bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Experienced meditators, cancer survivors, and matched controls assemble different neural resources to process emotion
Authors: Bauer-Wu Susan , Butler Andrew , Rajendra Justin , Whitworth Rachael , Pagnoni Giuseppe , Hasenkamp Wendy , Wilson-Mendenhall Christine , Lebois Lauren , Drucker Jonathan , Simmons Kyle , Dunne John , Silva Brendan Ozawa-de , Barrett Lisa Feldman , Barsalou Lawrence
Published: July 2018

According to constructivist theories of emotion, members of different populations experience emotion differently as a result of assembling different neural resources to produce it. To test this prediction, we sampled individuals from three populations (experienced meditators, cancer survivors, matched controls) and used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess their neural responses to four kinds of affective phrases (positive cancer, negative cancer, positive non-cancer, negative non- cancer). As predicted, the three populations responded differently to these affective phrases. When assessing neural activity for positive vs. negative phrases, controls showed the standard negativity bias reported in the emotion literature, cancer survivors showed a positivity bias (perhaps related to personal growth following cancer), and experienced meditators showed no bias (perhaps reflecting the mental quality of equanimity established through regular meditation practice). When assessing neural activity for positively-valenced cancer vs. non-cancer phrases, controls exhibited difficulty engaging with the cancer phrases, engaging much more with the non-cancer phrases instead. In contrast, experienced meditators and cancer survivors engaged more with the cancer phrases, while exhibiting different affective styles. Together these results indicate that experienced meditators, cancer survivors, and matched controls assemble different neural resources to process emotion.
Adolescents with versus without parental obesity show greater striatal response to increased sugar, but not fat content of milkshakes.
Authors: Shearrer Grace Elisabeth , Stice Eric , Burger Kyle Stanley
Published: July 2018

Children of overweight/obese parents are at a high-risk of developing obesity. This study sought to examine the underlying neural factors related to parental obesity risk and the relative impact of sugar and fat when consuming a palatable food, as well as the impact of obesity risk status on brain response to appetizing food images. Using functional MRI, 108 healthy weight adolescents’ (BMI 20.9±1.9; n=53 high-risk by virtue of parental obesity status, n=55 low-risk) response to food stimuli were examined. Stimuli included four milkshakes systematically varied in sugar and fat content, a calorie-free tasteless solution, and images of appetizing foods and glasses of water. High risk vs. low risk adolescents showed greater BOLD response to milkshakes (all variants collapsed) > tasteless solution receipt in the primary gustatory and oral somatosensory cortices (pFWE<0.05) replicating a previous report. Notably, high risk adolescents showed greater caudate, gustatory and oral somatosensory response to the high-sugar milkshake > tasteless solution contrast, however an effect of risk status was not seen in the high-fat milkshake contrast (pFWE<0.05). Foods images were not related to obesity risk status. Collectively, data presented here suggests that parental weight status contributes to greater striatal, gustatory, somatosensory response to palatable foods, in particular high-sugar foods in their adolescent offspring, which may contribute to the increased risk for future overeating.
Protostegid marine turtle remains from the Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous) of the Kassenberg (Mülheim an der Ruhr, Western Germany)
Authors: Sachs Sven
Published: July 2018

Postcranial remains of protostegid turtles from the lowermost Cenomanian of Mülheim an der Ruhr (Western Germany) are described. The material includes fragments from the carapace and appendicular skeleton of a taxon with a medium carapace length of approximately 20-30 cm. The turtle remains supplement the record of this group from the Cenomanian of Germany and the fossil fauna of the Kassenberg.
PITCH MEMORY AND EXPOSURE EFFECTS: Statistical learning and the effects of implicit "absolute pitch" on the perception and evaluation of music
Authors: Ben-Haim Moshe Shay , Eitan Zohar , Chajut Eran
Published: July 2018

Recent studies indicate that the ability to represent absolute pitch values in long-term memory (LTM), long believed to be the possession of a small minority of trained musicians endowed with "absolute pitch" (AP), is in fact shared to some extent by a considerable proportion of the population. The current study examined whether this newly discovered ability affects aspects of music and auditory cognition, particularly pitch learning and evaluation. Our starting points are two well established premises: (1) frequency of occurrence has an influence on the way we process stimuli; (2) in Western music, some pitches and musical keys are much more frequent than others. Based on these premises, we hypothesize that if absolute pitch values are indeed represented in LTM, pitch frequency of occurrence in music would significantly affect cognitive processes, in particular pitch learning and evaluation. Two experiments were designed to test this hypothesis in participants with no AP, most with little or no musical training. Experiment 1 demonstrated a faster response and a learning advantage for frequent pitches over infrequent pitches in an identification task. In Experiment 2 participants evaluated infrequent pitches as more pleasing than frequent pitches when presented in isolation. These results suggest that absolute pitch representation in memory may play a substantial, hitherto unacknowledged role in auditory (and specifically musical) cognition.
What are mixed emotions and what conditions foster them? Life-span experiences, culture and social awareness.
Authors: Grossmann Igor , Ellsworth Phoebe C.
Published: July 2018

“Mixed emotions” is often used synonymously with the notion of complex emotional experiences. Emotional complexity can also mean differentiation of emotions, both within and across situations. We review empirical evidence concerning the relationship between various forms of emotional complexity, integrating them in a general conceptual framework. Mixed emotions converge with other metrics of complexity when accounting for the same level of analysis (across time vs. state-specific) and less so when crossing these levels. Moreover, mixed emotions and other forms of complexity appear to vary as a function of various contextual factors, including age, culture, and situation. In particular, contexts promoting focus beyond one’s immediate point of view appear to facilitate emotional complexity more than self-focused contexts.
Replication of Finn & Hudson Kam (2008) The curse of knowledge: First language knowledge impairs adult learners’ use of novel statistics for word segmentation, Exp. 1
Authors: Garcia Caitlin , Van Horne Kendall , Hartshorne Joshua K.
Published: July 2018

We replicated Exp. 1 of Finn & Hudson Kam (2008) The curse of knowledge: First language knowledge impairs adult learners’ use of novel statistics for word segmentation, Cognition, 108, 477-499, as part of a multi-year effort to replicate every adult statistical word segmentation study. Unlike the original study, we do not find clear evidence that English-speaking adults fail to successfully segment words that violate the phonotactic constraints of English.
Music improves social communication and brain connectivity outcomes in children with autism: A randomized controlled trial
Authors: Sharda Megha , Tuerk Carola , Chowdhury Rakhee , Jamey Kevin , Foster Nicholas , Custo-Blanch Melanie , Tan Melissa , Nadig Aparna , Hyde Krista
Published: July 2018

Music has been identified as a strength in people with Autism Spectrum Disorder, however, there is currently no neuroscientific evidence supporting its benefits. Given its universal appeal, intrinsic reward value and ability to modify brain and behaviour, music may be a potential therapeutic aid in autism. Here, we evaluated the neurobehavioral outcomes of a music intervention, compared to a non-music control intervention, on social communication and brain connectivity in school-age children (ISRCTN26821793). Fifty-one 6-12 year olds with autism were randomized to receive 8-12 weeks of music (n=26) or non-music intervention (n=25). The music intervention involved use of improvisational approaches through song and rhythm to target social communication. The non-music control was a structurally-matched behavioural intervention implemented in a non-musical context. Groups were assessed before and after intervention on social communication and resting-state functional connectivity of fronto-temporal brain networks. Communication scores were higher in the music group post-intervention (difference score=4.84, P=.01). Associated post-intervention resting-state brain functional connectivity was greater in music versus non-music groups between auditory and subcortical regions (z=3.94, P<.0001) and auditory and fronto-motor regions (z=3.16, P<.0001). Post-intervention brain connectivity was lower between auditory and visual regions in music compared to non-music groups, known to be over-connected in autism (z=4.01, P<.00001). Post-intervention brain connectivity in the music group was related to communication improvement (z=3.57, P<.0001). This study provides the first evidence that 8-12 weeks of individual music intervention can indeed improve social communication and functional brain connectivity, lending support to further investigations of neurobiologically-motivated models of music interventions in autism.
How the Abstract Becomes Concrete: Irrational Numbers are Understood Relative to Natural Numbers and Perfect Squares
Authors: Patel Jay
Published: July 2018

Mathematical cognition research has largely emphasized concepts that can be directly perceived or grounded in visuospatial referents. These include concrete number systems like natural numbers, integers, and rational numbers. Here, we investigate how a more abstract number system, the irrationals denoted by radical expressions like the square root of 2, is understood across three tasks. Performance on a magnitude comparison task suggests that people interpret irrational numbers – specifically, the radicands of radical expressions – as natural numbers. Strategy self-reports during a number line estimation task reveal that the spatial locations of irrationals are determined by referencing neighboring perfect squares. Finally, perfect squares facilitate the evaluation of arithmetic expressions. These converging results align with a constellation of related phenomena spanning tasks and number systems of varying complexity. Accordingly, we propose that the task-specific recruitment of more concrete representations to make sense of more abstract concepts (referential processing) is an important mechanism for teaching and learning mathematics.
The endearing pain: Group value enhances positivity towards ostracisers
Authors: Philipp Michael Carl , Vanman Eric John , Lipp Ottmar V. , Iyer Aarti
Published: July 2018

Victims of social exclusion are highly motivated to regain feelings of social connectedness.Some theories suggest that victims of exclusion should prefer inclusive or novel others and derogate the perpetrators of exclusion. Yet, no studies have explored the mechanisms that alter person preferences following exclusion. In two experiments we found that excluded people selectively evaluate ostracisers based on the ostracisers’ group membership. Excluded people who valued an ingroup membership evaluated ostracisers from that group more positively than includers from the same group. Ostracisers from an ingroup were also more positively evaluated than ostracisers from another group. These studies show that victims of exclusion do not universally devalue excluders. In fact, the findings indicate that exclusion endears victims to ingroup malefactors.
Context and perceptual asymmetry effects on the mismatch negativity (MMNm) to speech sounds: an MEG study
Authors: Højlund Andreas , Gebauer Line , McGregor William B. , Wallentin Mikkel
Published: July 2018

The mismatch negativity (MMN) of the auditory ERP/ERF has been shown to be sensitive to both phonetic and phonological contrasts. However, potential asymmetry effects and effects of the immediate phonetic contexts on this neural sensitivity are understudied phenomena.Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we attempted to address this lacuna by investigating native Danish listeners’ MMNm to the phonological contrast between the consonants /t/ and /d/ in two different phonetic contexts in Danish: one word-initial, preserving the contrast’s phonemic status, and another word- final, neutralizing it.We found no support for effects of the immediate phonetic context on the MMNm. However, we observed an asymmetry effect for the phonological contrast: Hearing [t] among [d]s elicited a significantly stronger MMNm than hearing [d] among [t]s. This asymmetry effect was mirrored in a behavioral oddball-detection task showing reduced sensitivity for hearing [d] among [t]s. We discuss both psychoacoustic aspects and phonological underspecification as potential explanations.
Determined to Be Humble? Exploring the Relationship Between Belief in Free Will and Humility
Authors: Earp Brian D. , Everett Jim Albert Charlton , Crone Damien , Nadelhoffer Thomas , Caruso Gregg D. , Shariff Azim , Sinnott-Armstrong Walter
Published: July 2018

In recent years, diminished belief in free will or increased belief in determinism have been associated with a range of antisocial or otherwise negative outcomes: unjustified aggression, cheating, prejudice, less helping behavior, and so on. Only a few studies have entertained the possibility of prosocial or otherwise positive outcomes, such as greater willingness to forgive and less motivation to punish retributively. Here, five studies (open data, materials, and pre-print at https://osf.io/hmy39/) explore the relationship between belief in determinism and another positive outcome or attribute, namely, humility. The reported findings suggest that relative disbelief in free will is reliably associated in our samples with at least one type of humility—what we call ‘Einsteinian’ humility—but is not associated with, or even negatively associated with, other types of humility described in the literature.
Do helpful mothers help? Effects of maternal scaffolding and infant motivation on cognitive performance
Authors: Clackson Kaili , Wass Sam , Georgieva Stanimira , Brightman Laura , Nutbrown Rebecca , Almond Harriet , Bieluczyk Julia , Carro Giulia , Rigby-Dames Brier , Leong Victoria
Published: July 2018

Infants are highly social and much of early learning takes place in a social context during interactions with caregivers. Previous research shows that social scaffolding – responsive parenting and joint attention - can confer benefits for infants’ long-term development and learning. However, little previous research has examined whether dynamic (moment-to-moment) adaptations in adults’ social scaffolding are able to produce immediate effects on childrens' performance. Here we ask whether infants' success on an object search task is more strongly influenced by dynamic changes in maternal responsive behaviour, or by fluctuations in infants' own internal motivation levels. Thirty-five mother-infant dyads (infants aged 10.8 months, on average) participated in an object search task that was delivered in a naturalistic manner by the child’s mother. Measures of maternal responsiveness (teaching duration; sensitivity) and infant motivation (engagement; visual attention) were assessed. Mothers varied their task delivery significantly in response to their infants’ behaviour, as maternal teaching durations were extended when infants offered less visual attention. However, neither measure of maternal responsiveness significantly predicted infants’ success in performing the search task. Rather, infants’ own level of engagement was the sole significant predictor of accuracy. These results indicate that while parental scaffolding is offered spontaneously (and is undoubtedly crucial for development), in this context children’s endogenous motivation proved to be a more powerful determinant of task success. Future work should explore this interplay between parental and child-internal factors in other learning and social contexts.
Dog Whistle Mascots: Native American Mascots as Normative Expressions of Prejudice
Authors: Kraus Michael W. , Brown Xanni , Swoboda Hannah
Published: July 2018

In this research we examine how normative expressions of prejudice shape university communities. Across four studies, we examine the prevalence of a former university mascot depicting harmful stereotypes about Native Americans and how exposure to that mascot influences people’s attitudes and behaviors. In Study 1, images of the mascot persist on more than 10% of university apparel worn by students, in 50% of campus spaces, and in 5% of images searched online. Surveying students on this campus, we find that students with lower (higher) reported explicit prejudice also tended to have lower (higher) belonging at the university (Study 2). In two final experimental studies (N = 683), when compared to stereotype free university advertisements exposure to the stereotypic mascot reduced donations to the university by 5.5%, and in particular, among people low versus high in explicit prejudice (Studies 3 and 4). Overall, these findings suggest that institutions play an important role in shaping the intergroup attitudes of their membership.
Exploring the use of a humanoid robot to engage children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Authors: Desideri Lorenzo
Published: July 2018

We present a study aimed at exploring whether a humanoid robot may improve the effectiveness of educational interventions targeting children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Preliminary results with three preschool children with ASD indicate that interacting with a humanoid robot facilitate engagement and goal achievement in educational activities.
When protests turn violent: The roles of moralization and moral convergence
Authors: Mooijman Marlon , Hoover Joseph , Lin Ying , Ji Heng , Dehghani Morteza
Published: July 2018

We propose that the risk of violence at protests can be estimated as a function of individual moralization and perceived moral convergence. Using data from the 2015 Baltimore protests, we find that not only did the rate of moral rhetoric on social media increase on days with violent protests, but also that the hourly frequency of morally relevant tweets predicted the future rates of arrest during protests, suggesting an association between moralization and protest violence. To understand the structure of this association, we ran a series of controlled behavioral experiments demonstrating that people are more likely to endorse violent protest for a given issue when they moralize the issue; however, this effect is moderated by the degree people believe others share their values. We discuss how online social networks may contribute to inflations of protest violence.
Moral Polarization and Out-Party Hostility in the US Political Context
Authors: Tappin Ben M , McKay Ryan
Published: July 2018

Affective polarization describes the phenomenon whereby people identifying as Republican or Democrat tend to view opposing partisans negatively and co-partisans positively. Though extensively studied, there remain important gaps in scholarly understanding of affective polarization. In particular, (a) how it relates to the distinct behavioural phenomena of in-party “love” vs. out-party hostility; and (b) to what extent it reflects a generalized evaluative disparity between partisans vs. a domain-specific disparity in evaluation. We report the results of an investigation that bears on both of these questions. Specifically, drawing on recent trends in political science and psychology, we hypothesize that moral polarization—the tendency to view opposing partisans’ moral character negatively, and co-partisans’ moral character positively—will be associated with behavioural hostility towards the out-party. We test this hypothesis in two preregistered studies comprising behavioural measures and large convenience samples of US partisans (combined N = 1354). Our results strike an optimistic chord: Taken together, they suggest that this association is probably small and somewhat tenuous. Though moral polarization itself was large—perhaps exceeding prior estimates of trait affective polarization—even the most morally polarized partisans appeared reluctant to engage in a mild form of out-party hostility. These findings converge with recent evidence that polarization—moral or otherwise—has yet to translate into the average US partisan wanting to express hostile and directly discriminatory behaviour toward their out-party counterparts.
Team Pay Inequality: Pay Disparity in Large Teams Increases Employee Turnover by Reducing Job Control.
Authors: Jachimowicz Jon , To Christopher , Hauser Oliver P
Published: July 2018

Pay dispersion is a core organizational attribute, but its’ relationship to employee turnover is relatively unclear. We propose this is the case because prior research suffers from two limitations: (1) it neglects how pay dispersion impacts employees’ psychological attitudes toward their job, and (2) it assumes that teams are homogenous, disregarding that variations in team characteristics shape how employees experience pay dispersion. The current research addresses these shortcomings by drawing on job demand-control theories to investigate how pay dispersion shapes employees’ job attitudes, and explicitly incorporates one aspect of team heterogeneity, team size variations. More specifically, our core proposition is that team pay inequality, i.e., the pay dispersion of employees within a team, reduces employees’ job control—their perceived capability to control work—particularly when teams are larger. This, in turn, makes it more likely employees in large unequal teams leave their organization. Two unique large-scale archival and survey datasets from a technology (N = 881) and financial services company (N = 22,816) provide support for our hypotheses. The current research thus offers a novel perspective on pay dispersion: salary differences within teams fundamentally shape employees’ job attitudes—particularly their job control—and thus determine important organizational outcomes.
Issues Resolved and Unresolved in Pathological Narcissism
Authors: Wright Aidan G.C. , Edershile Elizabeth A.
Published: July 2018

Narcissism is one of the oldest personality constructs, and yet debates about itsdefinition and structure have been a topic of intense debate over the past decade. Recent independent reviews of the literature have proposed conceptually identical triarchic structural models of individual differences in pathological narcissism. In each model entitlement serves as the core of the construct, and its expression is moderated by basic personality/temperament to manifest in exhibitionism or vulnerability. However, the clinical observation that individuals high in pathological narcissism vacillate between grandiose and vulnerable states remains understudied and poorly understood. We review the recent research that has driven the contentious debates, emerging points of consensus, and necessary future directions for research.
Quantity and diversity: Simulating early word learning environments
Authors: Montag Jessica L. , Jones Michael N. , Smith Linda B.
Published: July 2018

The words in children’s language learning environments are strongly predictive of cognitive development and school achievement. But how do we measure language environments and do so at the scale of the many words that children hear day-in and day-out? The quantity and quality of words in a child’s input is typically measured in terms of total amount of talk and the lexical diversity in that talk. There are disagreements in the literature whether amount or diversity is the more critical measure of the input. Here we analyze the properties of a large corpus (6.5 million words) of speech to children and simulate learning environments that differ in amount of talk per unit time, lexical diversity, and the contexts of talk. The central conclusion is that what researchers need to theoretically understand, measure, and change is not the total amount of words, or the diversity of words, but the function that relates total words to the diversity of words, and how that function changes across different contexts of talk.
Environmental Influences on infants' native vowel discrimination: The case of talker number in daily life
Authors: Bergmann Christina , Cristia Alejandrina
Published: July 2018

Preprint of the paper reporting the results
Income Inequality Affects the Psychological Health Only of the People Facing Scarcity
Authors: Sommet Nicolas
Published: July 2018

Following the “status anxiety hypothesis,” the psychological consequences of income inequality should be particularly severe for economically vulnerable individuals. However, oddly, income inequality is often found to affect vulnerable low-income and advantaged high-income groups equally. We argue that economic vulnerability is better captured by a financial scarcity measure and hypothesize that income inequality primarily impairs the psychological health of people facing scarcity. First, repeated cross-sectional international data (WVS: 146,034 participants; 105 country-waves) revealed that the within-country effect of national income inequality on feelings of unhappiness was limited to individuals facing scarcity (≈ 25% of the WVS population). Second, longitudinal national data (SHP: 14,790 participants; 15,595 municipality-years) revealed that the within-life-course effect of local income inequality on psychological health problems was also limited to these individuals (< 10% of the Swiss population). Income inequality by itself may not be a problem for psychological health but rather a catalyst for the consequences of scarcity.
Personality Correlates of Revenge-Seeking: Multidimensional Links to Physical Aggression, Impulsivity, and Aggressive Pleasure
Authors: Chester David , DeWall C. Nathan
Published: July 2018

People differ in how much they seek retribution for interpersonal insults, slights, rejections, and other antagonistic actions. Identifying individuals who are most prone towards such revenge-seeking is a theoretically-informative and potentially violence-reducing endeavor. However, we have yet to understand the extent to which revenge-seeking individuals exhibit specific features of aggressiveness, impulsivity, and what motivates their hunt for retribution. Toward this end, we conducted three studies (total N = 673), in which revenge-seeking was measured alongside these other constructs. Analyses repeatedly demonstrated that revenge-seeking was associated with greater physical (but not verbal) aggressiveness, anger, and hostility. Revenge-seeking’s link to physical aggression was partially accounted for by sadistic impulses toward enjoying aggression and the tendency to use aggression to improve mood. Dominance analyses revealed that such sadistic impulses explained the most variance in revenge-seeking. Revenge-seeking was associated with greater impulsive responses to negative and positive affect, as well as greater premeditation of behavior. These findings paint a picture of revenge-seekers as physically aggressive curators of anger, whose retributive acts are performed with planned malice and motivated by the act’s entertaining and therapeutic qualities.
Support for Economic Inequality Scale: Development and Adjudication
Authors: Wiwad Dylan , Mercier Brett , Shariff Azim , Aknin Lara Beth , Robinson Angela R
Published: July 2018

Past research has documented myriad pernicious psychological effects of high economic inequality, prompting interest into how people perceive, evaluate, and react to inequality. Here we propose, refine, and validate the Support for Economic Inequality Scale (SEIS) – a novel measure of attitudes towards economic inequality. In Study 1, we distill eighteen items down to five, providing evidence for unidimensionality and reliability. In Study 2, we replicate the scale’s unidimensionality and reliability and demonstrate its validity. In Study 3, we evaluate a United States version of the SEIS. Finally, in Studies 4-5, we demonstrate the SEIS’s convergent and predictive validity. The SEIS is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing perceptions of and reactions to economic inequality and provides a useful tool for researchers investigating the psychological underpinnings of economic inequality.
'Cognitive strategy' in visual search: how it works and when it generalises
Authors: Yates David , Stafford Tom
Published: July 2018

Recent evidence suggests that participants perform better on some visual search tasks when they are instructed to search the display passively (i.e. letting the unique item “pop” into mind) rather than actively (Smilek, Enns, Eastwood, & Merikle, 2006; Watson, Brennan, Kingstone, & Enns, 2010). We extended these findings using eye tracking, a neutral baseline condition (Experiment 1) and testing visual search over a wider range of eccentricies (10 ◦ –30 ◦ , Experiment 2). We show that the passive instructions led to participants delaying their initial saccade compared to participants given active or neutral instructions. Despite taking longer to start searching the display, passive participants then find and respond to the target faster. We show that this benefit does not extend to search where items were distributed in the true periphery.
Precarious Life, Homelessness and the role of counseling psychologists
Authors: KESISOGLOU GEORGIOS
Published: July 2018

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the ‘neo-homeless’ participants’ lived experiences in the shelters and the streets, within the context and the adversities of the economic crisis in Greece. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 participants (4 women and 2 men) at a municipal shelter in Athens, Greece. An Interpretative Phenomenological analysis was used to document their experiences and stories. Research findings revolved around the accounts and the negative effects of neo-homelesness such as detrimental personal consequences, stress, depression, depersonalization , a sense of hopelessness and lack of hope for the future. However, the participants spoke also about positive growth, a deeper apprehension of life’s meanings, and the mobilization of personal and interpersonal resources. ‘Neo-homelessness’ hardship in the shelter was incremental in the experiential conscientization and critical consciousness of the oppression of the social context of crisis and austerity. Implications for the work of counseling psychologists are discussed in terms of working towards empowering persons in homeless trajectories towards resilience in mental health, taking a stance of social justice.
Effectiveness of routine psychotherapy: Method matters
Authors: McAleavey Andrew Athan , Youn Soo Jeong , Xiao Henry , Castonguay Louis , Hayes Jeffrey , Locke Benjamin
Published: July 2018

Objective: Though many studies have shown that psychotherapy can be effective, psychotherapy available in routine practice may not be adequate. Several methods have been proposed to evaluate routine psychological treatments. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the combined utility of complementary methods, change-based benchmarking and end-state normative comparisons, across a range of self-reported psychological symptoms. Method: Benchmarks derived from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and normative comparisons were used to evaluate effectiveness of psychotherapy in a large (N = 9,895) sample of clients in university counseling centers (UCCs). Results: Overall, routine psychotherapy was associated with significant improvement across all symptoms examined. For clients whose initial severity was similar to RCT participants, the observed pre-post effect sizes were equivalent to those in RCTs. However, treatment tended to lead to normative end-state functioning only for those clients who were moderately, but not severely, distressed at the start of psychotherapy. Conclusions: This suggests that although psychotherapy is associated with an effective magnitude of symptom improvement in routine practice, additional services for highly distressed individuals may be necessary. The methods described here comprise a comprehensive analysis of the quality of routine care, and we recommend using both methods in concert.
Integrating structure and dynamics in personality assessment: First steps toward the development and validation of a Personality Dynamics Diary
Authors: Zimmermann Johannes , Woods William C. , Ritter Sven , Happel Moritz , Masuhr Oliver , Jaeger Ulrich , Spitzer Carsten , Wright Aidan G.C.
Published: July 2018

Both theories and cutting-edge research highlight the dynamic nature of personality and personality pathology, thereby posing significant challenges for an exclusively between-person, trait-based approach to personality assessment. In a series of three studies, we explored the viability of integrating within-person, dynamic aspects into clinical personality assessment by means of daily dairy methods. In Study 1, 314 students filled out a 73-item questionnaire capturing daily behaviors and situation experiences across seven to ten consecutive days. We used multilevel exploratory factor analyses to construct a shortened version, the Personality Dynamics Diary (PDD). In Study 2, the PDD was applied in a sample of 77 psychotherapy inpatients across 40 days, on average. In Study 3, 35 psychotherapy outpatients as well as their therapists judged the clinical utility of a smartphone version of the PDD. Taken together, we were able to construct a relatively brief self-report measure that assesses major dimensions of within- and between-person differences of situations and behaviors in daily life with acceptable reliability. Application in clinical samples provided further evidence for the reliability, validity, and clinical utility of the PDD, but also highlighted possible obstacles in clinical practice as well as the need for further replication and refinement. We conclude that daily diary methods have the potential to integrate between- and within-person approaches to personality assessment. By applying measures like the PDD, clinicians may gain insight into the psychological mechanisms that give rise to, and maintain, a person’s maladaptive dispositions, and ultimately find individualized leverage points for targeted therapeutic interventions.
'Pseudoextinction': Asymmetries in simultaneous attentional selection
Authors: Goodbourn Patrick T. , Holcombe Alex O. , Ludowici Charlie
Published: July 2018

We report robust visual field asymmetries associated with selectingsimultaneous targets. One letter embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation(RSVP) of letters was encircled by a white ring, cueing it as the target to report. In some conditions, 2 RSVP streams were presented concurrently, and targets appearedsimultaneously in both. When only 1 stream was cued, performance was similarregardless of whether it was in the left or right visual field. Cueing 2 streams barelyaffected performance in the left stream, but performance in the right stream sufferedmarkedly. We term this phenomenon pseudoextinction, by analogy to pseudoneglectwhereby observers bisect lines to the left of center. Such attentional asymmetries areoften believed to originate from a processing imbalance between the 2 cerebralhemispheres. But pseudoextinction also occurred with vertically arrayed streams, withhigher efficacy in the superior than in the inferior stream. Mixture modeling of errorsindicated that pseudoextinction did not affect the temporal precision or latency ofselection episodes; rather, only the efficacy of selection suffered. These findings leadus to suggest that pseudoextinction arises because perceptual traces are activatedsimultaneously in a visual buffer but must be tokenized serially. Observers succeed inselecting simultaneous targets because trace activation occurs in parallel. However,observers often fail to report both targets because tokenization proceeds serially:While 1 target is being tokenized, the other’s trace may decay below the activationlevel necessary for tokenization.
The Neurocognitive Bases of Numerical Cognition
Authors: Sella Francesco , Hartwright Charlotte Emily , Kadosh Roi Cohen
Published: July 2018

Numerical Cognition describes the processes that one uses to assimilate, ascribe andmanipulate numerical information. This chapter is organised into two sections. The firstdraws heavily on data from Developmental and Experimental Psychology. We use this tooutline core findings related to processing numerical information in humans. In particular, wedescribe the trajectory of the acquisition of basic numerical skills. Starting in early infancy,we outline the processes that are believed to underlie non-symbolic representation. Next, wesummarise core studies that examine the representation of symbolic quantities (Arabicsystem). Lastly, we briefly report the relationship between basic numerical processing andmathematical achievement. The second part of the chapter explores evidence fromNeuropsychology and Neuroscience. The core methodological approaches used are brieflyoutlined with sign-posting to relevant literature. Next, we examine data from early lesionstudies, followed by a short review of one of the most influential models in the study ofNumerical Cognition, the Triple Code Model. Lastly, we look at the neurocognitive featuresof number, such as different modes of representation and the processing of quantity.Throughout, the core literature plus recent advances are summarised, giving the reader athorough grounding in the Neurocognitive Bases of Numerical Cognition.This preprint outlines a forthcoming chapter on the subject of ‘Numerical Cognition’ for inclusion in the forthcoming work tentatively entitled Stevens' Handbook of Experimental Psychology, Fourth Edition, Volume Three: Language & Thought (the “Work”), authored/edited by Sharon L. Thompson-Schill, due to be published by JOHN WILEY and SONS in 2017
Interference in visual search stimuli
Authors: Skottun Bernt
Published: July 2018

In tests of visual search it is found that the response time increases with set size under some stimulus conditions whereas it may be relatively independent of set size under other conditions. The present study investigates interference in the kinds of stimuli employed in such experiments. Interference takes place in the stimuli and does not depend on the visual system or on attention. Two scenarios were explored: (1) Interference between all elements, and (2) interference between a target and a single background made up of a set of elements. In the former case interference increases monotonically with set size. In the latter case there is a mild amount of interference which remains relatively independent of set size. By assuming the response time increases with the inverse of stimulus power (response time ∝ 1/(1 - interference)) it is found that when there is interference between all the elements the simulated response time increases monotonically with set size. On the other hand, when the interference is between a target and a single background the simulated response time remains largely unaffected by set size.
Learning as program induction
Authors: Bramley Neil R , Schulz Eric , Xu Fei , Tenenbaum Joshua
Published: July 2018

The notion that the mind approximates rational (Bayesian) inference has had a strong influence on thinking in psychology since the 1950s. In constrained scenarios, typical of psychology experiments, people often behave in ways that approximate the dictates of probability theory. However, natural learning contexts are typically much more open-ended --- there are often no clear limits on what is possible, and initial proposals often prove inadequate. This means that coming up with the right hypotheses and theories in the first place is often much harder than ruling among them. How do people, and how can machines, expand their hypothesis spaces to generate wholly new ideas, plans and solutions?Recent work has begun to shed light on this problem via the idea that many aspects of learning can be better understood through the mathematics of program induction.People are demonstrably able to compose hypotheses from parts and incrementally grow and adapt their models of the world. A number of recent studies has formalized these abilities as program induction, using algorithms that mix stochastic recombination of primitives with memoization and compression to explain data, ask informative questions [8], and support one- and few-shot-inferences. Program induction is also proving to be an important notion for understanding development and learning through play and the formation of geometric understanding about the physical world.The aim of this workshop is thus to bring together scientists who have a joint interest in how intelligent systems (humans or machines) can learn rich representations and action plans (expressable as programs) though observing and interacting with the world.
NetworkToolbox: Methods and Measures for Brain, Cognitive, and Psychometric Network Analysis in R
Authors: Christensen Alexander P.
Published: July 2018

This article introduces the NetworkToolbox package for R. Network analysis offers an intuitive perspective on complex phenomena via models depicted by nodes (variables) and edges (correlations). The ability of networks to model complexity has made them the standard approach for modeling the intricate interactions in the brain. Similarly, networks have become an increasingly attractive model for studying the complexity of psychological and psychopathological phenomena. NetworkToolbox aims to provide psychological researchers with state-of-the-art methods and measures for estimating and analyzing brain, cognitive, and psychometric data. In this article, I introduce NetworkToolbox and provide a manual for applying the package’s functions to psychometric (personality) data.
Levels of Personality Functioning Scale Self-Report Validation Journal of Personality Assessment
Authors: Hopwood Christopher James , Morey Leslie C. , Good Evan
Published: July 2018

Validation of the Levels of Personality Functioning Scale - Self-Report. Results suggest that the measure has a robust single dimension and that it correlates in a very general manner with a wide range of maladaptive personality variables, consistent with its purpose as a measure of non-specific personality pathology.
Autism and bilingualism: A qualitative interview study of parents’ perspectives and experiences
Authors: Hampton Sarah , Rabagliati Hugh , Sorace Antonella , Fletcher-Watson Sue
Published: July 2018

Purpose. Research into how bilingual parents of children with ASD make choices about their children’s language environment is scarce. This study aimed to explore this issue, focusing on understanding how bilingual parents of children with ASD may make different language exposure choices than bilingual parents of children without ASD. Method. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 17 bilingual parents with a child with ASD, and 18 bilingual parents with a typically developing child. Results. Thematic analysis revealed that, in contrast to parents of typically developing children, parents with a child with ASD expressed concerns that a bilingual environment would cause confusion for their child and exacerbate language delays. This was particularly common for parents of children with lower verbal ability. Parents also identified potential benefits of bilingualism, particularly in terms of maintaining a close and affectionate bond with their child. Conclusions. Parents of children with ASD have concerns about bilingualism not present for parents of TD children and these concerns are greater for parents of children with lower verbal ability. Future research in this area should take into account factors such as parent-child bonds, as well as communication and language development.
Ten-month-old infants infer the value of goals from the costs of actions
Authors: Liu Shari , Ullman Tomer David , Tenenbaum Joshua , Spelke Elizabeth
Published: July 2018

Infants understand that people pursue goals, but how do they learn which goals people prefer? Here, we test whether infants solve this problem by inverting a mental model of action planning, trading off the costs of acting against the rewards actions bring. After seeing an agent attain two goals equally often at varying costs, infants expected the agent to prefer the goal it attained through costlier actions. These expectations held across three experiments conveying cost through different physical path features (jump height and width; incline angle), suggesting that an abstract variable, such as ‘force’, ‘work’ or ‘effort’, supported infants’ inferences. We model infants' expectations as Bayesian inferences over utility-theoretic calculations, providing a bridge to recent quantitative accounts of action understanding in older children and adults.
Eye images do not promote prosocial behaviour or norm compliance in an online Dictator Game
Authors: Raihani Nichola , Bshary Redouan
Published: July 2018

Evidence for the effect of eye images on prosocial behavior is mixed: some studies have found that images of eyes enhance cooperative behavior while others have not replicated this effect. In a recent meta-analysis, Nettle et al. (2013) argued that previous null results have occurred because data have been analysed incorrectly. Specifically, the authors predicted that eye images either (i) reduce variance in donation amount by reducing the likelihood that the Dictator will keep the entire endowment or (ii) increase compliance with cooperative norms. Since several previous studies have only looked at the effect of eye images on mean donation amount, they have not tested these predictions. We test both hypotheses here using a Dictator Game (n = 779) conducted over Amazon Mechanical Turk, a setup that has previously yielded negative results. We provided players with two types of descriptive norm information, by telling them how much others typically give in this setting. We compared donations under the norm treatments with decisions made under control conditions, where no norm information was supplied. In each setting, subjects were additionally shown images of eyes or a control image (flowers) so that any additional effect of eye images on prosocial behavior could be examined. Eye images did not increase Dictator Game giving, regardless of whether 'giving' was defined as mean donation or simply the tendency to make a non-zero donation. Furthermore, eye images did not increase compliance with a descriptive norm in this setting. Due to these negative results, we conclude that the conditions and underlying mechanisms that lead to positive effects of eyes on prosocial behaviour remain elusive.