Visual memory and visual perception: when memory improves visual search

This study examined the relationship between memory and perception in order to identify the influence of a memory dimension in perceptual processing. Our aim was to determine whether the variation of typical size between items (i.e., the size in real life) affects visual search. In two experiments, the congruency between typical size difference and perceptual size difference was manipulated in a visual search task. We observed that congruency between the typical and perceptual size differences decreased reaction times in the visual search (Exp. 1), and noncongruency between these two differences increased reaction times in the visual search (Exp. 2). We argue that these results highlight that memory and perception share some resources and reveal the intervention of typical size difference on the computation of the perceptual size difference.     

Effects of Culture,Gender, and Moral Obligations on Responses to Charity Advertising Across Masculine and Feminine Cultures

Two studies investigated the effects of charity advertising on perceptions of moral obligation to help others and gauged ad evaluation. This was done in cultures that were similar in individualism but differed in either masculinity (United States and Canada) or femininity (Denmark and Norway). Participants read appeals that solicited donations to charity by focusing on either egoistic or altruistic motives. In masculine cultures, men preferred the egoistic ad and women preferred the altruistic one. In feminine cultures, where women are agentic and men are allowed to be nurturing, the opposite was the case. Exposure to both types of ads activated a sense of personal obligation among men in feminine nations and women in masculine nations. However, their opposite‐sex counterparts reacted against these ads. Implications of these findings for an understanding of culture and sex differences in advertising effectiveness are discussed.     

Children's and adolescents' perception of the authenticity of smiles

Recently, Thibault and colleagues described the Duchenne marker as a cultural dialect for the perception of smile authenticity. The current study had the goal to follow up on this finding and to investigate the cues that French Canadian children use to evaluate the authenticity of smiles from members of three ethnic groups. The authenticity of six smiles differing in intensity and presence of orbicularis oculi (Duchenne marker) was rated by 1206 children from 4 to 17 years of age. No differences were found as a function of encoder group. All children perceived medium Duchenne smiles as more authentic than equally intense medium non-Duchenne smiles. Furthermore, results suggest a decrease in the reliance on intensity across the age span. Younger children use the intensity marker along the whole continuum to infer authenticity. In contrast, older children (14- to 17-year-olds) rated all smiles that did not contain the Duchenne marker as roughly equally low in authenticity.     

From anticipation to integration: the role of integrated action-effects in building sensorimotor contingencies

Ideomotor approaches to action control have provided evidence that the activation of an anticipatory image of previously learned action-effects plays a decisive role in action selection. This study sought for converging evidence by combining three previous experimental paradigms: the response–effect compatibility protocol introduced by Kunde (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27(2), 387–394, 2001), the acquisition-test paradigm developed by Elsner and Hommel (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27(1), 229, 2001), and the object-action compatibility manipulation of Tucker and Ellis (Visual Cognition, 8(6), 769–800, 2001). Three groups of participants first performed a response–effect compatibility task, in which they carried out power and precision grasps that produced either grasp-compatible or grasp-incompatible pictures, or no action effects. Performance was better in the compatible than in the incompatible group, which replicates previous observations and extends them to relationships between grasps and objects. Then, participants were to categorize object pictures by carrying out grasp responses. Apart from replicating previous findings of better performance in trials in which object size and grasp type was compatible, we found that this stimulus–response compatibility effect depended on previous response-effect learning. Taken together, these findings support the assumption that the experience of action–effect contingencies establishes durable event files that integrate representations of actions and their effects.     

Effects on memory of early testing and accuracy assessment for central and contextual content

ABSTRACT

Memory for an event is influenced by many factors including retention interval, frequency of assessment, and type of information assessed concerning the event. We examined the usefulness of observer memory for contextual information in assessing accuracy of memory for central information. Participants viewed a video of a purse being stolen and were asked questions concerning the perpetrator and surrounding context of the event, including where and when the event occurred and who else was present. Participants tested immediately after seeing the video exhibited better memory than those tested for the first time 48 hours after the event. Additionally, testing immediately after viewing the video reduced forgetting over the 48-hour delay (i.e. early testing attenuated subsequent forgetting). Moreover, memory for the context of the event correlated positively with memory of the central information (i.e. perpetrator), and memory concerning other people at the event tended to have the highest correlation with perpetrator memory.     

Word‐to‐picture recognition is a function of motor components mappings at the stage of retrieval

Embodied approaches of cognition argue that retrieval involves the re‐enactment of both sensory and motor components of the desired remembering. In this study, we investigated the effect of motor action performed to produce the response in a recognition task when this action is compatible with the affordance of the objects that have to be recognised. In our experiment, participants were first asked to learn a list of words referring to graspable objects, and then told to make recognition judgements on pictures. The pictures represented objects where the graspable part was either pointing to the same or to the opposite side of the “Yes” response key. Results show a robust effect of compatibility between objects affordance and response hand. Moreover, this compatibility improves participants' ability of discrimination, suggesting that motor components are relevant cue for memory judgement at the stage of retrieval in a recognition task. More broadly, our data highlight that memory judgements are a function of motor components mappings at the stage of retrieval.     

Memory and consciousness: trace distinctiveness in memory retrievals

The aim of this article was to provide experimental evidence that classical dissociation between levels of consciousness associated with memory retrieval (i.e., implicit or explicit) can be explained in terms of task dependency and distinctiveness of traces. In our study phase, we manipulated the level of isolation (partial vs. global) of the memory trace by means of an isolation paradigm (isolated words among non-isolated words). We then tested these two types of isolation in a series of tasks of increasing complexity: a lexical decision task, a recognition task, and a free recall task. The main result of this study was that distinctiveness effects were observed as a function of the type of isolation (level of isolation) and the nature of the task. We concluded that trace distinctiveness improves subsequent access to the trace, while the level of trace distinctiveness also appears to determine the possibility of conscious or explicit retrieval.     

Is the Implicit Association Test a Valid and Valuable Measure of Implicit Consumer Social Cognition?

This article discusses the need for more satisfactory implicit measures in consumer psychology and assesses the theoretical foundations, validity, and value of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) as a measure of implicit consumer social cognition. Study 1 demonstrates the IAT's sensitivity to explicit individual differences in brand attitudes, ownership, and usage frequency, and shows their correlations with lAT‐based measures of implicit brand attitudes and brand relationship strength. In Study 2, the contrast between explicit and implicit measures of attitude toward the ad for sportswear advertisements portraying African American (Black) and European American (White) athlete–spokespersons revealed different patterns of responses to explicit and implicit measures in Black and White respondents. These were explained in terms of self‐presentation biases and system justification theory. Overall, the results demonstrate that the IAT enhances our understanding of consumer responses, particularly when consumers are either unable or unwilling to identify the sources of influence on their behaviors or opinions.