When the poor give more than the rich: The role of resource evaluability on relative giving

Five experiments examined the role of resource evaluability on giving. We systematically varied participants' resources they and another potential donor received and whether they could donate to a recipient either by themselves or with the other donor. Participants in the relative advantage condition received more resources than the other donor, and those in the relative disadvantage condition received fewer resources than the other donor. The presence of the other donor made participants' resources evaluable and shaped giving: Relatively disadvantaged participants were proportionally more generous than advantaged participants but only when they could evaluate their resources. Neither the mere presence of others nor reputational concerns could explain the results. Exploratory mediation and moderation analyses further showed that relatively disadvantaged participants give proportionally more the higher and the more equal they perceive their status to the advantaged donor. This shows that the generosity of those who have less does depend on how they evaluate their status compared to other donors. Our results provide insights into the question of why and when resource asymmetries between donors result in prosocial giving and can influence fundraising strategies of charitable organizations.     

Regulate to facilitate: A scoping review of prefrontal asymmetry in sport and exercise

BackgroundPrefrontal asymmetry (PFA) describes the relative activity of the right PFC compared to the left PFC. It has been shown that PFA is associated with affective and motivational variables in several contexts, including sport and exercise. Considering the significant roles of affect and motivation in different performance settings, PFA might also be an important indicator of athletic performance. However, the relevance of PFA in the sport and exercise setting has not yet been addressed in its entirety. Instead, previous systematic reviews have solely focused on affective variables. Mapping out the complex interactions between PFA and affective, motivational as well as performance variables could help to understand what determines successful athletic performance as well as the positive psychological effects associated with exercise.ApproachScientific databases were searched for quantitative studies in English language published in international peer-reviewed journals. All 27 selected studies assessed physical activity and measured PFA in the brain locations F4-F3 and/or F8-F7 using electroencephalography.FindingsThe majority of the studies used a non-athlete sample (78%) and exercise types were diverse. While all studies focused on affective or motivational processes, 19% also reported associations with performance. Even though findings are inconsistent, they support the assumption that PFA plays a role in self-regulation.ConclusionThere is evidence for an involvement of PFA in affective, motivational and performance processes in the sport and exercise setting that can be interpreted as regulatory mechanisms. Future research on the underlying mechanisms is warranted, in particular, associations with motivational processes and performance need to be investigated more explicitly.     

Hyperarousal and dissociation: a study of novice skydivers

Peritraumatic dissociation describes alterations in awareness that occur during or immediately after a trauma. This study investigated a simulated form of peritraumatic dissociation by indexing the responses of skydivers (N=100) who were participating in their first skydive. Prior to jumping, participants completed the Beck anxiety inventory, the Tellegen absorption scale, and ratings of predictability and uncontrollability. Immediately after the jump, they completed the peritraumatic dissociative experiences questionnaire and the physical reactions scale. Responses indicated that the skydive elicited extreme anxiety, hyperarousal, and peritraumatic dissociation in a significant proportion of skydivers. Multiple regression analyses indicated that hyperarousal, and to a lesser extent anxiety, were strongly predictive of peritraumatic dissociative reactions. These results are discussed in terms of proposals that peritraumatic dissociation is mediated by hyperarousal.     

Lateral asymmetry in phonological processing: relating behavioral measures to neuroimaged structures

Recent neuroimaging studies have revealed neuroanatomical centers of activation that appear to be linked specifically to phonological processes. Furthermore, there is evidence that these centers of activation are more likely to be bilaterally represented in women than in men. However, behavioral evidence of such hemispheric asymmetries or of related sex differences is somewhat inconsistent. Two experiments were carried out to determine whether behavioral correlates of the neuroimaging findings could be demonstrated. The first experiment employed a rhyme-matching task used in a recent neuroimaging study, in which two nonsense words were projected successively to the left or right sides of the visual field. The results indicated that the left hemisphere was superior for this task. An analysis of gender effects, however, revealed that the asymmetry was restricted to men. The second experiment employed a lateralized pseudohomophone detection task that was designed to determine whether the results of the first experiment could be confirmed in the context of a phonological task with a simpler structure. This experiment broadly supported the findings of the first experiment. The results support the specialization of the left hemisphere for phonological processing, and the existence of gender differences with respect to these processes.     

Facilitative orthographic neighborhood effects: the SERIOL model account

A large orthographic neighborhood (N) facilitates lexical decision for central and left visual field/right hemisphere (LVF/RH) presentation, but not for right visual field/left hemisphere (RVF/LH) presentation. Based on the SERIOL model of letter-position encoding, this asymmetric N effect is explained by differential activation patterns at the orthographic level. This analysis implies that it should be possible to negate the LVF/RH N effect and create an RVF/LH N effect by manipulating contrast levels in specific ways. In Experiment 1, these predictions were confirmed. In Experiment 2, we eliminated the N effect for both LVF/RH and central presentation. These results indicate that the letter level is the primary locus of the N effect under lexical decision, and that the hemispheric specificity of the N effect does not reflect differential processing at the lexical level.     

Facilitation and disruption of lateralized syllable processing by unattended stimuli in the opposite visual field

The influence of lateralized unattended stimuli on the processing of attended stimuli in the opposite visual field can shed light on the nature of information that is transferred between hemispheres. On a cued bilateral task, participants tried to identify a syllable in the attended visual field, which elicits a left hemisphere (LH) advantage and different processing strategies by the two hemispheres. The same or a different syllable or a neutral stimulus appeared in the unattended field. Transmission of unattended syllable codes between hemispheres is symmetric, as revealed by equal interference for the two visual fields. The LH is more accurate than the RH in encoding unattended syllables, as indicated by facilitation in the left but not right visual field and a greater frequency of identifiable intrusions into the left than right field. However, asymmetric encoding strategies are different for attended and unattended syllables.     

The cost of action miscues: hemispheric asymmetries

Adaptive behaviors require preparation and when necessary inhibition or alteration of actions. The right hemisphere has been posited to be dominant for preparatory motor activation. This experiment was designed to learn if there are hemispheric asymmetries in the control of altered plans of actions. Cues, both valid and invalid, which indicate the hand most likely to be called onto respond, as well as the imperative stimuli that indicate the actual response hand, were presented to either the right or left visual fields of 14 normal right handed participants. The delay after a miscue is dependent on the time taken to inhibit the premotor and motor systems of the incorrectly activated hemisphere, as well as to activate the motor systems of the opposite hemisphere, which might have been interhemispherically inhibited by this miscue. Analyses of reaction times revealed that miscues presented in left hemispace (right hemisphere) cost more time than those miscues presented in right hemispace (left hemisphere), suggesting that activation of the preparatory systems controlled by the right hemisphere may take longer to reverse than those controlled by the left hemisphere. This asymmetry may be related to asymmetries in the strength of hemispheric activation with contralateral inhibition.     

Hemispheric asymmetry in cross-race face recognition

This study examines two phenomena related to face perception, both of which depend on experience and holistic processing: perceivers process faces more efficiently in the right hemisphere of the brain (a hemispheric asymmetry), and they typically show greater recognition accuracy for members of their racial ingroup (a cross-race recognition deficit). The current study tests the possibility that these two effects are related. If asymmetry depends on experience, it should be particularly evident with (more familiar) ingroup faces; if cross-race recognition relies on holistic processing, it should be particularly evident for faces presented to the right hemisphere. Black and White participants viewed Black and White faces presented to either the left or right visual field. As predicted, participants showed a more pronounced asymmetry for ingroup (rather than outgroup) faces, and cross-race recognition deficits were more pronounced for stimuli presented to the left (rather than the right) visual field.     

Does degree of asymmetry relate to performance? A reply to Boles and Barth

In a recent critique Boles and Barth (2011) argue that their prior study investigating asymmetry/performance relationships (Boles, Barth, & Merrill, 2008) uncovered the “true” association (i.e., negative correlation) between lateralization of visual lexical processes and word recognition performance. They contend that our study reporting positive correlations of lexical asymmetry and reading performance (Chiarello et al., 2009) was flawed and hence inconclusive. In this response we address the two major objections raised by Boles and Barth (2011) regarding our selection of tasks and asymmetry measures. We conclude that the Boles and Barth principle of task purity is not relevant to the stated aims of our investigation, and that our linear regression method of measuring asymmetry is valid given the high level of accuracy for the tasks we reported. Because the aims of each investigation differed, we argue that it is unwise to attempt to fit each study into the framework favored by Boles and Barth (2011).     

Eye contact elicits bodily self-awareness in human adults

Eye contact is a typical human behaviour known to impact concurrent or subsequent cognitive processing. In particular, it has been suggested that eye contact induces self-awareness, though this has never been formally proven. Here, we show that the perception of a face with a direct gaze (that establishes eye contact), as compared to either a face with averted gaze or a mere fixation cross, led adult participants to rate more accurately the intensity of their physiological reactions induced by emotional pictures. Our data support the view that bodily self-awareness becomes more acute when one is subjected to another’s gaze. Importantly, this effect was not related to a particular arousal state induced by eye contact perception. Rejecting the arousal hypothesis, we suggest that eye contact elicits a self-awareness process by enhancing self-focused attention in humans. We further discuss the implications of this proposal.