Communication Modality and Biased Processing: A Study on the Occasion of the German 2002 Election TV Debate

Participants were presented with a segment of the 2002 Schroeder-Stoiber TV debate, in which the two candidates running for the post of German Chancellor argued for clearly different positions. Prior to presentation of the segment in either audiovisual, audio, or written modality, participants' politician preference was measured. Position agreement and valence of thoughts about the candidates' specific statements were found to be affected by politician preference in all three modalities. However, as shown by a modality by preference interaction, the effect of politician preference on position agreement was stronger in audio and audiovisual modalities than in the written modality. Similar interactions were found regarding the valence of thoughts broadly related to the issue discussed as well as regarding the valence of thoughts related to the two candidates themselves. Taken together with further path analyses, these findings are interpreted as showing biased processing across modalities, with the broadcast modalities intensifying this bias due to the heightened salience of nonverbal politician-related cues.     

A dichotic listening study of attention control in older adults

The influence of age on attentional control of bottom-up processing was investigated with a dichotic-listening paradigm. The typical right-ear-advantage (REA) without specific attentional instructions was used as a measure of bottom-up processing (non-forced condition). Top-down attentional control was evaluated by instructing subjects to report only the right or left ear stimulus of the dichotic pair (forced-right, forced-left conditions). Both young and old participants showed a REA in the non-forced condition and an increased REA in the forced-right condition. The old group failed, however, to use attention to modulate the REA to the same degree as the younger participants in the forced-left condition. Only the young group showed a significant left ear advantage (LEA). The results are discussed in relation to cognitive decline in normal aging and in early stages of dementia.     

Somatoforme Schmerzstörung am Beispiel des chronischen Unterbauchschmerzes der Frau

In this review we discuss the psychological dimension of chronic pelvic pain in women. We give an overview of the psychopathology of the disease. The psychosomatic correlations of this complex syndrome are discussed. The diagnostic criteria of somatoform pain disorder are relevant for a large number of patients. The psychotherapeutic approaches are described. Psychosomatic knowledge is very helpful in the management of chronic pelvic pain in women. It helps to avoid unnecessary operations and contributes to a satisfying doctor-patient-relationship.     

Modelling perceptions of criminality and remorse from faces using a data-driven computational approach

Perceptions of criminality and remorse are critical for legal decision-making. While faces perceived as criminal are more likely to be selected in police lineups and to receive guilty verdicts, faces perceived as remorseful are more likely to receive less severe punishment recommendations. To identify the information that makes a face appear criminal and/or remorseful, we successfully used two different data-driven computational approaches that led to convergent findings: one relying on the use of computer-generated faces, and the other on photographs of people. In addition to visualising and validating the perceived looks of criminality and remorse, we report correlations with earlier face models of dominance, threat, trustworthiness, masculinity/femininity, and sadness. The new face models of criminal and remorseful appearance contribute to our understanding of perceived criminality and remorse. They can be used to study the effects of perceived criminality and remorse on decision-making; research that can ultimately inform legal policies.     

Is a local sample internationally representative? Reproducibility of four cognitive tests in family dogs across testing sites and breeds

A fundamental precept of the scientific method is reproducibility of methods and results, and there is growing concern over the failure to reproduce significant results. Family dogs have become a favoured species in comparative cognition research, but they may be subject to cognitive differences arising from genetic (breeding lines) or cultural differences (e.g. preferred training methods). Such variation is of concern as it affects the validity and generalisability of experimental results. Despite its importance, this problem has not been specifically addressed to date. Therefore, we aimed to test the influence of three factors on reproducibility: testing site (proximal environment), breed and sex (phenotype). The same experimenter tested cognitive performance by more than 200 dogs in four experiments. Additionally, dogs’ performance was tested in an obedience task administered by the owner. Breed of dog and testing site were found to influence the level of performance only mildly, and only in a means-end experiment and the obedience task. Our findings demonstrate that by applying the same test protocols on sufficiently large samples, the reported phenomena in these cognitive tests can be reproduced, but slight differences in performance levels can occur between different samples. Accordingly, we recommend the utilisation of well-described protocols supported by video examples of the whole experimental procedure. Findings should focus on the main outcome variables of the experiments, rather than speculating about the general importance of small or secondary performance outcomes which are more susceptible to random or local noise.     

Motor activation with and without inhibition: evidence for a threshold mechanism in motor control

Masked primes presented prior to a target can trigger response activation processes that may later be subject to inhibition. Evidence for response inhibition has previously been obtained with primes presented at fixation, but not with primes presented in the periphery of the visual field. It is argued that this central-peripheral asymmetry reflects a threshold mechanism in motor control. Foveal masked primes give rise to stronger perceptual representations than do peripheral primes, resulting in stronger response activations. Strong response activations are actively inhibited, whereas weaker activations remain below a hypothetical inhibition threshold. Evidence in favor of this hypothesis is obtained in four experiments that manipulated the perceptual strength of foveal and peripheral primes. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that when the perceptual strength of peripheral primes is gradually increased by delaying mask onset, positive prime-target compatibility effects (reflecting the absence of response inhibition) turn into negative effects (indicating the presence of response inhibition). Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrate that when the perceptual strength of foveal primes is gradually decreased by degradation, negative compatibility effects turn into positive effects. The results are discussed in terms of a simple functional model of early motor control.     

Seeking revenge or seeking reconciliation? How concern for social‐image and felt shame helps explain responses in reciprocal intergroup conflict

In conflicts with reciprocal violence, individuals belong to a group that has been both perpetrator and victim. In a field experiment in Liberia, West Africa, we led participants (N = 146) to focus on their group as either perpetrator or victim in order to investigate its effect on orientation towards inter‐group reconciliation or revenge. Compared to a perpetrator focus, a victim focus led to slightly more revenge orientation and moderately less reconciliation orientation. The effect of the focus manipulation on revenge orientation was fully mediated, and reconciliation orientation partly mediated, by viewing the in‐group's social‐image as at risk. Independent of perpetrator or victim focus, shame (but not guilt) was a distinct explanation of moderately more reconciliation orientation. This is consistent with a growing body of work demonstrating the pro‐social potential of shame. Taken together, results suggest how groups in reciprocal conflict might be encouraged towards reconciliation and away from revenge by feeling shame for their wrongdoing and viewing their social‐image as less at risk. As victims and perpetrators are widely thought to have different orientations to inter‐group reconciliation and revenge, we suggest that work on reciprocal conflicts should account for the fact that people can belong to a group that has been both perpetrator and victim.     

The effects of implicit and explicit affiliation motives on vagal activity in motive-relevant situations

We investigated the independent and interactive effects of the implicit need for affiliation (nAFF) and the explicit self-attributed need for affiliation (sanAFF) on parasympathetic vagal activity (indexed via heart rate variability) in three motive-relevant situations: in a socioevaluative stress situation (N = 49), in a socially ambiguous situation (N = 50), and during socially supported recovery from stress (both subsamples). Vagal activity has been linked with self-regulation and social engagement. Vagal withdrawal has been found to accompany stress responses, whereas vagal advance has been found to accompany attenuated stress and affiliative behavior. Response surface analyses in the current study revealed additive but opposite effects on vagal activity for nAFF (vagal advance) and sanAFF (vagal withdrawal) during the socioevaluative stress situation, high nAFF and low sanAFF incongruence predicted vagal withdrawal in the socially ambiguous situation, and sanAFF predicted vagal advance during socially supported recovery from stress. We suggest that assessing reactions to motive-relevant stress situations represents a profitable approach for investigating the differential effects of implicit and explicit motives.