What Is Dissent?

Res Publica - Dissent is a word we come across frequently these days. We read it in the newspapers, use it in discussions with friends and colleagues—perhaps even engage in the...     

Why is it so hard to change? The role of self-integrity threat and affirmation in weight loss

People are frequently dissatisfied with their body weight. Messages alleging that lower weight is esthetically preferable, healthier, and achievable likely trigger chronic self-integrity threat, the sense that one's personal adequacy is in doubt. We examined whether self-integrity threat, which creates stress and pressure to restore self-integrity, contributes to the challenges of weight and behavior change. Weight-dissatisfied women completed in-lab tasks including a values affirmation manipulation and two-month follow-up. Affirmed women lost weight relative to controls, replicating previous research. Effects were primarily among those with higher initial body masses. Affirmed higher-weighted women also ate more healthful foods compared to unhealthful foods in self-reports and observation. Affirmed participants reported increased exercise, and an exploratory measure showed that their cortisol awakening responses synchronized with their coping needs, suggesting more adaptive physiological function. Results suggest that self-integrity threat is an under-recognized barrier to change, and reducing it can support healthy changes.     

Resource allocation for visual metaphor processing: A study of political cartoons

ABSTRACT

This paper is a study of visual metaphor processing in political cartoons, while secondary task reaction time was used to assess resource allocation when processing three types of visual metaphors, namely juxtapositions, fusions and replacements. Participants viewed a series of visual metaphors. At various intervals, they were invited to push a button whenever a probe appeared. Reaction times to detect the probes were recorded. Subsequently, participants performed recall and recognition tasks. Results showed that participants reacted faster to each successive probe, while metaphor type had no influence on reaction times. Concerning the recall task, the percentage of correctly recalled items was significantly lower for juxtapositions compared to replacements; results for fusions were in between the two. Recognition scores for juxtapositions and fusions were lower than those for replacements. These findings are discussed in the framework of visual metaphors literature, thus providing empirical support to visual metaphor processing.     

Endogenous cueing effects for detection can be accounted for by a decision model of selective attention

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Spatial cues help participants detect a visual target when it appears at the cued location. One hypothesis for this cueing effect, called selective perception,...