Morality Information,Performance Information,and the Distinction Between Trust and Confidence1

A series of 3 studies explored the efficacy of a dual‐mode model of cooperation based on trust and confidence, the TCC model. The TCC model is founded on the distinction between morality‐relevant information and performance‐relevant information, with the former dominating—controlling the interpretation of—the latter in a variety of judgment contexts. According to the TCC model, trust is based on judgments of value similarity derived from morality‐relevant information, and confidence is based on judgments of past performance derived from performance‐relevant information. Results from all 3 studies supported the relations depicted in the TCC model, showing that judgments of trust dominated judgments of past performance and of confidence.     

A pendulum phenomenon in the visual perception of apparent movement

In setting up an apparatus for studying the phenomenon of apparent movement it was noticed that, when a metronome was employed for making the electrical contacts in the light-circuits, the path of apparent movement between the two lights was curved instead of straight. This deviation could not be attributed to the presence of any distorting structure in the visual field, and an experimental investigation of the conditions of the phenomenon was begun. So far five different display conditions have each been observed by ten or eleven subjects individually. No subject saw more than one condition in the experimental series, and their reports indicate that the following factors, in order of importance, are effective in leading to the perception of curved apparent movement: (1) the shape of the light-stimuli, (2) the regularity of the rhythm of presentation, (3) the gradient of brightening and dimming of the lights and (4) the sound of the metronome in synchrony with the appearance of the lights.

The possible role of past experience in the perceptual process, and the relationship of this “pendular” phenomenon to Johansson's (1950) “wandering” phenomenon and to normal stroboscopic movement, are briefly discussed.     

Right-wing adherence and objective numeracy as predictors of minority group size perceptions and size threat reactions

Racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual minority populations are growing rapidly in the West. We investigate predictors and consequences of threat responses to perceived minority group size, and perceptions of minority group size itself. Study 1 (N = 274) finds that right-wing adherence predicts greater size threat, whereas lower numerical ability predicts larger perceived group size (confirmed in Studies 2–3). Study 2 (Sample 1, N = 124; Sample 2, N = 263) finds that the relation between right-wing adherence and prejudice toward minorities exhibits an indirect effect via group size threat (but not perceived size), explaining 35–66% of this relation. Study 3 (N = 310) finds a comparable indirect effect explaining 27–40% of this relation, even after statistically controlling for indirect effects of realistic, symbolic, and terroristic threat. These findings provide novel insights into psychological processes surrounding perceived minority group size, identifying size threat as especially crucial in understanding intergroup relations.     

Glass patterns: grouping by contrast similarity

Recent work has shown that certain contrast phenomena associated with Glass patterns can be accounted for by filtering mechanisms applied within the luminance or energy domain. Hitherto, these phenomena were regarded as problematic for energy-processing models, and were taken as evidence in support of symbolic-processing accounts. An additional, and controversial, contrast effect is investigated. It is shown that in a Glass pattern consisting of simultaneous vertical and horizontal translations of different contrast strength, the most salient structure is determined by grouping (pairing) of the two low-contrast elements of the pattern. The finding that grouping in such patterns is by contrast similarity, as opposed to energy, is consistent with the symbolic-processing approach, but has yet to be accounted for by filtering mechanisms.     

Richard Rorty's realism

An examination of late Rorty shows that he does not abandon belief in an external world about which we can, and indeed must, acquire knowledge. His disapproval of the correspondence theory of truth does not involve the idea that anything other than local weather, for example, could falsify remarks about local weather. It is just that once we get done looking out the window or, if we are outside, feeling the right kind of drops make contact with our skin, there is nothing else we can do, nothing better, to make ourselves more certain, more cognitively secure. One can see this in the detailed work that enables scientific progress. Science improves itself by doing more of the same. G. E. Moore's famous open question stays open only as a reminder that our fallibility never disappears and that our cognitive security is never better than pro tem. Rorty, as a faithful pragmatist and undogmatic meliorist, thinks this is perfectly O.K.