Visual body-size adaptation and estimation of tactile distance

Estimating the size of bodies is crucial for interactions with physical and social environments. Body-size perception is malleable and can be altered using visual adaptation paradigms. However, it is unclear whether such visual adaptation effects also transfer to other modalities and influence, for example, the perception of tactile distances. In this study, we employed a visual adaptation paradigm. Participants were exposed to images of expanded or contracted versions of self- or other-identity bodies. Before and after this adaptation, they were asked to manipulate the width of body stimuli to appear as ‘normal’ as possible. We replicated an effect of visual adaptation such that the body-size selected as most ‘normal’ was larger after exposure to expanded and thinner after exposure to contracted adaptation stimuli. In contrast, we did not find evidence that this adaptation effect transfers to distance estimates for paired tactile stimuli delivered to the abdomen. A Bayesian analysis showed that our data provide moderate evidence that there is no effect of visual body-size adaptation on the estimation of spatial parameters in a tactile task. This suggests that visual body-size adaptation effects do not transfer to somatosensory body-size representations.     

Between two selves: comparing global and local predictors of speed of switching between self-aspects

Self-concepts are composed of multiple self-aspects that vary in their momentary accessibility. When a particular self-aspect is active, it guides one’s cognition and behavior in a context-specific fashion. The current research quantified the ease with which people switch from one active self-aspect to another using a novel reaction time approach. Specifically, two studies tested how self-aspect switching speed is influenced by global (i.e., self-complexity) and local (i.e., self-aspect importance) features of the self-concept. The findings revealed that people transition between self-aspects more slowly when switching from a more important self-aspect to a less important one. In other words, important self-aspects are privileged within the working self-concept.     

Phonological encoding in the attentional blink paradigm

The attentional blink refers to a deficit in reporting a second target that follows a first target within a few hundred milliseconds, when both targets occur in a sequence of distractors shown serially at rates of about 10 items per second. In four experiments, phonological similarity of post-Target 1 distractors impaired dual target report within the interval in which the attentional blink occurs. Similarity of letter targets had a smaller, less reliable effect on performance. Phonological similarity of letter distractors did not affect single target identification (Experiment 3), but it continued to impair dual target report (Experiment 5), even when the targets belonged to a different category—namely, digits. The results demonstrated that, not only targets, but also distractors are encoded phonologically, despite the fact that distractors are irrelevant and never have to be reported.     

Pursuing Pleasure or Virtue: The Differential and Overlapping Well-Being Benefits of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motives

Hedonia (seeking pleasure and comfort) and eudaimonia (seeking to use and develop the best in oneself) are often seen as opposing pursuits, yet each may contribute to well-being in different ways. We conducted four studies (two correlational, one experience-sampling, and one intervention study) to determine outcomes associated with activities motivated by hedonic and eudaimonic aims. Overall, results indicated that: between persons (at the trait level) and within persons (at the momentary state level), hedonic pursuits related more to positive affect and carefreeness, while eudaimonic pursuits related more to meaning; between persons, eudaimonia related more to elevating experience (awe, inspiration, and sense of connection with a greater whole); within persons, hedonia related more negatively to negative affect; between and within persons, both pursuits related equally to vitality; and both pursuits showed some links with life satisfaction, though hedonia’s links were more frequent. People whose lives were high in both eudaimonia and hedonia had: higher degrees of most well-being variables than people whose lives were low in both pursuits (but did not differ in negative affect or carefreeness); higher positive affect and carefreeness than predominantly eudaimonic individuals; and higher meaning, elevating experience, and vitality than predominantly hedonic individuals. In the intervention study, hedonia produced more well-being benefits at short-term follow-up, while eudaimonia produced more at 3-month follow-up. The findings show that hedonia and eudaimonia occupy both overlapping and distinct niches within a complete picture of well-being, and their combination may be associated with the greatest well-being.     

Assessing implicit motives with an online version of the picture story exercise

An online version of a Picture Story Exercise (PSE) was administered to 180 participants to assess implicit motives for achievement, affiliation, and power. First, data were analyzed with respect to different aspects of participant behavior (dropout, writing time, story length, setting). Second, online data were compared with data collected in the laboratory (n = 93). Results regarding motive density, internal consistency, picture profiles, and position effects were comparable among samples and consistent with previous research (Pang and Schultheiss in J Person Assess 85:280–294, 2005; Schultheiss and Brunstein in J Person Assess 77: 71–86, 2001). In addition, online participants completed self-report measures assessing explicit motives and the Big Five personality factors. Explicit motives showed no substantial overlap with PSE motive scores, replicating previous research. Personality factors revealed gender differences in correlates: men with a high implicit power motive reported less agreeableness and conscientiousness. Results suggest that administering the PSE online yields reliable and valid data.     

If I want you to like me,should I be like you or unlike you? The effect of prior positive interaction with the group on conformity and distinctiveness in consumer decision making

The extant research points to conflicting results regarding social influence in consumer decision making. On the one hand, there is empirical evidence that suggests that people conform to other members of their groups. On the other hand, several studies demonstrated the opposite pattern, namely, that individuals seek distinctiveness from others in the group. The goal of the present research is to reconcile these contradictory findings. To this end, I propose that whether a person will conform to or seek distinctiveness from others in a particular consumption situation is contingent on the absence or presence of one's prior positive interaction with the group. I also suggest that this effect will occur in a public context, that is, when an individual's choice is visible to other group members. The results of experiment supported these propositions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effect of Alcohol on Speech Production

The present study investigates the effect of acute alcohol consumption on speech in Hungarian subjects. The measures used to reveal these effects were tongue-twisters, which were grouped according to their linguistic features. The number and type of speech errors while uttering the tongue-twisters were compared between intoxicated and sober conditions. The results showed that subjects made more speech errors in alcohol influenced than in sober states in all types of the tongue-twisters except for those using foreign words. Changes in the articulation rate, number of pauses and fundamental frequency were investigated as well. In the intoxicated state, no changes were observed in fundamental frequency and articulation rate, while the number of pauses increased.     

Detection and Identification of Change in Naturalistic Scenes

Research using change detection paradigms has demonstrated that only limited scene information remains available for conscious report following initial inspection of a scene. Previous researchers have found higher change identification rates for deletions of parts of objects in line drawings of scenes than additions. Other researchers, however, have found an asymmetry in the opposite direction for addition/deletion of whole objects in line drawings of scenes. Experiment 1 investigated subjects' accuracy in detecting and identifying changes made to successive views of high quality photographs of naturalistic scenes that involved the addition and deletion of objects, colour changes to objects, and changes to the spatial location of objects. Identification accuracy for deletions from scenes was highest, with lower identification rates for object additions and colour changes, and the lowest rates for identification of location changes. Data further suggested that change identification rates for the presence/absence of objects were a function of the number of identical items present in the scene. Experiment 2 examined this possibility further, and also investigated whether the higher identification rates for deletions found in Experiment 1 were found for changes involving whole objects or parts of objects. Results showed higher identification rates for deletions, but only where a unique object was deleted from a scene. The presence of an identical object in the scene abolished this deletion identification advantage. Results further showed that the deletion/addition asymmetry occurs both when the objects are parts of a larger object and when they are entire objects in the scene.