The colour of Os: naturally biased associations between shape and colour

Many letters of the alphabet are consistently mapped to specific colours by English-speaking adults, both in the general population and in individuals with grapheme-colour synaesthesia who perceive letters in colour. Such associations may be naturally biased by intrinsic sensory cortical organisation, or may be based in literacy (eg 'A' is for 'apple', apples are red; therefore A is red). To distinguish these two hypotheses, we tested pre-literate children in three experiments and compared their results to those of literate children (aged 7-9 years) and adults. The results indicate that some colour letter mappings (O white, X black) are naturally biased by the shape of the letter, whereas others (A red, G green) may be based in literacy. They suggest that sensory cortical organisation initially binds colour to some shapes, and that learning to read can induce additional associations, likely through the influence of higher-order networks as letters take on meaning.     

The effect of coaching interviewees on subsequent interview performance in structured experience‐based interviews

This study investigated the effect of coaching interviewees on subsequent interview performance within a structured experience‐based interview format. Using a post‐test only experimental design, participants (N=144) were assigned to one of three coaching conditions of increasing comprehensiveness: low (introduction‐only training), medium (introduction plus awareness training), and high (introduction plus awareness plus skill training). Results indicated that individuals who participated in more comprehensive coaching ultimately received higher interview ratings. Results also identified interviewee knowledge as a partial mediator of the relationship between coaching comprehensiveness and subsequent interview performance.     

Beliefs About Older Workers' Learning and Development Behavior in Relation to Beliefs About Malleability of Skills,Age‐Related Decline,and Control1

This study investigated beliefs about older workers' ability and inclination to develop career‐relevant skills, concepts that have not been empirically examined previously in any depth. Two sets of distinct but conceptually related variables were examined in relation to these beliefs. First, participants' implicit theory of abilities (whether they are fixed or changeable) was investigated, and was not found to predict beliefs about older workers' ability or inclination to develop. Second, their beliefs about the age‐related decline of learning‐relevant abilities and the controllability of such decline were examined. Beliefs about the decline of such abilities significantly predicted beliefs about older workers' ability to develop and beliefs about their inclination to develop. A significant relationship was also found between beliefs about controllability of decline and beliefs about older workers' learning goal orientation. Implicit theories significantly predicted beliefs about controllability of decline. These results empirically link research on beliefs about age‐related decline of abilities with the older worker stereotype literature. The results also link literature on beliefs about controllability of decline with literature on implicit theories of skill malleability.     

Influence of intensity on children’s sensitivity to happy, sad, and fearful facial expressions

Most previous studies investigating children’s ability to recognize facial expressions used only intense exemplars. Here we compared the sensitivity of 5-, 7-, and 10-year-olds with that of adults (n = 24 per age group) for less intense expressions of happiness, sadness, and fear. The developmental patterns differed across expressions. For happiness, by 5 years of age, children were as sensitive as adults even to low intensities. For sadness, by 5 years of age, children were as accurate as adults in judging that the face was expressive (i.e., not neutral), but even at 10 years of age, children were more likely to misjudge it as fearful. For fear, children’s thresholds were not adult-like until 10 years of age, and children often confused it with sadness at 5 years of age. For all expressions, including even happy expressions, 5- and 7-year-olds were less accurate than adults in judging which of two expressions was more intense. Together, the results indicate that there is slow development of accurate decoding of subtle facial expressions.     

The production of gender among Black and White women and men: The case of household labor

Using the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 13,017; 11.09% Black, 79.99% White), we compare the household labor time of Black and White women and men, and assess the extent to which the time constraint, relative resource, and ideology explanations account for racial and gender differences in housework time. We find that although time constraint, relative resource, and ideology explanations account for some of the variation in housework time, they do not account for all of the gender and racial differences. We also find that paid work and housework trade off differently for Black men than for White men and also for women and men. Finally, a variety of relative resource, time constraint, and ideology factors are associated differently with women’s and men’s housework time. We argue that our findings lend support to the production of gender approach to understanding the division of household labor and that this approach can be used to help us understand racial differences in housework time as well. We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.     

The scanning of compound figures by young infants

We studied infants' scanning of two compound stimuli, in each case by presenting features inside a frame, the frame alone, and the features alone. One stimulus was composed of squares and was like that studied by P. Salapatek (in L. Cohen & P. Salapatek (Eds.), New York: Academic Press, 1975); the other was a schematic face. Newborns and 1-month-olds looked at the small square when it was presented alone, but rarely looked at it when it was framed by the larger square. In contrast, 2-month-olds looked at the small square for long periods whether or not it was framed. However, when newborns and 1-month-olds were shown a schematic face, they looked at its internal features at least half the time. Thus, young infants show no external bias when scanning a schematic face.     

Effects of the height of the internal features of faces on adults' aesthetic ratings and 5-month-olds' looking times

We examined the influence of the height of the internal features of faces on adults' ratings of attractiveness and on 5-month-olds' looking times. Subjects viewed drawings or coloured photographs of faces presented in pairs that were identical except that the internal features were at a low height, with a large forehead and small chin; at a high height, with a small forehead and large chin; or at a medium height. Adults rated faces with their features at the medium and low heights as more attractive than faces with their features at the high height, and, at least for drawings, rated faces with medium features as more attractive than faces with low features. Babies looked equally long at faces with their features at various heights except for looking slightly longer at faces with high rather than low features. The results suggest that the influence of feature height on reactions to faces is different for adults and 5-month-olds, and hence that it may be shaped by cultural learning and/or experience with faces sometime after early infancy.     

Effects of eye size on adults' aesthetic ratings of faces and 5-month-olds' looking times

In two experiments, we investigated the influence of eye size on adults' ratings of faces' attractiveness and 5-month-olds' looking times. Subjects viewed four pairs of female faces that were identical except for the size of the eyes. Whether they saw black-and-white drawings (experiment 1) or coloured photographs (experiment 2), adults rated the faces with larger eyes as more attractive than the faces with smaller eyes. Babies looked equally long at the drawn faces with larger and smaller eyes (experiment 1), but with the more realistic photographed faces, they looked slightly but significantly longer at the versions with larger eyes (experiment 2). Overall, our results suggest that a modest preference for larger eyes that has emerged by 5 months of age may contribute to the development of adult aesthetic preferences.