Implicit evaluation bias induced by approach and avoidance

We report a study in which faces with a neutral emotional expression were shown on a computer screen. By means of a joystick, participants pulled half of the faces closer (positive approach movement), and pushed the half away (negative avoidance movement). As a result, an operant evaluative conditioning effect occurred in a subsequent affective priming task: Participants responded more quickly to positive target words if they were preceded by a previously pulled face than a pushed face, and vice versa for negative target words. The effect became stronger the more often the faces had been trained to approach or to avoid. No effect was observed on explicit evaluations of the faces: Pushed faces were rated as sympathetic as pulled ones.     

Attentional and behavioural responses of spider fearfuls to virtual spiders

This study employed an immersed virtual environment (IVE) in the Nijmegen RIVERlab to study spider fearfuls’ attentional and motor reactions to virtual spiders. The participants were exposed to virtual spiders while completing an unrelated task, walking freely through a virtual museum. Compared to non-fearful controls, spider fearfuls showed an increase in state anxiety, they spent more time looking at spiders, and they exhibited spontaneous behavioural avoidance of spiders and visually similar objects. The results extend, and to some degree contradict, those of earlier studies with static pictures, and they speak to the usefulness of state-of-the-art IVEs in fundamental anxiety research.     

Long-Term stress reactions in new immigrants to israel exposed to the chernobyl accident

Abstract

This comparison study examined the relation between presumed level of exposure to the accident at Chernobyl in 1986 to symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychological symptoms (depression, somatization, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive style and interpersonal sensitivity), life events and the negative appraisal of the events surrounding the accident. The sample (N = 708) included new immigrants from the former Soviet Union (Confederation of Independent States) who arrived in Israel since 1989 from more exposed areas (n = 137), less exposed (n = 240) and a comparison sample (n = 331) who immigrated from other republics. The exposed groups had higher mean scores on all psychological outcome measures than the comparison group, particularly symptoms of PTSD. Both subsequent stressful life events and a negative, cognitive assessment of events contributed to present psychological distress, independent of exposure.     

The potentiation of grasp types during visual object categorization

The close integration between visual and motor processes suggests that some visuomotor transformations may proceed automatically and to an extent that permits observable effects on subsequent actions. A series of experiments investigated the effects of visual objects on motor responses during a categorisation task. In Experiment 1 participants responded according to an object's natural or manufactured category. The responses consisted in uni-manual precision or power grasps that could be compatible or incompatible with the viewed object. The data indicate that object grasp compatibility significantly affected participant response times and that this did not depend upon the object being viewed within the reaching space. The time course of this effect was investigated in Experiments 2–4b by using a go-nogo paradigm with responses cued by tones and go-nogo trials cued by object category. The compatibility effect was not present under advance response cueing and rapidly diminished following object extinction. A final experiment established that the compatibility effect did not depend on a within-hand response choice, but was at least as great with bi-manual responses where a full power grasp could be used. Distributional analyses suggest that the effect is not subject to rapid decay but increases linearly with RT whilst the object remains visible. The data are consistent with the view that components of the actions an object affords are integral to its representation.     

Age-related Changes in Memory and Fluid Reasoning in a Sample of Healthy Old People

ABSTRACT

Participants in the Healthy Old People in Edinburgh (HOPE) study (N = 398) were assessed on Raven's Progressive Matrices and Logical Memory on up to three occasions. Covariates included education, social class, disease and medication status, blood pressure and study outcome. Raven's score declined linearly with age, whereas decline in Logical Memory was accelerating. There was significant variation in individuals' rates of decline for Ravens but not Logical Memory. Slope–intercept covariances were not significant. Those who later developed dementia already exhibited lower scores, more so for Logical Memory than Raven's. Death and study attrition were related to performance, again greater for Logical Memory. Conclusions: The HOPE approach of progressive screening is a feasible and practical method for studying healthy cognitive ageing. As predicted for an initially healthy sample, rates of decline were relatively homogeneous. The hypothesis of differential decline was not supported, nor was a strict interpretation of the hypothesis that cognitive ageing is entirely pathology driven.     

Holism and eclecticism in the theory of concepts

Abstract

Howard (1992) defines concepts as the information that a person has about a category, and argues for an eclectic theory of concepts on the basis of this definition. We argue that this definition is unacceptable and hence that eclecticism does not follow. First, the definition is circular as it stands. Secondly, when it is modified to avoid circularity, it implies conceptual holism, according to which concepts are not useful explanatory constructs in psychology. Thirdly, we argue that Howard's argument relies essentially on this unacceptable definition: alternative accounts of concepts, namely categorisational or representational views, do not support it. Having countered the argument for eclecticism, we then argue against it directly on methodological grounds.     

The Interplay of News Frames on Cognitive Complexity

This research considers how distinct news frames work in combination to influence information processing. It extends framing research grounded in prospect theory (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981) and attribution theory (Iyengar, 1991) to study conditional framing effects on associative memory. Using a 2 × 3 experimental design embedded within a probability survey (N= 379), tests examined the effects of two different frame dimensions—loss‐gain and individual‐societal—on the complexity of individuals' thoughts concerning the issue of urban growth. Findings indicate that news frames interact to generate more or less complex cognitive responses, with societal‐gain frame combinations generating the most detailed cognitions about the causes, components, and consequences of urban growth. Directions for research on media framing are discussed.     

Investigating the Relation between Imagery and Perception: Evidence from Face Priming

The relation between imagery and perception was investigated in face priming. Two experiments are reported in which subjects either saw or imagined the faces of celebrities. They were later given a speeded perceptual test (familiarity judgement to pictures of celebrities) or a speeded imagery test (in which they were told the names of celebrities and asked to make a decision about their appearance). Seeing faces primed the perceptual test, and imaging faces primed the imagery test; however, there was no priming between seeing and imaging faces. These results show that perception and imagery can be dissociated in normal subjects. In two further experiments, we examined the effects of imaging faces on a subsequent face-naming task and on a task requiring familiarity judgements to partial faces. Both these tasks were facilitated by prior imaging of faces. These results are discussed in relation to those of McDermott & Roediger (1994), who found that imagery promoted object priming in a perceptual test involving naming partial line drawings. The implications for models of face recognition are also discussed.     

Generate and test: An alternative route to knowledge elicitation in an implicit learning task

Three experiments are reported, which examine generation of knowledge in the McGeorge and Burton (1990) invariant learning task. In this task, participants are exposed to 30 four-digit numbers containing an invariant "3". Following this participants then demonstrate a preference for novel numbers containing this invariant over numbers without it. Despite above-chance performance on this pseudo-memory test, participants appear unable to verbalize anything pertinent to the invariant. Here we introduce a novel version of this task, relying on generation of items rather than a preference test. We argue that this new task engages different processing resources, resulting in different patterns of performance. In Experiment 1, invariant learning was demonstrated using a novel fragment completion test. Experiment 2 found that suppressing articulation inhibited learning, implying that this test task accesses phonological knowledge. It is suggested that using the fragment completion test engages different processing resources during test from those in a preference test. Experiment 3 reinforces this position by demonstrating that knowledge appears to transfer across surface features, a result that seems to contradict recent findings by Stadler, Warren, and Lesch (2000). A resolution is offered, drawing on episodic accounts of implicit learning.