bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
FLAM Fragebogen
Authors: Buennemann Mona , Schlarb Angelika A.
Published: July 2018

Unbegleitete minderjährige Flüchtlinge zeigen eine hohe Prävalenz für psychische Erkrankungen. Im Rahmen eines niedrigschwelligen Beratungsangebotes wurde der FLAM Fragebogen entwickelt, der einen leichten Einstieg in eine Behandlung oder Beratung ermöglicht. Er erfasst häufig vorkommende Belastungssymtome und relevante Schutzfaktoren für die Beratung. Es werden keine traumaspezifischen Inhalte abgefragt, sodass ein niedrigschwelliger und wenig belastender Einstieg in eine Beratung gewährleistet werden kann. Der Fragebogen kann somit zum Kennenlernen und zur ersten Abklärung von psychischen Belastungen genutzt werden. Der FLAM Fragebogen ist in leichter Sprache verfasst und ist damit auch für die Arbeit mit Jugendlichen mit geringen deutschen Sprachkenntnissen geeignet. Die grafische Skalierung erleichtert die Anwendung bei analphebitiserten Jugendlichen oder Jugendlichen mit geringer Lesekompetenz.
Revisiting foraging approaches in neuroscience
Authors: Hall-McMaster Sam , Luyckx Fabrice
Published: July 2018

Many complex real-world decisions, such as deciding which house to buy or whether to switch jobs, involve trying to maximise reward across a sequence of choices. Optimal Foraging Theory is well suited to study these kinds of choices because it provides formal models for reward-maximisation in sequential situations. In this article, we review recent insights from foraging neuroscience, behavioural ecology and computational modelling. We find that a commonly used approach in foraging neuroscience, in which choice items are encountered at random, does not reflect the way animals direct their foraging efforts in real-world settings, nor does it reflect efficient reward-maximising behaviour. Based on this, we propose that task designs allowing subjects to encounter choice items strategically will further improve the ecological validity of foraging approaches used in neuroscience, as well as give rise to new behavioural and neural predictions that deepen our understanding of sequential, value-based choice.
Foundational tests of the need-support model: A framework for bridging regulatory focus theory and self-determination theory
Authors: Vaughn Leigh Ann
Published: July 2018

This paper introduces the need-support model, which proposes that regulatory focus can affect subjective support for the needs proposed by self-determination theory (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and support of these needs can affect subjective labeling of experiences as promotion-focused and prevention-focused. Three studies tested these hypotheses (N = 2,114). Study 1 found that people recall more need support in promotion-focused experiences than in prevention-focused experiences, and need support in their day yesterday (with no particular regulatory focus) fell in between. Study 2 found that experiences of higher need support were more likely to be labeled as promotion-focused rather than prevention-focused, and that each need accounted for distinct variance in the labeling of experiences. Study 3 varied regulatory focus within a performance task and found that participants in the promotion condition engaged in need-support inflation, whereas participants in the prevention condition engaged in need-support deflation. Directions for future research are discussed.
Field studies of psychologically targeted ads face threats to internal validity
Authors: Eckles Dean , Johnson Garrett Adam , Gordon Brett R
Published: July 2018

This is a comment on Matz, S.C., Kosinski, M., Nave, G., & Stillwell, D.J. (2017) Psychological targeting as an effective approach to digital mass persuasion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.This comment has been published as a letter to the editor: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805363115
Female chess players outperform expectations when playing men
Authors: Stafford Tom
Published: July 2018

"Stereotype threat" has been offered as a potential explanation of differential performance between men and women in some cognitive domains. Questions remain about the reliability and generality of the phenomenon. Previous studies have found that stereotype threat is activated in female chess players when they are matched against male players. I use data from over 5.5 million games of international tournament chess and find no evidence of a stereotype threat effect. In fact women players outperform expectations when playing men. Further analysis shows no influence of degree of challenge, nor of player age, nor of prevalence of female role models in national chess leagues on differences in performance when women play men versus when they play women. Though this analysis contradicts one specific mechanism of influence of gender stereotypes, the persistent differences between male and female players suggest that systematic factors do exist and remain to be uncovered.
Using experimental and correlational methods to assess the role of accents and gender on perceptions of competence
Authors: Signorella Margaret L.
Published: July 2018

Research on the impact of different accents on perceptions of individuals is both important and difficult. The main challenge is in creating realistic portrayals of accents that also control for potential confounding variables. The advantages and disadvantages of three different options are reviewed: the same person speaking in different accents, different persons speaking in different accents, and computer generated accents. This case study describes the method, procedure and results from a study in which the decision was made to use different persons to convey different accents. Although the experimental manipulations were not as controlled as might be ideal, they were used with the aim of increasing realism and external validity. Manipulation checks are described that tested whether the experimental manipulations were effective in conveying similar levels of accents in male and female speakers. Procedures for reducing the risk of experimenter bias are also described. The inclusion of an unmanipulated variable, participant gender, and the interpretational issues, are also discussed. There continues to be a need for research on the impact of speaking with an accent, in spite of the methodological complications.
Self-priming in production: evidence for a hybrid model of syntactic priming
Authors: Jacobs Cassandra Leigh , Cho Sun-Joo , Watson Duane
Published: July 2018

Syntactic priming in language production is the increased likelihood of using a recently encountered syntactic structure. In this paper, we examine two theories of why speakers can be primed: error-driven learning accounts (Bock, Dell, Chang, & Onishi, 2007; Chang, Dell, & Bock, 2006) and activation-based accounts (Reitter et al., 2011; Pickering & Branigan, 1998). Both theories predict that speakers should be primed by the syntactic choices of others, but only activation-based accounts predict that speakers should be able to prime themselves. Here we test whether speakers can be primed by their own productions in three behavioral experiments and find evidence of structural persistence following both comprehension and speakers’ own productions. We also find that comprehension-based priming effects are larger for rarer syntactic structures than for more common ones, which is most consistent with error-driven accounts. Because neither error-driven accounts nor activation-based accounts fully explain the data, we propose a hybrid model.
Social Norm Perception in Groups with Outliers
Authors: Dannals Jennifer E , Miller Dale T.
Published: July 2018

Social outliers draw a lot of attention from those inside and outside their group and yet little is known about their impact on perceptions of their group as a whole. The present studies examine how outliers influence observers’ summary perceptions of a group’s behavior and inferences about the group’s descriptive and prescriptive norms. Across four studies (N = 1739) we examine how observers perceive descriptive and prescriptive social norms in groups containing outliers of varying degrees. We find consistent evidence that observers overweight outlying behavior when judging the descriptive and prescriptive norms, but overweight outliers less as they become more extreme, especially in perceptions of the prescriptive norm. We find this pattern across norms pertaining to punctuality (Studies 1-2, 4) and clothing formality (Study 3) and for outliers who are both prescriptively and descriptively deviant (e.g. late arrivers), as well as for outliers who are only descriptive deviants (e.g. early arrivers). We further demonstrate that observers’ perceptions of the group shift in the direction of moderate outliers. This occurs because observers anchor on the outlier’s behavior and adjust their recollections of non-outlying individuals, making their inferences about the group’s average behavior more extreme.
Correlated individual differences suggest a common mechanism underlying metacognition in visual perception and visual short-term memory
Authors: Samaha Jason , Postle Bradley R.
Published: July 2018

Adaptive behavior depends on the ability to accurately introspect about one’s own performance. Whether this metacognitive ability is supported by the same mechanisms across different tasks is an open question that has thus far been investigated with a focus on correlating metacognitive accuracy between perceptual and long-term memory paradigms. Here, we investigated the relationship between metacognition of visual perception and metacognition of visual short-term memory (VSTM), a cognitive function thought to be more intimately related to visual processing. Across two experiments that required subjects to estimate the perceived or remembered orientation of a grating stimulus and rate their confidence, we observed strong positive correlations between individual differences in metacognitive accuracy between the two tasks. This relationship was not accounted for by individual differences in task performance or average confidence, and was present across two different metrics of metacognition and in both experiments. In contrast to previous results comparing perception and long-term memory, which have largely provided evidence for domain-specific metacognitive processes, the current findings suggest that metacognition of visual perception and VSTM is supported by a domain-general metacognitive architecture.
A Psychological Profile of the Alt-Right
Authors: Forscher Patrick S. , Kteily Nour
Published: July 2018

The 2016 U.S. presidential election coincided with the rise of the “alternative right” or “alt-right”. Alt-right associates have wielded considerable influence on the current administration and on social discourse, but the movement’s loose organizational structure has led to disparate portrayals of its members’ psychology and made it difficult to decipher its aims and reach. To systematically explore the alt-right’s psychology, we recruited two U.S. samples: An exploratory sample through MTurk (N = 827, Nalt-right = 447), and a larger nationally representative sample through the National Opinion Research Center’s Amerispeak panel (N = 1283, Nalt-right = 71 – 160, depending on the definition). We estimate that 6% of the U.S. population and 10% of Trump voters identify as alt-right. Alt-right adherents reported a psychological profile more reflective of the desire for group-based dominance than economic anxiety. Although both the alt-right and non-alt-right Trump voters differed substantially from non-alt-right non-Trump-voters, the alt-right and Trump voters were quite similar, differing mainly in the alt-right’s especially high enthusiasm for Trump, suspicion of mainstream media, trust in alternative media, and desire for collective action on behalf of Whites. We argue for renewed consideration of overt forms of bias in contemporary intergroup research.
On Variability & Human Consciousness
Authors: Boutwell Brian
Published: July 2018

The topic of consciousness remains central across numerous academic fields ranging from philosophy to cognitive neuroscience. Scholars in all of these fields continue to debate the origins of conscious experiences. More recently, scientists have applied advanced imaging techniques to illuminate brain regions that are at least associated with our subjective feelings of conscious experience. Though much disagreement remains, one point that is generally accepted across fields is that consciousness is not the product of an immaterial substance, but rather is produced by functioning across physical substrates in the brain. This point of agreement is enough to suggest that genetically and environmentally underpinned individual variation in brain structure may contribute to individual variation in consciousness. To the extent that this is correct, it may provide insight on a host of important questions across various academic fields. Equally important, understanding sources of variability in consciousness may be a key piece of the puzzle for understanding, not only how consciousness evolved, but also how selection pressures might continue to act on the human experience of consciousness across subsequent generations.
Depression - Psychoedukation in leichter Sprache für unbegleitete minderjährige Flüchtlinge
Authors: Buennemann Mona , Schlarb Angelika A.
Published: July 2018

Erstellt wurde Psychoedukationsmaterial in leichter Sprache zum Thema "Depression", welches in der psychologischen oder psychotherapeutischen Arbeit mit unbegleiteten minderjährigen Flüchtlingen angewendet werden kann. Sie soll helfen, das Verständnis für die Symptomatik, sowie erste Ansatzpunkte für einen Umgang mit der Symptomatik verständlich zu machen.Psychoeducation material in easy language regarding "Depression" is presented which can be used in counselling or therapy with Unaccompanied Refugee Minors. The aim of the material is to increase understanding and handling of depressive symptoms.
Pre-linguistic segmentation of speech into syllable-like units
Authors: Räsänen Okko , Doyle Gabriel , Frank Michael C.
Published: July 2018

Syllables are often considered to be central to infant and adult speech perception. Many theories and behavioral studies on early language acquisition are also based on syllable-level representations of spoken language. There is little clarity, however, on what sort of pre-linguistic “syllable” would actually be accessible to an infant with no phonological or lexical knowledge. Anchored by the notion that syllables are organized around particularly sonorous (audible) speech sounds, the present study investigates the feasibility of speech segmentation into syllable-like chunks without any a priori linguistic knowledge. We first operationalize sonority as a measurable property of the acoustic input, and then use sonority variation across time, or speech rhythm, as the basis for segmentation. The entire process from acoustic input to chunks of syllable-like acoustic segments is implemented as a computational model inspired by the oscillatory entrainment of the brain to speech rhythm. We analyze the output of the segmentation process in three different languages, showing that the sonority fluctuation in speech is highly informative of syllable and word boundaries in all three cases without any language-specific tuning of the model. These findings support the widely held assumption that syllable-like structure is accessible to infants even when they are only beginning to learn the properties of their native language.
Family versus patient reporting of alcohol in Tanzania
Authors: Vissoci Joao Ricardo Nickenig
Published: July 2018

There is currently a gap in literature regarding whether family members of patients should be involved in the questioning about the alcohol use of these patients. As stated above, there may be certain stigmas in different regions that inhibit people from being completely honest about their drinking habits. Beyond the stigma, patients may also simply want to avoid any sort of legal trouble that would come along with excess drinking. In many areas of the world, culture is very family focused. So, families are close knit and know the habits of all their members. So, it is probable that families would know certain drinking habits within themselves, and certain members would be more willing to report these habits than patients themselves.
Evaluating the degree of “unhappy randomization” in psychology: Are psychology experiments appropriately arranged to counter internal validity threats?
Authors: Yen Chih-Long , Cheng Chung-Ping
Published: July 2018

This study sought to evaluate whether the randomized controlled trials currently conducted in psychology are suitable for countering internal validity threats in terms of precluding alternative explanations. Experimental research primarily achieves the goal of drawing causal inferences through random assignment. As such, one of the threats to the internal validity of experiments is when random assignment fails to balance nuisance variables, thereby causing the treatment effect to be confounded by nuisance variables. The authors argue that the successful random assignment is largely decided by the sample size and the confounding effects that the researchers are willing to tolerate. In this study, one thousand and eighteen randomized controlled trials published in three leading psychology journals were investigated in order to estimate the probability that nuisance variables were balanced in these experiments. The results indicated that, even if researchers are willing to tolerate a medium effect size of confounding effects, there is still a high probability that over one-fifth (22.99%) of the psychological experiments investigated could be confounded by nuisance variables, and the situation would be even worse if a stricter criterion was set. Some suggestions are proposed for enhancing the internal validity of future experiments.
Sexual orientation and cognitive ability: A multivariate meta-analytic follow-up
Authors: Xu Yin , Norton Sam , Rahman Qazi
Published: July 2018

A cross-sex shift model of human sexual orientation differences predicts that homosexual men should perform or score in the direction of heterosexual women, and homosexual women in the direction of heterosexual men, in behavioral domains such as cognition and personality. In order to test whether homosexual men and women’s cognitive performance was closer to that of heterosexual men or that of heterosexual women (i.e., sex atypical for their sex), we conducted a multivariate meta-analysis based on data from our previous meta-analysis (Xu, Norton, & Rahman, 2017). A subset of this data was used and comprised a total of 49 samples and 251,393 participants. The multivariate meta-analysis revealed that homosexual men were indeed sex-atypical in mental rotation (Hedges’ g = -0.36) and the Water Level Test (Hedges’ g = -0.55). In mental rotation, homosexual men were somewhat in-between heterosexual men and women. There was no significant group difference on spatial location memory. Homosexual men were also sex atypical on male-favoring spatial-related tasks (Hedges’ g = -0.54), and female-favoring spatial-related tasks (Hedges’ g = 0.38). Homosexual women tended to be sex-typical (similar to heterosexual women). There were no significant group differences on male-favoring other tasks or female-favoring verbal-related tasks. Heterosexual men and women differed significantly on female-favoring other tasks. These results support the cross-sex shift hypothesis which predicts that homosexual men perform in the direction of heterosexual women in sex differentiated cognitive domains. However, the type of task and cognitive domain tested is critical.
Can Speed be Judged Independent of Direction?
Authors: Manning Catherine , Thomas Rory Trevelyan , Braddick Oliver
Published: July 2018

The ability to judge speed is a fundamental aspect of visual motion processing. Speed judgments are generally assumed to depend on signals in motion-sensitive, directionally selective, neurons in areas such as V1 and MT. Speed comparisons might therefore be expected to be most accurate when they use information within a common set of directionally tuned neurons. However, there does not appear to be any published evidence on how well speeds can be compared for movements in different directions. We tested speed discrimination judgments between pairs of random-dot stimuli presented side-by-side in a series of four experiments (n = 65). Participants judged which appeared faster of a reference stimulus moving along the cardinal or oblique axis and a comparison stimulus moving either in the same direction or in a different direction. The bias (point of subjective equality) and sensitivity (Weber fraction) were estimated from individual psychometric functions fitted for each condition. There was considerable between-participants variability in psychophysical estimates across conditions. Nonetheless, participants generally made more acute comparisons between stimuli moving in the same direction than those moving in different directions, at least for conditions with an upwards reference (~20% difference in Weber fractions). We also showed evidence for an oblique effect in speed discrimination when comparing stimuli moving in the same direction, and a bias whereby oblique motion tended to be perceived as moving faster than cardinal motion. These results demonstrate interactions between speed and direction processing, thus informing our understanding of how they are represented in the brain.
Trait Mindfulness May Buffer Against the Deleterious Effects of Childhood Abuse in Recurrent Depression: A Retrospective Exploratory Study
Authors: Beshai Shadi
Published: July 2018

Objective: Individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment are particularly vulnerable to a longer course of depression. Immunization theories of resilience suggest that resilience and related factors may buffer against the deleterious effects of early childhood adversity. Trait mindfulness is linked to resilience and may be a pathway to cultivating this dynamic process. In this study, we investigated whether trait mindfulness can buffer against the effects of early childhood maltreatment in predicting lifetime number of months depressed. Method: We recruited 43 previously depressed, currently remitted patients, and retrospectively examined their depression history (using a structured interview, LIFE-SCID), their self-reported experience of maltreatment in the first 16 years of life (MOPS), and their levels of trait mindfulness (MAAS). Results: We found that number of months depressed in a lifetime was positively associated with reported childhood maltreatment, and negatively associated with trait mindfulness. Secondly, we found evidence that trait mindfulness significantly moderated the relationship of early childhood maltreatment and number of months depressed. Specifically, it appears that individuals who report severe histories of maltreatment are especially vulnerable to recurrent depression if they are also reporting low levels of trait mindfulness. Conclusions: Increasing mindfulness may be warranted among individuals reporting a history of childhood abuse with lower baselines of trait mindfulness; however, results of this retrospective study require replication in a larger, prospective trial.
Social Value Orientation and Attachment: A Replication and Extension of Van Lange et al. (1997)
Authors: IJzerman Hans , Denissen Jaap J. A.
Published: July 2018

We report a replication and extension of a finding from Studies 1 and 2 of Van Lange et al. (1997)'s influential paper, which showed an association between Social Value Orientation (SVO) and attachment security. We report a close replication but with measures of attachment that are considered superior in comparison to measures used by Van Lange et al. (1997), due to subsequent psychometric improvements. Psychometric analyses indeed showed that our attachment measures were reliable and valid, demonstrating theoretically predicted associations with other outcomes. With a sample (N = 879) sufficiently large to detect d = .19 (and larger than the original N = 573), we failed to replicate the effect. Based on the available evidence, we interpret as there being no evidence for the link between attachment security and Social Value Orientation, but further replication research that uses solid measures and large samples can provide more definite conclusions about the association between attachment and SVO.
Cross-cultural variation in the development of folk ecological reasoning
Authors: Busch Justin Thomas Albert , Watson-Jones Rachel E. , Legare Cristine
Published: July 2018

Two studies examined children’s reasoning about biological kinds in populations that vary in formal education and direct experience with the natural world, a Western (urban U.S.) and a Non-Western population (Tanna, Vanuatu). Study 1 examined children’s concepts of ecological relatedness between species (N=97, 5- 13-year-olds). U.S. children provided more taxonomic explanations than Ni-Vanuatu children, who provided more ecological, physiological, and utility explanations than U.S. children. Ecological explanations were most common overall, and more common among older than younger children across cultures. In Study 2, children (N=106, 6- 11-year-olds) sorted pictures of natural kinds into groups. U.S. children were more likely than Ni-Vanuatu children to categorize a human as an animal and the tendency to group a human with other animals increased with age in the U.S. Despite substantial differences in cultural, educational, and ecological input, children in both populations privileged ecological reasoning. In contrast, taxonomic reasoning was more variable between populations, which may reflect differences in experience with formal education.
A theory inspired proposal for a novel medical treatment in autism. The cerebellar model of autism and the hypothesis of dorsal stream dysfunction: evidence from idiopathic and syndromic cases.
Authors: Vakalopoulos Costa
Published: July 2018

The cerebellum figures prominently in the pathophysiology of idiopathic autism. Many syndromic comorbid cases and animal studies also highlight cerebellar involvement. The role of the cerebellum is implicated in cognitive and affective disorders. However, there remains a profound gap in understanding the route from genes, the effect of mutations on Purkinje cells and ultimately the behavioural phenotype. Given that conditions like autism are disorders of consciousness it is likely that progress will be made beyond the data generating enterprise, by improved theoretical models of the mind-body gap. A way forward is the proposal of consciousness as embodiment of a process of world discovery through motor efference copy. The cerebellum and basal ganglia are essential to a component theory of motor efference copy, providing a heuristic for understanding the structure of cortical dorsal and ventral stream pathways of a sensory modality. This then, further suggests that autism results from a selective dorsal stream dysfunction with all the attendant and hierarchical features that follow such a model and lead to both high level social and attentional deficits as well as lower level motor and restrictive interests. The paper aims to present evidence for dorsal stream dysfunction and how it may relate to a primary cerebellar pathology. The involvement of the cerebellum in most if not all syndromic cases of comorbid ASD is then presented. Finally, it is shown how such insights can be used to propose a general medical intervention based on the use of cerebellar rTMS across the disorder spectrum.
Response Distortion on Personality Tests in Applicants: Comparing High-Stakes to Low-Stakes Medical Settings
Authors: Anglim Jeromy , Bozic Stefan , Little Jonathon , Lievens Filip
Published: July 2018

Preprint and supplementary material to accompany Anglim, J., Bozic, S., Little, J., Lievens, F. (2017). Response Distortion on Personality Tests in Applicants: Comparing High-Stakes to Low-Stakes Medical Settings. Advances in Health Science Education. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10459-017-9796-81. item level characteristics for the NEO-PI3 (i.e., mean, standard deviation, percentages for each response option, loading on first factor). See Excel file.2. Supplementary analyses
Adult Attachment Styles as Predictors of Different Types of Ingroup Identification
Authors: Rubin Mark
Published: July 2018

The primary goal of the present research was to explore the relationship between adult attachment styles and four different types of identification with social groups. The results confirmed predictions and revealed that particular prototypic attachment styles are associated with an increase in only certain types of ingroup identification. People with secure attachment style had higher social identification than people with a dismissive-avoidant attachment style. Participants with secure attachment style showed higher communal identification than participants who had either a dismissive-avoidant or a fearful-avoidant attachment style. These findings supported the idea that relationship attachment style has an important effect on the way people identify with their social groups and can serve as a predictor of preferred type of ingroup identity
No Evidence That Twitter Language Reliably Predicts Heart Disease: A Reanalysis of Eichstaedt et al. (2015a)
Authors: Brown Nicholas John Laird , Coyne James
Published: July 2018

We reanalyze Eichstaedt et al.’s (2015a) claim to have shown that language patterns among Twitter users, aggregated at the level of U.S. counties, predicted county-level mortality rates from atherosclerotic heart disease (AHD), with “negative” language being associated with higher rates of death from AHD and “positive” language associated with lower rates. First, we examine some of Eichstaedt et al.’s apparent assumptions about the nature of AHD, as well as some issues related to the secondary analysis of online data and to considering counties as communities. Next, using the data files supplied by Eichstaedt et al., we reanalyze their numerical results, including testing their model with mortality from an alternative cause of death, namely suicide. We identify numerous conceptual and methodological limitations that call into question the robustness and generalizability of Eichstaedt et al.’s claims. In particular, we find that the purported associations between “negative” and “positive” language and mortality are reversed, and even became stronger in some cases, when suicide is used as the outcome variable. We conclude that there is no evidence that analyzing Twitter data in bulk in this way can add anything useful to our ability to understand geographical variation in AHD mortality rates.
Muslim mass shooters are perceived as less mentally ill and more motivated by religion
Authors: Mercier Brett , Shariff Azim , Norris Adam
Published: July 2018

Objective: We test whether prejudice can influence lay attributions of mental illness to perpetrators of violence. Specifically, we examine whether people with negative attitudes towards Muslims perceive Muslim mass shooters as less mentally ill than non-Muslim shooters. Method: Study 1 compares attributions of mental illness to Muslim and non-Muslim perpetrators of recent mass shootings. Studies 2 and 3 experimentally test whether a mass shooter described in a news article is seen as less mentally ill when described as being a Muslim, compared to when described as a Christian (Study 2) and to when religion is not mentioned (Study 3). Study 4 tests whether a Muslim shooter is seen as less mentally ill than a Christian shooter, even when both shooters have symptoms of mental illness. Results: In all studies, Muslim shooters were seen as less mentally ill than non-Muslim shooters, but only by those with negative views towards Muslims. Conclusion: Those with anti-Muslim prejudices perceive Muslim mass shooters as less mentally ill, likely to maintain culpability and fit narratives about terrorism. This may reinforce anti-Muslim attitudes by leading those with anti-Muslim prejudice to overestimate the amount of violence inspired by groups like ISIS relative to extremist groups from other ideologies.
Replication of Saffran, Newport, & Aslin (1996) Word segmentation: The role of distributional cues, Exp. 1
Authors: Hartshorne Joshua K.
Published: July 2018

I replicated Exp. 1 of Saffran, Newport, & Aslin (1996) Word segmentation: The role of distributional cues, of Memory and Language, 35, 606-621, after a prior, largely unsuccessful replication attempt (Garcia et al., 2017, Replication of Saffran, Newport, & Aslin (1996) Word segmentation: The role of distributional cues, Exp. 1. PsyArXiv doi:10.17605/OSF.IO/QSYD2). The present replication corrected a randomization error in the prior replication and introduced attention checks to ensure that the participants were indeed attending to the stimuli. Despite this, and despite a much larger sample than the original (100 subjects vs. 24), evidence of successful segmentation was once again weak and mixed, and none of the item or condition effects replicated. I consider whether this is more likely to be a failure of replication or a failure of generalization (e.g., to a different population).
Do children's number words begin noisy?
Authors: Wagner Katherine , Chu Junyi , Barner David
Published: July 2018

How do children acquire exact meanings for number words like three or forty-seven? In recent years, a lively debate has probed the cognitive systems that support learning, with some arguing that an evolutionarily ancient “approximate number system” drives early number word meanings, and others arguing that learning is supported chiefly by representations of small sets of discrete individuals. This debate has centered around findings generated by Wynn’s (1990, 1992) Give-a-Number task, which she used to categorize children into discrete “knower level” stages. Early reports confirmed Wynn’s analysis, and took these stages to support the “small sets” hypothesis. However, more recent studies have disputed this analysis, and have argued that Give-a-Number data reveal a strong role for approximate number representations. In the present study, we use previously collected Give-a-Number data to replicate the analyses of these past studies, and to show that differences between past studies are due to assumptions made in analyses, rather than to differences in data themselves. We also show how Give-a-Number data violate the assumptions of parametric tests used in past studies. Based on simple non-parametric tests and model simulations, we conclude that (1) before children learn exact meanings for words like one, two, three, and four, they first acquire noisy preliminary meanings for these words, (2) there is no reliable evidence of preliminary meanings for larger meanings, and (3) Give-a- Number cannot be used to readily identify signatures of the approximate number system.
Structural Brain Changes as a Function of Second Language Vocabulary Training: Effects of Learning Context
Authors: Legault Jennifer , Fang Shin-Yi , Lan Yu-Ju , Li Ping
Published: July 2018

Recent research indicates that learning a second language (L2) results in both functional and structural brain changes. However, few studies have examined whether structural brain changes vary as a function of the context in which L2 learning takes place. The current study examines changes in cortical thickness (CT) and gray matter volume (GMV) in response to short-term L2 vocabulary learning. In particular, we compared structural changes for learning with paired picture-word (PW) association versus learning within virtual environments (VE) and non-trained controls. Both L2 training groups learned the same 90 Mandarin Chinese nouns across 7 training sessions over approximately 20 days. Our results show a) CT and GMV increased in regions implicated in a language control network for both L2 training groups, and b) participants in different learning contexts may rely on different structures within this language control network. In particular, CT in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was associated with L2 training performance for the PW group, whereas CT in the right inferior parietal lobe (IPL) showed a positive correlation with L2 training performance for the VE group. Our findings indicate that short-term L2 training leads to changes in brain structure, which vary based on L2 learning contexts and individual differences in cognitive ability.
Preprint "The relative importance of intra- and intersexual selection on human male sexually dimorphic traits"
Authors: Kordsmeyer Tobias L. , Hunt John , Puts David , Ostner Julia , Penke Lars
Published: July 2018

Recent evidence suggests that in sexual selection on human males, intrasexual competition plays a larger role than female choice. In a sample of men (N = 164), we sought to provide further evidence on the effects of men’s physical dominance and sexual attractiveness on mating success and hence in sexual selection. Objective measures and subjective ratings of male sexually dimorphic traits purportedly under sexual selection (height, vocal and facial masculinity, upper body size from3D scans, physical strength, and baseline testosterone) and observer perceptions of physical dominance and sexual attractiveness based on self-presentation video recordings were assessed and associated with mating success (sociosexual behaviour and number of potential conceptions) in a partly longitudinal design. Results from structural equation models and selection analyses revealed that physical dominance, but not sexual attractiveness, predicted mating success. Physical dominance mediated associations of upper body size, physical strength, as well as vocal and facial physical dominance and attractiveness with mating success. These findings thus suggest a greater importance of intrasexual competition than female choice in human male sexual selection.
What have we learned? What can we learn? - Comment on the BBS target article by Zwaan et al. on "Making replication mainstream"
Authors: Strack Fritz , Stroebe Wolfgang
Published: July 2018

We advocate that replications should be an integral part of the scientific discourse and provide insights about the conditions under which an effect occurs. By themselves, mere nonreplica-tions are not informative about the “truth” of an effect. As a consequence, the mechanistic contin-uation of multi-lab replications should be replaced by diagnostic studies providing insights about the underlying causes and mechanisms.
Acquiring the Meaning of Free Relative Clauses and Plural Definite Descriptions
Authors: Caponigro Ivano , Pearl Lisa , Brooks Neon Blue , Barner David
Published: July 2018

Plural definite descriptions (e.g. the things on the plate) and freerelative clauses (e.g. what is on the plate) have been argued to share thesame semantic properties, despite their syntactic differences.Specifically, both have been argued to be non-quantificational expressionsreferring to the maximal element of a given set (e.g. the set of things onthe contextually salient plate). We provide experimental support for thissemantic analysis with the first reported simultaneous investigation ofchildren’s interpretation of both constructions, highlighting howexperimental methods can inform semantic theory. A Truth-Value Judgmenttask and an Act-Out task show that children know that the two constructionsdiffer from quantificational nominals (e.g. all the things on the plate)very early on (4 years old). Children also acquire the adult interpretationof both constructions at the same time, around 6–7 years old. This happensdespite major differences in the frequency of these constructions,according to our corpus study of children’s linguistic input. We discusspossible causes for this late emergence. We also argue that ourexperimental findings contribute to the recent theoretical debate on thecorrect semantic analysis of free relatives.
What factors really influence domestic dogs’ (Canis familiaris) search for an item dropped down a diagonal tube? The tubes task revisited
Authors: Tecwyn Emma , Buchsbaum Daphna
Published: July 2018

It has been suggested that domestic dogs—like young human children—have a ‘gravity bias’; they expect an unsupported object to fall straight down, regardless of any obstacles that redirect or halt its path. In the diagonal tube task this bias is revealed by a persistent tendency to search the incorrect location directly beneath the top of the tube the item is dropped into, rather than the correct location attached to the bottom of the tube. We presented dogs (N=112) with seven different versions of the diagonal tube task, replicating and extending previous research, to examine what factors influence their search behavior for an object dropped down a diagonal tube, and investigate their physical reasoning skills more generally. Contrary to previous claims, we found no evidence for dogs exhibiting a persistent, or even a trial 1, gravity bias. However, in line with previous reports, dogs were also unable to search correctly for the reward, even when it could be heard rolling through the tube, though they succeeded when the tube was transparent (Exp. 1a-c). Exp. 2 suggested that dogs might search on the basis of proximity, but Exp. 3a-b ruled this out and showed that they prefer to commence searching at the center of the apparatus. Finally, when potential sources of bias were eliminated from the task (Exp. 4), dogs’ performance was improved, but still not above chance, suggesting that they are unable to reason about the tube’s physical-causal mechanism. We conclude that, on current evidence, the gravity bias might be unique to some primate species.
Contrasting reactive and proactive control of emotional distraction
Authors: Grimshaw Gina M. , Kranz Laura , Carmel David , Moody Rosie , Devue Christel
Published: July 2018

Attending to emotional stimuli is often beneficial, because they provide important social and environmental cues. Sometimes, however, current goals require that we ignore them. To what extent can we control emotional distraction? Here we show that the ability to ignore emotional distractions depends on the type of cognitive control that is engaged. Participants completed a simple perceptual task at fixation while irrelevant images appeared peripherally. In two experiments, we manipulated the proportion of trials in which images appeared, in order to encourage use of either reactive control (rare distractors) or proactive control (frequent distractors). Under reactive control, both negative and positive images were more distracting than neutral images, even though they were irrelevant and appeared in unattended locations. However, under proactive control, distraction by both emotional and neutral images was eliminated. Proactive control was triggered by the meaning, and not the location, of distracting images. Our findings argue against simple bottom-up or top-down explanations of emotional distraction, and instead show how the flexible use of cognitive control supports adaptive processing of emotional distractors.
Whites demonstrate anti-Black associations but do not reinforce them
Authors: Axt Jordan , Trawalter Sophie
Published: July 2018

White people often associate Black people with negative information andoutcomes. At the same time, many White people value not being or appearingprejudiced. In an inter-race context, these two forces may conflict. Whitesmay be better able to acquire anti-Black associations that align with theirexisting explicit or implicit attitudes, but may be unmotivated tostrengthen these associations because they oppose their egalitarian values.Across five studies (N > 1,100) including two pre-registered designs,Whites given a learning task were better able to initially acquireanti-Black racial associations but were unable or unwilling to thenreinforce these associations. Conversely, Whites were less able toinitially acquire pro-Black racial associations but then acquired andstrengthened these associations. Finally, Whites were still unwilling orunable to reinforce anti-Black associations even when given a non-racialjustification to do so. These results highlight the distinct but relatedinfluences of attitudes and prejudice concerns on race-related behavior.
A comparison of single-session focused attention meditation and computerised attention task instantaneous effects on cognitive control in sequence learning
Authors: Chan Russell Weili , Immink Maarten Alberto , Lushington Kurt
Published: July 2018

Chan et al. (2017) demonstrated that top-down control states established in FAM persist to influence subsequent sequence learning through increased stimulus-based planning. To test if top-down control influences on attention allocation and contribute to sequence learning effects of FAM, we compared against a computerised attention task (CAT). We investigated if effort, arousal or pleasure associated with FAM or CAT, explained the influence on sequence learning. Relative to Control, FAM and CAT resulted in shorter reaction time (RT) in the SRTT. FAM resulted in a greater rate of improvement than both CAT and control across training blocks of the SRTT, aligned with general practice benefits associated with reliance on stimulus-based planning. Neither effort, arousal or pleasure associated with FAM, CAT or control conditions correlated with SRTT performance or learning indices. Enhanced sequence learning following FAM is attributed to increased top-down control states established by FAM that transfer to subsequent sequence learning.
The Influence of Direct and Indirect Speech on Mental Representations
Authors: Eerland Anita , Engelen Jan , Zwaan Rolf Antonius
Published: July 2018

Language can be viewed as a set of cues that modulate the comprehender’s thought processes. It is a very subtle instrument. For example, the literature suggests that people perceive direct speech (e.g., Joanne said: ‘I went out for dinner last night’) as more vivid and perceptually engaging than indirect speech (e.g., Joanne said that she went out for dinner last night). But how is this alleged vividness evident in comprehenders’ mental representations? We sought to address this question in a series of experiments. Our results do not support the idea that, compared to indirect speech, direct speech enhances the accessibility of information from the communicative or the referential situation during comprehension. Neither do our results support the idea that the hypothesized more vivid experience of direct speech is caused by a switch from the visual to the auditory modality. However, our results do show that direct speech leads to a stronger mental representation of the exact wording of a sentence than does indirect speech. These results show that language has a more subtle influence on memory representations than was previously suggested.