generalized lexical decision task including words that are spelled and/or pronounced the same in English and in Dutch and that matched one-language control words from both languages. In Experiments 1 and 3, "false friends" with different meanings in the two languages (e.g., spot) were presented, whereas in Experiments 2 and 4 cognates with the same meanings across languages (e.g., film) were presented. The language-specific Experiments 1 and 2 replicated and qualified an earlier study (Dijkstra, Grainger, & Van Heuven, 1999). In the generalized Experiment 3, participants reacted equally quickly on Dutch-English homographs and Dutch control words, indicating that their response was based primarily on the fastest available orthographic code (i.e., Dutch). In Experiment 4, cognates were recognized faster than English and Dutch controls, suggesting coactivation of the cognates' semantics. The nonword results indicate that the bilingual rejection procedure can, to some extent, be language specific. All results are discussed within the BIA+ (bilingual interactive activation) model for bilingual word recognition.     

Event components in autobiographical memories

Autobiographical memories contain activity, location, temporal, and participant information (Lancaster & Barsalou, 1997). Our study analysed potential dominance of activity information in autobiographical memories. The results indicated stability in dominance of the activity component, defined as similar occurrence in first and subsequent reports, and a relative absence of the temporal component in these verbal reports. Activity dominance also occurred when activity information from the verbal reports was used as a retrieval cue for a subsequent report. Temporal information demonstrated a greater lack of facilitation as a retrieval cue. These findings can be explained from the perspective of embodied cognition in which underlying perceptual states that contain activity, location, and other participant information are reconstructed during retrieval, whereas temporal information, as a more abstract component, is not.     

The beholder's share in the perception of orientation of 2-D shapes

A considerable amount of research demonstrates that people perceive cardinal orientations (horizontal and vertical) more accurately than other orientations; this is termed the oblique effect. We investigated the interaction of this effect with the degree of elongation of the stimulus. Our stimuli were ellipses with a wide range of aspect ratios, varying from a circle (aspect ratio = 1) to a line (aspect ratio = 123.5). The task was to set a probe line in the same orientation as the long axis of the ellipse. In our first experiment, we determined that performance is degraded as the aspect ratio decreases; furthermore, the bias and response variability are linearly related to a transformation of aspect ratio (roundness). We found significant individual differences; the results show high within-subjects correlations and low between-subjects correlations. In our second experiment, we had observers judge the orientation of circles randomly mixed in with ellipses of low aspect ratio. The observers demonstrated intrinsic preferences and generated reproducible distributions of orientation settings with idiosyncratic profiles. These distributions predict the influence on the response to ellipses with an aspect ratio higher than one and can be considered as the beholder's share in the perception of shape orientation.     

When does inconsistency hurt? On the relation between phonological consistency effects and the reliability of sublexical units

Phonological consistency describes to what extent a letter string in one word is pronounced equally in other words. Phonological reliability describes to what extent a sublexical unit is usually consistent throughout a language. The relationship between the two concepts was investigated by comparing five sublexical units (onset-consonants, vowel, end-consonants, and the concatenation of the vowel with begin- or end-consonants) in Dutch and English with respect to their reliability and to how their consistency was related to naming errors and latencies. In a regression analysis, naming latencies and errors on genuine Dutch words (consistent) and imported words (inconsistent) were predicted by the phonological consistency of the five units. The same was done for two sets of English naming data. Consistency had a much stronger effect in Dutch than in English naming studies when all five units were considered. The special role of the vowel plus end-consonants, which has been found in English naming data, could not be demonstrated in Dutch. In both languages, the size of consistency effects mirrors the reliability of the five units.     

Lexical effects in phonemic processing: facilitatory or inhibitory

This article addresses the questions of how and when lexical information influences phoneme identification in a series of phoneme-monitoring experiments in which conflicting predictions of autonomous and interactive models were evaluated. Strong facilitatory lexical effects (reflected by large differences in detection latencies to targets in words and matched nonwords) were found only when targets came after the uniqueness point of the target-bearing word. Furthermore, no evidence was obtained for lexically mediated inhibition on phoneme identification as predicted by the interactive activation model TRACE. These results taken together point to strong limitations in the way in which lexical information can affect the perception of unambiguous speech.     

Inspecting visual mental images: Can people “see” implicit properties as easily in imagery and perception?

Can people “see” previously unnoticed properties in objects that they visualize, or are they locked into the organization of the pattern that was encoded during perception? To answer this question, we first asked a group to describe letters of the alphabet and found that some properties (such as the presence of a diagonal line) are often mentioned, whereas others (such as symmetry) are rarely if ever mentioned. Then we showed not only that other participants could correctly detect both kinds of properties in visualized letters, but also that the relative differences in the ease of detecting these two types of properties are highly similar in perception (when the letters are actually visible) and imagery (when the letters are merely visualized). These findings provide support for the view that images can be reinterpreted in ways much like what occurs during perception and speak to the wider issue of the long-standing debate about the format of mental images.     

The Psychology of Tailoring‐Ingredients in Computer‐Tailored Persuasion

Persuasive information can be tailored to individual characteristics using computer technology. Computer technology offers three ways to persuade people: adaptation, personalization, and feedback. Adaptation refers to the match between the type or the formulation of the persuasive arguments or recommendations and an individual's psychological state. Personalization refers to the incorporation of one or more recognizable individual characteristics (e.g., one's first name) in a persuasive text. Feedback refers to providing the individual with information about him or her that relates to important individual goals. These visible elements in a persuasive message are the tailoring‐ingredients of computer‐tailored persuasion. The present article focuses on explaining how these tailoring‐ingredients influence persuasion, using existing social psychological insights in human functioning and persuasion. The persuasive effects of the tailoring‐ingredients can be explained partly by different psychological processes.     

Effects of tailoring ingredients in auditory persuasive health messages on fruit and vegetable intake

Objective: Health messages can be tailored by applying different tailoring ingredients, among which personalisation, feedback and adaptation. This experiment investigated the separate effects of these tailoring ingredients on behaviour in auditory health persuasion. Furthermore, the moderating effect of self-efficacy was assessed.

Design: The between-participants design consisted of four conditions. A generic health message served as a control condition; personalisation was applied using the recipient’s first name, feedback was given on the personal state, or the message was adapted to the recipient’s value.

Main outcome measures: The study consisted of a pre-test questionnaire (measuring fruit and vegetable intake and perceived difficulty of performing these behaviours, indicating self-efficacy), exposure to the auditory message and a follow-up questionnaire measuring fruit and vegetable intake two weeks after message exposure (n = 112).

Results: ANCOVAs showed no main effect of condition on either fruit or vegetable intake, but a moderation was found on vegetable intake: When self-efficacy was low, vegetable intake was higher after listening to the personalisation message. No significant differences between the conditions were found when self-efficacy was high.

Conclusion: Individuals with low self-efficacy seemed to benefit from incorporating personalisation, but only regarding vegetable consumption. This finding warrants further investigation in tailoring research.     

Fit between decision mode and processing style predicts subjective value of chosen alternatives

Intuition is associated with a global processing style, whereas deliberation is associated with a local processing style. Drawing on previous research on the effects of decisional fit on the subjective value attached to chosen alternatives, we examined the possibility that a fit between processing style and decision mode results in greater subjective value than a lack of fit. In three experiments employing various combinations of naturally occurring and experimentally manipulated processing styles and decision modes, we found that when congruence was high (i.e., global processing style and intuitive judgment, or local processing style and deliberative judgment), participants judged their chosen item to be more expensive than when congruence was low. These findings indicate that increased fit resulted in higher estimated value. We discuss implications for judgment and decision‐making.