Sexual dimorphism of male face shape,partnership status and the temporal context of relationship sought modulate women's preferences for direct gaze

Most previous studies of face preferences have investigated the physical cues that influence face preferences. Far fewer studies have investigated the effects of cues to the direction of others' social interest (i.e. gaze direction) on face preferences. Here we found that unpartnered women demonstrated stronger preferences for direct gaze (indicating social interest) from feminine male faces than from masculine male faces when judging men's attractiveness for long‐term relationships, but not when judging men's attractiveness for short‐term relationships. Moreover, unpartnered women's preferences for direct gaze from feminine men were stronger for long‐term than short‐term relationships, but there was no comparable effect for judgements of masculine men. No such effects were evident among women with romantic partners, potentially reflecting different motivations underlying partnered and unpartnered women's judgements of men's attractiveness. Collectively these findings (1) complement previous findings whereby women demonstrated stronger preferences for feminine men as long‐term than short‐term partners, (2) demonstrate context‐sensitivity in the integration of physical and social cues in face preferences, and (3) suggest that gaze preferences may function, at least in part, to facilitate efficient allocation of mating effort.     

Revisiting the predictive validity of emotional intelligence: self-report versus ability-based measures

In response to general press assertions that training emotionally intelligent children will lead to great rewards, this study examined the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and academic achievement in college students, using both self-report and ability-based measures of EI. Specifically, the Mayer, Salovey, Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT, an ability-based measure) and the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i, a self-report measure) were used to predict academic achievement. Achievement was operationalized as the respondents’ cumulative GPA. Results indicated that EI is not a strong predictor of academic achievement regardless of the type of instrument used to measure it. However, a construct validity examination revealed that the MSCEIT correlated highly with indices of cognitive ability but minimally with personality dimensions. In contrast, the EQ-i failed to correlate with indices of cognitive ability but correlated substantially with numerous personality dimensions.     

A comparison of involuntary autobiographical memory retrievals

This study compared three different ways autobiographical memories are elicited involuntarily: (1) cued by an active goal common to memory and retrieval contexts in combination with sensory information associated with this goal‐directed activity; (2) cued by sensory information that does not relate to goal‐directed activity common to both memory and retrieval contexts; and (3) activated when no identifiable cue present in retrieval context. Two hundred and twenty eight participants recorded details of a single autobiographical memory that resulted naturally from a spontaneous, non‐deliberate retrieval. Nearly all recorded memories described specific events (83%) with very few memories less than 7 days old (8%) and many memories more than 5 years old (44%). No significant differences resulted between the three retrieval types for the age, specificity or prior rehearsal of memories reported. However, the level of attention at retrieval was significantly more diffuse for retrievals without a clearly identifiable cue. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for current models of involuntary autobiographical memory retrieval. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“Aha!” is stronger when preceded by a “huh?”: presentation of a solution affects ratings of aha experience conditional on accuracy

Insight has been investigated under the assumption that participants solve insight problems with insight processes and/or experiences. A recent trend has involved presenting participants with the solution and analysing the resultant experience as if insight has taken place. We examined self-reports of the aha experience, a defining aspect of insight, before and after feedback, along with additional affective components of insight (e.g., pleasure, surprise, impasse). Classic insight problems, compound remote associates, and non-insight problems were randomly interleaved and presented to participants. Solution feedback increased ratings of aha experience in both insight and non-insight problems, with this result being driven by responses to solutions that were initially incorrectly generated. Ratings of aha for correctly generated solutions decreased after the correct solution was presented. These findings have implications for insight research paradigms as well as informing teaching methods.     

Integrating gaze direction and expression in preferences for attractive faces

Few studies have investigated how physical and social facial cues are integrated in the formation of face preferences. Here we show that expression differentially qualifies the strength of attractiveness preferences for faces with direct and averted gaze. For judgments of faces with direct gaze, attractiveness preferences were stronger for smiling faces than for faces with neutral expressions. By contrast, for judgments of faces with averted gaze, attractiveness preferences were stronger for faces with neutral expressions than for smiling faces. Because expressions can differ in meaning depending on whether they are directed toward or away from oneself, it is only by integrating gaze direction, facial expression, and physical attractiveness that one can unambiguously identify the most attractive individuals who are likely to reciprocate one's own social interest.     

Ad hoc category restructuring

Participants learned to classify seemingly arbitrary words into categories that also corresponded to ad hoc categories (see, e.g., Barsalou, 1983). By adapting experimental mechanisms previously used to study knowledge restructuring in perceptual categorization, we provide a novel account of how experimental and preexperimental knowledge interact. Participants were told of the existence of the ad hoc categories either at the beginning or the end of training. When the ad hoc labels were revealed at the end of training, participants switched from categorization based on experimental learning to categorization based on preexperimental knowledge in some, but not all, circumstances. Important mediators of the extent of that switch were the amount of performance error experienced during prior learning and whether or not prior knowledge was in conflict with experimental learning. We present a computational model of the trade-off between preexperimental knowledge and experimental learning that accounts for the main results.     

Prototype-distortion category learning: a two-phase learning process across a distributed network

This paper reviews a body of work conducted in our laboratory that applies functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to better understand the biological response and change that occurs during prototype-distortion learning. We review results from two experiments (Little, Klein, Shobat, McClure, & Thulborn, 2004; Little & Thulborn, 2005) that provide support for increasing neuronal efficiency by way of a two-stage model that includes an initial period of recruitment of tissue across a distributed network that is followed by a period of increasing specialization with decreasing volume across the same network. Across the two studies, participants learned to classify patterns of random-dot distortions (Posner & Keele, 1968) into categories. At four points across this learning process subjects underwent examination by fMRI using a category-matching task. A large-scale network, altered across the protocol, was identified to include the frontal eye fields, both inferior and superior parietal lobules, and visual cortex. As behavioral performance increased, the volume of activation within these regions first increased and later in the protocol decreased. Based on our review of this work we propose that: (i) category learning is reflected as specialization of the same network initially implicated to complete the novel task, and (ii) this network encompasses regions not previously reported to be affected by prototype-distortion learning.     

Female condition influences preferences for sexual dimorphism in faces of male humans (Homo sapiens)

In some species, female condition correlates positively with preferences for male secondary sexual traits. Women's preferences for sexually dimorphic characteristics in male faces (facial masculinity) have recently been reported to covary with self-reported attractiveness. As women's attractiveness has been proposed to signal reproductive condition, the findings in human (Homo sapiens) and other species may reflect similar processes. The current study investigated whether the covariation between condition and preferences for masculinity would generalize to 2 further measures of female attractiveness: other-rated facial attractiveness and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Women with high (unattractive) WHR and/or relatively low other-rated facial attractiveness preferred more "feminine" male faces when choosing faces for a long-term relationship than when choosing for a short-term relationship, possibly reflecting diverse tactics in female mate choice.     

A comparison of subset selection and analysis of covariance for the adjustment of confounders

Two common methods for adjusting group comparisons for differences in the distribution of confounders, namely analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and subset selection, are compared using real examples from neuropsychology, theory, and simulations. ANCOVA has potential pitfalls, but the blanket rejection of the method in some areas of empirical psychology is not justified. Assumptions of the methods are reviewed, with issues of selection bias, nonlinearity, and interaction emphasized. Advantages of ANCOVA include better power, improved ability to detect and estimate interactions, and the availability of extensions to deal with measurement error in the covariates. Forms of ANCOVA are advocated that relax the standard assumption of linearity between the outcome and covariates. Specifically, a version of ANCOVA that models the relationship between the covariate and the outcome through cubic spline with fixed knots outperforms other methods in simulations.