Relationships of smiling and flirtation to aggression and 2D:4D, a prenatal androgen index

Smiling has been reported to be a signal of submission/lower status, or a sign of cooperation. In the present study, use of smiling and flirtation to "make people receptive to my ideas" was conceptualized as mild aggression, since it is mildly manipulative of the perception of others as to one's internal emotional status. For 91 participants (55 female, 36 male), use of smiling and flirtation to make others receptive to one's ideas were associated with relational aggression and a more male-typical (smaller) right 2D:4D finger length ratio. The only significant relationship in the male sample alone was the relationship between smiling and relational aggression. In the female sample alone, use of smiling and flirtation to "make people receptive to my ideas" was associated with a more male-typical 2D:4D finger length ratio pattern, and there was a trend for flirtation to be associated with greater physical aggression. Both 2D:4D and physical aggression have been associated with higher prenatal androgen level. It is concluded that deliberate smiling and flirtation are mild forms of relational aggression, and are related to prenatal androgenic activity in a manner similar to physical aggression. These findings are discussed in terms of the different evolutionary strategies of men and women to control their social environments.     

Tampering with Tradition: Rationales Concerning Women��s Married Names and Children��s Surnames

Despite advances in gender equality in recent decades, the majority of women continue to change their names upon marriage and parents overwhelmingly opt to give children the father??s surname. In two correlational studies, both involving undergraduate samples from Toronto, Canada, we examined gender differences in naming preferences and in justifications underlying a traditional name choice. Men were more likely to prefer traditional choices in both women??s married names (Study 1; N?=?68) and children??s surnames (Study 2; N?=?63), and were also more likely to endorse most potential rationales for these choices. Traditional choices were associated with such factors as concern regarding family dynamics, whereas nontraditional choices were associated with such factors as a desire to increase gender equality.     

Maternal attributions and young children's conduct problems: a longitudinal study

The association between negative maternal attributions and child conduct problems is well established in correlational studies. However, little is known about how these variables influence each other over time. The present study examined patterns of prediction over time between maternal attributions and pre‐school conduct problems. Sixty mothers and their 3‐year‐old children with a range of levels of conduct problems were interviewed when the child was just 3, and then again when the child was just 4. Childhood conduct problems were assessed using the parental account of childhood symptoms and parental attributions were assessed using a modification of Walker's Parental Attribution Questionnaire. Results indicate that even as young as age 3, child conduct problems are associated with negative maternal attributions. In longitudinal analyses, children's conduct problems at age 3 predicted mothers' attributions at age 4, but mothers' attributions did not predict children's conduct problems over the same time period. The data are consistent with the notion that negative attributions may be a result, rather than a cause, of having a difficult‐to‐manage child. This has implications for current proposed mechanisms that link maternal attributions and child conduct problems, and thus for interventions for these problems. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Long-term effects of covert face recognition

Covert face recognition has previously been thought to produce only very short-lasting effects. In this study we demonstrate that manipulating subjects' attentional load affects explicit, but not implicit memory for faces, and that implicit effects can persist over much longer intervals than is normally reported. Subjects performed letter-string tasks of high vs. low perceptual load (Lavie, N. (1995). Perceptual load as a necessary condition for selective attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfomance. 21, 451-468.), while ignoring task-irrelevant celebrity faces. Memory for the faces was then assessed using (a) a surprise recognition test for the celebrities' names, and (b) repetition priming in a face familiarity task. The load manipulation strongly influenced explicit recognition memory, but had no effect on repetition priming from the same items. Moreover, faces from the high load condition produced the same amount of priming whether they were explicitly remembered or not. This result resolves a long-standing anomaly in the face recognition literature, and is discussed in relation to covert processing in prosopagnosia.     

Making a life worth living: neural correlates of well-being

Despite the vast literature that has implicated asymmetric activation of the prefrontal cortex in approach-withdrawal motivation and emotion, no published reports have directly explored the neural correlates of well-being. Eighty-four right-handed adults (ages 57-60) completed self-report measures of eudaimonic well-being, hedonic well-being, and positive affect prior to resting electroencephalography. As hypothesized, greater left than right superior frontal activation was associated with higher levels of both forms of well-being. Hemisphere-specific analyses documented the importance of goal-directed approach tendencies beyond those captured by approach-related positive affect for eudaimonic but not for hedonic well-being. Appropriately engaging sources of appetitive motivation, characteristic of higher left than right baseline levels of prefrontal activation, may encourage the experience of well-being.     

Effects of subphonetic and syllable structure variation on word recognition

This study explored whether natural acoustic variations as exemplified by either subphonetic changes or syllable structure changes affect word recognition processes. Subphonetic variations were realized by differences in the voice-onset time (VOT) value of initial voiceless stop consonants, and syllable structure variations were realized by vowel deletion in initial unstressed syllables in multisyllable words. An auditory identity priming paradigm was used to determine whether the amount of facilitation obtained to a target stimulus in a lexical decision task was affected by the presence of these acoustic variations in a prime stimulus. Results revealed different patterns for the two types of variability as a function of lexical status. In the case of subphonetic variations, shortening of VOT resulted in reduced facilitation for words but not for nonwords, whereas in the case of syllable structure variation, vowel deletion in an unstressed syllable resulted in reduced facilitation for nonwords and increased facilitation for words. These findings indicate that subphonetic variability interferes with word recognition, whereas syllable structure variability does not, and that this effect is independent of the magnitude of the acoustic difference between a citation form and its variant. Furthermore, the results suggest that the lexical status of the target item plays a crucial role in the processing of both types of variability. Results are considered in relation to current models of word recognition.     

The role of the sound of tapping for nonvisual judgment of gap crossability

The author investigated the possibility that nonvisual locomotion with a cane depends on the sound of the cane tapping. Blindfolded participants were asked to judge whether a gap in front of them could be crossed by walking. An acoustic analysis suggested that sound could, in theory, distinguish the gaps. Blindfolded sighted participants in Experiments 1 and 2 judged crossability under conditions in which only the sound of tapping was available and in which the sound was minimized; the third and fourth experiments included experienced cane users. Both inexperienced observers and experienced cane users were unaffected by sound reduction and were less able to discriminate gaps when using sound only than when using reduced sound. A fifth experiment indicated that active-passive differences were not responsible for these effects. Results indicate that sound is not necessary or sufficient for judging nonvisible crossability with a probe.     

Informational models and their uses

An analysis of the selection and use of informational models in psychological research is undertaken. The axioms of different informational models are presented together with the deductions which have direct empirical application. The models are used to demonstrate many of the inadequacies and inaccuracies involved in the use of information theory in the psychological literature. It is also shown that certain related conceptual ambiguities are understandable in terms of confusions among various models.Most of this article was written while the senior author was summer consultant to the System Development Corporation.     

Meet The Simpsons: top-down effects in face learning

We examined whether prior knowledge of a person affects the visual processes involved in learning a face. In two experiments, subjects were taught to associate human faces with characters they knew (from the TV show The Simpsons) or characters they did not (novel names). In each experiment, knowledge of the character predicted performance in a recognition memory test, relying only on old/new confidence ratings. In experiment 1, we established the technique and showed that there is a face-learning advantage for known people, even when face items are counterbalanced for familiarity across the experiment. In experiment 2 we replicated the effect in a setting which discouraged subjects from attending more to known than unknown people, and eliminated any visual association between face stimuli and a character from The Simpsons. We conclude that prior knowledge about a person can enhance learning of a new face.     

Forgiveness,forbearance, and time: the temporal unfolding of transgression-related interpersonal motivations

The investigators proposed that transgression-related interpersonal motivations result from 3 psychological parameters: forbearance (abstinence from avoidance and revenge motivations, and maintenance of benevolence), trend forgiveness (reductions in avoidance and revenge, and increases in benevolence), and temporary forgiveness (transient reductions in avoidance and revenge, and transient increases in benevolence). In 2 studies, the investigators examined this 3-parameter model. Initial ratings of transgression severity and empathy were directly related to forbearance but not trend forgiveness. Initial responsibility attributions were inversely related to forbearance but directly related to trend forgiveness. When people experienced high empathy and low responsibility attributions, they also tended to experience temporary forgiveness. The distinctiveness of each of these 3 parameters underscores the importance of studying forgiveness temporally.