Performance monitoring and the causal attribution of errors

The present study investigated the role of causal attribution for performance monitoring in the medial frontal cortex. To this end, we compared internally and externally-caused errors in a selective attention task with respect to error-related EEG activity and error-induced adjustments of speed and attentional selectivity. Both error types evoked early negativities and later positivities in the response-locked event-related potential. However, whereas internally-caused errors caused posterror slowing, externally-caused errors were followed by reduced attentional selectivity. Moreover, the amount of reduced attentional selectivity was related to the amplitude of the early negativity on externally-caused errors. This suggests that posterror adjustments are initiated on the basis of perceived causality and, thus, causal attribution of errors.     

Smiling in newborns during communicative wake and active sleep

Many studies have investigated infant smiling behaviour during wake and active sleep. In the majority of studies authors agreed that two month-old infants exhibit social smiles. However it is not clear if newborns exhibit different kinds of smiles during wake and active sleep to two month-old infants and if the communicative context can affect the quantity and quality of these smiles.The aim of this study was to test if different kinds of communication affects the amount and the quality of smiles during different behavioural states.Smiling behaviour was analyzed during interactive wake (IW) and active sleep (AS), in 40 newborns randomly assigned to 4 groups of 10 newborns each: continuous tactile communication group, discontinuous non periodic tactile communication group, discontinuous periodic tactile communication group, absent communication group. In the total sample the open/closed mouth (social/non social) smiles ratio was 38/5 during IW and 1/28 during AS (p < .001). Moreover these ratios were different between the four groups.Different kinds of tactile communication affect amount and quality of the smiles of newborns during IW and AS. Moreover the morphological difference of the smiles during IW and AS suggested that for newborns the smiling behaviour during IW could have a social meaning, as it does for two month-old infants.     

Automatic activation of individual differences: A test of the gatekeeper model in the domain of spontaneous helping

The influence of stable individual differences on behaviour need not solely rely upon deliberative processes but can also be exerted through automatic associative processes. In this contribution, three studies that illustrate the role of individual differences in automaticity are presented in the domain of helping behaviour. The first study provides evidence both for a double dissociation and for an additive pattern of implicit and explicit measures in predicting relevant altruistic behaviours. The subsequent two studies show that when the concept of altruism is subliminally primed, individual differences in implicit attitudes significantly predict behaviour. The results are in line with the gatekeeper model, and their implications are discussed focusing on the key role of individual differences in modulating automaticity effects. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interactions between perceptual and numerical space

Interactions between numbers and space have become a major issue in numerical cognition. Neuropsychological studies suggest that the interactions occur, before response selection, at a spatially organized representation of numbers (the mental number line). Reaction time (RT) studies, on the other hand, usually point to associations between response codes that do not necessarily imply a number line. There is only one such study that has found a spationumerical interaction between perception and semantics (SNIPS) effect before response selection. Here, in Experiment 1, we isolated the SNIPS effect from other numerical effects and corroborated the prediction that it can be induced by both left and right spatial cues. In Experiment 2, we isolated the peak of the time course of the SNIPS effect and corroborated the prediction that it occurs when a cue follows a target, and not when both appear simultaneously. The results reconcile neuropsychological and RT studies and support the hypothesis that numbers are represented along a left-to-right spatially organized mental number line. [corrected]     

Investigating word class effects in first and second languages

According to Zyzik in 2009, only a few recent studies have investigated similarities in use of words in comprehension of first languages (L1) and second languages (L2). Furtner, Rauthmann, and Sachse showed a rank order of word classes by frequency of eye-gaze regression when reading other difficult words: nouns, adjectives, closed-class words, verbs. The hypothesis was that a L1-L2 word-class similarity effect between German (L1) and English (L2) would occur, and this was tested with jumbled word reading of English text (wherein letters within words Shave been jumbled) and eye-tracking by 141 participants. Analyses of regressive fixations from one word class to others showed that nouns were regressed most often and there was a rank order of importance among the word classes apparently used to enhance comprehension of other difficult words (nouns, adjectives, verbs, dosed-class words). Thus, previous findings for L1 were largely replicated. Findings are discussed regarding language acquisition.     

Eye movements during mental rotation of nonmirrored and mirrored three-dimensional abstract objects

Eye movements were recorded while participants (N = 56) rotated mirrored and nonmirrored abstract, three-dimensional object pairs into different orientations to assess whether there were oculomotoric differences in fixation switches between mirrored and nonmirrored objects and how an object's plane and depth angle affected visual processing. Compared to other studies, especially depth rotation tasks were responsible for a difference in the sum of fixation switches. This difference seemed to be caused by an increase in incongruent fixation switches, while congruent ones remained stable. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.     

Young children enforce social norms selectively depending on the violator's group affiliation

To become cooperative members of their cultural groups, developing children must follow their group's social norms. But young children are not just blind norm followers, they are also active norm enforcers, for example, protesting and correcting when someone plays a conventional game the "wrong" way. In two studies, we asked whether young children enforce social norms on all people equally, or only on ingroup members who presumably know and respect the norm. We looked at both moral norms involving harm and conventional game norms involving rule violations. Three-year-old children actively protested violation of moral norms equally for ingroup and outgroup individuals, but they enforced conventional game norms for ingroup members only. Despite their ingroup favoritism, young children nevertheless hold ingroup members to standards whose violation they tolerate from outsiders.     

Linear mapping of numbers onto space requires attention

Mapping of number onto space is fundamental to mathematics and measurement. Previous research suggests that while typical adults with mathematical schooling map numbers veridically onto a linear scale, pre-school children and adults without formal mathematics training, as well as individuals with dyscalculia, show strong compressive, logarithmic-like non-linearities when mapping both symbolic and non-symbolic numbers onto the numberline. Here we show that the use of the linear scale is dependent on attentional resources. We asked typical adults to position clouds of dots on a numberline of various lengths. In agreement with previous research, they did so veridically under normal conditions, but when asked to perform a concurrent attentionally-demanding conjunction task, the mapping followed a compressive, non-linear function. We model the non-linearity both by the commonly assumed logarithmic transform, and also with a Bayesian model of central tendency. These results suggest that veridical representation numerosity requires attentional mechanisms.