Applying the Flanker Task to Political Psychology: A Research Note

One of the two stated objectives of the new “Research Note” section of Political Psychology is to present short reports that highlight novel methodological approaches. Toward that end, we call readers' attention to the “flanker task,” a research protocol widely employed in the study of the cognitive processes involved with detection, recognition, and distraction. The flanker task has increasingly been modified to study social traits, and we believe it has untapped value in the area of political psychology. Here we describe the flanker task—discussing its potential for political psychology—and illustrate this potential by presenting results from a study correlating political ideology to flanker effects.     

Judgment Difficulty and the Moral Intensity of Unethical Acts: A Cognitive Response Analysis of Dual Process Ethical Judgment Formation

This study analyzes cognitive responses to explore a dual processing perspective of ethical judgment formation. Specifically, the study investigates how two factors, judgment task difficulty and moral intensity, influence the extent of deontological and teleological processing and their effects on ethical judgments. A single experiment on 110 undergraduate research participants found that judgment task difficulty affected the extent of deontological and teleological processing. Although moral intensity affected ethical judgments, it did not produce effects on either deontological or teleological cognitive responses. Results did not support the hypotheses that deontological and teleological cognitive responses would mediate the relationships between the experimental factors and ethical judgments. Overall, the results support continued research of factors that affect the nature of information processing in ethical decision situations and the use of cognitive response analysis as a tool for conducting this research.     

Implicit visual learning: How the task set modulates learning by determining the stimulus–response binding

Implicit learning is one of the most fundamental learning mechanisms that enables humans to adapt to regularities inherent in the environment. Despite its high flexibility, it depends on constraints, such as selective attention. Here, we focused on the stimulus-to-response binding which defines the dimensions of the stimuli and the responses participants attend to. In a serial reaction time task with a visual sequence, we investigated whether this stimulus–response binding influences the amount of sequence learning. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that visual sequence learning is reduced when participants do not attend to the relevant response dimension. Furthermore, the findings of Experiment 3 suggest that attention to the relevant response dimension increased the development of explicit knowledge without affecting implicit knowledge. This latter finding is difficult to reconcile with the assumption that explicit learning results from the gradual strengthening of sequence representations.     

不同认知方式对词—面孔任务Stroop效应的影响

该研究采用词—面孔Stroop任务,以76名大学生为被试,探讨了不同认知方式（场独立、场依存）对情绪冲突Stroop效应的影响。结果发现：（1）情绪冲突的Stroop效应显著,即,在词—面孔Stroop任务中,当词和面孔的情绪效价一致时,被试的反应时更短,正确率更高。（2）认知方式对情绪冲突Stroop任务的影响显著,表现为无论是一致还是不一致条件下,场独立者比场依存者的反应时都更短。（3）场依存者的情绪冲突Stroop效应更大,表现为其在词—面孔情绪效价一致和不一致条件下的反应时差异更大。     

高趋近动机积极情绪对注意灵活性的影响

该研究通过两个实验探讨不同趋近动机强度的积极情绪对注意灵活性的影响。实验一中40名大学生被试分别在高趋近和低趋近动机积极情绪条件下完成隐性注意朝向任务;实验二以35名大学生为被试,考察高趋近动机积极情绪和中性情绪条件下的注意灵活性。两项实验结果表明,与低趋近动机积极情绪和中性情绪条件相比,高趋近动机积极情绪下个体的注意灵活性降低,实验结果支持情绪的动机维度模型。     

经颅直流电刺激对健康人群反应抑制的影响

反应抑制是指抑制不恰当的或不符合当前需要的行为的能力, 研究表明反应抑制主要与额下回、背外侧前额叶和前辅助运动区的功能有关。经颅直流电刺激(tDCS)是一种非侵入式脑刺激技术, 近年来对健康人群使用tDCS刺激相应脑区从而影响反应抑制功能的研究日益增多, 但主要研究结果不一致。阐明tDCS影响反应抑制具体的神经机制、减少tDCS研究的异质性、探索更有效的tDCS刺激方式和确定tDCS效果的年龄依赖性差异已成为目前亟待解决的问题。