Conceptions of love in Ghana: An exploration among Ghanaian Christians

We explored conceptions of love from the perspective of Ghanaian Christians. Using an ethnographic approach, we interviewed 61 participants (males = 39; females = 22; age range 20 to 70) on their understanding and experiences of love in the context of family. Thematic analysis of the interview data revealed understandings of love expression in meeting material needs (of children, spouse, parents, and close relatives), helping other people in need (including the elderly, friends, and strangers), and affectionate care. Communal and maintenance-oriented love appears to characterise love expression among Ghanaian Christians.     

基于IRT模型的儿童图形推理能力动态评估研究

MRMLC模型是一种常见的动态评估项目反应理论模型。本研究结合小学儿童图形推理能力发展的特点,采用前测-干预-后测的动态评估模式,对来自江西省北部的四到六年级共177名儿童的图形推理能力进行了基于MRMLC模型的动态评估。研究结果表明通过动态评估我们不仅可以获知儿童图形推理能力的当前水平;而且,还可以进一步分析和比较儿童在各测量情景所测的潜在水平。     

Common cues to emotion in the dynamic facial expressions of speech and song

Speech and song are universal forms of vocalization that may share aspects of emotional expression. Research has focused on parallels in acoustic features, overlooking facial cues to emotion. In three experiments, we compared moving facial expressions in speech and song. In Experiment 1, vocalists spoke and sang statements each with five emotions. Vocalists exhibited emotion-dependent movements of the eyebrows and lip corners that transcended speech–song differences. Vocalists’ jaw movements were coupled to their acoustic intensity, exhibiting differences across emotion and speech–song. Vocalists’ emotional movements extended beyond vocal sound to include large sustained expressions, suggesting a communicative function. In Experiment 2, viewers judged silent videos of vocalists’ facial expressions prior to, during, and following vocalization. Emotional intentions were identified accurately for movements during and after vocalization, suggesting that these movements support the acoustic message. Experiment 3 compared emotional identification in voice-only, face-only, and face-and-voice recordings. Emotion judgements for voice-only singing were poorly identified, yet were accurate for all other conditions, confirming that facial expressions conveyed emotion more accurately than the voice in song, yet were equivalent in speech. Collectively, these findings highlight broad commonalities in the facial cues to emotion in speech and song, yet highlight differences in perception and acoustic-motor production.     

Communicating safety with drivers via dynamic message signs

In recent years numerous transportation agencies have begun displaying creative safety messages like “get your head out of your apps” on dynamic message signs (DMS). DMS have been used traditionally to provide real-time information about travel times, weather conditions, construction, and incidents. Applying emotional and consequential concepts from protection motivation theory, which has a track record of leading to behavioral changes from public awareness campaigns, this study evaluates how the use of safety messages on DMS impacts driver perceptions. We find that emotions, but not consequences, impact self-reported driving behavior. Further, while drivers reported negative emotions would change their driving habits, positive messages were recalled far more often. Cell phone related messages were recalled most frequently despite being rarely displayed along roadways in Michigan where the study is conducted. Thus, the results support the use of positively themed messages with consequences that drivers perceive as realistic.     

Can perceivers recognise emotions from spontaneous expressions?

Posed stimuli dominate the study of nonverbal communication of emotion, but concerns have been raised that the use of posed stimuli may inflate recognition accuracy relative to spontaneous expressions. Here, we compare recognition of emotions from spontaneous expressions with that of matched posed stimuli. Participants made forced-choice judgments about the expressed emotion and whether the expression was spontaneous, and rated expressions on intensity (Experiments 1 and 2) and prototypicality (Experiment 2). Listeners were able to accurately infer emotions from both posed and spontaneous expressions, from auditory, visual, and audiovisual cues. Furthermore, perceived intensity and prototypicality were found to play a role in the accurate recognition of emotion, particularly from spontaneous expressions. Our findings demonstrate that perceivers can reliably recognise emotions from spontaneous expressions, and that depending on the comparison set, recognition levels can even be equivalent to that of posed stimulus sets.     

Development and validation of an Argentine set of facial expressions of emotion

Pictures of facial expressions of emotion are used in a wide range of experiments. The last decade has seen an increase in the number of studies presenting local sets of emotion stimuli. However, only a few existing sets contain pictures of Latin Americans, despite the growing attention emotion research is receiving in this region. Here we present the development and validation of the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Expresiones de Emociones Faciales (UNCEEF), a Facial Action Coding System (FACS)-verified set of pictures of Argentineans expressing the six basic emotions, plus neutral expressions. FACS scores, recognition rates, Hu scores, and discrimination indices are reported. Evidence of convergent validity was obtained using the Pictures of Facial Affect in an Argentine sample. However, recognition accuracy was greater for UNCEEF. The importance of local sets of emotion pictures is discussed.     

Perceived Conflict and Leader Dominance: Individual and Contextual Factors Behind Preferences for Dominant Leaders

Recent research finds that political candidates and leaders with dominant, masculine physical features are more preferred under conditions of conflict than of cooperation. Importantly, however, methodological limitations of past research have hindered the identification of whether this effect reflects that voters intuitively view (1) dominant leaders as more competent in solving problems of conflict, (2) nondominant leaders as more competent in solving problems of cooperation, or (3) both. In this article, we utilize recent advances in evolutionary psychology to form precise predictions on the nature of the underlying psychology and employ an unprecedented array of data types—including highly controlled experiments, natural experiments, and behavioral measures—to investigate the validity of these predictions. Using large approximately nationally representative surveys of 2,009 Poles and Ukrainians fielded during the Crimea crisis in 2014, we find that preferences for leader dominance are exclusively driven by the intuition that dominant leaders are better able to facilitate aggressive responses during social conflict and that these preferences are regulated by contextual conditions and individual predispositions related to such responses.     

基于自我相似面孔的亲缘选择与配偶选择行为

根据广义适合度理论, 自我相似面孔与亲缘选择和配偶选择行为密切相关。自我相似面孔可以促进个体的亲缘利他行为, 影响配偶选择行为。来自“夫妻相”、“性印刻”的描述性研究数据支持自我相似面孔与配偶选择偏好之间的相关关系。来自实验研究的数据, 结论尚不统一。有些证实自我相似面孔可以引发配偶选择偏好, 有些却不支持这一结论。最近的研究从内隐及外显认知上分离择偶过程中对自我相似面孔的偏好：认为偏好是内隐的, 一旦上升到意识层面便会消失。另有研究从性选择策略上对自我相似面孔偏好的原因进行解读。对自我相似面孔偏好的神经机制的研究也有一些新的发现。未来研究可借助fMRI等工具从认知过程及神经机制上对自我相似面孔偏好的现象作进一步探讨。     

Reducing emotional reasoning: An experimental manipulation in individuals with fear of spiders

We investigated the effects of smiling on perceptions of positive, neutral and negative verbal statements. Participants viewed computer-generated movies of female characters who made angry, disgusted, happy or neutral statements and then showed either one of two temporal forms of smile (slow vs. fast onset) or a neutral expression. Smiles significantly increased the perceived positivity of the message by making negative statements appear less negative and neutral statements appear more positive. However, these smiles led the character to be seen as less genuine than when she showed a neutral expression. Disgust + smile messages led to higher judged happiness than did anger + smile messages, suggesting that smiles were seen as reflecting humour when combined with disgust statements, but as masking negative affect when combined with anger statements. These findings provide insights into the ways that smiles moderate the impact of verbal statements.     

A Factorial Analysis of Responses to the Comic as a Study in Personality

Modeling techniques were used to model moderate disclosure to high and low disclosers. Eighty female undergraduates (40 low disclosers and 40 high disclosers) listened to a model select items that were rated as moderate disclosures for discussion. Two modeling conditions were employed; in one condition the model was reinforced by the E (vicarious reinforcement), in the second condition the model was not reinforced. Two control conditions, one with the model present, the other with the model absent were also included. The results of two separate 2 × 4 × 2 repeated measures, hierarchical analyses of variance on the subject distance from modeled intimacy, and the number of moderate items selected on pre- and posttests, indicated that both modeling conditions were successful in producing moderation of self-disclosure.