Bias and learning in temporal binding: Intervals between actions and outcomes are compressed by prior bias

It has consistently been shown that agents judge the intervals between their actions and outcomes as compressed in time, an effect named intentional binding. In the present work, we investigated whether this effect is result of prior bias volunteers have about the timing of the consequences of their actions, or if it is due to learning that occurs during the experimental session. Volunteers made temporal estimates of the interval between their action and target onset (Action conditions), or between two events (No-Action conditions). Our results show that temporal estimates become shorter throughout each experimental block in both conditions. Moreover, we found that observers judged intervals between action and outcomes as shorter even in very early trials of each block. To quantify the decrease of temporal judgments in experimental blocks, exponential functions were fitted to participants’ temporal judgments. The fitted parameters suggest that observers had different prior biases as to intervals between events in which action was involved. These findings suggest that prior bias might play a more important role in this effect than calibration-type learning processes.     

Gaze cueing as a function of perceived gaze direction

Previous studies have found that attention is automatically oriented in the direction of other people's gaze. This study directly investigated whether the perceiving gaze direction modulates the orienting of observers' attention. Gaze perception was manipulated by changing the face context (head orientation) of the gaze cue: the perceived gaze angle was increased (or decreased) when the head and gaze are congruent (or incongruent), while the local‐feature information of the eye region was preserved for all stimuli. The results showed that gaze‐cueing effects were enhanced when the perceived gaze direction was averted more toward left or right, and reduced when the perceived gaze direction was closer to direct gaze. The results suggest that gaze‐cueing effects are based on mechanisms specialized for gaze perception, and the magnitude of gaze‐cueing effects was probably a function of the perceived gaze direction.     

Perceptions of Age and Creativity in the Workforce

As the workforce ages it becomes important to examine if there is misperception of creativity and age in work contexts. A laboratory experiment examined perceptions of the creativity of a team with both young and old workers and of a team composed entirely of young workers. Scripted videos portrayed such teams engaged in designing an outdoor advertising campaign. Altogether, 220 participants were randomly assigned to watch one of the video clips and complete a structured questionnaire. No significant differences were observed in the perceptions of the two teams' performance or of the quality of the resulting advertising proposal. In general, there was also no significant difference in the individual characteristics attributed to the four characters on the teams. However, participants aged 35 or above evaluated both teams and all four characters more favorably than participants aged 20–34.     

Spectral information in nonspeech contexts influences children’s categorization of ambiguous speech sounds

For both adults and children, acoustic context plays an important role in speech perception. For adults, both speech and nonspeech acoustic contexts influence perception of subsequent speech items, consistent with the argument that effects of context are due to domain-general auditory processes. However, prior research examining the effects of context on children’s speech perception have focused on speech contexts; nonspeech contexts have not been explored previously. To better understand the developmental progression of children’s use of contexts in speech perception and the mechanisms underlying that development, we created a novel experimental paradigm testing 5-year-old children’s speech perception in several acoustic contexts. The results demonstrated that nonspeech context influences children’s speech perception, consistent with claims that context effects arise from general auditory system properties rather than speech-specific mechanisms. This supports theoretical accounts of language development suggesting that domain-general processes play a role across the lifespan.     

Influenceability of Sex Differences under Conditions of Risk Taking

In an experiment on the effect of intensity accents on the perception of time intervals between tones. H. G. Tekman (2001) found that the regular placement of deviant time intervals in short sequences of tones reduced detection, especially if intensity accents marked the deviant time intervals. That was the opposite of what one wòuld have expected on the basis of the dynamic attending theory of M. R. Jones (1976). The effect might have occurred because temporally deviant tones create cumulative onset shifts that affect all the subsequent tones. If the deviations were randomly placed, then they could follow each other in close succession and change the local tempo. In the present study, the changes of local tempo, which might have acted as a cue for the detection of temporal deviations in the random sequences, were eliminated by compensating for deviant time intervals with equal deviations in the opposite direction in the interval that followed. That change in the stimuli eliminated the negative main effect of regularity, and the accenting interacted with regularity in favor of detection in the regular sequences. However, a simple advantage of regular over random sequences was not observed. The author discusses possible reasons for the lack of a facilitatory effect of regularity.     

Action Perception and Outcome Valence: Effects on Children's Inferences of Intentionality and Moral and Liking Judgments

The influences of different action-outcome scenarios on children's evaluative judgments and inferences of outcome intentionality were assessed. One hundred forty-five kindergartners, 2nd graders, and 4th graders heard 4 stories about child actors who engaged in 1 action or 3 equifinal actions and caused a positive or negative outcome. The stories made no mention of the actors' anticipated outcome so that we could assess the children's inferences of whether the actors wanted and had tried to cause the outcome. Children also rated their liking for the actors and the actors' morality. Children's moral and liking judgments were not significantly differentiated by action condition. However, actors who caused positive outcomes received favorable liking and moral judgments, and actors who caused negative outcomes received neutral liking and moral judgments. Children's intentionality inferences varied by the actors' actions and were moderated by outcome valence. The authors discuss children's apparent use of the valence rule when inferring intentionality and their reluctance to judge harshly actors who cause negative outcomes when not privy to the actors' intentions.     

A Szondi Study of Developmental and Cultural Factors in Personality: The Seven-Year-Old

Children's concepts of various social roles were examined in a task that required the child to indicate the similarity of two occupants of common social roles. Each occupant in the pair was described differently in terms of behaviors appropriate for a particular role. Children in the first, third, and sixth grades were studied. Findings indicated that children in the youngest group held role concepts based primarily on concrete actions, while role concepts of the older two groups were based on more abstract, general role functions. In addition, there is some suggestion that the level of role conceptualization is related to the relevance of the particular role.     

Response to Commentaries: Actions as Perceptual-Conceptual "Gestalts"

The author clarifies the objective and essence of the psychological, or perceptual-cognitive, approach to voluntary movement. According to that approach, voluntary movements are organized and performed as meaningful, perceptible events with bodily and environmental aspects. Body-oriented control is thus not neglected in the perceptual-cognitive approach but is actually an important issue. He further clarifies how material and psychological factors relate to each other in motor control and why they are not considered a coalition of constraints. The central importance of the sparse coding principle for the perceptual-cognitive approach is underlined. Finally, the author argues that the psychological information format is particularly suitable for motion control and stresses the power of the perceptual-cognitive approach to possibly provide a unifying framework for understanding human voluntary movements.     

Sensory substitution: an approach to the experimental study of perception / Sustitución sensorial: un abordaje para el estudio experimental de la percepción

Abstract

Sensory substitution refers to the phenomenon where object and environment information normally acquired through one sense can be obtained by another sense. For example, visual input being provided by hearing or touching. Sensory substitution devices are technological designs that transform the characteristics of one sensory modality into stimuli of another sensory modality. These devices were developed with two purposes: (1) to assist people with sensory disabilities in daily tasks; and (2) to study the involved mechanisms of brain plasticity. This article reviews studies in which sensory substitution phenomenon is employed as a methodological strategy to study visual perception. Furthermore, its use is discussed as an experimental platform to contrast new perceptual theories and underlying neurophysiological mechanisms that are currently under review.     

Judgements of others’ emotional appropriateness are multidimensional

This study investigated the multidimensional structure of judgements of emotional appropriateness, the degree to which an observer judges a target's emotion to conform to observer-valued expectations for emotion in that context. Participants (N=169) were shown one of two brief video clips of an actor either showing anger or neutral expressions in an anger-evoking situation of either low, medium, or high severity. Participants rated the target's emotion on the Perception of Emotion Appropriateness Rating Scale (PEARS), which taps observers’ perceptions of a target's emotional appropriateness for a specific situation. We found that appropriateness ratings are comprised of three factors, assessment of Type Present (type of emotion in expression); Type Absent (missing key emotions); and Intensity (intensity with which the emotion is felt or expressed). Results are discussed in terms of the usefulness of a multidimensional conceptualisation of emotional appropriateness.