Conditionals and conditional probability

The authors report 3 experiments in which participants were invited to judge the probability of statements of the form if p then q given frequency information about the cases pq, p not q, not pq, and not p not q (where not = not). Three hypotheses were compared: (a) that people equate the probability with that of the material conditional, 1 - P(p not q); (b) that people assign the conditional probability, P(q/p); and (c) that people assign the conjunctive probability P(pq). The experimental evidence allowed rejection of the 1st hypothesis but provided some support for the 2nd and 3rd hypotheses. Individual difference analyses showed that half of the participants used conditional probability and that most of the remaining participants used conjunctive probability as the basis of their judgments.     

Acquired sensitivity to relevant physiological activity in patients with chronic health problems

The hypothesis that biased symptom perception toward excessive symptoms is common when relatively normal chronic patients enter symptom-relating situations, irrespective of emotional variables, was tested in 19 women with severe asthma, 18 with somatization-like characteristics, and 18 controls. Each underwent three experimental conditions: mental stress, resting, and physical exercise. Each condition included three breathing conditions: breathing normally, normal compressed air, and 5.5% CO2-enriched compressed air. Results yielded no group differences in physiological measures, e.g. elevated CO2 in exhaled air (end-tidal partial pressure of CO2, PetCO2), or lung function. Asthma patients experienced more breathlessness, and somatization-like participants more breathlessness, miscellaneous symptoms, and subjective stress than controls. Although these differences suggested acquired biased symptom perception, as it turned out, breathlessness in asthmatics was more influenced by PetCO2 and less by subjective stress compared to controls. Likewise, breathlessness in somatization-like participants was similarly influenced by PetCO2 and subjective stress compared to controls, and miscellaneous symptoms were even more influenced by PetCO2 and less by subjective stress compared to controls. It was concluded that acquired sensitivity to physiological activity associated with habitual symptoms may account for excessive symptoms in patients with chronic health problems.     

The emergence of coherence over the course of decision making

Previous research has indicated that decision making is accompanied by an increase in the coherence of assessments of the factors related to the decision alternatives. In the present study, the authors investigated whether this coherence shift is obtained before people commit to a decision, and whether it is obtained in the course of a number of other processing tasks. College students were presented with a complex legal case involving multiple conflicting arguments. Participants rated agreement with the individual arguments in isolation before seeing the case and after processing it under various initial sets, including playing the role of a judge assigned to decide the case. Coherence shifts were observed when participants were instructed to delay making the decision (Experiment 1), to memorize the case (Experiment 2), and to comprehend the case (Experiment 3). The findings support the hypothesis that a coherence-generating mechanism operates in a variety of processing tasks, including decision making.     

Visual and Affective Multimodal Models of Word Meaning in Language and Mind

One of the main limitations of natural language-based approaches to meaning is that they do not incorporate multimodal representations the way humans do. In this study, we evaluate how well different kinds of models account for people's representations of both concrete and abstract concepts. The models we compare include unimodal distributional linguistic models as well as multimodal models which combine linguistic with perceptual or affective information. There are two types of linguistic models: those based on text corpora and those derived from word association data. We present two new studies and a reanalysis of a series of previous studies. The studies demonstrate that both visual and affective multimodal models better capture behavior that reflects human representations than unimodal linguistic models. The size of the multimodal advantage depends on the nature of semantic representations involved, and it is especially pronounced for basic-level concepts that belong to the same superordinate category. Additional visual and affective features improve the accuracy of linguistic models based on text corpora more than those based on word associations; this suggests systematic qualitative differences between what information is encoded in natural language versus what information is reflected in word associations. Altogether, our work presents new evidence that multimodal information is important for capturing both abstract and concrete words and that fully representing word meaning requires more than purely linguistic information. Implications for both embodied and distributional views of semantic representation are discussed.     

How Reliably Do Eye Parameters Indicate Internal Versus External Attentional Focus?

Eye behavior is increasingly used as an indicator of internal versus external focus of attention both in research and application. However, available findings are partly inconsistent, which might be attributed to the different nature of the employed types of internal and external cognition tasks. The present study, therefore, investigated how consistently different eye parameters respond to internal versus external attentional focus across three task modalities: numerical, verbal, and visuo-spatial. Three eye parameters robustly differentiated between internal and external attentional focus across all tasks. Blinks, pupil diameter variance, and fixation disparity variance were consistently increased during internally directed attention. We also observed substantial attentional focus effects on other parameters (pupil diameter, fixation disparity, saccades, and microsaccades), but they were moderated by task type. Single-trial analysis of our data using machine learning techniques further confirmed our results: Classifying the focus of attention by means of eye tracking works well across participants, but generalizing across tasks proves to be challenging. Based on the effects of task type on eye parameters, we discuss what eye parameters are best suited as indicators of internal versus external attentional focus in different settings.     

Positive and negative intergroup contact: Interaction not asymmetry

This research reports a novel investigation into the comparative effects of positive and negative direct and extended intergroup contact on intergroup orientations. It tested the generality of the positive–negative asymmetry effect among majority (N = 357) and minority (N = 101) group members in Iceland. Little evidence of asymmetry was observed: the beneficial effects of positive contact were mostly as strong as the detrimental effects of negative contact, for both direct and extended contact. However, evidence was found for alternative interaction models in which positive contact buffers the negative effects of negative contact, and negative contact enhances the benefits of positive contact. These interaction effects were found only for direct contact and principally in the majority group, but were also found for the minority group, though more weakly. No interaction was observed for extended contact. It appeared that differential group salience elicited by positive and negative contact could partly contribute to the explanation of the observed effects, at least in the majority sample.     

How to Create Shared Symbols

Human cognition and behavior are dominated by symbol use. This paper examines the social learning strategies that give rise to symbolic communication. Experiment 1 contrasts an individual‐level account, based on observational learning and cognitive bias, with an inter‐individual account, based on social coordinative learning. Participants played a referential communication game in which they tried to communicate a range of recurring meanings to a partner by drawing, but without using their conventional language. Individual‐level learning, via observation and cognitive bias, was sufficient to produce signs that became increasingly effective, efficient, and shared over games. However, breaking a referential precedent eliminated these benefits. The most effective, most efficient, and most shared signs arose when participants could directly interact with their partner, indicating that social coordinative learning is important to the creation of shared symbols. Experiment 2 investigated the contribution of two distinct aspects of social interaction: behavior alignment and concurrent partner feedback. Each played a complementary role in the creation of shared symbols: Behavior alignment primarily drove communication effectiveness, and partner feedback primarily drove the efficiency of the evolved signs. In conclusion, inter‐individual social coordinative learning is important to the evolution of effective, efficient, and shared symbols.     

Who Believes in a Male God? Ideological Beliefs and Gendered Conceptualizations of God

Recent studies have explored whether certain conceptualizations of God are associated with various attitudes and beliefs. In the current study, we examined the relationship between gendered God concepts and the belief that God is involved in one’s life and religious-related rigid ideologies (i.e., religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism [RWA]). Across two studies, one conducted with religious students at a Jesuit university and the other with a national sample, we found that individuals who believed God to be male were more likely to believe that God had more control and involvement in their life, had higher levels of religious fundamentalism and higher levels of RWA-Aggression (Study 1 and 2), RWA–Submission (Study 1 and 2), and RWA–Conventionalism (Study 2) than individuals with other gendered or nongendered conceptualizations of God. Implications of the broader impact that gendered God concepts have on social and political domains are explored. Last, limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

Adrenal Insufficiency in Young Children: a Mixed Methods Study of Parents’ Experiences

Research into adrenal insufficiency (AI) and congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) in children has focused largely on clinical consequences for patients; and until recently, the wider experience of the condition from the perspective of other family members has been neglected. In a mixed methods study, we captured the experiences of parents of young children affected by AI/CAH, including their views on the psychosocial impact of living with and managing the condition. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in the UK and an online survey was developed, translated and disseminated through support groups (UK and the Netherlands) and outpatient endocrinology clinics (Germany). Challenges associated with diagnosis, treatment, support and the future were identified. For UK parents, the diagnosis period was characterised by a lack of awareness amongst healthcare professionals and occurrences of adrenal crisis. Parents reported burden, anxiety and disruption associated with the intensive treatment regimen. Parents adjusted and gained confidence over time yet found delegating responsibility for medication difficult and worried about the future for their child. Access to psychological support and contact with other families was reported as highly beneficial. The findings of the study provide critical context for future studies and for informing how parents and families can be better supported. Prenatal genetic counselling for parents who already have an affected child will include an explanation of recurrence risk but should also focus on providing information and reassurance about diagnostic testing and care for their newborn.