Processing fluency as a predictor of salience asymmetries in the Implicit Association Test

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is the most popular indirect measure of attitudes in social psychology. Rothermund and Wentura (2001, 2004) suggested that artifacts such as salience asymmetries are a source of compatibility effects in the IAT, and, therefore, the IAT does not necessarily measure attitude. They claim that salience asymmetries correspond with visual search asymmetries, such that the stimulus categories that are more quickly detected in a visual search task are also compatible in the IAT. We propose that processing fluency is a more reliable indicator of salience asymmetries in the IAT than are visual search asymmetries. To test this hypothesis, we set processing fluency in opposition to visual search asymmetry to see which variable better predicted IAT effects. In one pair of categories, the category that was more quickly detected in visual search was also more fluently processed in a binary classification task. In a second pair of categories, the category that was more quickly detected in visual search was the less fluently processed category. Across four experiments, we demonstrated that compatibility effects in the IAT corresponded with differences in processing fluency between categories, rather than with visual search asymmetries.     

Between-task competition for intentions and actions

People can switch quickly and flexibly from one task to another, but suffer the effects of between-task competition when they do so: After switching, they tend to be distracted by irrelevant stimulus information and hampered by incorrect actions associated with recently performed tasks. This competition results in performance costs of switching, as well as a bias against switching when there is choice over which task to perform, particularly when switching from a difficult task to an easier one. Two experiments investigated the locus of these between-task competition effects in voluntary task switching. Participants switched between an easy location classification and a harder shape classification, making two responses on each trial: the first to register their task choice, the second to perform the chosen task on a subsequently presented stimulus. The results indicated that participants chose to perform the difficult shape task more often than the easier location task, evidence that between-task competition affects intentions that are expressed independently of task-specific actions. The bias was stronger in participants with faster choice speed, suggesting that these influences are relatively automatic. Moreover, even though participants had unlimited time to choose and prepare a task before stimulus presentation, their subsequent performance was nonetheless sensitive to persisting effects of between-task competition. Altogether these results indicate the pervasive influence of between-task competition, which affects both the expression of global task intentions and the production of task-specific actions.     

创造性的生理研究新进展

创造性的生理基础很复杂。关于创造性生理基础的研究集中在大脑皮质激活与脑半球不对称两个方面。研究发现,大脑皮质激活状态对创造性有影响,低水平的皮质激活,特别是低水平的前额叶激活,较有利于创造性．研究还发现,创造性和左右半球不对称活动有关,处于创造状态时,右半球相对要比左半球激活程度更高。     

认知训练对不同类型考试焦虑的作用

以163名高中一年级学生为被试,采用现场实验法考察了认知训练对认知主导型考试焦虑(C型)、生理唤醒主导型考试焦虑(P型)和学习技能缺乏型考试焦虑(S型)的作用效果.结果表明:认知训练能显著地降低三种考试焦虑类型的状态考试焦虑,提高C型和P型的考试成绩.认知训练在降低考试焦虑和提高考试成绩两方面对C型考试焦虑者作用尤为明显.认知训练没有表明对S型考试焦虑者有提高考试成绩的作用.     

Linguistic and emotional-valence characteristics of reading passages for clinical use and research

PurposeFluency assessment in people who stutter (PWS) includes reading aloud passages. There is little information on properties of these passages that may affect reading performance: emotional valance, arousal, word familiarity and frequency and passage-readability. Our first goal was to present an extensive examination of these factors in three commonly used (“traditional”) passages. The second goal was to compare a traditional passage to a new passage, designed to minimize the impact of these properties.MethodsContent words were rated (129 participants) on arousal, valence and familiarity. Other linguistic features were analyzed based on available datasets. This information was used to assess traditional passages, and to construct a new well-balanced passage, made of neutral, low-arousal and highly-familiar words. Readability for all passages was tested using formula-based and CLOZE tests (31 participants). Finally, 26 PWS were evaluated on fluency comparing the commonly used “Rainbow” passage with the novel one.ResultsThe three traditional passages contain a share of emotionally valenced (22-34%), high arousal (15-18%), lower familiarity (6-8%) and polysyllabic (5-9%) content words. Readability was highest for the novel passage (on formula-based scales). Average disfluencies percent for the Rainbow and our novel passage were not significantly different. Yet half of the individuals in this sample showed a large difference between the two passages.ConclusionWe provide detailed information on potential sources of variance using the traditional passages. Knowledge about these characteristics can inform clinical practice (and research). We suggest a combined procedure, using more than one passage to assess stuttering in individual cases.     

Resting Frontal EEG Asymmetry and Personality Traits: A Meta‐analysis

Frontal asymmetry has been widely used as a marker of emotion, motivation, and psychopathology. When assessed during the resting state, it is regarded as an index of trait approach and withdrawal motivation. However, the replicability of these associations with personality is currently unclear. The present meta‐analysis seeks to provide a comprehensive quantitative review of the relationship between personality traits and resting electroencephalographic (EEG) frontal asymmetry. We distinguished five personality clusters: extraversion, neuroticism, impulsivity, anger, and defensiveness. Data from 79 independent samples with overall 5700 participants were included in the meta‐analysis. The results revealed that less than 0.4% of the variance in extraversion and neuroticism could be explained by resting frontal asymmetry. Similarly, a small effect was observed for trait anger, and a small‐sized to medium‐sized effect was observed for defensiveness, although the number of studies was very low. No significant effect emerged for impulsivity. The effects were further reduced after adjustment for publication bias. Given some evidence for heterogeneity, sub‐traits were analysed, and methodological moderators were investigated. Based on the results, we conclude that the validity of resting frontal asymmetry as a marker for personality is not supported. Finally, recommendations are given to increase the replicability of frontal asymmetry research. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Shock and awe: Distinct effects of taboo words on lexical decision and free recall

Taboo stimuli are highly arousing, but it has been suggested that they also have inherent taboo-specific properties such as tabooness, offensiveness, or shock value. Prior studies have shown that taboo words have slower response times in lexical decision and higher recall probabilities in free recall; however, taboo words often differ from other words on more than just arousal and taboo properties. Here, we replicated both of these findings and conducted detailed item analyses to determine which word properties drive these behavioural effects. We found that lexical-decision performance was best explained by measures of lexical accessibility (e.g., word frequency) and tabooness, rather than arousal, valence, or offensiveness. However, free-recall performance was primarily driven by emotional word properties, and tabooness was the most important emotional word property for model fit. Our results suggest that the processing of taboo words is influenced by distinct sets of factors and by an intrinsic taboo-specific property.     

Seeing is Knowing: On the Predictive Accuracy of Self‐ and Informant Reports for Prosocial and Moral Behaviours

Under certain circumstances, well‐known others (so‐called informants) may possess unique insights into targets' personality traits beyond the targets' self‐views. Specifically, as proposed by the self–other knowledge asymmetry model, an incremental predictive ability of informants is most likely for traits and corresponding behaviours that are clearly visible to others and highly evaluative in nature. In two studies, we provide an empirical test of this proposition and extend prior research to one of the most important domains of interpersonal interaction: prosocial and moral behaviours. Specifically, we investigate the unique predictive power of informant reports in trait Honesty–Humility for fairness in the dictator game and dishonesty in a cheating paradigm. Importantly, while both these classes of behaviour are highly evaluative in nature, only fairness is clearly visible to others. Correspondingly, in line with the self–other knowledge asymmetry model, our results reveal unique predictive accuracy of informant reports for fairness. For dishonesty, by contrast, there was no conclusive evidence for incremental predictive power of informant reports. This implies that informants may indeed provide valuable information beyond targets' self‐reports on trait aspects driving fair behaviour, but that targets themselves are their own best experts when it comes to judging trait aspects driving dishonest behaviour. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Smoking reduces language lateralization: a dichotic listening study with control participants and schizophrenia patients

Schizophrenia has been associated with deficits in functional brain lateralization. According to some authors, the reduction of asymmetry could even promote this psychosis. At the same time, schizophrenia is accompanied by a high prevalence of nicotine dependency compared to any other population. This association is very interesting, because sex-dependent effects of smoking in auditory language asymmetries have been reported recently, and the verbal domain is also one major focus in cognitive deficit studies of schizophrenia. Thus, the altered laterality pattern in schizophrenia could, at least in part, result from secondary artefacts due to smoking rather than being a pure cause of the disease itself. To test this hypothesis, the present study examined auditory language lateralization in 67 schizophrenia patients and in 72 healthy controls in a phonemic and an emotional dichotic listening task. Our findings replicate previous research, in that smoking reduces language lateralization in men in phonemic dichotic listening. In addition, we show that smoking also reduces laterality in women in the emotional dichotic listening task. Thus, smoking alters phonemic and emotional language asymmetries differentially for men and women, with a stronger effect for men in the left hemisphere phonemic task, and a stronger effect for women in the right hemisphere emotional task. Together, these findings point towards an effect of smoking which is possibly independent of sex and hemisphere. Importantly, by testing equal numbers of smoking and non-smoking patients and controls, we found no schizophrenia-associated asymmetry effect. Possible neurobiological mechanisms with which smoking may alter auditory microcircuits and thereby diminish left-right differences are discussed.     

Caffeine modulates attention network function

The present work investigated the effects of caffeine (0 mg, 100 mg, 200 mg, 400 mg) on a flanker task designed to test Posner’s three visual attention network functions: alerting, orienting, and executive control [Posner, M. I. (2004). Cognitive neuroscience of attention. New York, NY: Guilford Press]. In a placebo-controlled, double-blind study using a repeated-measures design, we found that the effects of caffeine on visual attention vary as a function of dose and the attention network under examination. Caffeine improved alerting and executive control function in a dose–response manner, asymptoting at 200 mg; this effect is congruent with caffeine’s adenosine-mediated effects on dopamine-rich areas of brain, and the involvement of these areas in alerting and the executive control of visual attention. Higher doses of caffeine also led to a marginally less efficient allocation of visual attention towards cued regions during task performance (i.e., orienting). Taken together, results of this study demonstrate that caffeine has differential effects on visual attention networks as a function of dose, and such effects have implications for hypothesized interactions of caffeine, adenosine and dopamine in brain areas mediating visual attention.