Differences between experience of anger and readiness to angry action: A study of Japanese and Spanish students

In this study, the individual proneness to anger, either as an experienced emotion or as action readiness, was studied in university students of both sexes in Japan and Spain, administering the Anger Situation Questionnaire (ASQ) to 425 subjects (195 in Japan and 230 in Spain). The feelings of anger experience were higher than the readiness to action in all the samples. This difference between both variables was higher in females than in males, as well as in the Spanish sample compared with the Japanese one. An intragroup analysis in each sex in each country showed that the relative differences between males and females were similar in both countries. These constant differences between both sexes seem to be independent of the cultural context. Aggr. Behav. 28:429–438, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Old Foundations for the Logic of Agency and Action

The paper presents an infinite hierarchy of sound and complete axiomatic systems for Two-Dimensional Modal Tense Logic with Historical Necessity, Agents and Acts. A main novelty of these logics is their capacity to represent formally (i) basic action-sentences asserting that such and such an act is performed/omitted by an agent, as well as (ii) causative action-sentences asserting that by performing/omitting a certain act, an agent causes that such and such a state-of-affairs is realized (e.g. comes about/ceases/remains/remains absent). We illustrate how the formal machinery of our systems can be used to reconstruct a number of interesting ideas in the Logic of Agency and Action that have been proposed by authors like von Wright, von Kutschera, Belnap and Segerberg.     

Colour-cueing in visual search

Several studies have shown that people can selectively attend to stimulus colour, e.g., in visual search, and that preknowledge of a target colour can improve response speed/accuracy. The purpose was to use a form-identification task to determine whether valid colour precues can produce benefits and invalid cues costs. The subject had to identify the orientation of a "T"-shaped element in a ring of randomly-oriented "L"s when either two or four of the elements were differently coloured. Contrary to Moore and Egeth's (1998) recent findings, colour-based attention did affect performance under data-limited conditions: Colour cues produced benefits when processing load was high; when the load was reduced, they incurred only costs. Surprisingly, a valid colour cue succeeded in improving performance in the high-load condition even when its validity was reduced to the chance level. Overall, the results suggest that knowledge of a target colour does not facilitate the processing of the target, but makes it possible to prioritize it.     

Cultural and sex differences in aggression: A comparison between Japanese and Spanish students using two different inventories

Two self‐report inventories developed to assess different dimensions of aggression, the Aggression Questionnaire and the EXPAGG, were administered to a sample (N = 400) of men and women undergraduates in two Japanese and Spanish universities. The factor structure of scales was assessed using exploratory factor analysis. Both questionnaires showed high correlations between their respective scales. In both cultures, males reported more physical aggression, verbal aggression, and hostility as well as higher instrumental beliefs, whereas females reported more expressive representation than males. Japanese students reported more physical aggression than their Spanish counterparts, who reported more verbal aggression, hostility, and anger and more expressive representation of aggression. Aggr. Behav. 27:313–322, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Variable Perception of White Noise in Ambiguous Phonetic Contexts: The Case of /p/ and /f/

The roles of spectro-temporal coherence, lexical status, and word position in the perception of speech in acoustic signals containing a mixture of speech and nonspeech sounds were investigated. Stimuli consisted of nine (non)words in which either white noise was inserted only into the silent interval preceding and/or following the onset of vocalic transitions ambiguous between /p/ and /f/, or in which white noise overlaid the entire utterance. Ten listeners perceived 85% /f/s when noise was inserted only into the silent interval signaling a stop closure, 47% /f/s when noise overlaid the entire (non)words, and 1% in the control condition that contained no noise. Effects of spectro-temporal coherence seemed to have dominated perceptual outcomes, although the lexical status and position of the critical phoneme also appeared to affect responses. The results are explained more adequately by the theory of Auditory Scene Analysis than by the Motor Theory of Speech Perception.     

Early perception-action coupling: eye movements and the development of object perception

We investigated the scanning strategies used by 2- to 3.5-month-old infants when viewing partly occluded object displays. Eye movements were recorded with a corneal reflection system as the infants observed stimuli depicting two rod parts above and below an occluding box. Stimulus parameters were chosen on the basis of past research demonstrating the importance of motion, occluder width, and edge alignment to perception of object unity. Results indicated that the infants tailored scanning to display characteristics, engaging in more extensive scanning when unity perception was challenged by a wide occluder or misaligned edges. In addition, older infants tended to scan the lower parts of the displays more frequently than did younger infants. Exploration of individual differences, however, revealed marked contrasts in specific scanning styles across infants. The findings are consistent with views of perceptual development stressing the importance of information processing skills and self-directed action to the acquisition of object knowledge.     

The effects of constant versus varied reinforcers on preference and resistance to change

Previous research has demonstrated that factors such as reinforcer frequency, amount, and delay have similar effects on resistance to change and preference. In the present study, 4 boys with autism made choices between a constant reinforcer (one that was the same food item every trial) and a varied food reinforcer (one that varied randomly between three possible food items). For all 4 boys, varied reinforcers were preferred over constant reinforcers, and they maintained higher response rates than constant reinforcers. In addition, when a distraction (a video clip) was introduced, responding maintained by varied reinforcers was more resistant to distraction than responding maintained by constant reinforcers. Thus, the present experiment extended the generality of the relation between preference and resistance to change to variation in reinforcer quality.     

Comparing the magnitude of two fractions with common components: Which representations are used by 10- and 12-year-olds?

This study tested whether 10- and 12-year-olds who can correctly compare the magnitudes of fractions with common components access the magnitudes of the whole fractions rather than only compare the magnitudes of their components. Time for comparing two fractions was predicted by the numerical distance between the whole fractions, suggesting an access to their magnitude. In addition, we tested whether the relative magnitude of the denominator interferes with the processing of the fraction magnitude and, thus, needs to be inhibited. Response times were slower for fractions with common numerators than for fractions with common denominators, indicating an interference of the magnitude of the denominators with the selection of the larger fraction. A negative priming effect was shown for the comparison of natural numbers primed by fractions with common numerators, suggesting an inhibition of the selection of the larger denominator during the comparison of fractions. In conclusion, children who can correctly compare fractions with common components can access the magnitude of the whole fractions but remain sensitive to the interference of the relative magnitude of the denominators. This study highlights the fact that beyond the interference of natural number knowledge at the conceptual level (called the “whole number bias” by Ni & Zhou, 2005), children need to manage the interference of the magnitude of the denominators (Stroop-like effect).     

Strict Identity with No Overlap

Is standard, Kripke-style semantics for quantified modal logic compatible with the view that no individual may belong to more than one possible world? One is naturally inclined to answer in the negative, arguing that the view requires a Lewis-style, counterpart-theoretic semantics instead. Strictly speaking, however, this natural answer is wrong-headed. This note explains why.     

Can We Genetically Engineer Virtue and Deification?

In this article we ask: could we speed up the attainment of religious goals such as virtuous living or even deification through genetic engineering? After reviewing current scientific knowledge gained from genetic engineering, it is difficult to answer affirmatively. Because virtuous living is complex and difficult to define, it makes searching for relevant genes difficult. To date, such genes do not appear in the geneticist’s inventory. An additional unknown is the role of free will. Even more important, theologically, is the role of God in leading to our sanctification. This present negative conclusion, however, does not preclude possible future advances in the science of virtue.