COVID-19 and Religious Ethics

The editors of the JRE solicited short essays on the COVID-19 pandemic from a group of scholars of religious ethics that reflected on how the field might help them make sense of the complex religious, cultural, ethical, and political implications of the pandemic, and on how the pandemic might shape the future of religious ethics.     

Image-size disparity reduces difference detection in face matching

Face matching is the act of deciding whether two facial images depict the same person or different people. The real-world face-matching task of checking photo IDs typically occurs under conditions of image-size disparity: A small picture is compared with a life-size face. We examined the effect of image-size disparity on face-matching accuracy. In three experiments, subjects were presented with pairs of equivalently or disparately sized images that depicted the same person or different people. Subjects made same/different judgments and, in two experiments, also reported confidence. Difference detection was significantly poorer given disparate (versus equivalent) image size. Confidence was significantly higher when responses were correct versus incorrect. These findings held whether viewing and decision time was unlimited or limited. Our results raise the practical concern that image-size disparity may undermine difference detection in ID checking, while also indicating that people have some insight into the accuracy of their face-matching judgments.     

How representations of number and numeracy predict decision paradoxes: A fuzzy-trace theory approach

Higher numeracy has been associated with decision biases in some numerical judgment-and-decision problems. According to fuzzy-trace theory, understanding such paradoxes involves broadening the concept of numeracy to include processing the gist of numbers—their categorical and ordinal relations—in addition to objective (verbatim) knowledge about numbers. We assess multiple representations of gist, as well as numeracy, and use them to better understand and predict systematic paradoxes in judgment and decision-making. In two samples (Ns = 978 and 957), we assessed categorical (some vs. none) and ordinal gist representations of numbers (higher vs. lower, as in relative magnitude judgment, estimation, approximation, and simple ratio comparison), objective numeracy, and a nonverbal, nonnumeric measure of fluid intelligence in predicting: (a) decision preferences exhibiting the Allais paradox and (b) attractiveness ratings of bets with and without a small loss in which the loss bet is rated higher than the objectively superior no-loss bet. Categorical and ordinal gist tasks predicted unique variance in paradoxical decisions and judgments, beyond objective numeracy and intelligence. Whereas objective numeracy predicted choosing or rating according to literal numerical superiority, appreciating the categorical and ordinal gist of numbers was pivotal in predicting paradoxes. These results bring important paradoxes under the same explanatory umbrella, which assumes three types of representations of numbers—categorical gist, ordinal gist, and objective (verbatim)—that vary in their strength across individuals.     

‘Personality in Its Natural Habitat’ Revisited: A Pooled,Multi-sample Examination of the Relationships Between the Big Five Personality Traits and Daily Behaviour and Language Use

Past research using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an observational ambulatory assessment method for the real-world measurement of daily behaviour, has identified several behavioural manifestations of the Big Five domains in a small college sample (N = 96). With the use of a larger and more diverse sample of pooled data from N = 462 participants from a total of four community samples who wore the EAR from 2 to 6 days, the primary purpose of the present study was to obtain more precise and generalizable effect estimates of the Big Five–behaviour relationships and to re-examine the degree to which these relationships are gender specific. In an extension of the original article, the secondary purpose of the present study was to examine if the Big Five–behaviour relationships differed across two facets of each Big Five domain. Overall, while several of the behavioural manifestations of the Big Five were generally consistent with the trait definitions (replicating some findings from the original article), we found little evidence of gender differences (not replicating a basic finding from the original article). Unique to the present study, the Big Five–behaviour relationships were not always comparable across the two facets of each Big Five domain. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Talking Points: A Modulating Circle Increases Listening Effort Without Improving Speech Recognition in Young Adults

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Speech recognition is improved when the acoustic input is accompanied by visual cues provided by a talking face (Erber in Journal of Speech and Hearing Research,...     

Post-event misinformation effects in a language-trained chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

Animal Cognition - Errors of source monitoring are widespread human memory challenges, and our memories are subject to distortion upon the presentation of subsequent misinformation. Less is known...     

Neighborhood Stress and Life Satisfaction: Is there a Relationship for African American Adolescents?

Applied Research in Quality of Life - This study identified associations between perceived neighborhood stress and adolescents’ perceptions of life satisfaction. African American adolescents...     

Assessment of mothers' concerns about infants,toddlers, and preschoolers

Only recently has determining the child-rearing concerns of parents been considered an important research objective. Existing efforts have, for the most part, either employed small sample sizes or surveyed parents already in the process of seeking help or advice. It was, therefore, felt that additional, more representative data were needed. In the present study, 583 mothers with children aged 59 months or younger were surveyed regarding their concerns about their children's development. On the „Specific Needs Assessment Report”︁ (SNAR) (copyright © 1975, by Karl F. Riem, J. Jeffrey Crisco, and Kathy Willms), mothers rated their concerns for 60 developmental-behavioral items about their children's health, attending skills, problem behaviors, communication skills, motor skills, cognitive skills, self-help skills, and social skills. Mothers were most frequently concerned to a moderate or major degree about at least one item of the problem behavior category. For this category, parent-child management, crying-whining, and temper tantrums were the individual items of greatest concern. Mothers of girls more frequently indicated health concerns than mothers of boys. These results support those of previous investigations, which suggested the need for parent education programs to help parents manage their children.     

Body size as a determinant of aggression during heterosexual encounters in hormone-treated gonadectomized pigs

Aggressive and sexual behavior was studied in 5-minute paired encounters between testosterone-treated castrated boars and estrogen-treated ovariectomized gilts. The boars were either 15 kg heavier (N = 6), or lighter (N = 6), than the gilts (N = 8). Tests were carried out over a 4-week period, during which time each boar was paired once with each gilt; the procedure was replicated over a further 4 weeks. Gilts usually initiated the aggression, especially in the first 4-week period; however, the degree of aggression was positively correlated with body size, irrespective of sex. Aggression was reduced in the second 4-week period in both sexes in tests with large, but not with small, boars. Large boars were more sexually active than small boars, and their sexual performance improved markedly with time, unlike that of the small boars. Champing was positively correlated with aggression duration in pigs of both sexes, and salivation was seen more often in boars than gilts.     

Effects of fluprazine (DU 27716) upon aggressive and sexual behavior of testosterone-treated female rats

Female rats, chronically treated with Testosterone Propionate (TP), were injected with Fluprazine (DU 27716) or saline and tested for social aggression, masculine and feminine sexual behavior. Fluprazine-treated females were less aggressive than saline-treated females, as indicated by a shift from offensive to less offensive parameters of aggression. At the same time, mounting in Fluprazine-treated females was almost totally abolished, both in aggression tests and in tests for sexual behavior. Feminine sexual responses increased during aggressive encounters but were slightly inhibited when females were confronted with sexually active males. Females treated with Fluprazine and tested for mounting with a receptive female showed a substantial increase of offensive aggression directed at the receptive stimulus female. It is concluded that Fluprazine does not selectively inhibit offensive aggression in TP-treated female rats.