The tune in-and-out model: A random walk and its application to a presidential election survey

The stochastic model for the evolution of preferences proposed by Falmagne, Regenwetter, and Grofman [1997. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 41, 129-143] and tested by Regenwetter, Falmagne, and Grofman [1999. Psychological Review, 106, 362-384], as well as the alternative Thurstonian model of Böckenholt [Falmagne, J.-C., Regenwetter, M., & Grofman, B. (1997). A stochastic model for the evolution of preferences. In A. A. J. Marley (Ed.), Choice, decision and measurement: Essays in honor of R. Duncan Luce (pp. 113-131). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.], gave a good statistical account of attitudinal panel data from the 1992 US presidential election. We show, however, that both models have the defect of underestimating the number of respondents who did not change their order of preference for the candidates across different polls. We present a generalization of Falmagne et al.'s model based on the idea that some individuals may become momentarily impervious to all matters related to the campaign and ‘tune out.’ This behavior could be triggered by some personal reason or by some external event related to the campaign. Like the original model, the resulting model is a random walk, but on an augmented set of states. A respondent in a ‘live’ state behaves as in the previous model, except when receiving a ‘tune-out’ token, which effectively freezes the respondent's preference state until it is reversed by a ‘tune-in’ token. We describe and successfully test the new model on the same 1992 National Election Study panel data as those used by Böckenholt (2002) and Regenwetter et al. (1999).     

Relative salience affects the process of detecting changes in orientation and luminance

This study tests the effect of relative saliency on perceptual comparison and decision processes in the context of change detection in which distinct visual mechanisms process two features (e.g., luminance and orientation). Townsend and Nozawa's (1995) systems factorial technology was used to investigate the process architecture and stopping rule when deciding whether luminance or orientation of a Gabor patch had changed. Experiment 1 found individual differences in decision strategies when we did not control relative saliency. One group of participants adopted co-active processing, and the other group adopted serial self-terminating processing to detect the change signals. When Experiment 2 eliminated the relative saliency, all but one observer adopted parallel processing and followed a self-terminating rule. These results support the relative saliency hypothesis and highlight the fact that observers adopt different change-detection strategies for two features, especially when relative saliency exists between the two feature dimensions.     

Sequential effects in facial expression categorization

Facial expressions are highly dynamic signals that are rarely categorized as static, isolated displays. However, the role of sequential context in facial expression categorization is poorly understood. This study examines the fine temporal structure of expression-based categorization on a trial-to-trial basis as participants categorized a sequence of facial expressions. The results showed that the local sequential context provided by preceding facial expressions could bias the categorical judgments of current facial expressions. Two types of categorization biases were found: (a) Assimilation effects-current expressions were categorized as close to the category of the preceding expressions, and (b) contrast effects-current expressions were categorized as away from the category of the preceding expressions. The effects of such categorization biases were modulated by the relative distance between the preceding and current expressions, as well as by the different experimental contexts, possibly including the factors of face identity and the range effect. Thus, the present study suggests that facial expression categorization is not a static process. Rather, the temporal relation between the preceding and current expressions could inform categorization, revealing a more dynamic and adaptive aspect of facial expression processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).     

Effects of normal and perturbed social play on the duration and amplitude of different types of infant smiles

Different types of smiling varying in amplitude of lip corner retraction were investigated during 2 mother-infant games--peekaboo and tickle--at 6 and 12 months and during normally occurring and perturbed games. Using Facial Action Coding System (FACS), infant smiles were coded as simple (lip corner retraction only), Duchenne (simple plus cheek raising), play (simple plus jaw drop), and duplay (Duchenne plus jaw drop). In addition, again using FACS, the amplitude of lip corner retraction was coded on a 5-point scale. Rather than a single smile expression that differs only in amplitude, the authors found a complex family of different smile expressions differing in their duration and amplitude as a function of game, setup versus climax of the game, and perturbation. Both type of smiling and amplitude of smiling appear to be controlled independently by the infant in relation to the context. These findings reveal systematic and context-specific nuances in infant smiles in the 2nd half of the first year.     

A threshold theory account of psychometric functions with response confidence under the balance condition

The study of thresholds for discriminability has been of long‐standing interest in psychophysics. While threshold theories embrace the concept of discrete‐state thresholds, signal detection theory discounts such a concept. In this paper we concern ourselves with the concept of thresholds from the discrete‐state modelling viewpoint. In doing so, we find it necessary to clarify some fundamental issues germane to the psychometric function (PF), which is customarily constructed using psychophysical methods with a binary‐response format. We challenge this response format and argue that response confidence also plays an important role in the construction of PFs, and thus should have some impact on threshold estimation. We motivate the discussion by adopting a three‐state threshold theory for response confidence proposed by Krantz (1969, Psychol. Rev., 76, 308–324), which is a modification of Luce's (1963, Psychol. Rev., 70, 61–79) low‐threshold theory. In particular, we discuss the case in which the practice of averaging over order (or position) is enforced in data collection. Finally, we illustrate the fit of the Luce–Krantz model to data from a line‐discrimination task with response confidence.     

Effects of numbers of strokes on Chinese character recognition during a normal reading condition

Two experiments investigated recognition during a normal reading condition of Chinese characters which had varied numbers of strokes. In Exp. 1 the minimal legible character size necessary for attaining 95% recognition accuracy for various Chinese characters was empirically determined. The number of strokes comprising the characters ranged from 3 to 27. The results of a normal reading condition indicated that characters with more strokes had to be larger. In Exp. 2, recognition error rate and reading time measured in seconds were investigated for one Chinese character string composed of characters of minimally legible size versus conventional equal-size characters presented in a normal reading condition. Recognition error rates for the minimally legible size conditions were lower than those for the conventional size conditions. The reading times for the former were shorter. These results should provide a valuable reference for designing informational formats, literacy teaching, and the study of simplifying Chinese characters.     

Measurement of auditory cues in drivers' distraction

A driving simulator was used to examine the effects on driving performance of auditory cues in an in-vehicle information search task. Drivers' distraction by the search tasks was measured on a peripheral detection task. The difficulty of the search task was systematically varied to test the distraction caused by a quantified visual load. 58 participants completed the task. Performance on both search tasks and peripheral detection tasks was measured by mean response time and percent error. Analyses indicated that in-vehicle information search performance can be severely degraded when a target is located within a group of diverse distractors. Inclusion of an auditory cue in the visual search increased the mean response time as a result of a change in modality from auditory to visual. Inclusion of such an auditory cue seemed to influence distraction as measured by performance on the peripheral detection task; accuracy was lower when auditory cues were provided, and responses were slower when no auditory cues were provided. Distraction by the auditory cue varied according to the difficulty of the search task.     

The closer the relationship, the more the interaction on facebook? Investigating the case of Taiwan users

This study argues for the necessity of applying offline contexts to social networking site research and the importance of distinguishing the relationship types of users' counterparts when studying Facebook users' behaviors. In an attempt to examine the relationship among users' behaviors, their counterparts' relationship types, and the users' perceived acquaintanceships after using Facebook, this study first investigated users' frequently used tools when interacting with different types of friends. Users tended to use less time- and effort-consuming and less privacy-concerned tools with newly acquired friends. This study further examined users' behaviors in terms of their closeness and intimacy and their perceived acquaintanceships toward four different types of friends. The study found that users gained more perceived acquaintanceships from less close friends with whom users have more frequent interaction but less intimate behaviors. As for closer friends, users tended to use more intimate activities to interact with them. However, these activities did not necessarily occur more frequently than the activities they employed with their less close friends. It was found that perceived acquaintanceships with closer friends were significantly lower than those with less close friends. This implies that Facebook is a mechanism for new friends, rather than close friends, to become more acquainted.     

An Interaction Between the Effects of Bilingualism and Cross-linguistic Similarity in Balanced and Unbalanced Bilingual Adults’ L2 Mandarin Word-Reading Production

We conducted three experiments investigating in more detail the interaction between the two effects of bilingualism and L1–L2 similarity in the speech performance of balanced and unbalanced bilinguals. In Experiment 1, L1 Mandarin monolinguals and two groups of Hakka and Minnan balanced bilinguals (Hakka: more similar to Mandarin) performed a non-contextual single-character reading task in Mandarin, which required more inhibitory control. The two bilingual groups outperformed the monolinguals, regardless of their L1 background. However, the bilingual advantage was not found in a contextual multi-word task (Experiment 2), but instead the effect of cross-linguistic similarity emerged. Furthermore, in Experiment 3, the Hakka unbalanced bilinguals showed an advantage in the non-contextual task, while their Minnan counterparts did not, and the impact of L1–L2 similarity emerged in both tasks. These results unveiled the way the two effects dynamically interplayed depending on the task contexts and the relative degrees of using L1 and L2.