Auditory Long term Memory: Repetition Priming of Voice Recognition

Two experiments examined repetition priming in the recognition of famous voices. In Experiment 1, reaction times for fame decisions to famous voice samples were shorter than in an unprimed condition, when voices were primed by a different voice sample of the same person having been presented in an earlier phase of the experiment. No effect of voice repetition was observed for non-famous voices. In Experiment 2, it was investigated whether this priming effect is voice-specific or whether it is related to post-perceptual processes in person recognition. Recognizing a famous voice was again primed by having earlier heard a different voice sample of that person. Although an earlier exposure to that person's name did not cause any priming, there was some indication of priming following an earlier exposure to that person's face. Finally, earlier exposure to the identical voice sample (as compared to a different voice sample from the same person) caused a considerable bias towards responding 'famous'-i.e. performance benefits for famous but costs for nonfamous voices. The findings suggestthat (1) repetition priming invoice recognition primarily involves the activation of perceptual representations of voices, and (2) it is important to determine the conditions in which priming causes bias effects that need to be disentangled from performance benefits.     

Subjective quality of life of surgically treated glioma patients undergoing polychemotherapy

25 patients with glioma were questioned as to how they apprehended and appreciated their state of health and their psychosocial situation 1 1/2 years (s = 4 months) after the start of their postoperative polychemotherapy. In their opinion, their health was relatively good, that is, they claimed to suffer little pain, few complaints, little feeling of inadequacy, few fears for the future. They regarded the mode of treatment as being somewhat more inconvenient. Such an unexpectedly positive response, in view of the poor prospect, raises the question as to its provenance. A significant cause is seen in the organic psycho-syndrome, and its significance is made the subject of the concluding discussion, with reference to adaptation mechanisms and specifics of the illness.     

RELATIONS BETWEEN PREDICTION- AND ESTIMATION-RESPONSES IN CUE-PROBABILITY LEARNING AND TRANSFER

B auer M arianne Relations between prediction- and estimation-responses in cue-probability learning and transfer. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1972, 13 , 198–207. —Comparisons were made between prediction- and estimation-responses, preceded by training with different types of responding and when task probabilities were shifted. The main results were: ( a ) differential effects of procedure of learning and shift in task structure on predictions and estimates support the hypothesis of two different processes, ( b ) estimates as indicators of probability learning reflect traits assumed to characterize the perception process, viz. sensitivity to shifts in probabilities, and robustness against influence from procedure of learning, and ( c ) prediction-responses were affected in the direction of more extreme responses by simultaneous estimation, which result strengthens the supposition that probability estimates are insufficient as indicators of the complete perception process in a prediction task.     

Magnetoencephalography--current trends

The review deals with the method of magnet-encephalography. The physical principles and the most important technical conditions to put into practice this method are mentioned. Comparing with the electroencephalography this method shows various advantages, what leads to its intensive use for the localisation of components of evoked potentials, for the magnet-encephalographic record of the brain activity of the human fetus, and for the localisation of epileptic foci in therapy resistant epileptics.     

Relationships between time of day,day of the week,and positive mood: Exploring the role of the mood measure

This study examined the relationship between time of day, day of the week, and two measures of positive affect (PA). According to previous research and the circumplex model of affect, one scale was designed to assess the activation component of PA, and the other one measured the pleasantness aspect. Subjects rated their mood three times a day for 7 consecutive days. Consistent with our hypotheses, PA-Pleasantness showed a peak on the weekend, whereas PA-Activation remained stable throughout the week. Regarding time of day, maximum PA-Activation was reached in the afternoon. In contrast, the Pleasantness component of PA increased from morning to evening. Implications of these results as well as other findings concerning the differential content of PA measures are discussed regarding the fact that a certain scale is most appropriate and maximally valid for representing certain aspects of affective experience.We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers and the associate editor, Robert A. Baron, for their constructive comments on an earlier version of this article.     

Social facilitation during the initial stage of motor learning: a re-examination of Martens' audience study

This study partially replicated Martens' (1969a) social-facilitation study of motor behavior. His very robust performance findings provided impressive confirmation for Zajonc's hypothesis, and his arousal findings have since been used as evidence for a nonlearned-drive basis for social facilitation. The present study also extended Martens' investigation by examining the separate and combined effects of an audience and videotape camera. The effects due to the presence of the audience and camera were not additive; instead, the audience detrimentally affected subjects' performance consistency and the camera resulted in more trials with errors greater than 30 msec after the performance criteria had been attained. Martens' most robust findings for constant error were not replicated, nor were some of his physiological arousal findings. His pattern of constant error results over all trials is atypical of known learning strategies that subjects use to reduce error over successive trials. Overall, audience effects accounted for only a very small portion of the variance.     

Irrelevant differences in the "same"--"different" task

This article examines the effects of irrelevant information on the multidimensional "same"--"different" task. Subjects were instructed to compare two geometric figures with respect to certain attributes but to ignore other attributes in making the "same"--"different" decision. The irrelevant attributes were chosen in such a way that they could not easily be ignored to see how the existence of irrelevant differences would affect the comparison process. As expected, the overall latencies were longer than is usually found in tasks with no irrelevant differences. However, the nature of the comparison process appeared unchanged. The usual finding of a "fast-same" phenomenon persisted even when irrelevant information was present. The similarity of the results in this task to results in the "same"--"different" task with no irrelevant features supports the idea that the same comparison mechanism is used whether or not irrelevant differences are present in the stimulus pairs. The results suggest a more general-purpose comparison mechanism than is usually included in models of this task. Two-process models of visual comparisons are thus ruled out entirely. A modified version of Krueger's noisy-operator theory does appear consistent with the results.     

Public acceptance of Covid-19 lockdown scenarios

By mid-March 2020, most countries had implemented nationwide lockdown policies aimed at decelerating the spread of SARS-CoV-2. At that time, nobody knew how long these policies would have to remain in force and whether they would have to be extended, intensified or made more flexible. The present study aimed to illuminate how the general public in Germany reacted to the prospect of increasing the length, the intensity and/or the flexibility of distancing rules implied by different lockdown scenarios. Endorsement of and compliance with five specific lockdown scenarios were assessed in a large (N = 14,433) German sample. Results showed that lockdown length affected respondents' reactions much more strongly than intensity or flexibility. Additional analyses (i.e., mixture distribution modelling) showed that half of the respondents rejected any further extensions or intensifications, while 20% would endorse long-term strategies if necessary. We argue that policy-makers and political communicators should take the public's endorsement of and compliance with such scenarios into account, as should simulations predicting the effects of different lockdown scenarios.     

Standing up for whom? Targets’ different goals in the confrontation of discrimination

We challenge the common interpretation of targets’ immediate confrontation in reaction to discrimination as self-serving behavior and propose different underlying motivations for this phenomenon. In five online scenario studies (N_overall = 1,447), we demonstrate across different samples and contexts that targets indicate a distinct pursuit of the following self-reported confrontation goals: individual-benefit (e.g., perpetrator apologizes); group-benefit (e.g., prejudice reduction); and distancing (e.g., demonstrating that one is different from typical group members). Furthermore, meaningful associations of the pursuits of individual-benefitting goals and group-benefitting goals with group identification, disidentification, and further collective action intentions indicate that they represent different confrontation motivations: Individual-benefitting confrontation serves to cope with the individual mistreatment of discrimination, whereas group-benefitting confrontation represents a form of collective action. Distancing goals were associated with disidentification and—unexpectedly—group identification. Our results show that the phenomenon of confrontation in reaction to discrimination can be the result of different underlying psychological processes.     

A combination of combat experience,early abduction,and severe traumatization fuels appetitive aggression and violence among abductees of rebel war in Northern Uganda

Individuals who perpetrate violence may likely perceive violence as appealing and infliction of violence to derive pleasure is termed as appetitive aggression. Individuals who were abducted as children into an armed group often experience a higher number of traumatic event types, that is traumatic load and are usually socialized in a violence-endorsing environment. This study aims to investigate the interaction between age at initial abduction with that of traumatic load, and their influence on appetitive aggression along with perpetration of violent acts by former members of an armed rebel group of both sexes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among a target group of formerly abducted rebel-war survivors (including participants with and without combat experience) from Northern Uganda. Participants included 596 women and 570 men with N = 1,166 (M_age = 32.58, SD_age = 9.76, range: 18–80 years). We conducted robust linear regression models to investigate the influence of age at initial abduction, traumatic load, combat experience, and biological sex on appetitive aggression as well as their perpetrated violent acts. Our study shows, appetitive aggression and the number of perpetrated violent acts were specifically increased in individuals who were abducted young, experienced several traumatic events in their lifetime, and with previous combat experience. For perpetrated violence men showed increased levels whereas for appetitive aggression the association was independent of biological sex. Therefore, early abducted individuals with a higher traumatic load, who have combat experience, need to be given special intervention to prevent any further violence.