Uncertainty and Expectation in Sentence Processing: Evidence From Subcategorization Distributions

There is now considerable evidence that human sentence processing is expectation based: As people read a sentence, they use their statistical experience with their language to generate predictions about upcoming syntactic structure. This study examines how sentence processing is affected by readers' uncertainty about those expectations. In a self‐paced reading study, we use lexical subcategorization distributions to factorially manipulate both the strength of expectations and the uncertainty about them. We compare two types of uncertainty: uncertainty about the verb's complement, reflecting the next prediction step; and uncertainty about the full sentence, reflecting an unbounded number of prediction steps. We find that uncertainty about the full structure, but not about the next step, was a significant predictor of processing difficulty: Greater reduction in uncertainty was correlated with increased reading times (RTs). We additionally replicated previously observed effects of expectation violation (surprisal), orthogonal to the effect of uncertainty. This suggests that both surprisal and uncertainty affect human RTs. We discuss the consequences for theories of sentence comprehension.     

Evaluating the evaluator: The effects of the valence,sequence and target of evaluations on the perception of the evaluator

People commonly want to be perceived as intelligent, as well as be liked by others. Previous research has demonstrated that people who wish to appear intelligent tend to criticise others, and that criticising others indeed leads to the perception of high intelligence. In the current research we hypothesised and found that this is not the case when (a) the criticism is targeted towards the people who form the impression, and (b) the criticism is targeted towards those with whom the people who form the impression have just interacted. In both cases, participants in our study liked evaluators less when they used criticism than when they used praise. Moreover, they perceived the evaluators as less intelligent. We also demonstrated that in cases of mixing praise with criticism, the sequence of the evaluation interacted with the target of the evaluation in influencing liking. We found a greater liking for evaluators whose evaluation changed from negative to positive rather than vice versa, but only when the perceiver was the target of the evaluation. The discussion centres on the potential underlying mechanisms for these results, as well as on the practical applications of the results and directions for future research.     

How Diverse Is This Community? Sense of Community,Ethnic Prejudice and Perceived Ethnic Heterogeneity

In this paper, the relationship between territorial sense of community (SoC), perceived ethnic heterogeneity within the community and ethnic prejudice was analyzed. Specifically, the moderating role of perceived ethnic heterogeneity within the community on the SoC–prejudice relationship was tested in a sample of residents (N = 603) of the Salento region, Italy. Results showed that the relationship between SoC and prejudice was moderated by perceived contextual heterogeneity. For blatant and subtle prejudice, when perceived ethnic heterogeneity was low, SoC was negatively associated with prejudice. In the case of modern prejudice, SoC was positively associated with prejudice when perceived ethnic heterogeneity was high. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Planning maximally smooth hand movements constrained to nonplanar workspaces

The article characterizes hand paths and speed profiles for movements performed in a nonplanar, 2-dimensional workspace (a hemisphere of constant curvature). The authors assessed endpoint kinematics (i.e., paths and speeds) under the minimum-jerk model assumptions and calculated minimal amplitude paths (geodesics) and the corresponding speed profiles. The authors also calculated hand speeds using the 2/3 power law. They then compared modeled results with the empirical observations. In all, 10 participants moved their hands forward and backward from a common starting position toward 3 targets located within a hemispheric workspace of small or large curvature. Comparisons of modeled observed differences using 2-way RM-ANOVAs showed that movement direction had no clear influence on hand kinetics (p < .05). Workspace curvature affected the hand paths, which seldom followed geodesic lines. Constraining the paths to different curvatures did not affect the hand speed profiles. Minimum-jerk speed profiles closely matched the observations and were superior to those predicted by 2/3 power law (p < .001). The authors conclude that speed and path cannot be unambiguously linked under the minimum-jerk assumption when individuals move the hand in a nonplanar 2-dimensional workspace. In such a case, the hands do not follow geodesic paths, but they preserve the speed profile, regardless of the geometric features of the workspace.     

Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Treat Distressed Couples: A Case Study With Two Couples

Although the field of couple therapy has made significant strides in recent years, there continues to be a need for theoretically sound and empirically supported treatments. The current case study examines whether Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), an experiential acceptance-based behavior therapy, can be effective in treating distressed couples. Although ACT has demonstrated effectiveness in treating a variety of disorders in individuals, it has not been systemically applied to the treatment of couple distress, and the current study is the first empirical examination of ACT for the treatment of couples. Two married couples participated in the study. A number of core ACT interventions were modified to treat couples in a conjoint format. Cognitive defusion exercises were used to help couples reduce their fusion with and the believability of negative thoughts and feelings related to the relationship. Mindfulness and acceptance techniques were used to help couples increase awareness of their reactions to negative relationship cycles. Finally, value-directed action was used to help partners act in ways consistent with relationship values even in the presence of unwanted thoughts and feelings. The results of this preliminary case study suggest that ACT may be effective in increasing marital adjustment and satisfaction, and in reducing interpersonal and psychological distress in couples. Future studies with larger samples and more controlled designs are needed to build on the results from this single-case study.     

Cross over of forebrain and brainstem neuronal projections to spinal cord sympathetic preganglionic neurons in the rat

Neuronal inputs from the forebrain and the brainstem to sympathetic preganglionic neurons in the spinal cord were investigated by the transneuronal retrograde tracing technique using pseudorabies virus in intact and brainstem-lesioned rats. After unilateral subcutaneous viral inoculations into the hind limb of intact rats, infected neurons were then visualized by immunostaining. At 3.5 days after inoculation, infected neurons appeared in the thoracic (T10) intermediolateral (IML) cell column. On the 4th day, infected neurons were present in the C1, A5, A6, A7 catecholamine cell groups and the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVMM). On the 5th day, viral labeling was seen in the hypothalamic paraventricular and arcuate nuclei and the lateral hypothalamic area. In all of these nuclei, the infected cells appeared bilaterally. However, the appearance of virus-labeled cells in these nuclei was unilateral following unilateral coronal sections between the medulla and the spinal cord (depending on the side of hemisection, but not on the site of virus inoculation). Midsagittal sections throughout the entire medulla oblongata did not alter the topographical pattern of virus-infected neurons in the forebrain or the brainstem. These findings indicate that descending fibers to the spinal neurons may not cross over in the lower brainstem but that they decussate within the spinal cord.     

Distributing versus focusing attention in visual short-term memory

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is traditionally considered a robust form of visual memory resistant to interference from subsequent visual input. This study shows that the robustness of VSTM depends on the way attention is allocated in VSTM. When attention is distributed across multiple memory items, VSTM for these items is vulnerable to interference from subsequent input, including passively viewed images and the postchange testing displays. Yet attention can readjust its focus in VSTM on the basis of an attentional orienting cue presented long after encoding. When attention is oriented to a particular memorized item, the memory is resistant to subsequent interference. This effect, however, is eliminated when the subset of items demanding focal attention exceeds one, suggesting that orienting attention in VSTM is less flexible than orienting attention in perception. We propose that the robustness of VSTM is influenced by whether attention is focused or distributed in VSTM.     

The Influence of Media Coverage on Responses to a Hypothetical Burglary Scenario1

The present study examined whether media coverage was likely to have an effect on burglars' emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to the offense. Questionnaires were distributed to 224 male students, who were asked to imagine that they had committed a “burglary under the influence of alcohol.” They were asked to express their thoughts, feelings, and possible actions, both before and after reading a newspaper article about the offense. A multidimensional scaling procedure identified 4 response themes: guilt, fear, forensic awareness, and pride. Two persuasion variables (inducing guilt and a hidden message) were found to have a multifaceted influence on the 4 themes. Implications for police use of the media as well as limitations of the study are discussed.     

Association between Terror Attacks and Suicide Attempts

Based on Durkheim's ‘Control theory,’ we explored the association between frequency of terror attacks in Israel and the frequency of suicide attempts admitted to the Emergency Room of a major general hospital in Tel‐Aviv (1999–2004). Analysis of the six‐year study period as a whole revealed no significant correlation between the variables, with the exception of one 11‐month segment within it (December 2000–October 2001) that did show a statistically significant positive correlation, and in opposition to Durkeim's hypothesis. It is suggested that suicide attempts as a phenomena should be seen as a product of a multivariate model, in which the social context plays a role as well.