Contributions of expected sensory and affective action effects to action selection and performance: Evidence from forced- and free-choice tasks

Whereas ideomotor approaches to action control emphasize the importance of sensory action effects for action selection, motivational approaches emphasize the role of affective action effects. We used a game-like experimental setup to directly compare the roles of sensory and affective action effects in selecting and performing reaching actions in forced- and free-choice tasks. The two kinds of action effects did not interact. Action selection and execution in the forced-choice task were strongly impacted by the spatial compatibility between actions and the expected sensory action effects, whereas the free-choice task was hardly affected. In contrast, action execution, but not selection, in both tasks was strongly impacted by the spatial compatibility between actions and highly valued action effects. This pattern suggests that sensory and affective action effects serve different purposes: The former seem to dominate rule-based action selection, whereas the latter might serve to reduce any remaining action uncertainty.     

The time course of intentional binding

Stimuli caused by actions (i.e., effects) are perceived earlier than stimuli not caused by actions. This phenomenon is termed intentional binding (IB) and serves as implicit measure of sense of agency. We investigated the influence of effect delay and temporal predictability on IB, operationalized as the bias to perceive the effect as temporally shifted toward the action. For short delays, IB increased with delay (Experiment 1: 200 ms, 250 ms, 300 ms). The initial increase declined for longer delays (Experiment 2: 100 ms, 250 ms, 400 ms). This extends previous findings showing IB to decrease with increasing delays for delay ranges of 250 ms to 650 ms. Further, the hypothesis that IB, that is, sense of agency, might be maximal for different delays depending on the specific characteristics and context of action and effect, has important implications for human-machine interfaces.     

Effect-based control of facial expressions: evidence from action-effect compatibility

Facial expressions such as smiling or frowning are normally followed by, and often aim at, the observation of corresponding facial expressions in social counterparts. Given this contingency between one’s own and other persons’ facial expressions, the production of such facial actions might be the subject of so-called action–effect compatibility effects. In the present Experiment 1, we confirmed this assumption. Participants were required to smile or frown. The generation of these expressions was harder when participants produced predictable feedback from a virtual counterpart that was incompatible with their own facial expression; for example, smiling produced the presentation of a frowning face. The results of Experiment 2 revealed that this effect vanishes with inverted faces as action feedback, which shows that the phenomenon is bound to the instantaneous emotional interpretation of the feedback. These results comply with the assumption that the generation of facial expressions is controlled by an anticipation of these expressions’ effects in the social environment.     

Nicotine trained as a negative feature passes the retardation-of-acquisition and summation tests of a conditioned inhibitor

Nicotine functions as a negative feature in a Pavlovian discriminated goal-tracking task. Whether withholding of responding to the conditional stimulus (CS) reflects nicotine functioning as a conditioned inhibitor is unknown. Accordingly, the present research sought to determine whether nicotine trained as a negative feature passed the retardation-of-acquisition and summation tests, thus characterizing it as a pharmacological (interoceptive) conditioned inhibitor. In the retardation test, rats received either nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) or chlordiazepoxide (5 mg/kg) negative feature training in which the drug state signaled when a 15-sec light CS would not be paired with sucrose; light was paired with sucrose on intermixed saline sessions. Following acquisition of the discrimination, both groups received nicotine CS training in which sucrose was intermittently available on nicotine but not intermixed saline sessions. Acquisition of conditioned responding to the nicotine CS was slower in the nicotine negative feature group than in the chlordiazepoxide negative feature group. In the summation test, rats were assigned to either the nicotine negative feature group or a pseudoconditioning control. In this control, the light CS was paired with sucrose on half the nicotine and half the saline sessions. Both groups also received excitatory training in which a white noise CS was paired with sucrose. The summation test consisted of presenting the white noise in conjunction with nicotine. Conditioned responding evoked by the white noise was decreased in the negative feature but not the pseudoconditioning group. Combined, the results provide the first evidence that an interoceptive stimulus (nicotine) can become a conditioned inhibitor.     

Savouring and perceived job performance in positive psychology: Moderating role of positive affectivity

Building on the research in positive psychology, the current study examines the impact of employee savouring on building perceived job performance and tested the extent to which an individual positive affectivity moderated the relationship of savouring and job performance. Using survey responses from 357 salespeople in six Taiwanese insurance companies, the results of hierarchical regression analyses show that savouring is positively related to perceived job performance. In addition, the relationship between savouring and perceived job performance was moderated by employees' positive affectivity. The implications of these results and the limitations of the research are discussed.     

The specificity of temporal expectancy: evidence from a variable foreperiod paradigm

In speeded choice tasks with variable foreperiods (FPs), individuals behaviourally adapt to various frequency manipulations. Adaptations have been shown to frequencies of different stimulus-response events, to frequencies of different foreperiods, and to frequencies of different event-foreperiod combinations. We have investigated how participants adapt to a situation where all three frequency manipulations are done simultaneously. Three variable foreperiod experiments are reported. In Experiment 1, one target (the peak distributed target) appeared particularly frequently after one particular FP (the peak foreperiod), while another target was less frequent and equally distributed over all foreperiods. In Experiment 2, the equally distributed target was overall more frequent than the peak distributed one. In both experiments, performance advantages for the peak distributed target were specific to the peak foreperiod, and performance advantages at the peak foreperiod were specific to the peak distributed targets. A third experiment showed that, when two differently frequent target are both equally distributed over FPs, the performance distribution over FPs is not significantly different between both targets. Together, the results suggest that participants were able to simultaneously and specifically adapt to frequency manipulations in events, foreperiods, and event-foreperiod combinations.     

Known risk factors for violence predict 12-month-old infants' aggressiveness with peers

This study tested the hypothesis that 12-month-old infants' use of force against peers is associated with known risk factors for violence. We conducted a prospective longitudinal study, which included laboratory observations of firstborn British infants (N = 271) during simulated birthday parties. No gender differences in aggressiveness were observed. The infants' observed aggressiveness was significantly correlated with mothers' mood disorder during pregnancy and with mothers' history of conduct problems. Infants' observed aggressiveness was correlated with parents' ratings of infants' anger and aggression, which were also predicted by mothers' mood disorder and history of conduct problems. Our findings indicate that infants at risk for serious aggression can already be identified when the motor ability to use physical force first enters the human repertoire.     

Cognitive stimulation in brainstorming

Research on group brainstorming has demonstrated that it is less effective for generating large numbers of ideas than individual brainstorming, yet various scholars have presumed that group idea sharing should enhance cognitive stimulation and idea production. Three experiments examined the potential of cognitive stimulation in brainstorming. Experiments 1 and 2 used a paradigm in which individuals were exposed to ideas on audiotape as they were brainstorming, and Experiment 3 used the electronic brainstorming paradigm. Evidence was obtained for enhanced idea generation both during and after idea exposure. The attentional set of the participant and the content of the exposure manipulation (number of ideas, presence of irrelevant information) influenced this effect. These results are consistent with a cognitive perspective on group brainstorming.     

Relationships of coping styles with type of sport

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether the type of sport is associated with coping styles. 80 athletes (weightlifters, runners, swimmers, and triathletes) were administered the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations. Analysis showed weightlifters had a lower mean score on Avoidance coping than the other groups of athletes. Differences concerning sex and ability were found as well.