The interactive evolution of human communication systems

This paper compares two explanations of the process by which human communication systems evolve: iterated learning and social collaboration. It then reports an experiment testing the social collaboration account. Participants engaged in a graphical communication task either as a member of a community, where they interacted with seven different partners drawn from the same pool, or as a member of an isolated pair, where they interacted with the same partner across the same number of games. Participants' horizontal, pair-wise interactions led "bottom up" to the creation of an effective and efficient shared sign system in the community condition. Furthermore, the community-evolved sign systems were as effective and efficient as the local sign systems developed by isolated pairs. Finally, and as predicted by a social collaboration account, and not by an iterated learning account, interaction was critical to the creation of shared sign systems, with different isolated pairs establishing different local sign systems and different communities establishing different global sign systems.     

The Effects of a Joke on Tipping When It Is Delivered at the Same Time as the Bill1

Former studies showed that a cartoon, such as a smiling face or a cheerful drawing (i.e., the image of the sun), increased the amount of tips given by a customer when added on a bill. A replication was made in accompanying the bill with a small card on which a joke was appended. The experiment took place in a bar with people who had had the same drink. The results showed that people who received the joke card were more likely to tip than were people in the control condition or in a condition where an advertisement card accompanied the bill. The size of the tips left tended to be higher in the joke‐card group than in the other conditions. The findings are discussed in terms of the positive mood activated by the joke card, which in turn increased tipping behavior.     

LinkedIn as a new selection method: Psychometric properties and assessment approach

Various surveys suggest LinkedIn is used as a screening and selection tool by many hiring managers. Despite this widespread use, fairly little is known about whether LinkedIn meets established selection criteria, such as reliability, validity, and legality (i.e., no adverse impact). We examine the properties of LinkedIn-based assessments in two studies. Study 1 shows that raters reach acceptable levels of consistency in their assessments of applicant skills, personality, and cognitive ability. Initial ratings also correlate with subsequent ratings done 1-year later (i.e., demonstrating temporal stability), with slightly higher correlations when profile updates are taken into account. Initial LinkedIn-based ratings correlate with self-reports for more visible skills (leadership, communication, and planning) and personality traits (Extraversion), and for cognitive ability. LinkedIn-based hiring recommendations are positively associated with indicators of career success. Potential adverse impact is also limited. Profiles that are longer, include a picture, and have more connections are rated more positively. Some of those features are valid cues to applicants’ characteristics (e.g., applicants high on Conscientiousness have longer profiles). In Study 2, we show that an itemized LinkedIn assessment is more effective than a global assessment. Implications of these findings for selection and future research are discussed.     

The project of an International Congress of Psychology by J. Ochorowicz (1881)

Since the second part of the 19th century, there has been a great increase in the number of international scientific congresses, and they appear a necessary step in the maturation of knowledge. The first person to explicitly suggest the necessity of an international congress of psychology was Julian Ochorowicz (1850–1917), who was considered the founder of Polish psychology. In 1881 he sent an article to Théodule Ribot, editor of Revue Philosophique de la France et de l'Étranger, entitled “Project of an International Congress of Psychology,” which was published in Ribot's journal. In it he described the dispersed state of psychology in 1881 and the previous 50 years, including 12 subdisciplines ranging from psychophysics to the psychology of art, and how it should aim for unification. He suggested collective efforts to progress rapidly, with widespread collaboration and the continuous exchange of observations, information, and experiments. Having international congresses would constitute a forum for such exchanges, and in his article he outlined the steps that should be taken for putting together the first international congress of psychology. The proposal was quite extensive and fanciful, making Ribot somewhat doubt its realizability. Nevertheless, the first international psychology congress took place in Paris in 1889, 8 years after the publication of Ochorowicz's article. This quick development could be attributed to the creation of the psychology societies, one of the first being La Société de Psychologie Physiologique, which was created in France in 1885. The creation of this society also contributed to psychology being recognized as a scientific domain. In line with this, the final programme of the congress was less extensive than that proposed in Ochorowicz's article, focusing on physiological aspects and ignoring the philosophical ones. In the present paper, the historical context of Ochorowicz's article is outlined, followed by a translation of his article.     

A specific role for efferent information in self-recognition

We investigated the specific contribution of efferent information in a self-recognition task. Subjects experienced a passive extension of the right index finger, either as an effect of moving their left hand via a lever ('self-generated action'), or imposed externally by the experimenter ('externally-generated action'). The visual feedback was manipulated so that subjects saw either their own right hand ('view own hand' condition) or someone else's right hand ('view other's hand' condition) during the passive extension of the index finger. Both hands were covered with identical gloves, so that discrimination on the basis of morphological differences was not possible. Participants judged whether the right hand they saw was theirs or not. Self-recognition was significantly more accurate when subjects were themselves the authors of the action, even though visual and proprioceptive information always specified the same posture, and despite the fact that subjects judged the effect and not the action per se. When the passive displacement of the participants right index finger was externally generated, and only afferent information was available, self-recognition performance dropped to near-chance levels. Differences in performance across conditions reflect the distinctive contribution of efferent information to self-recognition, and argue against a dominant role of proprioception in self-recognition.     

Foot-in-the-door and door-in-the-face: a comparative meta-analytic study

The so-called foot-in-the-door and door-in-the-face techniques have been generally considered as procedures which may consistently influence others' behavior. This study compared efficiency (in terms of compliance rates with various target requests) of both techniques using meta-analysis. It is based on the accumulated studies directly comparing foot-in-the-door (n=22, subjects= 1581) and door-in-the-face (n=22, subjects= 1611) under a similar target request. Analysis indicated no significant differences in efficiency between the paradigms.     

Influence of education on the pattern of cognitive deterioration in AD patients: the cognitive reserve hypothesis

The cognitive reserve hypothesis proposes that a high educational level could delay the clinical expression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) although neuropathologic changes develop in the brain. Therefore, some studies have reported that when the clinical signs of the disease emerge, high-educated patients may decline more rapidly than low-educated patients because the neuropathology is more advanced. However, these studies have only investigated the decline of global cognition or an isolated cognitive process. To study the differential deterioration pattern of several cognitive processes according to education, the performance of 20 AD patients with a high educational level and a low educational level were compared with the performance of 20 control subjects on a neuropsychological battery. The results showed that cognitive deterioration of AD patients is different according to education, although the global performance was similar in AD patients. The high-educated patients exhibited greater impairment of abstract thinking whereas the low-educated patients showed greater impairment of memory and attentional function. This confirms that some cognitive processes, such as abstract thinking, decline more rapidly in high-educated patients whereas others seem to evolve more slowly if compared to low-educated patients. In this latter case, high-educated patients may still benefit from cognitive reserve after the diagnosis of the dementia.     

Players’ Gender and Male Referees’ Decisions About Aggression in French Soccer: A Preliminary Study

The aim of this study was to examine (a) aggression displayed by players and (b) referees decisions about these behaviors as a function of the gender of the players in French soccer. Twenty-six games (13 for women and 13 for men) were videotaped. Instrumental aggressive acts and referees decisions were then observed. The findings indicated a significant effect of gender on instrumental aggression and referees decisions related to these behaviors. Male players displayed more instrumental aggressive acts than female players did. Nevertheless, relative to the total number of aggressive acts displayed, referees penalized women more than men. Gender stereotypes might be a relevant explanation for these results, as soccer is generally perceived as a masculine-type sport, particularly in France, and aggression as a masculine characteristic.     

Cognition is cool: Can hemispheric activation be assessed by tympanic membrane thermometry?

Hemispheric activation during cognitive tasks using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be difficult to interpret, uncomfortable, and is not widely available. This study investigated whether tympanic membrane thermometry could be used as a broad measure of hemispheric activation. Infrared probes measured ear temperature continuously while subjects performed left or right hemisphere tasks. Temperature decreased in the left ear as activation increased in the left hemisphere during a verbal task, and in the right ear during a visuo-spatial task. When compared to a baseline, ear temperature measurements appeared to reflect relative changes in activation of the left and right hemispheres. Tympanic membrane thermometry therefore may be used as a broad marker of hemispheric activation. Its ability to demonstrate relative involvement of the two hemispheres during cognitive processes makes it especially useful in studies of hemispheric interaction. Its low cost, rapid set-up, and non-invasive nature also make it particularly attractive.