Face detection dissociates from face identification

We describe three experiments in which viewers complete face detection tasks as well as standard measures of unfamiliar face identification. In the first two studies, participants viewed pareidolic images of objects (Experiment 1) or cloud scenes (Experiment 2), and their propensity to see faces in these scenes was measured. In neither case is performance significantly associated with identification, as measured by the Cambridge Face Memory or Glasgow Face Matching Tests. In Experiment 3 we showed participants real faces in cluttered scenes. Viewers’ ability to detect these faces is unrelated to their identification performance. We conclude that face detection dissociates from face identification.     

Communication Via Instant Messenger: Short- and Long-Term Effects

Ersatz social engagement theory (Green & Brock, 1998, 2003) suggests that individuals may be drawn to mediated interactions because of their ease, lack of risk, and immediate gratification, but that these interactions may be less rewarding over the long term. In Study 1 ( N = 42), participants' moods were measured before and after engaging in a conversation with a stranger either online (instant messenger) or face to face. Participants became slightly less tense and less angry regardless of which condition they were in, but significantly happier when they were in the instant messenger (1M) condition. The increased happiness after an IM rather than face-to-face conversation was especially pronounced among women. Study 2 ( N = 101) was a survey of students' Internet use and other extracurricular activities. Students did not appear to be substituting Internet use for other forms of extracurricular engagement. However, IM use was associated with feeling that one used the Internet too much, and reduced life satisfaction.     

Culture, Communication, and Competence: A Commentary on Variables Affecting Social and Academic Behavior

The editors of this special issue have recruited six papers focused on the ways that language and communication interact with culture to influence student behavior. Two themes that emerge from these papers are the fundamental role of communication in learning and living, and the impact of culture on the functions of communication. The present commentary is offered in admiration for the work of the authors, and with the goal of emphasizing common messages that may guide both future research and practice.     

Decreased load on general motor preparation and visual-working memory while preparing familiar as compared to unfamiliar movement sequences

Learning movement sequences is thought to develop from an initial controlled attentive phase to a more automatic inattentive phase. Furthermore, execution of sequences becomes faster with practice, which may result from changes at a general motor processing level rather than at an effector specific motor processing level. In the current study, we examined whether these changes are already present during preparation. Fixed series of six keypresses, either familiar or unfamiliar, had to be prepared and executed/withheld after a go/nogo signal. Reaction time results confirmed that familiar sequences were executed faster than unfamiliar sequences. Results derived from the electroencephalogram showed a decreased demand on general motor preparation and visual-working memory before familiar sequences as compared to unfamiliar sequences. We propose that with familiar sequences the presetting segments of responses is less demanding than with unfamiliar sequences, as familiar sequences can be regarded as less complex than unfamiliar sequences. Finally, the decreasing demand on visual-working memory before familiar sequences suggests that sequence learning indeed develops from an attentive to an automatic phase.     

The effect of figural manipulations on brightness differences in the Benary cross

The Benary cross is a classical demonstration showing that the perceived brightness f an area is not solely determined by its luminance, but also by the context in which it is embedded. Despite the fact that two identical grey triangles are flanked by an equal amount of black and white, one of the triangles is perceived as being lighter than the other. It has been argued that the junctions surrounding a test area are crucial in determining brightness. Here, we explored how different aspects influencing perceptual organisation influence perceived figure-background relations in the Benary cross and, with that, the perceived brightness of the triangular patches in our stimuli. The results of a cancellation task confirm that the alignment of contours at junctions indeed has a strong influence on an area's brightness. At the same time, however, the Benary effect is also influenced by the overall symmetry of the cross and its orientation.     

Locating Impropriety: Street Drinking, Moral Order, and the Ideological Dilemma of Public Space

Drawing on research in urban sociology, cultural geography, and social psychology, this paper explores some of the moral rules that govern social relations in public places. In particular, we consider how certain practices become classified as everyday incivilities—infractions of the moral order that sustains public life. In order to develop this notion, we draw illustrations from an ongoing research project that is investigating social attitudes towards "street drinking," an activity that has led to the creation of "alcohol-free zones" in over 100 British cities during the past decade. As an emergent theme, this research has suggested that the classification of street drinking as either acceptable or unacceptable conduct is contingent upon the social construction of public space that users invoke. This theme is discussed in the context of wider struggles over citizenship and social control in the public domain—struggles manifest within "ideological dilemmas" (Billig et al., 1988) over the limits of free conduct, the tension between open and closed public spaces, and the attempt to distinguish "admissible" from "inadmissible" publics.     

Does Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Affect the Learning of a Fine Sequential Hand Motor Skill with Motor Imagery?

Learning a fine sequential hand motor skill, like playing the piano or learning to type, improves not only due to physical practice, but also due to motor imagery. Previous studies revealed that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and motor imagery independently affect motor learning. In the present study, we investigated whether tDCS combined with motor imagery above the primary motor cortex influences sequence-specific learning. Four groups of participants were involved: an anodal, cathodal, sham stimulation, and a control group (without stimulation). A modified discrete sequence production (DSP) task was employed: the Go/NoGo DSP task. After a sequence of spatial cues, a response sequence had to be either executed, imagined, or withheld. This task allows to estimate both non-specific learning and sequence-specific learning effects by comparing the execution of unfamiliar sequences, familiar imagined, familiar withheld, and familiar executed sequences in a test phase. Results showed that the effects of anodal tDCS were already developing during the practice phase, while no effects of tDCS on sequence-specific learning were visible during the test phase. Results clearly showed that motor imagery itself influences sequence learning, but we also revealed that tDCS does not increase the influence of motor imagery on sequence learning.     

Long-term effects of covert face recognition

Covert face recognition has previously been thought to produce only very short-lasting effects. In this study we demonstrate that manipulating subjects' attentional load affects explicit, but not implicit memory for faces, and that implicit effects can persist over much longer intervals than is normally reported. Subjects performed letter-string tasks of high vs. low perceptual load (Lavie, N. (1995). Perceptual load as a necessary condition for selective attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfomance. 21, 451-468.), while ignoring task-irrelevant celebrity faces. Memory for the faces was then assessed using (a) a surprise recognition test for the celebrities' names, and (b) repetition priming in a face familiarity task. The load manipulation strongly influenced explicit recognition memory, but had no effect on repetition priming from the same items. Moreover, faces from the high load condition produced the same amount of priming whether they were explicitly remembered or not. This result resolves a long-standing anomaly in the face recognition literature, and is discussed in relation to covert processing in prosopagnosia.     

Mimicry and prosocial behavior

Abstract— Recent studies have shown that mimicry occurs unintentionally and even among strangers. In the present studies, we investigated the consequences of this automatic phenomenon in order to learn more about the adaptive function it serves. In three studies, we consistently found that mimicry increases prosocial behavior. Participants who had been mimicked were more helpful and generous toward other people than were nonmimicked participants. These beneficial consequences of mimicry were not restricted to behavior directed toward the mimicker, but included behavior directed toward people not directly involved in the mimicry situation. These results suggest that the effects of mimicry are not simply due to increased liking for the mimicker, but are due to increased prosocial orientation in general.