Up or Down? How Culture and Color Affect Judgments

In the Mainland China stock market, an upmarket is represented by the color red, whereas a downmarket is represented by the color green. Elsewhere, including the Chinese Hong Kong stock market, the color representations are the opposite. Three studies were conducted to examine the red‐up–green‐down effect for Mainland Chinese as well as the green‐up–red‐down effect for Hong Kong people. Study 1 showed that Mainland Chinese tended to predict greater economic growth (study 1a) and higher growth in consumption trends (study 1b) when the experimental materials were presented in red than in green, whereas Hong Kong participants exhibited the opposite tendencies. Study 2 found that Mainland Chinese implicitly associated red and green with up and down, respectively; Hong Kong people, however, implicitly associated green and red with up and down, respectively. Study 3 further indicated that Mainland Chinese were more likely to predict good outcomes when scenarios were presented in red, whereas Hong Kong participants were more likely to predict good outcomes when scenarios were presented in green. These findings suggest that culturally specific environment cues could influence human prediction and judgment. Implications for judgment generally are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of sexual harassment frequency and perceptions of organizational justice on victim responses to sexual harassment

Organizational justice theory was used to understand the conditions that influence how women respond when sexually harassed. Specifically, this study examined whether sexual harassment frequency interacts with perceptions of four types of organizational justice (procedural, distributive, interpersonal, and informational) to predict two types of victim responses (confrontation and reporting). With data collected from 257 female employees, it was found that the interaction between sexual harassment frequency and perceptions of distributive justice and the interaction between sexual harassment frequency and perceptions of procedural justice predicted reporting, whereas the interaction between sexual frequency and perceptions of distributive justice predicted confrontation. The interaction between sexual harassment frequency and perceptions of informational justice predicted both confrontation and reporting. Implications for organizations are discussed.     

Effects of saccades and response type on the Simon effect: If you look at the stimulus,the Simon effect may be gone

The Simon effect has most often been investigated with key-press responses and eye fixation. In the present study, we asked how the type of eye movement and the type of manual response affect response selection in a Simon task. We investigated three eye movement instructions (spontaneous, saccade, and fixation) while participants performed goal-directed (i.e., reaching) or symbolic (i.e., finger-lift) responses. Initially, no oculomotor constraints were imposed, and a Simon effect was present for both response types. Next, eye movements were constrained. Participants had to either make a saccade toward the stimulus or maintain gaze fixed in the screen centre. While a congruency effect was always observed in reaching responses, it disappeared in finger-lift responses. We suggest that the redirection of saccades from the stimulus to the correct response location in noncorresponding trials contributes to the Simon effect. Because of eye–hand coupling, this occurred in a mandatory manner with reaching responses but not with finger-lift responses. Thus, the Simon effect with key-presses disappears when participants do what they typically do—look at the stimulus.     

Polarization or bridging? Responses of Muslim and non-Muslim organizations to criticism of Islam in the Netherlands

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, Islam has been a target of harsh criticism in the Netherlands, as in many other European countries. This article examines and analyses the way leaders of 10 Muslim and 11 non-Muslim organizations responded to criticism of Islam in the Netherlands in the period 2004–10. The focus is on the response to five episodes: the film Submission (2004), the Danish Cartoon Affair (2005–2006), the film Fitna (2008), the Internet film An interview with Mohammed (2008) and the Swiss ban on the building of minarets (2009). Several specific patterns of response are noted. The responses of Muslim organizations vary from resignation to defensive to offensive, and those of non-Muslim organizations from supportive to critical. These patterns are strongly linked to the organizations' leaders' framing of the situation, including the incidents themselves and other organizations, and their own mission and strategy, as well as, in the case of Fitna, to the policy of the Dutch government. All the organizations researched reject extreme forms of polarization and the mainstream Christian, Islamic and Jewish organizations in particular have strengthened their mutual ties in response to expressions of criticism of Islam.     

The Simon Effect With Wheel-Rotation Responses

The authors examined clockwise and counterclockwise wheel-rotation responses to high- or low-pitched tones presented in participants' (N = 96, Experiment 1; N = 48, Experiment 2; N = 48, Experiment 3) left and right ears. In Experiment 1, a Simon effect (fastest responding when tone location and direction of wheel turn corresponded) was obtained when participants' hands were at the top or middle of the wheel but not at the bottom. With line bottom hand placement, a Simon effect was induced by instructions emphasizing hand movements but not by instructions emphasizing wheel movements (Experiment 2), and by a visual cursor controlled by the wheel but not one triggered by the response (Experiment 3). The results of the experiments showed that the nature of the task and the instructed action goal influence the direction of the Simon effect.     

The effects of initial movement dynamics on human responses to postural perturbations

Falls are a major cause of injury, and often occur while turning, reaching, or bending. Yet, we have little understanding of how an ongoing feet-in place activity at the onset of imbalance, and its associated cognitive and biomechanical demands, influence our ability to recover balance. In the current study, we used an ankle-rocking paradigm to determine how the nature of the baseline task influences the balance recovery response to a backward support surface translation. Fourteen participants were instructed to “recover balance without stepping” and were perturbed at vertical while standing quietly (“S”), while ankle rocking and moving forward (“A_f”), or while ankle rocking and moving backward (“A_b”). The results showed that changes in rocking velocity at the time of the perturbation elicited changes in the incidence of stepping, magnitude of trunk angular displacements (p < .01), and the onset latencies of distal muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus, both p < .01) used to recover balance. In addition, plots of onset latencies across all muscles showed that onset latencies appeared to occur earlier in many muscles when participants held a static position compared to when they performed a dynamic task at the onset of the perturbation. The results suggest that muscle activities used to recover balance are tailored to the nature of the perturbation and the ongoing task, and that onset latencies are later when participants are performing a dynamic as opposed to static task at the time of a perturbation. These findings support previous research suggesting that automatic postural responses are highly adaptable to environmental, situational, and task demands.     

Coping Responses and Emotional Distress in Fathers of Children with Special Needs and “Redreaming” as a Creative Intervention

Abstract

Parents dream that their children will have every benefit possible to survive and thrive in the world. When their children have special needs, these dreams are challenged. Parents must adjust to the needs of their child and to the loss of this aspect of their dream. Common challenges and considerations when working with fathers of children with special needs are presented. “Redreaming,” an intervention to facilitate positive reappraisal, and creative approaches are also presented.     

Contextual effects on prejudiced attitudes: When the presence of others leads to more egalitarian responses

In the present paper, we tested the hypothesis that the physical presence of other ingroup members may ameliorate Whites’ spontaneous affective responses toward Blacks. Results of Study 1 demonstrated that IAT-assessed attitudes toward Blacks were indeed less negative when participants were tested in small groups rather than individually. Study 2 shed light on the underlying processes by demonstrating that respondents at the presence of others displayed increased accessibility to egalitarian-related concepts after Black primes, as compared to respondents tested individually. Overall, results point to the wide malleability of spontaneous affective responses and to the possibility that contextual factors, like the presence of other individuals, might automatically activate egalitarians goals. Results are discussed in relation to current models of automatic intergroup bias and preconscious control over it.     

Psychometric evaluation and further validation of the Hagedoorn et al. modified EVLN measure

The aim of the present study was to evaluate and further validate a modified Exit, Voice, Loyalty and Neglect (EVLN) instrument (Hagedoorn, Van Yperen, Van de Vliert & Buunk, 1999), in a Swedish sample (n= 792). To test the underlying scaling assumptions, the convergent and divergent validity, a multitrait/multi-item analysis was conducted and factor analyses were used to evaluate the factor structure. The concurrent validity was tested by using the modified EVLN instrument as predictor and three different forms of justice as criteria in the analysis. The criterion-related validity was tested and an association between exit behavioral response and actual exit behavior was found (predictive validity). The results showed that the instrument may be considered to be a valid measure with the exception of the aggressive voice scale.     

颜色词与颜色认知的关系:相互作用理论及其证据

颜色词与颜色认知的关系是探讨语言与认知关系的重要领域.对颜色词与颜色认知的关系,普遍进化理论认为,颜色词与颜色认知相互独立;语言关联性假设认为,颜色词对颜色认知有重要影响;折衷的理论认为,颜色认知既受光波的物理属性影响,又受人眼的生物特性影响,还受语言和文化影响.在国内外研究基础上,作者提出了颜色词与颜色认知关系的相互作用理论,认为颜色认知包括物理-生理、认知-智力、社会-文化三个水平,涉及物理、生理、认知、智力、语言和文化六个因素;三个层次、六个因素的相互作用,为人们提供了丰富多彩的颜色世界.