Sequential effects of phonological priming in visual word recognition

Two masked priming experiments were conducted to examine phonological priming of bisyllabic words in French, and in particular, whether it operates sequentially or in parallel. Bisyllabic target words were primed by pseudowords that shared either the first or the second phonological syllable of the target. Overlap of the first syllable only-not the second-produced facilitation in both the lexical decision and the naming tasks. These findings suggest that, for polysyllabic words, phonological codes are computed sequentially during silent reading and reading aloud.     

An exploration of the attitudinal and perceptual dimensions of body image among male and female adolescents from six Latin American cities

Using survey methodology, this exploratory study examined the attitudinal and perceptual dimensions of body image among 1,272 eighth- and ninth-grade males and females from higher and lower socioeconomic backgrounds in Buenos Aires, Argentina (n = 195), Guatemala City, Guatemala (n = 212), Havana, Cuba (n = 213), Lima, Peru (n = 218), Panama City, Panama (n = 195), and Santiago, Chile (n = 239). The two dimensions of body image were assessed by showing the participants nine male and nine female silhouettes depicting body sizes ranging from extremely thin (#1) to extremely obese (#9). Approximately 50% of the male and female adolescents chose silhouette #3 as best depicting the attractive male body. Silhouette #2 was chosen by 45% of the females as best depicting feminine attractiveness, while 45% of the males chose silhouette #3. When identifying the silhouette that best depicted the healthy male body, 26% of the participants chose silhouette #2, 41% chose #3, and 19% chose #4. Silhouette #2 was selected by 33% of the adolescents as best depicting the healthy female body, 38% chose #3, and 14% chose #4. In all cities, the effect of body mass index (BMI) on body satisfaction was highly significant (p < 0.001). Almost 40% of the middle weight adolescents indicated a preference to be thinner, even though 72% of the males and 84% of the females in this subgroup already perceived themselves as thin. Similarly, 89% of the heavier weight participants indicated a preference to be thinner, even though only 10% of the males and 2% of the females in this subgroup perceived themselves as heavy. In five of the six cities, a significantly higher (p < 0.05) percentage of females than males desired to be thinner, the exception being Havana, where the distribution of desired change in body size was almost identical for males and females. Findings suggest a need for culturally sensitive, age- and gender-specific preventive interventions focusing on the importance of achieving a healthy weight during adolescence to promote body size acceptance among adolescents who are at a healthy weight.     

Early and late processes in syllogistic reasoning: evidence from eye-movements

An eye-movement monitoring experiment was carried out to examine the effects of the difficulty of the problem (simple versus complex problems) and the type of figure (figure 1 or figure 4) on the time course of processing categorical syllogisms. The results showed that the course of influence for these two factors is different. We found early processing effects for the figure but not for the difficulty of the syllogism and later processing effects for both the figure and the difficulty. These results lend support to the Model Theory (Johnson-Laird, P. N., Byrne, R. M. J. (1991). Deduction. Hillsdale, New Jersey: LEA.) as opposed to other theories of reasoning (Chater, N., Oaksford, M. (1999). The probability heuristics model of syllogistic reasoning. Cognitive Psychology, 38, 191-258; Rips, L. J. (1994). The psychology of proof. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; Rips, L. J. (1994). The psychology of proof. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).     

Practical Reason,Instrumental Irrationality,and Time

Standard models of practical rationality face a puzzle that has gone unnoticed: given a modest assumption about the nature of deliberation, we are apparently frequently briefly irrational. I explain the problem, consider what is wrong with several possible solutions, and propose an account that does not generate the objectionable result.     

The Revisionist’s Guide to Responsibility

Revisionism in the theory of moral responsibility is the idea that some aspect of responsibility practices, attitudes, or concept is in need of revision. While the increased frequency of revisionist language in the literature on free will and moral responsibility is striking, what discussion there has been of revisionism about responsibility and free will tends to be critical. In this paper, I argue that at least one species of revisionism, moderate revisionism, is considerably more sophisticated and defensible than critics have realized. I go on to argue for the advantages of moderate revisionist theories over standard compatibilist and incompatibilist theories.     

Doesconal prime canal more thancinal? Masked phonological priming effects in Spanish with the lexical decision task

Evidence for an early involvement of phonology in word identification usually relies on the comparison between a target word preceded by a homophonic prime and an orthographic control (rait-RATE vs. raut-RATE). This comparison rests on the assumption that the two control primes are equally orthographically similar to the target. Here, we tested for phonological effects with a masked priming paradigm in which orthographic similarity between priming conditions was perfectly controlled at the letter level and in which identification of the prime was virtually at chance for both stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) (66 and 50 msec). In the key prime-target pairs, each prime differed from the target by one vowel letter, but one changed the sound of the initial c, and the other did not (cinal-CANAL vs. conal-CANAL). In the control prime-target pairs, the primes had the identical vowel manipulation, but neither changed the initial consonant sound (pinel-PANEL vs. ponel-PANEL). For both high- and low-frequency words, lexical decision responses to the target were slower when the prime changed the sound of the c than when it did not, whereas there was no difference for the controls at both SOAs. However, this phonological effect was small and was not significant when the SOA was 50 msec. The pattern of data is consistent with an early phonological coding of primes that occurs just a little later than orthographic coding.     

Early, involuntary top-down guidance of attention from working memory

Four experiments explored the interrelations between working memory, attention, and eye movements. Observers had to identify a tilted line amongst vertical distractors. Each line was surrounded by a colored shape that could be precued by a matching item held in memory. Relative to a neutral baseline, in which no shapes matched the memory item, search was more efficient when the memory cue matched the shape containing the target, and it was less efficient when the cued stimulus contained a distractor. Cuing affected the shortest reaction times and the first saccade in search. The effect occurred even when the memory cue was always invalid but not when the cue did not have to be held in memory. There was also no evidence for priming effects between consecutive trials. The results suggest that there can be early, involuntary top-down directing of attention to a stimulus matching the contents of working memory.     

风险沟通与公众理性

突发风险事件所导致的恐慌,其危害程度可能远远大于风险事件本身。当灾害突然降临的时候,公众能够启动理性的程度是应对危机的重要基础。文章提出了公众理性的概念,并界定和探讨了公众理性的构成以及公众理性的干扰因素;同时,通过SARS事件,着重分析了风险沟通的性质、特点,以及风险沟通对公众理性干预的可能途径和条件;目的是为总结SARS风险危机和建立应对突发风险事件的心理系统提供理论依据,以更好地促进我国在风险沟通领域的研究与实践。     

Gaze Patterns When Looking at Emotional Pictures: Motivationally Biased Attention

Pictures of either emotionally neutral, pleasant (affectionate), or unpleasant (threat and injury) scenes were paired with nonemotional control pictures and presented for 3 s, while eye fixations were monitored. Preferential attention to the emotional picture of eah pair occurred at an early processing stage: The probability of placement of the first fixation and the proportion of viewing time during the first 500 ms were higher for both pleasant and unpleasant pictures than for neutral pictures, whereas later fixation location and time were not differentially affected. This suggests that, when emotional and nonemotional stimuli are presented simultaneously, emotional meaning captures initial overt orienting and engages attention early, as measured by gaze direction and duration. The possibility that this effect could be accounted for by perceptual differences—such as luminance and complexity—between emotional and neutral pictures was ruled out.