Error monitoring is related to processing internal affective states

Detecting behavioral errors is critical for optimizing performance. Here, we tested whether error monitoring is enhanced in emotional task contexts, and whether this enhancement depends on processing internal affective states. Event-related potentials were recorded in individuals with low and high levels of alexithymia—that is, individuals with difficulties identifying and describing their feelings. We administered a face word Stroop paradigm (Egner, Etkin, Gale, & Hirsch, 2008) in which the task was to classify emotional faces either with respect to their expression (happy or fearful; emotional task set) or with respect to their gender (female or male; neutral task set). The error-related negativity, a marker of rapid error monitoring, was enhanced in individuals with low alexithymia when they adopted the emotional task set. By contrast, individuals with high alexithymia did not show such an enhancement. Moreover, in the high-alexithymia group, the difference in the error-related negativities between the emotional and neutral task sets correlated negatively with difficulties identifying their own feelings, as measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. These results show that error-monitoring activity is stronger in emotional task contexts and that this enhancement depends on processing internal affective states.     

Competition in lexical processing of Italian noun/verb homographs

The study investigates the lexical representation of Italian noun/verb homographs, introducing a factor which has been analysed in production studies: the specific-word frequency (SWF). The SWF parameter allows to understand whether the grammatical class information is specified within the lexical knowledge or it is selected during post-lexical stages. We ran six lexical decision tasks employing the priming paradigm and a grammatical decision task to investigate the lexical representation of noun/verb homographs. In addition, we sought to determine the role played by the frequency of representations and the temporal activation of the grammatical class information. Our findings support the claim that these forms have independent representations for each syntactic role they can play. We interpreted these findings in the light of what we call the “Nominal Dominance” effect, which affects the lexical access of noun/verb homographs. We also discuss the relation between nominal dominance and lexical frequency.     

Third-party punishment: altruistic and anti-social behaviours in in-group and out-group settings

This study aims at exploring the decision-making process involved in third-party punishment (TPP) within an economic frame, using the TPP game. We investigated altruistic punishment, that is, the behaviour of spending one's own money, with no personal gain, to punish those who violate the norms of cooperation. We analysed this behaviour, in an in-group and out-group game setting, to compare how individuals behave with members of their own group (in-group) and with members of another group (out-group). In particular, groups were defined on a real nationality basis (Chinese or Italian). Our results showed altruistic punishment behaviour in both experimental groups and this tendency emerged as more prominent when faced with unfair play towards a member of one's own group. Furthermore, both groups exhibited a propensity for anti-social punishment behaviour: many participants spent small amounts of money to punish fair behaviour, regardless of national group membership.     

Autonomic functioning in reactive versus proactive aggression: The influential role of inconsistent parenting

Research has consistently supported autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning as a predictor of aggressive behavior in youth. Several studies have further examined how the functioning of the sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PNS) branches of the ANS interact with environmental factors to predict behavioral outcomes. One factor that has yet to be studied in this context however, is parenting practices. Given that many interventions for externalizing behavior target parenting practices, such as increasing consistent discipline, it may be particularly important to assess whether parenting practices interact with SNS and PNS functioning in the child to influence risk for aggressive behavior. Therefore, the current study addressed this question by examining inconsistent discipline as a moderator of the relationship between baseline SNS versus PNS activity and reactive versus proactive aggression. Data were collected from a sample of fourth graders identified as at‐risk for aggression (N = 188). Results indicated that baseline SNS activity was positively related to proactive aggression under high levels of inconsistent discipline, but negatively related to proactive aggression under very low levels of inconsistent discipline. Baseline PNS activity was negatively associated with reactive aggression under low levels of inconsistent discipline. No main effects were found for SNS or PNS functioning and either form of aggression, emphasizing the importance of taking a biosocial approach to examining the predictors of aggressive behavior in at‐risk youth. Results from this study help to better understand the circumstances under which children are most likely to exhibit reactive versus proactive aggression, better informing targeted prevention and treatment.

     

Examining joint attention with the use of humanoid robots-A new approach to study fundamental mechanisms of social cognition

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - This article reviews methods to investigate joint attention and highlights the benefits of new methodological approaches that make use of the most recent...     

Noticing and commenting on what’s new: differences and similarities among 22‐month‐old typically developing children,children with Down syndrome and children with autism

Twenty 22‐month‐old typically developing children (TD), 11 children with Down syndrome (DS) and 10 children with autism (A), all functioning at a one‐ or two‐word linguistic level, were given eight series of four toys to explore. In each series, the first three toys (i.e. Trials 1–3) were identical, but the fourth toy (i.e. Trial 4) differed on a property or in identity. The children sat beside their mother and the experimenter while exploring the toys. Of interest was whether (1) the TD children would show more exploratory and communicative behavior related to the toys on Trials 1 and 4 than 2 and 3, and (2) how the response patterns of nontypically developing children would compare. The DS group showed a pattern of responding similar to that of the TD group with respect to their attention and interest in the toys, although a much lower rate of communicating with their mother. In contrast, the A group differed significantly from both other groups with respect to both the toys they found of interest and the timing of their topic initiations. Implications for observing declarative communication among children with Down syndrome and children with autism are discussed.     

Face preference at birth: the role of an orienting mechanism

It has been proposed that newborns’ preferential orienting to faces is solely controlled by a subcortically mediated orienting mechanism (i.e. Conspec). In contrast, preferential‐looking tasks show that face preference at birth manifests itself also with measures that index fixation duration. It is possible, however, that orienting and fixation duration are confounded and only orienting matters. The present study used a revised version of the preferential‐looking technique, in which the same stimulus (i.e. a facelike or a non‐facelike pattern) was simultaneously presented to both sides of the visual field. Results showed that longer total fixation times on the facelike stimuli resulted from the sum of a greater number of brief fixations, rather than from the sum of a small number of long fixations. These findings support the hypothesis that, for facelike patterns, the duration of infant’s fixation on the stimulus is determined by the nature of the pattern that impinges on the periphery of the visual field, more than by the nature of the pattern that is being looked at.     

Cross-modal interaction between vision and touch: the role of synesthetic correspondence

At each moment, we experience a melange of information arriving at several senses, and often we focus on inputs from one modality and 'reject' inputs from another. Does input from a rejected sensory modality modulate one's ability to make decisions about information from a selected one? When the modalities are vision and hearing, the answer is "yes", suggesting that vision and hearing interact. In the present study, we asked whether similar interactions characterize vision and touch. As with vision and hearing, results obtained in a selective attention task show cross-modal interactions between vision and touch that depend on the synesthetic relationship between the stimulus combinations. These results imply that similar mechanisms may govern cross-modal interactions across sensory modalities.     

Comparison processes on visual mental images

Three experiments were conducted to test whether visual mental images and visual perceptual representations possess equivalent structural properties and undergo functionally equivalent comparison processes. In Experiment 1, subjects were required to perform asame-different letter classification in which the two letters were shown in succession. The first letter in the pair either was actually presented (perceptual condition) or had to be actively generated (imaginal condition). Both conditions showed that (1) response latencies fordifferent decisions decreased as a function of the degree of difference (segment effect), and (2) same decisions were faster than the fastestdifferent ones (fast same effect). In Experiment 2, the imaginal condition only was employed, but no imagery instructions were given and very strict time constraints were assigned. In spite of these restrictions, subjects apparently generated and used visual images, as attested by the fact that the results were comparable to those of the previous experiment. In Experiment 3, three experimental manipulations were introduced to prevent the use of visual images. Such manipulations proved effective, as shown by the disappearance of the segment effect. It was concluded that in the visual modality images and percepts are equivalent in structure and are processed in a very similar way.     

Indirect majority and minority influence: An exploratory study

In a 2 × 2 design, 85 subjects were asked to estimate the size of angles (direct influence) that were either 90 or 85°, after being confronted with incorrect judgements of a majority (88 per cent) or a minority (12 per cent) of people estimating the angles at 50°. Additionally, pre- and post-test measures were used to establish indirect influence on subjects' judgements pertaining to acute angles (i.e. on the estimation of the length of lines constituting the angles, and on the imaginary weight of figures represented by these angles). Overall, little direct influence is observed. This may partly be due to the introduction of a denial of the credibility of the source in all conditions. In fact, some evidence of direct influence is only found in the majority–85° angles condition. An instance of indirect influence (on the estimation of length of lines) appeared as the result of a majority stance when the angles in the experimental phase were 90°. When these angles were 85°, indirect minority influence (on the estimation of weight of figures) was observed. These effects had been predicted on the basis of the hypothesis stating that indirect majority influence would be possible when subjects expected consensus on the correct response (in the 90° angles condition), without being able to reach consensus at the manifest level (because of the denial and the restriction imposed by the clear shape of 90° angles). Indirect minority influence was hypothesized to be stronger in a situation that allows for diverse responses (i.e. for 85° angles).