Extrafoveal capture of attention by emotional scenes: affective valence versus visual saliency

ABSTRACT

Pairs of emotional (pleasant or unpleasant) and neutral scenes were presented peripherally (≥5° away from fixation) during a central letter-discrimination task. Selective attentional capture was assessed by means of eye movement orienting, i.e., probability of first fixating a scene and the time until first fixation. Static and dynamic visual saliency values of the scenes were computationally modelled. Results revealed selective orienting to both pleasant and unpleasant relative to neutral scenes. Importantly, such effects remained in the absence of visual saliency differences, even though saliency influenced eye movements. This suggests that selective attention to emotional scenes is genuinely driven by the processing of affective significance in extrafoveal vision.     

The Necessary Limits to Temptation: The Turnkey Project

In case of special engineering projects of important relevance it is interesting to pay attention to several possible risks; some of them are in the field of morality or ethics. Due to the social importance of these risks, additional considerations or even additional warranties are justified.     

Mental models in propositional reasoning and working memory's central executive

We examine the role of working memory's central executive in the mental model explanation of propositional reasoning by using two working memory measures: the classical “reading span” test by Daneman and Carpenter (1980 Daneman, M. and Carpenter, P. A. 1980. Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19: 450–466. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and a new measure. This new “reasoning span” measure requires individuals to solve very simple anaphora problems, and store and remember the word solution in a growing series of inferential problems. We present one experiment in which we check the involvement of the central executive in conditional and disjunctive inference tasks and compare predictions of the new reasoning span test with those of the classical reading span test. The results of the experiment confirm that reasoning responses, which according to mental model theory require high cognitive work, are predicted by working memory measures. Results also show that some reasoning responses are probably obtained by means of superficial biases or strategies that do not load working memory. The reasoning span test, which involves the central executive to a greater degree, predicts reasoning performance better than the reading span test. The significance and possibilities of the new measure in studying reasoning are discussed.     

The role of schizoid personality,peritraumatic dissociation and behavioral activation system in a case of parricide

The goal of this paper is to emphasize several important details through a case study of parricide: a) the schizoid personality structure as a potential basis for brutal offenses, b) the role of dissociation during the commitment of crime; and c) the contribution of non-standard psychological assessment instruments and Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory in illuminating the killer's personality and motivation for the offense. A parricide case was analyzed through psychiatric examination, standard clinical psychological assessment, and Behavioral Inhibition and Activation Scales based on Gray's theory. It was determined that the perpetrator suffered from schizoid personality disorder and that there were visible signs of peritraumatic dissociation at the moment he committed the offense. It was concluded that: a) a schizoid personality sometimes become a perpetrator of a brutal offense in situations where he feels he is in danger of punishment, and his personal space is being threatened, b) dissociation, activated by murder itself, can help the murderer to protect himself from a traumatic situation which overcomes his resources, and c) Gray's theory can serve as a framework for understanding individual cases as this one.     

Criminality of women in Slovenia

Both in theory and research, the criminality of women is a fairly overlooked area, crime being primarily a male sphere, with men committing on average around 96% of all criminal acts, and women only 4%. To understand the criminality of women, and in particular the criminality of women in Slovenia, the author focuses on the following theses: (1) For the understanding of the gendered aspect of criminality it is not so much important why the number of women involved in crime is so low, but rather why the number of men is so high; (2) The criminality and criminal acts committed by women in Slovenia are a reflection of the traditional image of the woman, which manifests in the social division of gender roles, and also influences the extent and types of criminal acts; and (3) For the understanding of criminality, it is necessary to research it from the point of view of gender, as only this kind of approach enables the examination of the overlooked point where criminality is reproduced.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

Wilson, D.G. & Rosenfeld, R. (1990). Managing organizations: text, readings and cases. London: McGraw Hill Book Company. Pp. 494. ISBN 0-07-707232-4. £16.95 (paperback).

Argyle, M. (1991). Cooperation: The basis of sociability. London: Routledge. Pp. 234. ISBN 0-41503-546-5. £10.99 (paperback).

Rasmussen, J., Brehmer, B., & LePlat, J. (Eds.). (1991). Distributed decision making: Cognitive models for cooperative work. Chichester: Wiley & Sons. Pp. 416. ISBN 0-471-92828-3. £49.95.     

The state version of the recovery experience questionnaire: A multilevel confirmatory factor analysis

Although many studies in the field of recovery from work utilize a quantitative diary design, little is known about the validity of the daily measures used in such studies. The present study analyses the factor structure of the state version of the Recovery Experience Questionnaire (REQ) on the between-person (trait) and within-person (state) levels. A total of 127 employees participated in the study. Most of them filled out the questionnaire on three consecutive workdays (N = 375 observations). Results of multilevel confirmatory factor analyses (MCFA) showed that a four-factor model fit the data better than alternative models at both levels of analysis (between and within). In addition, some factor loadings of the four recovery experience dimensions (particularly for relaxation and control) were lower on the day level as compared to the general level. Nevertheless, we conclude that both state and trait versions of the REQ show good psychometric properties. Implications for future research on recovery are discussed.     

Organizational justice and extrarole customer service: The mediating role of well-being at work

The purpose of this article is to propose and test a model of extrarole customer service (ERCS). We propose that organizational justice (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational) promotes well-being at work (low burnout and high engagement). Well-being at work, in turn, engenders more effective ERCS. Thus, well-being at work is considered a mediator of the relationships from organizational justice to ERCS. This fully mediated model was compared to an alternative fully direct model. The sample consisted of 317 contact employees who were working in the Spanish service sector. The results of structural equation modelling supported the importance of the mediating role of the positive side of well-being at work (engagement) in the relationship between organizational justice and ERCS. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications.     

A set of high quality colour images with Spanish norms for seven relevant psycholinguistic variables: The Nombela naming test

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a new corpus of 140 high quality colour images belonging to 14 subcategories and covering a range of naming difficulty. One hundred and six Spanish speakers named the items and provided data for several psycholinguistic variables: age of acquisition, familiarity, manipulability, name agreement, typicality and visual complexity. Furthermore, we also present lexical frequency data derived internet search hits. Apart from the large number of variables evaluated, these stimuli present an important advantage with respect to other comparable image corpora in so far as naming performance in healthy individuals is less prone to ceiling effect problems. Reliability and validity indexes showed that our items display similar psycholinguistic characteristics to those of other corpora. In sum, this set of ecologically valid stimuli provides a useful tool for scientists engaged in cognitive and neuroscience-based research.     

Influence of Training in Artistic Skills on Mental Imaging Capacity

ABSTRACT

Artistic creation often involves the use of mental images. This investigation examined the influence of training in artistic skills on mental imaging capacity in a sample of 126 subjects aged between 18 and 23 years. First- and 5th-year fine arts students were compared with regard to their performance in 2 imaging capacity tests (the Visual Elaboration Scale and the Vividness of Visual Imagery Test) and 3 tests of drawing involving spatial representation, transformation of spatial relations, and memory. The students who had undergone a longer period of artistic training performed significantly better on all 5 tests, and all drawing tasks scores correlated with each other. These results indicate that artistic training may enhance imaging capacity.