Effect of unpleasant loud noise on hippocampal activities during picture encoding: an fMRI study

The functional link between the amygdala and hippocampus in humans has not been well documented. We examined the effect of unpleasant loud noise on hippocampal and amygdaloid activities during picture encoding by means of fMRI, and on the correct response in humans. The noise reduced activity in the hippocampus during picture encoding, decreased the correct response and increased the activity of the amygdala. A path diagram using structural equation modeling suggested that hippocampus activity might be depressed by high amygdala activity. Therefore, noise should diminish memory by reducing hippocampal activity, which might be depressed by high amygdala activity.     

Construal levels and self-control

The authors propose that self-control involves making decisions and behaving in a manner consistent with high-level versus low-level construals of a situation. Activation of high-level construals (which capture global, superordinate, primary features of an event) should lead to greater self-control than activation of low-level construals (which capture local, subordinate, secondary features). In 6 experiments using 3 different techniques, the authors manipulated construal levels and assessed their effects on self-control and underlying psychological processes. High-level construals led to decreased preferences for immediate over delayed outcomes, greater physical endurance, stronger intentions to exert self-control, and less positive evaluations of temptations that undermine self-control. These results support a construal-level analysis of self-control.     

Transcending the "here": the effect of spatial distance on social judgment

Construal level theory proposes that increasing the reported spatial distance of events produces judgments that reflect abstract, schematic representations of the events. Across 4 experiments, the authors examined the impact of spatial distance on construal-dependent social judgments. Participants structured behavior into fewer, broader units (Study 1) and increasingly attributed behavior to enduring dispositions rather than situational constraints (Study 2) when the behavior was spatially distant rather than near. Participants reported that typical events were more likely and atypical events less likely when events were more spatially distant (Study 3). They were also less likely to extrapolate from specific cases that deviated from general trends when making predictions about more spatially distant events (Study 4). Implications for social judgment are discussed.     

The influence of complexes on implicit learning

A century ago, Jung looked into the unconscious through complexes by using word association tests. Jung wrote, 'modern psychology with its investigation of complexes has opened up a psychic taboo area riddled with hopes and fears', and complexes remain an unexplored taboo area of research. In the present study, we have investigated the influence of complexes on unconscious cognitive processing, in particular on implicit learning. We have found that complexes shown to disturb conscious cognitive processing in fact enhanced the attention of the subjects and their performance on an implicit learning task. These results suggest that complexes are not just abstractions, but have various actual influences on both conscious and unconscious processing.     

Life satisfaction set point: stability and change

Using data from 17 years of a large and nationally representative panel study from Germany, the authors examined whether there is a set point for life satisfaction (LS)--stability across time, even though it can be perturbed for short periods by life events. The authors found that 24% of respondents changed significantly in LS from the first 5 years to the last 5 years and that stability declined as the period between measurements increased. Average LS in the first 5 years correlated .51 with the 5-year average of LS during the last 5 years. Height, weight, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and personality traits were all more stable than LS, whereas income was about as stable as LS. Almost 9% of the sample changed an average of 3 or more points on a 10-point scale from the first 5 to last 5 years of the study.     

Multidimensional sequence learning in patients with focal basal ganglia lesions

Parkinson's patients have been found to be impaired in learning movement sequences. In the current study, patients with unilateral basal ganglia lesions due to stroke were tested on a serial reaction time task in which responses were based on the spatial location of each stimulus. The spatial locations either followed a fixed sequence or were selected at random, with learning operationalized as the difference in reaction time between these two conditions. In addition, three response-to-stimulus intervals were used, and these either followed a fixed sequence or were randomized. Compared to control participants, the patients showed normal learning of the spatial and temporal sequences, as well as normal cross-dimensional learning. This was true for performance with either the contralesional or ipsilesional hand. Sequence learning was not correlated with maximum tapping rate, a simple measure of motor impairment. These results raise questions concerning the use of Parkinson's disease as a model for studying basal ganglia dysfunction.     

Emotion as a thermostat: representing emotion regulation using a damped oscillator model

The authors present in this study a damped oscillator model that provides a direct mathematical basis for testing the notion of emotion as a self-regulatory thermostat. Parameters from this model reflect individual differences in emotional lability and the ability to regulate emotion. The authors discuss concepts such as intensity, rate of change, and acceleration in the context of emotion, and they illustrate the strengths of this approach in comparison with spectral analysis and growth curve models. The utility of this modeling approach is illustrated using daily emotion ratings from 179 college students over 52 consecutive days. Overall, the damped oscillator model provides a meaningful way of representing emotion regulation as a dynamic process and helps identify the dominant periodicities in individuals' emotions.     

The development of moral orientation in elementary school children

While much research has focused on issues of justice in children's moral learning, little is known about children's use of other moral orientations in solving moral problems. A study was conducted with children drawn from Grades 1, 3, and 5 (total n=54). Fables were used as the moral dilemmas, since previous research had shown that they could be solved from either a justice or a care orientation. In individual interviews, children were asked how they would solve the problems in the fables, whether there was a different solution, and what the best solution (justice or care) would be. They were then asked to explain the logic of the solution they offered. The results from the study showed that (a) children tended to adopt a care orientation as their first solution and to consider it the best solution, (b) there were no differences between first- and third-grade boys and girls, (c) solutions involving violence and tricks appeared among the fifth-grade boys only, and (d) the ability to explain the logic of both orientations to the fables problem was correlated with children's use of abstract reasoning skills on beginning formal operational tasks and with perspective-taking ability.We would like to thank the principal and teachers of the Thetford Elementary School, Thetford, Vermont, for their participation in this project. We are also grateful to Elizabeth Hoffman, Dan Parish, Kathleen Lambert, and Heather Caldwell for their help with data collection, to Carol Kottmeier and Mary Varanese for their coding of the Selman data, and to Ann Huebner, Kay Johnston, Sharry Langdale, Michael W. Pratt, and Lawrence Walker for their comments on the paper. Support for the research was provided by Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College.     

Haptic identification of objects and their depictions

Haptic identification of real objects is superior to that of raised two-dimensional (2-D) depictions. Three explanations of real-object superiority were investigated: contribution of material information, contribution of 3-D shape and size, and greater potential for integration across the fingers. In Experiment 1, subjects, while wearing gloves that gently attenuated material information, haptically identified real objects that provided reduced cues to compliance, mass, and part motion. The gloves permitted exploration with free hand movement, a single outstretched finger, or five outstretched fingers. Performance decreased over these three conditions but was superior to identification of pictures of the same objects in all cases, indicating the contribution of 3-D structure and integration across the fingers. Picture performance was also better with five fingers than with one. In Experiment 2, the subjects wore open-fingered gloves, which provided them with material information. Consequently, the effect of type of exploration was substantially reduced but not eliminated. Material compensates somewhat for limited access to object structure but is not the primary basis for haptic object identification.     

Individual and group advice taking in judgmental forecasting: Is group forecasting superior to individual forecasting?

We examined how individuals and groups behave in making judgmental forecasts when they are given external forecast advice. We compare individual and group advice-taking behavior under different conditions: (a) when advice quality is fixed, (b) when advice quality is randomly varied, and (c) when there is feedback on advice quality or not. Participants in Study 1 received fixed advice of either reasonable or unreasonable quality while making their decisions. Participants in Study 2 randomly received both reasonable and unreasonable advice. We found in both studies that groups feel more confident than individuals. This greater confidence decreased the groups' reliance on advice. We also found that groups are better than individuals at discerning the quality of advice. In the group treatment, the group's reliance on advice increased according to the degree of disagreement with the initial decisions of the group members. In Study 3, participants randomly received both reasonable and unreasonable advice, and in addition, they received feedback on actual realizations that enabled them to learn about the quality of advice. In the presence of feedback on random advice quality, groups are no longer less receptive to advice than individuals; with feedback, both individuals and groups discount advice more than they do without feedback. Nevertheless, groups are still better than individuals at discerning the quality of advice. We conclude that group forecasting is better than individual forecasting across various conditions that we investigate except when advice quality is known to be consistently reliable.