Preemptive strike: An experimental study of fear-based aggression

The mere presence of a potential threat of attack was found to be sufficient to lead a significant proportion of participants to engage in preemptive attacks toward potential threats; this response occurred even without an incentive for either party to attack the other. We developed a new experimental game—the preemptive strike game (PSG)—to demonstrate this tendency for defensive aggression. We also found that the rate at which participants attacked an individual representing a potential threat was not influenced by their minimal group membership; participants were no less likely to preemptively attack a member of their own minimal group and no more likely to use aggression against members of another minimal group. These findings indicate a need to further examine the role that fear-based defensive aggression, rather than anger-based spiteful aggression, plays in inter-individual and inter-group conflict.     

Theory of mind enhances preference for fairness

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of theory of mind in fairness-related behavior in preschoolers and to introduce a tool for examining fairness-related behavior in children. A total of 68 preschoolers played the Ultimatum Game in a face-to-face setting. Acquisition of theory of mind was defined as the understanding of false beliefs using the Sally-Anne task. The results showed that preschoolers who had acquired theory of mind proposed higher mean offers than children who had not acquired theory of mind. These findings imply that the ability to infer the mental states of others plays an important role in fairness-related behavior.     

Metascientific foundations for pluralism in psychology

In this paper, I explore the metascientific basis for pluralism in psychology. In the first half, I outline the two levels of the metaparadigm: the epistemological and the methodological. The epistemological level includes the dichotomy between an internal, first-person point of view and an external, third-person one. The methodological level includes the dichotomy between explanation and understanding. The continuing debate regarding methodology, explanation versus understanding, has distinguished the human sciences from the natural sciences. Similarly, the continuing debate regarding the epistemological point of view has distinguished psychology from other sciences. I illustrate these points by placing various trends in psychology into the two-dimensional space formed by the two coordinate axes depicting the methodological and the epistemological dimensions. Each quadrant represents one definition of the object of psychology: quadrant 1 (internal, first-person - explanation) represents “consciousness;” quadrant 2 (internal, first-person - understanding) represents “experiences;” quadrant 3 (external, third-person - understanding) represents “meaningful acts and expressions;” and quadrant 4 (external, third-person - explanation) represents “behaviors and higher processes of the brain.” All of the trends within the history of psychology can be placed within this two-dimensional space. In the second half of the paper, I introduce the third level of the metaparadigm: the metapsychological level. This level includes the three different, and incompatible conceptions of humans: the first-person, the second-person, and the third-person conceptions. A third-person conception of humans is most compatible with trends placed in quadrant 4. A second-person conceptualization is most congruent with quadrant 3, and so on. Thus, the unification of psychologies emerges as not only difficult but actually unreasonable, because the plurality of psychological paradigms originates from the epistemological, methodological, and metapsychological levels of the metaparadigm.     

Preference‐expectation reversal in the ratings of independent and interdependent individuals: A USA–Japan comparison

We predicted and supported the prediction that a ‘preference‐expectation reversal’ would occur among Japanese but not among Americans. American and Japanese participants evaluated ideal‐typical independent and interdependent persons on the negative–positive dimension, and estimated how others would evaluate these persons. They also indicated their preference for acting like each of the target persons; that is, which of the two target persons they would prefer to act like. Both the American and Japanese participants wanted to act like the typical independent person rather than the typical interdependent person. However, the Japanese participants expected that others would evaluate the interdependent person more positively than the independent person. This preference‐expectation reversal was not observed among the American participants. Further analysis demonstrated that the American participants' personal evaluations of the two targets were consistent with their preferences. The Japanese participants' personal evaluation represented a compromise between their preferences and the expected responses of others. These results suggest that the culturally shared belief in Japan that interdependent persons would receive more positive evaluations than independent persons created an incentive for them to behave interdependently despite their preferences.     

Compensation of neural delays in visual‐motor behaviour: No evidence for shorter afferent delays for visual motion

Abstract

Faces and other objects that share a configuration present a special problem to the visual system. Two components of the visual system's solution to this homogeneity problem have been identified. Inversion studies have identified the use of relational features (Diamond &; Carey, 1986; Rhodes, Brake, &; Atkinson, 1993), and caricature studies have identified norm-based coding (Carey, Rhodes, Diamond, &; Hamilton, in preparation; Rhodes, Brennan, &; Carey, 1987; Rhodes &; McLean, 1990). Here we explore a possible link between these two components, asking whether caricature effects depend selectively on exaggeration of relational features. If so, then inversion, which makes relational features particularly difficult to code (compared with isolated features), should reduce caricature effects. In three experiments we found a caricature equivalence effect (caricatures identified as accurately as undistorted images and both better than anticaricatures) that was unaffected by orientation, suggesting that relational feature coding is not necessary for caricatures to be effective. Therefore, caricature and inversion effects reflect distinct components of face recognition. Caricature level and orientation also interacted differently with other factors, as would be expected if their effects depend upon different underlying processes. For one set of faces there was a caricature advantage in accuracy (Experiments 1 and 3). This superportrait effect occurred even for subjects who were unfamiliar with the faces prior to the experiment (Experiment 3), a result with important forensic implications. Furthermore, the effect was restricted to upright faces. Therefm, although caricatures can be recognized as well as undistorted images whatever features are exaggerated, exaggeration of relational features may be needed for a superportrait effect.     

Contextual cueing in multiple object tracking

In this study, we examined whether visual context can be learned through a dynamic display and whether it can facilitate sustained attentional tracking by combining a multiple object tracking (MOT) task and a contextual cueing procedure. The trajectories of the targets and distractors in the MOT task were made invariant by repeatedly presenting them. The results revealed that when the targets were repeatedly displayed, tracking performance implicitly improved, and this effect was enhanced when the unattended distractors in the displays were also repeated. However, the repetition of the distractors alone did not produce any effect. Interestingly, when the targets and distractors were switched in a display in which the distractors had been previously repeated, the tracking performance was impaired as compared with that in the case of nonrepeated displays. We concluded that the contextual information in a dynamic display facilitates attentional tracking and that different types of contextual modulations occurred in MOT processes, such as facilitation for attended targets and inhibition for ignored distractors.     

Nitric oxide is involved in appetitive but not aversive olfactory learning in the land mollusk Limax valentianus

The land slug Limax performs both aversive and appetitive olfactory learning, and we investigated neurotransmitters involved in each type of learning. Slugs were conditioned by presenting a vegetable juice (appetitive conditioning) or a mixture of vegetable juice and quinidine (aversive conditioning), and the latency to reach the juice became shorter (appetitive conditioning) or longer (aversive conditioning) after conditioning. L-NAME injected either before conditioning or testing blocked the reduction in latency in appetitive conditioning but had no significant effects in aversive conditioning. 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine had no significant effects in appetitive conditioning. These results suggest different mechanisms for appetitive and aversive learning.     

Salivary conditioning with antennal gustatory unconditioned stimulus in an insect

Classical conditioning of olfactory conditioning stimulus (CS) with gustatory unconditioned stimulus (US) in insects has been used as a pertinent model for elucidation of neural mechanisms underlying learning and memory. However, a conditioning system in which stable intracellular recordings from brain neurons are feasibly obtained while monitoring the conditioning effect has remained to be established. Recently, we found classical conditioning of salivation in cockroaches Periplaneta americana, in which an odor was associated with sucrose solution applied to the mouth, and this conditioning could be monitored by activities of salivary neurons. Application of gustatory US to the mouth, however, leads to feeding movement accompanying a movement of the brain that prevents stable recordings from brain neurons. Here we investigated whether a gustatory stimulus presented to an antenna could serve as an effective US for producing salivary conditioning. Presentation of sucrose or sodium chloride solution to an antenna induced salivation and also increased activities of salivary neurons. A single pairing trial of an odor with antennal presentation of sucrose or sodium chloride solution produced conditioning of salivation or of activities of salivary neurons. Five pairing trials led to a conditioning effect that lasted for one day. Water or tactile stimulus presented to an antenna was not effective for producing conditioning. The results demonstrate that gustatory US presented to an antenna is as effective as that presented to the mouth for producing salivary conditioning. This conditioning system provides a useful model for studying the neural basis of learning at the level of singly identifiable neurons.