Age-related differences in emotion matching are limited to low intensity expressions

Multi-label tasks confound age differences in perceptual and cognitive processes. We examined age differences in emotion perception with a technique that did not require verbal labels. Participants matched the emotion expressed by a target to two comparison stimuli, one neutral and one emotional. Angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, and sad facial expressions of varying intensity were used. Although older adults took longer to respond than younger adults, younger adults only outmatched older adults for the lowest intensity disgust and fear expressions. Some participants also completed an identity matching task in which target stimuli were matched on personal identity instead of emotion. Although irrelevant to the judgment, expressed emotion still created interference. All participants were less accurate when the apparent difference in expressive intensity of the matched stimuli was large, suggesting that salient emotion cues increased difficulty of identity matching. Age differences in emotion perception were limited to very low intensity expressions.     

Replication of the Self-Concept and Identity Measure (SCIM) Among a Treatment-Seeking Sample

Identity distress occurs within a variety of psychiatric conditions. Reliable tools for assessing identity-related functioning among clinical populations are greatly needed. The Self-Concept and Identity Measure (SCIM) is a brief self-report scale designed to assess healthy and disturbed identity dimensions. This measure has been validated within normative but not treatment-seeking samples. The present study used an a priori confirmatory approach to replicate the SCIM’s factor structure among disadvantaged women enrolled in treatment for chemical dependence (N = 216). The original three-factor structure and item loadings generally replicated within this diagnostically diverse, significantly impaired sample. Higher SCIM scores were also associated with other problems, such as emotion dysregulation and depression. Results support the SCIM’s use and scoring with clinical populations.     

物质相关线索对成瘾者反应抑制的影响

成瘾者失控的物质寻求和使用与反应抑制的关系密切。很多研究在物质相关线索情境中探讨了这一关系。物质相关线索既可受到自动的注意加工, 又可诱发非自动的趋近动机状态。因此, 它们可能通过刺激驱动和状态依赖两种方式消耗有限的认知资源从而影响反应抑制, 这在成瘾行为的发展和维持中起到重要作用。未来需要在揭示其神经机制、明确物质使用动机或态度的调节、采用真实情境进行研究, 以及开发有效的干预方法等几个方面开展研究。     

羞怯儿童对模糊情绪面孔的知觉偏差

采用类别知觉情绪识别范式,考察高、低羞怯儿童对快乐-愤怒和快乐-悲伤模糊情绪面孔的知觉偏差和知觉敏感性。结果发现：（1）相对于低羞怯儿童,高羞怯儿童倾向于将快乐-愤怒模糊情绪面孔知觉为愤怒,将快乐-悲伤模糊情绪面孔知觉为悲伤;（2）两组儿童在快乐-愤怒、快乐-悲伤模糊情绪面孔类别界线处的斜率差异均不显著。研究表明高羞怯儿童具有敌意归因偏向和更高的悲伤共情反应,而对快乐-愤怒和快乐-悲伤表情的类别转变不敏感。     

Mind perception of God in Japanese children

There is a theoretical debate regarding whether children represent God with reference to a human. Most previous studies have assessed this issue focusing on knowledge/omniscience in western children. This study used a theoretical framework characterising mental capacities in terms of motivational/emotional (experience) and cognitive (agency) mental capacities and tested whether Japanese children discriminated between God, a human, a baby and an invisible agent according to these capacities. Three‐ to 6‐year‐old children were asked about the experience and agency of the agents. The results revealed that children discriminated God from a human in terms of mental capacities including experience and agency in 3‐year‐old children. On the other hand, 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children, but not 3‐year‐old children, discriminated a human from a baby and an invisible person. The results suggest that the Japanese children's representations of God differed from their representation of a human during preschool years.     

Social categorization and individuation in the own‐age bias

Young adults recognize other young adult faces more accurately than older adult faces, an effect termed the own‐age bias (OAB). The categorization‐individuation model (CIM) proposes that recognition memory biases like the OAB occur as unfamiliar faces are initially quickly categorized. In‐group faces are seen as socially relevant which motivates the processing of individuating facial features. Outgroup faces are processed more superficially with attention to category‐specific information which hinders subsequent recognition. To examine the roles of categorization and individuation in the context of the OAB, participants completed a face recognition task and a speeded age categorization task including young and older adult faces. In the recognition task, half of the participants were given instructions aimed to encourage individuation of other‐age faces. An OAB emerged that was not influenced by individuation instructions, but the magnitude of the OAB was correlated with performance in the categorization task. The larger the categorization advantage for older adult over young adult faces, the larger the OAB. These results support the premise that social categorization processes can affect the subsequent recognition of own‐ and other‐age faces, but do not provide evidence for the effectiveness of individuation instructions in reducing the OAB.     

Stereotype activation and self-regulation by conservatives and liberals in political encounters

We examined stereotyping and its effect on self-regulation in preparation for inter-ideological interactions. Turkish conservative and liberal students anticipated interacting with a political outgroup (vs. ingroup) member and the accessibility of outgroup and ingroup stereotypes was measured. Conservatives in both outgroup and ingroup interaction conditions showed higher accessibility for outgroup stereotypes. Liberals, however, showed lower accessibility for both outgroup and ingroup stereotypes in both conditions. Liberals’ suppression of stereotypes about the anticipated partner led to worse self-regulation when the anticipated partner was conservative but better self-regulation when the partner was liberal. Conservatives’ stereotype accessibility did not affect their self-regulation. These findings show that liberals may tend to rely on self-regulatory resources to suppress their stereotypes while anticipating inter-ideological interactions, while conservatives rely on stereotypes to navigate such interactions.     

Pre-verbal infants perceive emotional facial expressions categorically

Adults perceive emotional expressions categorically, with discrimination being faster and more accurate between expressions from different emotion categories (i.e. blends with two different predominant emotions) than between two stimuli from the same category (i.e. blends with the same predominant emotion). The current study sought to test whether facial expressions of happiness and fear are perceived categorically by pre-verbal infants, using a new stimulus set that was shown to yield categorical perception in adult observers (Experiments 1 and 2). These stimuli were then used with 7-month-old infants (N = 34) using a habituation and visual preference paradigm (Experiment 3). Infants were first habituated to an expression of one emotion, then presented with the same expression paired with a novel expression either from the same emotion category or from a different emotion category. After habituation to fear, infants displayed a novelty preference for pairs of between-category expressions, but not within-category ones, showing categorical perception. However, infants showed no novelty preference when they were habituated to happiness. Our findings provide evidence for categorical perception of emotional expressions in pre-verbal infants, while the asymmetrical effect challenges the notion of a bias towards negative information in this age group.