Affordance, proper function, and the physical basis of perceived heaviness

The physical basis of perceived heaviness requires consideration of the haptic perceptual system's role in controlling actions (the system's proper function) and the relation of an object's inertial properties to properties of the human movement system (the object's affordance). We show that the mass of a wielded object and particular scalar variables calculated from the object's inertia tensor combine linearly in determining perceived heaviness. The tensor-derived scalars reflect the symmetry and volume of the corresponding inertia ellipsoid. These measures bear directly on the object's wieldability, that is, on the patterning and level of muscular forces required to move the object in a controlled fashion.     

Essential kinematic information,athletic experience,and affordance perception for others

The present study investigated the role of different types of movement in affordance perception, as well as the influence of sports experience. Perception of another actor’s maximum vertical jumping height and horizontal long-jumping distance was evaluated for basketball players, soccer players, and nonplayer controls after viewing point-light representations of the actors’ movements. Perceptual reports were more accurate after jumping-related movements (walking and squatting) were viewed than after nonrelated movements (standing and twisting). Vertical jump reports were more accurate than horizontal jump reports. Basketball and soccer players demonstrated higher accuracy than did controls. This research establishes that point-light displays contain essential kinematic information sufficient to support accurate affordance perception, and athletes appear better attuned to kinematic information specifying affordances for others as a result of their sports experience.     

The Relationship Between Automatic Thoughts and Irrational Beliefs Predicting Anxiety and Depression

Cognitive behavioral approaches differ in their views on core cognitions and their hypothesized role in the etiology of depression and anxiety. The present study provides empirical evidence regarding the relationship between irrational beliefs and components of automatic thoughts and their role in the etiology of depression and anxiety. The present study utilized newer and improved questionnaires to assess components of irrational belief. Based on prior research by Safren et al. (Cogn Ther Res 24(3):327–344, 2000), a three-factor structure of the combined automatic thought questionnaires were utilized to measure components of automatic thoughts as they relate to depression and anxiety. Factor analytical methods were utilized to confirm the factor structure of the irrational beliefs and automatic thoughts components. Advanced path modeling was utilized to model the relationship between irrational beliefs and automatic thoughts in predicting anxiety and depression. The study used a sample of N = 542 undergraduate psychology students during stressful exam times. Results indicated that the irrational belief Demandingness represents a primary factor, followed by the secondary irrational beliefs as proposed by Rational Emotive Behavioral Theory. Selfdowning beliefs were fully mediated by depressive automatic thoughts in the case of depressive affect. Low frustration tolerance contributed unique variance to anxious and depressive affect that was not fully mediated by automatic thoughts. Results from the present study add empirical evidence that irrational beliefs indeed represent core and intermediary beliefs that lead to specific automatic thoughts, which is congruent with cognitive behavioral theory as proposed by Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy.     

Deciding Between Work and Family: An Episodic Approach

This study examined work–family conflict decision‐making based on a within–person, episodic approach. Based on 274 episodes across 78 individuals, we investigated the frequency of decisions that result in work interference with family (WIF) versus family interference with work (FIW), as well as the relation of work and family situational variables and previous work–family conflict (WFC) episodes on those decisions. No difference in the frequency with which participants reported WIF episodes versus FIW episodes was observed. Results indicated that work/family role sender pressure, work/family instrumental support, work/family activity importance, work emotional support, and the direction of the previous WFC decision each predicted WFC decisions. Dominance analysis indicated that role sender pressure was the most important predictor. In addition, we compare and discuss within‐person variation with between‐person variation. Contributions of the study to work–family research and practice are discussed.     

Metamers for Hammer-With-Ability Are Not Metamers for Poke-With-Ability

Studies on dynamic (i.e., kinesthetic) touch perception have shown that perception of many properties of wielded objects are linked to variables related to the rotational inertia of those objects. The broad nature of the sensitivity to such variables invites the question of whether various perceived functional properties of wielded objects are distinct (i.e., whether they map to rotational inertia via different functions) or whether they are perceptually equivalent (i.e., whether they map to opposite extremes of the same function). Two experiments investigated whether hammer-with-ability and poke-with-ability are perceptually equivalent (i.e., metamers) using a metameric matching strategy. The results show that metamers for hammering were not metamers for poking, and vice versa. The results suggest that haptic perception of poke-with-ability and hammer-with-ability are distinct percepts.     

Imitation in shadowing words

Imitation of shadowed words was evaluated using Goldinger’s (1998) AXB paradigm. The first experiment was a replication of Goldinger’s experiments with different tokens. Experiment 1’s AXB tests showed that shadowed words were judged to be better imitations of target words than were baseline (read) counterparts more often than chance (.50). Order of presentation of baseline and shadowed words in the AXB test also significantly influenced judgments. Degree of prior exposure to token words did not significantly influence judgments of imitation. Experiment 2 employed modified target tokens with extended voice onset times (VOTs). In addition to AXB tests, VOTs of response tokens were compared across baseline and shadowing conditions. The AXB tests revealed shadowed words to be better imitations of target tokens than baseline, without an influence of AXB presentation order. Differences between baseline and shadowing VOTs were greater when VOTs were extended. The implications of spontaneous imitation in nonsocial settings are considered.     

Further evidence for temporal decay in working memory: reply to Lewandowsky and Oberauer (2009)

The sources of forgetting in working memory (WM) are a matter of intense debate: Is there a time-related decay of memory traces, or is forgetting uniquely due to representation-based interference? In a previous study, we claimed to have provided evidence supporting the temporal decay hypothesis (S. Portrat, P. Barrouillet, & V. Camos, 2008). However, reanalyzing our data, S. Lewandowsky and K. Oberauer (2009) demonstrated that they do not provide compelling evidence for temporal decay and suggested a class of alternative models favoring a representation-based interference account. In this article, we develop from the most recent proposals made by Lewandowsky and Oberauer 2 of the most plausible extensions of these alternative models. We show that neither of these extensions can account for recent findings related to between-domain WM performance and that both lead to predictions that are contradicted by new empirical evidence. Finally, we show that recent studies that have been claimed to rule out the temporal decay hypothesis do not resist close scrutiny. We conclude that the time-based resource-sharing model remains the most parsimonious way to account for forgetting and restoration of memory traces in WM.     

The influence of athletic experience and kinematic information on skill-relevant affordance perception

Humans can perceive affordances both for themselves and for others, and affordance perception is a function of perceptual-motor experience involved in playing a sport. Two experiments investigated the enhanced affordance perception of athletes. In Experiment 1, basketball players and nonbasketball players provided perceptual reports for sports-relevant (maximum standing-reach and reach-with-jump heights) and non-sports-relevant (maximum sitting height) affordances for self and other. Basketball players were more accurate at perceiving maximum reach-with-jump for another person than were nonbasketball players, but were no better at perceiving maximum reach or sitting heights. Experiment 2 investigated the informational basis for this enhanced perceptual ability of basketball players by evaluating whether kinematics inform perceivers about action-scaled (e.g., force-production dependent), but not body-scaled (i.e., geometrically determined), affordances for others, and whether basketball experience enhances sensitivity to kinematic information. Only basketball players improved at perceiving an action-scaled affordance (maximum reach-with-jump), but not body-scaled affordances (maximum standing-reach and sit) with exposure to kinematic information, suggesting that action-scaled affordances may be specified by kinematic information to which athletes are already attuned by virtue of their sport experience.     

Perceiving affordances for joint actions

Two individuals acting together to achieve a shared goal often have an emergent set of afforded behavioral possibilities that may not easily reduce to either acting alone. In a series of experiments we examined the critical boundaries for transitions in behavior for individuals walking through an aperture alone or alongside another actor as a dyad. Results from experiment 1 indicated that an intrinsically scaled critical boundary for behavioral transitions was different in individuals than in dyads performing a similar task. Experiment 2 demonstrated that observers are perceptually sensitive to the difference in action parameters for the dyad, while still maintaining perceptual sensitivity about the boundaries of action relative to individuals. In experiment 3, we determined that observers' perception of critical action boundaries for individuals and dyads has a similar informational basis (eye-height scaling). In experiment 4, we demonstrated that observers were able to perceive critical action boundaries for other dyads independently of membership. Together, these results suggest that individuals are sensitive to the affordances related to a joint action, and that this process may not entirely reduce to the perception of the affordances for each individual.