Not all visual features are created equal: early processing in letter and word recognition

In four experiments, we investigated the effect of deleting specific features of letters on letter and word recognition in the context of reading aloud. Experiments 1 and 2 assessed the relative importance of vertices versus midsegments in letter recognition. Experiments 3 and 4 tested the relative importance of vertices versus midsegments in word recognition. The results demonstrate that deleting vertices is more detrimental to letter and word identification than is deleting midsegments of letters. These results converge with those of previous research on the role of vertices in object identification. Theoretical implications for early processing in reading are noted.     

Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks

In many jobs, employees must manage multiple projects or tasks at the same time. A typical workday often entails switching between several work activities, including projects, tasks, and meetings. This paper explores how such work design affects individual performance by focusing on the challenge of switching attention from one task to another. As revealed by two experiments, people need to stop thinking about one task in order to fully transition their attention and perform well on another. Yet, results indicate it is difficult for people to transition their attention away from an unfinished task and their subsequent task performance suffers. Being able to finish one task before switching to another is, however, not enough to enable effective task transitions. Time pressure while finishing a prior task is needed to disengage from the first task and thus move to the next task and it contributes to higher performance on the next task.     

Consensus scoring, correct responses and reliability of the MSCEIT V2

The scoring protocol adopted by the MSCEIT V2 has been criticised since its development. The present study raises questions regarding the value of consensus scoring by analysing responses within the categorical subscales of Changes and Blends using the Optimal Scaling technique within the Categorical Principal Components Analysis (CATPCA) via Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), (n = 206). On a number of occasions, there was no clear agreement as to the “correct” response to items within these categorical subscales. Such an issue seems integral to the application of the MSCEIT V2 and one which deserves more attention. On a more positive note, improvements were made to the reliabilities of the subscales of Changes and Blends, using Optimal Scaling, but less so for Changes. Nevertheless, this raises the possibility of improving the reliabilities of other subscales in the MSCEIT V2 and in turn improving the power of subsequent statistical tests.     

Harnessing the wandering mind: The role of perceptual load

Perceptual load is a key determinant of distraction by task-irrelevant stimuli (e.g., Lavie, N. (2005). Distracted and confused?: Selective attention under load. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 75-82). Here we establish the role of perceptual load in determining an internal form of distraction by task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs or “mind-wandering”).Four experiments demonstrated reduced frequency of TUTs with high compared to low perceptual load in a visual-search task. Alternative accounts in terms of increased demands on responses, verbal working memory or motivation were ruled out and clear effects of load were found for unintentional TUTs. Individual differences in load effects on internal (TUTs) and external (response-competition) distractors were correlated. These results suggest that exhausting attentional capacity in task-relevant processing under high perceptual load can reduce processing of task-irrelevant information from external and internal sources alike.     

Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for the impact of regional variation on phoneme perception

This event-related potential (ERP) study examined the impact of phonological variation resulting from a vowel merger on phoneme perception. The perception of the /e/-/ε/ contrast which does not exist in Southern French-speaking regions, and which is in the process of merging in Northern French-speaking regions, was compared to the /ø/-/y/ contrast, which is stable in all French-speaking regions. French-speaking participants from Switzerland for whom the /e/-/ε/ contrast is preserved, but who are exposed to different regional variants, had to perform a same-different task. They first heard four phonemically identical but acoustically different syllables (e.g., /be/-/be/-/be/-/be/), and then heard the test syllable which was either phonemically identical to (/be/) or phonemically different from (/bε/) the preceding context stimuli. The results showed that the unstable /e/-/ε/ contrast only induced a mismatch negativity (MMN), whereas the /ø/-/y/ contrast elicited both a MMN and electrophysiological differences on the P200. These findings were in line with the behavioral results in which responses were slower and more error-prone in the /e/-/ε/ deviant condition than in the /ø/-/y/ deviant condition. Together these findings suggest that the regional variability in the speech input to which listeners are exposed affects the perception of speech sounds in their own accent.     

Children’s strategies in complex arithmetic

Strategies used to solve two-digit addition problems (e.g., 27 + 48, Experiment 1) and two-digit subtraction problems (e.g., 73 – 59, Experiment 2) were investigated in adults and in children from Grades 3, 5, and 7. Participants were tested in choice and no-choice conditions. Results showed that (a) participants used the full decomposition strategy more often than the partial decomposition strategy to solve addition problems but used both strategies equally often to solve subtraction problems; (b) strategy use and execution were influenced by participants’ age, problem features, relative strategy performance, and whether the problems were displayed horizontally or vertically; and (c) age-related changes in complex arithmetic concern relative strategy use and execution as well as the relative influences of problem characteristics, strategy characteristics, and problem presentation on strategy choices and strategy performance. Implications of these findings for understanding age-related changes in strategic aspects of complex arithmetic performance are discussed.     

Culture, gender, and the self: variations and impact of social comparison processes

Psychological differences between women and men, far from being invariant as a biological explanation would suggest, fluctuate in magnitude across cultures. Moreover, contrary to the implications of some theoretical perspectives, gender differences in personality, values, and emotions are not smaller, but larger, in American and European cultures, in which greater progress has been made toward gender equality. This research on gender differences in self-construals involving 950 participants from 5 nations/cultures (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, and Malaysia) illustrates how variations in social comparison processes across cultures can explain why gender differences are stronger in Western cultures. Gender differences in the self are a product of self-stereotyping, which occurs when between-gender social comparisons are made. These social comparisons are more likely, and exert a greater impact, in Western nations. Both correlational and experimental evidence supports this explanation.     

More than one kind of happiness: Can we recognize vocal expressions of different positive states?

Several theorists have proposed that distinctions are needed between different positive emotional states, and that these discriminations may be particularly useful in the domain of vocal signals (Ekman, 1992b, Cognition and Emotion, 6, 169–200; Scherer, 1986, Psychological Bulletin, 99, 143–165). We report an investigation into the hypothesis that positive basic emotions have distinct vocal expressions (Ekman, 1992b, Cognition and Emotion, 6, 169–200). Non-verbal vocalisations are used that map onto five putative positive emotions: Achievement/Triumph, Amusement, Contentment, Sensual Pleasure, and Relief. Data from categorisation and rating tasks indicate that each vocal expression is accurately categorised and consistently rated as expressing the intended emotion. This pattern is replicated across two language groups. These data, we conclude, provide evidence for the existence of robustly recognisable expressions of distinct positive emotions.     

Haptic perception in newborns

Two experiments using different procedures were performed in which newborns’ ability to process information about object shape with their hands was explored. In the first experiment, a haptic fixed‐trial procedure was used and a decrease in holding times was found for both right and left hands. In the second experiment, discrimination between objects was studied in which a shifted procedure associated to an infant‐control procedure followed by a dishabituation procedure was used. Habituation to an object and a reaction to the novelty of a new object were shown for both right and left hands, showing that neonates are able to process and encode some information about object shape and then to discriminate between different shapes. It is the first evidence of such an ability in neonates. Methodological procedure and haptic cognition with regard to sensory symmetry are discussed and some developmental perspectives are proposed.     

How does culture shape our moral identity? Moral foundations in Saudi Arabia and Britain

North American measures of moral identity (MI) assume that caring and fairness are the most prototypical features of morality. Moral foundations theory describes such individualising foundations of morality as dominant in individualist cultures and binding foundations of morality as more particular to collectivist cultures. We weighed the criticism that moral identity scales are guilty of “liberal ethnocentrism” in two studies drawing on participants in the UK and Saudi Arabia. Only individualising traits were prototypical of concepts of moral people in Britain, while individualising and binding traits were both prototypical of such concepts in Saudi Arabia (Study 1, N = 160). In Study 2 (N = 539), participants completed the moral identity scale following typical instructions that referred to the prototypical traits of one of five moral foundations. Overall MI scores were lower in Britain than in Saudi Arabia, particularly when instructions described binding traits as characteristics of a moral person. Cross-cultural differences were mediated by the perceived cultural importance attributed to these traits, particularly binding traits. These results justify concerns that existing moral identity scales underestimate important cultural variation in conceptualising moral identity, but justice and caring concerns remain the best single candidates for a universal foundation of human morality.