Asymmetric dependencies in perceiving identity and emotion: Experiments with morphed faces

We investigated whether an asymmetric relationship between the perception of identity and emo-tional expressions in faces (Schweinberger & Soukup, 1998) may be related to differences in the rela-tive processing speed of identity and expression information. Stimulus faces were morphed across identity within a given emotional expression, or were morphed across emotion within a given identity. In Experiment 1, consistent classifications of these images were demonstrated across a wide range of morphing, with only a relatively narrow category boundary. At the same time, classification reaction times (RTs) reflected the increased perceptual difficulty of the morphed images. In Experiment 2, we investigated the effects of variations in the irrelevant dimension on judgments of faces with respect to a relevant dimension, using a Garner-type speeded classification task. RTs for expression classifica-tions were strongly influenced by irrelevant identity information. In contrast, RTs for identity classifi-cations were unaffected by irrelevant expression information, and this held even for stimuli in which identity was more difficult and slower to discriminate than expression. This suggests that differences in processing speed cannot account for the asymmetric relationship between identity and emotion per-ception. Theoretical accounts proposing independence of identity and emotion perception are dis-cussed in the light of these findings.     

Predicting attendance at health screening: Organizational factors and patients' health beliefs

The present study firstly considers the effectiveness of two invite methods. Three hundred and twenty-five patients aged between 30 and 50 were invited to attend a general health check either by letter or opportunistically during a routine consultation After six months the two invite methods had similar attendance rates, although the opportunistic method produced fewer patients at screening and was biased in favour of females. The study also examined the health beliefs of attenders (n = 98) and non-attenders (n = 33) who had been sent questionnaires based on the health belief model prior to the commencement of the screening programme. Discriminant analysis revealed attenders to be more likely to report cutting back on everyday activities when ill and to believe in the seriousness of high blood pressure and weight problems. Non-attenders were found to be more worried about the screening appointment. These findings have important implications for those who plan screening services.     

Raster versus calligraphic display devices for assessing visual performance: The influence of stimulus area and uncertainty

Sixty-hertz raster scan monitors provide relatively inexpensive solutions to problems associated with presenting complex visual stimuli. However, they restrict the user to displays in which stimulus characteristics cannot be changed more often than once every 16.67 msec. Calligraphic monitors allow very high frame rates, but not the generation of complex or chromatic images (unless very expensive monitors are purchased). A method is reported for increasing the frame rate of some raster monitors at the expense of the number of lines that are painted. Also, data relating to the influence of such a modification on visual performance is presented.     

Repetition learning in the immediate serial recall of visual and auditory materials

In 5 experiments, a Hebb repetition effect, that is, improved immediate serial recall of an (unannounced) repeating list, was demonstrated in the immediate serial recall of visual materials, even when use of phonological short-term memory was blocked by concurrent articulation. The learning of a repeatedly presented letter list in one modality (auditory or visual) did not transfer to give improved performance on the same list in the other modality. This result was not replicated for word lists, however, for which asymmetric transfer was observed. Inferences are made about the structure of short-term memory and about the nature of the Hebb repetition effect.     

Tau as a potential control variable for visually guided braking

D. N. Lee (1976) described a braking strategy based on optical expansion in which the driver brakes so that the target's time-to-contact declines around a constant slope in the range -0.5 < or = tau < 0. The present results from a series of braking simulations confirm and extend earlier reports (E. H. Yilmaz & W. H. Warren, 1995) that performance is broadly compatible with the tau hypothesis. However, performance was not enhanced in situations that favored the estimation of tau, and unlike in earlier reports, performance deteriorated in the absence of a ground plane that provided information about speed and target distance. This finding suggests that the tau hypothesis does not provide a complete account of braking control.     

Sequential modulations of interference evoked by processing task-irrelevant stimulus features

Compatibility level repetition benefits in interference paradigms have been taken to reflect enhanced processing selectivity in response to cognitive conflict elicited by a task-irrelevant stimulus feature. The authors demonstrate such sequential effects in the Simon task which (a) occur independent of previous behavioral conflict effects and (b) cannot be accounted for by selectivity enhancement. Furthermore, when presenting more than one type of irrelevant stimulus features, compatibility level repetition effects occurred in a type-specific manner. The results do not support the notion that cognitive conflict results in enhanced processing selectivity and favor a feature integration account.     

Real brands in imaginary worlds: investigating players' experiences of brand placement in digital games

• This paper explores the development of brand placement in digital games using focus groups with game‐players. Growth in in‐game brand placement is explained by game developers' financial and creative priorities and experimentation in marketerss' use of media. The external context of game‐play is then examined based on explanations of the non‐material aspects of consumer behaviour. Internal game processes are also reviewed, including psychological processes that are likely to be of interest to marketers. The reported experiences of players are then considered in terms of these processes. Findings seem to support the use of brand placement in games. Players easily recall encounters with brands during game‐play and are generally positive about these experiences, suggesting that brands increase realism because it allows individuals to create and explore consumption‐based daydreams. However, some players reject brand placement, preferring in‐game fantasies that are independent of mundane commodities. The findings also raise issues related to the ways in which individuals may use digital games to reflect on our consumer society and this raises a question of the degree to which digital games may support or oppose existing consumer cultures. Other problems for managers wishing to use this technique were revealed by the repetitive nature of games which may cause message wear‐out, and by playerss' frustration with aspects of a game which may lead to negative evaluations of in‐game brands.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Avoidant attachment and the experience of parenting

Guided by attachment theory, this research investigated connections between avoidant attachment styles and the experience of parenting after the birth of a couple's first child. One hundred and six couples completed a battery of measures approximately 6 weeks before and 6 months after the birth of their first child. As anticipated, parents with more avoidant attachment styles experienced greater stress after the birth of their child and perceived parenting as less satisfying and personally meaningful. Attachment theory maintains that adult attachment styles should affect relationships with adults and with one's children. The present findings provide some of the first evidence that self-reported adult romantic attachment styles, which have been the focus of attachment research by social and personality psychologists, are systematically associated with parent-child relationships. They also provide insight into the processes through which secure and insecure attachment styles might be transmitted from one generation to the next.     

Capacity limits for face processing

We present three experiments in which subjects were asked to make speeded sex judgements (Experiment 1) or semantic judgements (Experiments 2 and 3) to face targets and nonface items, while ignoring a solitary flanking distractor face or a nonface stimulus. Distractors could be either congruent (same response category) or incongruent (different response category) with the target. Distractor congruency effects were consistently observed in all combinations of target-distractor stimulus pairs, except when a distractor face flanked a target face. The failure to find congruency effects in this condition was explored further in a fourth experiment, in which four task-irrelevant flankers were simultaneously presented. Once again, no face-face congruency effects were found, even though comparison distractors interfered with face and nonface targets alike. However, four simultaneously presented distractor faces did not interfere with nonface targets either. We suggest that these experiments demonstrate a capacity limit for visual processing in these conditions, such that no more than one face is processed at a time.