The virtual haptic display: A device for exploring 2-D virtual shapes in the tactile modality

In order to understand better the processes involved in the perception of shape through touch, someelement of control is required over the nature of the shape presented to the hand and the presentation timing. To that end, we have developed a cost-effective, computer-controlled apparatus for presenting haptic stimuli using active touch, known as a virtual haptic display (VHD). The operational principle behind this device is that it translates black and white visual images into topographic, 2-D taxel (tactile pixel) arrays, along the same principle using in Braille letters. These taxels are either elevated or depressed at any one time representing white and black pixel colors of the visual image, respectively. To feel the taxels, the participant places their fingers onto a carriage which can be moved over the surface of the device to reveal a virtual shape. We conducted two experiments and the results show that untrained participants are able to recognize different, simple and complex, shapes using this apparatus. The VHD apparatus is therefore ideal at presenting 2-Dshapes through touch alone. Moreover,this device and its supporting software can also be used for presenting computer-controlled stimuli in cross-modal experiments.     

Who benefits the most? Teacher expectations and their relation with students’ achievement in mathematics in primary school

Over the past 50 years, many studies have investigated the impact of teacher expectations on student achievement and indicated small to moderate effects. Currently, it is still unclear which student-related factors (e.g. socioeconomic status, or gender) moderate the expectation effect. There is still a need to gain a better understanding of the relation between teacher expectations and students' characteristics. The present study aims to examine the accuracy of teacher expectations as well as student-related moderators of the expectation effects on students' achievement. The analyses are based on data from a longitudinal study including 28 primary school teachers and their students (N = 509). The results show that high expectations of teachers correlated positively with student achievement in mathematics, although no significant moderating effects were found. These findings strengthen the importance of ensuring high teacher expectations for all students.     

Development of the Behavioral Evaluation of Disorders of Sleep Scale

We describe the development, preliminary psychometric properties, and cross-validation of the Behavioral Evaluation of Disorders of Sleep (BEDS: Schreck 1997/1998). Parental reports of problem sleep behavior in elementary school aged children 5 years to 12 years were collected for two samples. With the first sample, an exploratory factor analysis of parental responses (N = 307) resulted in reports of five distinct types of sleep problems: Expressive Sleep Disturbances; Sensitivity to the Environment; Disoriented Awakening; Sleep Facilitators; and Apnea/Bruxism. Four of these factors (Expressive Sleep Disturbances; Sensitivity to the Environment; Disoriented Awakening; and Apnea) were confirmed with the new participant sample (N = 1054). These factors of problem sleep behavior were similar to findings in other studies, with the exception of the exclusion of bedtime behavior problems.     

Sales profession and professionals in the age of digitization and artificial intelligence technologies: concepts,priorities, and questions

Recognizing the rapid advances in sales digitization and artificial intelligence technologies, we develop concepts, priorities, and questions to help guide future research and practice in the field of personal selling and sales management. Our analysis reveals that the influence of sales digitalization technologies, which include digitization and artificial intelligence, is likely to be more significant and more far reaching than previous sales technologies. To organize our analysis of this influence, we discuss the opportunities and threats that sales digitalization technologies pose for (a) the sales profession in terms of its contribution to creating value for customers, organizations, and society and (b) sales professionals, in terms of both employees in organizations and individuals as self, seeking growth, fulfillment, and status in the functions they serve and roles they live. We summarize our discussion by detailing specific research priorities and questions that warrant further study and development by researchers and practitioners alike.     

The Role of Inference in Attribute Framing Effects

Previous research has shown that a speaker's choice between logically equivalent frames is influenced by reference point information, and that listeners draw accurate inferences based on the frame. Less clear, however, is whether these inferences play a causal role in generating attribute framing effects. Two experiments are reported, which suggest that frame‐dependent inferences are sufficient to generate attribute framing effects, and that blocking such inferences may block framing effects. Experiment 1 decomposed the typical framing design into two parts: One group of participants saw a target described in one of two attribute frames and reported their estimates (inferences) of the typical attribute value. These estimates were then given to a second group of yoked participants, who evaluated the target. Although this latter group was not exposed to different attribute frames, they nevertheless exhibited a “framing effect” as a result of receiving systematically different inferences. In contrast, Experiment 2 shows that experts—who are familiar with an attribute's distribution and are therefore less likely to draw strong frame‐based inferences—exhibit a diminished framing effect. Together, these findings underscore the role of inferences in the generation and attenuation of attribute framing effects. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Expertise on the Hindsight Bias

We present data from three experiments examining the effects of objective and subjective expertise on the hindsight bias. In Experiment 1, participants read an essay about baseball or dogs and then answered questions about the baseball essay to the best of their ability, as if they had not read the essay, or to the best of their ability, although they read about dogs. Participants also completed a quiz about baseball rules and terminology, which was an objective measure of expertise. Results demonstrated that as participants' baseball expertise increased, their inability to act as if they never read the essay also increased; expertise exacerbated the hindsight bias. To test the effects of subjective expertise on hindsight bias and investigate factors underlying the relationship, participants in Experiment 2 ranked five topics in order of expertise and gave feeling‐of‐knowing (FOK) ratings for questions from these topics. Foresight participants then saw each question again and answered the questions; hindsight participants saw the questions and answers and gave the probability they would have known the answers had they not been provided. Hindsight bias increased with subjective expertise as did average FOK ratings. In Experiment 3, we experimentally manipulated perceived expertise but found that neither average FOK ratings nor hindsight bias was affected by experimentally induced expertise. Taken together, the results demonstrate that expertise exacerbates both objective and subjective hindsight bias but that an FOK, which likely exists only when expertise is naturally acquired, is necessary to engender the detrimental effect of expertise on the hindsight bias. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lost in space: multisensory conflict yields adaptation in spatial representations across frames of reference

According to embodied cognition, bodily interactions with our environment shape the perception and representation of our body and the surrounding space, that is, peripersonal space. To investigate the adaptive nature of these spatial representations, we introduced a multisensory conflict between vision and proprioception in an immersive virtual reality. During individual bimanual interaction trials, we gradually shifted the visual hand representation. As a result, participants unknowingly shifted their actual hands to compensate for the visual shift. We then measured the adaptation to the invoked multisensory conflict by means of a self-localization and an external localization task. While effects of the conflict were observed in both tasks, the effects systematically interacted with the type of localization task and the available visual information while performing the localization task (i.e., the visibility of the virtual hands). The results imply that the localization of one’s own hands is based on a multisensory integration process, which is modulated by the saliency of the currently most relevant sensory modality and the involved frame of reference. Moreover, the results suggest that our brain strives for consistency between its body and spatial estimates, thereby adapting multiple, related frames of reference, and the spatial estimates within, due to a sensory conflict in one of them.