The effects of trust in authority and procedural fairness on cooperation

The present research examined the effect of procedural fairness and trust in an authority on people's willingness to cooperate with the authority across a wide range of social situations. Prior research has shown that the presence of information about whether an authority can be trusted moderates the effect of procedural fairness. If no trust information is available, procedural fairness influences people's reactions. This is not the case when information about the trustworthiness of the authority is present. In the present article, it is argued that information about whether the authority can or cannot be trusted may also moderate the effect of procedural fairness in predicting levels of cooperation. Assuming that the use of fair procedures by authorities that cannot be trusted is less influential than is the enactment of procedures by trustworthy authorities, it is predicted that trust in authority moderates the influence of procedural fairness on cooperation in such a way that procedural fairness has a positive effect on cooperation primarily when trust in authority is high. Results from 4 studies (2 experimental studies and 2 field studies) provide supportive evidence for this interaction.     

Learning nonadjacent dependencies: no need for algebraic-like computations

Is it possible to learn the relation between 2 nonadjacent events? M. Pena, L. L. Bonatti, M. Nespor, and J. Mehler (2002) claimed this to be possible, but only in conditions suggesting the involvement of algebraic-like computations. The present article reports simulation studies and experimental data showing that the observations on which Pena et al. grounded their reasoning were flawed by deep methodological inadequacies. When the invalid data are set aside, the available evidence fits exactly with the predictions of a theory relying on ubiquitous associative mechanisms. Because nonadjacent dependencies are frequent in natural language, this reappraisal has far-reaching implications for the current debate on the need for rule-based computations in human adaptation to complex structures.     

Emotional correlates of the different dimensions of schizotypal personality disorder

Two studies explored which different dimensions of schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) were associated with negative affect, attention to emotions, clarity of emotions, and emotional intensity/instability. Study 1 included 247 college students, and questionnaires were used to measure SPD. Study 2 included 225 community residents, oversampling for individuals with elevated levels of SPD, and semistructured diagnostic interviews were used to measure SPD. In both studies (a) higher levels of negative affect were associated with higher levels of both cognitive-perceptual and interpersonal symptoms, (b) cognitive-perceptual disturbances were associated with greater attention to emotion, whereas interpersonal disturbances were associated with less attention to emotion, and (c) lower levels of emotional clarity were associated with higher levels of suspiciousness.     

Meaning in life for individuals with physical disabilities

What makes your life meaningful?" is a question previous researchers explored with people of various ages, but not of individuals who have significant physical impairments. In this study, 26 individuals with physical disabilities were asked to describe what makes their lives meaningful. Analysis showed human relationships were the most frequently reported source of meaning in life, the sources being family members, friends, and people in the community. The second most frequently cited meaning was service, specifically, helping and educating others, such as other people with physical disabilities.     

Just because you're imaging the brain doesn't mean you can stop using your head: a primer and set of first principles

Developments within the neurosciences, cognitive sciences, and social sciences have contributed to the emergence of social neuroscience. Among the most obvious contemporary developments are brain-imaging procedures such as functional magnetic resonance imaging. The authors outline a set of first principles designed to help make sense of brain-imaging research within the fields of cognitive and social neuroscience. They begin with a principle few would debate--that social cognition, emotion, and behavior involve the brain--but whose implications might not be entirely obvious to those new to the field. The authors conclude that (a). complex aspects of the mind and behavior will benefit from yet a broader collaboration of neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and social scientists, and (b). social psychologists bring important theoretical, methodological, and statistical expertise to this interdisciplinary enterprise.     

The influence of facial feedback on race bias

Two studies were conducted to examine whether facial feedback can modulate implicit racial bias as assessed by the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Participants were surreptitiously induced to smile through holding a pencil in their mouth while viewing photographs of unfamiliar Black or White males or performed no somatic configuration while viewing the photographs (Study 1 only). All participants then completed the IAT with no facial manipulation. Results revealed a spreading attitude effect, with significantly less racial bias against Blacks among participants surreptitiously induced to smile during prior viewing of Black faces than among participants surreptitiously induced to smile during prior viewing of White faces.     

The delayed trigger voice key: an improved analogue voice key for psycholinguistic research

Many researchers rely on analogue voice keys for psycholinguistic research. However, the triggering of traditional simple threshold voice keys (STVKs) is delayed after response onset, and the delay duration may vary depending on initial phoneme type. The delayed trigger voice key (DTVK), a standalone electronic device that incorporates an additional minimum signal duration parameter, is described and validated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, recorded responses from a nonword naming task were presented to the DTVK and an STVK. As compared with hand-coded reaction times from visual inspection of the waveform, the DTVK was more accurate than the STVK, overall and across initial phoneme type. Rastle and Davis (2002) showed that an STVK more accurately detected an initial [s] when it was followed by a vowel than when followed by a consonant. Participants’ responses from that study were presented to the DTVK in Experiment 2, and accuracy was equivalent for initial [s] in vowel and consonant contexts. Details for the construction of the DTVK are provided.     

The bizarreness effect: evidence for the critical influence of retrieval processes

People show better memory for bizarre sentences relative to common sentences, a finding referred to as the bizarrness effect. Interestingly, this effect is typically only obtained using a mixed-list design, in which participants study common and bizarre sentences in the same list. This bizarreness effect in mixed-list designs has been explained as the result of both enhanced encoding processes and efficient retrieval processes. The present experiment was designed to isolate the unique contributions of the retrieval context to the bizarreness effect. Participants studied common sentences in one room under one set of instructions, and bizarre sentences in another room under another set of instructions. At test, participants recalled the common and bizarre sentences either together or separately. The results showed that the bizarreness effect was only obtained when participants recalled the common and bizarre items together; no bizarreness advantage emerged when participants were required to recall the common and bizarre items separately. These results suggest that differential encoding processes are not necessary for explaining the bizarreness effect in memory. Rather, retrieval of the mixed-list context appears to be critical for obtaining the effect.