Unconscious priming according to multiple S-R rules

The present study investigated if unconscious primes can be processed according to different stimulus-response (S-R) rules simultaneously. Participants performed two different S-R rules, such as judging a digit as smaller or larger than five and judging a letter as vowel or consonant. These S-R rules were administered in random order and announced by a previously presented cue. Each target stimulus was preceded by subliminal primes which afforded a different or an identical response according to either the currently irrelevant or currently relevant S-R rule. In three experiments, we consistently found priming effects according to currently irrelevant S-R rules, even when primes for the relevant and irrelevant S-R rules were presented simultaneously. Thus, unconscious stimuli have the power to activate responses according to currently required and currently not required S-R rules concurrently. The results are in line with response activation accounts of subliminal priming and suggest that at least two routes may gain access on response processes simultaneously.     

Externalizing symptoms among children of alcoholic parents: Entry points for an antisocial pathway to alcoholism

The authors examined heterogeneity in risk for externalizing symptoms in children of alcoholic parents, as it may inform the search for entry points into an antisocial pathway to alcoholism. That is, they tested whether the number of alcoholic parents in a family, the comorbid subtype of parental alcoholism, and the gender of the child predicted trajectories of externalizing symptoms over the early life course, as assessed in high-risk samples of children of alcoholic parents and matched controls. Through integrative analyses of 2 independent, longitudinal studies, they showed that children with either an antisocial alcoholic parent or 2 alcoholic parents were at greatest risk for externalizing symptoms. Moreover, children with a depressed alcoholic parent did not differ from those with an antisocial alcoholic parent in reported symptoms. These findings were generally consistent across mother, father, and adolescent reports of symptoms; child gender and child age (ages 2 through 17); and the 2 independent studies examined. Multialcoholic and comorbid-alcoholic families may thus convey a genetic susceptibility to dysregulation along with environments that both exacerbate this susceptibility and provide few supports to offset it.     

Liking persons versus liking groups: a dual-process hypothesis

Most research on liking of persons and groups has been conducted within separate paradigms, but the implicit assumption has been that the same processes govern judgments of liking or disliking regardless of the nature of the target. Departing from this assumption, we suggest a dual-process hypothesis according to which people base their liking of a target person primarily on the desirability of the person's characteristics, whereas they base their liking of a group primarily on the degree of similarity between the group and themselves. To test this hypothesis, participants were presented with either positively or negatively valenced sketches that either described an individual person or a group of people. Path analyses revealed that liking of a person was best predicted by desirability ratings, whereas liking of a group was best predicted by similarity ratings. Implications of these findings for stereotype maintenance are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Learning in honey bees with brain lesions: how partial mushroom-body ablations affect sucrose responsiveness and tactile antennal learning

Honey bees are ideal organisms for studying associative learning, because they can rapidly learn different sensory cues, even under laboratory conditions. Classical olfactory learning experiments have shown that the mushroom bodies (MBs), a prominent neuropil of the central nervous system of the bee, are involved in olfactory learning and memory formation. We tested whether the MBs are also involved in tactile antennal learning. As in olfactory learning, bees use the antennae during tactile learning to sense tactile cues. We produced specific MB ablations by applying the mitotic blocker hydroxyurea (HU). In Drosophila, HU-induced brain lesions of the MBs strongly impaired olfactory memory formation. As treatment with HU might also interfere with the processing of the reward stimulus, sucrose, we measured the responsiveness to sucrose stimuli in these bees. Treatment with HU led to partial ablations of the median MB sub-units on one or both sides of the brain. We analysed side-specific effects in double-blind tests, testing sucrose responsiveness separately for each antenna, and conditioning first one antenna and then the other in a reversal learning assay. HU-treated bees without detectable ablations were less responsive to sucrose and had a poorer learning performance than untreated controls. Partial MB ablation did not additionally affect responsiveness to sucrose or tactile antennal learning. Interestingly, bees with bilateral MB ablations did not differ from untreated controls in their learning performance during the first learning phase. During reversal learning, acquisition in these bees was significantly lower than that in untreated controls. It is concluded that HU treatment affects sucrose responsiveness and tactile learning even without detectable ablation of neuropils. The effects of MB ablations on tactile learning are not side-specific and not correlated with the volume of the ablated neuropil. Accepted after revision: 15 January 2001 ❚ Electronic Publication     

When views about alternative medicine,nature and god come in the way of people's vaccination intentions

In spite of the safety and efficiency of the COVID-19 vaccines and the many promotion efforts of political and expert authorities, a fair portion of the population remained hesitant if not opposed to vaccination. Public debate and the available literature point to the possible role of people's attitudes towards medical institutions as well as their preference for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) on their motivations and intentions to be vaccinated. Other potential ideological factors are beliefs about environmental laissez-faire and divine providence insofar as they encourage people to let the pandemic unfold without human interference. In three cross-sectional samples (total N = 8214), collected at successive moments during the Belgian vaccination campaign, the present research examines the distal role of these psychological and ideological factors on vaccination intentions via motivational processes. Study 1 gauges the relation between trust in medical institutions and preference for CAM on intentions to get vaccinated via motivations. Study 2 examined the role of beliefs in the desirability of letting nature take its course (‘environmental laissez-faire beliefs’) on vaccination intention via motivations. Study 3 tests whether people's adherence to environmental laissez-faire and beliefs about divine providence are linked to their motivations for vaccination via trust in the medical institutions and CAM. Results show that adherence to CAM has a deleterious effect on vaccination intentions, whereas trust in medical institutions has a positive effect. Both ideological factors pertaining to external control are only moderately related, with environmental laissez-faire beliefs having stronger effects on CAM, medical trust and vaccination motivations. We discuss the importance of this set of results in light of the growing interest in CAM and the increasing presence of messages appealing to the environment.     

Middle ground on liability for costs?

Philosophical Studies - On the strict liability view, excusably ignorant agents must cover all the wrongful costs they have inadvertently brought onto others, although it is undisputed that they...