Establishing the Cross-Situational Convergence of the Ability to Identify Criteria: Consistency and Prediction Across Similar and Dissimilar Assessment Center Exercises

In selection contexts, applicants’ ability to identify criteria (ATIC) refers to individual differences in the accuracy of perceptions with regard to what is required to be successful in evaluative situations. Despite promising findings regarding this construct, the cross-situational consistency necessary to infer that ATIC is a stable characteristic has generally been assessed in situations that have similar demands in terms of the competencies required for success. The purpose of this study was to provide a strong test of the theory underlying the construct by examining convergence in ATIC scores across assessment center (AC) exercises with very different demands. Participants (N?=?173) of a developmental AC completed 6 exercises and made ATIC judgments following the completion of each exercise. These judgments were used to create ATIC scores and to examine the consistency of these scores across exercises with similar and dissimilar demands. Results showed that ATIC scores converged across both similar and dissimilar exercises. Furthermore, participants who shifted their perceptions across dissimilar exercises the most were those who scored high in ATIC, whereas across similar exercises those who scored high in ATIC were those who evaluated the situations more similarly. Overall, ATIC demonstrated strong predictive ability, as it correlated with overall AC performance (r = .40) and predicted performance equally well across pairs of similar and dissimilar exercises.     

An intentional cohesion call in male chimpanzees of Budongo Forest

Animal Cognition - Many social animals travel in cohesive groups but some species, including chimpanzees, form flexible fission–fusion systems where individuals have some control over group...     

The development of a greeting signal in wild chimpanzees

Adult chimpanzees produce a unique vocal signal, the pant-grunt, when encountering higher-ranking group members. The behaviour is typically directed to a specific receiver and has thus been interpreted as a 'greeting' signal. The alpha male obtains a large share of these calls, followed by the other adult males of the group. In this study, we describe the development of pant-grunting behaviour from the first grunt-like calls of newborn babies to the fully developed pant-grunts in adults. Although babies produce grunts from very early on, they are not directed to others until about 2 months of age. Subsequently, socially directed grunting steadily increases in frequency to peak around 7 months of age, but then decreases again to reach a nadir in older infants and juveniles, while the specificity in use increases. During adolescence, grunt production increases again with grunts given most frequently to socially relevant individuals. As young chimpanzees are closely affiliated to their mothers for the first decade of their lives, we also compared the grunting patterns of mothers and their offspring, which revealed some influences in pant-grunt production. In conclusion, the acquisition of pant-grunting behaviour in chimpanzees is a long-lasting process with distinct developmental phases in which social influences by the mother and other group members are likely to play a role.     

Affective dimensions of odor perception: a comparison between Swiss, British, and Singaporean populations

Do affective responses to odors vary as a function of culture? To address this question, we developed two self-report scales in the United Kingdom (Liverpool: LEOS) and in Singapore (city of Singapore: SEOS), following the same procedure as used in the past to develop the Geneva Emotion and Odor Scale (GEOS: Chrea, Grandjean, Delplanque et al., 2009). The final scales were obtained by a three-step reduction of an initial pool of 480 affective terms, retaining only the most relevant terms to describe odor-related subjective affective states and comprised of six (GEOS) or seven affective dimensions (LEOS and SEOS). These included dimensions that were common to the three cultures (Disgust, Happiness Well-being, Sensuality Desire, and Energy), common to the two European samples (Soothing Peacefulness), and dimensions that were culture specific (Sensory Pleasure in Geneva; Nostalgia and Hunger Thirst in Liverpool; Intellectual Stimulation, Spirituality, and Negative Feelings in Singapore). A comparative approach showed that the dimensional organization of odor-related affective terms in a given culture better explained data variability for that culture than data variability for the other cultures, thus highlighting the importance of culture-specific tools in the investigation of odor-related affect.     

Affect bursts: dynamic patterns of facial expression

Affect bursts consist of spontaneous and short emotional expressions in which facial, vocal, and gestural components are highly synchronized. Although the vocal characteristics have been examined in several recent studies, the facial modality remains largely unexplored. This study investigated the facial correlates of affect bursts that expressed five different emotions: anger, fear, sadness, joy, and relief. Detailed analysis of 59 facial actions with the Facial Action Coding System revealed a reasonable degree of emotion differentiation for individual action units (AUs). However, less convergence was shown for specific AU combinations for a limited number of prototypes. Moreover, expression of facial actions peaked in a cumulative-sequential fashion with significant differences in their sequential appearance between emotions. When testing for the classification of facial expressions within a dimensional approach, facial actions differed significantly as a function of the valence and arousal level of the five emotions, thereby allowing further distinction between joy and relief. The findings cast doubt on the existence of fixed patterns of facial responses for each emotion, resulting in unique facial prototypes. Rather, the results suggest that each emotion can be portrayed by several different expressions that share multiple facial actions.     

Muscle coordination and force variability during static and dynamic tracking tasks

This study examined muscular activity patterns of extensor and flexor muscles and variability of forces during static and dynamic tracking tasks using compensatory and pursuit display. Fourteen volunteers performed isometric actions in two conditions: (i) a static tracking task consisting of flexion/pronation, ulnar deviation, extension/supination and radial deviation of the wrist at 20% maximum voluntary contraction (MVC), and (ii) a dynamic tracking task aiming at following a moving target at 20% MVC in the four directions of contraction. Surface electromyography (SEMG) from extensor carpi ulnaris, extensor carpi radialis, flexor carpi ulnaris and flexor digitorum superficialis muscles and exerted forces in the transverse and sagittal plane were recorded. Normalized root mean square and mutual information (index of functional connectivity within muscles) of SEMGs and the standard deviation and sample entropy of force signals were extracted. Larger SEMG amplitudes were found for the dynamic task (p < .05), while normalized mutual information between muscle pairs was larger for the static task (p < .05). Larger size of variability (standard deviation of force) concomitant with smaller sample entropy was observed for the dynamic task compared with the static task (p < .01 for both). These findings underline a rescaling of the muscles’ respective contribution influencing force variability relying on feedback and feed-forward control strategies in relation to display modes during static and dynamic tracking tasks.     

An adaptive-learning approach to affect regulation: strategic influences on evaluative priming

An adaptive cognition approach to evaluative priming is not compatible with the view that the entire process is automatically determined by prime stimulus valence alone. In addition to the evaluative congruity of individual prime-target pairs, an adaptive regulation function should be sensitive to the base rates of positive and negative stimuli as well as to the perceived contingency between prime and target valence. The present study was particularly concerned with pseudocontingent inferences that offer a proxy for the assessment of contingencies from degraded or incomplete stimulus input. As expected, response latencies were shorter for the more prevalent target valence and for evaluatively congruent trials. However, crucially, the congruity effect was eliminated and overridden by pseudocontingencies inferred from the stimulus environment. These strategic inferences were further enhanced when the task called for the evaluation of both prime stimuli and target stimuli.     

"I feel better but I don't know why": the psychology of implicit emotion regulation

Although emotion regulation has traditionally been conceived as a deliberative process, there is growing evidence that many emotion-regulation processes operate at implicit levels. This special issue of Cognition and Emotion showcases recent advances in theorising and empirical research on implicit emotion regulation. Implicit emotion regulation can be broadly defined as any process that operates without the need for conscious supervision or explicit intentions, and aims at modifying the quality, intensity, or duration of an emotional response. Implicit emotion regulation is likely to be pervasive in everyday life and may contribute considerably to the effectiveness of emotion regulation. Research in this area has developed several valid methods for measuring and manipulating implicit emotion. The contributions to this special issue highlight the significance of implicit emotion regulation in psychological adaptation, goal-directed behaviour, interpersonal behaviour, personality functioning, and mental health.     

What you see is what will change: evaluative conditioning effects depend on a focus on valence

This study investigated whether evaluative conditioning (EC) effects depend on an evaluative focus during the learning phase. An EC effect is a valence change of an originally neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus or CS) that is due to the former pairing with a positive or negative stimulus (unconditioned stimulus or US). In three experiments, the task focus during the conditioning phase was manipulated. Participants judged CS-US pairings either with respect to their valence or with respect to another stimulus dimension. EC effects on explicit and implicit measures were found when valence was task relevant but not when the non-valent stimulus dimension was task relevant. Two accounts for the valence focus effect are proposed: (1) An additional direct learning of the relation of CS and evaluative responses in the valence focus condition, or (2) a stronger activation of US valence in the valence focus condition compared to the non-valent focus condition.