The influence of an emotional processing strategy on visual threat detection by police trainees and officers

Threat detection is an important skill for police officers, but few studies have examined the impact of processing strategies on this ability. The first aim of our study was to compare the visual detection of threatening and neutral targets in 38 police trainees and 53 police officers. The other aims were to examine the effect of emotional or semantic strategies on this process and the effect of psychopathological symptoms. In a visual search task, participants had to detect a threatening or neutral target among neutral distractors. Participants answered a question used to induce a more emotional or semantic processing strategy. Results revealed that threatening targets were detected faster than neutral ones. This effect was enhanced with an emotional processing strategy but unaffected by symptoms. Processing strategy also had led to faster reaction time overall. This study shows that inducing processing strategies can influence threat detection in police trainees and officers.     

Can bottom-up processes of attention be a source of ‘interference’ in situations where top-down control of attention is crucial?

In this study, we investigate whether emotionally engaged bottom-up processes of attention can be a source of ‘interference’ in situations where top-down control of attention is necessary. Participants were asked to monitor and report on a video of a war scenario showing a developing battle in two conditions: emotionally positive and emotionally negative. Half of the participants (n = 15) were exposed to task-irrelevant pictures of positive emotional valence embedded within the scenario; the other half were exposed to task-irrelevant pictures of negative emotional valence. Sensitivity and Bias scores were calculated using signal detection theory. Overall, task accuracy scores were dependent upon the valence; negative pictures had an adverse effect on performance, whereas positive pictures improved performance. We concluded that negative emotional pictures interfered with top-down control of attention by attracting competing bottom-up processes of attention. We found the opposite effect for positive emotional stimuli.     

任务设置影响负相容效应的机制——自上而下认知控制对阈下启动信息加工的影响

结合掩蔽启动范式和Go-Nogo范式,考察了任务设置影响负相容效应的机制。实验中以指向左或右的双箭头为掩蔽启动项,在两个Block中的Go试次中分别以箭头和汉字为目标项,要求被试对箭头或汉字做辨别反应,Nogo试次中不呈现目标项,被试无需反应。结果发现:Go试次中,只有在箭头任务设置下才出现负相容效应,脑电结果表现为一致条件下P3潜伏期显著长于不一致条件;Nogo试次中,箭头任务设置下的P3波幅显著大于汉字任务设置下的P3波幅。说明负相容效应受到任务设置这种自上而下认知控制过程的影响,且这种影响发生在阈下启动信息加工阶段。支持注意敏化模型,提示可以在更普遍的角度上理解负相容效应。     

Income and Satisfaction in Russia

The Russian Federation has undergone some drastic economic, social-cultural, and political changes since 1989. The income of nearly half of the population has sunk below the poverty line, which has had an enormous impact on their emotional life. In this study, the relationship between income and satisfaction in Russia was examined. Three theories – need, comparison, and personality theory – were considered. Data were drawn from the first three waves of the Russet panel study (1993–1995). Russians were a little more satisfied with their income and life when they had a higher income. A positive change in income caused an increase in income-satisfaction over a one-year period. Results also showed that there was a reciprocal relationship between income-satisfaction and life satisfaction, indicating that in addition to bottom-up effects, top-down mechanisms were also at work: life satisfaction is partly a sum of domain satisfactions, but it also reflects a more trait-like character. Furthermore, within comparison theory, social comparison had the largest effect on income-satisfaction, closely followed by income needed (person-environment fit theory), and income deserved (equity theory) with the smallest effect. The need effect of income on income-satisfaction became non-significant when controlled for these three comparison mechanisms. Correction for measurement error of relationships between the endogenous variables resulted in overall stronger effects.     

注意捕获与自上而下的加工过程

注意捕获对揭示两种控制过程——自下而上的加工与自上而下的加工之间的关系有着重要的研究意义。在当前对注意捕获的研究中,主要存在两大类的实验范式：线索化范式与视觉搜索范式;涉及以下几个方面：刺激驱动的注意捕获与自上而下控制的关系;注意捕获是否涉及注意的空间转移;刺激的显著性对注意捕获的影响;实验范式对注意捕获的影响。总的来说,没有任何一种视觉刺激能绝对的独立于自上而下的控制之外来捕获注意,因此也可以这样认为,注意捕获被默认为是一种自动化的过程,但这个自动化的过程可以被内源性的调节所抑制或者易化。     

The revised transliminality scale: reliability and validity data from a Rasch top-down purification procedure

The concept of transliminality ("a hypothesized tendency for psychological material to cross thresholds into or out of consciousness") was anticipated by William James (1902/1982), but it was only recently given an empirical definition by Thalbourne in terms of a 29-item Transliminality Scale. This article presents the 17-item Revised Transliminality Scale (or RTS) that corrects age and gender biases, is unidimensional by a Rasch criterion, and has a reliability of.82. The scale defines a probabilistic hierarchy of items that address magical ideation, mystical experience, absorption, hyperaesthesia, manic experience, dream interpretation, and fantasy proneness. These findings validate the suggestions by James and Thalbourne that some mental phenomena share a common underlying dimension with selected sensory experiences (such being overwhelmed by smells, bright lights, sights, and sounds). Low scores on transliminality remain correlated with "tough mindedness" in on Cattell 16PF test, as well as "self-control" and "rule consciousness," whereas high scores are associated with "abstractedness" and an "openness to change" on that test. An independent validation study confirmed the predictions implied by our definition of transliminality. Implications for test construction are discussed.     

Anglo-American Postmodernity: A Response to Clayton and Robbins

In Anglo-American Postmodernity I call attention to recent intellectual shifts in epistemology (from foundationalism to holism), philosophy of language (from reference to use), and metaphysics (from reductionism to nonreductionism), and pursue the consequences of these changes for science, theology, and ethics. Wesley Robbins criticizes the book for making overly optimistic claims for the intellectual status of theology; Philip Clayton criticizes it for giving up the quest for general standards of rational progress. Both criticisms miss the mark in not taking on the account of rationality that I have developed from resources in the work of Alasdair MacIntyre.     

Creation, Co-operation, and Causality: A Reply to Gregersen

Niels H. Gregersen seeks to illuminate the nature of continuing divine action in the world and to show that the classical theistic doctrine of continuous creation is consonant with some recent scientific theories of self-productive ("autopoietic") systems. Central to these theories is the concept of co-operation; central to Gregersen's theological appropriation of these theories is also the notion of structuring causality developed by philosopher Fred Dretske. While supportive of Gregersen's overall aims and emphases, we find significant disanalogies between co-operation as a theological construct and as an evolutionary strategy. We also doubt the utility of Dretske's notion for his project.     

THE RELIGION OF A SCIENTIST: EXPLORATIONS INTO REALITY (RELIGIO PHILOSOPHI NATURALIS)

Abstract. Sir Thomas Browne's reflection on the synthesis between his Christian religion and his practice as a medical doctor, made over three centuries ago, leads into reflections on the present relation between religion and science in the personal experience of the writer. An account is given of how the actual practice of scientific investigation led the author to theistic inferences and how the study of DNA provoked questions concerning reductionism and emergence. This evoked the need for a map of knowledge, and an attempt is presented in a figure which also serves to clarify what kind of realistic reference is involved in both scientific and humanistic contexts–especially with respect to personal language. Theological investigations thereby receive at least provisional legitimization and, with this encouragement, the article pursues the questions of the nature of the divine Source ("God") of the world's being and becoming, of God's interaction and communication with the world, especially with human beings in that world. The penultimate section outlines why the writer considers an explicit communication from God to humanity in Jesus of Nazareth is coherent with the foregoing and what this implies for human fulfillment, individually and corporately. The article concludes with a plea for humility before God and nature in our inquiries in the spirit both of Sir Thomas Browne and of the arch "agnostic" T. H. Huxley.