Norms on the gender perception of role nouns in Czech,English, French,German, Italian,Norwegian, and Slovak

We collected norms on the gender stereotypicality of an extensive list of role nouns in Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Slovak, to be used as a basis for the selection of stimulus materials in future studies. We present a Web-based tool (available at https://www.unifr.ch/lcg/) that we developed to collect these norms and that we expect to be useful for other researchers, as well. In essence, we provide (a) gender stereotypicality norms across a number of languages and (b) a tool to facilitate cross-language as well as cross-cultural comparisons when researchers are interested in the investigation of the impact of stereotypicality on the processing of role nouns.     

Effort responses to suboptimal reward cues are related to striatal dopaminergic functioning

Reward cues have been found to increase the investment of effort in tasks even when cues are presented suboptimally (i.e. very briefly), making them hard to consciously detect. Such effort responses to suboptimal reward cues are assumed to rely mainly on the mesolimbic dopamine system, including the ventral striatum. To provide further support for this assumption, we performed two studies investigating whether these effort responses vary with individual differences in markers of striatal dopaminergic functioning. Study 1 investigated the relation between physical effort responses and resting state eye-blink rate. Study 2 examined cognitive effort responses in relation to individually averaged error-related negativity. In both studies effort responses correlated with the markers only for suboptimal, but not for optimal reward cues. These findings provide further support for the idea that effort responses to suboptimal reward cues are mainly linked to the mesolimbic dopamine system, while responses to optimal reward cues also depend on higher-level cortical functions.     

Pigeons discriminate between human feeders

Considered as plague in many cities, pigeons in urban areas live close to human activities and exploit this proximity to find food which is often directly delivered by people. In this study, we explored the capacity of feral pigeons to take advantage of this human-based food resource and discriminate between friendly and hostile people. Our study was conducted in an urban park. Pigeons were fed by two experimenters of approximately the same age and skin colour but wearing coats of different colours. During the training sessions, the two human feeders displayed different attitudes: one of the feeders was neutral and the second was hostile and chased away the pigeons. During the two test phases subsequent to the training phase, both feeders became neutral. Two experiments were conducted, one with one male and one female feeder and the second with two female feeders. In both experiments, the pigeons learned to quickly (six to nine sessions) discriminate between the feeders and maintained this discrimination during the test phases. The pigeons avoided the hostile feeder even when the two feeders exchanged their coats, suggesting that they used stable individual characteristics to differentiate between the experimenter feeders. Thus, pigeons are able to learn quickly from their interactions with human feeders and use this knowledge to maximize the profitability of the urban environment. This study provides the first experimental evidence in feral pigeons for this level of human discrimination.     

Muscle coordination and force variability during static and dynamic tracking tasks

This study examined muscular activity patterns of extensor and flexor muscles and variability of forces during static and dynamic tracking tasks using compensatory and pursuit display. Fourteen volunteers performed isometric actions in two conditions: (i) a static tracking task consisting of flexion/pronation, ulnar deviation, extension/supination and radial deviation of the wrist at 20% maximum voluntary contraction (MVC), and (ii) a dynamic tracking task aiming at following a moving target at 20% MVC in the four directions of contraction. Surface electromyography (SEMG) from extensor carpi ulnaris, extensor carpi radialis, flexor carpi ulnaris and flexor digitorum superficialis muscles and exerted forces in the transverse and sagittal plane were recorded. Normalized root mean square and mutual information (index of functional connectivity within muscles) of SEMGs and the standard deviation and sample entropy of force signals were extracted. Larger SEMG amplitudes were found for the dynamic task (p < .05), while normalized mutual information between muscle pairs was larger for the static task (p < .05). Larger size of variability (standard deviation of force) concomitant with smaller sample entropy was observed for the dynamic task compared with the static task (p < .01 for both). These findings underline a rescaling of the muscles’ respective contribution influencing force variability relying on feedback and feed-forward control strategies in relation to display modes during static and dynamic tracking tasks.     

Influence of general and specific autobiographical recall on subsequent behavior: The case of cognitive performance

Two studies tested the impact of autobiographical recall of general versus specific academic success or failure on actual task performance. As expected, it was found that general memories of failure and specific memories of success resulted in worse performance than general memories of success and specific memories of failure. In Study 1, this performance pattern was obtained on a standard math test. In Study 2, it was replicated on a test of intellectual ability, and a mediation by fear of failure was documented. The present findings offer direct evidence that autobiographical memories of success and failure impact actual performance and also reveal the role of memory specificity in this influence.     

Genetic testing for hereditary cancer: effects of alexithymia and coping strategies on variations in anxiety before and after result disclosure

This study assessed the impact of the results of genetic testing for hereditary cancer from a multifactorial health psychology perspective, considering that emotional expression plays a key role in psychological adjustment. Measures of dispositional and transactional coping strategies, anxiety and alexithymia were filled out by 77 participants in a longitudinal study design. Statistical analyses were performed using general linear models and partial least squares path modelling, low-constraint methods that are particularly useful in the behavioural sciences. While anxiety levels prior to the result announcement were predictive of the distress experienced by noncarriers, considerable variability was observed for mutation carriers. Some subjects who had lower anxiety levels before the test displayed greater anxiety afterwards, but others seemed to anticipate the distress they would experience with the result that they showed a decrease in anxiety. The mutation carriers behaved as though their adaptive functioning were reshaped by the test result, independent of their disposition and previous emotional state, except in the case of alexithymia. Difficulty expressing emotions prior to genetic testing contributed to a similar difficulty after receiving the result, adding to the latter's emotional impact by promoting emotion-focused coping strategies and increasing distress.     

Racism in soccer? Perception of challenges of black and white players by white referees, soccer players, and fans

This experiment investigated challenge evaluations in soccer and their relation to prejudice: more precisely, whether skin colour may influence judgments of soccer tackles. Three groups of participants (soccer players, referees,and soccer fans) were asked to evaluate challenges, featuring Black and White players as aggressors and victims in a mixed-design study. Results showed that participants made some differentiations between Black and White players in a challenge evaluation task. Participants were more likely to consider within-group challenges as fouls and were faster to consider challenges made by Black players as fouls. On the other hand, fouls made by White players were seen as more severe. There were no major differences between the participating groups, suggesting that the observed effects were independent of how good players were or whether the participants were referees or not.     

Motivated use of information about others: Linking the 2 × 2 achievement goal model to social comparison propensities and processes

The present research used correlational and experimental methods and two well-established social comparison paradigms to integrate and extend prior research from the achievement goal and social comparison literatures. In Study 1, a general disposition to engage in social comparison was positively correlated with each type of goal in the 2 × 2 model of achievement goals, suggesting that the desire to seek out social comparison information is not exclusive to a particular type of achievement goal pursuit. In Study 2, when evaluating the specific direction of social comparison (upward or downward), the pursuit of performance-approach, mastery-approach, and mastery-avoidance goals facilitated upward social comparison, and the pursuit of performance-avoidance goals prompted a shift away from upward comparison towards downward comparison. The present findings provide new insight to the emerging integration of achievement goals and social comparison.     

Towards global integration

The struggle against exclusion must be a global struggle, for it must take into account everything that makes up the life of every individual. Businesses have a central role, for they can offer training to those young people who see school only as a failure.