bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Tutorial on Modeling fMRI Data using a General Linear Model
Authors: Koh Natalie , Lee Adel , McLaughlin Katie A , Grabowski Thomas J. , Madhyastha Tara M
Published: July 2018

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has quickly become the most commonly used method among scientists in many disciplines for examining brain function. However, there are challenges in translating the underlying statistics from specialized fMRI analysis tools to a more general statistical language such as R. This paper translates key terminology and is a self-contained tutorial of how to model a single voxel of fMRI data using the nlme mixed effects framework in R. This translation is not only interesting pedagogically, but many advanced statistical modeling techniques of interest in psychology, for example, growth models that are implemented using structural equation modeling, are unavailable for fMRI. This need for more modeling flexibility to advance the study of developmental cognitive neuroscience, and similarly the trajectories of aging and neurodegenerative change, also motivates this tutorial as a first step to understanding how to script more complicated analyses. Finally, this tutorial is written using Rmarkdown (see Supplemental Materials), so that it is itself an example for writing reproducible analysis.
Should I say that? An experimental investigation of the norm of assertion
Authors: Marsili Neri , Wiegmann Alex
Published: July 2018

Assertions are our standard communicative devices for sharing and acquiring information. Recent studies seemingly provide converging evidence that assertions are subject to a factive norm: you are entitled to make an assertion only if it is true. However, these studies assume that we can treat participants’ judgements about what an agent ‘should say’ as evidence of their intuitions about assertability. This paper argues that this assumption is incorrect, so the conclusions drawn in the aforementioned studies are unwarranted. We provide evidence that most people do not interpret statements about what one ‘should say’ as statements about assertability, but rather as statements about what is in the agent’s interest to do. Measures for prompting the intended reading of statements about what an agent ‘should say’ are identified, and their efficacy is tested. We found that when these measures are implemented, people’s judgements consistently and overwhelmingly align with non-factive accounts of assertion.
Using Machine Learning to Advance Personality Assessment and Theory
Authors: Bleidorn Wiebke , Hopwood Christopher James
Published: July 2018

Machine learning has led to important advances in society. One of the most exciting applications of machine learning in psychological science has been the development of assessment tools that can powerfully predict human behavior and personality traits. Thus far, machine learning approaches to personality assessment have been focused on the associations between social media and other digital records with established personality measures. The goal of this paper is to expand the potential of machine learning approaches to personality assessment by embedding it in a more comprehensive construct validation framework. We review recent applications of machine learning to personality assessment, place machine learning research in the broader context of fundamental principles of construct validation and provide recommendations for how to use machine learning to advance our understanding of personality.
Wolsink et al., Distraction. The problem with extrinsic motivation and proactive creativity
Authors: Wolsink Inge , Hartog Deanne Den , Belschak Frank
Published: July 2018

Extrinsic motivation is assumed to be detrimental to creativity. The goal of the present paper, is to investigate a possible underlying mechanism: distraction by extrinsic rewards for tasks that compete with creativity. In organizations, creativity is often not an employees’ primary task. Creativity is self-initiated (proactive), and competes with other tasks and goals. We propose that it is this competition between goals, that drives the negative relationship between extrinsic motivation and creativity. In two studies, we investigated whether reward saliency of competing goals moderates whether trait-extrinsic motivation (reward responsiveness) negatively influences proactive creativity in organizations, and in the lab. The results of a multi-source field study (Study 1) showed that creativity proactively shared with leaders decreased when rewards for competing goals were likely, and increased when they were unlikely. We replicated this interaction in an experimental design (Study 2), where reward likelihood for a competing goal was manipulated within-participants. Proactive creativity of reward responsive participants decreased when a competing goal reward was likely, and increased when it was unlikely. Our studies suggest that trait-extrinsic motivation plays an important role in contexts where multiple tasks compete for attention (i.e., in organizations), where it sometimes inhibits, but can also enhance proactive creativity.
Tweeting Morals in the 2016 Election
Authors: Prims JP , Melton Zachary John , Motyl Matt
Published: July 2018

This is a short piece comparing the moral language of people who followed Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders, and John Stamos on Twitter. Upon randomly selecting 15,000-20,000 followers of each person (total N = 86,061; total words = 141,903,439), we ran simple text analyses using the moral foundations dictionary. These analyses revealed that followers of Ted Cruz used more binding moral language and Sanders used more individualizing moral language relative to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Followers of Clinton and Trump used far less moral language than the followers of Cruz and Sanders.
Simulation Theory: An introduction
Authors: Koul Atesh
Published: July 2018

Navigating through social environment requires understanding and predicting complex interactions around us. This social understanding is in contrast to the understanding and predictions for inanimate objects that are governed by a set of fixed laws. Interactions with other individuals involves not only concrete observations like their height or physical appearance but their abstract states as emotions, beliefs, desires, intentions etc. Also most social interactions are dictated by judgments on such mental states than mere physical appearance. But how are humans able to achieve this? Considering that one individual doesn’t have any physical access to other’s mental states. And yet most individuals are highly adept at recognizing others’ mental states. In the recent years, multiple insights in this direction have been provided by cognitive psychology and especially by cognitive neuroscience. Broadly categorizing, three main propositions have been suggested to explain how humans understand others - a theory-theory based account, a simulation and an interactionistic approach. The current work provides a brief account of the simulation theory.
Mental Imagery Meta-analysis
Authors: Conroy Dominic , Hagger Martin S
Published: July 2018

This review provided a quantitative synthesis of the effectiveness of mental imagery interventions in health behaviour and tested key moderator effects. Thirty-three independent data sets were eligible for inclusion. Mental imagery interventions led to non-trivial, small averaged corrected effect sizes of imagery interventions on post-intervention behaviour (d+ = 0.23) and on psychological predictors of behavior (d+ = 0.08-0.19) and a small-to-medium sized on post-intervention physiological measures (d+ = 0.29). Moderation effects are also reported. Results support effects of mental imagery interventions on health behaviours, identifies the conditions where they may be more effective, and points to how future imagery interventions might be optimized.
The Montagu Principle: Incivility decreases politicians' public approval, even with their political base
Authors: Frimer Jeremy Abraham , Skitka Linda
Published: July 2018

M. W. Montagu asserted that, “civility costs nothing and buys everything.” In the realm of social judgment, the notion that people generally evaluate civil people more favorably than uncivil people may be unsurprising. However, the Montagu Principle may not apply in a hyper-partisan political environment in which politicians “throw red meat to their base” by unleashing uncivil, personal attacks against their opponents, satisfying the aggressive desires of their most hyper- partisan supporters, and thus potentially redoubling their approval among them. We conducted two longitudinal/observational studies of U.S. Congress and President Trump, and 4 experiments (N = 4837) involving real exchanges between President Trump and his adversaries and a speech by a fictitious politician. Civility helped or did not affect—but never harmed—the reputation of the speaker, supporting the Montagu Principle. Even self-identified “diehard supporters” of President Trump, for example, evaluated the president more favorably after he responded with civility to a personal attack. Uncivil remarks uniquely diminished the speaker’s reputation, and had little impact on the reputation of the targets of the attack, the perceived winner of the verbal exchange, the reputation of the speaker’s party, or the sense that the country is moving in the right direction. Incivility made the speaker seem less warm and did less to affect perceptions of dominance or honesty. This warmth deficit explained the reputational costs of incivility.
(A)phantasia and SDAM: Scientific and Personal Perspectives
Authors: Watkins Nicholas Wynn
Published: July 2018

I address two interlinked aspects of the diversity in our experiences of memory and the mind’s eye. I summarise the long-appreciated role of imagery in mathematics and the physical sciences, and contrast it with the evidence that some scientists have had limited or zero imagery. I then recount the story of how I became aware of my own lack of mental imagery, and the accompanying deficit in my episodic memory, how I have sought scientific understanding of these conditions, and how they have affected my life.
The ends of empathy: Constructing empathy from value-based choice
Authors: Cameron Daryl , Cunningham Wil , Saunders Blair , Inzlicht Michael
Published: July 2018

Empathy, or the ability to understand and resonate with the experiences of others, has long been considered by philosophers and scientists to be an important part of human morality. We present a new framework that explains empathy as resulting from motivated decisions. Drawing on models of cybernetic control, value-based choice, and constructionism, we suggest that empathy shifts depending on how people value and prioritize conflicting goals. We generate novel predictions about the nature of empathy from the science of goal pursuit, and address its apparent limitations. Empathy appears less sensitive to suffering of large numbers and out-groups, leading some to suggest that empathy is an unreliable ethical guide. Whereas these arguments assume that empathy is a limited-capacity resource, we suggest that apparent limits of empathy reflect byproducts of domain-general goal pursuit. Arguments against empathy reflect a misguided essentialism: they mistake our own choices to avoid empathy for intrinsic features of empathy, treating empathy as a capricious emotion in conflict with reason. We suggest that empathy results from a rational decision, even if its rationality is bounded, as in many decisions in everyday life. Empathy may only be limited if we choose to avoid pursuing empathic goals.
The conceptual structure of face impressions
Authors: Stolier Ryan Mayer , Hehman Eric , Keller Matthias David , Walker Mirella , Freeman Jonathan B.
Published: July 2018

This is a preprint of this manuscript, published at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/08/22/1807222115), version dated July 30th, 2018 (date will be updated with preprint, old versions documented by OSF). Project data and analysis materials are available online: https://osf.io/z23kf/.
Design and Implementation of a Virtual Reality System for Treating Highway Phobias: VRStreet
Authors: Fuentes Jorge A , Nieto Rodrigo , Melis Francisca , González Luz María , Rojas Gonzalo Mauricio , Ortiz Lina , Erazo Rodrigo , Galvez Marcelo
Published: July 2018

To feel fear in a specific situation is a normal human experience, however, when this fear or aversion becomes excessive and disrupts the day to day life of an individual, it is said the person suffers from a type of anxiety disorder called phobia. One common type of treatment for phobias is exposure therapy (professionals expose the patient gradually to the feared object or situation).The objective of this paper is to implement a Virtual Reality system that simulates a real highway environment which allows to treat patients affected by highway phobias in a safe place.In cooperation with psychologists and psychiatrists, an action protocol was conducted to create and recreate the variables of the virtual environment to which the patient will be subjected to. Once this was completed, a Virtual Reality application was made that simulates a realistic highway which includes exits, overpasses, underpasses, and tunnels, among others.This hardware/software system will include Oculus Rift DK2 VR glasses in order to create an immersive environment that the patient can consider real and who will be able to interact with it. The performance of the vehicle was programmed through physical responses similar to reality as well as techniques of artificial intelligence in the vehicles that will interact with the one controlled by the patient. Also, this system includes a steering wheel, pedals, and a gearshift (manual or automatic).We think that this system will contribute to treating highway phobias, allowing the psychiatrist or psychologist to carry out therapy in an appropriate manner and through the support of technology the professional will have the ability to simulate the anxiogenic environment in a realistic manner so as to achieve effective treatment. In a future work, we must quantify the possible benefits of this type of VR system in phobia patients.
Practitioner Review: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and its Treatment in Children and Adolescents
Authors: Dalgleish Tim , Smith Patrick , Meiser-Stedman Richard
Published: July 2018

Important advances in understanding traumatic stress reactions in children and young people have been made in recent years. The aim of this review is to synthesise selected recent research findings, with a focus on their relevance to clinical practice. We therefore address: findings on the epidemiology of trauma exposure and PTSD; recent and proposed changes to diagnostic classification; implications for screening and assessment of traumatic stress reactions; and treatment outcome studies including interventions for acute and chronic PTSD, dissemination of effective treatments into community settings, and early interventions. We conclude with recommendations for clinical practice, and suggestions for future areas of research.
Singles Study--Predictive Validity of Ideal Partner Preferences
Authors: Campbell Lorne , Stanton Sarah C. E.
Published: July 2018

A topic that is currently being hotly debated in the literature is whether the qualities that individuals say they ideally desire in a romantic partner actually influence their mate selections. That is, do individuals tend to initiate relationships with others who more closely match their ideal preferences?While some studies have shown that ideal mate standards influence relationship initiation (Burriss, Welling, & Puts, 2011; DeBruine et al., 2006; Pérusse, 1994), other studies have challenged the role that ideal preferences play in actual mate selection (Eastwick & Finkel, 2008; Eastwick, Finkel, & Eagly, 2011). One major limitation of existing research in this area is that mate preferences are often measured retrospectively, after participants become involved in a relationship. In addition, studies that have attempted to evaluate the link between ideal mate standards and actual relationship initiation have tended to focus on interpersonal attraction rather than actual relationship initiation, such as speed dating contexts.The present study aims to resolve the inconsistencies in this area by examining ideal mate preferences and actual relationship initiation over an extended period of time (6 months) in a sample of individuals who are single at the initial testing session (i.e. not involved in a romantic relationship). If and when these individuals enter a relationship, the attributes of the new partner will be assessed, as well as how the new relationship progresses over time. This research will determine whether people enter relationships with individuals who more closely match their ideal mate preferences (or particular ideal preferences, and not others), and/or whether relationships develop more positively when greater ideal consistency exists. *Note, at time of registration the majority of data have been collected, but no data have been looked at or analyzed (a number of participants are completing monthly surveys and all data should be collected by August 2014).
The effects of blur and inversion on the recognition of ambient face images
Authors: Balas Benjamin , Gable Jacob , Pearson Hannah
Published: July 2018

When viewing unfamiliar faces that vary in expressions, angles, and image quality, observers make many recognition errors (Jenkins et al., 2011). Specifically, in unconstrained identity-sorting tasks, observers struggle to cope with variation across different images of the same person while succeeding at telling different people apart. The use of ambient face images in this simple card sorting task reveals the magnitude of these face recognition errors, and suggests a useful platform to re-examine the nature of face processing using naturalistic stimuli. In the present study, we chose to investigate the impact of two basic stimulus manipulations (image blur and face inversion) on identity sorting with ambient images. Though these manipulations are both known to affect face processing when well-controlled, frontally viewed face images are used, examining how they affect performance for ambient images is an important step towards linking the large body of research using controlled face images to more ecologically valid viewing conditions. Briefly, we observed a high cost of image blur regardless of blur magnitude, and a strong inversion effect that affected observers’ sensitivity to extra-personal variability but did not affect the number of unique identities they estimated were present in the set of images presented to them.
Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration Corresponds to a Dorsal-Ventral Gradient in Medial PFC Reactivity to Interpersonal Provocation
Authors: Chester David , DeWall C. Nathan
Published: July 2018

Intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration is often preceded by perceived interpersonal provocations such as slights, insults, and rejections. Yet the neural mechanisms that link provocation to IPV remain unclear. In the context of interactions with strangers, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) has been repeatedly shown to respond to provocation, with more dorsal activation associated with more aggressive reactions and more ventral activation associated with less aggressive reactions. We used functional brain imaging to test whether this dorsal-ventral MPFC reactivity gradient would also correlate with greater aggression towards an unexamined target: intimate partners. To do so, 61 undergraduates (27.87% male, age range: 18-22) reported whether they had ever committed various acts of IPV perpetration (e.g., punching, hitting, shoving) and then were repeatedly provoked by a stranger while undergoing functional MRI (fMRI) scanning. Individuals with a disproportionately dorsal, rather than ventral, MPFC response were more likely to have perpetrated IPV and had perpetrated more kinds of IPV, even when controlling for gender. These findings provide further evidence that the dorsal-ventral MPFC gradient is a critical, biological indicator of whether an individual is more or less likely to react aggressively and suggest new avenues for understanding and potentially preventing IPV perpetration.
Working memory capacity predicts ongoing reliance on misinformation: A latent-variable analysis
Authors: Brydges Christopher , Gignac Gilles , Ecker Ullrich K. H.
Published: July 2018

Misinformation often affects inferences and judgments even after it has been retracted and discredited. This is known as the continued influence effect. Memory processes have been theorized to contribute to the continued influence effect, and much previous research has focussed on the role of long-term memory processes at the time misinformation is retrieved during inferential reasoning and judgments. Recently, however, experimental research has focussed upon the role of working memory (WM) processes engaged in the updating and integration of information, when the retraction is encoded. From an individual differences perspective, susceptibility to continued influence effects should be predicted by a person’s WM abilities, if continued reliance on misinformation is influenced, at least in part, by insufficient integration of the initial misinformation and its subsequent retraction. Consequently, we hypothesized that WM capacity would predict susceptibility to continued influence effects uniquely and more substantially than short-term memory (STM) capacity. Participants (N = 216) completed a continued-influence task, as well as a battery of WM and STM capacity tasks. Based on a latent variable model, our hypothesis was supported (WM capacity: β = -.36, p = .013; STM capacity: β = .22, p = .187). Consequently, we suggest that low WM capacity is a measurable “risk factor” for continued reliance on misinformation.
Moral and Affective Film Set (MAAFS): A Normed Moral Video Database
Authors: McCurrie Caitlin Hannah , Crone Damien , Bigelow Felicity J , Laham Simon
Published: July 2018

Moral psychology has relied nearly exclusively on text stimuli in the development and testing of theories. However, text stimuli lack the rich variety of morally-relevant social and contextual cues available in everyday interactions. A consequence of this pervasive ecological invalidity may be that moral psychological theories are mischaracterized by an overreliance on cue-impoverished moral stimuli. We address this limitation by developing a cue-rich Moral and Affective Film Set (MAAFS). We crowd-sourced videos of moral behaviours, using previously validated text stimuli and definitions of moral foundations as a guide for content. Crowd-sourced clips were rated by 322 American and 253 Australian participants on a range of moral and affective dimensions, including wrongness, moral foundation relevance, punishment, arousal, discrete emotion-relevance, clarity, previous exposure, and how weird/uncommon the moral acts were. Sixty nine moral videos formed the final stimulus set. Ratings confirmed that the videos are reliably rated as morally wrong, feature a variety of moral concerns and that the moral content is clear. The validation process revealed features that make the MAAFS useful for future research: (1) the MAAFS includes a range of videos that depict everyday transgressions, (2) certain videos evoke negative emotions at an intensity comparable to mood induction films, (3) the videos are largely novel: participants had never seen more than 90% of the videos. We anticipate the MAAFS will be a particularly valuable tool for researchers in moral psychology who seek to explore the structure of morality in scenarios that approximate real-life. However, the MAAFS may be valuable for other fields of psychology, for example, affective scientists may use these videos as a mood induction procedure. The complete stimulus set, links to videos, and normative statistics can be accessed at osf.io/8w3en.
Conflict Monitoring or Multi-tasking? Tracking Within-Task Performance in Single-item and Multi-item Stroop Tasks
Authors: Ziaka Laoura , Protopapas Athanassios
Published: July 2018

Cognitive control is applied in situations that require overriding a habitual and automatic response. The conflict monitoring hypothesis and the Expected Value of Control (EVC) theory as its extension posit a control system responsible for detecting conflicting occasions and adapting to them dynamically within a task. Here we evaluate this prediction in two versions of one of the most popular tasks in cognitive control, namely the Stroop task. We hypothesized that nearby-items interference combines with task interference in the multi-item version effectively turning it into a multi-task that may challenge cognitive control. Adopting an alternative methodology tracking within-task performance, we compared the classical multi-item version of the Stroop task and its single-item counterpart in adults and children. The results revealed a within-task performance decline only in the multi-item version of the task, in both incongruent and neutral conditions, modulated by the presumed maturity of the control system. These findings suggest capacity constraints in control implementation and allocation under conditions requiring parallel execution of multiple cognitive tasks. Task complexity and demands seem to modulate effects on performance. We discuss implications for cognitive control as well as substantial concerns regarding the calculation and use of indices of interference based on the commonly used multi-item version of the Stroop task.
Individual differences predict ERP signatures of second language learning of novel grammatical rules
Authors: Nichols Emily S , Joanisse Marc F
Published: July 2018

We investigated the extent to which second-language (L2) learning is influenced by the similarity of grammatical features in one’s first language (L1). We used event-related potentials to identify neural signatures of a novel grammatical rule - grammatical gender - in L1 English speakers. Of interest was whether individual differences in L2 proficiency and age of acquisition (AoA) influenced these effects. L2 and native speakers of French read French sentences that were grammatically correct, or contained either a grammatical gender or word order violation. Proficiency and AoA predicted Left Anterior Negativity amplitude, with structure violations driving the proficiency effect and gender violations driving the AoA effect. Proficiency, group, and AoA predicted P600 amplitude for gender violations but not structure violations. Different effects of grammatical gender and structure violations indicate that L2 speakers engage novel grammatical processes differently from L1 speakers and that this varies appreciably based on both AoA and proficiency.
Overlapping Mental Magisteria: Implications of Experimental Psychology for a Theory of Religious Belief as Misattribution.
Authors: Galen Luke W
Published: July 2018

Subjective religious and spiritual experiences (RS) are believed by many to be reliable indicators of external agency. A set of related phenomena are used to support this view that typically involve intuitions or attributions of mental interaction or experiences with RS agents. The present review integrates empirical findings from the fields of the Cognitive Sciences of Religion, experimental social psychology, and neuropsychology to support the position that individuals misattribute RS thoughts and experiences. That is, these experiences are believed to be veridical indicators of external agency when in fact they are subject to materialistic causal influences. This tendency varies as a function of individual differences and contextual conditions. RS phenomena can be artificially generated in a way that is phenomenologically indistinguishable from spontaneous experiences. Intuitions of external agency are rationalized and confabulated, leaving the mistaken impression of validation by analytic processes. The theoretical and philosophical implications of findings are discussed.
Flowers and spiders in spatial stimulus-response compatibility: Does affective valence influence selection of task-sets or selection of responses?
Authors: Yamaguchi Motonori , Chen Jing
Published: July 2018

The present study examined the effect of stimulus valence on two levels of selection in the cognitive system, selection of a task-set and selection of a response. In the first experiment, participants performed a spatial compatibility task (pressing left and right key according to the locations of stimuli) in which stimulus-response mappings were determined by stimulus valence. There was a standard spatial stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effect for positive stimuli (flowers) and a reversed SRC effect for negative stimuli (spiders), but the same data could be interpreted as showing faster responses when positive and negative stimuli were assigned to compatible and incompatible mappings, respectively, than when the assignment was opposite. Experiment 2 disentangled these interpretations, showing that valence did not influence a spatial SRC effect (Simon effect) when task-set retrieval was unnecessary. Experiments 3 and 4 replaced keypress responses with joystick deflections that afforded approach/avoidance action coding. Stimulus valence modulated the Simon effect (but did not reverse it) when the valence was task-relevant (Experiment 3) as well as when it was task-irrelevant (Experiment 4). Therefore, stimulus valence influences task-set selection and response selection, but the influence on the latter is limited to conditions where responses afford approach/avoidance action coding.
Conscious access in the near absence of attention: Critical extensions on the dual-task paradigm
Authors: Matthews Julian , Schröder Pia , Kaunitz Lisandro , van Boxtel Jeroen , Tsuchiya Naotsugu
Published: July 2018

Whether conscious perception requires attention remains a topic of intense debate. While certain complex stimuli such as faces and animals can be discriminated outside the focus of spatial attention, many simpler stimuli cannot. Because such evidence was obtained in dual-task paradigms involving no measure of subjective insight, it remains unclear whether accurate discrimination of unattended complex stimuli is the product of automatic, unconscious processing, as in blindsight, or is accessible to consciousness. Furthermore, these paradigms typically require extensive training over many hours, bringing into question whether this phenomenon can be achieved in naive subjects. We developed a novel dual-task paradigm incorporating confidence ratings to calculate metacognition and adaptive staircase procedures to reduce training. With minimal training, subjects were able to discriminate face-gender despite little or no top-down attentional amplification, while also displaying above-chance metacognitive accuracy. In contrast, the discrimination of simple coloured disks was significantly impaired and metacognitive accuracy collapsed, even in a partial-report condition. In a final experiment we used blended face/disk stimuli and confirmed that face-gender but not colour orientation can be discriminated in the dual-task. Our results show direct evidence for metacognitive conscious access in the near absence of attention for complex, but not simple, stimuli.
A discrete choice task to measure preferences for harsh discipline among parents of young children
Authors: Green Eric , Chase Rhea , Zayzay John , Finnegan Amy , Puffer Eve
Published: July 2018

Maltreatment in early childhood is difficult to measure. Self-report surveys of parents and guardians are the most common method used, but in many settings social desirabil- ity may lead to underestimates of prevalence. There is also reason to be concerned about response bias in the context of intervention trials. To diversify the tools available to in- tervention researchers, we created and tested a discrete choice experiment to elicit parent preferences for harsh discipline. This study was conducted in Liberia as part of a random- ized controlled trial of a positive parenting program. Baseline data were collected from 609 parents and guardians living in Monrovia and caring for a child age 3 or 4. Participants completed a discrete choice experiment that consisted of 12 parenting vignettes, in addition to a survey of parenting attitudes and behaviors. The vignettes were presented to parents as digital comic strips. Each scene could vary on four attributes: child gender; child offense; setting; number of adults present. For each scene, participants selected 1 of 5 discipline strategies that they would in that situation. The visual discrete choice task was easy to implement, well understood by participants, and has evidence of construct validity as a measure of parent preferences for harsh discipline. Tools like this expand the options for researchers studying the maltreatment of pre-school age children, particularly in the con- text of program evaluations where post-intervention observations may be at increased risk of response bias. It may also be useful in a clinical context.
Replication of Finn & Hudson Kam (2008) The curse of knowledge: First language knowledge impairs adult learners’ use of novel statistics for word segmentation, Exp. 3
Authors: Iozzo Gina , Lamirato Katie , Hartshorne Joshua K.
Published: July 2018

We replicated Exp. 3 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. This experiment was part of a larger project to systematically replicate as many experiments involving statistical word learning in adults as possible.
Process tracing methods in decision making: on growing up in the 70ties
Authors: Schulte-Mecklenbeck Michael , Johnson Joseph G. , Bockenholt Ulf , Goldstein Dan , Russo J. Edward , Sullivan Nicolette J , Willemsen Martijn
Published: July 2018

Decision research has experienced a shift from simple algebraic theories of choices to an appreciation of mental processes that precede and produce those choices. An important development has been an increasing number and variety of process-tracing methods that can help verifying these assumed process explanations. Here, we provide a comprehensive yet concise survey of these methods, including specific examples for verbal protocols, information boards, eye-tracking and mousetracking tools to illustrate their research value and contributions to theory building and testing. We show how these techniques can inform phenomena as varied as attention, emotion, strategy use, and developing intentions. Two important future developments are identified: broadening the number of explicit tests of proposed processes through formal modeling and defining standards and best-practices for data collection.
Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation for treating depression: A modeling study
Authors: Csifcsák Gábor , Boayue Nya Mehnwolo , Puonti Oula , Thielscher Axel , Mittner Matthias
Published: July 2018

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) above the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) has been widely used to improve symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the effects of different stimulation protocols in the entire frontal lobe have not been investigated in a large sample including patient data.Methods: We used 38 head models created from structural magnetic resonance imaging data of 19 healthy adults and 19 MDD patients and applied computational modeling to simulate the spatial distribution of tDCS-induced electric fields (EFs) in 20 frontal regions. We evaluated effects of seven bipolar and two multi-electrode 4x1 tDCS protocols.Results: For bipolar montages, EFs were of comparable strength in the lDLPFC and in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). Depending on stimulation parameters, EF cortical maps varied to a considerable degree, but were found to be similar in controls and patients. 4x1 montages produced more localized, albeit weaker effects.Limitations: White matter anisotropy was not modeled. The relationship between EF strength and clinical response to tDCS could not be evaluated.Conclusions: In addition to lDLPFC stimulation, excitability changes in the MPFC should also be considered as a potential mechanism underlying clinical efficacy of bipolar montages. MDD-associated anatomical variations are not likely to substantially influence current flow. Individual modeling of tDCS protocols can substantially improve cortical targeting. We make recommendations for future research to explicitly test the contribution of lDLPFC vs. MPFC stimulation to therapeutic outcomes of tDCS in this disorder.
Inagaki & Ross (in press): Giving targeted versus untargeted support
Authors: Inagaki Tristen K. , Ross Lauren
Published: July 2018

Objective. Giving support contributes to the link between social ties and health, however, the neural mechanisms are not known. Giving support in humans may rely on neural regions implicated in parental care in animals. The current studies, therefore, assess the contribution of parental care-related neural regions to giving support in humans and, as a further theoretical test, examine whether the benefits of giving targeted support to single, identifiable individuals in need extends to giving untargeted support to larger societal causes. Methods. For Study 1 (n = 45, M age = 21.98 (3.29), 69% females), participants completed a giving support task followed by an emotional faces task in the fMRI scanner. For Study 2 (n = 382, M age=43.03 (7.28), 52% females), participants self-reported on their giving support behavior and completed an emotional faces task in the fMRI scanner. Results. In Study 1, giving targeted (vs. untargeted) support resulted in greater feelings of social connection and support effectiveness. Further, greater septal area (SA) activity, a region centrally involved in parental care in animals, to giving targeted support was associated with less right amygdala activity to an emotional faces task (r=-.297, 95% CI=[-.547, -.043]). Study 2 replicated and extended this association to show that self-reports of giving targeted support were associated with less amygdala activity to a different emotional faces task, even when adjusting for other social factors (r=-.105, 95% CI=[-.200, -.011]). Giving untargeted support was not related to amygdala activity in either study.
How do people respond to health news? The role of personality traits
Authors: Weston Sara J , Jackson Joshua
Published: July 2018

When a patient receives a health diagnosis, their response (e.g., changes in behavior, seeking support) can have significant consequences for long-term health and well-being. Characteristics of health news are known to influence these responses, but personality traits have been omitted from this line of research. The current study examines the role of personality traits in predicting response to health news. Participants (N = 298) read scenarios in which they received health news that was manipulated to vary in severity, controllability and likelihood of outcomes. Participants then rated how likely they were to engage in a number of response behaviors. We examined the main effects and interaction of situational manipulations and personality traits on ratings of these behaviors. Both situations and personality traits influenced behavioral responses to health events. In particular, conscientiousness predicted Taking Action and Seeking Social Support. Neuroticism predicted both maladaptive and adaptive behavioral responses, providing support for the “healthy neurotic” hypothesis. Moreover, personality traits predicted best in weak (unlikely, controllable) situations. Both personality traits and situational characteristics contribute to behavioral responses to health news.
Apologies Promote Forgiveness and Restore Cooperation by Increasing Perceived Relationship Value
Authors: Forster Daniel Eric , Russell Michelle , Billingsley Joseph , Burnette Jeni , Kurzban Robert , Ohtsubo Yohsuke , Lieberman Debra , McCullough Michael E.
Published: July 2018

What happens in the human mind when someone forgives? Recent theoretical work predicts that the psychological mechanisms underlying forgiveness consult the victim’s perceptions of the transgressor’s relationship value and exploitation risk, and that apologies influence forgiveness by changing these perceptions. To date, however, there has been no direct empirical evidence showing that apologies influence forgiveness via perceptions of relationship value and exploitation risk. To address this research gap, we conducted three experiments. In Experiments 1 (N = 1,887) and 2 (a near-direct replication of Experiment 1; N = 421), we found mediational evidence that the influence of apologies on forgiveness may be due to the indirect effects of apologies on victims’ perceptions of the transgressor’s relationship value. In Experiment 3 (N = 971), we tested the causal effect of relationship value on forgiveness more directly by experimentally manipulating participants’ emotional closeness toward the transgressor. We found that experimentally induced closeness boosted forgiveness primarily by causing victims to retain their valuation of the relationship following the transgression. We discuss the theoretical applications of the finding that apologies improve forgiveness via an increase in evaluations of relationship value.
Cross-temporal Exploration of the Relationship between Wisdom-related Cognitive Broadening and Subjective Well-being: Evidence from a Cross-validated National Longitudinal Study
Authors: Santos Henri C. , Grossmann Igor
Published: July 2018

How do intra-individual changes in wisdom-related characteristics of cognitive broadening – open-minded reflection on challenging situations, consideration of change, and epistemic humility – relate to subjective well-being over time? To test this relationship, we performed cross-lagged panel analyses from three waves of the national US sample taken across 20 years, utilizing a cross-validation approach: i) conduct exploratory analyses on a random subset of data; ii) pre-register hypotheses and methods; iii) cross-validate pre-registered hypotheses on the other random subset of the data. We found that broadening attitudes predicted greater affect balance and life satisfaction in later years, but not vice-versa. The effect were robust when controlling for trait-level broadening-well-being associations, as well as socio-demographic characteristics, openness, and general cognitive abilities. The direction of the positive longitudinal relationship between broadening attitudes and subjective well-being has implications for major existing theories of adult development and subjective well-being.
Of cricket chirps and car horns: The effect of nature sounds on cognitive performance
Authors: Van Hedger Stephen Charles , Nusbaum Howard , Clohisy Luke , Jaeggi Susanne M. , Buschkuehl Martin , Berman Marc
Published: July 2018

The psychological benefits of interacting with nature have been discussed for well over a century. More recently, research has begun to assess how interactions with nature specifically may benefit cognition and cognitive development. Attention Restoration Theory (ART) posits that stimuli found in nature may restore directed attention functioning through reducing demands on the endogenous attention system. In the present experiment, we assessed whether nature-related cognitive benefits extended to auditory presentations of nature. To assess directed attention, we created a composite measure consisting of a backward digit span task and a dual n-back task. Participants completed these cognitive measures and an affective questionnaire before and after listening to and aesthetically judging either nature or urban soundscapes. Relative to participants who were exposed to urban soundscapes, we observed significant improvements in cognitive performance for individuals who listened to nature soundscapes. Urban soundscapes did not systematically affect performance either adversely or beneficially. The improvement in directed attention functioning was not meaningfully related to the aesthetic ratings of the soundscapes. These results provide initial evidence that brief experiences with nature sounds can improve directed attention functioning in a single experimental session.
Culture and cooperation: Examination of US-Japan differences in the framework of uncertainty avoidance
Authors: Kusano Kodai
Published: July 2018

The objective of this thesis was to examine whether uncertainty avoidance dimension of culture produces Unites State-Japan differences in cooperative behavior. I examined how uncertainty operated to produce cooperative behaviors differently between American and Japanese subjects. The subjects' cooperative behaviors were observed during the ultimatum game. Individual differences in individualism-collectivism, intolerance of uncertainty, and neuroticism were also measured as potential mediators or covariates of the effect of uncertainty and country on the cooperative behavior. Data showed that although there was no cultural difference on cooperative behaviors between Americans and the Japanese, uncertainty generally increased cooperative behaviors across cultures. The individual-level analysis also demonstrated that the Japanese had higher intolerance of uncertainty than did Americans. This thesis suggests that the uncertainty avoidance dimension is a useful cultural framework to explore cultural differences between Americans and Japanese in various domains of behaviors.
The geometry of learning
Authors: Calcagni Gianluca
Published: July 2018

We establish a correspondence between Pavlovian conditioning processes and fractals. The association strength at a training trial corresponds to a point in a disconnected set at a given iteration level. In this way, one can represent a training process as a hopping on a fractal set, instead of the traditional learning curve as a function of the trial. The main advantage of this novel perspective is to provide an elegant classification of associative theories in terms of the geometric features of fractal sets. In particular, the dimension of fractals can measure the efficiency of conditioning models. We illustrate the correspondence with the examples of the Hull, Rescorla-Wagner, and Mackintosh models and show that they are equivalent to a Cantor set. More generally, conditioning programs are described by the geometry of their associated fractal, which gives much more information than just its dimension. We show this in several examples of random fractals and also comment on a possible relation between our formalism and other "fractal" findings in the cognitive literature.
The Prevalence of Unfounded Suspicions of Child Sexual Abuse in Finland
Authors: Korkman Julia , Antfolk Jan , Fagerlund Monica , Santtila Pekka
Published: July 2018

Scholars and investigators of child sexual abuse (CSA) have long pointed out that some CSA allegations may be unfounded. However, no population-based estimates of the occurrence of false allegations has previously been undertaken. The present study presents the first population-based prevalence estimates of unfounded allegations of CSA. We analyzed two data collections: first, a representative sample of adolescents (N = 11,364; aged 12 or 15 years), and second, a representative sample of adults (N = 2,484, mean age 34 years). Experiences of CSA were reported by 2.4% of adolescents and 8.9% of adults. Unfounded suspicions of CSA (e.g., someone falsely believing CSA had taken place) were reported by 1.5% of adolescents and 1.9% of adults. Of the unfounded suspicions, 14.5% and 9.1%, for adolescents and adults, respectively, had been reported to the authorities. The prevalence of CSA seems to decrease while more and more allegations reach the authorities. Whereas a low threshold for reporting suspicions of CSA to authorities is in the interest of protecting as many actual CSA victims as possible, more research is needed to separate unfounded vs. founded allegations to minimize the risk of erroneous conclusions in investigations of CSA.