Or cues knowledge of alternatives: Evidence from priming

Recent research has determined that word meanings can instantly influence the meaning and distribution of other words in the sentence. Here, we manipulated basic carrier sentences with the disjunction or linking two nouns that were either filling the same thematic role or not, and were either semantically related or not. Though previous research has shown that one word can prime a semantically related word even in a sentential context, we predicted that if or cues knowledge about contextually‐relevant alternatives, priming for semantic relatives will only obtain when those words also fill the same thematic role. These predictions were confirmed, as self‐paced reading times of the second alternative in the sentence were faster only when the two alternatives shared the same thematic role and semantic category, suggesting that disjunction words like or function similarly to verbs, which cue knowledge about expected argument structure and sense depending on sentential context. The relevance of these findings for basic reasoning phenomena (i.e., the subadditivity effect) is also discussed.     

Face‐Off: Facial Features and Strategic Choice

I study experimentally a single‐shot trust game where players have the opportunity to choose an avatar—a computer‐generated face—to represent them. These avatars vary on several dimensions—trustworthiness, dominance, and threat—identified by previous work as influencing perceptions of those who view the faces (Todorov, Said, Engell, & Oosterhof, 2008). I take this previous work and ask whether subjects choose faces that are ex ante more trustworthy, whether selected avatars have an influence on strategy choices, and whether individuals who evaluate faces as more trustworthy are also more likely to trust others. Results indicate affirmative answers to all three questions. Additional experimental sessions used randomly assigned avatars. This design allows me to compare behavior when everyone knows avatars are self‐selected versus when everyone knows they are randomly assigned. Random assignment eliminated all three effects observed when subjects chose their avatars.     

Perceiving Aggression from Facial Structure: Further Evidence for a Positive Association with Facial Width‐to‐Height Ratio and Masculinity,but not for Moderation by Self‐Reported Dominance

Recent work has indicated that individual differences in facial structure are linked to perceptions of aggressiveness. In particular, the relative width of a face [facial width‐to‐height ratio (fWHR)] has been suggested to be a reliable cue to aggressive behaviour, at least in men. Additionally, facial masculinity has been associated with perceptions of dominance, a close proxy of aggressiveness. In two studies, we assessed the robustness of this link using faces transformed along these vectors in men (Studies 1 and 2) and women (Study 2). Additionally, we examined whether individual differences in self‐reported dominance of perceivers moderated this association in order to extend previous work indicating that own dominance affects perception of such behaviour in others. Results indicated that both male and female faces with increased fWHR and increased facial masculinity were perceived as more aggressive. However, we found no systematic evidence for moderating effects of self‐reported dominance on the perception of aggression in others. Taken together, these results further support the robustness of fWHR and facial masculinity as cues to aggressiveness but question whether observers' own dominance moderates their perception of these cues in others. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

情绪效价与面孔类型对幼儿无意视盲的影响

幼儿对不同的情绪面孔图片存在不同的注意偏向,考察情绪效价与面孔类型对幼儿无意视盲的影响,可以帮助我们进一步认识幼儿对情绪面孔的注意偏向。本研究采用静态无意视盲的实验范式,通过2（面孔类型：符号化卡通、真人）×2（情绪效价：积极、消极）被试间完全随机设计,考察了111名幼儿（62.5±3.6个月,男生60名）在无意注意条件下对不同情绪效价和不同类型面孔的觉察情况。结果表明：（1）幼儿对积极情绪面孔的觉察率显著高于消极情绪面孔;（2）符号化卡通面孔与真人面孔的整体觉察率不存在显著差异;（3）积极情绪面孔中符号化卡通面孔的觉察率高于真人面孔。综上,情绪效价对无意视盲的影响会基于面孔类型的不同而不同,幼儿对卡通积极情绪面孔有更显著的注意偏向。     

Cerebral blood flow in 5‐ to 8‐month‐olds: Regional tissue maturity is associated with infant affect

Infancy is marked by rapid neural and emotional development. The relation between brain function and emotion in infancy, however, is not well understood. Methods for measuring brain function predominantly rely on the BOLD signal; however, interpretation of the BOLD signal in infancy is challenging because the neuronal‐hemodynamic relation is immature. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) provides a context for the infant BOLD signal and can yield insight into the developmental maturity of brain regions that may support affective behaviors. This study aims to elucidate the relations among rCBF, age, and emotion in infancy. One hundred and seven mothers reported their infants' (infant age M ± SD = 6.14 ± 0.51 months) temperament. A subsample of infants completed MRI scans, 38 of whom produced usable perfusion MRI during natural sleep to quantify rCBF. Mother‐infant dyads completed the repeated Still‐Face Paradigm, from which infant affect reactivity and recovery to stress were quantified. We tested associations of infant age at scan, temperament factor scores, and observed affect reactivity and recovery with voxel‐wise rCBF. Infant age was positively associated with CBF in nearly all voxels, with peaks located in sensory cortices and the ventral prefrontal cortex, supporting the formulation that rCBF is an indicator of tissue maturity. Temperamental Negative Affect and recovery of positive affect following a stressor were positively associated with rCBF in several cortical and subcortical limbic regions, including the orbitofrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. This finding yields insight into the nature of affective neurodevelopment during infancy. Specifically, infants with relatively increased prefrontal cortex maturity may evidence a disposition toward greater negative affect and negative reactivity in their daily lives yet show better recovery of positive affect following a social stressor.     

Effect of brand name on consumers' risk perceptions of online shopping

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between brand names and consumers' perceived risk. Hypotheses dealt with whether the presence of a product's brand name affects consumers' perceived risk towards shopping online; whether the familiarity with a brand name influences consumers' perceived risk; and whether online shoppers and non‐shoppers perceive risk towards shopping online differently. Results indicate that the presence or absence of a product's brand name affects online shoppers' perceived risk, but in the opposite direction to that expected. There was no significant difference between online shoppers' perceived risk vis‐à‐vis brand familiarity; however, online shoppers possessed lower perceived risk than non‐shoppers. Implications and limitations are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications Ltd.     

物体颜色对情景记忆的影响

本研究采用ERP技术和学习-再认范式考察视觉输入的颜色和记忆中的物体颜色知识一致性对情景记忆编码和提取的影响。结果显示, 在对物体图片进行编码时颜色不一致图片诱发更大N400, 而提取阶段则对颜色一致图片有更多熟悉性加工(实验1); 物体名称能够更快激活典型颜色知识, 对颜色一致名称有更多细节回想(LPC更正) (实验2)。实验结果表明, 颜色一致促进知觉水平的记忆编码, 而阻碍语义水平编码。同时, 颜色一致促进物体图片提取(知觉水平)中的熟悉性和回想过程; 而对物体名称提取(概念水平)的促进作用仅表现在回想上。此外, 颜色与物体名称有着密切联系, 同样影响物体的语义表征, 支持激活-扩散模型理论。本研究从知觉和概念水平上为揭示物体颜色在联结记忆中的作用提供了证据。     

面孔线索对4~6岁幼儿真人与卡通面孔记忆的影响

对真人面孔与卡通面孔记忆线索的比较研究,有助于深入认识儿童的面孔认知机制。采用“学习-再认”范式,以内部线索面孔、外部线索面孔和完整面孔为刺激材料,探究面孔线索对4~6岁幼儿真人与卡通面孔记忆的影响。结果发现：（1）女童对真人面孔的记忆显著优于卡通;（2）对卡通面孔的记忆,男童显著优于女童;（3）对真人面孔：完整面孔记忆显著优于内部线索面孔与外部线索面孔;对卡通面孔：外部线索面孔记忆最佳,其次完整面孔,内部线索面孔最低;（4）幼儿对外部与内部线索面孔的记忆能力随年龄逐步提高,6岁显著优于4岁。综上,幼儿对真人面孔与卡通面孔的记忆模式存在差异;且面孔类别、性别、面孔线索与年龄等因素均影响幼儿的面孔记忆。     

Mechanism underlying the self-enhancement effect of voice attractiveness evaluation: self-positivity bias and familiarity effect

The aim of the present study was to determine whether the self-enhancement effect of voice attractiveness evaluation is due to general self-positivity bias and/or the familiarity effect. The participants were asked to rate the attractiveness of their own voice, a friend's voice and strangers' voices. In addition, a self-reference valence (SR-valence) task was adopted in the experiment. Significant self-enhancement effects in voice attractiveness ratings were demonstrated, regardless of whether the participants recognized their self-voice or not. However, the friend-enhancement effect was found in only those participants who successfully recognized their friend's voice. Moreover, a significant correlation was found between self-positivity bias in the SR-valence task and the self-enhancement effect (but not the friend-enhancement effect). Our findings suggest that both the familiarity effect and self-positivity bias account for the vocal self-enhancement effect, and the influence of self-positivity bias could be implicit. The present study thus provides empirical evidence to clarify the potential explanations for the self-enhancement of voice attractiveness assessment.     

Holistic processing of faces is intact in adults with autism spectrum disorder

Are face recognition difficulties in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) related to impaired holistic processing? Gauthier et al. [Gauthier, I., Klaiman, C., &; Schultz, R. T. (2009). Face composite effects reveal abnormal face processing in Autism spectrum disorders. Vision Research, 49, 470–478. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2008.12.007] used the face composite task in adolescents with autism and found a congruency effect that was not modulated by alignment, a result which was interpreted as reflecting qualitatively different face processing mechanisms. In the present study we tested adults with ASD in a composite face task where presentation times were manipulated and further explored whether these participants were sensitive to holistic information in faces using a new version of the composite task: VHFPT 2.0 (The Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test 2.0). Results suggest that adults with ASD process faces holistically and that their facial identity processing abilities are qualitatively similar and as efficient as that of typical adults. The difference between the results of Gauthier et al. (2009) with adolescents and the results with adults here reported are interpreted in terms of a developmental delay.