The evolutionary armistice: attachment bonds moderate the function of ovulatory cycle adaptations

Natural selection modified the attachment-behavioral system to bond adult mating partners in early members of the genus Homo, thus facilitating increased investment, especially paternal investment, in offspring. Previously existing adaptations that fostered intersexual conflict (e.g., ovulatory adaptations) could have threatened attachment bonds; therefore, the attachment-behavioral system might have evolved the ability to mute or refocus such adaptations for the purpose of strengthening the bond. Two studies offer support for this prediction. Women who were strongly attached to their romantic partner revealed positive associations of fertility with reports of romantic physical intimacy, but these associations were negative among unbonded women. This moderational effect of attachment bond strength was robust beyond dispositional attachment anxiety and avoidance, relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, and partner physical attractiveness, none of which revealed robust moderational effects. Findings highlight how researchers can use the timeline of hominid evolution (i.e., phylogeny) as a tool to complement functional, adaptationist hypotheses.     

Like Mike: Ability contagion through touched objects increases confidence and improves performance

Magical thinking refers to irrational peculiar beliefs, including those that conform to the laws of contagion. We propose that touching an object that was previously touched by a high performer increases confidence via magical thinking (ability contagion) and improves actual performance among individuals high in experiential processing. A series of studies provides support for this main proposition. Our results cast doubt on an alternative explanation based on priming, and are obtained controlling for participants’ level of rational processing, motivation, and affect.     

Analysis of methods to determine the latency of online movement adjustments

When studying online movement adjustments, one of the interesting parameters is their latency. We set out to compare three different methods of determining the latency: the threshold, confidence interval, and extrapolation methods. We simulated sets of movements with different movement times and amplitudes of movement adjustments, all with the same known latency. We applied the three different methods in order to determine when the position, velocity, and acceleration of the adjusted movements started to deviate from the values for unperturbed movements. We did so both for averaged data and for the data of individual trials. We evaluated the methods on the basis of their accuracy and precision, and according to whether the latency was influenced by the intensity of the movement adjustment. The extrapolation method applied to average acceleration data gave the most reliable estimates of latency, according to these criteria.     

The bisection point across variants of the task

Bisection tasks are used in research on normal space and time perception and to assess the perceptual distortions accompanying neurological disorders. Several variants of the bisection task are used, which often yield inconsistent results, prompting the question of which variant is most dependable and which results are to be trusted. We addressed this question using theoretical and experimental approaches. Theoretical performance in bisection tasks is derived from a general model of psychophysical performance that includes sensory components and decisional processes. The model predicts how performance should differ across variants of the task, even when the sensory component is fixed. To test these predictions, data were collected in a within-subjects study with several variants of a spatial bisection task, including a two-response variant in which observers indicated whether a line was transected to the right or left of the midpoint, a three-response variant (which included the additional option to respond “midpoint”), and a paired-comparison variant of the three-response format. The data supported the model predictions, revealing that estimated bisection points were least dependable with the two-response variant, because this format confounds perceptual and decisional influences. Only the three-response paired-comparison format can separate out these influences. Implications for research in basic and clinical fields are discussed.     

Spatial updating relies on an egocentric representation of space: Effects of the number of objects

Models of spatial updating attempt to explain how representations of spatial relationships between the actor and objects in the environment change as the actor moves. In allocentric models, object locations are encoded in an external reference frame, and only the actor’s position and orientation in that reference frame need to be updated. Thus, spatial updating should be independent of the number of objects in the environment (set size). In egocentric updating models, object locations are encoded relative to the actor, so the location of each object relative to the actor must be updated as the actor moves. Thus, spatial updating efficiency should depend on set size. We examined which model better accounts for human spatial updating by having people reconstruct the locations of varying numbers of virtual objects either from the original study position or from a changed viewing position. In consistency with the egocentric updating model, object localization following a viewpoint change was affected by the number of objects in the environment.     

Satisfiability Decay along Conjunctions of Pseudo-Random Clauses

k-SAT is a fundamental constraint satisfaction problem. It involvesS(m), the satisfaction set of the conjunction of m clauses,each clause a disjunction of k literals. The problem has manytheoretical, algorithmic and practical aspects. When the clauses are chosen at random it is anticipated (butnot fully proven) that, as the density parameter m/n (n thenumber of variables) grows, the transition of S(m) to beingempty, is abrupt: It has a "sharp threshold", with probability1 – o(1). In this article we replace the random ensemble analysis by apseudo-random one: Derive the decay rule for individual sequencesof clauses, subject to combinatorial conditions, which in turnhold with probability 1 – o(1). This is carried out under the big relaxation that k is not constantbut k = log n , or even r log log n . Then the decay of S isslow, "near-perfect" (like a radioactive decay), which entailssharp thresholds for the transition-time of S below any givenlevel, down to S = .     

Eye movements of young and older adults while reading with distraction

The authors used eye-tracking technology to examine young and older adults' online performance in the reading in distraction paradigm. Participants read target sentences and answered comprehension questions following each sentence. In some sentences, single-word distracters were presented in either italic or red font. Distracters could be related or unrelated to the target text. Online measures, including probability of fixation, fixation duration, and number of fixations to distracting text, revealed no age differences in text processing. However, young adults did have an advantage over older adults in overall reading time and text comprehension. These results provide no support for an inhibition deficit account of age differences in the reading in distraction paradigm, but are consistent with J. Dywan and W. E. Murphy's (1996) suggestion that older adults are less able than the young to distinguish target and distracter information held in working memory.     

Visual search for real world targets under conditions of high target-background similarity: Exploring training and transfer in younger and older adults

Real world visual search tasks often require observers to locate a target that blends in with its surrounding environment. However, studies of the effect of target-background similarity on search processes have been relatively rare and have ignored potential age-related differences. We trained younger and older adults to search displays comprised of real world objects on either homogenous backgrounds or backgrounds that camouflaged the target. Training was followed by a transfer session in which participants searched for novel camouflaged objects. Although older adults were slower to locate the target compared to younger adults, all participants improved substantially with training. Surprisingly, camouflage-trained younger and older adults showed no performance decrements when transferred to novel camouflage displays, suggesting that observers learned age-invariant, generalizable skills relevant for searching under conditions of high target-background similarity. Camouflage training benefits at transfer for older adults appeared to be related to improvements in attentional guidance and target recognition rather than a more efficient search strategy.     

Conceptual processes involved in words and scenes context effect in face recognition

ABSTRACT

Several studies have established the impact of conceptually similar context on the emergence of “Context-Effect” (CE). None of these studies included the Re-pair/rearrange condition at the test, which prevented them from being conclusive about the exact process (binding/ensemble or familiarity) that was affected by the conceptually similar context. To this end, in the present study faces (target to be remembered) were presented in the context of either words (W) or picture (P) scenes, and at test Re-pair was added as one of the context conditions. At test two groups were presented with the same context as in study (consistent condition) (WW & PP), and two groups with the inconsistent condition (WP & PW). Results showed no familiarity effect when only the conceptual match was preserved (i.e., inconsistent condition) and both effects of binding and familiarity when both conceptual and perceptual match were present (i.e., consistent condition). Thus, the semantic association between a face and context could serve as recognition cues even when modality has been changed, but the label remained constant.