The psychology of meta-ethics: exploring objectivism

How do lay individuals think about the objectivity of their ethical beliefs? Do they regard them as factual and objective, or as more subjective and opinion-based, and what might predict such differences? In three experiments, we set out a methodology for assessing the perceived objectivity of ethical beliefs, and use it to document several novel findings. Experiment 1 showed that individuals tend to regard ethical statements as clearly more objective than social conventions and tastes, and almost as objective as scientific facts. Yet, there was considerable variation in objectivism, both across different ethical statements, and across individuals. The extent to which individuals treat ethical beliefs as objective was predicted by the way they grounded their ethical systems. Groundings which emphasize the religious, pragmatic, and self-identity underpinnings of ethical belief each independently predicted greater ethical objectivity. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these findings with a refined measure of ethical objectivism. Experiment 3 demonstrated the robustness of the religious grounding of ethics, and differentiates it from mere religious belief and from political orientation. The results shed light on the nature of ethical belief, and have implications for the resolution of ethical disputes.     

the promise of quality of life

Little has been written in the career development literature about quality of life, even though this concept is implied in all counselor interventions. In this article, the author suggests that the broad and subjective nature of quality of life, rather than a liability, is its very strength. Quality of life is presented as an important holistic concept that emphasizes a multidimensional awareness of the web of relationships within which career development is performed. The practical implications of quality of life for career development are discussed.     

Cold and lonely: does social exclusion literally feel cold?

Metaphors such as icy stare depict social exclusion using cold-related concepts; they are not to be taken literally and certainly do not imply reduced temperature. Two experiments, however, revealed that social exclusion literally feels cold. Experiment 1 found that participants who recalled a social exclusion experience gave lower estimates of room temperature than did participants who recalled an inclusion experience. In Experiment 2, social exclusion was directly induced through an on-line virtual interaction, and participants who were excluded reported greater desire for warm food and drink than did participants who were included. These findings are consistent with the embodied view of cognition and support the notion that social perception involves physical and perceptual content. The psychological experience of coldness not only aids understanding of social interaction, but also is an integral part of the experience of social exclusion.     

Selective storage and maintenance of an object’s features in visual working memory

It has been shown that we have a highly capacity-limited representational space with which to store objects in visual working memory. However, most objects are composed of multiple feature attributes, and it is unknown whether observers can voluntarily store a single attribute of an object without necessarily storing all of its remaining features. In this study, we used a masking paradigm to measure the efficiency of encoding, and neurophysiological recordings to directly measure visual working memory maintenance while subjects viewed multifeature objects and were required to remember only a single feature or all of the features of the objects. We found that measures of both encoding and maintenance varied systematically as a function of which object features were task relevant. These experiments show that individuals can control which features of an object are selectively stored in working memory.     

Dialogues on prediction errors

The recognition that computational ideas from reinforcement learning are relevant to the study of neural circuits has taken the cognitive neuroscience community by storm. A central tenet of these models is that discrepancies between actual and expected outcomes can be used for learning. Neural correlates of such prediction-error signals have been observed now in midbrain dopaminergic neurons, striatum, amygdala and even prefrontal cortex, and models incorporating prediction errors have been invoked to explain complex phenomena such as the transition from goal-directed to habitual behavior. Yet, like any revolution, the fast-paced progress has left an uneven understanding in its wake. Here, we provide answers to ten simple questions about prediction errors, with the aim of exposing both the strengths and the limitations of this active area of neuroscience research.     

Ontological issues in distance perception: cue use under full cue conditions cannot be inferred from use under controlled conditions

Phosphorescent square tiles (arranged to yield a single image size) were viewed in the dark by 56 monocular observers who utilized a chinrest. The targets were placed at one of three horizontal distances and at one of three eye heights, allowing us to study the relative effect of height in the visual field (HVF) and sagittal distance on observers' verbal reports of the horizontal distance at which the object lay (near, middle, or far). In Experiment 1, we found that reports covaried primarily with HVF and, as predicted, they exhibited a weak paradoxical inverse relation with horizontal distance. In a second and third experiment, a visible surface was placed under the targets at the three eye heights in both dark and fully lighted conditions. In this situation, the inverse distance relation disappeared, and HVF no longer influenced the judgments of most observers. The results show that information projected from relevant support surfaces is essential for veridical information about object distance. These results raise fundamental issues for perceptual researchers regarding how to decide when a cue has been properly delineated, given the assumption that the relation between a cue and what it specifies is probabilistic.     

Attentional and automatic processes in line tracing: is tracing obligatory?

When comparing two target elements placed on the same convoluted curve, response times are dependent on the distance between the targets along the curve, despite being separated by a constant Euclidean distance. The present study assessed whether such line tracing is obligatory across the whole of the line even when the task demands do not require it, or whether it is an optional strategy that can be disregarded when the circumstances favor a different method of attentional deployment. Three experiments were conducted to assess whether attention can select only a portion of a curve to trace when it is strategically sensible to do so. The results suggest that attention can indeed jump over portions of a line that are irrelevant to task performance before tracing has begun. However, the final experiment suggests that line tracing may continue beyond the task-relevant portion of the line. We conclude that line tracing is a strategy whose initial deployment can be influenced by top-down factors, rather than an obligatory response triggered by the stimuli-although, once engaged, line tracing may be hard to stop.     

Testing a self-determination theory intervention for motivating tobacco cessation: supporting autonomy and competence in a clinical trial.

A longitudinal randomized trial tested the self-determination theory (SDT) intervention and process model of health behavior change for tobacco cessation (N = 1006). Adult smokers were recruited for a study of smokers' health and were assigned to intensive treatment or community care. Participants were relatively poor and undereducated. Intervention patients perceived greater autonomy support and reported greater autonomous and competence motivations than did control patients. They also reported greater medication use and significantly greater abstinence. Structural equation modeling analyses confirmed the SDT process model in which perceived autonomy support led to increases in autonomous and competence motivations, which in turn led to greater cessation. The causal role of autonomy support in the internalization of autonomous motivation, perceived competence, and smoking cessation was supported.     

How does the purpose of inspection influence the potency of visual salience in scene perception?

Salience-map models have been taken to suggest that the locations of eye fixations are determined by the extent of the low-level discontinuities in an image. While such models have found some support, an increasing emphasis on the task viewers are performing implies that these models must combine with cognitive demands to describe how the eyes are guided efficiently. An experiment is reported in which eye movements to objects in photographs were examined while viewers performed a memory-encoding task or one of two search tasks. The objects depicted in the scenes had known salience ranks according to a popular model. Participants fixated higher-salience objects sooner and more often than lower-salience objects, but only when memorising scenes. This difference shows that salience-map models provide useful predictions even in complex scenes and late in viewing. However, salience had no effects when searching for a target defined by category or exemplar. The results suggest that salience maps are not used to guide the eyes in these tasks, that cognitive override by task demands can be total, and that modelling top-down search is important but may not be easily accomplished within a salience-map framework.