Power of pairwise comparisons in the equal variance and unequal sample size case

A Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to compare five, pairwise multiple comparison procedures. The number of means varied from 4 to 6 and the sample size ratio varied from 1 to 60. Procedures were evaluated on the basis of Type I errors, any‐pair power and all‐pairs power. Four procedures were shown to be conservative, while the fifth provided adequate control of Type I errors only for restricted values of sample size ratios. No procedure was found to be uniformly most powerful. The Tukey‐Kramer procedure was found to provide the best any‐pair power provided it is applied without requiring a significant overall F test. In most cases, the Hayter‐Fisher modification of the Tukey‐Kramer was found to provide very good any‐pair power and to be uniformly more powerful than the Tukey‐Kramer when a significant overall F test is required. A partition‐based version of Peritz's method usually provided the greatest all‐pairs power. A modification of the Shaffer‐Welsch was found to be useful in certain conditions.     

Bigotry and Religious Belief

Attacks on religious doctrines are often characterized as a form of bigotry and traditional analyses of the concept support this view. I argue that regarding such attacks as bigotry is inconsistent with a variety of contemporary moral attitudes and social goals. I offer an improved account of when we should ascribe bigotry – one that is more coherent with views on tolerance and the importance of open debate. This account focuses upon the justification for hostile attitudes and also limits the target of bigoted thought to persons, not to doctrines, religious or otherwise. I argue that while it is indeed possible to adopt bigoted attitudes toward people classified on the basis of their religious beliefs, it is not possible to hold bigoted attitudes against the beliefs themselves.     

Incongruent imagery interferes with action initiation

It has been suggested that representing an action through observation and imagery share neural processes with action execution. In support of this view, motor-priming research has shown that observing an action can influence action initiation. However, there is little motor-priming research showing that imagining an action can modulate action initiation. The current study examined whether action imagery could prime subsequent execution of a reach and grasp action. Across two motion analysis tracking experiments, 40 participants grasped an object following congruent or incongruent action imagery. In Experiment 1, movement initiation was faster following congruent compared to incongruent imagery, demonstrating that imagery can prime the initiation of grasping. In Experiment 2, incongruent imagery resulted in slower movement initiation compared to a no-imagery control. These data show that imagining a different action to that which is performed can interfere with action production. We propose that the most likely neural correlates of this interference effect are brain regions that code imagined and executed actions. Further, we outline a plausible mechanistic account of how priming in these brain regions through imagery could play a role in action cognition.     

Removal of epileptically compromised tissue in the frontal cortex restores oculomotor selection in the antisaccade task

The frontal cortex is heavily involved in oculomotor selection. Here, we investigated the neural correlates of eye movement selection during an antisaccade task in a young epileptic patient in whom the seizure focus included the frontal cortex and affected its function. Before resection surgery, the patient had difficulty in performing correct antisaccades towards the visual field contralateral to the seizure focus. Because the FEF is the only area in the human frontal cortex that is known to have a lateralized oculomotor function in the antisaccade task, this behavioural imbalance between the two visual fields suggests a disruption of FEF functioning by the nearby seizure focus. Electrocorticographic recordings at the seizure focus indeed showed that the seizure focus interfered with correct antisaccade performance. These results were in line with fMRI recordings revealing less task-related frontal activity for the hemisphere of the seizure focus, possibly reflecting diminished top-down engagement of the oculomotor system. Two months after removal of the compromised tissue, the seizures had disappeared, and antisaccade performance was the same for both visual hemifields. We conclude that a seizure focus in the frontal cortex can induce a dysfunction in the selection of eye movements, which is resolved after removal of interfering tissue.     

Savoring with Intent: Investigating Types of and Motives for Responses to Positive Events

To contribute to a growing literature on positive affect (PA) regulation, we report on two studies investigating college students’ responses to hypothetical positive events using a new measure, the Positive Events and Responses Survey (PEARS). The PEARS includes various responses, including savoring (up-regulating PA) and dampening strategies (down-regulating PA), and novel responses (e.g., mass-sharing using Facebook). We examined its convergent and concurrent validity, its relationship with the value of happiness, and motives underlying savoring. Factor analyses supported a 3-factor model: natural savoring (e.g., expressing PA), intentional savoring (e.g., reflecting on the self), and dampening (e.g., minimizing the event). Both natural and intentional savoring were linked to other savoring behaviors, but only natural savoring was linked to perceived savoring ability and (in some bivariate results) to well-being. In contrast, dampening was consistently linked to less savoring and more dampening on other measures, lower well-being, and more depressive symptoms. People reporting valuing happiness more reported higher likelihood of all three types of responses. Qualitative data provided partial support for the hypothesis that intentional savoring strategies are more often used for instrumental reasons (e.g., boosting self-esteem), whereas natural savoring responses may sometimes be more automatic or stem from feeling PA. These studies validate a new measure and suggest that reasons underlying people’s savoring matter.