Categorization does not promote symmetry in Guinea baboons (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Papio papio</Emphasis>)

Humans have the capacity to use stimuli interchangeably by forming equivalence classes, and this ability seems to be supported by our language system. According to Sidman and Tailby (Conditional discrimination vs. matching to sample: an expansion of the testing paradigm. J Exp Anal Behav 37:5–22, 1982), the formation of equivalence classes require that three relations are derived among the class members, and past experiments have shown that one of these relations, i.e., symmetry, corresponding to the ability to reverse a relation (if A → B, then B → A), is extremely difficult to obtain in non-human animals. Because language development and the ability to form equivalence classes both co-occur in children with an increased ability to form categories, the current study tested the idea that category learning might promote symmetry in a nonhuman primate species. In Experiment 1, twelve Guinea baboons (Papio papio) were trained to associate 60 pictures of bears and 60 pictures of cars to two category labels, before being tested in symmetry trials. In Experiment 2, symmetry was trained and tested by reversing the association order between labels and pictures, using a new set of stimuli. In both experiments, the baboons successfully demonstrated category discrimination, but had only a weak (though significant) tendency to respond in accordance with symmetry during test trials. Altogether, our results confirm that symmetry is inherently difficult in non-human animals. We discuss possible explanations for such a limitation and give reasons for thinking that the effects of categorization on symmetry should be further investigated.     

EPISTEMIC ACTION,EXTENDED KNOWLEDGE,AND METACOGNITION

How should one attribute epistemic credit to an agent, and hence, knowledge, when cognitive processes include an extensive use of human or mechanical enhancers, informational tools, and devices which allow one to complement or modify one's own cognitive system? The concept of integration of a cognitive system has been used to address this question. For true belief to be creditable to a person's ability, it is claimed, the relevant informational processes must be or become part of the cognitive character of the agent, as a result of a process of enculturation. We argue that this view does not capture the role of sensitivity to epistemic norms in forming true beliefs. An analysis of epistemic actions, basic and extended, is proposed as offering an appropriate framework for crediting an agent with knowledge.     

Eye-tracking data quality as affected by ethnicity and experimental design

Lack of accuracy in eye-tracking data can be critical. If the point of gaze is not recorded accurately and reliably, the information obtained or action executed might be different from what the user intended. This study reports trackability, accuracy, and precision as indicators of eye-tracking data quality as measured at various head positions and light conditions for a sample of participants from three different ethnic groups. It was found that accuracy and precision for Asian participants was worse than that for African and Caucasian participants. No significant differences were found between the latter two ethnic groups. Operating distance had the largest effect on data quality, since it affected all indicators for all ethnic groups. Illumination had no significant effect on accuracy or precision, but the accuracy achieved by African and Caucasian participants was better when the stimulus was presented on a dark background. Large gaze angles proved to be detrimental for trackability for African participants, while accuracy and precision were also affected adversely by larger gaze angles for two of the ethnicities.     

Show me the product,show me the model: Effect of picture type on attitudes toward advertising

We suggest that a consideration of consumer self-evaluations is fundamental to understanding the conditions under which it is more advantageous to present person or product pictures in print advertisements. We build on the basic human motives of self-enhancement and self-verification to propose that the specific self-esteem level of consumers, in the domain relevant for the category, differentially affects their responses to picture type. Specifically, for consumers with low (high) domain-specific self-esteem, depicting a product (person) in the advertisement enhances attitudes toward the advertisement more than depicting a person (product). In two studies, we demonstrate the proposed matching relationships using two different domains of consumer self-evaluation: appearance self-esteem and academic self-esteem. We also show that increased and more fluent generation of self-related mental imagery drives the observed improvement in attitudes toward the advertisement. Our findings suggest direct implications for advertising design.     

A Positive Psychology Intervention Among Long‐Term Unemployed People and Its Effects on Psychological Distress and Well‐Being

The present study aims to examine the effect of a positive psychology intervention (PPI) on a population of long‐term unemployed people. All were members of an association of employment assistance. An opportunity was offered to participate in a PPI. Twelve participants accepted (treatment condition). The remaining participants constituted the control group. Participants of the treatment condition were asked to complete 5 positive psychology exercises during 2 weeks. Participants of the control condition participated as usual in sessions to help their job search. Results indicate that PPI significantly decreases psychological distress (e.g., depression, anxiety) and significantly increases well‐being (e.g., life satisfaction, self‐esteem).     

TDQ-60 – a color picture-naming test for adults and elderly people: validation and normalization data

Word-finding difficulties are usually assessed with picture-naming tests. In this article, we present the TDQ-60, a new test designed to assess acquired lexical access deficits, taking into account semantics and psycholinguistic variables. The article includes three studies. Study 1 describes the development phase of the TDQ-60. In study 2, healthy control participants and individuals with a diagnosis of the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia were assessed to establish the convergent and discriminant validity of the TDQ-60. Finally, in Study 3, a group of 305 young and elderly French-speaking adults from Quebec were assessed in order to provide normative data. The results demonstrate that the TDQ-60 has good convergent validity and good discriminant validity. This study also provides normative data in which were considered the effect of age and education.The TDQ-60 is a new valid picture-naming test, controlled for psycholinguistic variables and designed to identify the influence of semantics on lexical access in spoken production.     

Training self‐assessment and task‐selection skills to foster self‐regulated learning: Do trained skills transfer across domains?

Students' ability to accurately self‐assess their performance and select a suitable subsequent learning task in response is imperative for effective self‐regulated learning. Video modeling examples have proven effective for training self‐assessment and task‐selection skills, and—importantly—such training fostered self‐regulated learning outcomes. It is unclear, however, whether trained skills would transfer across domains. We investigated whether skills acquired from training with either a specific, algorithmic task‐selection rule or a more general heuristic task‐selection rule in biology would transfer to self‐regulated learning in math. A manipulation check performed after the training confirmed that both algorithmic and heuristic training improved task‐selection skills on the biology problems compared with the control condition. However, we found no evidence that students subsequently applied the acquired skills during self‐regulated learning in math. Future research should investigate how to support transfer of task‐selection skills across domains.     

Electrophysiological correlates of emotional crossmodal processing in binge drinking

Emotional crossmodal integration (i.e., multisensorial decoding of emotions) is a crucial process that ensures adaptive social behaviors and responses to the environment. Recent evidence suggests that in binge drinking—an excessive alcohol consumption pattern associated with psychological and cerebral deficits—crossmodal integration is preserved at the behavioral level. Although some studies have suggested brain modifications during affective processing in binge drinking, nothing is known about the cerebral correlates of crossmodal integration. In the current study, we asked 53 university students (17 binge drinkers, 17 moderate drinkers, 19 nondrinkers) to perform an emotional crossmodal task while their behavioral and neurophysiological responses were recorded. Participants had to identify happiness and anger in three conditions (unimodal, crossmodal congruent, crossmodal incongruent) and two modalities (face and/or voice). Binge drinkers did not significantly differ from moderate drinkers and nondrinkers at the behavioral level. However, widespread cerebral modifications were found at perceptual (N100) and mainly at decisional (P3b) stages in binge drinkers, indexed by slower brain processing and stronger activity. These cerebral modifications were mostly related to anger processing and crossmodal integration. This study highlights higher electrophysiological activity in the absence of behavioral deficits, which could index a potential compensation process in binge drinkers. In line with results found in severe alcohol-use disorders, these electrophysiological findings show modified anger processing, which might have a deleterious impact on social functioning. Moreover, this study suggests impaired crossmodal integration at early stages of alcohol-related disorders.