Stimulus control of spatial behavior on the eight-arm maze in rats

Rats were trained on an eight-arm, elevated radial maze in a large cylindrical chamber where extramaze stimuli could be manipulated. The first experiment indicated that rats could use extramaze stimuli to locate the arms if such stimuli were available, whereas they performed less effectively and tended to employ response chaining if these stimuli were not available. The second experiment demonstrated that maze performance was disrupted by transposition of the stimuli but was relatively unaffected by rotation of the same stimuli. The third experiment suggested that the disruptive effect of stimulus transposition might be due to a “resetting” process elicited by the alteration in the configuration of the stimuli after stimulus transposition. These results suggest that when extramaze stimuli are available, rats tend to use such stimuli in a configurational manner to locate the arms rather than as a list of items processed independently of their spatial relationships to each other.     

Canadian,Greek, and Japanese freely produced emotion labels for facial expressions

Observers in Canada (n=50), Greece (n=38), and Japan (n=50) were shown seven of Matsumoto and Ekman's (1988) photographs reported to show universally recognizable facial expressions of basic emotions. Observers were asked to name the emotion expressed with any single emotion label they wanted. Across cultures, recognition (percentage of observers agreeing with prediction) was high (>80%) for thehappy expression (indicating that observers understood the task), low for thecontempt expression (0 to 2%), and intermediate for the others (14 to 80% forsurprise, sadness, anger, disgust, andfear). Recognition for some facial expressions varied with the culture of the observer: For example, recognition of thefear expression was moderate to high in the two Western samples (62 to 87%) but low in the Japanese (14%); indeed, the Japanese modal response wassurprise rather thanfear.This study was funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.We thank Konstandina Nelos for her help in gathering the data in Greece.     

Kripke bundles for intermediate predicate logics and Kripke frames for intuitionistic modal logics

Shehtman and Skvortsov introduced Kripke bundles as semantics of non-classical first-order predicate logics. We show the structural equivalence between Kripke bundles for intermediate predicate logics and Kripke-type frames for intuitionistic modal prepositional logics. This equivalence enables us to develop the semantical study of relations between intermediate predicate logics and intuitionistic modal propositional logics. New examples of modal counterparts of intermediate predicate logics are given.The author would like to express his gratitude to Professor Hiroakira Ono for his comments, and to Professor Tadashi Kuroda for his encouragement.The author wishes to express his gratitude to Professors V. B. Shehtman, D. P. Skvortsov and M. Takano for their comments.     

Moon illusion simulated in complete darkness: planetarium experiment reexamined

In 1962, Kaufman and Rock reported that the moon illusion did not occur in the darkness of a planetarium or in a completely dark room. The present study reexamined their findings. Two pairs of light points, separated by 3.5 degrees, were presented on the dome screen of a planetarium. Subjects compared the distance between the two light points presented in the horizontal direction with the distance between the two light points at the zenith. Three illumination conditions were used: The inside of the planetarium was completely dark, was lighted, or was projected with the silhouette of a city under a starry sky. The effect of eye elevation on the illusion was also examined. Contrary to Kaufman and Rock's results, a size discrepancy comparable to the moon illusion was obtained in the horizon-and-stars condition and even in the complete-darkness condition. Little or no illusion was obtained in the lighted-room condition. The results also showed that eye elevation affected the magnitude of the illusion.     

On the saliency of negative stimuli: Evidence from attentional blink1

Abstract: When people are asked to detect two targets from a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream, impairment of recognition of the second target (T2) can be observed if the T2 is presented several hundred milliseconds later than the first target (T1). This phenomenon is known as attentional blink, and is considered to reflect some temporal characteristic of the attentional process. The aim of the present study was to use the attentional blink paradigm to examine whether the affective meaning of the stimuli could affect the magnitude of attentional blink. In Experiment 1, the valence of the T2 (neutral, positive, and negative) was manipulated. Significant T2 detection deficit was observed with neutral and positive T2 but not with negative T2. Experiment 2 demonstrated that non‐significant attentional blink in negative T2 in Experiment 1 could be attributed to the negative affective meaning of T2. Results are discussed in terms of the high saliency of negative information.     

Self‐expression and relationship formation in high relational mobility environments: A study of dual users of American and Japanese social networking sites

This study proposes that self‐expression motivation, an aspect of independent/individualistic psychological tendencies, aids in the formation of social relationships when social relationships are open and mobile. In societies characterised by high relational mobility (e.g., North America), which creates market‐like competition in social relationships, individuals must express their uniqueness and worthiness to form new social relationships. Self‐expression motivation has a relatively weak effect on relationship formation in low relational mobility societies (e.g., Japan), where social relationships are generally predetermined. This hypothesis was examined and supported through a study on dual users of two social networking sites—Facebook and Mixi (the “Facebook of Japan”). As expected, relational mobility was higher on Facebook than on Mixi. Moreover, the association between self‐expression motivation and the number of new friends met on Facebook/Mixi was more positive for Facebook than it was for Mixi. The social functionality of independent tendencies is then discussed.     

Culture and group-based emotions: could group-based emotions be dialectical?

Group-based emotions are experienced when individuals are engaged in emotion-provoking events that implicate the in-group. This research examines the complexity of group-based emotions, specifically a concurrence of positive and negative emotions, focusing on the role of dialecticism, or a set of folk beliefs prevalent in Asian cultures that views nature and objects as constantly changing, inherently contradictory, and fundamentally interconnected. Study 1 found that dialecticism is positively associated with the complexity of Chinese participants’ group-based emotions after reading a scenario depicting a positive intergroup experience. Study 2 found that Chinese participants experienced more complex group-based emotions compared with Dutch participants in an intergroup situation and that this cultural difference was mediated by dialecticism. Study 3 manipulated dialecticism and confirmed its causal effect on complex group-based emotions. These studies also suggested the role of a balanced appraisal of an intergroup situation as a mediating factor.     

Rapid eye-fixation training without eyetracking

Maintenance of stable central eye fixation is crucial for a variety of behavioral, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging experiments. Naive observers in these experiments are not typically accustomed to fixating, either requiring the use of cumbersome and costly eyetracking or producing confounds in results. We devised a flicker display that produced an easily detectable visual phenomenon whenever the eyes moved. A few minutes of training using this display dramatically improved the accuracy of eye fixation while observers performed a demanding spatial attention cuing task. The same amount of training using control displays did not produce significant fixation improvements, and some observers consistently made eye movements to the peripheral attention cue, contaminating the cuing effect. Our results indicate that (1) eye fixation can be rapidly improved in naive observers by providing real-time feedback about eye movements, and (2) our simple flicker technique provides an easy and effective method for providing this feedback. S. Suzuki, satoru@northwestern.edu     

Halldén-Completeness in Super-Intuitionistic Predicate Logics

One criterion of constructive logics is the disjunction, property (DP). The Halldén-completeness is a weak DP, and is related to the relevance principle and variable separation. This concept is well-understood in the case of propositional logics. We extend this notion to predicate logics. Then three counterparts naturally arise. We discuss relationships between these properties and meet-irreducibility in the lattice of logics.