bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Entrainment in Disguise: the Exogenous and Endogenous Cortical Rhythms of Speech and Language Processing
Authors: Meyer Lars , Sun Yue , Martin Andrea E.
Published: July 2018

How neural systems represent information beyond the contents of sensory stimuli is a recurrent theme for models of perception and cognition—in particular in speech and language research: Speech is arrhythmic, yet steady oscillatory coupling to speech, so-called entrainment, still occurs. In addition, oscillatory coupling to linguistic information that does not have any physical counterpart has recently been described. We propose here that oscillatory responses to speech are not always entrained by exogenous sensory signals, but may also reflect endogenous rhythms that subserve the internal generation of linguistic representations. While acoustic information in speech provides punctate opportunities for exogenous entrainment proper, endogenous cortical rhythms may segment speech intosemantic and syntactic structures in a form of perceptual inference. The proposed synthesis of endogenous and exogenous information can account for one of the hardest inference problems the human brain faces: the comprehension of language.
Quantifying the reliability and replicability of psychopathology network characteristics
Authors: Forbes Miriam K. , Wright Aidan G.C. , Markon Kristian Eric , Krueger Robert
Published: July 2018

Pairwise Markov random field networks—including Gaussian graphical models (GGMs) and Ising models—have become the “state-of-the-art” method for psychopathology network analyses. Recent research has focused on the reliability and replicability of these networks. In the present study, we compared the existing suite of methods for maximizing and quantifying the stability and consistency of PMRF networks (i.e., lasso regularisation, plus the bootnet and NetworkComparisonTest packages in R) with a set of metrics for directly comparing the detailed network characteristics interpreted in the literature (e.g., the presence, absence, sign, and strength of each individual edge). We compared GGMs of depression and anxiety symptoms in two waves of data from an observational study (n = 403) and reanalyzed four posttraumatic stress disorder GGMs from a recent study of network replicability. Taken on face value, the existing suite of methods indicated that overall the network edges were stable, interpretable, and consistent between networks, but the direct metrics of replication indicated that this was not the case (e.g., 39–49% of the edges in each network were unreplicated across the pairwise comparisons). We discuss reasons for these apparently contradictory results (e.g., relying on global summary statistics versus examining the detailed characteristics interpreted in the literature), and conclude that the limited reliability of the detailed characteristics of networks observed here is likely to be common in practice, but overlooked by current methods. Poor replicability underpins our concern surrounding the use of these methods, given that generalizable conclusions are fundamental to the utility of their results.
The motivation to express prejudice
Authors: Forscher Patrick S. , Cox William Taylor Laimaka , Graetz Nicholas , Devine Patricia G.
Published: July 2018

Contemporary prejudice research focuses primarily on people who are motivated to respond without prejudice and the ways in which unintentional bias can cause these people to act inconsistent with this motivation. However, some real-world phenomena (e.g., hate speech, hate crimes) and experimental findings (e.g., Plant & Devine, 2001; 2009) suggest that some expressions of prejudice are intentional. These phenomena and findings are difficult to explain solely from the motivations to respond without prejudice. We argue that some people are motivated to express prejudice, and we develop the motivation to express prejudice (MP) scale to measure this motivation. In seven studies involving more than 6,000 participants, we demonstrate that, across scale versions targeted at Black people and gay men, the MP scale has good reliability and convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. In normative climates that prohibit prejudice, the internal and external motivations to express prejudice are functionally non-independent, but they become more independent when normative climates permit more prejudice toward a target group. People high in the motivation to express prejudice are relatively likely to resist pressure to support programs promoting intergroup contact and vote for political candidates who support oppressive policies. The motivation to express prejudice predicted these outcomes even when controlling for attitudes and the motivations to respond without prejudice. This work encourages contemporary prejudice researchers to broaden the range of samples, target groups, and phenomena that they study, and more generally to consider the intentional aspects of negative intergroup behavior.
Three Aspects of Skill Acquisition
Authors: Anderson John , Betts Shawn , Bothell Daniel , Hope Ryan M. , Lebiere Christian
Published: July 2018

A theory is presented about how instruction and experience combine to produce competence in a complex skill. The theory depends critically on three components of the ACT-R architecture. The first component interprets declarative representations of instruction so that they lead to action. The second component converts this knowledge into procedural form so that appropriate actions can be quickly executed. The third component, newly added to the architecture, learns the setting of control parameters for actions through a process similar to reinforcement learning.. These three components are intermingled throughout the course of skill acquisition, providing an instantiation of Fitts’ (1964) original characterization of skill acquisition as involving gradual shifts in the factor structure of skills. The overall theory is implemented in computational models that are capable of simulating human learning in different versions of the video game Space Fortress. Other than humans, these models are the only agents, natural or artificial, capable of learning to play Space Fortress.
Finding the “self” in self-regulation: The identity-value model
Authors: Berkman Elliot , Livingston Jordan , Kahn Lauren Emily
Published: July 2018

Many psychological theories suggest a link between self-regulation and identity, but until now a mechanistic account that suggests ways to improve self-regulation has not been put forth. The identity-value model (IVM) connects the idea from social psychology, that aspects of identity such as core values and group affiliations hold positive subjective value, to the process-focused account from decision-making and behavioral economics, that self-regulation is driven by a dynamic value integration across a range of choice attributes. Together, these ideas imply that goal-directed behaviors that are identity-relevant are more likely to be enacted because they have greater subjective value than identity-irrelevant behaviors. A central hypothesis, therefore, is that interventions that increase the degree to which a target behavior is perceived as self-relevant will improve self-regulation. Additionally, identity-based changes in self-regulation are expected to be mediated by changes in subjective value and its underlying neural systems. In this paper, we define the key constructs relevant to the IVM, explicate the model and delineate its boundary conditions, and describe how it fits with related theories. We also review disparate results in the research literature that might share identity-related value as a common underlying mechanism of action. We close by discussing questions about the model whose answers could advance the study of self-regulation.
A Coordinated Analysis of Big-Five Trait Change Across 16 Longitudinal Samples
Authors: Graham Eileen Kranz , Gerstorf Denis , Yoneda Tomiko , Piccinin Andrea Marie , Booth Tom , Beam Christopher , Petkus Andrew J. , Rutsohn Joshua P. , Estabrook Ryne , Katz Mindy , Turiano Nicholas A , Lindenberger Ulman , Smith Jacqui , Drewelies Johanna , Wagner Gert , Pedersen Nancy , Allemand Mathias , Spiro Avron , Deeg Dorly , Johansson Boo , Sliwinski Martin , Lipton Richard , Schaie K. Warner , Willis Sherry , Deary Ian , Hofer Scott Michael , Mroczek Dan
Published: July 2018

This study assessed change in the Big Five personality traits. We conducted a coordinated integrative data analysis (IDA) using data from 16 studies including over 60,000 respondents to examine trajectories of change in the traits of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Coordinating models across multiple study sites, we fit nearly identical multi-level linear growth curve models to assess and compare the extent of trait change over time. Quadratic change was assessed in 8 studies with four or more measurement occasions. Across studies, the linear trajectory models revealed stability for agreeableness and decreases for the other four five traits. The non-linear trajectories suggest a U-shaped curve for neuroticism, and an inverted-U for extraversion. Meta-analytic summaries indicate that the fixed effects are heterogeneous, and that the variability in traits is partially explained by baseline age and country of origin. We conclude from our study that neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness go down over time, while agreeableness remains relatively stable.
Self-Identification as a Pornography Addict: Examining the Roles of Pornography Use, Religiousness, and Moral Incongruence.
Authors: Grubbs Joshua , Grant Jennifer , Engelman Joel
Published: July 2018

At present, the scientific community has not reached a consensus regarding whether or not people may be become addicted to or compulsive in use of pornography. Even so, a substantial number of people report feeling that their use of pornography is problematic or addictive in nature. Whereas prior works considered self-reported feelings of addiction dimensionally, the present work examined what might lead someone to specifically identify as a pornography addict. Consistent with prior research, pre-registered hypotheses predicted that religiousness, moral disapproval, and pornography use would emerge as consistent predictors of self-identification as a pornography addict. Three samples, involving adult pornography users (Sample 1, N=829, Mage = 33.3; SD = 9.4; Sample 2, N=424, Mage = 33.6; SD = 9.1) and undergraduates (Sample 3, N=231, Mage = 19.3; SD = 1.8), were collected. Across all three samples, male gender, moral incongruence, and pornography use behaviors consistently emerged as predictors of self-identification as a pornography addict. In contrast to prior literature indicating that moral incongruence and religiousness are the best predictors of self-reported feelings of addiction (measured dimensionally), results from all three samples indicated that male gender and pornography use behaviors were the most strongly associated with self-identification as a pornography addict.
Nonparametric Methods and Evolutionary Algorithms in Genetic Epidemiology
Authors: Farrelly Colleen Molloy
Published: July 2018

Paper overviews variable selection problem in high dimensionality, particularly focused on genetic psychiatry and genetic epidemiology in general. Genetic and quantum evolutionary algorithms, tree-based classification/regression models, random forest, and other approaches are detailed. Paper concludes with a roadmap for new algorithm and two-stage selection methodology.
The Role of Positive Affect in Aggression
Authors: Chester David
Published: July 2018

Aggressive behavior hurts us all and is studied across psychology’s sub-disciplines. Classical theories discuss the causes of aggression in the context of negative affect (e.g., frustration, pain). However, more recent research implicates positive affect as an important correlate and cause of aggression. Such aggressive pleasure likely evolved from ancient predatory tendencies that later yielded reproductive benefits, holds across reactive and proactive forms of aggression, and is used strategically as an item in many people’s emotion-regulation toolkit. Findings from psychological and neural sciences have converged to detail aggression's hedonically pleasant qualities and the motivational and biological mechanisms through which they occur. This new approach generates novel hypotheses and might lead to effective interventions that mollify mankind’s aggressive tendencies.
Quantifying sources of variability in infancy research using the infant-directed speech preference
Authors: Frank Michael C. , Bergmann Christina , Bergelson Elika , Byers-Heinlein Krista , Cristia Alejandrina , Cusack Rhodri , Dyck Kelsey , floccia caroline , Gervain Judit , Gonzalez Nayeli , Hamlin Kiley , Hannon Erin , Kellier Danielle , Kline Struhl Melissa , Lew-Williams Casey , Nazzi Thierry , Panneton Robin , Rabagliati Hugh , Rennels Jennifer , Seidl Amanda , Yurovsky Daniel , Soderstrom Melanie
Published: July 2018

The field of psychology has become increasingly concerned with issues related to methodology and replicability. Infancy researchers face specific challenges related to replicability: high-powered studies are difficult to conduct, testing conditions vary across labs, and different labs have access to different infant populations, amongst other factors. Addressing these concerns, we report on a large-scale, multi-site study aimed at 1) assessing the overall replicability of a single theoretically-important phenomenon and 2) examining methodological, situational, cultural, and developmental moderators. We focus on infants’ preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS). Stimuli of mothers speaking to their infants and to an adult were created using semi-naturalistic laboratory-based audio recordings in North American English. Infants’ relative preference for IDS and ADS was assessed across 67 laboratories in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia using the three commonly-used infant discrimination methods (head-turn preference, central fixation, and eye tracking). The overall meta-analytic effect size (Cohen’s *d*) was 0.35 [0.29 - 0.42], which was reliably above zero but smaller than the meta-analytic mean computed from previous literature (0.67). The IDS preference was significantly stronger in older children, in those children for whom the stimuli matched their native language and dialect, and in data from labs using the head-turn preference procedure. Together these findings replicate the infant-directed speech preference but suggest that its magnitude is modulated by development, native language experience, and testing procedure.
Adult adiposity linked to relationship hostility for low cortisol reactors
Authors: Thorson Katherine R. , Lorber Michael F , Slep Amy Smith , Heyman Richard
Published: July 2018

Past research on the relation between hostility in intimate relationships and adiposity has yielded mixed findings. The present study investigated whether the association between relationship hostility and adiposity is moderated by people’s biological reactions to couple conflict. Cohabiting adult couples (N = 117 couples) engaged in two conflict interactions, before and after which salivary cortisol levels were measured. Results revealed an association between relationship hostility and adiposity, but this association was concentrated among people with relatively low levels of cortisol reactivity to couple conflict. Results are interpreted in light of research demonstrating that cortisol reactivity can become blunted over time in response to repeated stressors. These results provide precision to etiological models of obesity by identifying cortisol reactivity as a factor that moderates the association between relationship hostility and adiposity.
Economic status cues from clothes affect perceived competence from faces
Authors: Oh DongWon , Shafir Eldar , Todorov Alexander
Published: July 2018

Impressions of competence from faces predict important real-world outcomes, including electoral success and CEO selection. Presumed competence is associated with social status. Here, we show that subtle economic status cues in clothes affect perceived competence from faces. In nine studies, people rated the competence of faces presented in frontal headshots. Faces were shown with different upper-body clothing rated by independent judges as looking “richer” or “poorer”, although not notably perceived as such when explicitly described. The same face when seen with “richer” clothes was judged significantly more competent than with “poorer” clothes. The effect persists even when perceivers are exposed to the stimuli briefly (129 ms), warned that clothing cues are non-informative, and instructed to ignore the clothes (in one study, with considerable incentives). These findings demonstrate the uncontrollable effect of economic status cues on person perception. They add yet another hurdle to the challenges faced by low-status individuals.
The SAPA Personality Inventory: An empirically-derived, hierarchically-organized self-report personality assessment model
Authors: Condon David M
Published: July 2018

The influence of personality on important life outcomes has been widely recognized for thousands of years (Condon, 2014), and the difficulty of its measurement has been vexing for many decades (Galton, 1884; Cattell, 1945; Goldberg, 1981; Ackerman, 2018). The challenge with objective measurement stems from the need for massive amounts of data to account for dynamic interplay between variations in thousands of narrow dispositional traits (aka individual differences in behavior) and the ever-evolving contextual factors inherent to modern living. It is a prototypical “big data” problem. Despite this, dozens of ambitious social scientists have posited a diverse array of personality assessment models. Many of these are heavily imbued with theory, nearly all are focused solely on one domain of personality (e.g., very broad dispositional traits or vocational interests) to the exclusion of others (e.g., cognitive abilities, values, or less generalizable maladaptive behaviors), and most have been derived based on surprisingly small samples drawn from populations that have come to be known as "WEIRD" (Henrich et al., 2010). Simply put, there is widespread need for models that are empirically-grounded in more (and more representative) data.In this manuscript, I demonstrate that it is possible to address the shortcomings of extant theory-driven approaches by combining recent innovations from outside of personality research to empirically derive personality assessment models. This is done by administering a large pool of widely-used public domain items from the International Personality Item Pool (Goldberg et al., 1999) to three large online samples (N > 125,000) using a planned missingness design (Revelle et al., 2016). While the existing "best practices" for developing personality assessment models tends towards several iterative rounds of data collection and analysis guided by theory culminating in publication of only the final product, I have endeavored to make a highly detailed record of all steps followed during the development of the SAPA Personality Inventory in order to encourage feedback regarding critical analytic decisions. This has unfortunately resulted in the production of a book-length manuscript but I hope that this transparency will serve to minimize (even if it does not eliminate) the influence of bias.January 10, 2018: This manuscript remains subject to review and further revision. I welcome additional feedback (by email). I will note the status of these revisions as they occur.
Predicting the reward value of faces and bodies from social perceptions
Authors: Morrison Danielle , Wang Hongyi , Hahn Amanda , Jones Benedict C , DeBruine Lisa Marie
Published: July 2018

Social judgments of faces are thought to be underpinned by two perceptual components: valence and dominance. Recent work using a standard key-press task to assess reward value found that these valence and dominance components were both positively related to the reward value of faces. Although bodies play an important role in human social interaction, the perceptual dimensions that underpin social judgments of bodies and their relationship to the reward value of bodies are not yet known. The current study investigated these issues. We replicated previous studies showing that valence and dominance underpin social judgments of faces and that both components are positively related to the reward value of faces. By contrast, social judgments of bodies were underpinned by a single component that reflected aspects of both perceived valence and perceived dominance and was positively correlated with the reward value of bodies. These results highlight differences in how observers process faces and bodies.
National differences in gender–science stereotypes predict national sex differences in science and math achievement
Authors: Nosek Brian A. , Smyth Frederick L. , Sriram Natarajan , Lindner Nicole M. , Devos Thierry , Ayala Alfonso , Bar-Anan Yoav , Bergh Robin , Cai Huajian , Gonsalkorale Karen , Kesebir Selin , Maliszewski Norbert , Neto Felix Fernando Monteiro , Olli Eero , Park Jaihyun , Schnabel Konrad , Shiomura Kimihiro , Tulbure Bogdan Tudor , Wiers Reinout , Somogyi Monika , Akrami Nazar , Ekehammar Bo , Vianello Michelangelo , Banaji Mahzarin R. , Greenwald Anthony G.
Published: July 2018

About 70% of more than half a million Implicit Association Tests completed by citizens of 34 countries revealed expected implicit stereotypes associating science with males more than with females. We discovered that nation-level implicit stereotypes predicted nation-level sex differences in 8th-grade science and mathematics achievement. Self-reported stereotypes did not provide additional predictive validity of the achievement gap. We suggest that implicit stereotypes and sex differences in science participation and performance are mutually reinforcing, contributing to the persistent gender gap in science engagement.
From automata to animate beings: The scope and limits of attributing socialness to artificial agents
Authors: Hortensius Ruud , Cross Emily S.
Published: July 2018

Understanding the mechanisms and consequences of attributing socialness to artificial agents has important implications for how we can use technology to lead more productive and fulfilling lives. Here, we integrate recent findings on the factors that shape behavioural and brain mechanisms that support social interactions between humans and artificial agents. We review how visual features of an agent, as well as knowledge factors within the human observer, shape attributions across dimensions of socialness. We explore how anthropomorphism and dehumanization further influence how we perceive and interact with artificial agents. Based on these findings, we argue that the cognitive reconstruction within the human observer is likely to be far more crucial in shaping our interactions with artificial agents than previously thought, while the artificial agent’s visual features are possibly of lesser importance. We integrate these findings to provide an integrative theoretical account based on the “like me” hypothesis, and discuss the key role played by the Theory-of-Mind network, especially the temporal parietal junction, in the shift from mechanistic to social attributions. We conclude by highlighting outstanding questions on the impact of long-term interactions with artificial agents on the behavioural and brain mechanisms of attributing socialness to these agents.
The Pleasure of Making a Difference: Perceived Social Contribution Explains the Relation Between Extraverted Behavior and Positive Affect
Authors: Sun Jessie , Stevenson Kathryn , Kabbani Rachel , Richardson Ben , Smillie Luke D.
Published: July 2018

Why are trait extraversion and extraverted behaviors both associated with greater positive affect? Across three studies, we examined whether two aspects of social experience—perceived social contribution and social power—mediate the relation between extraversion and positive affect. Study 1 (N = 205) showed that trait measures of social contribution and power mediated the relation between trait extraversion and trait positive affect. Study 2 (N = 78) showed that state social contribution and power helped to explain the greater levels of state positive affect reported by participants who were instructed to enact extraverted behaviors. Finally, Study 3 (N = 62) showed that social contribution and power mediated the relation between natural fluctuations in extraverted behavior and positive affect states in daily life. In all three studies, multiple-mediator models showed that social contribution, but not power, independently mediated the relations that trait and state extraversion had with positive affect. This suggests that perceptions of positive influence—more so than a general sense of power—help to explain why extraverts and extraverted moments are happier. We link these findings to emerging trends in the study of personality dynamics and the potential benefits of acting “out of character”.
Moral Identity Predicts the Development of Presence of Meaning during Emerging Adulthood
Authors: Han Hyemin , Liauw Indrawati , Kuntz Ashley Floyd
Published: July 2018

We examined change over time in the relationship between moral identity and presence of meaning during early adulthood. Moral identity refers to a sense of morality and moral values that are central to one’s identity. Presence of meaning refers to the belief that one’s existence has meaning, purpose, and value. Participants responded to questions on moral identity and presence of meaning in their senior year of high school and two years after. Mixed effects model analyses were used to examine how moral identity and presence of meaning interacted during this two-year period. The findings demonstrated that moral identity positively predicted presence of meaning over time.
Two Experience Sampling Studies Examining the Variation of Self-Control Capacity and Its Relationship with Core Affect in Daily Life
Authors: Zhang Chao , Smolders Karin , Lakens Daniel , IJsselsteijn Wijnand
Published: July 2018

To facilitate a better understanding of the role of self-control capacity in self-control processes, we examined its variation at intraindividual and interindividual levels, and positioned it in a nomological network with core affect. In two experience sampling studies, 286 university students reported their self-control capacity and core affect for a week. Results revealed larger person-to-person than day-to-day variation in self-control capacity, while its moment-to-moment variation could be weakly modeled as a diurnal pattern. Interindividually, participants with higher self-control capacity were happier and less stressed, but intraindividually higher self-control capacity was mainly associated with higher alertness and energetic arousal. Our results imply that self-control capacity is better conceptualized as a composition of interrelated sub-constructs rather than as a unified resource.
The Validity of the Tool “statcheck” in Discovering Statistical Reporting Inconsistencies
Authors: Nuijten Michele B. , van Assen Marcel A. L. M. , Hartgerink Chris Hubertus Joseph , Epskamp Sacha , Wicherts Jelte M.
Published: July 2018

The R package “statcheck” (Epskamp & Nuijten, 2016) is a tool to extract statistical results from articles and check whether the reported p-value matches the accompanying test statistic and degrees of freedom. A previous study showed high interrater reliabilities (between .76 and .89) between statcheck and manual coding of inconsistencies (.76 - .89; Nuijten, Hartgerink, Van Assen, Epskamp, & Wicherts, 2016). Here we present an additional, detailed study of the validity of statcheck. In Study 1, we calculated its sensitivity and specificity. We found that statcheck’s sensitivity (true positive rate) and specificity (true negative rate) were high: between 85.3% and 100%, and between 96.0% and 100%, respectively, depending on the assumptions and settings. The overall accuracy of statcheck ranged from 96.2% to 99.9%. In Study 2, we investigated statcheck’s ability to deal with statistical corrections for multiple testing or violations of assumptions in articles. We found that the prevalence of corrections for multiple testing or violations of assumptions in psychology was higher than we initially estimated in Nuijten et al. (2016). Although we found numerous reporting inconsistencies in results corrected for violations of the sphericity assumption, we demonstrate that inconsistencies associated with statistical corrections are not what is causing the high estimates of the prevalence of statistical reporting inconsistencies in psychology.
A gender bias habit-breaking intervention led to increased hiring of female faculty in STEMM departments
Authors: Devine Patricia G. , Forscher Patrick S. , Cox William Taylor Laimaka , Kaatz Anna , Sheridan Jennifer , Carnes Molly
Published: July 2018

Addressing the underrepresentation of women in science is a top priority for many institutions, but the majority of efforts to increase representation of women are neither evidence-based nor rigorously assessed. One exception is the gender bias habit-breaking intervention (Carnes et al., 2015), which, in a cluster-randomized trial involving all but two departmental clusters (N = 92) in the 6 STEMM focused schools/colleges at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, led to increases in gender bias awareness and self-efficacy to promote gender equity in academic science departments. Following this initial success, the present study compares, in a preregistered analysis, hiring rates of new female faculty pre- and post-manipulation. Whereas the proportion of women hired by control departments remained stable over time, the proportion of women hired by intervention departments increased by an estimated 18 percentage points (OR = 2.23, dOR = 0.34). Though the preregistered analysis did not achieve conventional levels of statistical significance (p < 0.07), our study has a hard upper limit on statistical power, as the cluster-randomized trial has a maximum sample size of 92 departmental clusters. These patterns have undeniable practical significance for the advancement of women in science, and provide promising evidence that psychological interventions can facilitate gender equity and diversity.
Stability and Fluctuation of Personality Disorder Features in Daily Life
Authors: Wright Aidan G.C. , Simms Leonard
Published: July 2018

Very little is known about the daily stability and fluctuation of personality pathology. To address this gap in knowledge, we investigated the naturalistic manifestation of personality pathology over the course of 100 days. A group of individuals (N=101) diagnosed with any personality disorder (PD) completed a daily diary study over 100 consecutive days (Mdn = 94 days, Range = 33-101 days). Participants completed daily ratings of 30 manifestations of personality pathology. Patterns of stability and variability over the course of the study were then examined. Results indicated that individual PD manifestations and domains of PD manifestations were variable across days and differed widely in their frequency. Additionally, individual averages and level of variability in PD domains were highly stable across months, individual averages of PD domains were predicted by baseline dispositional ratings of PD traits with a high degree of specificity, and daily variability PD domains was associated with elevated levels of PD traits. This pattern of findings suggests that dynamic processes of symptom exacerbation and diminution that are stable in mean level and variability in expression over time characterizes personality pathology. Further, dispositional ratings are significant predictors of average daily expression of PD features.
Prevailing theories of consciousness are challenged by novel cross-modal associations acquired between subliminal stimuli
Authors: Scott Ryan Bradley , Samaha Jason , Chrisley Ron , Dienes Zoltan
Published: July 2018

While theories of consciousness differ substantially, the ‘conscious access hypothesis’, which aligns consciousness with the global accessibility of information across cortical regions, is present in many of the prevailing frameworks. This account holds that consciousness is necessary to integrate information arising from independent functions such as the specialist processing required by different senses. We directly tested this account by evaluating the potential for associative learning between novel pairs of subliminal stimuli presented in different sensory modalities. First, pairs of subliminal stimuli were presented and then their association assessed by examining the ability of the first stimulus to prime classification of the second. In Experiments 1-4 the stimuli were word-pairs consisting of a male name preceding either a creative or uncreative profession. Participants were subliminally exposed to two name-profession pairs where one name was paired with a creative profession and the other an uncreative profession. A supraliminal task followed requiring the timed classification of one of those two professions. The target profession was preceded by either the name with which it had been subliminally paired (concordant) or the alternate name (discordant). Experiment 1 presented stimuli auditorily, Experiment 2 visually, and Experiment 3 presented names auditorily and professions visually. All three experiments revealed the same inverse priming effect with concordant test pairs associated with significantly slower classification judgements. Experiment 4 sought to establish if learning would be more efficient with supraliminal stimuli and found evidence that a different strategy is adopted when stimuli are consciously perceived. Finally, Experiment 5 replicated the unconscious cross-modal association achieved in Experiment 3 utilising non-linguistic stimuli. The results demonstrate the acquisition of novel cross-modal associations between stimuli which are not consciously perceived and thus challenge the global access hypothesis and those theories embracing it.
Understanding the Uncanny: Both Atypical Features and Category Ambiguity Provoke Aversion towards Humanlike Robots
Authors: Strait Megan K. , Floerke Victoria A. , Ju Wendy , Maddox Keith Brian , Remedios Jessica D. , jung malte , Urry Heather L.
Published: July 2018

Robots intended for social contexts are often designed with explicit humanlike attributes in order to facilitate their reception by (and communication with) people. However, observation of an "uncanny valley" – a phenomenon in which highly humanlike entities provoke aversion in human observers – has lead some to caution against this practice. Both of these contrasting perspectives on the anthropomorphic design of social robots find some support in empirical investigations to date. Yet, owing to outstanding empirical limitations and theoretical disputes, the uncanny valley and its implications for human-robot interaction remains poorly understood. We thus explored the relationship between human similarity and people’s aversion towards humanlike robots via manipulation of the agents’ appearances. To that end, we employed a picture-viewing task (Nagents = 60) to conduct an experimental test (Nparticipants = 72) of the uncanny valley’s existence and the visual features that cause certain humanlike robots to be unnerving. Across the levels of human similarity, we further manipulated agent appearance on two dimensions, typicality (prototypic, atypical, and ambiguous) and agent identity (robot, person), and measured participants’ aversion using both subjective and behavioral indices. Our findings were as follows: (1) Further substantiating its existence, the data show a clear and consistent uncanny valley in the current design space of humanoid robots. (2) Both category ambiguity, and more so, atypicalities provoke aversive responding, thus shedding light on the visual factors that drive people’s discomfort. (3) Use of the Negative Attitudes towards Robots Scale did not reveal any significant relationships between people’s pre-existing attitudes towards humanlike robots and their aversive responding – suggesting positive exposure and/or additional experience with robots is unlikely to affect the occurrence of an uncanny valley effect in humanoid robotics. This work furthers our understanding of both the uncanny valley, as well as the visual factors that contribute to an agent’s uncanniness.
Laboratory aggression and personality traits: A meta-analytic review
Authors: Hyatt Courtland , Zeichner Amos , Miller Josh
Published: July 2018

Among operationalizations of aggression, laboratory paradigms are unique in that they permit precise measurement of aggression while controlling for many possible confounds (e.g., levels of provocation). In the current undertaking, we conducted a meta-analysis of the relations between laboratory aggression and trait-based personality constructs thought to be among the most robust and consistent predictors of lab aggression, including traits from the predominant model of general personality (Big Five/Five Factor Model [FFM]), as well as personality disorder constructs including psychopathy, narcissism, and sadism. Our search yielded 54 usable studies containing 123 effect sizes. Random-effects models suggest that psychopathy, narcissism, sadism, and low FFM Agreeableness are significant predictors of laboratory aggression with small to moderate effect sizes. Impulsivity and FFM Openness also showed significant relations, though they were smaller in magnitude. Thus, traits related to aggression outside of the laboratory also appear to be related to aggression in the laboratory. Suggestions are made for future research in this area, including an emphasis on causal mechanisms and methodological rigor.
Opposing and following responses in sensorimotor speech control: Why responses go both ways
Authors: Franken Matthias K. , Acheson Daniel J. , McQueen James , Hagoort Peter , Eisner Frank
Published: July 2018

When talking, speakers continuously monitor and use the auditory feedback of theirown voice to control and inform speech production processes. When speakers areprovided with auditory feedback that is perturbed in real time, most of themcompensate for this by opposing the feedback perturbation. But some speakers followthe perturbation. In the current study we investigated whether the state of the speechsystem at perturbation onset may determine what type of response (opposing orfollowing) is given. The results suggest that whether a perturbation-related response isopposing or following depends on ongoing fluctuations of the speech system: The motorsystem initially responds by doing the opposite of what it was doing. This effect and thenon-trivial proportion of following responses suggest that current production modelsare inadequate: They need to account for why responses to unexpected sensoryfeedback depend on the production-system’s state at the time of perturbation.
Functional organization of the temporal-parietal junction for theory of mind in preverbal infants: A near-infrared spectroscopy study
Authors: Hyde Daniel C. , Simon Charline E. , Nikolaeva Julia , Ting Fransisca
Published: July 2018

Successful human social life requires imagining what others believe or think to understand and predict behavior. This ability, often referred to as theory of mind, reliably engages a specialized network of temporal and prefrontal brain regions in older children and adults, including selective recruitment of temporal-parietal junction (TPJ). To date, how and when this specialized brain organization for ToM arises is unknown due to limitations in functional neuroimaging at younger ages. Here we employed the emerging technique of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure the functional brain response across the parietal, temporal, and prefrontal regions in 7-month old male and female infants as they viewed different video scenarios of a person searching for a hidden object. Over different conditions, we manipulated whether the person held an accurate (true) or inaccurate (false) belief about the location of the hidden object in the videos. In two separate experiments, we observed that the TPJ, but not other temporal and prefrontal regions, spontaneously tracked with the beliefs of the other person, responding more during scenarios when the other person’s belief regarding the location of the object was false compared to scenarios when her belief was true. These results mirror those obtained with adults to show that the TPJ already shows some functional organization relevant to high-level social cognition by around 7-months. Furthermore, these results suggest that infants may draw on similar core mechanisms to implicitly track beliefs as adults do when explicitly reasoning about them.
An integrative review of the cognitive costs and benefits of note - taking
Authors: Jansen Renee , Lakens Daniel , IJsselsteijn Wijnand
Published: July 2018

Students frequently engage in note-taking to improve the amount of information they remember from lectures. One beneficial effect of note-taking is known as the encoding effect, which refers to deeper processing of information as a consequence of taking notes. This review consists of two parts. In the first part, four lines of research on the encoding effect are summarized: 1) manipulation of the lecture material, 2) manipulation of the method of note-taking, 3) the importance of individual differences, and 4) the testing procedure used in the empirical studies. Our review highlights the fragmented nature of the current literature. In the second part of this review we distinguish five forms of cognitive load that are induced by note-taking. Cognitive load theory is used to integrate the divergent results in the literature. We conclude that cognitive load theory provides a useful framework for future theory development and experimental work.
Maintaining Warm, Trusting Relationships with Brands: Increased Temperature Perceptions after Thinking of Communal Brands
Authors: IJzerman Hans , Janssen Janneke Annelein , Coan James Arthur
Published: July 2018

Classical theories on interpersonal relations have long suggested that social interactions are influenced by sensation, like the experience of warmth. Past empirical work now confirms that perceived differences in temperature impact how people form thoughts about relationships. The present work first integrates our knowledge database on brand research with this idea of “grounded social cognition”. It then leverages a large sample (total N = 2,552) toward elucidating links between estimates of temperature and positive versus negative evaluations of communal brands. In five studies, the authors have found that thinking about positively (vs. negatively) perceived communal brands leads to heightened temperature estimates. A meta-analysis of the five studies shows a small but consistent effect in this noisy environment, r = .11, 95% CI, .05, .18. Exploratory analyses in Studies 1a and b further suggest that temperature perceptions mediate the (significant) relationship between perceived communality and willingness to purchase from the brand. The authors discuss implications for theory and practice, and consider the effects from a Social Baseline Perspective.This paper was published in PloS one: IJzerman, H., Janssen, J. A., & Coan, J. A. (2015). Maintaining warm, trusting relationships with brands: increased temperature perceptions after thinking of communal brands. PloS one, 10(4), e0125194.
Multiplex model of mental lexicon reveals explosive learning in humans
Authors: Stella Massimo
Published: July 2018

Word similarities affect language acquisition and use in a multi-relational way barely accounted for in the literature. We propose a multiplex network representation of this mental lexicon of word similarities as a natural framework for investigating large-scale cognitive patterns. Our representation accounts for semantic, taxonomic, and phonological interactions and it identifies a cluster of words which are used with greater frequency, are identified, memorised, and learned more easily, and have more meanings than expected at random. This cluster emerges around age 7 through an explosive transition not reproduced by null models. We relate this explosive emergence to polysemy – redundancy in word meanings. Results indicate that the word cluster acts as a core for the lexicon, increasing both lexical navigability and robustness to linguistic degradation. Our findings provide quantitative confirmation of existing conjectures about core structure in the mental lexicon and the importance of integrating multi-relational word-word interactions in psycholinguistic frameworks.
Neuroanatomical basis of concern-based altruism in virtual environment
Authors: Patil Indrajeet , Zanon Marco , Novembre Giovanni , Zangrando Nicola , Chittaro Luca , Silani Giorgia
Published: July 2018

Costly altruism entails helping others at a cost to the self and prior work shows that empathic concern (EC) for the well-being of distressed and vulnerable individuals is one of the primary motivators of such behavior. However, extant work has investigated costly altruism with paradigms that did not feature self-relevant and severe costs for the altruist and have solely focused on neurofunctional, and not neuroanatomical, correlates. In the current study, we used a contextually-rich virtual reality environment to study costly altruism and found that individuals who risked their own lives in the virtual world to try to save someone in danger had enlarged right anterior insula and exhibited greater empathic concern than those who did not. These findings add to the growing literature showing the role of caring motivation in promoting altruism and prosociality and its neural correlates in the right anterior insula.
Replication Bayes Factors from Evidence Updating
Authors: Ly Alexander , Etz Alexander , Marsman Maarten , Wagenmakers Eric-Jan
Published: July 2018

We describe a general method that allows experimenters to quantify the evidence from the data of a direct replication attempt given data already acquired from an original study. These so-called replication Bayes factors are a reconceptualization of the ones introduced by Verhagen and Wagenmakers (2014) for the common t-test. This reconceptualization is computationally simpler and generalizes easily to most common experimental designs for which Bayes factors are available.
Perceptual Effects of Linguistic Category Priming: The Stapel and Semin (2007) Paradigm Revisited in Twelve Experiments
Authors: IJzerman Hans , Saddlemyer Justin
Published: July 2018

Linguistic category priming is a novel paradigm to examine automatic influences of language on cognition (Semin, 2008). An initial article reported that priming abstract linguistic categories (adjectives) led to more global perceptual processing, whereas priming concrete linguistic categories (verbs) led to more local perceptual processing (Stapel & Semin, 2007). However, this report was compromised by data fabrication by the first author, so that it remains unclear whether or not linguistic category priming influences perceptual processing. To fill this gap in the literature, the present article reports 12 studies among Dutch and US samples examining the perceptual effects of linguistic category priming. The results yielded no evidence of linguistic category priming effects. These findings are discussed in relation to other research showing cultural variations in linguistic category priming effects (IJzerman, Saddlemyer, & Koole, 2014a). The authors conclude by highlighting the importance of conducting and publishing replication research for achieving scientific progress.This paper was published in Acta Psychologica:IJzerman, H., Regenberg, N. F., Saddlemyer, J., & Koole, S. L. (2015). Perceptual effects of linguistic category priming: The Stapel and Semin (2007) paradigm revisited in twelve experiments. Acta Psychologica, 157, 23-29.