Cue-elicited negative affect in impulsive smokers.

Impulsivity is associated with cigarette smoking, but the nature of this relationship and the mechanisms that maintain it are relatively unknown. The relationship has often been thought to reflect appetitive processes, but research suggests that an affective pathway exists as well. The present study tested the effect of impulsivity on affective responses to an environmental smoking cue. Adult smokers (N=62) were exposed to a neutral cue and a smoking cue in separate experimental sessions in a repeated-measures design. Mixed-effects regression analyses showed that larger postexposure increases in negative affect were associated with high scores on 2 facets of impulsivity: urgency, t(179)=6.16, p<.001, and sensation seeking, t(179)=4.75, p<.001. Heightened impulsivity was associated with lower levels of positive affect generally but not with positive affective responses to cue exposure. Findings provide support for the existence of a negative affective pathway linking impulsivity and cigarette smoking, and they suggest that this pathway may be specific to the urgency and sensation-seeking components of impulsivity.     

Aesthetic Animism

Philosophical Studies - I argue that the main existing accounts of the relationship between the beauty of environmental entities and their moral standing are mistaken in important ways. Beauty does...     

Neural markers of subordinate‐level categorization in 6‐ to 7‐month‐old infants

Subordinate‐level category‐learning processes in infants were investigated with ERP and looking‐time measures. ERPs were recorded while 6‐ to 7‐month‐olds were presented with Saint Bernard images during familiarization, followed by novel Saint Bernards interspersed with Beagles during test. In addition, infant looking times were measured during a paired‐preference test (novel Saint Bernard vs. novel Beagle) conducted at the conclusion of ERP recording. Slow wave activity corresponded with learning a familiarized category at the subordinate and basic levels, whereas Negative central (Nc) and P400 components were linked with novel category preference. The results provide the first evidence identifying the neural markers of subordinate‐level categorization observed in looking‐time tasks conducted with infants. Moreover, when considered in conjunction with prior research investigating the neural markers of basic‐level categorization in infants, the findings indicate that (1) slow wave and Nc components of infant ERP waveforms are general markers for processes of category learning on the one hand and novel category preference on the other, (2) novel category preference for a contrast category at the basic and subordinate levels have the Nc component in common, but novel category preference at the subordinate level is accompanied by an additional P400 component, a finding in keeping with the notion that subordinate‐level categorization is governed by mechanisms supplementary to those underlying basic‐level categorization, and (3) slow wave activity associated with subordinate‐level learning followed that associated with basic‐level learning by approximately 200 ms, a result in accord with a coarse‐to‐fine scheme for the emergence of category partitioning.     

The role of visual attention in multiple object tracking: Evidence from ERPs

We examined the role of visual attention in the multiple object tracking (MOT) task by measuring the amplitude of the N1 component of the event-related potential to probe flashes presented on targets, distractors, or empty background areas. We found evidence that visual attention enhances targets and suppresses distractors (Experiments 1 and 3). However, we also found that when tracking load was light (two targets and two distractors), accurate tracking could be carried out without any apparent contribution from the visual attention system (Experiment 2). Our results suggest that attentional selection during MOT is flexibly determined by task demands, as well as tracking load, and that visual attention may not always be necessary for accurate tracking.     

Peer and teacher ratings of socially neglected and rejected fourth- and fifth-grade boys

Positive and negative sociometric nomination measures were administered to 86 fourth- and fifth-grade boys. Using a combination of these measures, popular (high positive; low negative), neglected (low positive, low negative), and rejected (low positive, high negative) children were identified and peer and teacher ratings of these children were obtained. Rejected children were seen by both peers and teachers as exhibiting more undesirable behaviors than either neglected or popular children. These findings coupled with those from several longitudinal investigations demonstrating that rejected children are at risk for the development of psychopathology during adolescence and adulthood, clearly points toward the importance of developing effective interventions for these children.     

Puzzles about Trust

This article is an attempt to deepen our understanding of trust. To this end, several elements frequently present in trust‐relationships are first identified, and then three underappreciated puzzles about trust are described. Next, it is argued that certain leading analyses of trust are unsatisfactory, in part, because they are unable to solve these puzzles succesfully. Finally, an alternative way of thinking about trust is proposed. It is agued that this new way of thinking about trust is both independently plausible and better able to solve these puzzles about trust.     

Vocational persistence: An exploration of self-concept and dissonance theories

There is an increasing number of individuals who leave one occupation or profession for another even after many years of investment. This phenomenon is increasingly apparent among religious groups. This study examines the application of dissonance theory to self-concept implementation in an attempt to explain the motivational process of vocational persistence among a group of Catholic seminarians.     

Control by stimulus features during fading.

Sixteen children were given four successive circle-size discrimination problems with luminance as the fading stimulus. Children who were first presented with a difficult size discrimination failed to acquire this discrimination. Those who first received an easy discrimination learned the difficult discrimination. At the end of each 10-trial block, two probe stimuli were presented to monitor any shift in control from luminance to size. One probe was the same size as the positive stimulus but of different luminance; the other was the same luminance but of different size. If, in the course of fading, size and luminance both controlled responding, fading was successful. If luminance alone controlled responding until the end of fading, the size discrimination was not established. Dual control, and thus successful fading, resulted when the target stimuli were very discriminable, or when the target stimuli were subtly different provided that previous fading series had first established less subtle discriminations.