Asynchronous stimulus presentation in visual extinction: A psychophysical study

Patients showing visual extinction as a consequence of a unilateral brain lesion can correctly detect a single stimulus in either hemifield but fail to detect the contralesional stimulus (or at least process the stimulus less efficiently) when it is presented simultaneously with an ipsilesional stimulus. In an attempt to uncover the nature of the underlying deficit, some studies have manipulated the temporal characteristics of stimulus presentation. Contra- and ipsilesional stimuli with different stimulus onset asynchronies are typically used. In the present study, visual extinction was investigated in a group of left neglect patients (N=10) using a psychophysical paradigm with different stimulus onset asynchronies of target and distractor stimuli presented in different hemifields. Contrast thresholds for a target grating were determined with the target either in isolation or in the presence of an irrelevant distractor grating. When target and distractor gratings were presented simultaneously, neglect patients showed a significant extinction effect, i.e., a significant interference from the right hemifield distractor with left hemifield contrast sensitivity. When the right hemifield distractor preceded the left hemifield target stimulus by 250 ms, two different patterns of results were observed in the neglect patients. Five patients showed a significant improvement compared to the simultaneous presentation condition, five other patients showed a significant increase of the extinction effect. The results suggest that different underlying mechanisms, maybe due to different lesion locations, can cause extinction in neglect patients.     

Cost–Benefit Associations and Financial Behavior

Financial behavior involves costs and benefits. How strongly costs and benefits are perceived as being related to each other is hypothesised to influence affect, cognition, and behavior. Thus, the subject of cost–benefit associations is relevant in several domains of applied psychology. Illustrated by examples from applied areas like consumption, work, and citizenship, the current paper underlines the importance of cost–benefit associations by presenting theoretical approaches to their analysis and discussing major antecedents and consequences.
Le comportement financier implique des coûts et des bénéfices. Nous testons la façon dont la perception des liens entre coûts et bénéfices influence l'affect, la cognition et les comportements. L'analyse des liens coûts-bénéfices est pertinente pour différents domaines de la psychologie appliquée. Illustrés par des exemples pris dans des domaines d'application comme la consommation, le travail et la citoyenneté, cet article souligne l'importance des liens coûts-bénéfices en présentant les approches théoriques qui ont servis à leur analyse et en discutant de leurs antécédents et leurs conséquences majeurs.     

The Generalizability of Personality Effects in Politics

A burgeoning line of research examining the relation between personality traits and political variables relies extensively on convenience samples. However, our understanding of the extent to which using convenience samples challenges the generalizability of these findings to target populations remains limited. We address this question by testing whether associations between personality and political characteristics observed in representative samples diverged from those observed in the sub‐populations most commonly studied in convenience samples, namely, students and Internet users. We leverage 10 high‐quality representative datasets to compare the representative samples with the two subsamples. We did not find any systematic differences in the relationship between personality traits and a broad range of political variables. Instead, results from the subsamples generalized well to those observed in the broader and more diverse representative sample.     

Big Five personality traits and allostatic load in midlife

Objective: To examine the cross-sectional associations of Big Five personality traits with midlife allostatic load, including the role of sex, socio-demographic factors and health-related behaviours.

Design: Cross-sectional analyses of 5512 members of the Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank, aged 49–63 years, 69% men.

Main outcome measure: Allostatic load (AL) based on 14 biomarkers representing the inflammatory, cardiovascular and metabolic system.

Results: Due to significant sex?×?trait interactions, analyses were stratified by sex. Openness and Conscientiousness were inversely associated with AL in both sexes, and Extraversion was positively associated with AL in men. Adjusting for socio-demographic factors significantly attenuated the association of Openness in both sexes and of Extraversion in men, for whom the inverse association of Agreeableness with AL was strengthened. Further adjusting for health-related behaviours, the Conscientiousness-AL association was attenuated but remained significant, and Agreeableness remained significantly associated with AL in men.

Conclusion: Results imply that higher levels of Agreeableness (in men) and Conscientiousness are associated with lower levels of AL above and beyond socio-demographic factors and health-related behaviours. The study further contributes by demonstrating the relevance of sex?×?trait and trait?×?trait interactions in the personality-health literature.     

Pleasure, Pain, and Moral Character and Development

I distinguish two kinds of pleasures – value–based pleasures, which can be explained in terms of the values of those who experience them, and brute pleasures, which cannot be so explained. I apply this distinction to three related projects. First, I critically examine a recent discussion of moral character by Colin McGinn, arguing that McGinn offers a distorted view of good character. Second, I try to elucidate certain remarks Aristotle makes about the relationships between pleasure and courage and pleasure and temperance. Third, I appeal to the distinction to elucidate the topic of moral improvement.     

“Paid to Endure”: Paid Research Participation,Passivity, and the Goods of Work

A growing literature documents the existence of individuals who make a living by participating in phase I clinical trials for money. Several scholars have noted that the concerns about risks, consent, and exploitation raised by this phenomenon apply to many (other) jobs, too, and therefore proposed improving subject protections by regulating phase I trial participation as work. This article contributes to the debate over this proposal by exploring a largely neglected worry. Unlike most (other) workers, subjects are not paid to produce or achieve anything but to have things done to them. I argue that this passivity is problematic for reasons of distributive justice. Specifically, it fails to enable subjects to realize what Gheaus and Herzog call “the goods of work”—a failure not offset by adequate opportunities to realize these goods outside of the research context. I also consider whether granting subjects worker-type protections would accommodate this concern.