Feature and Configuration in Face Processing: Japanese Are More Configural Than Americans

Previous work suggests that Asians allocate more attention to configuration information than Caucasian Americans do. Yet this cultural variation has been found only with stimuli such as natural scenes and objects that require both feature‐ and configuration‐based processing. Here, we show that the cultural variation also exists in face perception—a domain that is typically viewed as configural in nature. When asked to identify a prototypic face for a set of disparate exemplars, Japanese were more likely than Caucasian Americans to use overall resemblance rather than feature matching. Moreover, in a speeded identity‐matching task, Japanese were more accurate than Americans in identifying the spatial configuration of features (e.g., eyes). Together, these findings underscore the robustness of culture’s influences on cognition.     

Japanese Sound‐Symbolism Facilitates Word Learning in English‐Speaking Children

Sound‐symbolism is the nonarbitrary link between the sound and meaning of a word. Japanese‐speaking children performed better in a verb generalization task when they were taught novel sound‐symbolic verbs, created based on existing Japanese sound‐symbolic words, than novel nonsound‐symbolic verbs ( Imai, Kita, Nagumo, & Okada, 2008 ). A question remained as to whether the Japanese children had picked up regularities in the Japanese sound‐symbolic lexicon or were sensitive to universal sound‐symbolism. The present study aimed to provide support for the latter. In a verb generalization task, English‐speaking 3‐year‐olds were taught novel sound‐symbolic verbs, created based on Japanese sound‐symbolism, or novel nonsound‐symbolic verbs. English‐speaking children performed better with the sound‐symbolic verbs, just like Japanese‐speaking children. We concluded that children are sensitive to universal sound‐symbolism and can utilize it in word learning and generalization, regardless of their native language.     

A computational cognitive model of syntactic priming

The psycholinguistic literature has identified two syntactic adaptation effects in language production: rapidly decaying short-term priming and long-lasting adaptation. To explain both effects, we present an ACT-R model of syntactic priming based on a wide-coverage, lexicalized syntactic theory that explains priming as facilitation of lexical access. In this model, two well-established ACT-R mechanisms, base-level learning and spreading activation, account for long-term adaptation and short-term priming, respectively. Our model simulates incremental language production and in a series of modeling studies, we show that it accounts for (a) the inverse frequency interaction; (b) the absence of a decay in long-term priming; and (c) the cumulativity of long-term adaptation. The model also explains the lexical boost effect and the fact that it only applies to short-term priming. We also present corpus data that verify a prediction of the model, that is, that the lexical boost affects all lexical material, rather than just heads.     

Impulse processing: a dynamical systems model of incremental eye movements in the visual world paradigm

The Visual World Paradigm (VWP) presents listeners with a challenging problem: They must integrate two disparate signals, the spoken language and the visual context, in support of action (e.g., complex movements of the eyes across a scene). We present Impulse Processing, a dynamical systems approach to incremental eye movements in the visual world that suggests a framework for integrating language, vision, and action generally. Our approach assumes that impulses driven by the language and the visual context impinge minutely on a dynamical landscape of attractors corresponding to the potential eye-movement behaviors of the system. We test three unique predictions of our approach in an empirical study in the VWP, and describe an implementation in an artificial neural network. We discuss the Impulse Processing framework in relation to other models of the VWP.     

"Frequent frames" in German child-directed speech: a limited cue to grammatical categories

Mintz (2003) found that in English child-directed speech, frequently occurring frames formed by linking the preceding (A) and succeeding (B) word (A_x_B) could accurately predict the syntactic category of the intervening word (x). This has been successfully extended to French (Chemla, Mintz, Bernal, & Christophe, 2009). In this paper, we show that, as for Dutch (Erkelens, 2009), frequent frames in German do not enable such accurate lexical categorization. This can be explained by the characteristics of German including a less restricted word order compared to English or French and the frequent use of some forms as both determiner and pronoun in colloquial German. Finally, we explore the relationship between the accuracy of frames and their potential utility and find that even some of those frames showing high token-based accuracy are of limited value because they are in fact set phrases with little or no variability in the slot position.     

THE COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF RELIGION: IMPLICATIONS FOR THEISM?

Abstract. Although the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR), a current approach to the scientific study of religion, has exerted an influence in the study of religion for almost twenty years, the question of its compatibility or incompatibility with theism has not been the subject of serious discussion until recently. Some critics of religion have taken a lively interest in the CSR because they see it as useful in explaining why religious believers consistently make costly commitments to false beliefs. Conversely, some theists have argued for the compatibility of religious belief with basic CSR results. In this article, we contribute to the incipient discussion about the worldview relevance of the CSR by arguing that while a theistic reading of the field only represents one interpretative option at most, antitheistic claims about the incompatibility of the CSR with theism look like they may be harder to maintain than first appearances might suggest.     

Religion and the decision to donate organs: Exploring the potential role of religious leaders

The two‐step flow model of communication (Katz, 1957 ) suggests opinion leaders obtain critical information from the mass media and, in turn, communicate this information to interpersonal contacts such as friends, family and co‐workers. It is suggested that religious leaders (RLs) may serve as opinion leaders on the topic of organ donation by debunking donation myths, promoting donation during worship services, or communicating the benefit of donation to families faced with the opportunity to participate in living or cadaveric donation. The current study examined the personal knowledge, experiences, and willingness to communicate about organ donation in a sample of RLs (N = 59) in Rochester, New York. Structured interviews were conducted in summer and fall of 2009 with a random sample of RLs. Results indicate a disparity between RLs' expressed personal support for donation and their engagement in donor registration. Approximately one‐quarter of RLs have spoken about donation during a religious service and many indicate their knowledge is not sufficient to discuss organ donation in detail. Results elaborate on how RLs may be trained to serve as opinion leaders in the promotion of organ donation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Group identity,ethnic separatism and multiple out‐groups: The Basque case

Within the context of the Basque Country in Spain we examined how ethnic (Basque) and national (Spanish) identification relate to the evaluation of Spaniards, Basques, Andalusians and Catalans. On a sample of adolescent participants we tested a structural equation model which considered identity content (Basque separatism) as a mediator of the relationship between group identifications and group evaluations. While Spanish and Basque identification were associated with a positive evaluation of Spanish and Basque in‐groups, respectively, the evaluation of out‐groups that are relatively similar to the in‐group were not affected by identification. In contrast, dissimilar out‐groups tended to be evaluated more negatively by higher in‐group identifiers. Basque separatism mediated the negative relationship between Basque identification and the evaluation of Spaniards and of Andalusians as a prototypically Spanish subgroup. It is concluded that identification relates differently to the evaluation of different out‐groups, and that the ideological content of identity plays an important role in determining intergroup relations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiple Criteria Decision‐Making in Management Accounting and Control‐State of the Art and Research Perspectives Based on a Bibliometric Study

As an academic discipline as well as in practice, decision support is one of the most important functions of management accounting and control (MAC). Owing to decision settings' increasing complexity, suitable multiple criteria methods are becoming increasingly important for MAC. We, therefore, examine the extent to which certain multiple criteria decision‐making (MCDM) methods are used in the MAC context. In order to do so, we undertook an extensive bibliometric analysis of the management accounting field during the last three decades. The results indicate an increase in the importance of MCDM. Furthermore, recent research activities were classified into different areas of decision‐making within MAC since the majority of publications deal with the areas of strategic management, budgeting and performance management. More specifically, strategy and performance evaluation, strategic planning and the selection of alternatives are the most prominent MCDM applications. Our analysis reveals that the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is the most popular analytical tool with which to support management in complex decision‐making situations. The results of the study prove that technical MAC literature does not cover a desirable range of MCDM applications and that the AHP, as well as the analytic network process (ANP) are of increasing importance in respect of the international scope of MAC. Therefore, the area of MCDM continues to be an active part of management science research and application, specifically of MAC. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.