Facilitating Creative Idea Selection: The Combined Effects of Self-Affirmation,Promotion Focus and Positive Affect

Generating creative ideas in a brainstorm session `is a crucial part of innovation. However, for actual implementation, the most creative ideas must be selected from a pool of ideas. To date, idea selection has remained relatively unexplored and validated instruments to measure idea selection performance are not systematically employed. This study aimed to improve creative idea selection performance in a field study. In this study, an idea pool of 18 ideas was used, and participants had to select the 5 most creative ideas from the idea pool. Right before participants performed the idea selection task, in the experimental condition, a promotion focus and positive affect was induced in combination with a self-affirmation task. Participants in the control condition performed corresponding filler tasks. The selection of the 5 most creative ideas from the idea pool of 18 ideas was performed individually. Participants in the experimental condition selected ideas that were more creative than did participants in the control condition. These findings provide first evidence that the selection of creative ideas can be enhanced through a combined induction of promotion-focus, positive mood and self-affirmation.     

When emotional valence modulates audiovisual integration

We constantly integrate the information that is available to our various senses. The extent to which the mechanisms of multisensory integration are subject to the influences of attention, emotion, and/or motivation is currently unknown. The ??ventriloquist effect?? is widely assumed to be an automatic crossmodal phenomenon, shifting the perceived location of an auditory stimulus toward a concurrently presented visual stimulus. In the present study, we examined whether audiovisual binding, as indicated by the magnitude of the ventriloquist effect, is influenced by threatening auditory stimuli presented prior to the ventriloquist experiment. Syllables spoken in a fearful voice were presented from one of eight loudspeakers, while syllables spoken in a neutral voice were presented from the other seven locations. Subsequently, participants had to localize pure tones while trying to ignore concurrent visual stimuli (both the auditory and the visual stimuli here were emotionally neutral). A reliable ventriloquist effect was observed. The emotional stimulus manipulation resulted in a reduction of the magnitude of the subsequently measured ventriloquist effect in both hemifields, as compared to a control group exposed to a similar attention-capturing, but nonemotional, manipulation. These results suggest that the emotional system is capable of influencing multisensory binding processes that have heretofore been considered automatic.     

Integrative processing of perception and reward in an auditory localization paradigm

Under natural conditions, human beings routinely have to choose among multiple alternatives which are associated with specific outcomes of varying desirability. Typically, decisions are based upon the processing of perceptual input, which introduces additional noise to the system. Bayesian decision theory (BDT) allows us to formalize decision under risk and to predict statistically optimal choice behavior. In the present study, human observers performed a classification task characterized by an extensive amount of perceptual uncertainty (auditory localization). In addition, a spatial reward function was imposed on the task. We set up a BDT model with no free parameters to serve as a benchmark for statistically optimal choices, and tested it against a purely perceptual model and a hybrid, heuristic model. In addition, we tested these three models with free rather than fixed parameters for the perceptual uncertainty and the peak of the reward function. The log likelihoods of the models given the empirical data were determined by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Bayesian model comparison (BMC) revealed that the BDT model with two free parameters was the most plausible among the tested models. The fitted parameter values for the peak of the reward function were consistently smaller than the actual peak reward communicated to the participants. The results are discussed in the context of an internal underweighting of the reward function.     

Skulking around the dinosaur: Eliciting cues to children's deception via strategic disclosure of evidence

Research has shown that cues to deception are more salient as an effect of strategic use of evidence (SUE) during interviews. This study examined the feasibility of the SUE‐technique for eliciting cues to children's deception. Experiment 1 investigated verbal cues to deception as a function of early vs. late disclosure of evidence. Eighty‐four children (12–14 years) either guilty or innocent of a mock crime were interviewed. As predicted, deceptive statements were significantly more inconsistent with the evidence than truthful statements, and this was more pronounced as a function of late compared to early disclosure of evidence. In Experiment 2, adult observers (N = 168) made veracity assessments of the videotaped statements. Observers in the late disclosure condition achieved an accuracy rate higher than chance (63.1%), whereas accuracy rates in the early disclosure condition were at chance level (56%). Accuracy rates were significantly higher for truthful (70.2%), than deceptive statements (48.8%). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

RTbox: A device for highly accurate response time measurements

Although computer keyboards and mice are frequently used in measuring response times (RTs), the accuracy of these measurements is quite low. Specialized RT collection devices must be used to obtain more accurate measurements. However, all the existing devices have some shortcomings. We have developed and implemented a new, commercially available device, the RTbox, for highly accurate RT measurements. The RTbox has its own microprocessor and high-resolution clock. It can record the identities and timing of button events with high accuracy, unaffected by potential timing uncertainty or biases during data transmission and processing in the host computer. It stores button events until the host computer chooses to retrieve them. The asynchronous storage greatly simplifies the design of user programs. The RTbox can also receive and record external signals as triggers and can measure RTs with respect to external events. The internal clock of the RTbox can be synchronized with the computer clock, so the device can be used without external triggers. A simple USB connection is sufficient to integrate the RTbox with any standard computer and operating system.     

Information-processing architectures in multidimensional classification: a validation test of the systems factorial technology

A growing methodology, known as the systems factorial technology (SFT), is being developed to diagnose the types of information-processing architectures (serial, parallel, or coactive) and stopping rules (exhaustive or self-terminating) that operate in tasks of multidimensional perception. Whereas most previous applications of SFT have been in domains of simple detection and visual-memory search, this research extends the applications to foundational issues in multidimensional classification. Experiments are conducted in which subjects are required to classify objects into a conjunctive-rule category structure. In one case the stimuli vary along highly separable dimensions, whereas in another case they vary along integral dimensions. For the separable-dimension stimuli, the SFT methodology revealed a serial or parallel architecture with an exhaustive stopping rule. By contrast, for the integral-dimension stimuli, the SFT methodology provided clear evidence of coactivation. The research provides a validation of the SFT in the domain of classification and adds to the list of converging operations for distinguishing between separable-dimension and integral-dimension interactions.     

When sex primes love: subliminal sexual priming motivates relationship goal pursuit

The studies reported here provide, for the first time, experimental evidence to support the claim that sexual interest and arousal are associated with motives to form and maintain a close relationship. In five studies, sex-related representations were cognitively primed, either subliminally or supraliminally, by exposing participants to erotic words or pictures as compared with neutral words or pictures. The effects of "sexual priming" on the tendencies to initiate and maintain a close relationship were assessed using various cognitive-behavioral and self-report measures. Supporting the hypotheses, subliminal but not supraliminal exposure to sexual primes increased (a) willingness to self-disclose, (b) accessibility of intimacy-related thoughts, (c) willingness to sacrifice for one's partner, and (d) preference for using positive conflict-resolution strategies. The article discusses implications of these findings for the role of sex in close relationships and offers a conceptualization of possible relational motives of the sexual behavioral system.     

The effects of social influence on children's memory reports: the omission and commission error asymmetry

Children in two age groups (7 vs. 12 yrs, N= 174) individually interacted with a stranger and were later interviewed about this event. Right before the interview, each child encountered the stranger once again and he engaged in a conversation where he either suggested that a (central or peripheral) detail originally present in the event had actually not been there or that an originally non-present (central or peripheral) detail had in fact been there. It was hypothesized that the two types of misinformation would result in omission and commission errors respectively. The results showed that the social influence resulted in an asymmetric effect (i.e., more commission than omission errors). Importantly, we also found that the children made more errors with respect to the peripheral detail (a suitcase), compared to the central detail (a passenger). Younger children did not make more errors (neither omission nor commission errors) than older children.     

Adult Attachment and Cognitive and Affective Reactions to Positive and Negative Events

We review theory and research concerning the relation between attachment style, measured in terms of the two dimensions of insecurity (attachment anxiety and avoidance) and emotions that arise in response to threats and dangers, relationship separations and losses, interpersonal offenses and transgressions, and positive personal and interpersonal events. The review indicates that attachment theory systematically organizes research findings associated with emotional appraisals, feelings, and expressions.     

The Role of Women's Relationships With Their Partners in Their Adjustment Following Prenatal Genetic Testing1

This study explored how aspects of the couple relationship contributed to the adjustment of 95 women who underwent prenatal diagnostic (PND) testing because of advanced maternal age (AMA). Participants completed self‐report measures prior to genetic counseling (T1), during the waiting period for PND test results (T2), and after normal results were received (T3). At T2, distress was predicted by the degree to which women approached the PND decision jointly with their partners, and marital adjustment was predicted by women's satisfaction with the support received from their partners. Marital adjustment at T3 was predicted by earlier levels of partner agreement about PND‐related issues. Results suggest that the couple relationship has the potential to facilitate or hinder women's experience of PND testing.