Reach out to one and you reach out to many: Social touch affects third‐party observers

Casual social touch influences emotional perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours of interaction partners. We asked whether these influences extend to third‐party observers. To this end, we developed the Social Touch Picture Set comprising line drawings of dyadic interactions, half of which entailed publicly acceptable casual touch and half of which served as no‐touch controls. In Experiment 1, participants provided basic image norms by rating how frequently they observed a displayed touch gesture in everyday life and how comfortable they were observing it. Results implied that some touch gestures were observed more frequently and with greater comfort than others (e.g., handshake vs. hug). All gestures, however, obtained rating scores suitable for inclusion in Experiments 2 and 3. In Experiment 2, participants rated perceived valence, arousal, and likeability of randomly presented touch and no‐touch images without being explicitly informed about touch. Image characters seemed more positive, aroused, and likeable when they touched as compared to when they did not touch. Image characters seemed more negative and aroused, but were equally likeable, when they received touch as compared to when there was no physical contact. In Experiment 3, participants passively viewed touch and no‐touch images while their eye movements were recorded. Differential gazing at touch as compared to no‐touch images emerged within the first 500 ms following image exposure and was largely restricted to the characters' upper body. Gazing at the touching body parts (e.g., hands) was minimal and largely unaffected by touch, suggesting that touch processing occurred outside the focus of visual attention. Together, these findings establish touch as an important visual cue and provide novel insights into how this cue modulates socio‐emotional processing in third‐party observers.     

Temporal Discounting Mechanisms of Future‐oriented Coping: Evidence from Delay Discounting and Task Prioritization Paradigms

Four studies were conducted to examine the relationship between future‐oriented coping and temporal discounting under different situational conditions. In Study 1, 138 participants were primed with either stressful or neutral stimuli, followed by a delay‐discounting task. In Study 2, 118 participants were primed with either stressful or neutral stimuli, followed by a task‐prioritization activity. The results of both studies indicated that future‐oriented coping had a significant negative association with temporal discounting or the number of rational choices in the neutral‐priming condition, but the relationship was not significant in the stress‐priming condition. In Study 3, qualitative data revealed that the major reason for shifting choices from larger but later payoffs to smaller but sooner rewards in a stressful condition was to reduce the stressful mood, create a positive mood, and promote a sense of accomplishment. This explanation was corroborated by Study 4, in which one group was allowed to choose an immediate payoff and the other group was blocked from choosing that immediate payoff. We confirmed that post‐test anxiety was significantly lower in the immediate payoff group compared with the delayed‐payoff group in proactive and preventive coping, using pre‐test anxiety as a covariate. Preventive coping helped to reduce anxiety levels in a stressful condition only when there was a choice to obtain an immediate payoff. These findings underscore the relationship between future‐oriented coping and temporal discounting, as well as the flexibility of discounting in the face of stress. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

内隐和外显测量对利他行为的预测:来自IAT和BIAT的证据

利他行为是指人们自愿付出一定代价做出的有益于他人的行为。该研究以联结性-推理性评价模型为理论基础探讨内隐和外显测量对利他行为的预测效度,研究以193名大学生为被试,将4种内隐利他测量方法和1种外显利他测量方法相结合,以自发性水平不同的3种利他行为为结果变量。结果发现,IAT和BIAT的信度和效度较好,BIAT尤其值得采用。内隐利他自我概念测量能有效地预测真实情境中自发性较高的捐助行为,外显测量则预测了意识控制下自我报告的利他行为。结果表明,只有内隐利他自我概念测量能预测真实情境中快速发生的利他行为。其作用是外显利他测量和内隐利他态度测量所不能代替的。     

三维图形的视空间工作记忆容量研究

采用三维几何图形为材料,通过单探测变化觉察范式来测定视觉工作记忆的存储容量,并比较客体工作记忆和空间工作记忆容量的差异。实验1、2的材料分别为由颜色和形状两个基本特征组成的三维图形和由一个基本特征和一个细节特征组成的三维图形。两个实验结果显示,被试能在视觉工作记忆中存储约2-3个客体和4个空间位置,空间工作记忆容量显著大于客体工作记忆容量。进一步的比较发现,被试对由两个基本特征组成的三维图形的存储容量大于由一个基本特征和一个细节特征组成的三维图形。这表明,组成三维图形的特征类型对视空间工作记忆的存储容量有显著影响。     

The relationship between the adult attachment and the tendency to judge others as liars

The relationship between 2 dimensions (anxiety and avoidance) of adult attachment and tendency to judge others as liars was examined in this study. We measured 308 participants' adult attachment and tendency to judge others as liars in self‐, other‐, or relationship‐oriented situations. Results supported our hypotheses by showing that (a) anxiety positively predicted the tendency to judge others as liars in self‐oriented situations and (b) avoidance moderated the relationship between anxiety and the tendency to judge others as liars in other‐ and relationship‐oriented situations. Attachment anxiety could positively predict the tendency to judge others as liars only when participants' avoidance was high. Theoretical implications and suggestions for future studies were discussed.     

Exposure to nature counteracts aggression after depletion

Acts of self‐control are more likely to fail after previous exertion of self‐control, known as the ego depletion effect. Research has shown that depleted participants behave more aggressively than non‐depleted participants, especially after being provoked. Although exposure to nature (e.g., a walk in the park) has been predicted to replenish resources common to executive functioning and self‐control, the extent to which exposure to nature may counteract the depletion effect on aggression has yet to be determined. The present study investigated the effects of exposure to nature on aggression following depletion. Aggression was measured by the intensity of noise blasts participants delivered to an ostensible opponent in a competition reaction‐time task. As predicted, an interaction occurred between depletion and environmental manipulations for provoked aggression. Specifically, depleted participants behaved more aggressively in response to provocation than non‐depleted participants in the urban condition. However, provoked aggression did not differ between depleted and non‐depleted participants in the natural condition. Moreover, within the depletion condition, participants in the natural condition had lower levels of provoked aggression than participants in the urban condition. This study suggests that a brief period of nature exposure may restore self‐control and help depleted people regain control over aggressive urges.

     

Microstructure and martensitic transformation behaviors of a Ti–Ni–Hf–Cu high-temperature shape memory alloy ribbon

The Ti₃₆Ni₄₁Hf₁₅Cu₈ melt-spun ribbon undergoes a B2 ? B19′ transformation upon cooling and heating. When the Ti₃₆Ni₄₁Hf₁₅Cu₈ melt-spun ribbon is annealed at 873 K for 1 h, the spherical (Ti, Hf)₂Ni particles with a diameter of 20–40 nm precipitate in the grain interior. The fine (Ti, Hf)₂Ni precipitates improve the stability of phase transformation temperatures and cause martensite domains, with (001) compound twins in three orientations dominant instead of (011) type I twins. {111}-, {113}- and (001)//{111}-type boundaries are observed among these martensite domains. When the (Ti,Hf)₂Ni precipitates coarsen, (011) type I twins become main martensite structures in the ribbon annealed at 973 K for 1 h.     

A novel lattice correspondence of B19 → B19′ transformation in Ti–Ni–Cu shape memory alloy thin film

In this study, we found a novel lattice correspondence of the B19–B19′ transformation in a Ti–Ni–Cu thin film: (1?1?1)_B19′//(0?0?1)_B19, [0, 1, 1]_B19′//[1?0?0]_B19. Near the coarse precipitate and the grain boundaries, the B19′ martensite forms with the novel lattice correspondence to product the (1?1?1) type I twinning instead of the usual (0?0?1) compound twinning. Crystallographic analyses show that the novel lattice correspondence results from the local stress concentration.     

A big fish or a small pond? Framing effects in percentages

This paper presents three studies that demonstrate people’s preference for a large percentage of a small subset over a small percentage of a large subset, when the net overall quantity is equated. Because the division of a set into subsets is often arbitrary, this preference represents a framing effect. The framing effect is particularly pronounced for large percentages. We propose that the effect has two causes: A partial neglect of the subset information, and a non-linear shaped function in the way people perceive percentages.