Arrogant or self-confident? The use of contextual knowledge to differentiate hubristic and authentic pride from a single nonverbal expression

Two studies tested whether observers could differentiate between two facets of pride—authentic and hubristic—on the basis of a single prototypical pride nonverbal expression combined with relevant contextual information. In Study 1, participants viewed targets displaying posed pride expressions in response to success, while causal attributions for the success (target's effort vs. ability) and the source of this information (target vs. omniscient narrator conveying objective fact) were varied. Study 2 used a similar method, but attribution information came from both the target and an omniscient narrator; the congruence of these attributions was varied. Across studies, participants tended to label expressions as authentic pride, but were relatively more likely to label them as hubristic pride when (a) contextual information indicated that targets were arrogant and (b) no mitigating information about the target's potential value as a hard-working group member (i.e., that success was actually due to effort) was presented.     

Within-subject renewal in sign tracking

Three sign-tracking experiments using pigeon subjects examined the contextual dependence of extinction after conditioning. Renewal of extinguished responding occurred when testing occurred in a different context, using a variety of different renewal designs. In each case, a within-subject design ensured that the various contexts were equivalent in their general treatment histories and differed only in whether or not a particular stimulus had been extinguished in their presence. These results strengthen the view that extinction is relatively context specific.     

Variations in selective and nonselective prediction error with the negative dimension of schizotypy

Two human associative-learning experiments investigated the relationship between the negative dimension of schizotypy and selective and nonselective prediction-error learning. Experiment 1 demonstrates that individuals low, but not high, on the introvertive anhedonia dimension of schizotypy demonstrate Kamin blocking, which has been taken to reflect the operation of selective learning (Rescorla & Wagner, 1972). In complement, Experiment 2 demonstrates that individuals high, but not low, on the same dimension demonstrate asymmetrical learning about the components of a compound stimulus that differ in their associative history, which has been suggested to reflect the operation of nonselective learning (Rescorla, 2000). The implications of this double dissociation for understanding the nature of the cognitive deficit in schizophrenia and for theories of learning are considered.     

Effect of study context on item recollection

We examined how visual context information provided during encoding, and unrelated to the target word, affected later recollection for words presented alone using a remember–know paradigm. Experiments 1A and 1B showed that participants had better overall memory—specifically, recollection—for words studied with pictures of intact faces than for words studied with pictures of scrambled or inverted faces. Experiment 2 replicated these results and showed that recollection was higher for words studied with pictures of faces than when no image accompanied the study word. In Experiment 3 participants showed equivalent memory for words studied with unique faces as for those studied with a repeatedly presented face. Results suggest that recollection benefits when visual context information high in meaningful content accompanies study words and that this benefit is not related to the uniqueness of the context. We suggest that participants use elaborative processes to integrate item and meaningful contexts into ensemble information, improving subsequent item recollection.     

Naming digits in a semantic blocking paradigm

It is widely agreed that word numerals are processed similar to other words, and, thus, they can be named without semantic mediation. However, there is no consensus about Arabic digits. Although digits seem to have a preferential link to magnitude representation, there is some evidence indicating a possible asemantic route to access phonological information. In the present study, we used a semantic blocking paradigm to explore this question. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to name digits and pictures or numeral words and name of objects in a semantic blocked context and in a mixed context. For both types of numerical notation we found facilitation in the blocked condition relative to the mixed condition. In Experiment 2, participants named two-digit numbers in a blocked condition (short numerical distance) or in a mixed condition (large numerical distance). Again, facilitation was found for the blocked condition relative to the mixed condition. This pattern of results seems to indicate that Arabic digits, like number words, might be named through an asemantic route.     

Processing temporary syntactic ambiguity: The effect of contextual bias

This paper reports two experiments using sentences with a temporary ambiguity between a direct object and a sentence complement analysis that is resolved toward the normally preferred direct object analysis. Postverbal noun phrases in these sentences could be ambiguously attached as either a direct object or the subject of a sentence complement, whereas in unambiguous versions of the sentences the subcategorization of the verb forced the direct object interpretation. Participants read these sentences in relatively long paragraph contexts, where the context supported the direct object analysis (“preferred”), supported the sentence complement analysis (“unpreferred”), or provided conflicting evidence about both analyses (“conflicting”). Self-paced reading times for ambiguous postverbal noun phrases were almost equivalent to the reading times of their unambiguous counterparts, even in unpreferred and conflicted context conditions. However, time to read a following region, which forced the direct object interpretation, was affected by the interaction of verb subcategorization ambiguity and contextual support. The full pattern of results do not fit well with either an unelaborated single-analysis (“garden path”) model or a competitive constraint-satisfaction model, but are consistent with a race model in which multiple factors affect the speed of constructing a single initial analysis.     

Generation disrupts memory for intrinsic context but not extrinsic context

Although generation typically enhances item memory, the effect is subject to a number of theoretically important limitations. One potential limitation concerns context memory but there has been debate about whether generation actually enhances or disrupts memory for contextual details. Five experiments assessed the effect of generation on context memory for perceptual attributes of the study stimulus (intrinsic context). The results indicate that despite enhancing item memory, generation disrupts memory for intrinsic context. This result generalized over different intrinsic details (print colour and font), different generation manipulations, and several methodological factors identified in earlier research as potential moderators of this negative generation effect. Despite the negative generation effect on intrinsic context, contextual details external to the target item (extrinsic context) are not disrupted. In a sixth experiment, a visually based generation task (letter transposition) enhanced context memory for the extrinsic detail of location. Coupled with earlier research, the results indicate that generation disrupts context memory for intrinsic details but either does not harm or enhances memory for extrinsic context.     

Congruency effects in conceptualizing for speech

In naming a picture at the basic level, a semantically related distractor word induces interference in comparison to an unrelated word. When the task is changed from basic-level naming to categorization, however, this effect reverses to semantic facilitation. In previous studies, this semantic facilitation effect was attributed to “message congruency” at the conceptual level. The present study examines the nature of this message congruency effect: Is it due to competition between two activated category concepts in the incongruent condition or is it due to convergence of activity on a single category concept in the congruent condition? Two experiments show that neither the strength with which the context stimulus activates an incongruent category concept nor the semantic distance between the category concepts activated by target and distractor affect target categorization speed. We conclude that the message congruency effect is most likely due to convergence on a single category concept in the category-congruent condition.     

Spatial distinctiveness effect in categorisation

The aim of the present study was to show that the probability of an item being retrieved is proportional to its spatial distinctiveness, and that this distinctiveness effect can be obtained in an implicit memory task. The participants were presented with two phases in which they had to categorise pictures of objects as either “kitchen utensils” or “do-it-yourself tools”. In our encoding phase, the pictures were successively presented in different positions on the screen. The positions were arranged in one of two different configurations: a “distinctive condition” in which the pictures were placed in two circles, one central and one peripheral, such that the distance between the pictures was greater when they were in a peripheral position than in a central position, and a “nondistinctive” condition, in which the distance between the pictures was constant irrespective of their central or peripheral position. In the test phase, the same pictures were presented for categorisation, mixed with new pictures at the centre of the screen. The results clearly confirmed our expectations.     

An investigation of the interaction between cognitive style and context reinstatement on the memory performance of eyewitnesses

The power of context reinstatement to improve recall is well established, but the degree of effect obtained varies widely between studies. Exploring possible causes for this variation, this paper examines the relationship between cognitive style and the efficacy of context reinstatement in improving free and cued recall in an eyewitness paradigm. Experiment 1, using a live staged event and a 1 week delay, indicated a significant improvement in free recall with the reinstatement of context and, as expected, no such improvement in cued recall. However, analysis of the data according to field dependency, as measured by Witkin, Oltman, Raskin, and Karp's [A manual for the Embedded Figures Test (1971) Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press] Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) revealed that, in free recall, field dependent witnesses' scores improved significantly with context reinstatement, whilst the scores of field independent witnesses did not. In cued recall, however, the field independent witnesses scored significantly higher overall than field dependent witnesses. Experiment 2 sought replication of these findings again utilised the GEFT and the Riding [Cognitive Styles analysis (1991) Birmingham: Learning and Training Technology] Cognitive Styles Analysis (CSA). Analysis of the data according to the Wholist-Analytic (W-A) dimension of the CSA, indicated no interaction with either context reinstatement or memorial performance. However the GEFT analysis produced similar results to that obtained in Experiment 1. The meaning of the interaction between the GEFT and both free and cued recall, and the failure of the CSA to similarly interact are discussed, together with the implication of these findings for establishing the value of reinstating context for individual eyewitnesses.