Why are average faces attractive? The effect of view and averageness on the attractiveness of female faces

Images of faces manipulated to make their shapes closer to the average are perceived as more attractive. The influences of symmetry and averageness are often confounded in studies based on full-face views of faces. Two experiments are reported that compared the effect of manipulating the averageness of female faces in profile and full-face views. Use of a profile view allows a face to be ”morphed“ toward an average shape without creating an image that becomes more symmetrical. Faces morphed toward the average were perceived as more attractive in both views, but the effect was significantly stronger for full-face views. Both full-face and profile views morphed away from the average shape were perceived as less attractive. It is concluded that the effect of averageness is independent of any effect of symmetry on the perceived attractiveness of female faces.     

Basic-level visual similarity and category specificity

The role of visual crowding in category deficits has been widely discussed (e.g.,;; ). Most studies have measured overlap at the superordinate level (compare different examples of 'animal') rather than at the basic level (compare different examples of 'dog'). In this study, we therefore derived two measures of basic-level overlap for a range of categories. The first was a computational measure generated by a self-organising neural network trained to process pictures of living and non-living things; the second was a rating of perceived visual similarity generated by human subjects to the item names. The computational measure indicated that the pattern of crowded/uncrowded does not honour a living/non-living distinction. Nevertheless, different superordinates showed varied degrees of basic-level overlap, suggesting that specific token choice affects some superordinates more than others e.g., individual fruit and vegetable tokens show greater variability than any other items, while tools and vehicles produce more reliable or overlapping basic-level visual representations. Finally, subject ratings correlated significantly with the computational measures indicating that the neural model represents structural properties of the objects that are psychologically meaningful.     

Acquiring an understanding of design: evidence from children's insight problem solving

The human ability to make tools and use them to solve problems may not be zoologically unique, but it is certainly extraordinary. Yet little is known about the conceptual machinery that makes humans so competent at making and using tools. Do adults and children have concepts specialized for understanding human-made artifacts? If so, are these concepts deployed in attempts to solve novel problems? Here we present new data, derived from problem-solving experiments, which support the following. (i) The structure of the child's concept of artifact function changes profoundly between ages 5 and 7. At age 5, the child's conceptual machinery defines the function of an artifact as any goal a user might have; by age 7, its function is defined by the artifact's typical or intended use. (ii) This conceptual shift has a striking effect on problem-solving performance, i.e. the child's concept of artifact function appears to be deployed in problem solving. (iii) This effect on problem solving is not caused by differences in the amount of knowledge that children have about the typical use of a particular tool; it is mediated by the structure of the child's artifact concept (which organizes and deploys the child's knowledge). In two studies, children between 5 and 7 years of age were matched for their knowledge of what a particular artifact "is for", and then given a problem that can only be solved if that tool is used for an atypical purpose. All children performed well in a baseline condition. But when they were primed by a demonstration of the artifact's typical function, 5-year-old children solved the problem much faster than 6-7-year-old children. Because all children knew what the tools were for, differences in knowledge alone cannot explain the results. We argue that the older children were slower to solve the problem when the typical function was primed because (i) their artifact concept plays a role in problem solving, and (ii) intended purpose is central to their concept of artifact function, but not to that of the younger children.     

Beyond the group mind: a quantitative review of the interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect

This quantitative review of 130 comparisons of interindividual and intergroup interactions in the context of mixed-motive situations reveals that intergroup interactions are generally more competitive than interindividual interactions. The authors identify 4 moderators of this interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect, each based on the theoretical perspective that the discontinuity effect flows from greater fear and greed in intergroup relative to interindividual interactions. Results reveal that each moderator shares a unique association with the magnitude of the discontinuity effect. The discontinuity effect is larger when (a) participants interact with an opponent whose behavior is unconstrained by the experimenter or constrained by the experimenter to be cooperative rather than constrained by the experimenter to be reciprocal, (b) group members make a group decision rather than individual decisions, (c) unconstrained communication between participants is present rather than absent, and (d) conflict of interest is severe rather than mild.     

Electromyographic and vasomotor activity in tension, migraine, and combined headache patients: The influence of postural variation

Electromyographic (EMG) and temporal artery vasomotor activity was evaluated in three groups of headache patients (tension, migraine and combined) and nonheadache control subjects while in reclining, sitting and standing positions. Analysis of the EMG data revealed that at all measurement sites (bilateral frontalis, bilateral trapezius) the three headache groups demonstrated significantly higher levels than the nonheadache group but did not differ from each other. A secondary analysis of the trapezius EMG data revealed that a large percentage of headache patients had “normal” EMG levels in the reclining position but showed abnormalities in the sitting and standing positions. Analysis of the left temporal artery vasomotor activity revealed that all three headache groups vasoconstricted to a significantly greater extent than the nonheadache group in the sitting and standing positions. However, a diagnosis by position interaction was found for the right temporal artery with the migraine group demonstrating a unique pattern of activity.     

Psychological type and conceptions of empathy in experienced counsellors

Definitions of empathy vary widely. One explanation is that the different conceptions reflect personality differences. We investigated this idea with a sample of fifteen experienced counsellor, using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to measure aspects of personality and semistructured interviews to measure conceptions and reported practice of empathy. Counsellors who preferred sensing were found to make more references to empathy as a state and intuitive types to process. Those who preferred thinking and judging had a more active conception and reported practice, while feeling and perceiving types referred to a passive approach. Further relationships predicted by Myer-Briggs theory, between preference for thinking and cognitive empathy, and feeling and affective empathy, were close to statistical significance. Therefore, different psychological types do seem to define empathy differently. Implications for counselling theory, practice and training and education are discussed.     

What's so funny about that?: The domains-interaction approach as a model of incongruity and resolution in humor

The domains-interaction approach, originally developed in metaphor research, was used to model humor processing. Using jokes of the structure A is the B of A's domain (e.g., John Candy is the hamburger of actors), this approach allows for precise operationalizations of incongruity and resolution in terms of between-domain and within-domain semantic distance, respectively. Distances between 26 terms used in 250 of these simple jokes were derived from semantic differential ratings. As predicted, humor ratings of the jokes were positively correlated with incongruity (between-domain distance) but not with resolution (within-domain distance). Also as predicted, a significant interaction revealed that jokes with both incongruity and resolution were rated as most humorous. These findings were replicated in a second study. A third study indicated that humor perception differs from metaphor appreciation, showing main effects for both types of semantic distance, but no interaction, when the sentences were presented as metaphors instead of jokes and rated for aptness.The authors wish to thank Richard Harshman and Albert Katz for their helpful suggestions in conducting this research.     

Employee and Supervisor Ratings of Motivation: Main Effects and Discrepancies Associated with Job Satisfaction and Adjustment in a Factory Setting1

Research and theory on employee job satisfaction and well-being has increasingly concentrated on both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. According to self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985). autonomy, relatedness, and competence are three intrinsic psychological needs that, if fulfilled in the workplace, will lead to greater satisfaction, performance, and general well-being. This study examines employee and supervisor perceptions of the employee's autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the workplace, as well as the degree and direction of discrepancies between employee and supervisor reports. Both employee and supervisor ratings of intrinsic motivational factors were significantly related to work satisfaction, psychological health, and self-esteem, after controlling for the extrinsic factors of pay and job status. Results of discrepancy analyses were somewhat supportive of overrating being associated with greater well-being and job satisfaction. Discussion of the results ties this study to relevant research from a self-determination perspective and to the growing literature on discrepancies and self-perception.     

Spontaneous transitions and symmetry: Pattern dynamics in human four-limb coordination

Transitions between the coordinative patterns of rhythmically moving human arms and legs were studied to test the predictions of a four-component model (Schöner, Jiang and Kelso, 1990). Based upon results from previous two-component experiments (Kelso and Jeka, 1992), three assumptions were made about the four-limb system: (1) all limb pairs produce stable in-phase and anti-phase patterns; (2) the coupling between homologous limbs (i.e., right and left arms or right and left legs) is appreciably stronger than the coupling between nonhomologous limbs (i.e., arm and leg); and (3) right-left symmetry. An analysis of a four-component model (Jeka, Kelso and Kiemel, 1993) led to the prediction of four attracting invariant circles, each with two stable patterns in the state space of four-limb dynamics. In an experiment to test this prediction, subjects were required to cycle all four limbs in one of the eight patterns to the beat of an auditory metronome whose frequency was systematically increased. All subjects demonstrated spontaneous transitions corresponding to pathways along the invariant circles. Pre-transition relative phase variability increased with required frequency up to the transition, suggesting that loss of pattern stability induced the observed transitions. Thus, despite a large number of potential transitions, differential coupling between limb pairs and symmetry of the pattern dynamics restricts the behavior of the human four-limb system to a limited area of its state space.