Role of perceived importance in intergroup contact

Furthering G. W. Allport's contentions for optimal contact, the authors introduce a new construct: the perceived importance of contact. They propose that perceived importance is the best proximal predictor of contact's reduction of prejudice. If individuals have opportunities for contact at work or in the neighborhood, their chances to have intergroup acquaintances and friends increase. Intergroup contact among acquaintances and friends can be perceived as more or less important, which in turn determines intergroup evaluations. A 1st study shows that the new measure of perceived importance is indeed distinct from established quantity and quality indicators. The results are cross-validated in a 2nd study that also sheds light on the meaning of importance. In 3rd and 4th studies, structural equation analyses and a meta-analysis support the hypotheses.     

On the locus of speed-accuracy trade-off in reaction time: inferences from the lateralized readiness potential

Lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs) were used to determine the stage(s) of reaction time (RT) responsible for speed-accuracy trade-offs (SATs). Speeded decisions based on several types of information were examined in 3 experiments, involving, respectively, a line discrimination task, lexical decisions, and an Erikson flanker task. Three levels of SAT were obtained in each experiment by adjusting response deadlines with an adaptive tracking algorithm. Speed stress affected the duration of RT stages both before and after the start of the LRP in all experiments. The latter effect cannot be explained by guessing strategies, by variations in response force, or as an indirect consequence of the pre-LRP effect. Contrary to most models, it suggests that SAT can occur at a late postdecisional stage.     

Personality and life satisfaction: a facet-level analysis

At the global level of the Big Five, Extraversion and Neuroticism are the strongest predictors of life satisfaction. However, Extraversion and Neuroticism are multifaceted constructs that combine more specific traits. This article examined the contribution of facets of Extraversion and Neuroticism to life satisfaction in four studies. The depression facet of Neuroticism and the positive emotions/cheerfulness facet of Extraversion were the strongest and most consistent predictors of life satisfaction. These two facets often accounted for more variance in life satisfaction than Neuroticism and Extraversion. The findings suggest that measures of depression and positive emotions/cheerfulness are necessary and sufficient to predict life satisfaction from personality traits. The results also lead to a more refined understanding of the specific personality traits that influence life satisfaction: Depression is more important than anxiety or anger and a cheerful temperament is more important than being active or sociable.     

Modeling dynamic resource utilization in populations with unique constraints: preadolescents with and without Down syndrome

In this study we used a damped inverted pendulum and spring with an escapement function model to compare the global levels of stiffness and forcing used by 12 preadolescents with Down syndrome (DS) and 12 with typical development (TD). Participants walked overground at their self-selected speed and on a treadmill at speeds slower and faster than overground. Children with DS, who are characterized as hypotonic with reduced capacity for producing muscle force, exhibited significantly higher levels of stiffness and forcing (angular impulse) when walking on the treadmill and higher forcing but not stiffness overground, than children with TD. Both groups adapted to imposed speed increases similarly by increasing their global stiffness and angular impulse. We propose children with DS increased stiffness in order to overcome their hypotonia and joint laxity, thus, optimizing on stability, rather than metabolic efficiency. Higher angular impulse values for children with DS may reflect higher energy cost associated with increasing stiffness and their inherent biomechanical and physiological characteristics that reduce efficiency. We conclude that the inverted pendulum and spring with escapement function model is a useful tool for uncovering solutions to movement problems-solutions that reflect the dynamic resources of the individual and ones that are discovered, rather than prescribed.     

Latency facilitation in temporal-order judgments: time course of facilitation as a function of judgment type

The paper is concerned with two models of early visual processing which predict that priming of a visual mask by a preceding masked stimulus speeds up conscious perception of the mask (perceptual latency priming). One model ascribes this speed-up to facilitation by visuo-spatial attention [Scharlau, I., & Neumann, O. (2003a). Perceptual latency priming by masked and unmasked stimuli: Evidence for an attentional explanation. Psychological Research 67, 184-197], the other attributes it to nonspecific upgrading mediated by retino-thalamic and thalamo-cortical pathways [Bachmann, T. (1994). Psychophysiology of visual masking: The fine structure of conscious experience. Commack, NY: Nova Science Publishers]. The models make different predictions about the time course of perceptual latency priming. Four experiments test these predictions. The results provide more support for the attentional than for the upgrading model. The experiments further demonstrate that testing latency facilitation with temporal-order judgments may induce a methodological problem resulting in fairly low estimates. A method which provides a more exhaustive measure is suggested and tested.     

Early stage of walking: development of control in mediolateral and anteroposterior directions

The authors examined the changes in bipedal gait of toddlers in the anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral (ML) directions, as a set, at the onset of independent gait and 1 month after onset. Two groups with distinctly different dynamic resources were studied: 8 toddlers with typical development (TD) and 8 toddlers with Down syndrome (DS). Three-dimensional kinematic data were collected, and gait parameters, such as walking speed, stride length, and stride frequency, as well as the ratio of exchange between potential energy and kinetic energy of the center of mass (COM), were calculated. Displacement of the COM in the AP and ML directions were also analyzed. For some gait variables, toddlers with DS seemed to show more mature values at walking onset than their peers with TD. Those group differences reversed and increased by Visit 2. When the authors considered the motion of the COM of the system, it became clear that the qualitative differences between those groups were characterized primarily by constraints in the ML direction. The authors propose that establishment of coupling between AP and ML oscillations is a key component for the emergence of independent bipedal walking for both populations.     

Simple reaction time and statistical facilitation: a parallel grains model

A race-like model is developed to account for various phenomena arising in simple reaction time (RT) tasks. Within the model, each stimulus is represented by a number of grains of information or activation processed in parallel. The stimulus is detected when a criterion number of activated grains reaches a decision center. Using the concept of statistical facilitation, the model accounts for many classical effects on mean simple RT, including those of stimulus area, stimulus intensity, stimulus duration, criterion manipulations, redundant stimuli, and the dissociation between intensity effects on simple RTs and temporal order judgments. The model is also consistent with distributional properties of simple RTs.     

Asymmetric influences of temporally vs. nasally presented masked visual information: evidence for collicular contributions to nonconscious priming effects

It was tested whether the retino-collicular projection allows for the processing of nonconsciously registered visual information in healthy individuals. Masked primes were presented to different visual hemifields. Because the retino-collicular projection is stronger for temporal than for nasal hemifields, priming should be stronger by temporal than by nasal primes. This pattern was tested in two experiments (Experiments 1 and 3). Further, with less peripheral primes, only available to weaker parts of the retino-collicular projection, hemifield asymmetries of priming vanished (Experiment 2). In conclusion, the study offers first evidence for collicular contributions to nonconscious priming effects by visual information in healthy individuals.     

Influences of response-activating stimuli and passage of time on the Simon effect

Two possible explanations for an interaction between the Simon effect and the flanker-congruence effect (Hommel, 1997) were tested: (1) Direct contributions by the locations of the response-activating flankers to the Simon effect, and (2) the passage of time since the target's onset. In three experiments, little evidence for both explanations was observed. The data confirmed an assumed origin of the Simon effect at the stage of response selection. Further, the results are in line with the assumption that context stimuli contribute indirectly to the Simon effect of the target (i.e., by changing the target's relative position), and extend previous findings to show that the assumption holds for clearly response-activating context stimuli, too. Finally, the results suggest that Simon effects follow different time courses depending on whether they are induced by observer-relative or context-relative target positions.     

Intuition beyond recognition: when less familiar events are liked more

In a laboratory experiment, we compare the relative impact of two possible determinants of intuitive evaluative judgments: ease of recognition and total value of prior encounters with a target. Participants encode daily return values of shares on the stock market while watching videotaped ads on the computer screen. This dual-task procedure ensures that participants subsequently lack relevant event memories and thus have to rely on their intuition when evaluating the targets. In the presentation, the share appearing least frequently produced the highest sum of returns. In contrast, the share appearing most frequently produced the lowest sum of returns. Evaluative judgments reveal a preference for the share with the highest sum of returns, although, as evident from recognition latencies, it was the one that was more difficult to recognize. The results provide evidence for the value-account model of implicit attitude formation (Betsch, Plessner, Schwieren, & Gütig, 2001), which predicts that intuitive evaluative judgments reflect the total value of prior encounters.