Object-based attention with endogenous cuing and positional certainty

Previous studies have concluded that object-based attention does not always arise if attention is cued endogenously (Macquistan, 1997) or if the target location is known with certainty (Shomstein & Yantis, 2002). In the Experiments reported here, we found object-based attention even when the locations of the two targets were known with certainty due to presentation of an endogenous cue. However, object-based attention can be prevented by limiting the exposure time of the object stimuli. These findings provide additional evidence against a search prioritization account of object-based attention. They lead to a fuller view of the role of object boundaries in directing attention. Object-based attention is frequently used spontaneously, even when the object boundaries are irrelevant to the task. However, object segmentation is not necessary for all tasks, because attention can be allocated before the stimulus has been segregated into objects.     

A proposal for genetically modifying the project of “naturalizing” phenomenology

In this paper, we examine Shaun Gallagher’s project of “naturalizing” phenomenology with the cognitive sciences: front-loaded phenomenology (FLP). While we think it is a productive proposal, we argue that Gallagher does not employ genetic phenomenological methods in his execution of FLP. We show that without such methods, FLP’s attempt to locate neurological correlates of conscious experience is not yet adequate. We demonstrate this by analyzing Gallagher’s critique of cognitive neuropsychologist Christopher Frith’s functional explanation of schizophrenic symptoms. In “constraining” Gallagher’s FLP program, we discuss what genetic phenomenological method is and why FLP ought to embrace it. We also indicate what types of structures a genetically modified FLP will consider, and how such an approach would affect the manner in which potential neurological correlates of conscious experience are conceptually understood and experimentally investigated.

The association of neighborhood poverty with personality change in childhood

The child sample of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (n.d.) was analyzed to examine the relation of undesirable personality change in early childhood to neighborhood economic deprivation. Participants in the survey who had complete data at Time 1 (3-4 years of age) and Time 2 (5-6 years of age) and who remained in the same neighborhood during both time periods were included in the analyses. The results indicated that neighborhood economic disadvantage was associated with undesirable personality change even after controlling for family-level variables such as maternal education, family income, and cognitive and emotional support in the home environment for children. The association of personality change with neighborhood economic deprivation was not mediated by maternal depression, Head Start participation, cognitive and emotional support in the home, or maternal trust in the neighborhood. The authors discuss recommendations for future investigations.     

Predicting athletic performance from cardiovascular indexes of challenge and threat

This study examined the relationship between pre-performance motivational states (challenge vs. threat) and subsequent performance in athletic competition. Prior to the season, college baseball and softball players imagined and gave a speech about a specific baseball/softball playing situation while cardiovascular indexes of challenge and threat were recorded. These physiological challenge/threat indexes significantly predicted athletic performance during the subsequent season, such that players who experienced challenge in the laboratory performed better relative to those who experienced threat. The implications for personnel selection and the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat are discussed.     

A laboratory-based procedure for measuring emotional expression from natural speech

Despite dramatic advances in the sophistication of tools for measuring prosodic and content channels of expression from natural speech, methodological issues have limited the simultaneous measurement of those channels for laboratory research. This is particularly unfortunate, considering the importance of emotional expression in daily living and how it can be disrupted in many psychological disorders (e.g., schizophrenia). The present study examined the Computerized assessment of Affect from Natural Speech (CANS), a laboratory-based procedure that was designed to measure both lexical and prosodic expression from natural speech across a range of evocative conditions. The verbal responses of 38 male and 31 female subjects were digitally recorded as they reacted to separate pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral stimuli. Lexical and prosodic expression variables significantly changed across these conditions, providing support for using the CANS in further laboratory research. The implications for understanding the interface between lexical and prosodic expressions are also discussed.     

On the segmentation of Chinese words during reading

Given that there are no spaces between words in Chinese, how words are segmented when reading is something of a mystery. Four Chinese characters, which either constituted one 4-character word or two 2-character words, were shown briefly to subjects. Subjects were quite accurate in reporting the 4-character word, but could usually only report the first 2-character word, demonstrating that word segmentation influences character recognition. The results suggest that even with these simple 4-character strings, there is an element of seriality in reading Chinese words: processing is initially focused at least to some extent on the first word. We also found that the processing of characters that are not consistent with the context is inhibited, suggesting inhibition from word representations to character representations. A simple model of Chinese word segmentation and word recognition is presented to account for the data.     

Can intuition improve deception detection performance?

Two studies examined the role of processing style (intuitive vs. deliberative processing) in a deception detection task. In the first experiment, a thin slicing manipulation was used to demonstrate that intuitive processing can lead to more accurate judgments of deception when compared with traditional deliberative forms of processing. In the second experiment, participants who engaged in a secondary (concurrent) task performed more accurately in a deception detection task than participants who were asked to provide a verbal rationale for each decision and those in a control condition. Overall, the results converge to suggest that intuitive processing can significantly improve deception detection performance.     

Threat, high self-esteem, and reactive approach-motivation: Electroencephalographic evidence

High self-esteem predicts personal resilience but also predicts zealous and antisocial reactions to various threats, such as, failure, uncertainty, and mortality salience. The present research supports a basic motivational interpretation of high self-esteem that can account for its resilient but also its zealous and antisocial tendencies. An experimentally manipulated uncertainty threat caused participants with high self-esteem to react with heightened Relative Left Frontal (F7/F8) EEG Activity, a common neural marker of resilient approach-motivation. As predicted by past theorizing on offensive defensiveness (McGregor, 2006), the obtained pattern of neural results mirrors the interaction effect of self-esteem and threat on various antisocial defenses. It is accordingly suggested that reactive approach-motivation processes may help provide an integrative account for some of the angry, zealous, proud, risky, ideological, meaning-seeking, and worldview defense reactions to various threats that have been reported in the social psychological literature.     

Neonatal auditory evoked responses are related to perinatal maternal anxiety

Maternal stress and anxiety during pregnancy are related to negative developmental outcomes for offspring, both physiological and psychological, from the fetal period through early adolescence. This robust relationship is likely to be partly explained by alterations in fetal neurodevelopmental programming, calling for further examination of neurophysiologically-based cognitive markers that may be related to the altered structure–function relationships that contribute to these negative developmental outcomes. The current investigation examined the relationship between perinatal maternal anxiety and neonatal auditory evoked responses (AERs) to mother and stranger voices. Results indicated that neonates of low-anxiety mothers displayed more negative frontal slow wave amplitudes in response to their mother’s voice compared to a female stranger’s voice, while neonates of high-anxiety mothers showed the opposite pattern. These findings suggest that neonates of perinatally anxious mothers may demonstrate neurophysiologically-based differences in attentional allocation. This could represent one pathway to the negative psychological outcomes seen throughout development in offspring of anxious mothers.