Adult attachment and attention to positive and negative emotional face expressions

The present study investigated the relation between adult attachment styles and attention for happy, angry, and neutral emotional face expressions. Using a modified version of the exogenous cueing paradigm, we found that the combination of high attachment anxiety and high attachment avoidance was associated with reduced attention for angry faces. We also observed that anxious people tended to orient attention away from happy faces, especially in combination with high scores on attachment avoidance. These findings replicate and extend the results of a previous study and provide additional information on the role of attention in adult attachment.     

Emergent Processes in Group Behavior

ABSTRACT— Just as neurons interconnect in networks that create structured thoughts beyond the ken of any individual neuron, so people spontaneously organize themselves into groups to create emergent organizations that no individual may intend, comprehend, or even perceive. Recent technological advances have provided us with unprecedented opportunities for conducting controlled laboratory experiments on human collective behavior. We describe two experimental paradigms in which we attempt to build predictive bridges between the beliefs, goals, and cognitive capacities of individuals and patterns of behavior at the group level, showing how the members of a group dynamically allocate themselves to resources and how innovations diffuse through a social network. Agent-based computational models have provided useful explanatory and predictive accounts. Together, the models and experiments point to tradeoffs between exploration and exploitation—that is, compromises between individuals using their own innovations and using innovations obtained from their peers—and the emergence of group-level organizations such as population waves, bandwagon effects, and spontaneous specialization.     

Patterns of maternal and infant imitation during play

In contrast to recent experimental studies that have sought to establish the infant's ability to imitate, the goal of the current study was to establish the actual performance of imitation by infants and their mothers during episodes of face-to-face play. Three-min play episodes of 20 mothers and their 13- to 16-week-old infants were videotaped. Instances of mouth openings, lip movements, tongue protrusions, smiling, and vocalizations by both partners were coded. Sequential analyses revealed stochastic patterns of imitation by both interactants. Mothers contingently imitated initiations by their infants and were more likely to make like initiations during action in the same category by their infants. Infants did not show onset-to-onset imitation but did show an increased likelihood to initiate actions when their mothers were engaged in a like action. That imitation by the mother is a pervasive characteristic of such interactions is consistent with earlier suggestions of its role in the acquisition of social and emotional skills. The results suggest that infants also display patterns of matching in early social interactions.     

空间频率信息对面孔身份与表情识别的影响

已有面孔身份与表情识别研究提示, 高频空间信息可能选择性地与表情识别有关, 而低频空间信息则选择性地与身份识别有关。为验证这一假设, 操纵空间频率设计三个Garner效应测量实验。实验1测量全频条件下身份表情识别之间的Garner效应, 结果显示, 相互间的干扰均显著。实验2测量高频条件下的干扰效应, 发现表情识别的Garner效应不再显著而身份识别的Garner效应无明显变化, 出现分离。实验3测量低频条件下的Garner效应, 结果表明, 表情与身份识别的Garner效应仍显著, 未受高频过滤影响。基于Garner范式, 提出面孔识别的可分离度与难度双指标同时考察的方法, 对实验结果进行了分析, 并由此得出结论, 高频空间信息是面孔身份与表情信息分离的有效尺度。     

面孔吸引力、人格标签对于男女择偶偏好的影响

通过对征婚启事、婚姻统计资料等的分析发现相貌、身材对于男性择偶重要, 能力、资源和个性等对于女性择偶重要。本研究运用实验法进一步探讨了面孔吸引力、人格标签及其交互对于大学生理想择偶偏好的影响。研究结果表明：(1)对于漂亮异性, 男性与其成为情侣的意愿显著高于女性; 而对于不漂亮的异性, 男性与其成为情侣的意愿明显低于女性。(2)对于积极词汇标签下的异性, 女性与其成为情侣的意愿显著高于男性; 而对于消极词汇标签下的异性, 女性与其成为情侣的意愿显著低于男性。(3)与消极词汇标签比较, 积极词汇标签使被试更愿意与其成为情侣, 但这种意愿的提高在相对漂亮的面孔上表现得更加明显。(4)大五人格的五个维度对择偶意愿都有影响, 影响力依次为尽责性、随和性、开放性、情绪稳定性和外倾性。女性更喜欢外向的男性, 但女性是否外向对男性择偶无影响。研究结果为理解择偶行为的性别差异提供了实验性证据。     

The Influence of Learning Style and Cognitive Ability on Recall of Names and Faces in an Older Population

The present study examined whether, for older adults, a verbal or imagery cognitive style is associated with recall of names and faces learned in an experimental condition. Cognitive abilities that are represented in current models of face recognition and name recall were also examined. Those abilities included picture naming, verbal fluency (i.e., naming items within a given category), vocabulary comprehension, visual memory, and the learning of unassociated word pairs. Fifty older adults attempted to learn first and last names of 20 student actors and actresses pictured on videotapes (40 names total). On average, participants learned the most first names, followed by last names, and the fewest full names. The greater the number of responses on a questionnaire associated with an imagery cognitive style, the more the names of faces were correctly identified by participants. There was no significant relationship between a verbal cognitive style and the number of names and faces recalled. As for cognitive abilities, all of the abilities measured—with the exception of vocabulary comprehension—were significantly associated with the number of names and faces learned. A regression analysis indicated that the best predictor of successful name-face learning was the participants' ability to learn and recall 5 unrelated word pairs. When that cognitive measure was deleted from the regression analysis, delayed visual memory and verbal fluency were the next best predictors of the older adults' ability to learn names and faces.     

The Virtue of Emerson's Imitation of Christ: From William Ellery Channing to John Brown

Christians have traditionally conceived of the moral life as an imitation of Christ, whereby followers enter into fellowship with God. The American Transcendentalists can be understood as extending rather than dispensing with this legacy. For Emerson, a person cultivates virtues by imitating those she loves and admires. Ultimately, however, the virtues enable her to innovate on received models, to excel by pressing beyond exemplars. Emerson's famous line, “imitation is suicide,” is not a contradiction but a fulfillment of the imitation of Christ, understood in his terms. In his own time, John Brown was the public figure who, for Emerson, most nearly exemplified this innovative imitation of Christ. An examination of exemplarity, of this artful union of imitation and innovation in moral and spiritual formation, sheds light on how modern agents can cultivate the virtues needed to be at home in the modern world.     

Shared suffering can mitigate aversively‐generated aggression:

Although considerable research indicates that aversive conditions (such as uncomfortably high temperatures) often evoke aggressive inclinations, there is also evidence that people are attracted to those who share their discomfort. In a 2 × 2 design, female participants in either a hot or comfortable room worked with a nearby partner exposed to the same temperature but whose reactions to the temperature were either the same as, or different from, their feelings about the temperature. The women in a fifth condition had a partner situated in a room with a comfortable temperature . Consistent with Schachter's [1959] social–emotional comparison theory, the highest level of aggression was displayed by the participants in the hot room working with a partner whose emotional reactions were different from their own, whereas their counterparts, also exposed to the high temperature but whose partner's feelings were similar to their own, exhibited the least aggression over all the trials. Aggr. Behav. 32:80–87, 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.