Interregional and intraregional variability of intergroup attitudes predict online hostility

To what extent are intergroup attitudes associated with regional differences in online aggression and hostility? We test whether regional attitude biases towards minorities and their local variability (i.e. intraregional polarization) independently predict verbal hostility on social media. We measure online hostility using large US American samples from Twitter and measure regional attitudes using nationwide survey data from Project Implicit. Average regional biases against Black people, White people, and gay people are associated with regional differences in social media hostility, and this effect is confounded with regional racial and ideological opposition. In addition, intraregional variability in interracial attitudes is also positively associated with online hostility. In other words, there is greater online hostility in regions where residents disagree in their interracial attitudes. This effect is present both for the full resident sample and when restricting the sample to White attitude holders. We find that this relationship is also, in part, confounded with regional proportions of ideological and racial groups (attitudes are more heterogeneous in regions with greater ideological and racial diversity). We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these relationships, as well as the dangers of escalating conflict and hostility when individuals with diverging intergroup attitudes interact. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

Redundancy gain for semantic features

In a go/no-go experiment, semantic redundancy gain was assessed for responses to single written words. Specifically, we asked participants to respond only to words whose meaning matched at least one semantic target feature—that is, the target category (e.g., animal), the target color (e.g., gray), or both. On redundant-target trials, the word (e.g., elephant) matched both semantic target features (i.e., gray and animal). On single-target trials, the word (e.g., beaver) matched one target feature (i.e., animal) and a nontarget feature (i.e., brown). We observed shorter reaction times in the redundant-target condition than in the faster single-target condition. Hence, the present study provides the first evidence that redundancy gain is not limited to responses to redundant proximal stimulus features but can also be observed for responses to semantic feature information.     

Young children attribute normativity to novel actions without pedagogy or normative language

Young children interpret some acts performed by adults as normatively governed, that is, as capable of being performed either rightly or wrongly. In previous experiments, children have made this interpretation when adults introduced them to novel acts with normative language (e.g. 'this is the way it goes'), along with pedagogical cues signaling culturally important information, and with social-pragmatic marking that this action is a token of a familiar type. In the current experiment, we exposed children to novel actions with no normative language, and we systematically varied pedagogical and social-pragmatic cues in an attempt to identify which of them, if either, would lead children to normative interpretations. We found that young 3-year-old children inferred normativity without any normative language and without any pedagogical cues. The only cue they used was adult social-pragmatic marking of the action as familiar, as if it were a token of a well-known type (as opposed to performing it, as if inventing it on the spot). These results suggest that - in the absence of explicit normative language - young children interpret adult actions as normatively governed based mainly on the intentionality (perhaps signaling conventionality) with which they are performed.     

The influence of dichotical fusion on the redundant signals effect,localization performance,and the mismatch negativity

In two experiments, each including a simple reaction time (RT) task, a localization task, and a passive oddball paradigm, the physical similarity between two dichotically presented auditory stimuli was manipulated. In both experiments, a redundant signals effect (RSE), high localization performance, and a reliable mismatch negativity (MMN) was observed for largely differing stimuli, suggesting that these are coded separately in auditory memory. In contrast, no RSE and a localization rate close to chance level (experiment 1) or at chance (experiment 2) were observed for stimuli differing to a lesser degree. Crucially, for such stimuli a small (experiment 1) or no (experiment 2) MMN were observed. These MMN results indicate that such stimuli tend to fuse into a single percept and that this fusion occurs rather early within information processing.     

Young children enforce social norms selectively depending on the violator's group affiliation

To become cooperative members of their cultural groups, developing children must follow their group's social norms. But young children are not just blind norm followers, they are also active norm enforcers, for example, protesting and correcting when someone plays a conventional game the "wrong" way. In two studies, we asked whether young children enforce social norms on all people equally, or only on ingroup members who presumably know and respect the norm. We looked at both moral norms involving harm and conventional game norms involving rule violations. Three-year-old children actively protested violation of moral norms equally for ingroup and outgroup individuals, but they enforced conventional game norms for ingroup members only. Despite their ingroup favoritism, young children nevertheless hold ingroup members to standards whose violation they tolerate from outsiders.     

Error reactivity in self-paced performance: Highly-accurate individuals exhibit largest post-error slowing

Reaction time is typically increased following an erroneous response. This post-error slowing is traditionally explained by a strategic adjustment of response threshold towards more conservative behaviour. A recently proposed orienting account provides an alternative explanation for post-error slowing. According to this account, committing an error evokes an orienting response (OR), which inhibits information processing in the subsequent trial, resulting in slow and inaccurate performance. We tested a straightforward prediction of the orienting account in the context of self-paced performance, adopting an individual-differences approach: Post-error slowing should be larger the less frequent an error is. To this end, participants were classified into three groups differing in overall performance accuracy. Larger post-error slowing and stronger post-error accuracy decrease were observed for the high-accuracy group than for the two other groups. Practice pronounced the post-error accuracy decline, especially for the high-accuracy group. The results are consistent with the orienting account of post-error slowing but are problematic for accounts based on strategic evaluation mechanisms.     

On theoretical and realizable ideal conditions in psychophysics: Magnitude and category scales and their relation

By spacing 10 stimuli (white noise) between 40 and 110 dB according to two criteria [equal response ambiguity (ERA) and equal discriminability (ED)], an attempt was made to construct an “ideal” case for magnitude estimation and category rating. The “ideal” case is defined by linear and constant Weber functions (SDs as a function of scale values) for the two scales, respectively. Altogether, three group and two individual magnitude and category rating experiments were run with these two spacings. It was found that the ERA spacing approximated the ideal case well for both Weber functions and the ED spacing only for the Weber function of the category scale. The general psychophysical differential equation that relates scale values and Weber functions for the two scales allowed good prediction of the category scales from the magnitude scales and the Weber functions. The data suggested a distinction between phenotypic (empirical) and genotypic Weber functions, analogous to “real” and “ideal” cases in physics.     

Syntax- und Semantikkoordination im Dialog

Coordination of Syntax and Semantics in Discourse Summary. 'Coordination' as used here is understood in the following way: Agents solve problems in on-going dialogue under mutual control and according to stable, well-understood patterns. In task-oriented dialogue the social frame for coordination is fixed. The need for coordination among agents arises because of differences in information, the dominant dialogue pattern 'directive - reply', and because of incompatibilities with respect to speakers' ontologies, language variation and agents' focus management. We discuss three dialogue examples showing coordination in some detail. In all of them the coordination problem is solved via a side sequence. Side sequences can be implemented either as autonomous dialogue contributions or they can be fused into the utterances they start from. Grammars treating 'syntax-in-dialogue' and, above all, side sequences, have to meet several constraints: They must describe various forms of extraposition to the right and long distance dependencies, produce and analyse by increments, and shift from production to reception and vice versa. All these patterns will be of relevance for the man-machine-interaction focused upon in the research unit “Situated Artificial Communicators“. It is suggested to set up the theory of grammar needed to accomplish all that within a theory of n-Person Cooperative Games. Zusammenfassung. Koordination im Dialog bedeutet, daß auftretende Probleme unter wechselseitiger Kontrolle der Agenten nach festgelegten Verfahren gelöst werden. In aufgabenorientierten Dialogen ist der soziale Rahmen für Koordination festgelegt. Koordination wird erforderlich wegen des Informationsgefälles zwischen Instrukteur und Konstrukteur, des dominanten Dialogmusters “Direktive geben“ - “Direktive befolgen“ sowie der Unterschiede in den Bereichen Sprecherontologie, Sprachvariation und Fokussteuerung. Wir geben drei Dialogbeispiele für Koordination, bei denen das Koordinationsproblem über eine Nebensequenz gelöst wird. Nebensequenzen, sog. “Verständigungssequenzen“, können als klar begrenzter, autonomer Subdialog realisiert oder in die Ausgangsäußerung eingefügt sein. Eine Syntax für den Dialog, insbesondere für Nebensequenzen und deren Einbettung, muß spezielle Konstruktionen wie Ausklammerung und Nachtrag erfassen, inkrementell operieren und zwischen Produktion und Rezeption hin- und herschalten können. Über alle diese Fähigkeiten sollte ein Situierter Künstlicher Kommunikator verfügen. Es wird vorgeschlagen, das dazu benötigte Grammatikmodell im Rahmen einer Theorie der Kooperativen Mehr-Personen-Spiele zu konzipieren.     

EMPIRICAL TEST OF A MODEL RELATING MAGNITUDE AND CATEGORY SCALES

E isler , H. Empirical test of a model relating magnitude and category scales. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1962, 3 , 88–96.—The function K =α log( φ+ q/k) +β seems to describe the relation between category scale values K and subjective magnitudes φ. The additive constant q/k is obtained from the S ds of the magnitude estimates.
The model was empirically confirmed for the loudness and softness of white noise scaled by the methods of magnitude estimation and category rating.