Cuing the dimension of a distractor: Verbal cues of target identity also benefit same-dimension distractor singletons

Cuing the identity of an upcoming target speeds its detection. This effect is generally assumed to operate on the level of the target dimension, not of its feature identity. Here, we investigated whether that is the case, in a design in which preparing for a cued dimension would incur costs as well as benefits. Participants searched for targets that could be defined on several dimensions, but were also presented with distractors that were defined on the same dimensions. Cuing the identity of an upcoming target increased the effect of distractors defined on the same dimension as the target. This suggests that cuing a target’s identity has effects that operate at least partly at the level of the target dimension.     

Incarcerated adolescent girls: personality, social competence, and delinquency

The aim of this study was to gain greater insight into the relationship of delinquency to personality and social competence in incarcerated girls. It was hypothesized that agreeableness and conscientiousness would correlate negatively with delinquency, and that the sensation-seeking aspect of extroversion would correlate positively. Two theoretical views were used to predict the relationship between social competence and delinquency: (a) delinquency as an expression of lack of social competence (i.e., social deficit), and (b) delinquency as socially competent and rationally analyzed behavior. The first view implies a negative correlation between delinquency and social competence, while the second indicates a positive one. The participants were thirty-three 12- to 18-year-old incarcerated girls. An adaptation of the Self-Reported Delinquency Scale was used for measuring delinquency; personality was measured using the Five-Factor Personality Inventory; and the Scale for Interpersonal Behavior was used to measure social competence. Agreeableness was not found to correlate with the overall delinquency score or with any specific type of delinquency or crime. The more crimes the girls reported, the less conscientious they were, and the more neurotic and open they were. The correlation between delinquency and extroversion was not statistically significant. A higher level of delinquency was accompanied by higher social competence when negative self-assertion was required (i.e., a low level of tension was felt in expressing negative feelings that were appropriate to the situation). In other social situations, however, the girls reported more situation-inappropriate feelings of tension. It was concluded that some personality factors and aspects of social competence can predict delinquency.     

How Does More Attention to Subjective Well-Being Affect Subjective Well-Being?

There is an ongoing debate as to whether pursuing happiness is beneficial for people’s subjective well-being (SWB). To address this question, we tested whether attention to SWB – measured by participation in SWB surveys – is related to experienced SWB in two longitudinal studies. The initial study was conducted from November to December 2013 (N?=?129), and the replication study, three years later from November to December 2016 (N?=?120). The studies include two groups: one group (the control group) answered three SWB surveys over 4 weeks, and the other group (the experimental group) followed the same procedure but additionally tracked their SWB in detail using the experience sampling method four times a day and the day reconstruction method once a day using a smartphone application for two weeks to heighten their attention to their SWB. Both studies show higher SWB scores at later measurements compared to the first ones.     

Minimax d-optimal designs for item response theory models

Various different item response theory (IRT) models can be used in educational and psychological measurement to analyze test data. One of the major drawbacks of these models is that efficient parameter estimation can only be achieved with very large data sets. Therefore, it is often worthwhile to search for designs of the test data that in some way will optimize the parameter estimates. The results from the statistical theory on optimal design can be applied for efficient estimation of the parameters.A major problem in finding an optimal design for IRT models is that the designs are only optimal for a given set of parameters, that is, they are locally optimal. Locally optimal designs can be constructed with a sequential design procedure. In this paper minimax designs are proposed for IRT models to overcome the problem of local optimality. Minimax designs are compared to sequentially constructed designs for the two parameter logistic model and the results show that minimax design can be nearly as efficient as sequentially constructed designs.     

Intergroup emotions and gateway groups: Introducing multiple social identities into the study of emotions in conflict

After 2 decades of extensive empirical studies on affective intergroup processes, it is now clear that emotional processes play a critical role in the dynamics of intergroup conflict. However, it seems that much of the research in this domain views intergroup relations in a dichotomous manner of pure in‐groups and out‐groups despite the developments in the realm of social identity that suggest otherwise. We here suggest that the incorporation of more complex social identity models into the study of affective social science can not only help to better understand intergroup conflict dynamics but can also offer new possible venues for conflict resolution. Specifically, we claim that the presence of groups with multiple identities, which include both the in‐group's and the out‐group's identity (e.g., biracial groups that encompass both a White and a Black social identity) can impact intergroup emotional processes between the different groups comprising those multiple identities (e.g., between Whites and Blacks). Accordingly, we review recent developments in the literatures of emotion in intergroup conflict and multiple social identity and offer a conceptual integration of the two. Thus, we attempt to enrich the theory in both fields, better explain intergroup conflict, and possibly pave the way for the development of novel conflict resolution methods.     

Object files across eye movements: Previous fixations affect the latencies of corrective saccades

One of the factors contributing to a seamless visual experience is object correspondence—that is, the integration of pre- and postsaccadic visual object information into one representation. Previous research had suggested that before the execution of a saccade, a target object is loaded into visual working memory and subsequently is used to locate the target object after the saccade. Until now, studies on object correspondence have not taken previous fixations into account. In the present study, we investigated the influence of previously fixated information on object correspondence. To this end, we adapted a gaze correction paradigm in which a saccade was executed toward either a previously fixated or a novel target. During the saccade, the stimuli were displaced such that the participant’s gaze landed between the target stimulus and a distractor. Participants then executed a corrective saccade to the target. The results indicated that these corrective saccades had lower latencies toward previously fixated than toward nonfixated targets, indicating object-specific facilitation. In two follow-up experiments, we showed that presaccadic spatial and object (surface feature) information can contribute separately to the execution of a corrective saccade, as well as in conjunction. Whereas the execution of a corrective saccade to a previously fixated target object at a previously fixated location is slowed down (i.e., inhibition of return), corrective saccades toward either a previously fixated target object or a previously fixated location are facilitated. We concluded that corrective saccades are executed on the basis of object files rather than of unintegrated feature information.     

On the emergence of deprivation-reducing behaviors: Subliminal priming of behavior representations turns deprivation into motivation

Building on recent research into the emergence of human motivation and goal pursuit in the absence of the conscious awareness of the source of this pursuit, the present article aimed to shed light on how states of deprivation (e.g., deprivation of fluid) actually produce the motivation and corresponding behavior that lifts the deprivation. Two studies established that when participants were relatively deprived of fluids, they experienced enhanced motivation to drink and consumed more fluid in an alleged tasting test, and these effects were more pronounced when the concept of drinking was rendered accessible by subliminal priming. These results suggest that specific motivational goal states and corresponding behaviors do not arise directly from deprivation per se, but that accessible goal-related cognitions play a role in this process. Implications for theory and research on deprivation and non-conscious goal pursuit are briefly discussed.     

Effects of prime-target spatial separation and attentional deployment on masked repetition priming

In two masked repetition priming experiments with letter stimuli, the positions of prime and target stimuli were varied horizontally from fixation. Priming effects did not interact with position when prime and target location covaried (Experiment 1A) but diminished with increasing prime eccentricity when targets were always centrally located (Experiment 1B). Two accounts of this pattern of priming effects were proposed that postulate two different mechanisms over and above effects of visual acuity. The integration account postulates degree of separation of prime and target stimuli as the critical factor, and the attentional account postulates spatial attention as the critical factor. The results of Experiment 2, in which prime and target positions were manipulated orthogonally, were in favor of the attentional account. Repetition priming did not vary as a function of whether or not primes and targets appeared at the same location, but target processing was facilitated independently of priming when targets appeared at the same location as primes, especially in the right visual field.     

The effects of a task-irrelevant visual event on spatial working memory

In the present experiment, we investigated whether the memory of a location is affected by the occurrence of an irrelevant visual event. Participants had to memorize the location of a dot. During the retention interval, a task-irrelevant stimulus was presented with abrupt onset somewhere in the visual field. Results showed that the spatial memory representation was affected by the occurrence of the external irrelevant event relative to a control condition in which there was no external event. Specifically, the memorized location was shifted toward the location of the task-irrelevant stimulus. This effect was only present when the onset was close in space to the memory representation. These findings suggest that the “internal” spatial map used for keeping a location in spatial working memory and the “external” spatial map that is affected by exogenous events in the outside world are either the same or tightly linked.