Tolerance for inconsistency in foreign-accented speech

Are listeners able to adapt to a foreign-accented speaker who has, as is often the case, an inconsistent accent? Two groups of native Dutch listeners participated in a cross-modal priming experiment, either in a consistent-accent condition (German-accented items only) or in an inconsistent-accent condition (German-accented and nativelike pronunciations intermixed). The experimental words were identical for both groups (words with vowel substitutions characteristic of German-accented speech); additional contextual words differed in accentedness (German-accented or nativelike words). All items were spoken by the same speaker: a German native who could produce the accented forms but could also pass for a Dutch native speaker. Listeners in the consistent-accent group were able to adapt quickly to the speaker (i.e., showed facilitatory priming for words with vocalic substitutions). Listeners in the inconsistent-accent condition showed adaptation to words with vocalic substitutions only in the second half of the experiment. These results indicate that adaptation to foreign-accented speech is rapid. Accent inconsistency slows listeners down initially, but a short period of additional exposure is enough for them to adapt to the speaker. Listeners can therefore tolerate inconsistency in foreign-accented speech.     

Example,please! Comparing the effects of single customer reviews and aggregate review scores on online shoppers' product evaluations

Many websites of online retail stores display two forms of electronic word of mouth on a single product site, namely single customer reviews and aggregate review scores. This study compares the effects of simultaneously presented single customer reviews and aggregate review scores on product evaluations of visitors of online retail stores. We hypothesize that well‐argued single customer reviews should be more influential than aggregate review scores that display the mean rating of all published reviews of a product. Drawing on a 2 × 2 factorial online experiment, we show that a single customer review is effective, even when potential buyers do not perceive it as representing overall customer satisfaction. Effects of the aggregate review score are weaker and completely mediated by a potential buyer's estimate of overall customer satisfaction. Trust in product reviews as a credible source of product‐related communication moderates some of these effects. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Recaptured Scale Technique: A Method for Testing the Structural Robustness of Personality Scales

Tellegen and Waller advocated a complex and time-consuming scale construction method that they called “exploratory test construction.” Scales that are constructed by this method—such as the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ)—are presumed to be more “psychologically coherent” and “robust” than scales constructed by other means. Using a novel procedure that we call the “recaptured scale technique,” we tested this conjecture by conducting a megafactor analysis on data from the 411 adult participants of the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart who completed the MPQ, the MMPI, and the CPI. We extracted and obliquely rotated 21 factors from a matrix of gender-corrected tetrachoric correlations for the 1,102 nonredundant items of the three omnibus inventories. Robustness of the 11 MPQ scales was assessed by the degree to which these factors recaptured the MPQ item groupings. Our results showed that nine factors were clearly recognizable as MPQ scales and two additional factors represented a bifurcation of an MPQ scale. A higher-order factor analysis of all 21 factor scales yielded five factors that clearly resembled the Big Five. Our results provide strong support for (a) the method of exploratory test construction, (b) the structural robustness of most MPQ scales, and (c) the utility of the recaptured scale technique.     

Resolving Uncertainty About the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale–12: Application of Modern Psychometric Strategies

In this study, we evaluated the factor structure, reliability estimates, item parameters, and differential correlates of the short form of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (Carleton, Norton, &; Asmundson, 2007 Carleton, R., Norton, P., &; Asmundson, G. (2007). Fearing the unknown. A short version of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 21, 105–117.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in samples of undergraduate women (n = 387) and men (n = 276) ranging in age from 18 to 49 years (M = 20.20, SD = 3.91). This instrument was designed to measure 2 facets of intolerance of uncertainty—prospective anxiety and inhibitory anxiety—although total scores on the measure are often used. A major objective of this study was to determine the degree to which derivation of total versus subscale scores is empirically permissible. Comparison of a bifactor model to a unidimensional model and a 2-factor correlated traits model indicated that the bifactor model exhibited superior fit to the sample data. This model provided evidence of a strong general intolerance of uncertainty factor that was more reliable and accounted for significantly more common variance than either subscale factor. Examination of the item response theory slope parameters revealed negligible bias in the measure's items across genders. Finally, a series of simultaneous regression analyses was conducted to examine differential correlates of the measure's total scale scores for men and women.     

Memorial Monitoring and Control: How Confidence and Social and Financial Consequences Affect Eyewitnesses' Reporting of Fine‐Grain Information

Research suggests that accessible coarse‐grain (i.e. general) information is sometimes under‐reported in memory accounts. In two experiments, socially motivating conditions were manipulated to determine whether, and under what contexts, coarse‐grain information is avoided because eyewitnesses are motivated to be specific and willing to risk accuracy. In Experiment 1, response privacy (private, public) and audience (high authority, low authority) were manipulated. Response privacy and penalty for inaccurate reporting (penalty, no penalty) were manipulated in Experiment 2. Across both experiments, eyewitnesses' confidence estimation (i.e. monitoring) was effective, suggesting that coarse‐grain information is under‐reported through poor decision making (i.e. control). Eyewitnesses avoided coarse‐grain information because they sometimes displayed a bias towards reporting fine‐grain information. This bias was more apparent, and coarse‐grain information avoiding more likely, when the perceived consequences for reporting were minimal (i.e. when in private in Experiment 1 and when no penalty for inaccuracy was imposed in Experiment 2). Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Envy and Its Consequences: Why It Is Useful to Distinguish between Benign and Malicious Envy

Envy is the pain that arises from the good fortune of others. Recent research identified two subtypes of envy, benign and malicious envy. Malicious envy is the envy subtype with action tendencies aimed to pull down the envied person from their superior position. Benign envy is also a frustrating experience, but activates action tendencies aimed at improving oneself. This article provides an overview of the empirical support for making this distinction in envy subtypes. It then discusses the benefits of a subtype approach to envy, with the main advantages of distinguishing benign and malicious envy being that it (a) provides researchers with the language to be clear in how they conceptualize envy and (b) allows novel predictions. A next section provides a response to some criticism on making this distinction. Finally, I conclude with a section on how envy in general, and benign and malicious envy in particular, could be measured.     

The (un)detectability of absolute Newtonian masses

Synthese - Absolutism about mass claims that mass ratios obtain in virtue of absolute masses. Comparativism denies this. Dasgupta (in: Bennett, Zimmerman (eds), Oxford studies in metaphysics,...     

A key role for experimental task performance: effects of math talent, gender and performance on the neural correlates of mental rotation

The neurophysiological mechanisms underlying superior cognitive performance are a research area of high interest. The majority of studies on the brain-performance relationship assessed the effects of capability-related group factors (e.g. talent, gender) on task-related brain activations while only few studies examined the effect of the inherent experimental task performance factor. In this functional MRI study, we combined both approaches and simultaneously assessed the effects of three relatively independent factors on the neurofunctional correlates of mental rotation in same-aged adolescents: math talent (gifted/controls: 17/17), gender (male/female: 16/18) and experimental task performance (median split on accuracy; high/low: 17/17). Better experimental task performance of mathematically gifted vs. control subjects and male vs. female subjects validated the selected paradigm. Activation of the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) was identified as a common effect of mathematical giftedness, gender and experimental task performance. However, multiple linear regression analyses (stepwise) indicated experimental task performance as the only predictor of parietal activations. In conclusion, increased activation of the IPL represents a positive neural correlate of mental rotation performance, irrespective of but consistent with the obtained neurocognitive and behavioral effects of math talent and gender. As experimental performance may strongly affect task-related activations this factor needs to be considered in capability-related group comparison studies on the brain-performance relationship.     

Ideomotor silence: the case of complete paralysis and brain–computer interfaces (BCI)

The paper presents some speculations on the loss of voluntary responses and operant learning in long-term paralysis in human patients and curarized rats. Based on a reformulation of the ideomotor thinking hypothesis already described in the 19th century, we present evidence that instrumentally learned responses and intentional cognitive processes extinguish as a consequence of long-term complete paralysis in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Preliminary data collected with ALS patients during extended and complete paralysis suggest semantic classical conditioning of brain activity as the only remaining communication possibility in those states.     

Mind-reading in strategic interaction: The impact of perceived similarity on projection and stereotyping

In social dilemmas, negotiations, and other forms of strategic interaction, mind-reading—intuiting another party’s preferences and intentions—has an important impact on an actor’s own behavior. In this paper, we present a model of how perceivers shift between social projection (using one’s own mental states to intuit a counterpart’s mental states) and stereotyping (using general assumptions about a group to intuit a counterpart’s mental states). Study 1 extends prior work on perceptual dilemmas in arms races, examining Americans’ perceptions of Chinese attitudes toward military escalation. Study 2 adapts a prisoner’s dilemma, pairing participants with outgroup targets. Study 3 employs an ultimatum game, asking male and female participants to make judgments about opposite sex partners. Study 4 manipulates perceived similarity as well as counterpart stereotype in a principal–agent context. Across the studies, we find evidence for our central prediction: higher levels of perceived similarity are associated with increased projection and reduced stereotyping.